‘Something bad is about to happen’ Nashville school shooter warned friend

Warning: Graphic content.

Washington: The shooter who killed three children and three adults at a school in Nashville sent a series of chilling messages to a friend moments before the attack, warning “something bad is about to happen”.

In an apparent suicide message received minutes before the rampage, 28-year-old assailant Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote an Instagram note to a former school basketball teammate that also declared: “I’m planning to die today.”

In a screen grab from surveillance video tweeted by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, Audrey Elizabeth Hale points an assault-style weapon inside The Covenant School.Credit:AP

“One day this will make more sense,” Hale wrote to her friend Averianna Patton. “I’ve left more than enough evidence behind. But something bad is about to happen.”

“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.”

News of the dark messages came as police released bodycam footage on Tuesday showing the moment officers confronted and killed the shooter by firing multiple bullets into the assailant’s body minutes after storming into The Covenant School, a private Christian school where Hale was once a student.

The dramatic six minutes of footage showed police on the first floor of the school, scoping out one classroom after another before heading up the stairs to the second floor.

Shots can be heard seconds before Hale comes into view and drops to the ground after apparently being shot. One officer then fires extra rounds into the suspect, who appears to still be moving on the ground as another officer yells, “Get your hands away from the gun!”

While a motive for the shooting remains unclear, Nashville Police Chief John Drake said investigators believe Hale, who police identified as transgender, may have harboured “some resentment” for having attended The Covenant School as a child.

He also told reporters on Tuesday that Hale was under medical care for an “emotional disorder” but managed to legally buy seven firearms – all of which were hidden from their parents.

But while the school was singled out for the attack, police reiterated that the individual victims were targeted at random.

Those victims were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney – all aged 9 – as well as Katherine Koonce, 60, the head of school; Mike Hill, 61, a school custodian; and Cynthia Peak, 61, a substitute teacher.

The bloody episode marked the 130th mass shooting this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot or killed, not including the shooter.

And like the Uvalde massacre in Texas last year – which killed 19 children and two teachers – the incident has shattered yet another school community and reignited the vexed rebate over the right to bear arms in America.

On his way to North Carolina today, President Joe Biden once again pleaded with the Congress to pass stronger gun safety laws, including a ban on assault weapons, noting he had already used “the full extent of my executive authority” to tighten the system.

“I can’t do anything except plead with the Congress to act reasonably,” he told reporters before departing the White House. “The majority of the American people think having assault weapons is bizarre; it’s a crazy idea. They’re against that. And so, I think the Congress should be passing the assault weapons ban.”

The shooting took place on Monday morning, local time. The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department began receiving calls about a shooter at 10:13am, with the suspect was pronounced dead by 10:27am. Averianna Patton told NBC that she saw the Instagram messages Hale sent at 9:57am that morning. She said she called the suicide prevention hotline, which instructed her to contact the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office. The office, in turn, directed her to a non-emergency hotline.

Footage released by police showed how Hale shot through the doors of the private Christian and ducked through broken glass before wandering around the corridor holding a gun with a long barrel. At one point Hale walks into a room labelled “church office” before coming back out. The shooter can later be seen walking down another long corridor with the gun drawn.

According to police chief Drake, Hale conducted surveillance of the school building before carrying out the massacre, prepared a detailed map of the school, including potential entry points, and even planned out the clothes worn that day.

Hale also left behind a “manifesto” and other writings that investigators were examining, Drake told reporters.

The shooting has put the spotlight on the Tennessee legislature, where politicians are currently working to loosen gun control laws, including lowering the minimum age for carrying guns from 21 to 18. The state already has lax gun laws. In 2021, the state legislature passed a bill allowing people aged 21 and older to carry loaded handguns in public – openly or concealed – without requiring a permit.

Children from The Covenant School, a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee.Credit:AP

“The cold horror of this attack is unthinkable,” said Dr. Katrina Green, an emergency physician practicing in Nashville.

“Our state leaders need to take a hard look at their values. Our children deserve to grow up in safe and healthy communities, free from the fear of gun violence. The right of our children to live should trump anyone’s right to own an assault weapon.”

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