Nashville Covenant School Shooting

About

Nashville Covenant School Shooting refers to a March 2023 U.S. mass shooting that took place at the Covenant School, a private Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, leaving three students and three teachers dead and others injured. Unlike many other school shootings, the perpetrator was initially reported to be a 28-year-old female shooter but was later identified as Audrey Hale, a transgender female-to-male. Soon after Hale entered the school, local police took action and eliminated him. In the aftermath, Hale's Instagram and LinkedIn accounts were unearthed, highlighting him as an artist and graphic designer. The event led to viral discourse and controversy centered on the gun control debate in America. It was also one of the first widely reported school shootings of 2023, following events of the previous year such as the Uvalde School Shooting.

History

At approximately 12 p.m. EST on March 27th, 2023, the verified Twitter^[1] account of the Metro Nashville PD posted a tweet that stated law enforcement engaged an active shooter at Covenant School, Covenant Presbyterian Church, on Burton Hills Dr. The tweet also announced that the shooter was dead. In less than three hours, the tweet received over 4,500 likes (shown below). The information was also shared on the department's Facebook^[6] page. Roughly two hours later, Metro Nashville PD posted another announcement tweet^[2] stating that "3 students & 3 adult staff members from Covenant School were fatally shot by the active shooter, who has now been identified as a 28-year-old Nashville woman."

The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee is a private Christian school founded in 2001 as a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church.^[3] It has had an average enrollment of about 200 people in recent years.^[3] Student age ranges go from preschool to 6th grade.^[3]

Within the hour of police engaging with the active shooter, politicians and public figures started responding to the news, such as the acting Governor of Tennessee Bill Lee who posted a tweet^[4] that said he was "closely monitoring the tragic situation."

Don Aaron, a spokesperson for the Metro Nashville Police Department, spoke at a news conference soon after the shooter was eliminated, stating that emergency calls came in at around 10:15 a.m. EST.^[5] Also, police reportedly engaged the shooter on the second floor of the building and initially described her as a female teenager.^[5] She was reportedly armed with two assault-style rifles and a handgun.^[15]

Online Reactions

After news of the event spread on social media, it immediately sparked renewed debates over gun control in the United States. For instance, on March 27th, 2023, Twitter^[7] user @shannonrwatts tweeted a Facebook^[8] photo (since deleted) from Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles (R) that purportedly showed his family on Christmas holding various rifles. @shannonrwatts' tweet expressed outrage, drawing a perceived correlation between the photo and the shooting. The tweet received over 27,000 likes in one hour (shown below, left). On the other side of the debate, Twitter^[9] user @DC_Draino referenced the "Good Guy with a Gun" defense in a tweet that gained over 12,000 likes in one hour (shown below, right). A screenshot of his tweet also went viral on his Instagram,^[10] gaining over 28,700 likes in one hour.

Developments

Nashville Mother on Fox News

On March 27th, 2023, Twitter^[11] user @atrupar tweeted a clip from Fox News' live coverage of the event, showing a Nashville woman (purportedly a mother) asking various TV reporters questions like, "Aren't you guys tired of covering this?" until her sound was cut off. @atrupar's tweet praised the woman pictured and in less than two hours, the video received roughly 1.5 million views and 33,200 likes (shown below).

wow. a woman makes a passionate case for gun control during a press conference about the Nashville school shooting pic.twitter.com/tQDdSrBZZ6

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 27, 2023

President Biden Addresses Shooting, Talks About Ice Cream Instead

On March 27th, 2023, a video was tweeted by Twitter^[12] user @alx (among others^[13]) that showed U.S. President Joe Biden on Fox News' coverage of the event in which the news network was under the impression that he was going to address the Covenant School Shooting for the first time. Instead, Biden made jokes about his viral "Chocolate, Chocolate Chip" video^[14] and some children seated in the crowd. The video received roughly 245,200 views in less than an hour (shown below).

In the wake of a school shooting, Joe Biden says he came down to speak because he heard there was ice cream and gets distracted by “good looking kids” in the audience. pic.twitter.com/7d3Utjn0Uv

— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) March 27, 2023

Shooter Identified as Audrey Hale

At around 5 p.m. EST on March 27th, 2023, NBC News^[15] confirmed that the shooter was a Nashville resident named Audrey Hale who was purportedly a former student of the school by the police chief.

Social Media Presence

Screenshots and images of Hale's social media accounts soon surfaced online, such as screenshots from his Instagram account @creative.aiden (since deleted) where his bio had "he/him" pronouns selected. Screenshots of Hale's LinkedIn account also surfaced,^[17] listing him as an illustrator and graphic designer who graduated from Nossi College of Art in Nashville. A link to Hade's online portfolio,^[24] AH Illustrations, became known online.

On March 27th, 2023, local Nashville news outlet NewsChannel 5 published an article^[21] that shared an exclusive Instagram DM screenshot showing messages sent from Hale to a friend sent on the day of the shooting (shown below). The woman, named Averianna Patton, was an ex-basketball teammate of Hale's and on the morning of the shooting, Hale messaged her, "I'm planning to die today," among other suicidal remarks. Upon receiving the messages, Patton said she tried to comfort Hale and reached then out to the Suicide Prevention Help Line.^[16]

Etsy Artist AidenCreates (@aidencreates) Mistaken for Audrey Hale

As many internet users started to search for Hale's social media pages, many of them came across the Instagram^[18] account of @aidencreates, who is an unrelated "miniatures" artist with a similar-sounding username. Notable public figures such as Donald Trump Jr. posted screenshots to Twitter^[18] of @aidencreates, falsely identifying him as the shooter. This led to @aidencreates posting a video to Instagram^[19] (originally from TikTok^[20]) addressing that he's not the shooter. His TikTok^[20] video, uploaded on March 27th, gained over 1.2 million plays and 141,000 likes in one day (shown below).

Shooting Footage Surfaces

Going into March 28th, 2023, CCTV footage of Hale entering the Covenant School emerged online. The footage showed Hale shooting out the school's front doors and then roaming the halls whilst wearing a red baseball cap backward and carrying two assault rifles and a pistol.^[22] Additionally, images of Hale's weapons surfaced after the shooting, showing stickers placed on each one.^[23]

Alleged Manifesto Of Audrey Hale

On November 6th, 2023, conservative pundit Steven Crowder posted a tweet^[25] in which he stated that he'd exclusively obtained the alleged manifesto of the Covenant School shooter Audry Hale. The tweet included three images (shown below). The tweet gained over 41,000 likes in four hours. Crowder also linked an article on his website.^[26]

Outlets like The Daily Wire^[27] followed up on Crowder's team, claiming that the images were authentic. Crowder's tweet inspired viral replies, including one reply^[28] shared by Elon Musk.

Search Interest

External References