Audrey Hale did not feel hatred against anyone at the school where the former student shot six people. In fact, the 28-year-old enjoyed his favorite memories of the Covenant School and wanted to “die somewhere, which made her happy,” police said in Nashville.
“Hale is not caressing the school or staff carelessly,” and thought they were “innocent” and victims on an equal footing with them, “the Nashville Police Department said.
The revelation came in many new details, published in a report by police in Nashville on Wednesday or two years after Hale randomly killed three teachers and three 9-year-old children at the private Christian school.
Shortly after the slaughter of March 27, 2023, Hale was shot dead by police – leaving countless questions about the unexplained murders that have remained unanswered so far.
After conducting interviews and reviewing Hale’s digital devices, online accounts, works of art and writings, detectives were able to collect the killer’s preparation and motivation behind the terrible attack.
Famousness was the motive
Hale attended the Covenant School in the early 2000s, from kindergarten to fourth grade. The ex -student has denied suffering from any emotional or physical abuse during this period, the investigators said in the CNN report.
“She felt safe and accepted into the covenant and made friends with other students,” the report said. “She considered her family life during this time as a happy relationship with both her parents and her brother.”
But more than 16 years after leaving the school, Hale turned to the beloved Alma Mater “because of the fame she would receive” and “because she had a personal connection with the school from earlier in her life and felt that she had to die somewhere, which made her happy,” the police said.
While the murderer “identifies himself as a man and used as a preferred pronouns”, the Nashville police said: “According to the law of Tennessee, the sex identity of a person must correspond to their biological sex or with information present at their certificate of live birth.”
As a result, the authorities have identified Hale as a woman in their 40 -plus page report.
Investigators have found that Hale left “material behind intentionally to be found and analyzed”, including “her detailed plan for carnage at school, with deadlines, diagrams, etc.,” said police in Nashville.
“Posting the scriptures would serve three goals: to document her fight against her mental health; to show how … the state of her mental health helped her” fulfill the perfect plan “and show others like her how to plan the best and make an attack,” the investigation report said.
In the days leading to the attack, Hale began to transfer the scriptures to the thumb so that “they can be found and studied,” the report said.
“Famousness was a motive,” the summary of the report said. “It is known that Hale and other mass shooters have studied materials from the Columbine High School before they attack their attacks.”
The mourners pray as they attend a Memorial for the victims killed at the Nashville School in March 2023 – Cheney/Reuters
Hale appreciated other mass shooters based on the number of people who killed and consider those who killed a low number of people as “amateurs” who were not worthy of respect, Nashville police said. But Hale “made exceptions to those misconduct with documented mental health stories showing that they had serious illness or mental health disorders, as she believed they were” too sick “to formulate an effective plan to kill an adequate number of victims.”
Hale wanted books, documentaries and films to be made for her life and her attack, “police said. The killer also wanted “her firearm to be placed in a museum” and “wanted her bedroom to be left as it was when the attack came as a memorial for her.”
In a statement on Wednesday, the families of the victims, as well as the children who were at the school on the day of the shooting, said: “It will never be closed after a crime like this. No words can reduce the depths of the loss we feel without Evelyn, Khali, William, Mike, Catherine and Cindy.”
The Sagittarius killed three 9-year-olds: Evelyn Diechaus, Khali Scroogs and William Kini. Three adults were also fatally shot: Mike Hill, the school guardian; Catherine Coons, Head of the School; And a replacement teacher Cynthia Peak.
“No facts can reduce the trauma and grief we have been carrying over the last two years,” the message said. “This report summarizes the reality with which we live, it is a really meaningless crime committed by an angry, selfish, evil individual who enjoyed the murder of innocent children. This report is gloomy. We hope that no one else has to go through it.”
Eric Osborne, a lawyer, representing some of the victims’ families, said the findings find “beyond the doubt that our legal battle against the public release of the evil material of the shooter is simple, appropriate and must silence any critics of our efforts.”
“Please remember that there are real children and families who suffer and who will never be the same,” Osborne says in a statement. “Keep your focus on the victims and survivors of this horrific day.”
Sagittarius carried stuffed animals to the firearm in the morning of the killings
Hale suffers from anxiety and social phobias, “which has led to more often its isolation,” the investigation report said.
“Her isolation and loneliness made Hale begin to believe the only true friends she could trust in were her stuffed animals that she would never abandon her,” police said.
“She appointed them names and personalities, accepted them with herself when she was traveling, and began to create cartoons and digital media, including stories in which they demonstrated some of the same emotions she was experiencing.”
At about 8am, the killings, Hale left home, “carried a large duffle bag containing several firearms, ammunition for those firearms, tactical equipment and its stuffed animals,” the investigation report said.
Stuffed animals were found in Hale’s car left in the parking lot of the covenant. – Metropolitan Nashville Police Department
“She also had a backpack containing two notebooks and a variety of objects. She loaded these bags in her car,” and boarded a local range of weapons, “authorities said.
“After there she had her tactical vest and attached bags with magazines to her belt. The vest was loaded with several reserve magazines, an automatic knife and other equipment. Then it assembled and loaded three different firearms. Then it remained in its vehicle in the parking lot and finally left the seat and finally left
Then Hale went to the covenant school around 9:53 in the morning and waited for a few minutes in the car. “During this time, Hale sent goodbye to a friend via Instagram Messenger,” police said.
“At approximately 10:09, it came out of her vehicle, dug two firearms around her neck and shoulders and approached one of the western entrances to the building.”
Hale’s firearm included an AR-15 gun, a semi-automatic AR pistol, a semi-automatic carabin rifle and a semi-automatic pistol.
After the deadly rage, the detectives searched Hale’s vehicle and found several stuffed animals in the front passenger seat, “along with five fully charged magazines containing 5.56 mm ammunition,” police said.
“There were a backpack in the front passenger boards. There were two notebooks inside the backpack containing handwriting and sketches, along with two thumb drives.”
Hale’s parents and therapist tried to help but the shooter did not tell them everything
Investigators have found that Hale is healthy, but evidence suggests that they worsen anxiety, depression and rage.
Before the slaughter, Hale’s parents helped their child “by receiving mental health, although they were not legally obliged to do so,” police wrote.
But “Hale chronicles that she has refused information from suppliers to prevent her from being stopped,” authorities said.
The killer often writes about the level of secret necessary to perform the attack, including information to hold the therapist, take steps to delete the surfing history and cover up weapons and ammunition, police said.
Although “Hale’s disappointments in relationships, career aspirations and independence nourish her depression, and although this depression has made her highly suicide, this does not explain the attack,” police said.
“As Hale wrote several times, if suicide was her goal, then she would just commit suicide,” the report said. “During the scriptures and videos, Hale often comments that her death should matter and be remembered.”
Investigators have learned that Hale is experiencing chronic loneliness and disappointment.
“She felt abandoned and ignored by those with whom she longed to befriend and engage in a romantic, which angered her more than anything else,” the report said.
“She believed that by simply committing suicide, she would quickly be forgotten and was not even worthy of a footnote.
This unpaid painting by Audrey Hale was provided by the Nashville Police Department in Sofia. – Metropolitan Nashville Police Department
Eric Harris and Dylan Clabold were the artillerymen of teenagers who killed 13 people at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. The 1999 massacre has been cited as an inspiration for other school shooters over the decades since.
Hale focused on how the “documented history of mental health and public views of Columbine Killers are similar to its own and how the fame they have achieved after their death made them become” gods “, Nashville police said.
Hale “strives to become a” god “like Harris and Clebold, by killing victims, no one will forget: children.”
The killer admitted that the victims were innocent
Like Harris and Clabold, Hale “longed for her name and actions that would be remembered long after she was dead,” police said.
“She openly admitted that none of those she would kill was guilty of anything and denied any personal motivation to direct them,” the police in Nashville wrote. Instead, the murderer “felt that their death was needed to give her sense from his death.”
“She wanted her mental health to be a prominent topic of discussion and debate,” investigators said.
“It is most volatile that she wanted the things she left behind, to be shared with the world, so that she could inspire and learn others who were” mentally disturbed “like her, plan and commit their own attack.”
Still, Hale “often complained about how she didn’t know enough about the history of mental health or the reasons of most mass murderers, as nothing was publicly documented in terms of their struggles,” the reports said.
Nevertheless, “Hale thought it would fail if he killed less than 10 people during the attack,” the report said.
Hale held a school guide in 2021, claiming to be a “alum he wanted to remember his time in elementary school,” the report said. In fact, Hale is a school body and “discreetly filmed different places,” police said.
CNN turned to the school for comment.
Less than two years later, Hale exploded in his beloved former school, who owns a rifle in the style of attack and shoots six people.
This story has been updated with additional information.
Ray Sanchez and Karina Tsu of CNN have contributed to this report.
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