2023 Nashville school shooting
On March 27, 2023, a mass shooting occurred at The Covenant School, a Presbyterian Church in America parochial elementary school in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee, when 28-year-old Aiden Hale, a former student of the school, killed three nineyearold children and three adults before being shot and killed by two Metropolitan Nashville Police Department officers. It is the deadliest school shooting in Tennessee history.
In April 2025, the MNPD closed its investigation into the shooting, concluding that Hale had been motivated by a desire for notoriety and media attention. Hale had chosen The Covenant School because he considered the years he attended the school to be the happiest of his life and he wanted to die somewhere that made him happy.
Background
The Covenant School is a private Christian school in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville. It educates students from pre-kindergarten to the sixth grade. It was founded in 2001 as a ministry of Nashville's Covenant Presbyterian Church, a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America; its enrollment is about 200 students.Shooting
On the morning of March 27, 2023, Hale drove to The Covenant School, arriving at 9:54 a.m. CDT. At 9:57, Hale sent an Instagram message to an old friend saying an earlier post was "basically a suicide note" and anticipating dying that day. The friend who received the message called a crisis hotline, then contacted the Davidson County Sheriff's Office at 10:13.At 10:10, Hale, armed with an AR-15-style pistol, a KelTec SUB-2000, and a handgun, shot through a set of glass side doors and entered the building. A school custodian noticed Hale shooting his way into the school and tried to run away, but was immediately shot to death. The smoke from the gunfire triggered the fire alarm, causing staff members and students to initiate an evacuation without knowing there was an active shooter.
Hale then went up to the second floor, and at the top of the stairwell encountered a substitute teacher and several children who were about to go downstairs; Hale fired at them with the AR-pistol, fatally shooting three children and the substitute teacher. The other evacuating students and staff escaped unharmed and barricaded themselves inside their classrooms. Hale then walked up to the four victims and fired more shots into them while walking into the second-floor hallway.
On the second floor, Hale fired into two adjacent classrooms, emptying two magazines in the process and injuring one student in one of the rooms. Hale then stopped shooting and reloaded while continuing to search for potential victims in the second-floor hallway.
Hearing the fire alarms go off, the school's headmaster exited her office on the second floor, unaware that an active shooter incident was happening. Hale rounded the corner from the church offices into the same hallway and encountered the headmaster, who asked Hale what he was doing. Hale responded by shooting her multiple times with his AR-pistol, then walked up to the headmaster and shot her once more with his handgun. After this point, Hale spent the next three minutes searching for potential victims in the rooms near the headmaster's body, and during this time also switched to the carbine. After failing to find anyone Hale backtracked to the church offices, where several faculty members were hiding, and was also unsuccessful at finding potential victims in this area.
At 10:19, Hale went downstairs and headed to the church sanctuary, near the entrance of which he shot at two television sets with his carbine. He then fired through the double doors leading to the Pre-K and Kindergarten classrooms without hitting anyone, before returning upstairs and entering the emptied-out church sanctuary, where he fired seven times at a stained-glass window depicting Adam and Eve with his carbine before leaving. Hale then walked by a window at the church vestibule and noticed police cars arriving. Switching back to his AR-pistol, Hale fired through the window at the officers outside for over two minutes. No officers were hit by gunfire, but two police vehicles were disabled.
At 10:13, police received a call about an active shooter. When officers arrived at the scene, a teacher told them that the students were in lockdown and that two were missing. Officers entered the building at around 10:23. While clearing the first floor of students and staff, they heard gunshots coming from the second floor. Officers stepped over a victim on the second floor as they made their way to Hale. At 10:25, a five-member team approached Hale, and two officers fired four times each, killing Hale. By 10:27, 14 minutes after the initial 911 call was made, the threat was neutralized. According to an autopsy report, the assailant was shot four times, once in the head, once in the torso, once in the left arm, and once in the right thigh.
A reunification center was set up by the Metro Nashville Police Department at the Woodmont Baptist Church; students were taken there by school bus in the afternoon. An investigative report conducted by the MNPD concluded that Hale had fired 152 rounds during the attack: 126 from his AR-pistol, 25 from his carbine, and once from his pistol. Hale was also found with 272 live rounds on his person. In his car, several items were found, such as his wallet, car keys, cellphone, a backpack containing two notebooks, several stuffed animals, and five fully loaded 5.56 magazines. In Hale's residence, a short-barreled 12-gauge shotgun was found in his closet, and a suicide note addressed to his parents was found on his desk.
Victims
Six people—three students and three staff—were killed at random. Five were pronounced dead at a hospital and one at the scene. The deceased students were Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and Hallie Scruggs, all aged 9. The deceased faculty members were substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61; custodian Mike Hill, 61; and the school's headmaster Katherine Koonce, 60. In addition, a third-grade student was shot and injured, and a police officer was hurt after cutting his hand on shattered glass.Perpetrator
Aiden Hale, previously referred to by the police by his birthname of Audrey Elizabeth Hale, was a 28-year-old former student of The Covenant School and a Nashville resident with no criminal record.Hale had attended the Covenant School from 2001-2006. Hale considered those years the happiest of his life and felt "safe and accepted" there. MNPD Police Chief John Drake said Hale was under care for an emotional disorder and had legally purchased seven firearms, including three recovered from the shooting scene, between October 2020 and June 2022.
Hale initially planned the attack there for April 13, 2021, to coincide with the date of the Columbine massacre, however, he ultimately decided he wouldn’t be able to and chose a different date. On September 14, 2021, Hale went to The Covenant School and was able to get a faculty-guided tour soon after. Hale photographed and filmed locations within the school.
Police first referred to Hale as a woman and used his birth name. On the day of the shooting, MNPD Chief John Drake said that authorities "feel that identifies as trans, but we're still in the initial investigation into all of that". Media sources subsequently reported Hale was a trans man. His former art teacher and a former classmate recalled him coming out as transgender on Facebook in 2022. According to a friend, Hale "had a childlike obsession with staying a child".
Hale was an illustrator and graphic designer who graduated from the Nossi College of Art & Design in 2022. A neighbor said Hale lived with his parents.
Investigation
The MNPD took the lead of the investigation of the shooting, assisted by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Two shotguns, one of which was sawed-off, and other evidence were found in a search of the Hales' house. Evidence included a detailed map of the school with potential entry points and a manifesto. Hale was believed to have undertaken reconnaissance, and had originally considered targeting another location but had decided not to carry out the attack due to the level of security on the premises. On April 3, police said Hale planned the shooting for months and fired 152 rounds at the school, 126 of them 5.56 rifle rounds and 26 of them 9mm rounds.Hale's surviving writings, including diaries and a planning document, initially called a "manifesto", were described by police as "rambling" and empty of any specific political or social issues. Three pages of Hale's diary, described by CNN as containing "hate-filled language" directed at the school and its children, were leaked by conservative commentator Steven Crowder on November 6, 2023. In the pages released by Crowder, Hale allegedly wrote: "Wanna kill all you little crackers Bunch of little faggots w/ your white privlages fuck you faggots."
In April 2025, the MNPD closed their investigation, concluding in a 48-page report that Hale was motivated by a desire for notoriety. Hale left behind 16 notebooks containing over 1,000 pages of writings expressing a desire to serve as an inspiration for books, documentaries, a museum containing the firearms used in the shooting, as well as further school shootings by others.
Hale watched a documentary about school shooters in 2017, and by 2018 had become obsessed with the issue, investigators claimed. Initially inspired by the Columbine massacre, Hale began to rank school shootings, believing that achieving a high kill count and media notoriety would make one a "god".
In diary entries obtained by Megyn Kelly, Hale wrote about wanting to "kill my own race" and "kill all the white children", as well as hatred for the American people. Hale also expressed frustration dealing with autism, OCD, and a late gender transition.
The MNPD concluded that the shooting was not motivated by race, nor was it motivated by a grudge against the students or staff at The Covenant School. The report stated that Hale targeted the school because he believed that "the Christian faith of those within would make them meek and afraid, which further assuaged Hale's self-doubts. The age of the children and the school being considered a Christian school made recognize the instant notoriety the attack would bring."