Audrey Hale was the 28-year-old former art student accused of fatally shooting three students and three adult staff members at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 27, 2023, according to Nashville police.
At 9:57 a.m., just minutes before the shootings, Hale’s former middle school basketball teammate received a message from Hale that read, “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,” according to News Channel 5.
Hale, whose post used the name Aiden, wrote, according to News Channel 5, “This is my last goodbye. I love you. See you again in another life.” The friend responded, “Audrey! You have so much more life to live. I pray God keeps and covers you.” Hale responded, “I know but I don’t want to live. I’m so sorry. I’m not trying to upset you or get your attention. I just need to die. I wanted to tell you first because you are the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen and known all my life.”
The post continued, “My family doesn’t know what I’m about to do. One day this will make more sense. I’ve left more than enough evidence behind. But something bad is about to happen.”
Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a Nashville resident who once attended the private Christian school, is also dead, police said. The victims were rushed to a local hospital where they were pronounced dead, according to officials.
Officer Rex Englebert, a four-year MNPD veteran, and Officer Michael Collazo, a nine-year MNPD veteran, shot and killed Hale, police said in a news release.
Audrey Hale Mother: Who is Norma Hale?
Hale’s mother deleted her Facebook page after Hale was identified as the suspect in the shooting. Posts viewed by Heavy show that Norma Fort Hale had posted about gun control and school shootings in the past. Hale’s mother and brother could not be reached for comment by Heavy.
According to her Facebook page, Hale’s mom is “Coordinator at The Village Chapel” and “Former Meals Ministry Coordinator & Volunteer Coordinator at The Village Chapel.” She lives in Nashville. Many of her top posts congratulate her son on his academic career.
In 2019, she wrote, “Found this in a devotional book I loaned to Audrey….❤️ #divinediscovery #perfecttimingofcourse.”
In March 2018, she shared a link to a Sandy Hook Promise petition to “keep guns out of schools,” and wrote in the caption on the post “So important!” In February 2018, Norma Hale, the suspect’s mom, shared another link to a Sandy Hook Promise petition to “make large-capacity gun magazines illegal,” without any additional comment.
Hale’s mother shared a photo of a drawing that said “I (heart sign” God,” and wrote in the caption, “Found this in a devotional book I loaned to Audrey….#divinediscovery #perfecttimingof course.”
“If I had to imagine, Audrey’s parents are probably just as shocked as everybody in the neighborhood is…It just doesn’t seem real,” the former neighbor, Brashears, told Daily Beast. “There’s nothing that would have led me to believe that she was capable of such a thing or that she or anybody in that family would have access to, much less ever used, a gun. They just don’t seem like the family that, like, is around guns. They’re not talking about going to a gun range or they’re not going hunting.”
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