Nashville Shooter kills at Christian School
Tragedy occurred Monday when a shooter, Audrey Hale, walked into a Nashville Christian school and killed three students and three staff members.
The identified students are Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all 9 years old. Cynthia Peak, 61; Mike Hill, 61, and Katherine Koonce, 60, who was the head of the school as the slain adults.
According to police, Hale carried out the attack with a detailed map of the school. She fired indiscriminately at victims and sprayed gunfire through doors and windows. The authorities cornered and killed her in the lobby area of the school.
Who is Audrey Hale
The 28 year old, who was a former student at the school, did not target specific victims, but did target this school. According to her LinkedIn profile, Hale worked as a freelance graphic designer and a part-time grocery shopper. Adult faculty, who remembered her. described her as shy and sweet. Just last year, she graduated from Nossi College of Art & Design in Nashville. She received accolades there, such as “Most Improved” and “Class Participation”. Former middle school basketball teammate Averianna Patton remembered Audrey as kids and how they joked around together despite her quiet nature. Hale lived with her parents and was under doctor’s care for an “emotional disorder.” Besides that, nothing eerie or unusual was conveyed to people, who interacted with her.
Researching her former social media posts, she had a difficult time processing the death of a romantic partner in 2021. She would post her grievance on Facebook and go to school extremely emotional. It was during this time she transitioned her identity as transgender.
Nobody knows what her motive was coming to the school. In an interview with NBC News on Monday, police chief John Drake said investigators don’t know what drove Hale, but believe the shooter had “some resentment for having to go to that school.” The school was not the only place she planned to attack, mentioned by Hale in ‘several different writings.’ Information on the writings will not be disclosed yet, but other locations were part of her plan.
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