MNPD said three children and three staff members were killed
Three children and three adult staff members at a private elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, were fatally shot on March 27 after a 28-year-old former student at the school opened fire inside the building, officials said.
The assailant, who was killed by police, was Nashville resident Audrey Elizabeth Hale, officials said. However, Police Chief John Drake said Hale did “identify as transgender,” during a press conference on March 27.
Drake said investigations are ongoing at a residence on Brightwood Avenue.
“We’re also determined there were maps drawn of the school in detail of surveillance, entry-points, etc.,” Drake said. “We know and believe that entry was gained through shooting through one of the doors.”
He added that Hale was a former student at the school but didn’t know when that occurred.
Drake said the assailant was someone “that had multiple rounds of ammunition, prepared for a confrontation with law enforcement, and prepared to do more harm than was actually done.”
Police are working through a “manifesto” as well as a map drawn out with plans for the shooting. He said theory to the shooting might be released later.
Calls about the shooting occurred around 10:13 a.m. local time and MNPD alongside Metro Nashville Fire Department (Metro Fire) responded to the scene immediately, according to officials from both agencies.
“Officers entered the first story of the school, began clearing it, they heard shots coming from the second level and immediately went to the gunfire,” MPND spokesman Don Aaron said at a news conference. “When the officers got to the second level, they saw a shooter, a female, who was firing. The officers engaged her. She was fatally shot by responding police officers.”
The officers had engaged the shooter by 10:27 a.m., roughly 14 minutes after the first call came in.
