Body camera video from a Metro Nashville Police officer shows officers engaging and fatally shooting Audrey Hale in 2023. Hale had just killed six people, including 9-year-olds, in an attack on a private school.Still from Metro Nashville PD
The Metro Nashville Police Department has released its full investigative report in the deadly shooting at The Covenant School in March 2023.
More than two years after the shooting, MNPD has finalized its investigation into the shooting that took the lives of six people: 9-year-old students Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney and Halley Scruggs, school custodian Mike Hill, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak and Head of School Katherine Koonce.
MNPD broke down the more than 40-page report by summarizing the incident, providing a detailed timeline of the attack and investigation, backgrounds of the shooter, Audrey Hale, and victims, what the shooter did and did not leave behind, summarizing how the attack progressed and a timeline, an analysis of the shooter’s behavior and motive, what the shooting isn’t, other parties responsible and the homicide unit’s investigative conclusion, WSMV reports.
According to the report, Hale had mental issues, including suicidal thoughts.
“Always ever present in Hale’s life was her anger,” the report states. Hale began to write “rage storms,” which consisted of long, expletive-filled entries devoted to topics that greatly angered Hale.
Police said Hale’s motive for the attack was a desire to be famous.
She reportedly did not have a manifesto, despite earlier reports that said she did. What she did have is 16 notebooks filled with rants, drawings, and plans.
Audrey Hale made statements about wanting to transition gender, but nothing was found to suggest Hale initiated or was undergoing a transition at the time of their death, including medical documentation.
Hale bore no grudge against the school or staff, the report says.
She reportedly chose the school for the attack because she knew it was a soft target.
Click here to view the entire investigative report from MNPD.
