ASHVILLE, Tenn. – Authorities released intense police body camera footage Tuesday from a deadly shooting rampage at a local Christian elementary school that killed three students and three staffers.
The Covenant School students who died Monday were all 9 years old, and the staff members were in their 60s. The shooter was killed by responding officers, police said.
Police released more than two minutes of surveillance footage late Monday, followed by six minutes of body camera video Tuesday from officers who encountered the shooter. Most came from the body camera of officer Rex Engelbert.
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The footage shows officers arriving at the school, announcing "Metro Police" as they enter the building and some classrooms with rifles raised as alarms ring out.
"It sounds like it's upstairs," an officer says as they ascend the steps to the sound of gunfire. The video ends with the confrontation in an upstairs lobby area, when several shots were fired at the attacker, who fell amid shouts of "Stop moving," "Suspect down," and, "Get your hand away from the gun."
"I was really impressed that with all that was going on, the danger, that somebody took control and said, 'Let's go, let's go, let's go,' and went in and just tried to end this situation,'' Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said.
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The attack was the nation's 130th mass shooting of 2023, according to Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tracks gun violence data. The assault also marks the 89th shooting on K-12 school grounds in 2023 – an average of one every day – according to the K-12 School Shooting Database. The website counts any instance when a firearm is fired or pointed at someone in a school, or when a bullet hits school property.
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Shooter bought seven firearms, was being treated for 'emotional disorder'
The attacker in Monday's shooting purchased seven firearms legally and was under medical care for an unspecified "emotional disorder,'' Drake said at a Tuesday news briefing.
According to Drake, the parents of Audrey Hale – the 28-year-old transgender man police have identified as the shooter – told officers they didn't think their grown child should own weapons. They believed Hale had sold the only gun he had.
"As it turns out, she had been hiding several weapons within the house,'' Drake said, adding that law enforcement was not aware of Hale before the shooting.
Police said Hale, who was assigned female at birth but identified as a man, bought the firearms between October 2020 and June 2022. He brought three to the school Monday, one of them an AR-style rifle.
Drake said the attacker did not appear to be targeting anyone specifically at the school, where Hale had been a student. He said Hale left behind extensive writings but no motive for the shooting has been determined.