A former teammate of Audrey Hale, the suspect in Monday's shooting at Nashville's Covenant School that left six people dead, told a sheriff's office non-emergency operator on Monday that she received concerning Instagram messages from Hale and wanted deputies to check on her.
The Nashville Police Department said that Audrey Hale entered The Covenant School by shooting through a locked glass door around 10:13 a.m. on Monday morning and was armed with two rifles and a handgun.
Three students, all 9-years-old, were killed during the shooting: Hallie Scruggs, Evelyn Dieckhaus, and William Kinney. Three employees at the school were also killed: Head of School Katherine Koonce, 60, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, and custodian Mike Hill, 61.
"I received a very, very weird message from my friend on Instagram. I think it was like a suicidal thing. I called the suicide hotline and they told me to call the sheriff's department and the sheriff's department told me to call you guys. I'm just trying to see can anybody…. I don't want it on my conscience if somebody can go check on her," Averianna Patton said in the call.
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Hale, a 28-year-old transgender individual who was a former student at The Covenant School, was killed after firing at responding officers.
When Patton said that she only had Hale's Instagram handle, the operator said, "we can't send anything out without an address."
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The call was received at 10:21 a.m., which a spokesperson says was around the time that officers arrived at The Covenant School and responded to the shooting, according to FOX 17.
According to the report, Hale sent a message to Patton saying that she is "planning to die today."
"So basically that post I made on here about you, that was basically a suicide note," Hale wrote. "I'm planning to die today."
