Audrey Hale news LIVE: Slain girl, 9, brightened community with her impromptu Broadway performances

Gun laws in Tennessee have relaxed in recent years after lawmakers stripped requirements for background checks and permits, and enacted laws expanding concealed carry.

Nashville mass shooter Audrey Hale purchased seven guns locally despite having received treatment for an emotional disorder that was not reported to authorities.

Despite Hale's massacre taking the lives of six people at the Covenant School in Nashville, the state's GOP lawmakers are pushing numerous bills which would further broaden access to firearms, with Rep. Rusty Grills spearheading part of the effort.

One bill would allow members of staff at schools to carry guns on campus, another would allow permit holders to bring guns to college campuses, and another would further expand concealed carry.

Two trans activists are demanding the end of the conservative 'love affair' with 'radical religious schools' in a response to the Nashville mass shooting, in which they appear to shift the blame away from twisted killer, Audrey Hale, 28.

Eli Erlick posted a tweet with screen grabs to a story about false accusations of abuse at the Covenant Presbyterian Church of Nashville in 2013. The Covenant School is connected to the church.

Erlick described the school as 'a right-wing institution' - claiming without any evidence that the killer had 'been abused' with 'many others.'

Veronica 'Nikatine' Ripley, another trans activist, reposted the tweet and slammed 'conservatives love affair' with those institutions.

There have been no suggestions that Hale was abused.

Police have called the grisly attack 'targeted' and that Hale most likely held 'resentment for having to go to that school.'

Katherine Koonce's friends describe her as being witty and sassy with a 'crazy sense of humor.'

Kim Lee told CNN that she made people feel like they were the most important person when she talked with them.

'She had this amazing confidence but she was a person of grace,' he said. 'She was an educator, but she also had great pastoral and counseling and nurturing skills or she had those CEO skills that could tell you that you need to kind of get in your place.'

'They just lost hugely at this school,' Monica Lee added. 'They're going to have a hard time filling her shoes.'

Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9, was shot and killed while trying to pull the fire alarm to stop Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale, 28, after Hale opened fire at a private Christian school on Monday.

Evelyn's family has described her as a 'shining light' and said that they are 'completely broken' by her death.

Local residents remember Evelyn brightening up the neighborhood with Broadway performances in her driveway. 

'She was everything a 9-year-old should be. She was in and out of our house on a regular basis playing tag,' said next-door neighbor Nick Riegal said. 

Riegal, 45, has two children who often played with her.

He remembers the neighbor performance of 'Hamilton' the most, which he said they worked really hard on.

Audrey Hale was at odds with her devout Christian parents because they 'couldn't accept' she was gay and transgender, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.

Church coordinator Norma, 61, and her husband Ronald, 64, refused to let Hale - who had recently adopted the name Aiden and used he/him pronouns - dress as a man in their home.

The 28-year-old loner would instead wait until she left their $700,000 Nashville property to change outfits, according to a well-placed source.

'You only see what you want to see. Their religion does not allow them to accept homosexuality,' the source told DailyMail.com.

'She was Audrey at home but when she left the house she changed clothes. They did know about it, they just didn't accept it.'

Nashville police said in a presser on Tuesday that investigators spoke to the parents of school shooter Audrey Hale who said they saw her leaving the house with a red bag on the morning of the shooting. 

They asked Hale what was in the red bag, but she never answered. The parents brushed it off, thinking she did not have any guns.  

Hale's parents told police that Hale was under a doctor's care for an emotional disorder and that it was their understanding that Hale did not own any guns. 

'Law enforcement knew nothing about the treatment she was receiving, but her parents felt that she should not own weapons,' Drake said. 'They were under the impression when she sold the one weapon that she didn't own anymore.' 

A motive for the tragic Nashville school massacre has not yet been determined by Nashville investigators, the police chief said Tuesday.

Police said there is a manifesto that includes writings and a map of the school, which indicated how the shooter planned to carry out the rampage.

There were also other locations mentioned in the writings. The locations were not revealed, but are being investigated by police.

Nashville police gave an update on the school shooting Tuesday, giving new details about the shooter Audrey Hale who killed six people in the rampage.

Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said at the presser that Hale had bought seven firearms legally that she kept hidden from her parents.

Three of the guns were used during the shooting at Covenant School on Monday.

The Metro Nashville Police Department is giving an update on the mass school shooting that took the lives of three children and three adults at The Covenant School on Monday. 

A motive for the shooting is not known and officials believe the school was targeted, but the individual victims were not, Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake told reporters Tuesday.

'This school, this church building, was a target of the shooter, but we have no information at present to indicate that the shooter was specifically targeting any one of the six individuals who were murdered.'

At 10.13am, Audrey Hale arrived at The Covenant School and adjacent church.

By 10.27am, she killed 3 children and 3 adults and was herself shot dead.

In the wake of yet another mass shooting, President Joe Biden said he has exhausted all executive actions - and that future reaction will fall on Congress.

'I can't do anything except plead with the Congress to act reasonably,' the president told CNN  on Tuesday.

'I have done the full extent of my executive authority — to do on my own, anything about guns … The Congress has to act. The majority of the American people think having assault weapons is bizarre, it's a crazy idea. They're against that. And so I think the Congress could be passing an assault weapon ban,' Biden said.

Biden is planning to travel to Nashville.

'I've spoken with everyone down there, from the mayor to the senators, all the players, I spoke with the chief of police today,' he said. 'I've spoken to all of them.'

A Tennessee lawmaker sparked outrage when he said that 'we're not going to fix' scourge of school shootings because 'criminals are gonna be criminals.'

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) said: 'I don't see any real role that we could do other than mess things up.'

A reporter then asks: 'What else should be done to protect people like your little girl?'

'Well, we homeschool her,' he responded.

A slew of responses on Twitter criticized the lawmaker, with some remarking that only rich people have the ability to homeschool and questions about who actually schools his child.

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley says that the feds should be investigating the Covenant school shooting as a 'hate crime' against Christians. 

The Republican reiterated Police Chief John Drake's statements that trans shooter Audrey Hale, 28, 'targeted' the Nashville school. In total, three students and three staffers were killed. 

'Targeting victims on the basis of religious affiliation is a hate crime. It should be investigated as such,' Hawley tweeted. 

The conservative later added that he would be introducing legislation on the floor of the Senate condemning Monday's attack as a hate crime. 'We must speak out and condemn the hate that leads to violence,' Hawley said.

Hate crime charges would require proving that the gunman was motivated by bias, such as against the victims’ religion or beliefs.

'All federal resources necessary should be brought to bear. And those individuals or groups who have spread a message of hate against the Christian community - which resulted here in horrific violence - should be held to account,' Hawley also tweeted.

Nashville Mayor John Cooper praised police for their quick response to the shooting at the Covenant School on Monday - and says it could have been worse.

Monday at the Covenant School, where a 28-year-old shooter, identified by police as a former student, killed three 9-year-old children and three adults.

'This is our worst day, but it could have been worse without this brave response,' Cooper told CNN. 'So we're very grateful for that.'

Officers Rex Englebert and Michael Collazo were the members of the team who rushed into the school and checked every room until they found Hale and fired at her, ultimately killing her.

Collazo is a nine-year veteran of the Nashville police force, while Engelbart has served for four years.

Police say that officers rushed to The Covenant School, were able to get in and clear the building as they heard shots from the second floor.

Once they got to the second floor, Englebert and Collazo encountered Hale, who had been firing through a window at the arriving police cars, and killed her.

Nashville Police have released bodycam footage from the Nashville school shooting that left six people dead, including three children.

The footage shows heroic police officer Rex Englebert taking out shooter Audrey Hale within five minutes of arriving at the school, and 14 minutes after the first 911 call came in.

Hale was standing in front of a large window on a second floor atrium of The Covenant School by the time police entered the building.

When they arrived at the scene at The Covenant School, a panicked staff member handed Englebert the key he needed to gain access to the school.

One by one, the cops search classrooms looking for the shooter, before climbing a stairwell to the second floor where they located Hale in an atrium, standing in front of a large window. She fired at the cops, but was immediately struck down.

Englebert fired the first four shots using his service rifle and Officer Michael Collazo, fired another four shots.

Hale was shot dead. By the time police had arrived, she already shot three students and three teachers.

Nashville should be braced for copycat shooters in the wake of Audrey Hale's massacre due to a 'contagion' effect, the FBI's former top profiler tells DailyMail.com.

'In 2000 when the FBI released its first report on school shooters, we found that the copycat influence was powerful and it influenced the 18 cases that we studied,' Mary Ellen O'Toole said.

The report was compiled in the wake of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre which claimed the lives of 13 people. The criminologist said that it was her opinion not to release the shooter's manifesto in that case, for fear of the 'contagion' effect.

Communities should remain on alert for up to two weeks following a shooting because of potential copycats.

'The term now used is the "contagion effect". More shootings will follow the one in Tennessee. I am also expecting that there will be references to other shootings in the shooter's computer, her writings, her manifesto, etc,' O'Toole added.

Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale can be seen speaking at a graduation event last year in a video posted online by the Nossi College of Art and Design.

Hale graduated from the school in 2022. The video was posted eight months ago at the spring graduation.

Hale appears at the 15-second mark and again at the 50-second mark, where she says: 'It's been hard, but it's also been an amazing experience when it comes to developing my creative talents and growing as an artist.'

The college released a statement that said Hale 'was a talented artist and a good student' while enrolled at the school.

Joylyn Bukovac was reporting at the scene from The Covenant School in Nashville after Audrey Hale shot and killed three children and three adults on Monday.

She was in eighth grade at Discovery Middle School in Madison, Alabama , on February 5, 2010 when shots were fired in the hallway of her school - killing one of her classmates.

Bukovac, while on air, said: 'This is something that hits close to home for me. I'm actually a school shooting survivor. I was in middle school. This is bringing up a lot of tough memories for me that I'm going through.'

Audrey Hale, the 28-year-old who opened fire at a private school in Nashville is just the fifth female school mass shooter in history.

Females make up just about 2 percent of both mass shootings and school shootings in the United States, according to data compiled by The Violence Project. It found that females committed just four school shootings out of 147 recorded.

Brenda Spencer, 16 (1979)

Spencer, 16, shot dead her principal and another staff member at Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego.

Asked why she killed, Spencer infamously told a reporter: 'I just don't like Mondays. I did this because it's a way to cheer up the day,' which inspired Bob Geldof to write the Boomtown Rats' hit record.

She used a rifle and a scope her father gave her for Christmas as she took aim at the school, killing the principal and another staff member.

Eight students and a police officer were also injured in the rampage, in which she fired 36 rounds for about 20 minutes.

But Spencer ultimately pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and assault with a deadly weapon, and was sentenced to life in prison with a chance of parole after 25 years.

Latina Williams, 23 (2008)

Latina Williams, 23, who killed two students in a Louisiana Technical College classroom before killing herself in 2008.

She then returned through another door, and fired six rounds, killing Karsheika Graves, 21, and Taneshia Butler, 26, both of Baton Rouge.

Police found in the aftermath that she was living out of her car and the time and had not spoken to her family much over the past two years.

Williams had been exhibiting signs of 'paranoia and losing touch with reality,' according to WAFB.

Teah Wimberly, 15 (2008)

Teah Wimberly was just 15-years-old when she fatally shot Amanda Collette, also 15, at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 2008.

The two had been best friends since elementary school, but the relationship took a turn for the worse when Wimberly started making romantic overtures toward Collette, who rejected her advances.

Then when Collette refused to talk to Wimberly in November 2008, she pulled out a .22-caliber pistol and shot her friend.

She said she fired the gun so Collette 'could feel pain, too.'

Sixth-grader, 12 (2021)

The 12-year-old girl was dressed mostly in black with a black surgical mask as she made her way around Rigby Middle School in Idaho on May 6, 2021, before she pulled out a semi-automatic pistol and began firing.

A second pistol was later found inside her backpack, and she claimed she also had two knives and was trying to build three bombs to blow up the school. The girl was arrested on three counts of attempted murder.

A source close to the Hale family told The Daily Beast that Hale was autistic, but high-functioning.

Nashville Police identified Hale as the shooter who killed three children and three adults at The Covenant School before being shot dead by cops.

'And relatively recently announced she was transgender, identifying as he/him,' the source said, who asked to remain unnamed.

Cops said Hale was transgender, although they haven't specified further details and referred to her as a woman.

Hale was born female, but a LinkedIn profile believed to be hers uses he/him pronouns, suggesting Hale was living as a man.

Several vigils took place across Nashville on Monday night as community members gathered to grieve after the deadly shooting at The Covenant School.

The community came together to pray for the six families who lost loved ones in Monday's Covenant School shooting that saw three young children and three adults lose their lives.

The victims were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all aged 9, head of school Katherine Koonce, 60, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, and school custodian Mike Hill, 61.

At Belmont United Methodist Church, teary sniffling filled the background as vigil attendees sang, knelt in prayer and lit candles.

'We need to step back. We need to breathe. We need to grieve,' said Paul Purdue, the church's senior pastor. 'We need to remember. We need to make space for others who are grieving. We need to hear the cries of our neighbors.'

Norma Hale, the mother of the school shooter said 'I think I just lost my daughter' - as her own calls for increased gun control emerged.

Norma Hale spoke to ABC News and said: 'It's very, very difficult right now. I think I lost my daughter today.'

Norma's own posts decrying school shootings and calling for increased gun control have emerged in the wake of Hale's massacre at the school she once attended.

On February 21, 2018, Norma posted a petition to make large-capacity gun magazines illegal to her page as a response to the horrors at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.

And on March 8, 2018, she posted a petition to keep guns out of schools with the caption: 'So important!'

Norma and her husband Ronald were described by a neighbor as 'very nice' and 'very religious.' They are also parents to son Scott, a law student who lives in Brooklyn.

When police searched the home of Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale, they found even more guns.

Nashville police said investigators found two more firearms, described as shotguns, at the home on Brightwood Avenue in Belmont-Hillsboro, Tennessee.

At least one of those was described by police as a 'sawed-off shotgun,' some of which can be illegal. This depends on the exact measurements and whether the owner filed federal paperwork.

Police tweeted a photo of the weapons Hale allegedly had during the attack, including two semiautomatic black rifles and a 9 mm handgun.

Hale's former school, the Nossi College of Art & Design, has said Hale 'was a talented artist and a good student' during her time at the college.

Hale was a 2022 graduate of the school, which is based in Nashville.

'Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family, to the victims and their families and to our city,' the school statement said.

09:53am - Hale's gray Honda Fit is seen arriving at The Covenant School in Nashville.

09:54am - Hale is seen driving through the parking lot, seemingly calm. Nothing suggests anything is out of the ordinary as she finds a spot to park.

10:10am - The glass front door, which was locked, is shattered as Hale opens fire. She then steps through the debris into the empty reception of the church, which is adjacent to the school.

10:13am - Brandishing her assault rifle, Hale is seen entering a carpeted room, inside the church looking for any victims. The room is empty. The first call to 911 about shots being fired in the building came in at this time.

10:18am - Hale is seen on the same camera inside the church still looking for victims. She opens a door into the next room.

10:19am - The 28-year-old returns through the door, and aims her gun, although there is no one there. She tries another door, then returns 30 seconds later.

10:20am - Hale is now walking through a wooden-floored building labelled 'first' in the footage, past an empty reception. She stalks the corridor, then disappears from view.

10:27am - Hale is shot dead on the second floor of the school, having engaged officers who fired back, killing her. 

The transgender school shooter who killed six people including three innocent children yesterday before being gunned down by police sent a message to a friend moments before the rampage, telling her: 'I'm planning to die today... you'll probably hear about me on the news.'

Before traveling to the school, the killer sent a haunting final message to Averianna Patton on Instagram. 

They had played middle school basketball together and remained friends. 

Audrey Hale, 28, opened fire at a Christian elementary school in Tennessee on Monday morning, killing six people inducing three nine-year-old students.

The transgender artist had detailed map of the building and conducted surveillance outside The Covenant School she once attended, before carrying out the devastating massacre.

Hale, with an assault-style rifle in hand, shot down the door of the Nashville area school and stalked the hallways before opening fire on her victims.

Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has taken to Twitter to call for more guns in schools following the horrifying attack on the Covenant School in Nashville on Monday.

The US representative for Georgia yesterday called the shooting 'another absolutely horrific, needless tragedy' as she rallied for better protection of children 'like precious stones' in schools.

She wrote: 'Children and school staff should always be protected the same way politicians, money, precious stones, and gold are protected, but even more so, by good guys with guns.'

The community came together to pray for the six families who lost loved ones in Monday's Covenant School shooting that saw three young children and three adults lose their lives, including third grader, Evelyn Dieckhaus.

Evelyn – who was described as 'adorable' by her Sunday School teacher – leaves behind an older sister Eleanor, who made her heartbreaking comments at Woodmont Christ Church.

Two local NBC news anchors became visibly emotional during live news coverage of Monday's tragic Nashville school shooting that claimed the lives of at six people, including three children at The Covenant School.

The anchors for Nashville's WSMV found it difficult to compose themselves as they delivered the horrific news.

Anchor Holly Thompson became overcome with emotion and struggled to speak as she attempted to report on the breaking news that an active shooter had been confirmed dead and that multiple children had also lost their lives. 

Nashville police chief John Drake said police are still investigating what drove the killer - who they named as Audrey Hale, 28 - to open fire on Monday morning at The Covenant School, where she used to be a student, before being shot dead by police.

He said in an interview with NBC News that investigators believe the killer had 'some resentment for having to go to that school'. 

He also provided chilling examples of the killer's elaborate planning for the shooting as she had a map of the building and conducted surveillance before carrying out the attack, the latest in a series of mass shootings in the US.