the names of the victims want
to express our grief and our city's grief
on this unexpected day, this worst day.
But let us love each other and support
each other and hug each other and pray
for each other and pray for our families,
but also let us praise.
Our first responders 14 minutes,
14 minutes, I believe under under fire,
running to gunfire.
And then I want to thank the seamless
response for federal and state authorities
from our police and fire depart.
So this this morning I was in
Boston to see my own son's sporg
event and now I am overwhelmed.
At the thought of the loss of these families,
of the future lost by these
children and their families,
and the leading cause of kids gt
death now is guns and gunfire,
and that is unacceptable.
But I want to thank the fast
response of our officers.
Guns are quick.
They don't give you much time.
So even in a remarkably fast response,
there was not enough time.
And those guns stole precious ls
from us today in Nashville.
And in this dark hour,
let us support each other.
Let us go and hug our children
a little bit closer tonight,
and thank you all for being her.
And I want to ask Chief Drake
to come and give us an update.
Thank you, Mayor Cooper.
Again, thank you all for being .
Just an update from today's press conference.
We've identified the shooter as Audrey Hale,
28 year old female that
lived in the natural area.
We have investigations ongoing w
at the residence on Brightwood .
And we have made contact with the father
that lived at that residence ane
putting together more informati.
We've also determined there were maps drawn
of the school in detail of surveillance,
entry points, etcetera.
We know and believe that entry was game
through shooting through one of the doors.
Is how they actually got into the school.
I want to take the time to at lt
say and I won't say the victims names,
I'll let Don say that.
But out of the six victims, 3 adults,
three of those were children,
two of them were age 91,
was eight, about to be 9.
All the families have been contacted.
The victims families have
been contacted as well.
My thoughts and prayers go out o
the family when we send our kido
school or to any place of safet.
We expect them to live,
learn,
have fun and come back from that
day days experience.
We don't anticipate things like
this and I want to say thank you
to our partners to Chief Swan t.
Glenn Funk to our mayor for his
support to our federal partners.
But also I want to say thank you
to our first responders who got
there and immediately went in ad
addressed the threat of someonet
had multiple rounds of ammuniti,
prepared for a confrontation
with law enforcement,
prepared to do more harm.
That was actually done and we were able
to stop the threat and unfortunately.
6 victims so my thoughts and prayers again.
But the praise go to the men and women.
As I've said before, we would not wait.
I was hoping this day would nev,
ever come here in this city.
But we would never wait to make entry
and to go in and to stop a thre,
especially when it deals with our children.
So thank you.
They're not just me.
They're not saying anything.
I'm going to go over the
victims names with you now.
The three nine year olds who were killed.
Evelyn* house.
William Kenny Halle Scruggs, 3 adults.
Mike Hill, a custodian, age 61.
Cynthia peak. To my understandi,
a substitute teacher,
age 61, and Catherine Coots,
age 60, as Chief Drake said,
we have identified the active shooter
as Audrey Elizabeth Hale, age 2.
We'll take just a few
questions, if you have any.
Don, do you believe that
she was a former student at the school?
Yes, we do, chief,
if you want to address that.
Yes, from our investigations tell us that
she was a former student at the school.
I don't know what grade she's
attended or grades, but we do fy
believe she was a student there.
Did she identify as transgender? She does
identify as transgender, yes.
Is there any reason to believe the shooter
first went to the church before going
to the school?
I can't give you that informati.
I want should. We know that
the minute the calls came in,
we responded to the church.
So to the school, yeah, you have
like two officers that went in when they
first got there, how many there.
So it was five officers that
immediately went in and address.
We have video that we're going
to release, but you can see.
In the video you can hear gunfire going on.
As they're in the school,
they address the threat and
and take that threat down.
So we know there were two
AR style weapons 1A rifle,
another was an AR style pistol
and the other was a a handgun.
We believe two of those may have
been obtained legally locally h.
Can you confirm that one of the adult
victims, Catherine could be said
the school was what?
There was some, I don't know her
exact capacity within the schoo,
but it was power up in that salon. And were
any of the children victims related to any
of the school staff unsure?
I believe one may have been,
but I can't confirm
that. Did the shooter have any criminal?
No history at all. And no motive
at this point. Anything
discovered in the apartment or ,
we have a manifesto.
We have some writings that we're
going over that pertain to this,
the actual incident.
We have a map drawn out of how
this was all going to take plac.
There's right now a theory of ts
that we may be able to talk about later,
but it's not confirmed.
And so we'll we'll put that
out as soon as we can.
Is there any reason to believe
that how she identifies.
I'm sorry I'm not someone's Michael I
didn't hear you say that again Sir. Is
there any reason to believe thaw
she identifies is has
any motive for targeting
the school. We can give
you that at a later time.
There is some theory to that wee
investigating all the leads and
once we know exactly we'll let
you know targeted attack it was.
Don't know any history of
mental illness at this time,
but we are looking at that as an
investigation is ongoing and I'm sorry.
She identifies a transgender
man or woman. Woman the
only school that was targeted. t
was the only school that was targeted.
There was another location
that was mentioned,
but because of a threat assessmt
by the suspect is too much secu.
They decided not to in that
area was here in Nashville.
So we'll continuing with
that investigation as well.
Right now we believe it's a loan
assailant and we don't anticipae
any further damage at this time,
but we're still investigating.
Yes, yes,
thank you. So
the scene is going to be
processed throughout the night,
probably into tomorrow.
This is an extensive scene.
As you know she entered the
building which is 1 structure.
The church and the school
are in one building.
She entered on the lower floor.
There were shots fired on the lr
floor before she went to the upper level
and it was on the upper level we
she was confronted by police and killed.
So understand the scene processg
will take place over at least two days,
today and tomorrow.
And we'll have more details for,
including the release of video,
perhaps tonight,
but if not tonight,
certainly tomorrow.
Thank you.
And some chilling details we
are just learning from the chief
of police there. In Nash in Nashville,
John Drake saying this was in fact a targeted
attack by a former student, a 28 year old.
Named Audrey Hale, who I is transgender.
She lived with her parents.
This was premeditated,
according to the chief that
they found inside that home.
Some maps of the school surveillance,
some writings in his words,
the chief also saying there was a map
of how this was going to take p.
They have a theory on the motiv,
but he said it's not confirmed.
At this point the suspect Audrey Hale no
criminal history according to the chief,
and he once again said something
that he said earlier today in
terms of the weapons to assault
style weapons and a pistol,
the chief saying he had thought
that it perhaps two of those
weapons were obtained legally.