The shooter who killed three children and three staff members at a private elementary school had previously posted on Facebook about the loss of a romantic partner and cried on her first day at college, according to a former teacher.
Authorities have not disclosed a possible motive behind the tragic school shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, but more details about the shooter, Audrey Hale's profile and background are emerging.
A former teacher of the assailant, Maria Colomy, said Hale had posted on Facebook about the death of a romantic partner in recent years.
Hale, whom police identified as a transgender person, had also asked to be referred to by a new male name, Aiden, and male pronouns, said Ms Colomy.
Hale graduated from the Nossi College of Art & Design in Nashville in 2022 and Ms Colomy also recalled the shooter's difficult first day of class there.
According to her, Hale began to cry in the front row over a mundane problem of creating a password for the online student portal.
Ms Colomy told the New York Times about the death of Hale's partner: "She had been openly grieving about that on social media, and during the grieving is when she announced that she wanted to be addressed as a male."
Hale has posted photographs of Hale and the romantic partner playing basketball, and wrote about missing them.
Ms Colomy said Hale had an unusually strong reaction to having trouble creating a password for the online student portal, when they began crying on their first day.
The teacher asked them if they would like to step outside, and they did. It was, however, the only time Hale showed such exreme emotion in Ms Colomy's class.
Ms Colomy also told CNN that the appeared to be “suffering” in Facebook posts over the past year, when her posts grieved the apparent death of a former girls’ basketball teammate.
She said: “The only thing I would see (Hale) post would be about this girl."
She added: "From what I saw on (Hale’s) social, (Hale) was suffering."
Hale's Facebook page has been taken down.
During an investigation, the shooter's parents disclosed to the police that Hale was under a doctor's care for an emotional disorder.
Chief John Drake said Hale's parents were unaware that Hale had obtained most of the weapons, while the parents also said they believed Hale had only purchased one gun and had sold it.
Police said Hale was a former student of the Covenant School, but it was unclear if Hale had any current affiliation with the school or was related to anyone in the school at the time of the shooting.
They also said the shooter had made a detailed map of the school and conducted surveillance of the building before carrying out the massacre.
Police said Hale had two “assault-style” weapons and a pistol when Hale shot through the front door to enter the building. Police said Tuesday that Hale had legally purchased seven firearms from five different stores in the Nashville area.
Investigators found a sawed-off shotgun, a second shotgun and other unspecified evidence during a search of Hale’s home.
Although they did not disclose what drove the shooter to carry out the attack, it was mentioned that they had conducted surveillance of the school and had drawn a detailed map of it, including potential entry points.
Investigators believe the shooter had "some resentment for having to go to [the private Catholic school]".
Metro Nashville police initially said that the shooter was female and "appeared to be in her teens", before clarifying their age of 28 years old.
Shortly after, it was revealed that they were transgender, and a previous student of the school they targeted.
On some social media platforms, Hale identified as a male, using pronouns he/his/him. Their mother, devastated, referred to them as her "daughter".
Norma Hale told ABC news: "It is very, very difficult right now. [...] I think I lost my daughter today."
A neighbour said that the shooter lived at the family's home with their parents, who the neighbour described as "very nice" and "very religious".
In 2022, they graduated from Nashville's Nossi College of Art & Design, having received at least one award for strong academic performance.
The school's president, Cyrus Vatandoost said of Hale: "While at our school, she was a talented artist and a good student."
But Hale had previously expressed their will to commit suicide, according to a close friend of theirs.
In a series of chilling messages to their former middle school basketball teammate, Averianna Patton they confessed that "something bad is about to happen" and that they were going to kill themselves.
"One day this will make more sense," Hale wrote. "I've left behind more than enough evidence behind. But something bad is about to happen."
They signed the messages as "Audrey (Aidan)", implying they might have been looking into transitioning from female to male and wished to use a masculine name.
Ms Patton told WTVF: "I tried to comfort and encourage her and subsequently reached out to the Suicide Prevention Help Line after being instructed to by my father at 10.08am.
"Audrey has shared with others that she had been suicidal in the past and I knew to take this serious."
So Ms Patton called Nashville's non-emergency line and was on hold for nearly seven minutes before speaking with someone who said that they would send an officer to her home. "An officer did not come to my home until 3.29pm," Patton said.
Patton said she wanted to come forward about this circumstance because she believed more urgency should have happened when she reached out to officials for help.
"After phone calls from friends and Audrey's name was released as the shooter at Covenant Nashville school, I learned that Audrey was the shooter and that she had reached out to me prior to the shooting," Patton said.
