Audrey Hale, the transgender suspect in a Nashville school shooting on Monday, drew a detailed map of the school, including entry points, and conducted surveillance before killing three students and three adults in the latest in a series of mass school shootings. Hale, 28, who was killed by police, was a former student at The Covenant School in Nashville, where the shooting took place. The shooter was armed with two “assault-style” weapons — a rifle and a pistol — as well as a handgun. At least two of them were believed to have been obtained legally. The victims were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all 9, and adults Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; and Mike Hill, 61. Koonce headed the school since 2016, the Associated Press reports.
The attack at The Covenant School — with 200 students from preschool through sixth grade and 50 staff members — comes as communities around the nation are reeling from a spate of school violence. Hale reportedly had a "manifesto ... some writings... (and) “a map drawn out of how this was all going to take place," said Nashville Police Chief John Drake. The Covenant School was founded as a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church. President Biden again asked Congress to ban certain semi-automatic weapons. “It’s ripping at the soul of this nation, ripping at the very soul of this nation,” Biden said. Before Monday’s violence in Nashville, there had been seven mass killings at K-12 schools since 2006 in which four or more people were killed, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. In all of them, the shooters were males. In Nashville, police began clearing the first story of the school when they heard gunshots coming from the second level. Two officers opened fire in response, fatally shooting the suspect. No police officers were assigned to the church-run school.