Audrey Hale's Final Message Before Nashville School Shooting Rampage

Audrey Hale, the shooter who killed three children and three adults at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville on Monday, wrote to a former middle school basketball teammate that they were going to die that same day before going on a rampage.

At 9:57 a.m., 16 minutes before police received a report of the shooting at The Covenant School at 10:13 a.m., Hale—who police said identified as transgender—messaged their former teammate Averianna Patton that they planned to die by suicide and that she would see it on the news.

"So basically that post I made on here about you, that was basically a suicide note. I'm planning to die today. THIS IS NOT A JOKE!!!! You'll probably hear about me on the news after I die," Hale wrote to Patton on Instagram, in messages shared with NewsChannel5.

Nashville school shooting
School buses with children arrive at Woodmont Baptist Church to be reunited with their families after a mass shooting at The Covenant School on March 27, 2023, in Nashville, Tennessee. According to initial reports, three... Seth Herald/Getty Images

The 28-year-old shooter then told Patton they would see each other in another life. When Patton replied saying Hale had "so much more life to live," Hale wrote back: "I know but I don't want to live. I'm so sorry. I'm not trying to upset you or get attention. I just need to die."

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

Patton told the Nashville television channel that she then called Nashville Davidson County Sheriff's Office at 10:13 a.m. to warn them about Hale but was instructed to call the city's non-emergency number. She said she was then kept on hold "for nearly seven minutes" before speaking with someone who said that they would send an officer to her home. "An officer did not come to my home until 3:29 p.m.," Patton said.

Hale, a former student of The Covenant School, entered the building on Monday morning, heavily armed with two assault-style rifles and a handgun after carefully planning the shooting by drawing a map and conducting surveillance of the school's building, according to police. A manifesto left behind by Hale "indicates that there was going to be shootings at multiple locations, and the school was one of them," Nashville chief of police John Drake told NBC News.

Drake said that Hale had no criminal history "at all" and investigators believe the shooter had "some resentment" towards the school.

Hale was shot and killed by officers on the scene. Police later identified the victims of Hale's rampage as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all nine years old; 61-year-old Cynthia Peak, a substitute teacher; 60-year-old Katherine Koonce, the head of the school; and 61-year-old Mike Hill, a custodian.

The shooting at the Nashville school is the latest in a string of tragic events that have hit American schools. Last May, a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

According to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), a non-profit research group that tracks gun violence using police reports, the shooting at The Covenant School was the 129th mass shooting this year in the U.S. While there is no agreed definition, the GVA says a mass shooting is four or more people shot or killed in an incident, excluding the shooter.

President Joe Biden called the attack "heartbreaking" and repeated calls for Congress to pass a ban on assault weapons. "We have to do more to stop gun violence ripping our communities apart," Biden said at the White House. "It's ripping the soul from this nation."

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text "988" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.

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About the writer


Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek Reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. and European politics, global affairs ... Read more

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