Shooter meticulously planned Nashville Covenant school attack for years. Here’s how that happened

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A new report released Wednesday shines more light on the person who killed three 9-year-olds and three adults at a private Nashville Christian elementary school in 2023.

According to the nearly 50-page report, Audrey Hale’s initial fascination with mass shootings and school shooters ballooned into planning his own type of attack. For nearly five years, Hale scoped and researched locations where he could unleash terror, and he stocked up on firearms.

All the while, Hale’s parents and therapists became increasingly concerned, causing Hale to become more manipulative. He even considered killing his mother so she couldn’t upend his mass shooting plan.

Hale sometimes used male pronouns and police say Hale identified as male but the report uses female pronouns due to a Tennessee law definition of “sex” as “determined by anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth.”

Here is a timeline of what police have confirmed:

2011

At 16-years-old, Nashville police say Hale became increasingly socially isolated, “failed to establish connections” within his school’s social circles and began contemplating suicide. Noticing a change in her child, Hale’s mother took him to a therapist, who Hale met with for several years. That therapist performed a psychological assessment and concluded Hale suffered from major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, social phobias, anger-management issues, and was underdeveloped both emotionally and socially.

Not PARSE.LY: Nashville

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Police say the 2023 Nashville school shooter hid mental health issues from doctors and family

 

The shooter who killed 6 people at Nashville school in 2023 had planned for years and hid extent of mental health issues

 

2017

At the encouragement of the therapist, Hale began journaling. In those initial writings, police say that’s when Hale started researching mass killers in the U.S. and watching documentaries about school shootings. That same year, Hale’s weight dropped significantly at a rate that alarmed both his mother and therapist. Hale agreed to attend an eating disorder clinic for six weeks.

2018-2019

The report says as his research into mass killers and school shooters continued, Hale began planning an attack at his former middle school, including listing firearms and ammunition needed to carry out the attack. Hale’s therapist was alarmed in 2019 when Hale “let slip” that he had suicidal thoughts and homicidal fantasies. This sparked a psychological assessment at Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

The report says that assessment confirmed Hale’s mental health disorders but included a note that Hale denied attempting to harm himself or others. The assessment concluded that Hale should participate in an intensive outpatient program to address his mental health. The program lasted eight weeks and during that time, Hale’s therapist retired. Upon completion of the program, Hale resumed his planning for an attack.

2020

At 25-years-old, Hale purchased a rifle and started training privately on how to use it as planning for the middle school attack continued.

2021

Hale began purchasing more firearms while attempting to hide them from his parents but in April 2021, Hale mentioned to his new therapist that he owned a rifle. The report says the therapist “immediately objected” due to Hale’s history of depression and suicidal thoughts. Hale assured the therapist that those thoughts were in his past.

A few months later, Hale’s mother not only found out about the guns but also discovered Hale’s copy of a book on the 1999 Columbine shooting and alerted Hale’s therapist.

They convinced Hale to surrender his guns and referred him once again to VUMC for a psychological assessment. Hale avoided hospitalization this time, then secretly purchased a separate firearm and found a new therapist.

The report says the attempts to treat Hale failed in part due to his not wanting to be treated, and that he subsequently became more paranoid, secretive and isolated.

This is also the year that Hale began considering Covenant School as a possible target for an attack.

2022

The report says Hale became increasingly paranoid of being discovered by his parents and therapist, and notably worried that he would be involuntarily hospitalized and his guns would be seized.

2023

Hale carried out the Covenant School shooting on March 23.

The people killed in the shooting at Covenant were: Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all 9 years old; Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; and Mike Hill, 61.

According to police, Hale’s father told law enforcement that when he heard about the Covenant shooting, he suspected that his child was involved.