Aiden Hale and the 2023 Covenant School Massacre
Background
Aiden Hale, also publicly identified by the birth name Audrey Elizabeth Hale, was responsible for the mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 27, 2023. Hale was 28 years old and lived with his parents in Nashville. He had previously attended The Covenant School from kindergarten through fourth grade and later graduated from the Nossi College of Art and Design in 2022.
Hale identified as male and used the name Aiden in portions of his personal life, although police and many official records initially identified him as Audrey Hale. Investigators later emphasized that Hale’s gender identity was not determined to be the motive for the attack.
The Covenant School was a small private Christian elementary school operated as a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church. It was located at 33 Burton Hills Boulevard in Nashville’s Green Hills neighborhood. The school served children from preschool through sixth grade.
Years of Planning
Investigators concluded that Hale had developed an intense fascination with mass murderers and school shootings years before the attack. His private writings showed that he researched previous attackers, studied their methods and considered several possible locations. Police determined that he began making increasingly serious plans for a mass shooting approximately five years before the Covenant attack.
Hale initially considered attacking another school he had attended but eventually selected The Covenant School. He was familiar with the campus from his childhood and conducted additional research into the property. Investigators recovered maps, diagrams, photographs, schedules and notes concerning entrances, hallways and security procedures.
Beginning in 2020, Hale legally purchased several firearms. His family became concerned about his access to weapons after learning that he had sold one firearm, and they believed he no longer possessed guns. Hale instead concealed additional weapons and ammunition inside the family home. Police found no evidence that Hale’s parents, therapists or acquaintances knew that he was preparing to murder people at the school.
The final police investigation found that Hale was primarily motivated by a desire for notoriety and by an obsessive identification with other mass murderers. Investigators found no evidence that the six victims had been personally selected. Police also concluded that the attack was not principally motivated by politics, race, religion or Hale’s gender identity, although Hale’s writings contained anger toward several groups and institutions.
Preparation on March 27, 2023
At approximately 8:00 a.m. on March 27, 2023, Hale left his family’s residence carrying a large duffel bag and a backpack. The bags contained firearms, ammunition, tactical equipment, notebooks and personal belongings. Hale placed the items inside a 2014 Honda Fit and drove to the parking lot of Royal Range USA at 7741 U.S. Highway 70 South in Nashville.
Hale arrived at the range property at approximately 8:16 a.m. but did not enter the business. He parked in a distant portion of the lot, put on a tactical vest, attached ammunition pouches to his belt and prepared three firearms. He remained there for more than an hour before leaving at approximately 9:33 a.m.
Hale arrived at The Covenant School at approximately 9:53 a.m. He slowly drove through the campus before parking on the western side of the building. While sitting in the vehicle, Hale sent a farewell message to a former friend through Instagram. He indicated that an earlier message was essentially a suicide note and suggested that he expected to die that day. The recipient attempted to alert authorities, but the shooting began before the warning could result in an intervention.
Weapons Used in the Attack
Hale carried three firearms into the school:
- A Lead Star Arms Grunt-15 semiautomatic AR-style pistol chambered for 5.56mm and .223-caliber ammunition.
- A Kel-Tec SUB-2000 semiautomatic 9mm carbine.
- A Smith & Wesson M&P Shield 2.0 semiautomatic 9mm pistol.
Hale also carried numerous loaded magazines and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Investigators later determined that he fired 152 rounds during the attack: 126 from the AR-style pistol, 25 from the carbine and one from the handgun. At the time he was killed, he still possessed 272 unfired cartridges.
Entry into The Covenant School
At approximately 10:09 a.m., Hale left the vehicle wearing tactical clothing and carrying the three firearms. At approximately 10:10 a.m., he approached a western entrance and repeatedly fired through the glass doors. The gunfire shattered both the exterior doors and a second set of interior doors. Hale then climbed through the broken entrance and entered the building.
School custodian Michael Hill was working in a room near the youth center when he heard the glass breaking. Hill went to investigate and encountered Hale shortly after the shooter entered. Hill turned and attempted to flee, but Hale fired through a window separating the hallway from the youth center, striking him multiple times.
Smoke produced by the gunfire activated a smoke detector and triggered the school’s fire alarm. Students and employees initially believed that a fire evacuation was necessary. Classes began forming lines and moving toward designated exits, unknowingly bringing several victims into Hale’s path.
The Second-Floor Attack
Hale moved toward a stairway and began climbing to the second floor. Third-grade students Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs were leaving their classroom in an evacuation line. William was serving as the class line leader, with Hallie and Evelyn following nearby.
Substitute teacher Cynthia Peak had been in the school office receiving her assignment and lesson plan when the alarm sounded. She went to assist with the evacuation and stood beside the stairway so the children could pass ahead of her.
As William and Hallie entered the stairwell, Hale appeared directly in front of the group. He immediately opened fire, fatally wounding William Kinney, Hallie Scruggs, Evelyn Dieckhaus and Cynthia Peak. The surviving students and teachers retreated into nearby classrooms, locked the doors, covered the windows and moved away from the hallway.
Hale then fired repeatedly through the doors and windows of two third-grade classrooms. Bullets passed through the rooms and exited through exterior windows. One student suffered a minor injury from flying debris, but the locked and reinforced classroom doors prevented Hale from entering.
Katherine Koonce Confronts the Shooter
Executive Principal Katherine Koonce was initially trying to determine why the fire alarm had activated. She left the school office and moved through a hallway without knowing that an armed attacker was inside the building.
Koonce encountered Hale near the church office area on the second floor. Witnesses reported hearing her challenge Hale and question what he was doing inside the school. Hale responded by shooting her multiple times with the AR-style weapon. He then drew the handgun and fired one additional shot. Koonce died at the scene.
After shooting Koonce, Hale searched several nearby rooms and church offices. Staff members hid beneath desks, inside storage areas and behind barricaded doors. Hale moved quickly through the rooms and failed to discover many of the people who were hiding nearby.
Movement Through the Building
Hale descended to the first floor and passed through areas near the cafeteria, student lounge and main lobby. By that time, teachers and employees had recognized that the emergency was an active shooting rather than a fire. Some groups sheltered inside locked rooms, while others who had already reached the exterior ran through nearby woods or toward Nashville Fire Department Station 20.
Hale fired at television screens in the student lounge and shot through doors leading toward the preschool and kindergarten classrooms. No one was behind the doors at the time, and those shots caused no additional injuries.
Hale returned to the second floor and entered the upper portion of the church sanctuary. He fired at a stained-glass window depicting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The sanctuary was empty, and no one was injured there.
Police Response
The first emergency calls reporting an active shooter were received at approximately 10:13 a.m. Metropolitan Nashville Police Department officers began arriving at approximately 10:19 a.m. The building’s complicated arrangement of church offices, classrooms, stairways and hallways initially made it difficult for officers to locate the shooter.
From an upstairs window overlooking the southern parking lot, Hale saw officers arriving and began firing at them. For more than two minutes, he shot through the window at police personnel and vehicles. No officers were struck by gunfire, although bullets damaged police vehicles and deflated tires.
Other officers entered through a southern doorway and moved toward the sound of gunfire. After ascending to the second floor, they approached Hale from behind. The continuous fire alarm, Hale’s ear protection and the sound of his own weapon apparently prevented him from hearing the officers closing in.
Officer Rex Engelbert fired his rifle, striking Hale and knocking him to the floor. When Hale continued moving near the weapons, Officer Michael Collazo fired his handgun. Hale was pronounced dead at the school. The confrontation ended at approximately 10:25 a.m., roughly 15 minutes after Hale forced his way into the building.
Victims
- Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9 — A third-grade student at The Covenant School. Evelyn was fatally shot near the second-floor stairwell on March 27, 2023. She was transported to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, where she was pronounced dead.
- William Kinney, 9 — A third-grade student who was serving as his class line leader during the fire-alarm evacuation. William was fatally shot near the second-floor stairwell and was pronounced dead after being transported to the children’s hospital.
- Hallie Scruggs, 9 — A third-grade student and the daughter of Covenant Presbyterian Church’s senior pastor, Chad Scruggs. Hallie was fatally shot near the second-floor stairwell and died after being transported to the hospital.
- Michael “Mike” Hill, 61 — A longtime custodian at the school and a father of eight. Hill encountered Hale near the youth center shortly after the shooter entered the building. He was transported to Vanderbilt University Medical Center and later died from his injuries.
- Cynthia Peak, 61 — A substitute teacher who was preparing to work at the school that morning. Peak attempted to assist children during what initially appeared to be a fire evacuation. She was shot near the second-floor stairwell and later died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
- Dr. Katherine Koonce, 60 — The executive principal and head of The Covenant School. Koonce encountered and challenged Hale in a second-floor hallway while investigating the alarm. She was fatally shot and was pronounced dead inside the building.
Investigation of Hale’s Home and Vehicle
After identifying Hale through property found in the Honda Fit, detectives searched the family residence. They discovered a short-barreled 12-gauge shotgun, ammunition, several computers, cellular telephones, storage drives, notebooks, drawings, photographs and extensive handwritten material.
A note addressed to Hale’s parents stated that he expected to die and gave instructions concerning his belongings. Investigators also recovered records showing years of research into mass shootings, possible targets and methods of attack.
Police found no explosive devices inside Hale’s vehicle or at the school. Surveillance recordings confirmed that Hale entered and attacked the school alone. Investigators found no evidence that another person helped plan, finance or carry out the murders.
Motive and Final Findings
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department formally completed its principal investigation in March 2025. The final case summary determined that Hale had carefully planned the shooting over a period of years and had deliberately concealed his intentions from relatives and mental-health professionals.
Investigators concluded that Hale wanted to achieve infamy, die during the attack and leave behind material that would cause people to study him alongside other mass murderers. His writings demonstrated resentment, depression, suicidal thinking, social isolation and an obsessive interest in violent offenders.
Police found that the victims were selected because they became accessible during the attack, not because Hale had personal grudges against them. Although The Covenant School was a Christian institution and Hale had written negatively about religion and other social subjects, authorities did not identify hatred of Christianity or any single political ideology as the primary cause of the massacre.
The investigation also determined that no available evidence justified criminal charges against Hale’s parents, medical providers, firearms sellers or any other individual. Hale alone was held responsible for the six murders.
Aftermath
Students and employees were evacuated from the campus and taken to a reunification center at Woodmont Baptist Church. Families waited for hours as authorities confirmed the identities of the dead and accounted for surviving students.
The massacre caused widespread grief throughout Nashville and renewed national debate about school security, firearm access, threat assessment and the prevention of mass shootings. Vigils and memorial services were held for the three children and three adults, while community members raised funds for the victims’ families and surviving members of the school.
The Covenant School temporarily relocated its classes while the damaged campus remained closed. The names Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, Hallie Scruggs, Michael Hill, Cynthia Peak and Katherine Koonce became central to memorials honoring the lives taken during the March 27, 2023, attack.
