Covenant School Shooting Leaves Seven Dead in ‘Targeted Attack’

This story has been updated with additional information.

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 (age 61), custodian Mike Hill (age 61) and head of the Covenant School Katherine Koonce (age 60).

Police identified the shooter as 28-year-old 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.

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

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, which can be found at this link, 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.

“We believe that there’s been some training of being able to shoot from a higher level, and her gunfire, from the video I’ve seen, she stood away from the glass so that she wouldn’t be an easy target to be shot,” Drake said.

Dozens of emergency vehicles — including marked and unmarked police cars, armored SWAT vehicles, fire trucks, ambulances and school buses — were seen descending on a neighboring business complex, which served as the first-responder staging area. 

“I was hoping this day would never ever come in this city, but we would never wait to go in and make entry and to stop a threat, especially when it deals with our children,” Drake said during a news conference Monday.

“I was really impressed, with all that was going on, the danger, that somebody took control and said, ‘let’s go, let’s go, let’s go,” and went in and took care [of it] and tried to end this situation," Drake said on Tuesday.

Police said Hale, who had no criminal record, left behind a written “manifesto,” which Drake said “indicates that there was going to be shootings at multiple locations; the school was one of them," and had “quite a bit of writing” which is being reviewed by both MNPD and the FBI.

That manifesto, Drake told CBS News, included drawings of what Hale would wear and what types of guns would be used in the shooting.

Police also recovered “maps drawn of the school in detail — surveillance, entry points, etc.,” as well as a “sawed-off shotgun, a second shotgun and other evidence” from a Brightwood Avenue home connected to Hale just three miles from the scene of the “calculated and planned” “targeted attack.”

"We strongly believe there was going to be some other targets including maybe family members and one of the malls here in Nashville," Drake told CBS News.

"We have to do something with gun violence and mental illness," Drake continued. "Our kids are counting on us."

Police interviewed Hale’s parents and said that Hale legally purchased seven guns from five different area gun stores, three of which were used in the shooting.

“We know that they felt that she had one weapon and that she had sold it,” Drake said on Tuesday. “She was under doctor’s care for an emotional disorder. Law enforcement knew nothing about the treatment that she was receiving, but her parents felt that she should not own weapons.”

Drake said that Hale had been hiding weapons in their home from his parents who did not know that he had any guns at the time of the shooting.

MNPD is leading the investigation, while the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is assisting the Davidson County District Attorney’s Office in their investigation of the police response, as is standard policy.

Federal agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as well as the Tennessee Highway Patrol, are also assisting in the ongoing investigation.

Nashville DA Glenn Funk called the shooting “the ultimate crime.”

“I am overwhelmed at the thought of the loss of these families, of the future lost by these children and their families,” Nashville Mayor John Cooper said in a Monday evening news conference. “The leading cause of death of kids is guns and gunfire, and that is unacceptable.”

“In this dark hour, let us support each other; let us hug our children a little bit closer tonight.”

Gov. Bill Lee tweeted that he was “closely monitoring the tragic situation” and encouraged prayer. On Tuesday evening, Lee released a video statement in which he said that one of the victims, Peak, was a close family friend. 

"Like many of you, I’ve experienced tragedy in my own life, and I’ve experienced the day after that tragedy," Lee said. "I woke up this morning with a very familiar feeling, and I recognize that today many Tennesseans are feeling the exact same way – the emptiness, the lack of understanding, the desperate desire for answers and the desperate need for hope." 

President Joe Biden renewed his call for an assault weapons ban following the killings. Biden also spoke with Chief Drake and is expected to speak with Officers Engelbert and Collazo.

On Tuesday, The Covenant School issued the following statement.

“Our community is heartbroken. We are grieving tremendous loss and are in shock coming out of the terror that shattered our school and church. We are focused on loving our students, our families, our faculty and staff and beginning the process of healing.

“Law enforcement is conducting its investigation, and while we understand there is a lot of interest and there will be a lot of discussion about 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 we are tremendously grateful to the first responders who acted quickly to protect our students, faculty and staff.

“We ask for privacy as our community grapples with this terrible tragedy - for our students, parents, faculty and staff.”

Approximately 50 people gathered at the Belmont United Methodist Church in Hillsboro Village Monday evening, one of several community vigils following the Covenant School shooting.

Keller Hawkins, a Belmont University graduate student, Vanderbilt University Divinity School alum and Insight Counseling Center counseling intern, provided opening remarks and an opening prayer.

“If you are angry, we are angry with you,” Hawkins told the crowd. “If you are exhausted, you are not alone. If you are weeping, we weep with you. If you are confused and lost, we are confused and lost with you.”

Kate Fields, BUMC pastor of children’s ministry and discipleship, and Ingrid McIntyre, BUMC pastor-in-residence for community engagement, read a lament that included calls for the protection of trans youth, access to mental health care and stricter gun regulation.

After music, candle lighting and time for individual prayer, BUMC Senior Pastor Paul Purdue gave a tearful closing sermon.

“These are the moments that we must reach out,” Purdue said. “We must reach out to one another. We must reach out to our legislators. We must reach out to those who are disenfranchised and hurting.”

At Lipscomb University, dozens of students and community members gathered for a vigil. The event featured prayer, Bible readings and singing. Attendees throughout the crowd could be seen embracing.

A city-wide candlelight vigil was scheduled for March 29 at 5:30 p.m. at Nashville’s One Public Square Park.

Elsewhere, some political leaders were urging action in response to the violence. At the state Capitol, the House and the Senate held brief floor sessions and rescheduled much of the day’s business. According to The Tennessean, Senate and House Democrats criticized Republican leadership for cutting off discussion of the tragedy. 

House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Republican, cut off the microphone of Rep. Bo Mitchell (D-Nashville) because Sexton said Mitchell had strayed from the House rules by discussing the shooting during a time reserved for “welcoming and honoring” visitors. 

“I’ll tell you one thing: There’s six people today I can’t welcome and honor anymore into this hallowed house,” Mitchell responded. “Y’all just think about those six people and think if your guns are worth it.”

Several pieces of legislation sponsored by Republicans and currently under consideration would make it easier for Tennesseans to get or carry firearms. One would lower the age limit for open carry of handguns from 21 to 18 while expanding permitless carry to rifles, though there is some disagreement among supermajority Republicans about the latter provision. Law enforcement has opposed permitless carry for years.

Tennessee Republicans have largely focused their legislative efforts related to school shootings on school safety in recent years rather than access to guns.

Hendrell Remus, chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party, called on Gov. Bill Lee and Republicans in the legislature to drop the bills.

“I’m infuriated at the amount of pain and anguish that reckless gun violence is continuously causing in our communities,” Remus said. “It’s time for Republicans in our state to protect every Tennessean and they can begin by pulling their dangerous new gun legislation.”

A version of this story appeared in our sister-publication Nashville Scene