(CNN ) — Nashville police are investigating the background and motivations of a former student who entered a Christian elementary school with AR-type weapons and detailed maps and opened fire, killing three children and three adults.
The shooter, identified as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, was shot dead by police during Monday’s attack, leaving behind “drawn” maps of the Covenant School detailing “how I was going to have place all of this,” said Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake.
As police work to piece together what led to the violence, authorities said they had determined where he lived in the Nashville area and interviewed Hale’s father. Investigators were expected to process the scene Tuesday and gather more details about what occurred during the approximately 14-minute terror attack at the elementary school.
The attack, which police say was selective and involved advance planning, was the deadliest school shooting in nearly a year.
As the shooting unfolded, concerned parents rushed to the school and frightened students and teachers were forced to take cover as gunshots rang out and police confronted the attacker, adding to the long-suffering grieving campus community. list of other US schools scarred by gun violence.
“I was moved to tears when I saw the children being taken out of the building,” the police chief said at a press conference on Monday.
The three murdered students were 9 years old. They were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney. The three adults killed in the shooting were identified as Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61, police said.
Shaundelle Brooks, who lost her son Akilah DaSilva during a 2018 mass shooting at a Nashville-area Waffle House, said she was taken back to that painful moment when her other son was placed on lockdown at a nearby school Monday.
“My heart dropped,” Brooks recalled. “Here we are again, another mass shooting.”
The attack marked the 19th shooting at a school or university so far in 2023 in which at least one person was injured, according to a CNN tally. With six victims, the Covenant shooting is the deadliest at a school since the attack in Uvalde, Texas, last May, which left 21 dead.
Hale, who attended Christian school years ago, left behind writings related to the shooting and had scouted a second possible shooting site in Nashville, “but because of a threat assessment by the suspect — there’s too much security — he decided not do it,” said the police chief.
The writings revealed that the attack on the Covenant School “was calculated and planned,” Metro Nashville said.
The suspected person was “someone who had multiple ammunition, prepared for confrontation with law enforcement, prepared to do more damage than was actually done,” the police chief said at a news conference.
Three weapons were found — an AR rifle, an AR pistol and a handgun — and police believe Hale obtained at least two of the weapons legally, Drake said. A search warrant executed at Hale’s home also led to the seizure of a sawed-off shotgun, a second shotgun and other evidence, according to police.
Until now, little is known about the person who carried out the attack. Hale graduated from Nashville’s Nossi College of Art & Design last year, the school’s president confirmed to CNN, and a LinkedIn profile says he worked as a freelance graphic designer and shopper for groceries part-time.
Police referred to Hale as the “female shooter” and added in an evening news briefing that Hale was transgender. When she was asked for clarification, a spokesperson told CNN that Hale used “male pronouns” in a social media profile.
How the shooting unfolded
Armed with three firearms, the attacker entered the primary school by shooting through a door, beginning an attack that lasted for about 14 minutes and spanned two floors of the school.
Surveillance video was released by Metropolitan Nashville Police showing the moment the shooter arrives at the school, shoots through the glass doors and climbs inside. Video continues to show the suspect walking through the halls, pointing an assault-style weapon.
At 10:13 a.m., police received a call of an active shooter inside the Covenant School and rushed to the scene. The first five officers to arrive heard shots coming from the second floor.
They went upstairs and confronted the attacker, who “had been shooting through a window at arriving police cars,” police said in the news release. Two officers then opened fire, killing the shooter at 10:27 a.m., police spokesman Don Aaron said.
The police chief praised the five officers for their quick response.
“I was hoping this day would never come to the city. But we will never wait to go in and stop a threat, especially when it comes to our children,” Drake said at a news conference Monday.
Following Hale’s death, the children were evacuated from the school and taken by bus to be reunited with their families. Video showed the children holding hands and walking in a single file out of the school, where members of the community were embracing each other.
“This school prepared for this with active shooter training for a reason. We don’t like to think this is ever going to happen to us. But experience has taught us that we have to be prepared because in these times it’s the reality we’re in.” Metro Nashville Councilman Russ Pulley told CNN.
Our community is heartbroken
Katherine Koonce and Mike Hill, victims of the Covenant school shooting.
Two Covenant School employees are among the victims of Monday’s mass shooting, according to the school.
Katherine Koonce was identified as the school’s principal on its website, which also says she attended school in Nashville at Vanderbilt University and Trevecca Nazarene University, along with earning her master’s degree from Georgia State University.
Mike Hill was identified in the staff section of the Covenant Presbyterian Church website, which is now offline. It was listed as facilities/kitchen staff. A friend of Mike Hill confirmed the image of him to CNN. Hill, 61, was a janitor at the school, according to police.
“Our community is heartbroken. We are grieving the tremendous loss and in shock coming out of the terror that tore apart our school and church. We are focused on loving our students, our families, our faculty and staff and beginning the process of healing,” the Covenant school said in a statement obtained by CNN affiliate WZTV.
“Law enforcement is conducting their investigation, and while we understand there is a lot of interest and there will be a lot of discussion and speculation surrounding what happened, we will continue to prioritize the well-being of our community. We appreciate the outpouring of support we have received and are Tremendously grateful to the first responders who acted quickly to protect our students, faculty, and staff. We ask for privacy for our students, parents, faculty, and staff as our community grapples with this terrible tragedy,” the statement continued.
The Covenant School is a private Christian school founded in 2001 as a ministry of the Covenant Presbyterian Church and teaches grades preschool through 6, according to its website.
Nashville Mayor John Cooper said he was “overwhelmed to think about the loss of these families, about the future lost for these children and their families.”
“The leading cause of death for children today is guns and shooting, and that is unacceptable,” Cooper said.
A recent study published in December in the journal JAMA Pediatrics supports that claim, finding that homicide is one of the leading causes of infant death in the United States and that the overall rate increased by an average of 4.3% each year for nearly a decade.
President Joe Biden called the Nashville school shooting “heartbreaking, a family’s worst nightmare” while advocating for gun reform.
Biden said Congress must pass an assault weapons ban because “we need to do more to protect our schools.” However, a bipartisan solution is extremely unlikely in this Congress with a slim Democratic majority in the Senate and a GOP-led House.
CNN’s Tina Burnside, Amanda Jackson, Sara Smart, Jamiel Lynch, Curt Devine and Audrey Ash contributed to this report.