The shooter who gunned down three children and three staff members at a Nashville Christian school on Monday was a former student who carefully planned the attack with detailed maps and surveillance, police said.
“We have some writings that we’re going over that pertain to this date, the actual incident,” Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake told reporters hours after the shooting at The Covenant School. “We have a map drawn out of how this was all going to take place.”
The shooter, Audrey Hale, 28, of Nashville, identified as transgender and had no previous criminal record, according to the chief.
Drake said his investigators are working on a possible motive but he declined to reveal that on Monday afternoon.
“There’s right now a theory that we may be able to talk about later but it’s not confirmed,” the chief said.
Asked specifically if Hale’s identity could have factored into the killer’s motive, Drake said: “There is some theory to that, we’re investigating all the leads.”
Hale was heavily armed, according to the chief, who said the shooter had two AR-style weapons and a handgun.
Two of those three weapons were legally obtained in the Nashville area, the police chief added.
Hale was confronted by five officers and two of them opened fire, killing the attacker, authorities said.
A car near the shooting scene helped police determine who the shooter was.
“There was a vehicle that was nearby that gave us clues as to who she was,” Drake said.
Investigators were combing through Hale’s home, he said.
Police tactical units were spotted using a grenade-like device to get inside the residence, which is listed as Hale’s residence.
“This is a great family and it’s a tragedy,” a neighbor told NBC News.
There were no answers on Monday afternoon at multiple phone numbers listed for Hale’s mother and brother.
Investigators are also looking into how Hale got into the school. Doors are usually locked on the campus, officials said.
“How exactly she got in, at this point, is still under investigation,” Drake said.
The chief praised his officers for taking on the shooter immediately.
“It could have been far, far worse,” Drake said.
No one in the MSM has admitted this and they continue to say her making then guilty of misgendering .
Mis what? Gendering? She was a 28 year old woman!
HE/SHE MUTILATED HIS/HER OWN BODY, THAT PERSON WOULD FIND KILLING ANOTHER WOULD NOT BOTHER THAT TRANNY ONE LITTLE BIT….
another nut case, she had nothing to do with the kids, And next someone will say they saw nothing. yet there was something wrong with this person. And then where did she get a gun or guns.
Everyone is saying she ! This person was not a she, it was a he ! Come on people wake up !
Just because she pretended to be male does not make this woman a man!
The Ars that the Marxist Democrats have been for 80 years tryyto disarm the American people cost over 800 each so we’re did they get the guns from evil operatives in our own government, when Fentanyl is coming across our unsecure boarders every day and KILLING 1000’s weekly ! Where is the concern here by the Democrats and media?????
I have not heard of any case where and Marxists or Immigrants are grabbing innocent people and forcing fentanyl down their throats. Drug users died of overdoses.
Kids died because the stupid interpretation of the 2nd Amendment (in which the world regulated is there) have put guns in the hands of people that should never have them.
Guns have surpassed car accidents and cancer as the main cause of children’s deaths.
YES, we should control immigration as well as drug trafficking, but blaming Democrats and non-existing Marxists is moronic as Republicans are not willing to sit down and work and are only witch-hunting our institutions for doing their work as prescribed in our Constitution.