The Daily Rightist
unread,Nov 7, 2023, 9:54:29 AM11/7/23You do not have permission to delete messages in this group
Either email addresses are anonymous for this group or you need the view member email addresses permission to view the original message
to
Nashville shooter Audrey Hale had a ‘child-like obsession with staying a
child,’ college classmate says
Christina Zdanowicz
By Christina Zdanowicz, CNN
Audrey Hale, a 28-year-old former Covenant School student who killed six
people at the school Monday, carefully planned the attack, according to
officials.
Hale’s parents, who lived with the shooter, said Hale was under a doctor’s
care for an “emotional disorder,” Nashville Police Chief John Drake said
at a news conference Tuesday.
The shooter had various writings and maps of the school, as well as
drawings of how to enter, Drake said.
Police know Hale left home Monday morning with a red bag and that Hale’s
mother did not know weapons were inside, Drake said. This undated picture
provided by the Metro Nashville Police Department shows Audrey Elizabeth
Hale. This undated picture provided by the Metro Nashville Police
Department shows Audrey Elizabeth Hale. Metro Nashville Police
Authorities continue to work to answer questions about who Hale was and
the motive behind the school shooting. While the shooter’s gender identity
is unclear, police told CNN that Hale was assigned female at birth and
used “male pronouns” on social media. The shooter sent a message to a
former classmate before the shooting
Less than 20 minutes before the shooting, Hale sent an eerie Instagram
message to Averianna Patton, a former basketball teammate who told CNN’s
Don Lemon she’s “still trying to process it all.”
“I knew her well when we were kids,” Patton told Lemon on “CNN This
Morning” on Tuesday. Patton, now a Nashville radio host, said she hasn’t
had a relationship with the shooter since they were children and has only
ever referred to Hale as Audrey or “she.” Students from the Covenant
School hold hands after getting off a bus to meet their parents at the
reunification site following a mass shooting at the school in Nashville,
Tennessee, Monday.
Covenant School shooter legally bought 7 guns and was under under care for
emotional disorder, police say
“I didn’t know the adult … I don’t know that side of her,” Patton told
Lemon when asked about Hale.
Patton said she received the Instagram message at 9:57 a.m., which read,
“One day this will make more sense. I’ve left more than enough evidence
behind. But something bad is about to happen,” according to screen grabs
sent to CNN affiliate WTVF.
Patton said she was not sure why Hale reached out. “I’m asking God the
same question,” Patton told Lemon. Former teammate of Nashville school
shooter got unusual Instagram messages before rampage 03:55 - Source: CNN
When they were on the team together, Patton said, Hale was “very quiet,
very shy,” and they joked around together.
“We got to see her grow in her skill on the court,” Patton told CNN on
Tuesday evening. “We did really good that year. We went all the way to the
city (championships), so it was a really good year for us. We had a real
camaraderie.” Hale graduated from a Nashville art college
Hale graduated from Nossi College of Art & Design in Nashville last year,
the school’s president confirmed to CNN. A LinkedIn profile says Hale
worked as a freelance graphic designer and a part-time grocery shopper.
An online portfolio that appears to show a collection of Hale’s work
includes images of professional logos, cartoon animals and an apparent
self-portrait. One image included the phrase, “To Be A Kid (forever and
ever).”
Hale won “Most Improved” and “Class Participation” awards from Nossi,
according to web posts by the college.
A former vice president of the college, Byron Edwards, described Hale as,
“… the sweetest little thing. I’m just shocked. My wife and I have been
crying all day about it,” adding that Hale “was really shy and really
good.” Former teacher: Shooter wrote on Facebook about grieving teammate
Over the last year, Hale posted on Facebook about the death of a girl with
whom Hale apparently played basketball, as well as a request to be
referred to by the name Aiden and male pronouns, a former teacher told
CNN.
Hale was transgender, police have said.
“The only thing I would see (Hale) post about was this girl,” said the
teacher, Maria Colomy, telling CNN she taught Hale for two semesters in
2017 at Nossi College.
“From what I saw on her social, (Hale) was suffering,” Colomy said.
Colomy also described Hale becoming upset on the first day of class when
unable to figure out how to set up a password. Hale had to leave the
classroom, Colomy said, adding it was Hale’s only outburst.
“After that first day, as soon as assignments started being turned in,
Audrey came out of the gate at a 10,” Colomy said Wednesday afternoon.
“She was an amazing illustrator.”
Colomy described Hale as confident, but not an outwardly confident or
boisterous person.
“She was very quiet, very good at school, very good at art, very good at
her illustration,” she said. “Everything I saw from her was very
professional.”
Hale’s illustration work was “whimsical” and “childlike,” Colomy said,
describing the student as small and quiet.
“I could have seen (Hale) doing children’s books for a living,” said
Colomy.
One of Hale’s classmates at Nossi, who asked only to be identified by his
first name Cody, said he and Hale were both commercial illustration
majors.
Even though they were the same age, Cody said he thought Hale was much
younger because Hale “dressed like a little kid” and brought stuffed
animals to class.
Cody said he thought Hale had a “child-like obsession with staying a
child.”
He described Hale as reserved, adding that Hale was serious about art and
teachers lauded Hale’s artwork.
“The art couldn’t be more childish, family-friendly, G-rated, to a
nauseating degree, almost,” and filled with “very garish, bright colors,”
Cody said.
Colomy, one of Hale’s teachers, expressed her shock over the shooting.
“When you work on a campus, there are always one or two people who are in
the back of your mind that you think something could happen,” Colomy said.
“She would have been the last person on that list.”