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PERMISSION IS GIVEN BY JIM WAGNER TO COPY & DISTRIBUTE THIS REPORT FOR NON COMMERCIAL USE ONLY
THE COVENANT SCHOOL SHOOTING
BASED ON OPEN-SOURCE INTELLIGENCE (OSINT) AS OF MARCH 31, 2023 A.D. • COMPILED & ANALYZED BY JIM WAGNER
DATE & TIME: Monday, March 27, 2023, 10:13 a.m.
LOCATION: The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, which is a Presbyterian school of approximately 209 children from preschool through sixth grade, and 40 to 50 staff members. The school is located the affluent neighborhood of Green Hill. TYPE OF ATTACK: Christian school shooting (mass shooting).
HOSTILE: Audrey Elizabeth Hale (also known as “Aiden,” 28 years old. Self-declared transgender “man,” born a female. She was a former student of The Covenant School, and prior to the killing spree she was a freelance graphic designer and part-time grocery shopper. She Lived with parents, and it is reported that she was “under care for an emotional disorder.”
MOTIVE: Hale left a manifesto, but at the time of this report it has not been released to the public. Hale sent a text message just before the massacre to a friend stating “So basically that post I made on here about you, that was basically a suicide note. I’m planning to die today. THIS IS NOT A JOKE!!!!” and “I’ve left more than enough evidence behind. But something bad is about to happen.” While executing a search warrant at Hale’s Brightwood Avenue home, investigators found a detailed map of the school with entry points marked, along with two hidden shotguns, one of which was sawed-off.
Link to news report about the manifesto: https://www.wsmv.com/video/2023/03/28/drake-talks-about-shooters-manifesto/ WEAPONS USED: Grunt AR-15 (5.56 mm), Kel-Tec SUB-200 carbine (9 mm) manufactured in Cocoa Florida, Smith & Wesson M&P 9 Shield pistol (9 mm). All weapons were legally bought by Hale between October 2020 and June 2022.
DAMAGE / INJURY: 6 murders, and property damage: shot at an entry point glass doors, and through a second story window at a responding police car. A police officer cut his hand on shattered glass. VICTIMS: Murdered were 6 adults (head of school Katherine Koonce, 60, custodian Mike Hill, 61, and substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61), and 3 children (Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and Hallie Scruggs – all 9 years old). Hallie Scrugss was the daughter of the Covenant Presbyterian Church lead pastor Chad Scruggs. DAMAGE & INJURY: 6 murders by gunshots, and property damage: shot at an entry point glass doors, and through a second story window at a responding police car. A police officer cut his hand on shattered glass. SITUATION: It was Monday morning, and school was in session. No known threats at the time. RED ACTION: The parents of Hale said that they saw their daughter leaving the house with a red bag, and asked what was in it, but she refused to answer and left. Hale (wearing a red baseball cap placed backwards, black vest, white short-sleeve T-shirt, black fingerless sports gloves, camouflage pattern pants, and tennis shoes) pulled into a school parking lot of the The Covenant School in a dark Honda Fit. She walked up to a side door of the campus carrying two rifles (with slings) and a pistol, and then shot through the glass door and climbed through the opening to gain access to the building. She went up to the second floor and open fired on the victims. She then made her way to a second story window and shot out of it at responding police officers outside. BLUE ACTION: The school administration immediate went to lockdown mode when shots were heard. Police officers responded to an active shooter call arriving at 10:24 am (11 minutes after receiving the 911 call to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department). Police officers, armed with assault rifles and pistols, quickly formed active shooter response teams, made entry (they had to open the main door with a key), and did a room-to-room building search. Upon hearing gunfire (Hale was shooting at arriving police officers from a common room at the time), two police officers (four-year veteran Officer Rex Englebert and nine-year veteran Officer Michael Collazo) entered the open common area where Hale was located and shot her dead. From receiving the 911 call to killing the HOSTILE was 14 minutes. The building search and shooting of Hale was aired on national television and on social media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68-GEQKxH6A
Police officers also searched a wooded area and a road nearby the school.
All staff and children were evacuated from the building to a reunification center that had been established by the police at the Woodmont Baptist Church.
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley called on the Department of Homeland Security to investigate the Nashville shooting as a hate crime, believing that Hale may have purposely targeted Christians. Attorney General Merrick Garland told lawmakers that a motive must first be established before determining whether the shooting was a hate crime or not.
That same day U.S. President Joe Biden stated, “We have to do more to stop gun violence. It’s ripping our communities apart, ripping the soul of this nation, ripping at the very soul of the nation. And we have to do more to protect our schools, so they aren’t turned into prisons.” He also ordered flags on all federal buildings to be flown at half-staff. JIM WAGNER’S COMMENTARY: According to Metropolitan Nashville Police Department’s Chief of Police, John Drake, based on evidence (drawings and writings) found inside Hale’s home, she was originally planning on attacking another Christian target, but did not carry out this attack because “of a threat assessment by the suspect – there’s too much security – decided not to.” In other words, the original target was a hard target (a higher level of security). So, this means that some place did not get attack because their visible security posture was apparent to the HOSTILE when doing a reconnaissance. Audrey Elizabeth Hale selected what she thought was a soft target, and as a result six people were murdered at The Covenant School.
When the school was attacked the administration activated the intruder alert alarm, which prompted a lockdown by all classrooms. The alarm can be heard on the body camera footage of the responding police officers. Of course, a lockdown is the full extent of “security” by most American private and public schools – lockdown and wait for help to arrive. Of course, the best solution for dealing with an armed HOSTILE, or multiple armed HOSTILES, is to have a trained armed FRIENDLY (preferably with a law enforcement, combat military, or armed private security background – current or retired status), or multiple armed FRIENDLIES, on campus ready to respond. People can talk about “gun control” all they want, but the reality is that active shooters will always be a potential threat. Even in countries with strict restrictions, or outright bans, on firearms, mass shootings still occur. Weapons can be bought anywhere in the world on the black market. And, if the carnage is not committed with a firearms, then it will be done with a knife, vehicle, or other deadly weapon. The societal discussion should be focused on evil control instead, but societies see this discussion as too controversial, since it implies personal responsibility and morality.
The police response was textbook, and by that, I mean that they did what we in the law enforcement and military police communities have been training for the past 24 years; as opposed to the law enforcement officers, a small army, at the Robb Elementary School Shooting on May 24, 2022, who waited for 1 hour and 14 minutes before moving in on the HOSTILE. Once Nashville police officers arrived on scene, they immediately formed response teams (two-person and four-person teams) and went from room-to-room searching for the HOSTILE. Once shots were heard during the search they moved to the sound of gunfire and made contact with the killer. Officers fired multiple shots at the HOSTILE, which brought her down, and when she continued to move on the floor (perceived as a continuing threat), she was shot a few times while down. As the officers moved up on the downed HOSTILE, one officer gave her commands to not touch her weapon.
If you were to have asked any armed church security officer in my church, or those churches and Christian schools I’ve been training for years, about the techniques and tactics required to stop an active shooter on the church grounds, they would have responded correctly. They knew that an active shooter must be neutralized immediately, and especially when children are the victims. I teach my students the very same Special Operations techniques and tactics I have taught to thousands of law enforcement, corrections, military, and private security personnel for the past three decades. In a press conference Police Chief John Drake had it right when he stated, “We will never wait to make entry and go in and stop a threat, especially when it deals with our children.” Unfortunately, we live in a very violent world where God’s people (those rare few believers who are willing to confront principalities and powers that use physical violence) must also learn modern warfare and the legal use-of-force.
As was clearly demonstrated in this attack, physical barriers alone do not always stop a determined HOSTILE; especially a well-armed one. The HOSTILE came up to two pairs of double doors and simply shot the glass sections out of the frames and crawled through them to gain access to the building. Too many churches and Christian schools rely solely only on cameras, alarms, and locked doors. These measures are indeed necessary for overall security, but again, the last resort step for security is to be trained and ready for physical confrontation: by the staff, teachers, and those students old enough to fight. Obviously, not everyone is capable of fighting, and that is why the motto of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is Run, Hide, Fight.
The teachers did an excellent job in evacuating the children from all the classrooms when the police told them to move out. They had just recently gone through active shooter training and were prepared for the incident. All the children either held onto the child’s hand in front of them, or the back of their shirt, moving in a single file line. This formation keeps the children together, and it is easy to do a head count when leaving the classroom. Every private and public school should do evacuation drills at least once a semester. If there are two teachers to a classroom (a teacher’s aide counts as a “teacher”), then one teacher should lead the children out while the second teacher is at the tail end of the line to make sure nobody “breaks the chain.” I just ran this very drill with my church’s teachers a few months ago.
Just as the police officers were good shots in this incident, hitting the HOSTILE multiple times, so too must any armed church security officer be an expert with their firearms, which means regular Airsoft and live-fire shooting training. Of course, all training needs to be properly documented should a shooting ever be called into question by the judicial system.
Most news agencies are referring to the murderer Audrey Elizabeth Hale as “him” or “he.” As a Christian, who wears the “belt of truth” described in Ephesians 6:11, I cannot lie and use male pronouns for a woman. Therefore, in this After Action Report I referred to the HOSTILE as she or her. I am relieved that the Christian Broadcast Network (CBN) also used the correct pronouns when referring to Hale in a couple of their stories that they aired: CBN news link: https://secure.cbn.com/partners/video/shows/the700club/6323600918112 Taped on Hale’s 30-round 5.56 mm magazine, that was inside the magazine well of the AR-15 (evidence marker 81), is a sticker of a cartoonish human skull with pink stars for eyes and a lightning bold coming out of each. It’s a trendy symbol for many youths today. The same shaped lighting bold happens to be a symbol of Satan, a reference made by Jesus, And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Luke 10:18.
On the M&P 9 Shield pistol is a sticker of the Sun cross, which is a pagan Neolithic religious symbol.
It’s unknown at this point if Hale was into the occult or not, or whether the stickers on the weapons had a specific meaning for her or not, but she did choose these stickers for some reason to “decorate” her murder weapons. In white paint she also painted on one of the weapons her self-given male name “Aiden,” and other words which cannot be made out on the evidence photos. It reminiscent of the murderer who painted slogans all over his assault rifles during the Christchurch Mosque Shooting in New Zealand on March 15, 2019. There seems to be a demonic spiritual thread between these two shootings.
Immediately following the shooting there were anti-gun protestors, from young to old, outside of the Tennessee State Capitol. Some of the signs held up read:
THOUGHTS & PRAYERS ARE NOT BULLET-PROOF
PROTECT KIDS NOT GUNS
IT’S NOT TRANS, IT’S GUNS
IT’S THE GUNS
PROTECT LIVES NOT GUNS
Of course, this “outrage” is never voiced when mass killings are done with knives or vehicles. There is never a call in the United States to restrict or ban knives or vehicles after an attack. Yet, it was firearms (those used by the police) that stopped the attacker. As ALWAYS, it depends on the user who has the weapon (an inanimate object), or an improvised weapon, and how it’s used; either for evil or for good. The only deterrent from losing the First Amendment of the United States Constitution (Freedom of Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly, and Petition) is the Second Amendment (Right to Bear Arms). The Founding Fathers put our rights in the order that they did for a reason, and our number one right is FREEDOM OF RELIGION.
If We The People truly want to stop, or at least greatly reduce, “gun violence,” and all of the other sins plaguing this country, then the message has always been the same for everyone on the planet since John the Baptist first spoke these words – “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 3:2 However, if We The People don’t want to do this, if it is no longer wish to believe in our country’s motto IN GOD WE TRUST then the only answer is to turn schools into fortresses with armed guards just like we have done for airports, court houses, federal buildings, or have implemented milder forms as seen at amusement parks, sporting events, and the list goes on. Of course, “defunding the police” is one of the most asinine political solutions ever suggested, and done in many American cities, in our history. There is a reason that law enforcement is referred to as “The Thin Blue Line.”
LOCATION: The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, which is a Presbyterian school of approximately 209 children from preschool through sixth grade, and 40 to 50 staff members. The school is located the affluent neighborhood of Green Hill. TYPE OF ATTACK: Christian school shooting (mass shooting).
HOSTILE: Audrey Elizabeth Hale (also known as “Aiden,” 28 years old. Self-declared transgender “man,” born a female. She was a former student of The Covenant School, and prior to the killing spree she was a freelance graphic designer and part-time grocery shopper. She Lived with parents, and it is reported that she was “under care for an emotional disorder.”
MOTIVE: Hale left a manifesto, but at the time of this report it has not been released to the public. Hale sent a text message just before the massacre to a friend stating “So basically that post I made on here about you, that was basically a suicide note. I’m planning to die today. THIS IS NOT A JOKE!!!!” and “I’ve left more than enough evidence behind. But something bad is about to happen.” While executing a search warrant at Hale’s Brightwood Avenue home, investigators found a detailed map of the school with entry points marked, along with two hidden shotguns, one of which was sawed-off.
Link to news report about the manifesto: https://www.wsmv.com/video/2023/03/28/drake-talks-about-shooters-manifesto/ WEAPONS USED: Grunt AR-15 (5.56 mm), Kel-Tec SUB-200 carbine (9 mm) manufactured in Cocoa Florida, Smith & Wesson M&P 9 Shield pistol (9 mm). All weapons were legally bought by Hale between October 2020 and June 2022.
DAMAGE / INJURY: 6 murders, and property damage: shot at an entry point glass doors, and through a second story window at a responding police car. A police officer cut his hand on shattered glass. VICTIMS: Murdered were 6 adults (head of school Katherine Koonce, 60, custodian Mike Hill, 61, and substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61), and 3 children (Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and Hallie Scruggs – all 9 years old). Hallie Scrugss was the daughter of the Covenant Presbyterian Church lead pastor Chad Scruggs. DAMAGE & INJURY: 6 murders by gunshots, and property damage: shot at an entry point glass doors, and through a second story window at a responding police car. A police officer cut his hand on shattered glass. SITUATION: It was Monday morning, and school was in session. No known threats at the time. RED ACTION: The parents of Hale said that they saw their daughter leaving the house with a red bag, and asked what was in it, but she refused to answer and left. Hale (wearing a red baseball cap placed backwards, black vest, white short-sleeve T-shirt, black fingerless sports gloves, camouflage pattern pants, and tennis shoes) pulled into a school parking lot of the The Covenant School in a dark Honda Fit. She walked up to a side door of the campus carrying two rifles (with slings) and a pistol, and then shot through the glass door and climbed through the opening to gain access to the building. She went up to the second floor and open fired on the victims. She then made her way to a second story window and shot out of it at responding police officers outside. BLUE ACTION: The school administration immediate went to lockdown mode when shots were heard. Police officers responded to an active shooter call arriving at 10:24 am (11 minutes after receiving the 911 call to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department). Police officers, armed with assault rifles and pistols, quickly formed active shooter response teams, made entry (they had to open the main door with a key), and did a room-to-room building search. Upon hearing gunfire (Hale was shooting at arriving police officers from a common room at the time), two police officers (four-year veteran Officer Rex Englebert and nine-year veteran Officer Michael Collazo) entered the open common area where Hale was located and shot her dead. From receiving the 911 call to killing the HOSTILE was 14 minutes. The building search and shooting of Hale was aired on national television and on social media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68-GEQKxH6A
Police officers also searched a wooded area and a road nearby the school.
All staff and children were evacuated from the building to a reunification center that had been established by the police at the Woodmont Baptist Church.
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley called on the Department of Homeland Security to investigate the Nashville shooting as a hate crime, believing that Hale may have purposely targeted Christians. Attorney General Merrick Garland told lawmakers that a motive must first be established before determining whether the shooting was a hate crime or not.
That same day U.S. President Joe Biden stated, “We have to do more to stop gun violence. It’s ripping our communities apart, ripping the soul of this nation, ripping at the very soul of the nation. And we have to do more to protect our schools, so they aren’t turned into prisons.” He also ordered flags on all federal buildings to be flown at half-staff. JIM WAGNER’S COMMENTARY: According to Metropolitan Nashville Police Department’s Chief of Police, John Drake, based on evidence (drawings and writings) found inside Hale’s home, she was originally planning on attacking another Christian target, but did not carry out this attack because “of a threat assessment by the suspect – there’s too much security – decided not to.” In other words, the original target was a hard target (a higher level of security). So, this means that some place did not get attack because their visible security posture was apparent to the HOSTILE when doing a reconnaissance. Audrey Elizabeth Hale selected what she thought was a soft target, and as a result six people were murdered at The Covenant School.
When the school was attacked the administration activated the intruder alert alarm, which prompted a lockdown by all classrooms. The alarm can be heard on the body camera footage of the responding police officers. Of course, a lockdown is the full extent of “security” by most American private and public schools – lockdown and wait for help to arrive. Of course, the best solution for dealing with an armed HOSTILE, or multiple armed HOSTILES, is to have a trained armed FRIENDLY (preferably with a law enforcement, combat military, or armed private security background – current or retired status), or multiple armed FRIENDLIES, on campus ready to respond. People can talk about “gun control” all they want, but the reality is that active shooters will always be a potential threat. Even in countries with strict restrictions, or outright bans, on firearms, mass shootings still occur. Weapons can be bought anywhere in the world on the black market. And, if the carnage is not committed with a firearms, then it will be done with a knife, vehicle, or other deadly weapon. The societal discussion should be focused on evil control instead, but societies see this discussion as too controversial, since it implies personal responsibility and morality.
The police response was textbook, and by that, I mean that they did what we in the law enforcement and military police communities have been training for the past 24 years; as opposed to the law enforcement officers, a small army, at the Robb Elementary School Shooting on May 24, 2022, who waited for 1 hour and 14 minutes before moving in on the HOSTILE. Once Nashville police officers arrived on scene, they immediately formed response teams (two-person and four-person teams) and went from room-to-room searching for the HOSTILE. Once shots were heard during the search they moved to the sound of gunfire and made contact with the killer. Officers fired multiple shots at the HOSTILE, which brought her down, and when she continued to move on the floor (perceived as a continuing threat), she was shot a few times while down. As the officers moved up on the downed HOSTILE, one officer gave her commands to not touch her weapon.
If you were to have asked any armed church security officer in my church, or those churches and Christian schools I’ve been training for years, about the techniques and tactics required to stop an active shooter on the church grounds, they would have responded correctly. They knew that an active shooter must be neutralized immediately, and especially when children are the victims. I teach my students the very same Special Operations techniques and tactics I have taught to thousands of law enforcement, corrections, military, and private security personnel for the past three decades. In a press conference Police Chief John Drake had it right when he stated, “We will never wait to make entry and go in and stop a threat, especially when it deals with our children.” Unfortunately, we live in a very violent world where God’s people (those rare few believers who are willing to confront principalities and powers that use physical violence) must also learn modern warfare and the legal use-of-force.
As was clearly demonstrated in this attack, physical barriers alone do not always stop a determined HOSTILE; especially a well-armed one. The HOSTILE came up to two pairs of double doors and simply shot the glass sections out of the frames and crawled through them to gain access to the building. Too many churches and Christian schools rely solely only on cameras, alarms, and locked doors. These measures are indeed necessary for overall security, but again, the last resort step for security is to be trained and ready for physical confrontation: by the staff, teachers, and those students old enough to fight. Obviously, not everyone is capable of fighting, and that is why the motto of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is Run, Hide, Fight.
The teachers did an excellent job in evacuating the children from all the classrooms when the police told them to move out. They had just recently gone through active shooter training and were prepared for the incident. All the children either held onto the child’s hand in front of them, or the back of their shirt, moving in a single file line. This formation keeps the children together, and it is easy to do a head count when leaving the classroom. Every private and public school should do evacuation drills at least once a semester. If there are two teachers to a classroom (a teacher’s aide counts as a “teacher”), then one teacher should lead the children out while the second teacher is at the tail end of the line to make sure nobody “breaks the chain.” I just ran this very drill with my church’s teachers a few months ago.
Just as the police officers were good shots in this incident, hitting the HOSTILE multiple times, so too must any armed church security officer be an expert with their firearms, which means regular Airsoft and live-fire shooting training. Of course, all training needs to be properly documented should a shooting ever be called into question by the judicial system.
Most news agencies are referring to the murderer Audrey Elizabeth Hale as “him” or “he.” As a Christian, who wears the “belt of truth” described in Ephesians 6:11, I cannot lie and use male pronouns for a woman. Therefore, in this After Action Report I referred to the HOSTILE as she or her. I am relieved that the Christian Broadcast Network (CBN) also used the correct pronouns when referring to Hale in a couple of their stories that they aired: CBN news link: https://secure.cbn.com/partners/video/shows/the700club/6323600918112 Taped on Hale’s 30-round 5.56 mm magazine, that was inside the magazine well of the AR-15 (evidence marker 81), is a sticker of a cartoonish human skull with pink stars for eyes and a lightning bold coming out of each. It’s a trendy symbol for many youths today. The same shaped lighting bold happens to be a symbol of Satan, a reference made by Jesus, And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Luke 10:18.
On the M&P 9 Shield pistol is a sticker of the Sun cross, which is a pagan Neolithic religious symbol.
It’s unknown at this point if Hale was into the occult or not, or whether the stickers on the weapons had a specific meaning for her or not, but she did choose these stickers for some reason to “decorate” her murder weapons. In white paint she also painted on one of the weapons her self-given male name “Aiden,” and other words which cannot be made out on the evidence photos. It reminiscent of the murderer who painted slogans all over his assault rifles during the Christchurch Mosque Shooting in New Zealand on March 15, 2019. There seems to be a demonic spiritual thread between these two shootings.
Immediately following the shooting there were anti-gun protestors, from young to old, outside of the Tennessee State Capitol. Some of the signs held up read:
THOUGHTS & PRAYERS ARE NOT BULLET-PROOF
PROTECT KIDS NOT GUNS
IT’S NOT TRANS, IT’S GUNS
IT’S THE GUNS
PROTECT LIVES NOT GUNS
Of course, this “outrage” is never voiced when mass killings are done with knives or vehicles. There is never a call in the United States to restrict or ban knives or vehicles after an attack. Yet, it was firearms (those used by the police) that stopped the attacker. As ALWAYS, it depends on the user who has the weapon (an inanimate object), or an improvised weapon, and how it’s used; either for evil or for good. The only deterrent from losing the First Amendment of the United States Constitution (Freedom of Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly, and Petition) is the Second Amendment (Right to Bear Arms). The Founding Fathers put our rights in the order that they did for a reason, and our number one right is FREEDOM OF RELIGION.
If We The People truly want to stop, or at least greatly reduce, “gun violence,” and all of the other sins plaguing this country, then the message has always been the same for everyone on the planet since John the Baptist first spoke these words – “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 3:2 However, if We The People don’t want to do this, if it is no longer wish to believe in our country’s motto IN GOD WE TRUST then the only answer is to turn schools into fortresses with armed guards just like we have done for airports, court houses, federal buildings, or have implemented milder forms as seen at amusement parks, sporting events, and the list goes on. Of course, “defunding the police” is one of the most asinine political solutions ever suggested, and done in many American cities, in our history. There is a reason that law enforcement is referred to as “The Thin Blue Line.”