A former teammate of Audrey Hale, the suspect in Monday’s shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, that left six people dead, told a sheriff’s office non-emergency operator on Monday that she received concerning Instagram messages from Hale and wanted deputies to check on her.
The Nashville Police Department said that Hale entered The Covenant School by shooting through a locked glass door around 10:13 a.m. on Monday morning and was armed with two rifles and a handgun.
Three students, all 9-years-old, were killed during the shooting: Hallie Scruggs, Evelyn Dieckhaus and William Kinney. Three employees at the school were also killed: Head of School Katherine Koonce, 60; substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61; and custodian Mike Hill, 61.
“I received a very, very weird message from my friend on Instagram. I think it was like a suicidal thing. I called the suicide hotline and they told me to call the sheriff’s department and the sheriff’s department told me to call you guys. I’m just trying to see can anybody…. I don’t want it on my conscience if somebody can go check on her,” Averianna Patton said in the call.
NASHVILLE SCHOOL SHOOTING: REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMEN DEMAND AG GARLAND LAUNCH HATE CRIME INVESTIGATION
A police officer walks by an entrance to The Covenant School after a shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday. (AP Photo/John Amis)
Hale, a 28-year-old transgender individual who was a former student at The Covenant School, was killed after firing at responding officers.
When Patton said that she only had Hale’s Instagram handle, the operator said, “We can’t send anything out without an address.”
NASHVILLE’S COVENANT SCHOOL REELING FROM ‘TERROR THAT SHATTERED OUR SCHOOL AND CHURCH’
A police officer comforts a mourner outside The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee on Tuesday. (KR/Mega for Fox News Digital)
The call was received at 10:21 a.m., which a spokesperson says was around the time that officers arrived at The Covenant School and responded to the shooting, according to FOX 17.
According to the report, Hale sent a message to Patton saying that she is “planning to die today.”
A mourner visits a memorial outside The Covenant School for the six victims who were killed in a mass shooting in Nashville, Tennessee. (KR/Mega for Fox News Digital)
“So basically that post I made on here about you, that was basically a suicide note,” Hale wrote. “I’m planning to die today.”
Source: Fox News
