Nashville school shooting – live: Suspect’s chilling Instagram messages revealed as police release surveillance video

Attack took place at The Covenant School in Tennessee city on Monday

Nashville police confirm seven dead including shooter after Christian school shooting

Disturbing social media messages have emerged sent by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the suspect in the Monday’s shooting at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, moments before the massacre took place in which Hale wishes farewell to a friend and states: “One day this will make more sense. I’ve left behind more than enough evidence behind. But something bad is about to happen.”

Local police have meanwhile released surveillance footage showing events leading up to the killing of six people, including three children, at The Covenant School in the Green Hills suburb of the southern city on Monday morning.

The footage shared on Twitter by Metro Nashville Police captured Hale, 28, arriving in a Honda Fit car, parking and then proceeding towards the school before entering by a side door to open fire on staff and students.

Hale was eventually killed at the scene by a team of five police officers.

Police said that the suspect, who was armed with two assault-style rifles and a handgun, was a former student at the institution.

Students Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all aged nine, died in the incident.

Headmistress Katherine Koonce, 60, was among of the adult victims of the shooting, according to police, as were staff members Cynthia Peak and Mike Hill, both aged 61.

Key Points

• Ex-basketball teammate received chilling Instagram messages from shooter
• Police release chilling CCTV footage of gunman blasting way into school
• Shooter dead and ‘multiple’ people injured in shooting at Nashville Christian elementary school
• Suspect identified as former student Audrey Hale, left behind map and manifesto
• Everything we know about the Nashville private school shooting
• ‘We need to do something’: White House calls for action

[28 March 2023 05:32 · Maroosha Muzaffar]

Police release chilling CCTV footage of Nashville gunman shooting way into school

Police have released chilling surveillance footage that showed the suspected shooter who killed six people, including three children, at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee.

The footage shared on Twitter by Metro Nashville Police showed the shooter, identified as Audrey Elizabeth Hale, 28, arriving in a Honda Fit car, parking, and then proceeding towards the school.

Hale is seen shooting down the glass double doorway of the school before opening fire on students and staff.

Footage also shows Hale walking around the school, around different hallways armed with an assault rifle, coming in and out of different rooms.

Police said: “Hale drove to Covenant Church/School in her Honda Fit this morning, parked, and shot her way into the building. She was armed with 2 assault-type guns and a 9-millimetre pistol.”

Read the full story by Sravasti Dasgupta here:

[28 March 2023 12:00 · Joe Sommerlad]

Photos revealed of Nashville shooter’s guns personalised with stickers

Photos of personalised guns used in the shootings have been released by Tennessee police investigating Audrey Hale’s actions.

The weapons appear to feature stickers applied by the suspect and and one of the guns has the name “Aiden” written on it. This was the name Hale used on social media, according to The Daily Beast.

Maroosha Muzaffar has more.

[28 March 2023 11:30 · Maroosha Muzaffar]

ICYMI: What we know about the victims of the Nashville school shooting

Here’s a little more on the victims in the case: Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, William Kinney, Katherine Koonce, Cynthia Peak and Mike Hill.

[28 March 2023 11:00 · Maroosha Muzaffar]

ICYMI: Three children, aged nine, named among six victims in Nashville Christian elementary school shooting

Law enforcement officials in Nashville, Tennessee have identified the three schoolchildren and three adults killed in a private Christian elementary school after a heavily armed 28-year-old opened fire on Monday morning.

Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all aged or nearly nine, were fatally shot. Hallie is reported to be the daughter of the church’s senior pastor, Chad Scruggs.

Katherine Koonce, age 60, and Cynthia Peak and Mike Hill, both age 61, were also among the six victims.

Koonce is listed on The Covenant School’s website as “head of school.”

Dr Kristy Mall, an educator, said on social media she attended graduate school with Koonce, calling the killing “senseless.”

[28 March 2023 10:30 · Joe Sommerlad]

Tennessee congressman’s rifle-themed Christmas card goes viral after Nashville killings

This incredibly ill-considered family Christmas card from Tennessee Republican congressman Andy Ogles is being widely shared, for obvious reasons, in the wake of yesterday’s tragedy, which happens to be the 376th gun massacre in an American school since the Columbine massacre of 1999, according to The Washington Post.

[28 March 2023 10:00 · Maroosha Muzaffar]

Marjorie Taylor Greene calls for more ‘good guys with guns’ after Nashville shooting

Georgia lawmaker makes no distinction between trained law enforcement and armed civilians in tweet.

[28 March 2023 09:30 · Joe Sommerlad]

Ex-basketball teammate received chilling Instagram messages from suspect: ‘Something bad is about to happen’

Warning: Disturbing content

Nashville’s NewsChannel5 reports this morning that a former middle school basketball teammate of Audrey Hale’s, Averianna Patton, received a farewell Instagram message from the shooter at 9.57am on Monday morning.

Hale wrote to Patton saying that a recent post on the platform had been “basically a suicide note”, adding: “I’m planning to die today. THIS IS NOT A JOKE!!!! You’ll probably hear about me on the news after I die.”

Hale said the message was a “last goodbye” and said: “See you again in another life.”

When Patton responded, urging Hale to reconsider and arguing “you have so much more life to live”, Hale expressed resolve and said: “ I wanted to tell you first because you are the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen and known all my life.”

My colleague Rachel Sharp has the very latest.

[28 March 2023 09:00 · Graeme Massie]

Nashville news anchor fights back tears as she reports on school shooting

Broadcaster receives ‘emails from my child’s school that they’re going into lockdown’.

[28 March 2023 08:45 · Maroosha Muzaffar]

Nashville shooting suspect’s mother urged for gun control after past shootings, old Facebook posts reveal

Norma Fort Hale, the mother of alleged Nashville mass school shooter Audrey Haley, previously posted on social media after school shootings and called for more gun control, according to reports.

Ms Hale, whose social media profile lists her as an employee of a Nashville-based chapel, shared links on Facebook to a Sandy Hook Promise petition to “keep guns out of schools,” calling the pledge “so important,” according to posts viewed by Heavy.

The posts appear to have since been taken down.

The Independent was not able to reach Ms Hale for comment. A number linked to her name via public records appears to have been disconnected.

Ms Hale appears to have confirmed that Audrey was involved in the shooting.

Read the full story by Josh Marcus here:

[28 March 2023 08:30 · Maroosha Muzaffar]

Audrey Hale: What we know about the Nashville school shooter

A heavily armed 28-year-old killed six people at a Nashville elementary school on Monday morning, according to police, before officers fatally shot them.

Here’s what we know about Audrey Elizabeth Hale, whom police have identified as the shooter.