NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The shooter behind the 2023 attack at Nashville’s Covenant School sought notoriety and hid mental health issues from family and doctors, according to a police report released Wednesday.
On March 27, 2023, three children and three adults were killed when a former student opened fire inside the private Christian school, which serves around 200 students from preschool through sixth grade. The three students killed were Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9, Hallie Scruggs, 9, and William Kinney, 9. The adult victims are substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, school head Katherine Koonce, 60, and custodian Mike Hill, 61.
The shooter, originally described as a 28-year-old Nashville woman, was later identified as Audrey Hale, a transgender man who went by the name Aiden. While the shooter identified as male and used he/him pronouns, Nashville Metro Police noted in their report, “Under Tennessee law, a person’s gender identity must correspond with their biological sex or with information present on their certificate of live birth.” As a result, authorities described hale as a female in their nearly 50-page investigative case summary.
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The summary determined Hale had been planning an attack for years. While no manifesto existed, investigators found “a series of notebooks, art composition books, and media files created by Hale documenting her planning and preparation for the attack, the events in her life that motivated her to commit the attack, and her hopes regarding the outcome of the attack.”
“The publication of the writings would serve three purposes: to document her struggles with her mental health; to show how … her mental health conditions helped her ‘to execute the perfect plan’; and to show others like her how to best plan and carry out an attack,” the report says.
Covenant School Shooter Planned Previous Attack
As early as 2018, Hale was planning on attacking Creswell Middle School, a Nashville public school she attended after Covenant, MSN reports. Hale created detailed plans that included a timeline but started to have doubts by March 2020. Most Creswell students were Black and Hale worried about behind labeled a racist, though he had “no qualms about killing anyone regardless of specific demographical categories,” police wrote.
Police say Hale eventually chose Covenant because he felt he would not be overpowered by the staff and students and thought he would gain notoriety for attacking a Christian school. He also chose his alma mater “because she had a personal connection to the school from earlier in her life and felt she had to die somewhere that made her happy.”
“She felt safe and accepted at The Covenant and made friends with other students,” the report says. “She considered her family life during this time as happy, with a positive relationship with both of her parents and her brother.”
Covenant School Shooter Sought Notoriety
Investigators determined Hale left “material behind intentionally to be found and analyzed,” including “her detailed plan to commit carnage in a school, with timelines, diagrams, etc.”
In the days leading up to the attack, Hale started to transfer writings onto a thumb drive so “they could be found and studied.”
“Notoriety was the motive,” the report continues. “It is known that Hale, and other mass shooters, studied material from Columbine High School prior to committing their attacks.”
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Hale reportedly wrote he wanted to kill at least 40 people and hoped to inspire books, documentaries, and movies. Hale also wanted “her firearms to be placed in a museum” and “wanted her bedroom to be left as it was when the attack occurred as a memorial to her.”
“She believed that by simply committing suicide, she would be quickly forgotten and not even worthy of a footnote in history,” the report says. “She craved the notoriety Harris and Klebold attained following Columbine.”
In her writings, Hale focused on how the Columbine killers’ “documented mental health history and societal views were similar to her own and how the notoriety they achieved following their deaths led them to becoming ‘gods.'”
Hale rated previous mass shooters based on the number of people they killed and considered those who murdered a low number of people to be “amateurs” who weren’t worthy of respect. However, he “made exceptions for those offenders with documented mental health histories showing they had serious mental health diseases or disorders, as she believed they were ‘too sick’ to formulate an effective plan to kill an adequate number of victims.”
The report also says Hale “sought to become a ‘god’ like Harris and Klebold by killing victims nobody would forget: children.”
“She openly acknowledged none of those she would kill were guilty of anything and denied any personal motivation for targeting them,” police wrote. Instead, he “felt their deaths were necessary to give her death meaning.”
Covenant School Shooter Had Anxiety, Depression
According to the report, Hale’s parents and therapists had been concerned about his mental health for many years. The report says investigators determined that Hale was sane but evidence suggested worsening anxiety, depression, and rage. Psychological assessments conducted by Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2019 and 2021 determined Hale wasn’t suffering from psychosis and recommended outpatient treatment.
The report says Hale’s anxiety and social phobias “led to her self-isolating more often” and creating connections with stuffed animals.
“Her isolation and loneliness led Hale to begin believing the only true friends she could confide in were her stuffed animals, who she felt would never abandon her,” police said. “She assigned them names and personalities, took them with her whenever she travelled, and began creating cartoons and digital media, including stories where they demonstrated some of the same emotions she felt.”
On the morning of the attack, Hale left home “carrying a large duffle bag which contained several firearms, ammunition for those firearms, tactical gear, and her stuffed animals.”
Covenant School Shooter Hid Mental Health Issues
Police say Hale became more manipulative as his parents and therapists became more concerned about his mental health.
“She had enough experience with the mental healthcare system to understand which topics to avoid with her providers and how to manipulate them into believing her documented issues with homicidal and suicidal ideations were well in her past,” the report says. “Hale chronicled that she withheld information from providers to prevent her from being stopped.”
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Hale avoided using credit or debit cards for expenses related to the attack because he knew his mother could access those accounts. He also often removed attack-related content from his computer and cell phone so his mother wouldn’t find it. At one point, the report says, Hale even planned to kill his mother to prevent discovery “despite a strong emotional attachment” to her.
The report acknowledges but ultimately dismisses previous speculation that Hale’s mental health providers could be held criminally responsible for not intervening.
Covenant School Victims’ Families Release Statement on Findings
The families of the victims and children who were at the school the day of shooting released a statement Wednesday, noting “there would never be closure a crime like this,” CNN reports.
“No facts can lessen the trauma and grief we have been bearing the past two years,” the statement read. “This report summarizes the reality we’ve been living with, that this was truly a senseless crime committed by a deranged, selfish, evil individual who relished the killing of innocent children. This report is bleak. We hope no one else ever has to go through this.”
Eric Osborne, an attorney representing some of the victims’ families, said the findings establish “beyond a doubt that our legal battle against the public release of the shooter’s evil material is just, appropriate, and should silence any critics of our efforts.”
“Please remember that there are real children and families who are suffering and who will never be the same,” he continued. “Keep your focus on the victims and survivors of that horrific day.”
