(ReclaimingAmerica.net) – Audrey Hale, the biological woman identifying as a “transgender man” who killed six people in Nashville, Tennessee, had a stash of seven firearms, according to police.
On Monday, 28-year-old Hale shot and killed three nine-year-olds and three adults at Covenant Presbyterian School, a private Christian school in Nashville, before getting gunned down by police officers.
The perpetrator of the deadliest school shooting in the United States in almost a year had hidden her weapon cache from her parents, Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake told reporters on Tuesday, as cited by The New York Post.
Hale’s parents didn’t want her to possess guns since she was treated for an emotional disorder.
Drake noted she had legally purchased her firearms from different local gun stores. During the attack on Covenant School, she used three of them – two semi-automatic rifles and a handgun.
“She was under care, doctor’s care, for an emotional disorder,” said the Nashville police chief, without revealing its exact type.
“[The police] knew nothing about the treatment she was receiving,” he added.
Drake made it clear the investigators were seeking to establish whether the shooter’s gender identity affected the perpetrating of the massacre.
The report noted the police referred to Hale as a woman, and it remained unknown whether she identified as a female or a male. On some social media, the shooter used the name Aiden and male pronouns.
“Her parents felt she should not own weapons … they were under the impression that when she sold the one weapon that she did not own any more,” Drake revealed.
“As it turned out, she had been hiding several weapons within the house,” he added.
The police found the weapon stash and a manifesto after raiding Hale’s family house.
The Nashville police chief disclosed Hale’s mother saw her carrying a red bag when leaving the house on Monday morning and asked her what was inside. The shooter didn’t answer.
Her mother thought Hale owned no more firearms, so she didn’t look inside the bag.
Drake said the police would have tried to remove Hale’s guns if they knew she was suicidal, even though Tennessee law doesn’t allow firearm confiscation due to medical treatment.
“As it stands, we had absolutely no idea … who this person was, that she even existed,” he said.
The police chief added that the investigation hadn’t established Hale’s motive for the slaughter and that she randomly shot the victims.
The shooter was gunned down during a shootout with police officers in a second-floor atrium.
Her victims are Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9; Hallie Scruggs, 9; William Kinney, 9; custodian Mike Hill, 61; substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61; and headmaster Katherine Koonce, 60.
