A chilling video has been released by Nashville police that shows the horrific moment Audrey Hale, a 28-year-old transgender, arrives at the Christian school she once attended as a child and shoots down the door and begins stalking the corridors with an assault rifle in hand before opening fire at students and staff members.
Hale drove up to the Covenant School in her Honda Fit just before 10 am and opened fire, killing six people. She was shot and killed by police less than 15 minutes later. On Monday, Nashville police released images of the two semi-automatic rifles and the handgun Hale was carrying during the massacre.
Chilling Move Before Massacre
The video shows a Honda Fit arriving at the Covenant School building. Surveillance camera footage shows the car moving at a slow speed before it enters the parking lot. The visuals cut after that and next, the back door of the school is seen.
Given that classes were on, there is initially no movement near the glass down. Suddenly, Hale can be seen firing through the locked glass door, shattering it.
Hale is next seen entering the hallways and stalking the corridors. She can be seen wearing a red baseball cap worn backwards, a white t-shirt covered in a tactical vest, and combat pants. The video ends there.
Police said that Hale then opened fire, killing six people including three children. The victims were killed at random.
According to police, Hale was born a female, but a LinkedIn page that is believed to be hers uses the pronouns he/him, implying that Hale was living as a man.
Hale was a former student of the school, according to the police. According to Hale's LinkedIn profile, she was listed as a graphic designer and illustrator with pronouns listed as he/him.
According to Nashville police chief John Drake, Hale left a manifesto on Monday night that suggested he was harboring resentment over being sent to a Christian school.
Norma Hale, Hale's mother, was a coordinator at a nearby church and frequently discussed religion on Facebook.
"The person we know as Audrey Hale, she's a 28-year-old Nashvillan. We have belief that she went to school in the area - at that actual school.
"There's some belief that there was some resentment for having to go to that school," said Drake, speaking to NBC News.
"Don't have all the details to that just yet and that's why this incident occurred."
Randomly Killing Innocent People
Drake said that the victims were chosen at random on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. "She targeted random students and persons in the school - whoever she came into contact with," Drake said.
"We feel that she identifies as trans but we are still in an initial investigation into that, and if it actually played a role in this incident.
"Right now we are unsure if that played a role."
Nashville police said Hale used a car to get to school, which cops claim made it easier to identify her. "Active shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale, 28, drove this Honda Fit to the Covenant Church/school campus this morning and parked," the police tweeted.
Police said Hale carried at least two assault rifles in addition to a handgun. She had a comprehensive attack manifesto and blueprints in her family's Nashville house, which police raided.
"We have a manifesto, we have some writings that we're going over that pertain to this day," Nashville Metropolitan police chief John Drake said about the discovery.
According to him, Hale had plans to target another nearby school but abandoned them because the building was too guarded since she was "prepared to do more harm than was actually done."
He said her manifesto has been handed over to the FBI.
According to authorities, she had drawn comprehensive maps of the school and had been surveilling it.
Drake claimed that Hale made reference to a different place in her manifesto but decided against carrying out an attack because of the level of security.
When asked if Hale's identification might have had a role in the motivation, Drake replied that authorities "feel that she identifies as trans, but we're still in the initial investigation into all of that and if it actually played a role into this incident."
According to the school's website, it teaches students in pre-K through sixth grade and has only about 200 students enrolled. The school focuses its curriculum on biblical theology, where students take classes regarding the bible together with conventional education courses.
Authorities said Hale had no police record or record of mental health concerns and that they are in contact with the suspect's father and hope to release videos regarding the shooting in the coming days.
Two assault rifles and a handgun that Hale used were seen in photographs shared by the police.
