TN - Shooting at private Christian Covenant School, Nashville, suspect dead, multiple victims, 27 Mar 2023

[YepperBepper]

Although LE said that she was shooting randomly. Also, this pastor and daughter weren't at the school and church years ago when the shooter was a student there.

JMO, but I think it was random and she was not targeting indivdiuals at the school. Just a convenient place for her to carry out her plan.

Agree. Convenient.

A big bang for the buck.

The murderer wanted to make a mark and punish society....and what better way than slaughtering little children. Imho

 

[Sundog]

9-Year-Old Nashville Shooting Victim’s Father Is School’s Pastor

The Covenant School is a ministry of the Covenant Presbyterian Church, where Hallie Scruggs’ father serves as senior pastor and an ex-officio trustee.

www.thedailybeast.com

Little Hallie was the youngest of four children of the senior pastor and his wife.

 

[Cindizzi]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1640540584631836673

 

[Seni]

I live in a country well known for violence against all kinds of citizens of whatever origen, so many crimes committed daily, people displaced, easy to get guns or knives.

My kids went to school here, no security checks until a couple of years ago when they found a weirdo in the bathroom and people selling drugs through the hedges.

The school had been open to the public, nice green space for dogwalkers etc without any checks.

They slammed on security, nobody could get in without showing scanner ID, not even pupils. It takes seconds.

 

[nightowl1975]

Agree. My older kids were Columbine Era kids. We discussed these issues at home over 20 years ago.

I was a nuclear bomb kid, too, Mickey. The nuns did weekly drills with us. I was not phased in the least. I'm sure other children were. Imho

Ugh.

I was a bomb kid as well. I think we would’ve viewed those drills completely different if a bomb or two per day were going off in schools around the country.

 

[nightowl1975]

Interesting that LE quickly found a manifesto, physical maps, etc. in the home the shooter shared with her family. It could not have been all that hidden if they found it within hours, right?

I can’t imagine parents routinely going through their 28 year old’s bedroom, even if their adult “child” still lived at home.

 

[Breezie]

High school friend of Nashville school shooter says she was 'sweet'

The friend, who requested to remain anonymous, described Audrey Hale, 28, to DailyMail.com as 'sweet and funny' hours after the suspect opened fire at The Covenant School, killing six.

www.dailymail.co.uk

The friend referred to Hale as 'her' because she knew the suspect as a female before the 28-year-old transitioned after graduation.

'We went to Nashville School of the Arts in high school, where we had several trans students and others who were a part of the LGBTQ community,' the friend said. 'We were both in Visual Arts classes together and she was very involved with the school and had several friends.'

Along with participating in the same clubs, the friend also knew Hale as a team player.

'We ran track together as well for [Martin Luther King Jr. School] (a sister magnet school) and she was a great part of the team,' the friend said.

The friend added: 'I'd never defend anyone that would hurt a child. But really it's still really hard to believe that she did this. I thought for sure it was a mistake at first. The whole situation is so surreal.

'She really did have a good group of friends and she did a lot of projects and school activities. Not at all what you would expect from someone in this kind of news headline.'

DailyMail.com obtained messages from the Nashville School of Arts alumni page where several former classmates of Hale were in disbelief.

'This is crazy y'all,' one person wrote. 'I'm sure all of us could say the Audrey we knew back in high school was so opposite from who they were this morning.

 

[Seattle1]

She checked her Instagram. She didn't expect a message from The Covenant School shooter.

At 9:57 a.m., a former middle school basketball teammate of Audrey Hale looked at her phone to find a message from The Covenant School shooter on Instagram.

www.newschannel5.com

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — At 9:57 a.m., a former middle school basketball teammate of Audrey Hale looked at her phone to find a message from The Covenant School shooter on Instagram.


Averianna Patton said she saw the message that Hale planned to die by suicide and that Patton would see it on the news. In the messages Patton provided to NewsChannel 5, Hale told Patton she would see her again in another life. Hale told Patton about no longer wanting to live and the need to die.

"One day this will make more sense," Hale wrote. "I've left behind more than enough evidence behind. But something bad is about to happen."

Awful. Selfish. Deranged.
If Hale truly cared about Patton, she would have never put her in this position. MOO

 

[LaborDayRN]

I know it costs money, but securing a school seems very doable.

Get good locks and lock the doors. Lock the dang doors, to start.

Locked main doors with audio and video coverage, limited access with coded keypads, locks and cameras on other entrances, etc.

Maybe the main doors are a double entryway—people wait in between outer and inner doors and don’t get in without stating their purpose for being there, and receptionists check with school personnel to verify before allowing access.

I’m sure a safety expert would have lots of sensible and easily implemented first line of defense options.

Our storage units had a locked and coded gate. Customers each had their own code for access. The storage unit software allowed for any individual code to be locked out of access, either automatically through the software, like when the payment was late, or manually if there was a problem with a customer. The software logged usage, and we could tell from the codes who was going in and out.

Surely the same is available for use with locked and coded doors.

Yes, I’m aware that all systems have their flaws, and where there is a will, there is usually a way.

But surely we can make it more difficult for people to get access to our children.

My children went to a small private school growing up. When they first started there, the school was like an open book. You could just drive in. When I volunteered in the classrooms that's what I did. Drive in, park in the parking lot behind the school, walk to the classroom and simply open the door and go in.
The there was Columbine. Things changed. Gates went up and were locked, Classroom doors were locked. If you were going to a classroom you had to check in with the office front desk first.
Personally I was very relieved to see the changes. I had no idea at the time that the future would bring so many of these shooting.

 

[Sundog]

High school friend of Nashville school shooter says she was 'sweet'

The friend, who requested to remain anonymous, described Audrey Hale, 28, to DailyMail.com as 'sweet and funny' hours after the suspect opened fire at The Covenant School, killing six.

www.dailymail.co.uk

The friend referred to Hale as 'her' because she knew the suspect as a female before the 28-year-old transitioned after graduation.

'We went to Nashville School of the Arts in high school, where we had several trans students and others who were a part of the LGBTQ community,' the friend said. 'We were both in Visual Arts classes together and she was very involved with the school and had several friends.'

Along with participating in the same clubs, the friend also knew Hale as a team player.

'We ran track together as well for [Martin Luther King Jr. School] (a sister magnet school) and she was a great part of the team,' the friend said.

The friend added: 'I'd never defend anyone that would hurt a child. But really it's still really hard to believe that she did this. I thought for sure it was a mistake at first. The whole situation is so surreal.

'She really did have a good group of friends and she did a lot of projects and school activities. Not at all what you would expect from someone in this kind of news headline.'

DailyMail.com obtained messages from the Nashville School of Arts alumni page where several former classmates of Hale were in disbelief.

'This is crazy y'all,' one person wrote. 'I'm sure all of us could say the Audrey we knew back in high school was so opposite from who they were this morning.

The photos in this article of four of the victims are heart-breaking; Hallie Scruggs (9), the head teacher, the custodian, and the substitute teacher pictured here with her daughter.

 

[SouthAussie]

LE said they found maps and writings in her car, so maybe she was still working on her plan, or finalizing her "manifesto."

Just to add, this BBC article says ... "A search of a nearby parked car led officers to "firmly believe" that Hale was a former student of the school, said police."

Nashville school shooting

Those maps, writings, or something else told police right away that the murderer was a former student.

 

[Kaley Smith]

Shooter's family seems very normal.

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[Seattle1]

Ironic or what! In the released surveillance video of the shooter entering the school building armed, it appears the shooter is wearing safety glasses. MOO

Mother of Nashville school shooter's Facebook posts emerge

The mom of the transgender school shooter who murdered six said 'I think I just lost my daughter,' as her own calls for increased gun control emerged.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[gngr~snap]

Was there an alarm when the front doors were shot?

She enters the school and then roams around, opening doors and entering / exiting rooms.

In my opinion only, you can see lights flashing in the video. There was no sound on the one I watched, so I might be wrong.
MOO

 

[neesaki]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1640549928547090432

I’m thinking glass doors on a school aren’t such a good idea.

 

[neesaki]

IMO she resented her parents for sending her to this school. Maybe resented her parents for other things as well. IMO she didn't target particular students or staff, she targeted her parents and she killed these 6 poor, innocent victims to hurt her parents.

Yet changing schools apparently didn’t help her. Jmo

 

[imstilla.grandma]

*I’m laying here trying to wake up. My thoughts immediately went to these little children. The fact that parents got a call about this nightmare is one that I fear for parents of school age students everywhere. Big cities, small towns, it doesn’t matter. I’m trying to think about the scariest thing that happened to us when we were in grade school was Kennedy getting shot and bomb drills because the Russians were going to blow our country up. Omg, I cant imagine the fear in these children. They must be so traumatized. Will they ever enjoy school again?

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I’m thinking glass doors on a school aren’t such a good idea.

Bullet proof glass might be better, I suppose they need to see who’s at the door. I guess any lock can be shot out if someone really wants to, though.

 

[neesaki]

There was another location that was mentioned but because of a threat assessment by the suspect, too much security, they decided not to,' he said.

Sandy Durham, a neighbor of Hale's who said she had known her 'since she was a baby' was shocked and said there were no warning signs that this could happen.

'Never. She was very sweet. I don't know what happened. It's very scary,' Durham told The Daily Beast.

Sean Brashears, a next door neighbor, said he used to play basketball with Hale in his driveway and said she was a 'normal, nice person. Maybe a little quiet.'

'If I had to imagine, Audrey's parents are probably just as shocked as everybody in the neighborhood is…It just doesn't seem real,' he told The Daily Beast.

He added that, knowing the Hale family, it doesn't seem like Audrey would have ever even been influenced by gun culture.

'There's nothing that would have led me to believe that she was capable of such a thing or that she or anybody in that family would have access to, much less ever used, a gun.'

'They just don't seem like the family that, like, is around guns. They're not talking about going to a gun range or they're not going hunting.'

Cops share snap of school door Nashville shooter blasted

Nashville police have shared a photo of the car used by the private school shooter who killed six, including three nine-year-old children and three staff members.

www.dailymail.co.uk

<modsnip>

I guess we never really know anyone. By the videos, it appears she was comfortable handling the weapon. Had to have been practicing, most likely at a firing range.

 

[cujenn81]

In that video, I can see lights going off- emergency/alert lights? In the school.

Didn’t police say she was in a lobby-type area? Wondering if the adults/kids hadn’t had a place to hide or shelter?

It’s awful, especially knowing the school was locked up, as it should have been. I mean, shooting the windows/door(?) out just to get in. How can one prepare for such a situation if you can’t even keep the suspect out?

My son’s pre-k in a catholic school was raised, not ground level so you had to go up some outdoor steps to get to the front door, which was solid, not glass, and you had to press the intercom to be let in. His current school has an intercom too, but the doors are mostly glass. This is terrifying. What solution is there? I know upthread someone mentioned that bulletproof glass isn’t really practice for a few reasons

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/building-window-solutions-us/resources/window-film-for-schools/