A new 44-page report from Metro Nashville Police shows that the 2023 Covenant School assailant acted alone, obtained several guns legally and was driven by a desire for notoriety.
The report comes shortly after the two-year anniversary of the attack that killed six people: Evelyn Dieckhaus, Michael Hill, William Kinney, Hallie Scruggs, Katherine Koonce and Cynthia Peak. The tragedy prompted protests calling for new gun restrictions and a special legislative session focused on public safety. State lawmakers have thus far increased school hardening measures while not passing any meaningful gun reform.
There has also been intense scrutiny of the assailant and the police department’s investigation of the shooting. Some documents were leaked from inside MNPD, and there was a legal battle over the release of Audrey Hale’s writings. (Hale went by the name Aiden, identified as male and used he/him pronouns, according to the report.) The police chief originally told media there was a manifesto, but the report finds that was an inaccurate way to describe the evidence.
More: Continuing coverage of the Covenant School shooting
The report shows that Hale laid out his process for choosing the school and the day of the attack in a series of notebooks and other files. Police ascertained that Hale wanted notoriety and for his death to be remembered. He hoped to kill more than 10 people and wanted his firearms displayed in a museum.
Police detail motives
The report discloses several disturbing details about the shooting and the assailant’s motive and planning. He had been planning a mass shooting for several years. In notebooks and other documents, Hale wrote he wanted to emulate the Columbine shooters.
Hale attended Covenant between 2001 and 2005. The report states that there was no indication Hale held a grudge against the school or any administrators — and did not have relationships with any of the victims. Instead, police indicate Hale felt the school was a soft target and he wanted to die somewhere that had made him happy. He wrote that the young ages of the children meant they would not fight back. Police found photos and videos of the school’s layout that the assailant took during a tour in 2021.
During the attack he used several guns, which police say were obtained through licensed retailers. He indicated on paperwork that he did not have any prior mental health problems, though medical records indicate otherwise. In 2019, Hale told his therapist he was having suicidal and homicidal ideations. He participated in an intensive outpatient program and denied having plans to harm himself or others.
He had never been “adjudicated as mentally defective” by a court, the report indicates, and had no prior arrests that would have prohibited him from having firearms. He took firearms training classes leading up to the attack.
The only prior interaction he had with law enforcement was a week before the attack when he was interviewed by law enforcement as a witness to an accidental discharge at a shooting range in Gallatin.
Detailing the attack
The report lays out new details about the sequence of events on March 27, 2023.
The assailant entered the school by shooting out the glass windows and crawling through them. The first shots triggered the school’s fire alarm, prompting students and faculty to begin to evacuate. Police say there was confusion about the alarm, which led some victims into danger. State lawmakers have since passed legislation requiring schools to develop policies to differentiate responses to alarms.
The school had blackout curtains inside each classroom and security bars to enforce the door and prevent entry to the room. Hale fired into two classrooms and continued to move through the second floor of the building. Eventually, he was seen wandering the building, unable to find more victims, according to the report.
After police arrived, Hale began firing at officers from a window on the second floor of the school. Within minutes, officers entered the school and fatally shot Hale.
Officers ascertained Hale’s identity when they found his wallet in his car. They also found two notebooks as well as two thumb drives. They went to Hale’s home, where he lived with his parents, and searched his room. There, they found a shotgun in Hale’s closet, multiple cellphones, and more notebooks and thumb drives. They also found a note to his parents, saying he was going to die.
Police determined that Hale acted alone in the planning and execution of the attack. Since he is dead, the case is being cleared and no other charges are expected.
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