Video shows shooter speaking at 2022 graduation event
Video posted online by the Nashville art school where the shooter in Monday’s attack previously studied shows them speaking at a graduation event last year.
The video, posted by Nossi College of Art & Design eight months ago, shows the shooter, who police identified as Audrey Hale, 28, presenting work at the school’s senior portfolio show last spring.
The suspected shooter appears briefly at the 15-second mark in the less than two minute long video, and again at the 50-second mark, where they say: “It’s been hard, but it’s also been an amazing experience when it comes to developing my creative talents and growing as an artist.”
In a statement, the school said Hale “was a talented artist and a good student” while at the college.
Nashville mayor: ‘When school children are attacked, that’s our worst day’
Nashville Mayor John Cooper said today he anticipates more details regarding the shooter and any potential motive to come to light.
The mayor denounced gun violence on the “TODAY” show, calling it “the frustration by every city in the country.”
“In Tennessee, guns are essentially ubiquitous. And when guns and mental health issues come into contact with each other, you have big problems, like we saw yesterday and what is our worst day. Nashville’s had challenges before, we’ve had tornadoes and floods, but when school children are attacked in their school, that’s our worst day,” he said.
Cooper called a resurfaced 2021 Christmas photo by Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., which depicts the lawmaker posing in front of a Christmas tree with his family holding guns, “inappropriate.”
“I think the whole country can look at it and shudder a little bit and realize how inappropriate it is. Guns lead to tragedies, and whatever your political feelings are, we should not be celebrating the cult of the gun,” he said.
Hallie, 9, was the daughter of Covenant Presbyterian Church pastor
Hallie, one of the three students killed yesterday, was the daughter of the lead pastor at the Covenant Presbyterian Church, according to a statement released by the church where he formerly worked.
The Park Cities Presbyterian Church in Dallas said that Hallie is the daughter of its former associate pastor, Chad Scruggs, who is now the pastor of Covenant Presbyterian.
The Covenant School, where yesterday’s mass shooting unfolded, was founded in 2001 as a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian and shares the same address as the church.
“We love the Scruggs family and mourn with them over their precious daughter Hallie,” said Mark Davis, Park Cities Presbyterian’s senior pastor.
Covenant Presbyterian is a sister church, according to the Dallas church, which said that at noon local time today, it will host a prayer in honor of its Nashville counterpart, according to its statement.
Nashville police release surveillance footage showing shooter entering school
Nashville police have released surveillance video showing the shooter arriving at the private Christian school before unleashing terror in the attack that left six people, including three children, dead yesterday.
In the edited footage, the shooter, identified by police as Audrey Hale, 28, can be seen driving a Honda Fit to The Covenant School’s campus on Burton Hills Boulevard shortly before 10 a.m., the Nashville Police Department said in a statement accompanying the video’s release yesterday.
Around 10 minutes later, surveillance video from inside the school captures the glass in a set of doors shattering before the shooter, wearing a vest, camouflage pants and a red baseball cap turned backward, climbs through one of the door frames.
Read more here.
Families grieve after deadly shooting as police probe motive
Families in a Nashville school community are grieving today after the deadly shooting at The Covenant School left three children and three adults dead.
Police are still working to establish a motive in the deadly shooting, but they said a sense of “resentment” might have played a role in the attack.
The shooter was fatally shot in an encounter with officers during the attack.
Source: NBC News