Images reveal inside Nashville shooter Audrey Hale’s home the place she hid weapons
Images obtained by The Publish supply an unique glimpse into the house the place the Nashville college shooter lived and stockpiled weapons — together with those used to kill three children and three adults Monday.
The photographs present a typical household house with crimson tulips popping up within the entrance yard, college portraits framed on a credenza, a wind chime with a cascade of crosses hanging in a window and a baby’s bike propped in opposition to an exterior wall.
However police mentioned the brick, Tudor-style home is the place the mass shooter recognized as Audrey Hale hid a cache of seven guns from her parents, the owners.
Hale introduced three of the lethal weapons — two assault rifles and a handgun — to the Covenant College and gunned down three 9-year-olds, a faculty custodian, a substitute trainer and the headmaster.
Hale, 28, who was transgender, was shot and killed by police on the second flooring of the Christian academy following the rampage.
Investigators raided the Nashville home the place Hale lived together with her mother and father quickly after and found the stockpile of firearms she had legally bought from native shops, Metro Nashville police mentioned.
Hale’s mother and father advised cops that they had thought their grownup youngster had only one gun, which they believed she had offered.
“Her mother and father felt she shouldn’t personal weapons … they had been underneath the impression that when she offered the one weapon that she didn’t personal anymore,” Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake mentioned.
“Because it turned out, she had been hiding a number of weapons inside the home.”
Hale’s mom, Norma Hale, had posted about the necessity to “hold weapons out of colleges” on social media and was a devout Christian, in line with neighbors.
Comply with The Publish’s protection of the college capturing in Nashville
Cops additionally recovered a manifesto written by Hale within the house, in addition to detailed maps of The Covenant College the place the shooter was as soon as a pupil.
Neighbors advised The Publish that police broke down the house’s entrance door earlier than the raid and used “flash grenades” to storm the residence.
The photographs taken by a Publish photographer present the entrance door and a again window boarded up with wooden, as shattered glass stays on the garden.
Police haven’t introduced a motive within the mass capturing, however imagine the college was focused as Hale was a pupil there at one level years in the past.
Requested whether or not Hale being transgender might have performed an element within the slaughter, Drake mentioned it was underneath investigation.
It’s unclear whether or not Hale recognized as a person or lady — cops referred to her utilizing feminine pronouns, although she used male pronouns and the identify Aiden on some social media accounts.
They don’t imagine Hale focused the victims, nonetheless, and as a substitute shot indiscriminately at anybody she encountered.
The victims have been identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all 9, in addition to custodian Mike Hill, 61, substitute trainer Cynthia Peak, 61, and headmaster Katherine Koonce, 60.