Chilling 911 call from Nashville school shooter's friend
‘I don’t want it on my conscience if somebody can go check on her’: Chilling 911 call from Nashville school shooter’s friend after gunman told her ‘I’m planning to die today… you’ll probably hear about me on the news’
- Averianna Patton, a former basketball teammate of Hale’s, called the police minutes after she had started shooting at the school
- She initially called the suicide prevention hotline who told her to call the nearest authorities
- Hale shot and killed three children and three members of staff during the incident in Nashville on Monday
A chilling 911 call has been released from a friend of the trans school shooter who received messages from the mass killer moments before the rampage.
Averianna Patton received several disturbing messages from Audrey Hale, 28, on Instagram shortly before she started spraying bullets inside the Covenant School in Nashville.
She shot and killed three students, 9, and three staff members at 10:10am – sending the messages to Patton at 9:57am.
After receiving a message from Hale saying, ‘I’m planning to die today – you’ll probably hear about me on the news’, Patton called the suicide hotline, who then encouraged her to contact the authorities to alert them to the situation.
In her 911 call at around 10:12am – when armed officers arrived on the scene – she said: ‘I’m just trying to see if anybody can help. I just don’t want it on my conscious.
Averianna Patton said she knew Hale had been suicidal in the past and the two had played basketball together
Before traveling to the school, the killer sent a haunting final message to Averianna Patton on Instagram
‘If somebody can go check on her – the only thing I have is her Instagram. Can I give you her Instagram so y’all can find her or track her that way?’
Hale’s former basketball teammate was told there was nothing officers could do to help without an address for the gunman.
But the Metropolitan Nashville Police has confirmed to Fox17 that at the time of the call police were already arriving at the private Christian school to tackle the shooter.
Hale, who went by both Audrey and Aiden, had already shot and killed six people by the time police arrived.
At 9.57am, 16 minutes before cops were first notified of the shooting, Audrey wrote: ‘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.
‘This is my last goodbye. I love you. ‘See you again in another life. Audrey (Aiden)’.
It comes after a former pastor of the school claimed that their current pastor, Chad Scruggs, was targeted by the killer.
She shot and killed three students, 9, and three staff members at 10:10am – sending the messages to Patton at 9.57am
Patton immediately called the cops to report the messages but it was already too late. By the time she called, Audrey had begun shooting children at the small, church school
TIMELINE OF NASHVILLE SCHOOL SHOOTING
9:30am – Metro Police Chief John Drake confirmed that Audrey Hale, 28, left her parents property with a red bag. She was questioned by her mother about the bag but dismissed the question.
9:53am — Hale arrives at the Covenant School in her Honda Fit. She is seen in surveillance footage driving around the parking lot, going out of frame and parking at about 9:55 a.m.
9:57am – Hale sends a goodbye message on Instagram to Averianna Patton. The message said: ‘This is my last goodbye. I love you. See you again in another life.’ She then responds, telling Hale that she has so much more to live for.
Hale replies again, saying one day, ‘this will make more sense’ but ‘something bad is about to happen.’
10:03am – Averianna Patton calls the suicide prevention hotline to try to report the messages that she has been sent by Hale. They tell her to contact the local sheriff’s department.
10:10am – Hale approaches a side entrance to the private Christian school and shoots through the glass doors to gain entry with her two AR-style rifles and a handgun.
10:12am – Patton makes an emotional call to 911 asking them to check on Hale after the disturbing messages. She is told that there is not much officers can do without an address for her.
10:13am – First shots-fired call to 911.
10:14am – Hale walks through a school hallway and walks around the property for several minutes. She then passes the children’s ministry before firing shots at 10:21 a.m. and then walking out of the video frame.
10:24am – The first Metro Police officers arrive on the scene, with Officer Englebert unlocking the door and entering the school. The five-member tactical unit enters the school and starts its search for the shooter.
10:27am – The team of officers encounters the shooter on the second-floor atrium. Police said Hale had been firing through a window at arriving officers. Englebert, alongside Officer Michael Collazo, shot and killed Hale.
Authorities said Hale had planned to attack more than one location – including a mall and another school – and now Bachmann has told InsideEdition that she could have been targeting Pastor Scruggs’ other three children.
He claimed that Pastor Scruggs had been providing her with counseling, adding that Hale ‘appeared to be searching the school’ for him.
However he was not on-site at the time, and Bachmann speculated that Hale would have ‘left his daughter alone’ had she been able to find Scruggs.
Bachmann said: ‘I’m hearing he was providing counseling for her, and something didn’t sit right with her, and so she targeted his daughter and perhaps his two sons that attend another private school.
‘If she’d found Chad and tried to kill him, maybe she would have left his daughter alone, I don’t know.
‘She was a very normal, happy-go-lucky little girl who liked to play kickball with the boys, and her parents were wonderful people.’
However these claims have been denied by the Covenant School, with a spokesperson telling DailyMail.com: ‘Metro Nashville Police have been clear that no one was targeted in the shooting, and Pastor Scruggs was not counseling the shooter.
‘The former pastor had said on a television program he had heard that, but it is not accurate and is based on hearsay, not fact.’
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said that they still don’t have an official motive for the shooting.
Pastor Scruggs and his wife also share three sons older than Hallie, with at least one previously attending the Covenant.
It is unclear where Pastor Scruggs was at the time of the shooting.
A family member of Audrey Hale told DailyMail.com she had ‘heard nothing’ about the shooter supposedly undergoing counseling sessions with Chad Scruggs, pastor at The Covenant School and father of victim Hallie, nine.
‘I don’t’ know anything about that. I haven’t heard anything like that, ‘ said the relative.
Friends and neighbors at the Scruggs’ family home said they were similarly shocked to hear of the claims made by former Covenant pastor, Jim Bachmann, in an interview Wednesday night with Inside Edition.
Bachmann speculated that Hale was targeting Scruggs but shot Hallie instead after failing to locate her father on school premises.
‘They have asked for some space. We haven’t heard anything about that at all,’ said a family friend.
Hallie’s grandmother Sharon Scruggs declined to comment.
Hallie Scruggs, 9, was killed in the shooting and is pictured with her father, a pastor at the church, Chad Scruggs
Ex-pastor at the school Jim Bachmann has now claimed that Hale (pictured) was roaming the corridors looking for Pastor Scrugg
Katherine Koonce, head of school (left), and Cynthia Peak, a substitute teacher (right) were among those shot dead by Audrey Hale
Tributes have flooded in for little Hallie, and for the two other children killed in the shooting – William Kinney and Evelyn Dieckhaus, both 9.
Headmistress Dr Katherine Koonce, 60, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, and chef Mike Hill, 61 were also killed in the mass shooting.
Hale used the names Audrey and Aiden but her preferred pronouns were he/him according to a LinkedIn page.
Police confirmed on Tuesday that she had previously attended the school in Nashville, Tennessee, but her motive for the shooting was unclear.
Police Chief John Drake added that Hale had been suffering from an ’emotional disorder’ at the time of the shooting.
Hale has been described as having ‘high-functioning’ autism and police confirmed she was under doctors’ care.
Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9, was one of the victims shot by transgender shooter Audrey Hale, 28, after she opened fire at the private Christian school on Monday
Tributes have flooded in for a second victim, Will Kinney, (pictured) who was shot and killed along with Hallie Scruggs, both 9, in the massacre
Hale, 28, opened fire at the private school in Nashville on Monday, killing three children and three staff members. Pictured: Hale at the Covenant School
Hallie Scruggs is seen with her father Chad Scruggs, the pastor at the Presbyterian church affiliated with the school, her mother and three older brothers
Her parents – Norma and Ronald Hale – knew that she had a weapon at one time, but told her to sell it because they thought she couldn’t be trusted with it.
Instead, she hid her stockpile and added to it, buying seven different weapons in total from five local stores, police said.
Chief Drake added: ‘Law enforcement knew nothing about the treatment, and it is apparent that she should not own weapons.’
Authorities also confirmed that Hale’s mother, Norma, had asked her what was in a red backpack she was carrying on the morning of the murders but she dismissed her question.
She took three of her weapons to The Covenant School – two rifles and a handgun.
Another two weapons were seen being removed from the house yesterday in a video obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com.
It comes after Hale was said to have been ‘infatuated’ with Sydney Sims, who played on the same basketball team as her in middle school.
Sims’ sudden death in a horrifying head-on smash last August left Hale ‘heartbroken’ and could have sent her into a murderous spiral, according to a report published Wednesday.
But Sims’ twin sister Taylor Sims, 28, has ripped the story on a private Instagram message obtained by DailyMail.com.
‘Please don’t attach such a nasty, disgusting tragedy to my sister’s name,’ she wrote. ‘This is very sick and just goes to show people talk. Please leave my sister out of it.’
The daughter of Mike Hill (pictured), who had worked at the school for more than a decade, said that she ‘never thought’ he would be killed in a mass shooting
Ronald and Norma Hale told police they did not know Audrey still had any weapons – with the shooter hiding seven different firearms
Hale was born female but had recently begun using he/him pronouns and the name ‘Aiden’
Posing sweetly with a bow in her hair, Audrey Hale was the picture of innocence in her eight-year-old yearbook photo from The Covenant School, the school she attacked yesterday
Samira Hardcastle, who attended the Nashville School of Arts with both girls, told the New York Post that Hale looked up to Sims and posted ‘heartbroken’ messages about her death on her now-deleted social media accounts.
She also attended the unveiling of a painting dedicated to Sims and posted a clip of herself silently bouncing a ball on TikTok with the caption: ‘For Syd. I look up the sky is bright. It’s a beautiful day. I wish you were here…’
Former friends have told DailyMail.com that while Hale may have had a crush on Sims in the past there was never any suggestion it was reciprocated.
Hale expressed similarly misplaced affection to another childhood friend, Averianna Patton, just 20 minutes prior to commencing her deranged shooting spree Monday at The Covenant School, killing three children and three adults.
‘This is my last goodbye. I love you,’ she messaged her on Instagram. ‘You are the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen and known all my life.’
In addition to the weapons found at her home, police recovered these three weapons from the scene – confirming she had bought seven legally
Pictures of Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale obtained by DailyMail.com showed her dressed up as trans star Elliot Page from Juno. Hale freshman year
Patton told CNN’s Don Lemon that she hadn’t had a relationship with the gunman since they were children.
Investigators are yet to release the manifesto warped Hale left behind before storming her former elementary school.
Hale, 28, shot and killed three children and three members of staff at The Covenant School on Monday
DailyMail.com revealed earlier this week that her trans identity caused friction with her devout Christian parents who banned her from dressing as a male in their suburban Nashville home.
A school friend of Hale also claimed that she loved to dress up as Page’s iconic character Juno – a pregnant teenager – during their time as freshmen at The Nashville School of Arts.
Hale’s classmates said that they weren’t surprised when she came out as gay or when she later decided to transition.
A yearbook photo obtained by DailyMail.com showed Hale winning ‘Most Athletic’ alongside another classmate.
Church coordinator Norma, 61, and her husband Ronald, 64, refused to let Hale as a man in their home.
The loner would instead wait until she left their $700,000 Nashville property to change outfits, according to a well-placed source.
It comes after the six victims of the tragedy have been identified, with tributes flooding in for Evelyn who desperately tried to save her classmates from the tragedy.
Her family has described her as a ‘shining light’ and said that they are ‘completely broken’ by her death.
They added that she had been desperately trying to pull the fire alarm to get help when the shooting unfolded on Monday.
Hale with her older brother Scott, who has not commented on the shooting. Neighbors say Hale was ‘sweet’ and ‘quiet’
Hale was known to be an athlete at her high school and participated in basketball and track. A yearbook photo obtained by DailyMail.com showed Hale winning ‘Most Athletic’ alongside her another classmate
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