Audrey Hale felt no hatred towards anybody on the college the place the former student gunned down six people. In actual fact, the 28-year-old relished fond reminiscences of The Covenant Faculty and needed “to die someplace that made her blissful,” Nashville police stated.
“Hale bore no grudge towards the college or employees” and regarded them to be “‘innocents’ and victims on par with herself,” the Metropolitan Nashville Police Division stated.
The revelation got here in a trove of new details released in a report by Nashville police Wednesday – two years after Hale randomly slaughtered three lecturers and three 9-year-old youngsters on the personal Christian college.
Shortly after the bloodbath on March 27, 2023, Hale was gunned down by police – leaving myriad questions in regards to the inexplicable killings that remained unanswered till now.
After conducting interviews and reviewing Hale’s digital units, on-line accounts, art work and writings, detectives managed to piece collectively the killer’s preparation and motivation behind the grotesque assault.
Notoriety was the motive
Hale attended The Covenant Faculty within the early 2000s, from kindergarten by way of fourth grade. The previous pupil denied struggling any emotional or bodily abuse throughout this era, investigators stated within the report obtained by CNN.
“She felt secure and accepted at The Covenant and made associates with different college students,” the report stated. “She thought-about her household life throughout this time as blissful, with a constructive relationship with each of her mother and father and her brother.”
However greater than 16 years after leaving the college, Hale focused the beloved alma mater “because of the notoriety she would acquire” and “as a result of she had a private connection to the college from earlier in her life and felt she needed to die someplace that made her blissful,” police stated.
Whereas the killer “recognized as a male and used he/him as most well-liked pronouns,” Nashville police stated, “Below Tennessee regulation, an individual’s gender id should correspond with their organic intercourse or with data current on their certificates of reside delivery.”
Because of this, authorities described Hale as a feminine of their 40-plus-page report.
Investigators found Hale left “materials behind deliberately to be discovered and analyzed,” together with “her detailed plan to commit carnage in a college, with timelines, diagrams, and so forth.,” Nashville police stated.
“The publication of the writings would serve three functions: to doc her struggles along with her psychological well being; to point out how … her psychological well being circumstances helped her ‘to execute the right plan’; and to point out others like her the best way to finest plan and perform an assault,” the investigative report states.
Within the days main as much as the assault, Hale began to switch writings onto a thumb drive so “they could possibly be discovered and studied,” the report states.
“Notoriety was the motive,” the report abstract says. “It’s recognized that Hale, and different mass shooters, studied materials from Columbine Excessive Faculty previous to committing their assaults.”
Mourners pray whereas visiting a memorial for the victims killed at The Covenant Faculty in Nashville in March 2023. – Cheney Orr/Reuters
Hale rated different mass shooters primarily based on the variety of folks they murdered and regarded those that killed a low variety of folks to be “amateurs” who weren’t worthy of respect, Nashville police stated. However Hale “made exceptions for these offenders with documented psychological well being histories displaying they’d critical psychological well being illnesses or problems, as she believed they have been ‘too sick’ to formulate an efficient plan to kill an ample variety of victims.”
Hale needed books, documentaries and films “to be made about her life and her assault,” police stated. The killer additionally needed “her firearms to be positioned in a museum” and “needed her bed room to be left because it was when the assault occurred as a memorial to her.”
In an announcement Wednesday, households of the victims, in addition to youngsters who have been on the college the day of the capturing, stated, “There would by no means be closure after against the law like this. No phrases can diminish the depths of loss we really feel with out Evelyn, Hallie, William, Mike, Katherine, and Cindy.”
The shooter killed three 9-year-olds: Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney. Three adults have been additionally fatally shot: Mike Hill, the college custodian; Katherine Koonce, the top of the college; and substitute trainer Cynthia Peak.
“No details can reduce the trauma and grief we have now been bearing the previous two years,” the assertion learn. “This report summarizes the fact we’ve been dwelling with, that this was really a mindless crime dedicated by a deranged, egocentric, evil particular person who relished the killing of harmless youngsters. This report is bleak. We hope nobody else ever has to undergo this.”
Eric Osborne, an legal professional representing among the victims’ households, stated the findings set up “past a doubt that our authorized battle towards the general public launch of the shooter’s evil materials is simply, applicable, and will silence any critics of our efforts.”
“Please keep in mind that there are actual youngsters and households who’re struggling and who won’t ever be the identical,” Osborne stated in an announcement. “Hold your deal with the victims and survivors of that horrific day.”
The shooter carried stuffed animals subsequent to firearms the morning of the killings
Hale suffered from anxiousness and social phobias, “which led to her self-isolating extra usually,” the investigative report stated.
“Her isolation and loneliness led Hale to start believing the one true associates she might speak in confidence to have been her stuffed animals, who she felt would by no means abandon her,” police stated.
“She assigned them names and personalities, took them along with her at any time when she travelled, and commenced creating cartoons and digital media, together with tales the place they demonstrated among the similar feelings she felt.”
Round 8 a.m. the morning of the killings, Hale left house “carrying a big duffle bag which contained a number of firearms, ammunition for these firearms, tactical gear, and her stuffed animals,” the investigative report states.
Stuffed animals have been present in Hale’s automobile, which was left in The Covenant Faculty’s car parking zone. – Metropolitan Nashville Police Division
“She additionally had along with her a backpack containing two notebooks and various gadgets. She loaded these luggage into her automobile” and drove to an area gun vary, authorities stated.
“As soon as there, she donned her tactical vest and affixed journal pouches to her belt. The vest was loaded with a number of spare magazines, an computerized knife, and different gear. She then assembled and loaded three totally different firearms. She then remained in her automobile within the car parking zone of the situation for over an hour and eventually left the situation at 9:33 a.m.”
Hale then went to The Covenant Faculty round 9:53 a.m. and waited within the automobile for a number of minutes. “Throughout this time, Hale despatched a goodbye message to a buddy by way of Instagram Messenger,” police stated.
“At roughly 10:09 a.m., she exited her automobile, slung two firearms round her neck and shoulders, and approached one of many west entrances to the constructing.”
Hale’s firearms included an AR-15 pistol, a semi-automatic AR pistol, a semi-automatic carbine rifle and a semi-automatic pistol.
After the lethal rampage, detectives searched Hale’s automobile and located a number of stuffed animals on the entrance passenger seat, “together with 5 totally loaded magazines containing 5.56mm ammunition,” police stated.
“Within the entrance passenger floorboard was a backpack. Contained in the backpack have been two notebooks containing handwriting and sketches, together with two thumb drives.”
Hale’s mother and father and therapist tried to assist, however the shooter didn’t inform them every part
Investigators decided Hale was sane, however proof prompt worsening anxiousness, despair and rage.
Earlier than the bloodbath, Hale’s mother and father assisted their baby “with acquiring psychological healthcare regardless of them not being legally required to take action,” police wrote.
However “Hale chronicled that she withheld data from suppliers to stop her from being stopped,” authorities stated.
The killer usually wrote in regards to the degree of secrecy wanted to hold out the assault, together with withholding data from the therapist, taking steps to delete shopping historical past, and concealing weapons and ammunition, police stated.
Though Hale’s “disappointments in relationships, profession aspirations, and independence fueled her despair, and despite the fact that this despair made her extremely suicidal, this doesn’t clarify the assault,” police stated.
“As Hale wrote on a number of events, if suicide was her purpose then she would have merely killed herself,” the report states. “All through the writings and movies, Hale steadily commented that her loss of life wanted to matter and be remembered.”
Investigators discovered Hale felt persistent loneliness and disappointment.
“She felt deserted and ignored by these she longed to befriend and interact with romantically, which angered her greater than the rest,” the report says.
“She believed that by merely committing suicide, she could be rapidly forgotten and never even worthy of a footnote in historical past. She craved the notoriety Harris and Klebold attained following Columbine.”
This undated image of Audrey Hale was offered by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Division. – Metropolitan Nashville Police Division
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold have been the teenager gunmen who killed 13 people at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. The 1999 bloodbath has been cited as an inspiration for different college shooters within the a long time since.
Hale centered on how the Columbine killers’ “documented psychological well being historical past and societal views have been much like her personal and the way the notoriety they achieved following their deaths led them to changing into ‘gods,’” Nashville police stated.
Hale “sought to develop into a ‘god’ like Harris and Klebold by killing victims no person would overlook: youngsters.”
The killer admitted the victims have been harmless
Like Harris and Klebold, Hale “longed for her identify and actions to be remembered lengthy after she was lifeless,” police stated.
“She brazenly acknowledged none of these she would kill have been responsible of something and denied any private motivation for focusing on them,” Nashville police wrote. As a substitute, the killer “felt their deaths have been mandatory to present her loss of life that means.”
“She needed her psychological well being to be a distinguished subject of debate and debate,” investigators stated.
“Most disturbingly, she needed the issues she left behind to be shared with the world so she might encourage and educate others who have been ‘mentally disordered’ like her to plan and commit an assault of their very own.”
But Hale “usually complained how she didn’t know sufficient in regards to the psychological well being historical past or motives of most mass killers, as nothing was publicly documented concerning their struggles,” the stories says.
Nonetheless, “Hale felt she could be a failure if she killed lower than 10 folks in the course of the assault,” the report stated.
Hale took a guided tour of the college in 2021, claiming to be “an alum who needed to reminisce about her time in elementary college,” the report stated. In actuality, Hale was casing the college and “discreetly photographed totally different areas,” police stated.
CNN has reached out to the college for remark.
Lower than two years after that go to, Hale burst into her beloved former college wielding an assault-style rifle and gunned down six folks.
This story has been up to date with extra data.
CNN’s Ray Sanchez and Karina Tsui contributed to this report.
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