Nashville police have released photos of the personally decorated guns used in Monday’s mass shooting at an elementary school in Tennessee.
On Monday, 28-year-old shooting suspect Audrey Hale drove to The Covenant School, a Christian elementary school in Nashville armed with three firearms, where the killer shot dead three young students and three staff members.
Police said Hale was armed with two assault-style rifles and a handgun and had gained entry into the school building by shooting through a side door.
Now, officials have released images of the weapons used by Hale.
The firearms are decorated with stickers on the weapons while one gun has the name “Aiden” written on it, a name that Hale – a transgender man who used he/him pronouns – used on social media.
One of the rifles also had the word “hell” emblazoned on it.
“Hale drove to Covenant Church/School in her Honda Fit this morning, parked, and shot her way into the building. She was armed with 2 assault-type guns and a 9-millimetre pistol,” the police said.
Surveillance footage released by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department shows Hale shooting down the school’s glass double doorway before opening fire on students and staff.
The footage also shows Hale walking around the school’s hallways and coming in and out of different rooms while armed with an assault rifle.
The shooting suspect killed six people, three of them children.
Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all aged nine, died in the shooting. Katherine Koonce, 60, Cynthia Peak, and Mike Hill, both 61, were named as the adult victims.
Hale was then killed on the scene by police officers on the second floor of the school building.
The 28-year-old – an illustrator and graphic designer who attended Nossi College of Art – is a former student of the school.
Police have identified the suspected shooter by their name at birth; Hale reportedly was a transgender man who used he/him pronouns, though law enforcement officials initially described the suspect as a woman in the aftermath of the shooting.
Police did not provide another name but on the suspect’s social media accounts, they refer to themselves as Aiden.
Metro Nashville police chief John Drake said Hale was not believed to have any previous criminal record.
He said a “manifesto” and a map of the school grounds showing entrances had been found at the suspect’s home.
