Covenant School Shooting Leaves Seven Dead in ‘Targeted Attack’

BY KELSEY BEYELER, LOGAN BUTTS, D. PATRICK RODGERS, STEPHEN ELLIOTT AND MATT MASTERS

Seven people were killed Monday in a school shooting at the Covenant School, a private Christian school serving preschool through sixth-grade students in Green Hills through Covenant Presbyterian Church.

The six victims included three children and three school staff members. The person identified as the shooter was killed by police.

Metro Nashville Police Department officials identified the victims as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney (ages 8 and 9), substitute teacher Cynthia Peak (61), custodian Mike Hill (61) and head of the Covenant School Katherine Koonce (60).

Police identified the shooter as 28-yearold Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a former student of the school. MNPD identified Hale as a “white female” before clarifying that he identified as a transgender male.

MNPD released security camera footage of Hale driving up to the church/ school campus in a gray Honda Fit before shooting out the building’s glass doors and entering the building with three guns. The guns included an “assault-type” rifle, a pistol-caliber carbine and a 9 millimeter semiautomatic pistol.

On Tuesday, March 28, police held another press conference where they said that no specific students were targeted in the attack, but that the school and church were targeted, adding that they still don’t have a motive, but MNPD Police Chief John Drake told CBS News that “resentment” may play a factor in the attack.

Security footage shows Hale entering several rooms inside the building, including a large hallway and lobby. The shooter can be seen firing shots inside the building, the strobe light of a fire alarm blinking in the background. Police have also released several photos of the building’s broken windows and a photo of a police cruiser damaged by gunfire.

Five officers initially responded to the scene following a 10:13 a.m. 911 call and were met with gunfire from a second-floor window. The officers entered the building and engaged Hale in a gunfight, with two of the officers — four-year MNPD veteran Officer Rex Engelbert and nine-year MNPD veteran Officer Michael Collazo — fatally shooting Hale, according to the police account.

“It was on the second floor, in a common area, that a team of officers encountered Hale shooting,” MNPD said in a news release.

Police say one officer received minor injuries from broken glass.

On Tuesday morning, MNPD also released body-camera footage of the shooting. In the footage — taken from cameras worn by Officers Rex Engelbert and Michael Collazo — police can be seen clearing the building before engaging Hale in gunfire on the second floor. Warning: The footage is graphic.

The victims were “spread out” throughout the school, with Drake adding that Hill was killed when Hale shot through the school’s glass doors and Koonce was killed in a hallway near the school’s offices.