Published: Just now
Transgender Audrey Hale, 28, is believed to have planned to kill her deeply religious family before the rampage at the school.
The shooter gave additional clues in a message minutes before the attack:
“Has left behind more than enough evidence”.
Three nine-year-olds and three adults, including the principal, were killed in the mass shooting at the private Christian school in Nashville on Monday morning.
The act of madness shocks the United States.
President Biden has once again called on Congress to do something about the country’s gun laws and calls the school shooting “sick”.
Disappeared with red bag
Using surveillance cameras and police body cameras, investigators are now piecing together the minutes when Audrey Hale, 28, shot into the school through a locked glass door and began her massacre.
Both on the shooter’s dead body and in his car were documents and maps detailing the plan for the attack.
According to the police, the motive is still not clear, but the school was a stated target for the shooter.
– We have a manifesto that says exactly what the plan was, says police chief John Drake at a press conference.
Hale was born as a woman, but has recently gone by the name Aiden and used a male pronoun, writes the Daily Mail.
The following is known about the course of events:
Audrey Hale left her parents’ home in the morning with a red bag. The weapons were probably in the bag.
Left creepy message
Hale got into his Honda Fit and drove in the direction of the school.
At 9:57 a.m. Monday morning, childhood friend Averianna Patton received a series of eerie messages from Hale on Instagram.
In the messages, Hale wrote that “I plan to die today.”
“Someday this will clear up. I have left behind more than enough evidence. But bad things will happen”.
Deeply shaken, Patton, who hadn’t heard from Hale in years, called the police at 10:13 a.m.
But then it was too late.
Over in 14 minutes
At the same minute, the first alarm calls came in about a shooting in progress inside the small private school, where elementary and middle school-aged children were students.
14 minutes after the first alarm, Hale was dead, shot to death by two police officers who chased the shooter upstairs in the building.
Video from a body camera shows Officer Rex Engelbert arriving at the school, walking through the downstairs classrooms with his colleagues, then following the sounds of gunfire up the stairs.
The school’s fire alarm and sirens wailed in the background.
Engelbert rounded a corner in the corridor and walked towards a place with seating and bookshelves. There he saw the killer for the first time and shot four times.
“Lie still, lie still”
Colleague Michael Collazo went towards Hale, who was then lying on the floor. He too shot four times.
– Lie still, lie still, he shouted according to the images from the body camera and removed two weapons from Hale’s vicinity.
For people who knew Audrey Hale growing up, the act of insanity is a mystery.
Neighbors in the residential area, where the family lived for thirty years, describes Hale to the Daily Mail as “a tomboy” who used to skateboard.
– She introduced herself to me as Audrey. It was a year and a half ago. I spoke to her as if she were a woman and she did not correct me. She seemed artistic, quiet and well-mannered, a neighbor told the newspaper.
Answer in manifest
According to the manifesto and maps Hale left behind, police suspect the school was just one of several possible locations where attacks would occur.
– We strongly suspect that there were other targets, including family members, says police chief John Drake i an interview with CBS This Morning.
Hale is said to have been at odds with her deeply religious parents after coming out as transgender.
According to a source told the Daily Mail they forbade Audrey to dress like a man and use male pronouns in the parental home.
Instead, Audrey, who lately wanted to be called Aiden, changed clothes during the stays outside the home.
– They knew about it, but did not accept it.
Deep division
In the deeply divided United States, the tragic mass shooting now risks igniting conflicts between Democrats and Republicans on both the issue of gun violence and the situation of transgender people.
Conservative politicians in Congress have called on the police to release Hale’s manifesto and want the murders to be investigated as hate crimes against Christians.
For their part, leading Democrats have said it is “insane” that the right to semi-automatic weapons is seen as constitutional and are asking their Republican colleagues “how many children and grandchildren are going to be forced to bury” before they change their minds.