NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Authorities released intense police body camera footage Tuesday from a deadly shooting rampage at a local Christian elementary school that killed three students and three staffers.
The Covenant School students who died Monday were all 9 years old, and the staff members were in their 60s. The shooter was killed by responding officers, police said.
Police released more than two minutes of surveillance footage late Monday, followed by six minutes of body camera video Tuesday from officers who encountered the shooter. Most came from the body camera of officer Rex Engelbert.
The footage shows officers arriving at the school, announcing “Metro Police” as they enter the building and some classrooms with rifles raised as alarms ring out.
“It sounds like it’s upstairs,” an officer says as they ascend the steps to the sound of gunfire. The video ends with the confrontation in an upstairs lobby area, when several shots were fired at the attacker, who fell amid shouts of “Stop moving,” “Suspect down,” and, “Get your hand away from the gun.”
“I was really impressed that with all that was going on, the danger, that somebody took control and said, ‘Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go,’ and went in and just tried to end this situation,” Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said.
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The attack was the nation’s 130th mass shooting of 2023, according to Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tracks gun violence data. The assault also marks the 89th shooting on K-12 school grounds in 2023 – an average of one every day – according to the K-12 School Shooting Database. The website counts any instance when a firearm is fired or pointed at someone in a school, or when a bullet hits school property.
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Shooter bought seven firearms, was being treated for ’emotional disorder’
The attacker in Monday’s shooting purchased seven firearms legally and was under medical care for an unspecified “emotional disorder,” Drake said at a Tuesday news briefing.
According to Drake, the parents of Audrey Hale – the 28-year-old transgender man police have identified as the shooter – told officers they didn’t think their grown child should own weapons. They believed Hale had sold the only gun he had.
“As it turns out, she had been hiding several weapons within the house,” Drake said, adding that law enforcement was not aware of Hale before the shooting.
Police said Hale, who was assigned female at birth but identified as a man, bought the firearms between October 2020 and June 2022. He brought three to the school Monday, one of them an AR-style rifle.
Drake said the attacker did not appear to be targeting anyone specifically at the school, where Hale had been a student. He said Hale left behind extensive writings but no motive for the shooting has been determined.
Police officers lauded for brave, swift action against heavily armed shooter
In contrast to the painfully delayed police response to the shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas, last year, law enforcement officers in Nashville took quick action Monday, likely saving several lives.
Five officers from the Metro Nashville Police Department initially descended upon The Covenant School after a call about an active shooter came in at 10:13 a.m., and by 10:27 a.m. the attacker had been gunned down, police said. In Uvalde, where 19 students and two teachers were killed, it took more than 70 minutes to end the threat.
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Body camera footage released Tuesday shows armed Nashville officers swiftly moving from one room to another in the school before confronting Hale. The police department said officers Rex Engelbert and Michael Collazo ended the attack, and they’re being widely hailed for their courage in pursuing and taking down a heavily armed shooter.
“Outstanding job @MNPDNashville,” the Fort Worth (Texas) Police Officers’ Association said in a tweet. “These brave officers ran toward the gunfire and eliminated the threat as they are trained to do.”
President Joe Biden said he spoke with Drake and “the two officers that went in and saved the lives,” and was working on reaching out to families of the victims.
Without referencing Uvalde, Drake made it clear standing around for more than an hour in an active-shooter situation was not an option.
“I was hoping this day would never, ever come here in the city,’’ Drake said Monday, “but we would never wait to make entry and go in and stop a threat, especially when it deals with our children.’’
Shooter reached out to ex-teammate before school attack
A former middle school basketball teammate says she received a message from Hale on Instagram at 9:57 a.m. Monday – less than 20 minutes before the first 911 calls from the school.
Averianna Patton told WTVF-TV she saw the message that Hale planned to die by suicide and that Patton would see it on the news.
“Audrey, you have so much more life to live,” Patton responds in the messages. “I pray God keeps and covers you.”
“One day this will make more sense,” Hale wrote. “I’ve left behind more than enough evidence behind. But something bad is about to happen.”
Patton said she called the Nashville Davidson County Sheriff’s Office and was instructed to call Nashville’s non-emergency number. It was too late.
Patton, who told The Tennessean she thought of herself as sort of a “big sister” to Hale, and said Hale had shared suicidal thoughts with former teammates and felt she had to try to help.
“I’m just numb right now,” said Patton, who had stayed in touch with Hale through the years. “I have literally mind-blowing moments like, ‘What in the world?'”
Contributing: Cassandra Stephenson, Nashville Tennessean
Surveillance footage shows armed suspect arriving at school
In surveillance footage released by Nashville police late Monday, Hale is seen driving to the school. Hale, armed with multiple firearms, including an AR-style rifle, shoots through glass doors to enter the building. Hale walks in hallways and aims the assault rifle before the video cuts off. The video, with no audio, is more than two minutes long.
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Who were the victims?
Police identified the student victims as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all age 9. The staffers were Katherine Koonce, 60, identified on the Covenant website as “head of school”; substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61; and custodian Mike Hill, 61.
Hallie was the daughter of Chad Scruggs, lead pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church, according to a statement from his former church in Dallas.
“We love the Scruggs family and mourn with them over their precious daughter Hallie,” Mark Davis, senior pastor at Park Cities Presbyterian Church, said in a statement. “Together, we trust in the power of Christ to draw near and give us the comfort and hope we desperately need.”
Koonce earned a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, according to the school website. She earned a master’s in education from Georgia State University in Atlanta and a doctorate from Trevecca Nazarene University, a Christian school in Nashville.
Peak was raised in Leesville, Louisiana, and attended Leesville High School through her sophomore year in 1977, when her family relocated to Shreveport, KALB-TV in Alexandria, Louisiana, reported. She later graduated from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, the station added.
Tim Dunavant, a pastor at Hartsville First United Methodist Church, said Hill was the last employee he hired when Dunavant ran the kitchen at the Covenant church and school more than 13 years ago.
“I have a feeling, when it all comes out, Mike’s sacrifice saved lives,” Dunavant wrote in a