Cops in Nashville released chilling 911 recordings on Thursday from Monday’s massacre at The Covenant School, giving more insight into the horror that unfolded as three students and three staff members were gunned down during the school day.
Gunshots could be heard in the calls as panicked adults described what they were hearing and seeing shortly after 28-year-old Audrey Hale stormed the school armed with two AR-style weapons and a handgun.
Warning: distressing audio below
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“All I saw was a man holding an assault rifle shooting through the door,” one man, calling from outside the small church-based school, told dispatchers. “It was—he’s currently in the second grade hallway, upstairs. White man. With camouflage. He had a vest on and an assault rifle.”
“He’s going down the halls shooting through glass in the doors,” the caller, who had escaped with a small group of students and teachers, said.
Calls from inside the school were even more harrowing. As gunfire continued to erupt, one teacher told dispatchers she was hiding in an art room closet.
“I’m hearing more shots,” the caller said. “Please hurry.”
Another caller frantically said, “I think we have a shooter at our church.”
“I’m on the second floor in a room,” the caller said. “I think the shooter is on the second floor.”
Dispatchers tried to keep the callers calm, repeatedly asking how the shooter entered the building and how many shots were being fired. One caller responded, “A lot. A lot of shots.”
Cops arrived within minutes. Body-camera footage captured officers quickly traversing through the school’s hallways and classrooms before spotting, then fatally shooting, Hale next to a second-floor window.
Despite the quick response, 9-year-olds Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney were killed, as well as head of school Katherine Koonce, 60, custodian Mike Hill, 61, and substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61.
Authorities say a motive for the shooting has not been pinned down.
Hale, who had recently come out as transgender, had some “resentment” at having to attend Covenant School years ago, police said. Hale was also under a doctor’s care for an “emotional disorder” and was distraught at recent death of a friend. Minutes before the attack, Hale texted an acquaintance to say, “I don’t want to live... I just need to die.”
John Drake, Nashville’s police chief, said Hale had legally amassed an arsenal of seven guns in recent months, and left behind writings akin to a “manifesto” as well as “detailed” maps of the school.
