Nashville shooting: Covenant shooter Audrey Hale’s final text messages before massacre revealed
Rachel Schilke
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A former middle school basketball teammate of Covenant School shooter Audrey Hale received chilling messages from Hale on the morning of the mass shooting that led to the deaths of three adults and three children.
Teammate Averianna Patton said she received messages from Hale, whose Instagram profile had the name “Aiden.” Police confirmed Monday that Hale, a biological woman, identified as a transgender man.
NASHVILLE SHOOTING: THREE CHILDREN, THREE ADULTS KILLED IN SHOOTING AT CHRISTIAN COVENANT SCHOOL
Hale planned to die by suicide and Patton would eventually hear about it on the news, Hale said.
“So basically that post I made on here about you, that was basically a suicide note. I’m planning to die today. THIS IS NOT A JOKE!!!!” Hale wrote to Patton via messages shared with NewsChannel 5 Nashville. “You’ll probably hear about me on the news after I die.”
“This is my last goodbye. I love you,” Hale continued. “See you again in another life. Audrey (Aiden).”
Patton had responded to her, saying, “You have so much more life to live. I pray God keeps and covers you.”
Hale told Patton her family had no idea what was about to happen and that “one day this will make more sense.”
Patton told the local news station that “I tried to comfort and encourage her and subsequently reached out to the Suicide Prevention Help Line after being instructed to by my father at 10:08 am. Audrey has shared with others that she had been suicidal in the past and I knew to take this serious.”
Hale said she “left more than enough evidence behind,” possibly alluding to the detailed maps of the school and a manifesto that police said investigators discovered.
“Something bad is about to happen,” Hale wrote to Patton, which appears to be one of her last messages.
Patton said that at 10:13 a.m., she contacted the Nashville Davidson County Sheriff’s Office and was then told to use the non-emergency number.
“I called Nashville’s non-emergency line at 10:14 a.m. and was on hold for nearly seven minutes before speaking with someone who said that they would send an officer to my home. An officer did not come to my home until 3:29 p.m.,” she said.
Patton came forward, she said, because she believed there should have been more urgency from officials.
“After phone calls from friends, and Audrey’s name was released as the shooter at Covenant Nashville school, I learned that Audrey was the shooter and that she had reached out to me prior to the shooting. My heart is with all of the families affected, and I’m devastated by what has happened,” she said.
Hale went inside the school by shooting through a locked side door before proceeding to the second level. Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake said while the attack was planned, Hale shot at random.
Officers engaged and fatally shot Hale at 10:27 a.m., 14 minutes after the first call of an active shooter came through.
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The victims of the Covenant School shooting are Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all age 9. The adult victims are Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61.
Koonce had been the head of Covenant School since July 2016 and worked in the Nashville area for over a decade. Hill was a custodian, and Peak was a substitute teacher.