The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) Monday evening confirmed that the person who shot and killed six people on Monday morning at The Covenant Presbyterian School in Nashville was 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who “identified as transgender.” Hale was killed on scene by police that morning.

“Our investigations tell us she was a former student, at the school,” said MNPD Chief John Drake in a press conference, adding that he did not know how long Hale attended the school.

“She does identify as transgender,” Drake said.

Drake also said that authorities are in possession of a “manifesto” and other documents – including a map of the school’s campus – left behind by the shooter, but did not disclose the contents of those documents.

He described the mass shooting as a “targeted attack.”

Drake told reporters that he could not confirm whether Hale first entered the church before entering the school, but that officers first responded to the church when they received the initial calls that shots had been fired.

“There was five officers that immediately went in and addressed [the shooting],” said Drake. “We have video that we’re going to release where you can see – in the video you can hear gunfire going on in the school where they addressed the threat and took that threat down.”

Drake confirmed that the weapons used in the shooting were an AR-15 style rife, an AR-15 style pistol, and a handgun. He said two of those weapons may have been obtained legally.

Three students, Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all aged nine, were reportedly killed in the shooting.

Three adults associated with the school, Cynthia Peak, a substitute teacher, and Mike Hill, the janitor, both aged 61; and Katherine Koonce, the head of the school, aged 60, were also killed.

Watch the full press conference here:

Chief Drake did not identify the birth name or the birth gender of Audrey Elizabeth Hale.

The Daily Beast reported:

Hours after the shooting, police searched a home just three miles away from the school. A neighbor, Sandy Durham, who is also a family friend of the Hales, said the ATF told her they were there “to see what was going on next door [at the Hale house].”

“I do know Audrey, I’ve known her since she was a baby. I had just gotten out of the shower when all of this started happening. I didn’t really know anything more than that. Something was going on next door. It’s just tragic for everybody. The sweet children that were hurt, killed, the adults. All of it,” she told The Daily Beast.

Asked if there were any warning signs about Hale, Durham responded, “Never. She was very sweet. I don’t know what happened. It’s very scary.”

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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter.
Photo “Covenant School” by Metro Nashville PD.