‘Planning to die’: Shock bodycam footage, Nashville school shooter’s chilling final texts revealed
A US actress has opened up about the moment she stumbled upon children fleeing from the primary school where Audrey Hale shot six people dead in Nashville. Warning: Graphic.
Melissa Joan Hart has revealed she helped several kindergarteners “climbing out of the woods” to safety as they tried to escape a mass shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee.
Three nine-year-old children and three staff members were killed at the Covenant School when a shooter, identified as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, opened fire on them on Monday.
The Sabrina the Teenage Witch actress, who lives in Nashville, shared the shocking experience in an Instagram video, saying her children attend school “right next to” where the massacre took place.
“We moved here from Connecticut where we were in school a little ways down from Sandy Hook, so this is our second experience with a school shooting with our kids being in close proximity,” the 46-year-old told her 1.7 million followers.
“Luckily we are all okay.”
Hart said she and her husband, Mark Wilkerson — with whom she shares sons Mason, 17, Braden, 15, and Tucker, 10 — were on their “way to school for conferences” when they spotted several children who “were trying to escape.”
“We helped a class of kindergarteners across a busy highway,” Hart explained.
“They were climbing out of the woods, they were trying to escape a shooter situation at their school. So we helped these tiny little kids cross the road and get their teachers over there.
“We helped a mum reunite with her children and I just … I don’t know what to say. Enough is enough. Just pray, pray for the families.”
MOMENT COPS TOOK DOWN SCHOOL SHOOTER
Shocking footage has revealed the heart-stopping moment police officers stormed into a Nashville primary school and took down the school shooter.
The footage reveals the swift efforts of Metro Nashville police officers Rex Engelbert and Michael Collazo in stopping Hale’s 15-minute reign of terror at The Covenant School.
Dressed in a white T-shirt, camo pants, sneakers and a red baseball cap, former student Hale stormed the school halls, killing three adults and three nine-year-old children.
The 28-year-old, who identified as transgender and sometimes used the name “Aiden”, messaged a friend and declared “something bad is about to happen” moments before carrying out the attack.
The school shooter had reportedly clashed with his devout Christian parents because they “couldn’t accept” their child identified as transgender, the Daily Mail reports.
The bodycam footage shows Officer Engelbert and other police officers clearing the first-floor offices and classrooms before hearing gunshots coming from the second floor.
“It’s upstairs. It sounds like it’s upstairs,” Officer Engelbert says in the video as runs up a flight of stairs while multiple rounds are heard being fired in the background.
Officer Engelbert walks into a hallway area on the second floor, where he encounters Hale firing shots out of a large second-story window.
The officer lets off five shots from his rifle as Hale falls.
A second video from officer Officer Collazo’s body camera shows how he also fired five shots from his handgun after Hale continued to move.
The shooter is shown motionless on the floor as Officer Collazo communicates through the radio: “Suspect down, suspect down.”
MNPD Officers Rex Engelbert, a 4-year veteran, and Michael Collazo, a 9-year veteran, were part of a team of first responders to the Covenant campus Mon morning. They fired on the active shooter, who was killed. This is their body camera footage. https://t.co/17qsZM6bNppic.twitter.com/g4b0nMTFRD
— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) March 28, 2023
TWISTED KILLER’S CHILLING TEXTS
Earlier, it was revealed that Hale, using the name Aiden, had sent messages to Averianna Patton, his former middle school basketball teammate, on Instagram at 9:57am local time on Monday, NewsChannel 5 reported.
Hale wrote: “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!!!
“You’ll probably hear about me on the news after I die.”
Hale added: “This is my last goodbye. I love you … See you again in another life.” He signed the missive “Audrey (Aiden).”
Ms Patton replied: “Audrey! You have so much more life to live. I pray God keeps and covers you.”
In response, Hale wrote: “I know but I don’t want to live. I’m so sorry. I’m not trying to upset you or get attention. I just need to die. I wanted to tell you first because you are the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen and known all my life.”
He added: “My family doesn’t know what I’m about to do. One day this will make more sense. I’ve left more than enough evidence behind. But something bad is about to happen.”
Moments later, Hale opened fire on children and staff members inside The Covenant School in Nashville.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake said Hale had legally purchased seven guns from various local stores — including the three used in the massacre.
The shooter was also being treated for an emotional disorder — and had hidden her cache of weapons from her parents, the police chief said.
“She was under care, doctor’s care, for an emotional disorder,” Mr Drake told reporters, adding that cops “knew nothing about the treatment she was receiving.”
The police chief did not elaborate on what kind of emotional disorder he was suffering.
FAMILIES TELL OF HEARTBREAK
One of the little girls gunned down in the Nashville school shooting has been described by her family as a “shining light”.
Evelyn Dieckhaus was one of the three nine-year-old students shot dead by Hale in the massacre.
The brave child tried to save her classmates by pulling the fire alarm during the shooting, CNN reports.
Her family released a statement, saying they were heartbroken.
“Our hearts are completely broken. We cannot believe this has happened. Evelyn was a shining light in this world. We appreciate all the love and support but ask for space as we grieve,” the statement said.
William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs, the daughter of Chad Scruggs, the pastor at the school’s affiliated Presbyterian church, also died.
William’s family called him “unfailingly kind” and “always inclusive of others”.
School head Dr Katherine Koonce, 60, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, and chef Mike Hill, 61 were also killed in the mass shooting.
Former student Hale carefully planned the attack with detailed maps and surveillance, leaving behind a manifesto, police said.
“There’s some belief that there was some resentment at having to go to that school, don’t have all the details for that just yet, and that’s why this incident occurred,” Nashville police chief John Drake said in an interview with NBC.
In the aftermath of the shooting, police initially identified Hale as a “transgender woman”.
According to US media reports, Hale was born a woman but used he/him pronouns, suggesting Hale was living as a man.
15 MINUTES OF HORROR
Police searched Hale’s home and found evidence of a targeted attack, the police chief told reporters.
“We have a manifesto, we have some writings we are going over that pertain to this day, the actual incident, we have a map drawn out of how this was all going to take place,” he said.
Police said it was unclear what the killer’s motive was.
“My initial findings is that at one point she was a student at that school, but it’s unsure what year,” Mr Drake told reporters.
Asked specifically if Hale’s identity could have factored into the killer’s motive, Mr Drake said: “There is some theory to that, we’re investigating all the leads.”
Hale, who police initially believed was a teenager, entered The Covenant School armed with at least two assault rifles and a handgun from a side door before opening fire, Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron told a press conference.
Officers were on the scene within about 15 minutes of receiving the first emergency call around 10am (1am AEDT).
Hale fired multiple shots on the first and second floors of the school before being shot dead by police on the second floor, Mr Aaron said.
“All of the remaining students were able to be escorted out of the building with faculty and staff,” Kendra Loney of the Nashville fire department said.
“We were on scene to help them mitigate anyone from seeing exactly what else was going on,” she said.
“But we are sure that they heard the chaos that was surrounding this, so we do have mental health specialists and professionals that are at that reunification site for both the students and the families.”
The Covenant School is a private Presbyterian institution with a little more than 200 students in preschool to roughly age 12.
School shootings are alarmingly common in the US, where the proliferation of firearms has soared in recent years, though female shooters are extremely rare.
The FBI and Nashville branch of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) has deployed agents to assist in investigating the attack.
Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell said in a statement: “Nashville has, sadly, today joined the communities that have experienced a school shooting. For now, my focus is turning to supporting the impacted families and revisiting our efforts to prevent these horrifying scenarios.”
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