Chilling CCTV shows Nashville shooter inside school
Police in Nashville have released chilling CCTV of the moments Audrey Hale entered a school building before killing three nine-year-old students and three adults.
Hale, a 28-year-old former pupil at Tennessee’s Covenant School, shot through glass doors before carrying out the massacre, which is believed to have been meticulously planned in advance.
In the footage, Hale is seen driving a car – a silver Honda Fit – through the school’s parking lot, before shooting at two glass doors located at the side of the building and entering via the empty frames.
The shooter, armed with two assault-type guns and a nine-millimetre pistol, is then captured stealthily creeping around the school’s interior as flashing lights and alarms ring through the halls.
Hale, dressed in camouflage-patterned cargo pants, a vest and backward baseball cap, is seen in the vision opening and closing doors, surveying the area, while holding an assault rifle.
The vision was captured merely minutes before Hale murdered three children, the school’s top administrator, a substitute teacher and a custodian.
Authorities say the attack unfolded in the space of 14 minutes.
The first call about the shooting came in at 10.13am and the shooter was dead at 10.27am, police spokesperson Don Aaron said.
As a private school operated by a church, there was no school resource officer assigned by the city to guard the school, he said.
The victims were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all nine years old, and adults Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; and Mike Hill, 61.
Koonce was identified as the head of the school on its website.
Hill was identified in the staff section of the Covenant Presbyterian Church’s website, which is now offline.
He was listed as facilities/kitchen staff.
A friend of Hill confirmed his image to CNN.
Hill, 61, was a custodian at the school, per police.
After the attack, authorities found Hale had “maps drawn of the school in detail, surveillance, entry points,” Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said.
“We some writings that we’re going over that pertain to this day, the actual incident.
“We have a map drawn out of how this was all going to take place.”
Investigators also found the shooter may have looked at targeting another location, Drake said, but gave up on the idea after doing a “threat assessment” because the site had “too much security”.
The location was also in Nashville, he said.
Police gave unclear information on the gender of the shooter.
For hours, police identified the shooter as a 28-year-old woman and eventually identified the person as Audrey Hale.
Police have referred to Hale as the “female shooter” and at an evening press conference added that Hale was transgender.
When asked for clarification, a spokesperson told CNN Hale used “male pronouns” on a social media profile.
Police believe Hale obtained at least two of the weapons legally, Drake said.
Three weapons – an AR-style rifle, an AR-style pistol and a handgun – were found.
Hale graduated from Nossi College of Art & Design in Nashville last year, the school’s president has since confirmed.
