Nashville shooter Audrey Hale reached out to a former basketball teammate, Averianna Patton, before killing three children and three adults at The Covenant School in Nashville, Patton says.
Patton says she received a message from Hale, the 28-year-old suspect Monday morning a little after 10.
Below are the screenshots of the messages the suspect sent Patton.
Patton immediately sent a screenshot to her dad.
Her dad told her to call the Suicide Prevention Hotline based on the messages Hale sent.
Patton says the hotline told her to call deputies since staff can only help if the person calling is suicidal.
The Davidson County Sheriff’s Department told Patton to call the non-emergency number.
She called a little after 10, and she was on hold for a few minutes.
Nobody ever came and maybe like an hour and a half later I received another phone call and they said they were going to send somebody, and I said well I thought you were going to send someone initially,” says Patton.
No one ended up coming to Patton’s home until 3:29 p.m, hours after police say Hale killed six people.
I just couldn’t believe it like I know that I tried to reach out you know not even knowing that it was her. I just didn’t I don’t know,” says Patton.
FOX 17 News reached out to the National Suicide Prevention Hotline to ask about typical protocol if someone is calling on behalf of another person.
We are waiting on a response.
On the hotline website, it discusses what to do if a friend or loved one needs help, saying “Never keep it a secret if a friend tells you about a plan to hurt themselves. Call 988 so that you can find out what resources are available in your area."
FOX17 News also reached out the Director of Davidson County Emergency Communications to ask if there should’ve been a quicker response.
Director Stephen Martini sent us this statement.
"The Metro Nashville Department of Emergency Communications received the first call reporting an active shooter incident at Covenant School at 10:12:05 a.m.. Through the next 13 minutes and 37 seconds (the time between receiving the first call and when law enforcement neutralized the shooter), approximately twelve (12) Metro Nashville dispatchers received forty (39) 9-1-1 calls. Of those, twenty-three (23) were related to the active shooter incident and 16 were related to other emergencies occurring throughout Metro Nashville / Davidson County.
During this same time period, we received thirty (30) calls to the non-emergency phone number or priority automated alarm line. When multiple calls are received simultaneously, they are prioritized automatically to be answered in the following order: 1st) 9-1-1; 2nd) Automated Alarms; 3rd) Non-Emergency Phone Number.
At 10:15:39 a.m., Ms. Patton called the Department of Emergency Communications via our non-emergency number where she waited to speak with the next available dispatcher answering non-emergency calls. From the time of the first call until Ms. Patton called (3 minutes 34 seconds), emergency dispatchers received sixteen (16) calls to 9-1-1 reporting the active shooter incident occurring at Covenant School. Ms. Patton’s call waited in the non-emergency queue for 5 minutes 43 seconds while public safety dispatchers processed another twenty-four (24) 9-1-1 calls through the remaining nine (9) minutes of the active shooter incident. Ms. Patton’s call was answered by a public safety dispatcher at 10:21:05 a.m. Ms. Patton advised she received a message via social media from a former classmate expressing suicidal ideation. Ms. Patton was unable to provide a phone number or potential location for her classmate, so dispatchers advised they would assign an officer to investigate further.
Dispatchers assigned the initial call to an Alternate Police Reporting Officer to attempt to take this report via a telephone call at 11:36 a.m. Officers determined the call could not be processed by phone due to the nature of the statements, which required a patrol officer to physically respond. A North Precinct Officer became available to respond at 3:09 p.m. and arrived 3:24 p.m. to speak with Ms. Patton who was not at the location at the time. Dispatchers called Ms. Patton to determine her location at 3:30 p.m., and she advised she would return to the location in 10 minutes. At 3:47 p.m., Ms. Patton had not returned to the location and did not answer a dispatcher’s attempt to call her. At 3:55 p.m., Ms. Patton called the Department of Emergency Communications advising she no longer wanted to speak with an officer."
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