Nashville police investigate motive as families grieve

The shooter had 7 firearms purchased legally, police say

The shooter had seven firearms that were purchased legally from five different local gun stores, according to police.

Three of these weapons were used in yesterday’s shooting, the police chief said at a news conference today. Drake had said yesterday that two of the weapons used were legally obtained in the Nashville area.

The shooter’s parents, who felt Hale shouldn’t own weapons due to their emotional state, were unaware of the guns they owned.

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Parents didn’t want shooter to own guns, police say

The Nashville shooter’s parents didn’t want them owning guns, the police chief said during a news conference today.

Police interviewed the parents who said the shooter had been under a doctor’s care for an emotional disorder. The parents were under the impression that the shooter didn’t own any weapons after one was sold, but Hale was reportedly hiding “several weapons within the house.”

“Law enforcement knew nothing about the treatment she was receiving, but her parents felt that she should not own weapons,” Drake said. “They were under the impression when she sold the one weapon that she didn’t own anymore.”

Police still do not have a motive for yesterday’s shooting.

Former teammate says she was unaware shooter was transgender

Patton said she recently saw the Nashville shooter at an outing and was unaware that her former teammate was transgender.

“I didn’t know that’s what she considered. Because even when I just seen her last week, it was Audrey, ‘Hey Audrey.’ … So that’s all I can speak for,” Patton told NBC’s “Nightly News.”

According to the police chief, the shooter was transgender. Shortly before yesterday’s shooting, Hale had messaged Patton and signed it as “Audrey (Aiden).”

There has been conflicting information about the shooter’s gender identity. Drake previously said officials “feel that she identifies as trans, but we’re still in the initial investigation into all of that and if it actually played a role into this incident.”

A former headmaster of The Covenant School said he remembered Hale as a third- and fourth-grader and used “she/her” pronouns when describing the former student.

“I’ve looked back in my annuals, and I do remember her as a former student,” Bill Campbell said. “She was just one of our young ladies.”

A LinkedIn profile belonging to the shooter used “he/him” pronouns.

Shooter messaged former teammate shortly before rampage

A former middle school basketball teammate said the Nashville shooter warned that something bad was about to happen before opening fire yesterday.

Averianna Patton told NBC News she saw the Instagram messages at 9:57 a.m. yesterday, less than 20 minutes before police said they received calls about a shooter at the private Christian school.

In the messages, Hale, whom police identified as the shooter, talked about not wanting to live anymore and said that their family did not know what they were about to do.

The shooter was transgender, the police chief said. In the first message sent to Patton, Hale signed it as “Audrey (Aiden).”

Patton tried to be supportive, according to screenshots of the messages. The shooter’s last message said that something bad was about to happen and asked for forgiveness.

Patton, of Nashville, attended Isaiah T. Creswell Middle School with the shooter. She said the messages were alarming and she sent them to her father and asked if she should contact someone.

“He text back, ‘YES’ in all caps. So after that, that’s when I started making calls,” she told NBC’s “Nightly News.”

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Nashville Rep. Andy Ogles defends 2021 Christmas family photo with guns

Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., was asked about a Christmas photo of his family holding guns that he posted in 2021.

The congressman stood by the photo and said that the school shooting in his district yesterday that killed three children and three adults highlighted a “mental health crisis” facing the country.

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Nashville radio host speaks on school shooting: “This that we’re feeling today, somebody else is going to feel it tomorrow”

Nashville radio host Bobby Bones expressed his grief over The Covenant School shooting on “The Bobby Bones Show” today.

Bones said that although he covers school shootings about “four or five times a year,” the shooting at The Covenant School, which is near where he lives in Nashville, hit really close to home.

“You know and when it hits close to you, it feels a lot more real than it does when it’s just on the news,” he said. “That’s just real sad. That a safe place wasn’t so safe. That the safest place wasn’t so safe.”

Bones said there have been more than 100 mass shootings in the U.S. this year.

“There have not even been 90 days this year and there have been 129 mass shootings,” he said. “I’d also like to acknowledge that it feels super close to us because it literally was super close to us, but it’s everywhere in the country, it’s super close to somebody. And this that we’re feeling today, somebody else is going to feel it tomorrow, in a different part of the country. Where we’re the only country this happens to. That to me is so bizarre.”

Bones’ co-host, Amy Brown, spoke about picking up her daughter from a high school that serves as a feeder school for the Covenant.

“There’s families that dropped their kids off this morning and it never, I’m assuming, once dawned on them that they wouldn’t be picking them up,” she said.

Brown also said that her son came home from school yesterday and asked if they can make their home bulletproof.

“It’s just hard conversations that are now being had, again,” she said.

Democrats lash out at Republicans for not taking concrete action to address gun violence and school shootings

Top House Democrats today lashed out at their Republican counterparts for not taking legislative action to address gun violence and the spate of school shootings.

At a press conference, House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., said, “Shame on Speaker McCarthy for not bringing something up” to address gun violence.”

Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., vice chair of the caucus, criticized Republicans for postponing a markup today on a resolution to nullify a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives pistol brace rule. He said GOP lawmakers “ran away” and are “hiding,” calling them “cowards.”

The Democrats also voiced concerns as parents of school-age children.

“Every time there’s a shooting, my son cries about going to school because he’s afraid: Is he going to come back?” said Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-Va., who said that a child in her son’s class accidentally killed himself while using a gun as a prop in a video.

Bodycam footage shows moment police confront and kill Nashville shooter

Body camera footage released this morning by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department shows the moment Police Officers Rex Engelbert and Michael Collazo confronted and killed the shooter. 

After searching classrooms and an office on the first floor, the officers rush up a stairwell and move down two long hallways before confronting the shooter, who stands under a large window in what appears to be an atrium. 

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The body camera footage from Engelbert shows him confronting the shooter from a corner diagonally across from the window. 

Someone yells, “reloading,” and Engelbert immediately shoots multiple rounds toward the shooter. The shooter is seen collapsing to the ground. 

Collazo yells, “move, move,” and he and at least one other officer positioned nearby then move closer to the shooter, with Engelbert following behind.

As they approach the shooter, Collazo warns, “Watch out, watch out.”

Collazo then fires multiple rounds at the shooter before yelling, “Stop moving, stop moving.”

Another officer yells, “Get your hand away from the gun.”

Part of the shooter’s body is blurred on the footage, though it is visible on the ground.

Video shows shooter speaking at a graduation event last year

Video posted online by the Nossi College of Art and Design in Nashville where the shooter previously studied shows the suspect speaking at a graduation event last year.

The video, posted eight months ago, shows the shooter presenting work at the school’s senior portfolio show last spring.

The shooter appears briefly at the 15-second mark in the less than two-minute-long video, and again at the 50-second mark, saying: “It’s been hard, but it’s also been an amazing experience when it comes to developing my creative talents and growing as an artist.”

In a statement, the college said the shooter “was a talented artist and a good student” while enrolled at the facility.

Nashville mayor: ‘When school children are attacked, that’s our worst day’

Nashville Mayor John Cooper said today he anticipates more details regarding the shooter and any potential motive to come to light.

The mayor denounced gun violence on the “TODAY” show, calling it “the frustration by every city in the country.”

“In Tennessee, guns are essentially ubiquitous. And when guns and mental health issues come into contact with each other, you have big problems, like we saw yesterday and what is our worst day. Nashville’s had challenges before, we’ve had tornadoes and floods, but when school children are attacked in their school, that’s our worst day,” he said. 

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Cooper called a resurfaced 2021 Christmas photo by Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., which depicts the lawmaker posing in front of a Christmas tree with his family holding guns, “inappropriate.”

“I think the whole country can look at it and shudder a little bit and realize how inappropriate it is. Guns lead to tragedies, and whatever your political feelings are, we should not be celebrating the cult of the gun,” he said. 

Hallie, 9, was the daughter of Covenant Presbyterian Church pastor

Hallie, one of the three students killed yesterday, was the daughter of the lead pastor at the Covenant Presbyterian Church, according to a statement released by the church where he formerly worked.

The Park Cities Presbyterian Church in Dallas said that Hallie is the daughter of its former associate pastor, Chad Scruggs, who is now the pastor of Covenant Presbyterian.

The Covenant School, where yesterday’s mass shooting unfolded, was founded in 2001 as a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian and shares the same address as the church.

“We love the Scruggs family and mourn with them over their precious daughter Hallie,” said Mark Davis, Park Cities Presbyterian’s senior pastor.

Covenant Presbyterian is a sister church, according to the Dallas church, which said that at noon local time today, it will host a prayer in honor of its Nashville counterpart, according to its statement.

Floral tributes left outside Covenant Presbyterian

Nashville police release surveillance footage showing shooter entering school

Nashville police have released surveillance video showing the shooter arriving at the private Christian school before unleashing terror in the attack that left six people, including three children, dead yesterday.

In the edited footage, the shooter, identified by police as Audrey Hale, 28, can be seen driving a Honda Fit to The Covenant School’s campus on Burton Hills Boulevard shortly before 10 a.m., the Nashville Police Department said in a statement accompanying the video’s release yesterday.

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Around 10 minutes later, surveillance video from inside the school captures the glass in a set of doors shattering before the shooter, wearing a vest, camouflage pants and a red baseball cap turned backward, climbs through one of the door frames.

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Vigil held for victims of school shooting in Nashville

Families grieve after deadly shooting as police probe motive

Families in a Nashville school community are grieving today after the deadly shooting at The Covenant School left three children and three adults dead.

Police are still working to establish a motive in the deadly shooting, but they said a sense of “resentment” might have played a role in the attack.

The shooter was fatally shot in an encounter with officers during the attack.