MNPD closes investigation after two years, concluding that the assassin acted alone

by Steven Hale – April 2, 2025 – Nashville Banner

My cmnt: You may click here, here, here, here and here to read what I have archived about the Nashville, Covenant school shooter Audrey Hale. She identified as a transgender male using male pronouns and the name Aiden Williams before she went on this vile rampage of carnage and death. No guns for Trans.

My cmnt: After reading the report below I can certainly conclude that this woman was one, sick bitch. Like so many Leftist indoctrinated, college-age white women she was full of rage and hate and bitterness towards the rest of the world. If the democrat-media complex could they would blame this on President Trump. However since it took place under Biden they just don’t know why she did it. Again, No Guns for Trans.

The 28-year-old former student who shot and killed three children and three adults at The Covenant School two years ago was motivated by a desire for notoriety and a way to give her death meaning, according to an investigative report released Wednesday by the Metro Nashville Police Department. 

The shooter entered the private Christian school in Green Hills shortly after 10 a.m. on March 27, 2023, wearing a tactical vest and carrying three loaded firearms. Over the next 14 minutes, Audrey Hale gunned down six people inside — third graders Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and Hallie Scruggs, along with school staff members Michael Hill, Dr. Katherine Koonce and Cynthia Peak. Hale had taken a position behind a large second-floor window and was firing at responding police when other officers who had entered the building shot and killed them. 

The MNPD’s investigation concluded that Hale planned and carried out the attack alone and that neither parents nor mental health professionals or gun retailers should face any criminal charges. 

Why did this happen?

Police concluded that Hale “bore no grudge against the school or staff” and “considered them as ‘innocents’ and victims on par with herself.” 

Hale was biologically female but had made statements about wanting to transition and started using male pronouns and the name Aiden Williams in recent years, according to police. In the wake of the shooting, significant speculation focused on the possibility that Hale’s actions were an expression of deep resentment for the school, its staff and its religious views. However, the MNPD report said, the school was chosen because it was a soft target and an attack there would guarantee lasting infamy. Police also concluded Hale — who attended Covenant between 2001 and 2005 — wanted “to die somewhere that made her happy.” 

“Even though numerous disappointments in relationships, career aspirations, and independence fueled her depression, and even though this depression made her highly suicidal,” police said, simply committing suicide was not enough. 

“Hale longed for her name and actions to be remembered long after she was dead,” the report said. 

Citing Hale’s writings and videos, the MNPD report said Hale “expected there would be books and documentaries dedicated.”

Hale did have a well-documented history of mental health struggles going back to childhood, according to biographical writings cited in the investigative report, and stretching into adulthood. But Covenant, where Hale attended kindergarten through the fourth grade, was apparently a bright spot. 

“Hale considered these years the happiest of her childhood,” the report said. “She felt safe and accepted at The Covenant and made friends with other students. She considered her family life during this time as happy, with a positive relationship with both of her parents and her brother.”

Hale struggled socially through middle and high school at Creswell Middle Prep School of the Arts and Nashville School of the Arts, finding it hard to fit in and feeling abandoned by past friends. According to the report, it was during high school that a psychological assessment determined Hale suffered from “major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, social phobias, anger-management issues, and was underdeveloped both emotionally and socially.” 

Those issues — and others, including an eating disorder — persisted through college and beyond, police found, metastasizing to the point where Hale was self-harming, attempting suicide and producing expletive-filled “rage storms.” These soon became focused on feelings of abandonment directed at friends from middle school. 

It was in 2017, the report said, that Hale’s obsession with school massacres began. 

“In November 2017, Hale wrote a journal entry recounting how she had recently watched several documentaries regarding school shootings,” the report said. “She became fascinated with the topic and began to seek out additional information on the topic. Hale then reviewed countless news articles, documentaries, and other information available through the Internet regarding other mass killers in the United States. She downloaded images of the offenders, the weapons they used (either the actual firearms or stock photographs of the same make, model, and caliber of firearm), what information was publicly documented regarding their mental health, their known motives, where the attacks occurred, and the number of people killed and injured during the attack.” 

By the summer of 2018, the report said, obsessing had become planning. 

“After writing an expletive rant directed towards her ‘best friend’ for choosing a relationship with a man over her, Hale decided it was time to make others notice her for a change,” the report said. “She felt by ‘killing a bunch of children’ she would no longer be ignored.”

As that year came to a close, Hale was planning an attack on Creswell Middle, which the report said included drawing a map of the school’s layout from memory. 

“In the map, she specified the locations of classrooms, common areas, and where the entrances and exits were located,” the report said. “She outlined how she would progress through the school, who she would target and in what sequence, and where she would commit suicide within the school once she was done. Knowing access to the interior of the school was highly restricted during school hours, she detailed an elaborate plan to enter without being stopped or detected so she could begin her attack with the element of surprise.”

According to the report, Hale’s writings during this time illustrated escalating anger that was only interrupted by a therapist who — after Hale admitted having suicidal and homicidal ideation — recommended a psychological assessment at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. After the evaluation, VUMC recommended an intensive outpatient program, which Hale completed. The report said it helped for a time, but anger and despair eventually returned. 

Throughout late 2019 and early 2020, the report said, Hale wrote about possible attacks at various Nashville schools. Among those schools was Creswell Middle, where Hale had felt ostracized as a student. But Hale began to doubt that plan, the report said, not because the targets would be children but because many of the children were Black. 

“Though she had no qualms about killing anyone regardless of specific demographical [sic] categories, she worried she might be branded as a racist, which would remove her ability to give the motive and reasoning for the attack and allow others to choose it for her once she was dead,” the report said. 

Hale started to consider Covenant as a potential target in January 2021 and even took a tour of the school in September of that year “to review the interior layout of the school” and take photographs. What followed was months of intense planning, stockpiling of ammunition, brainstorming potential back-up targets and research on other shootings. 

The latter included watching televised coverage of the trial of Waffle House shooter Travis Reinking in its entirety to learn “about what to expect if she survived or was taken alive following a mass shooting.”

Although the planned attack date would move several times, according to the report, Hale settled on Covenant as a target and established a goal of killing at least 40 people.  

“She openly expressed a desire to primarily kill children, though she believed only the older children (over 7 years of age) were viable targets,” the report said. “She felt the younger children were too young to understand the difference between good and evil or how the world was structured, which made killing them especially cruel. She reiterated her belief that the race, religion, gender, or other demographical [sic] categories of her victims wouldn’t matter, provided most of her victims would be children. She openly acknowledged none of those she would kill were guilty of anything and denied any personal motivation for targeting them. She felt their deaths were necessary to give her death meaning.”

The guns

The MNPD investigation found that Hale started shopping for firearms — “specifically AR-style rifles and shotguns” — in the summer and fall of 2020. Using money left over from federal student loans, the first gun Hale purchased was a Smith & Wesson M&P-15 5.56mm caliber carbine along with “ammunition and accessories for this firearm, which included a gun sock to store the firearm within her bedroom closet.”

According to the report, citing Hale’s writings, Hale’s mother discovered a wrapper for the gun sock in a trash can and questioned Hale about it, leading Hale to admit to owning the rifle. 

“Her mother immediately objected to the rifle due to Hale’s history of depression and suicidal fantasies, but her father stated he had no problem with Hale having a firearm provided she take classes to learn how to use the rifle safely and responsibly,” the report said. “Hale’s mother begrudgingly agreed, and Hale kept the rifle.”

In February 2021, Hale purchased a Mossberg Maverick 88 12-gauge shotgun. The investigative report said Hale’s father was aware of this purchase and did not express any concerns about it.  

Hale’s therapist also learned about the guns during an April 2021 session and objected, but Hale “managed to assure her therapist those fantasies were well in her past and she was no longer in danger of harming herself.”

Hale purchased a third gun, a KelTec Sub 2000 9 mm caliber carbine, and that same month a fourth gun, a Mossberg Shockwave 12-gauge shotgun in June 2021. Both also were purchased, the report said, using money from student loan grants left over after education costs. 

It was just after Hale bought the fourth gun that all of the firearms were briefly taken away. According to the report, “Hale’s mother discovered Hale purchased a copy of the book ‘The Columbine Diaries’ from Amazon.” Hale’s parents and therapist convinced Hale to surrender the guns. 

But that only lasted several weeks. 

In July 2021, Hale purchased a Smith & Wesson M&P Shield 9mm caliber semi-automatic pistol and Hale’s mother agreed to return the guns if Hale agreed to sell them. But police found that Hale only sold two of the firearms and kept three, including two of the guns later used in the Covenant shooting. 

The investigative report also said Hale took firearms training classes at Royal Range USA between January and May 2022. Throughout the fall of that year, Hale became increasingly paranoid about Hale’s parents finding out about the attack plans and taking the guns away again. Hale created an “‘emergency plan,’ which involved her killing her parents to prevent them from raising an alarm.”

In December 2022, Hale went to a military surplus store in Nashville and purchased the tactical load-bearing vest later used in the Covenant attack. 

“When combined with magazine pouches she purchased that could be affixed to her belt and the military fatigue pants with cargo pockets she could use to hold additional ammunition and equipment, Hale was now able to carry hundreds of rounds of live ammunition without the need to carry a duffle bag, backpack, or other container,” the report said. “Around the same time, Hale purchased an automatic knife with a glass-break tool she planned to use in the event she had to stab someone or break the glass out of a window to enter the school or a specific room within the school. She prepared detailed diagrams outlining where on her person she would store her pistol, spare magazines, loose ammunition, and other equipment she planned to use during the attack.”  

After settling on March 2023 as the time for the attack, Hale started planning which guns would be used and practiced at a shooting range.  

Hale’s only encounter with law enforcement came just four days before the Covenant shooting “when she was present when someone became injured during an accidental discharge at a shooting range.” 

On the morning of the attack, Hale drove to Royal Range USA with the firearms, ammunition and other equipment in a duffel bag. After loading the guns and putting on the tactical vest in a far corner of the parking lot, Hale left for the school. 

‘In this case, a manifesto didn’t exist’

On the day of the Covenant shooting, the New York Times published a story about the attack with the headline, “The Nashville school shooter had a ‘manifesto’ and maps, police say.” 

The use of that word in various quarters in the hours and days following the shooting would come to define the narrative and debates around it for the next two years. After records requests from news outlets and others for copies of the writings were denied, lawsuits, conspiracy theories and leaks followed. 

Parents from Covenant, including families of the victims, have pleaded with police and the media not to release the shooter’s writing, arguing that it could further traumatize survivors and inspire copycats. Hale’s parents transferred ownership of the documents to the Covenant families, which the families argued gave them a copyright claim. In July, Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles ruled that the writings would not be released. 

However, according to the MNPD report, the use of the word “manifesto” — and the implication that there was a single document detailing the shooter’s thoughts and motives — was erroneous. 

“In this case, a manifesto didn’t exist,” the report said. “Hale never left behind a single document explaining why she committed the attack, why she specifically targeted The Covenant, and what she hoped to gain, if anything, with the attack. As previously mentioned, what did exist were a series of notebooks, art composition books, and media files created by Hale documenting her planning and preparation for the attack, the events in her life that motivated her to commit the attack, and her hopes regarding the outcome of the attack. No single document, notebook, or digital device contains the answer to those questions. The answer is scattered throughout all the assembled material, which required a careful review of the material to understand Hale’s motive.”

===========================================================

My cmnt: Here are the hundred or so pages of notes Hale left behind and that were finally released by the FBI under President Trump. Biden’s FBI kept this under wraps with all kinds of bogus excuses so that nothing would come out indicating that yet another Trans was a democrat full of hate and fury at her bad choices in life and possibly effect the election outcome.

My cmnt: Per the link below the Covenant school parents did not want the writings, etc. released. I think this would be a normal reaction of a parent who wants to have nothing “out there” reminding him or her about the horrific event. Nevertheless we all know that the Left-Lib-democrat-controlled media would have released them years ago, regardless of the parents’ requests, if it would further their Leftist political agenda.

FBI releases over 100 pages of writings by Covenant School shooter

---

by WZTV – May 29th 2025 at 8:20 PM, Updated Sat, May 31st 2025 at 8:08 PM – Fox News 17 Nashville

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — The FBI has released more than 100 pages of writings by Audrey Hale, the shooter responsible for the tragic 2023 Covenant School shooting that claimed the lives of three children and three staff members at the private Christian elementary school.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: FBI holding Nashville shooter manifesto from public for processing, official says

The documents, which were found in Hale’s car, had been kept private by law enforcement until now.

They include plans Hale made before her death, such as movies she wanted to watch and books she intended to read. Other pages contain drawings of the inside of the Covenant School and repeated messages expressing a desire to die.

The release of these writings follows a lengthy legal battle involving The Tennessee Star and the Tennessee Firearms Association (TFA) to make all of the documents public.

RELATED COVERAGE: Covenant School parents’ decision to not release shooters’ writings vindicated

WARNING: Some may find these documents upsetting.

View the FBI-released documents here.