The 28-year-old who opened fire at a Nashville school Monday, killing three nine-year-olds and three staff members, sold disturbing art online as a transgender artist.
Audrey Hale, 28, was shot dead by police after staging her attack.
Police said she was transgender and used the pronouns ‘he/his’ online, though Hale, who was born female, was referred to as ‘she’.
Hale ran an online art side, Audrey Hale Illustrations, describing her work as: ‘Commercial Illustration and Graphic Design’.
Hale also had a social media account promoting the art, where Hale referred to herself by the name Aiden.
Hale’s work included a drawing of Jack Nicholson from The Shining, with lyrics including his catchphrase “Where’s Johnny?”
Police released this image of 28-year-old Audrey Hale on Monday after she shot and killed six people at a Nashville school.
Hale drew Jack Nicholson, with the catchphrase from The Shining: “Here’s Johnny!”
The film follows a writer and recovering alcoholic who begins to lose his mind and puts his family in danger when he becomes the caretaker of a ghost-infested hotel.
Hale created this image, titled “Being a Kid Forever and Ever.”
The drawing had the words “Red Rum” written on it – murder, spelled backwards. The words were written on a mirror in a scene from the 1980 horror movie.
Hale also created an image of feet reaching into the sky, with a person reclining, perhaps swinging on a swing.
“To be a child forever and ever,” reads the caption.
Hale also appeared to draw cartoons for a children’s book, ‘Toys and Books’.
Hale left behind a detailed manifesto and plan for the shooting at his home and another at his car.
Nashville Police Chief John Drake told NBC News he believed “resentment” was at the core of her behavior, but did not speculate further.
Hale described herself as a graphic designer and illustrator.
Hale’s art, featured on his Illustrations page.
Hale’s art page, where work was shown under the name Aiden
One of Hale’s pieces was titled ‘Mad World’
Norma Hale (photo center), the mother of Audrey Hale (pictured right), the transgender shooter who killed six people, including three nine-year-olds and three staff members, was herself a Gun control advocate on social media.
Hale began his attack Monday morning, driving into the school parking lot shortly before 10 a.m.
At around 10:13 a.m., Hale opened fire at The Covenant School, shooting and killing Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all aged nine.
Substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, school principal Dr. Katherine Koonce, 60, and janitor Mike Hill, 61, were also killed.
Koonce worked alongside her daughter Anna at The Covenant School, who serves as a teacher/student assistant.
Within 14 minutes, Hale was dead, as Nashville police released photos of the two officers, Rex Engelbart and Michael Collazo, who shot and killed Hale.
In a statement released Monday night, a school spokesperson said: “Our community is heartbroken.
“We are grieving a tremendous loss and are in shock coming out of the terror that tore apart our school and church.
‘We are focused on loving our students, our families, our faculty and staff and beginning the healing process.’
A photo of Audrey Hale inside The Covenant School during the shooting.
This is the moment when the school gates were shattered as Audrey Hale burst through them with one of the three guns she brought with her to kill six people.
Hale was filmed stalking across a tiled area shortly after entering the school. She was shot dead 14 minutes after two police officers stormed the school, after firing at them from an adjoining church.
The shooter was also carrying a 9mm pistol during the killings on Monday.
Nashville police have released photos of the three weapons used in the shooting, which included two assault rifles.
The second of the two rifles used in the shooting has been photographed by Nashville police.
Norma Hale spoke to ABC News shortly after her 28-year-old daughter Audrey Hale was named as the shooter.
She said: ‘It’s very, very difficult right now. I think I lost my daughter today. Norma then requested privacy as her family struggles to cope with the magnitude of her late daughter’s actions.
Norma’s own posts decrying school shootings and calling for greater gun control arose in the wake of Hale’s massacre at the school she once attended.
On February 21, 2018, Norma posted on her page a petition to outlaw high-capacity gun magazines in response to the horrors at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.
And on March 8, 2018, he posted a petition to keep guns out of schools with the caption: “Very important!”
Hale and his family were described as “very kind” and “very religious”. She is pictured here with Audrey and her brother Scott.
Night falls on Brightwood Avenue in Nashville, where the Hale family lives
Hallie Scruggs is seen with her father Chad Scruggs, the pastor of the school’s affiliated Presbyterian church.
Katherine Koonce, the school’s principal (left), and Mike Hill, a janitor (right) were among those shot to death by Audrey Hale.
Substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, known as Cindy (right) is pictured with her daughter Ellie. Peak was one of six people shot to death Monday in Nashville
Audrey Hale, 28, opened fire at a Nashville school Monday, killing six
Hale’s LinkedIn profile suggested they were now living like men
A high school friend of the Hales’ was shocked to learn that the outgoing girl she was running with was behind the massacre.
The friend, who requested anonymity, described Hale to DailyMail.com as “sweet and funny”.
The friend recalled her vague memories with Hale at the Nashville School of the Arts between 2011 and 2014.
“What she did was inexcusable, but when I met her she was a sweet and funny girl,” the friend told DailyMail.com.
‘When she came out as trans (female to male) no one was surprised.
“She didn’t really fit the school shooter archetype.
“I don’t know what would have happened to turn her into this person we see on the news.
‘Everyone in my graduating class is missing out on Facebook.
‘No one would really have seen this coming.’