- The shooting took place on Monday at The Covenant School in Nashville
- Shooter has been named as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, who lives nearby
- For live updates follow DailyMail.com’s coverage here
By JEN SMITH, CHIEF REPORTER and VANESSA SERNA IN NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and SHAWN COHEN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 11:51 EDT, 27 March 2023 | UPDATED: 18:12 EDT, 27 March 2023
Six people – including three children – are dead after a transgender female shooter opened fire at a private school in Nashville, killing three nine-year-old children and three staff members.
The shooter was 28-year-old Audrey Hale, who at one time attended the school.
Police said she identified as transgender, and online profiles show Audrey used ‘he/him’ pronouns.
At around 10.13am, she opened fire at The Covenant School, shooting and killing nine-year-old Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney.
Substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, head of school Katherine Koonce, 60, and custodian Mike Hill, 61, were also killed. 
- A terrified child presses her hand against the glass of a school bus window after being evacuated from The Covenant School
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- Children hold hands as they leave The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday after a female shooter opened fire, killing three kids and three staff members
- Terrified children peer out the windows of their school bus as they wait to be driven away from the school after the shooting
- Children from The Covenant School run past an ambulance on Monday after a female shooter opened fire, killing three staff members and three students, before being shot by police
- A father carries his son out of The Covenant School in Nashville after a shooter killed three students and two staff members before being shot dead.
It’s unclear what Hale’s motive was, but police believe she attended the school at some point. She had detailed, drawn maps of the school and had been surveilling it, according to police.
‘We have a manifesto, we have some writings. We have a map drawn out of how this was all going to take place,’ Nashville Police John Chief Drake said.
The small school is run by a church and does not employ a school resource officer.
Shortly before 10.13am, the woman entered the school through a side door and began opening fire on the second floor.
Katherine Koonce, head of school, was among those shot dead by Hale
It’s unclear how she gained access to the building. Police say all of the doors were locked.
Police arrived at the scene and heard the gunshots coming from the 2nd floor.
By 10,.27am, she had been shot dead. She was armed with two assault-style rifles and a handgun.
Parents have been told to collect their children from a nearby church, but no other information has been given.
‘I know this is probably the worst day of everyone’s lives.
‘I can’t tell you how sympathetic we are,’ a Metro Police officer was heard telling the parents as they waited at a nearby church for updates.
Neighbors of the school watched as parents frantically rushed to the scene to find their children.
‘Everyone as a parent are terrified. 
- Parents collect their children from The Covenant School in Nashville on Monday
- A family prays together after being reunited outside The Covenant School in Nashville
- A man carries a child at the reunification center at the Woodmont Baptist church after a school shooting, Monday, March 27, 2023, in Nashville
- A man walks with children at a reunification center at the Woodmont Baptist Church after a shooting at The Covenant School
- Adults walk with a child at a reunification center at the Woodmont Baptist Church
- Adults walk with a child at a reunification center at the Woodmont Baptist Church after the shooting
- A man takes two children home from The Covenant School after Monday’s shooting
- Two adults escort terrified kids away from the Covenant School on Monday after a school shooting
- Children and adults wait outside The Covenant School in Nashville following the shooting
- Parents gathered in the sanctuary waiting for updates on whether or not their children were among those harmed
- A police officer walks by an entrance to The Covenant School after a shooting in Nashville
- Terrified children hold hands as they leave The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday after a shooter opened fire, killing three children, before being shot dead by police
- A woman holds her young child after a school shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville on Monday. Three children were killed by the woman
‘You don’t send you kid to school thinking there would be an active shooting, especially in this area.
‘Just hearing as a parent myself it’s truly overwhelming. Seeing all the parents run up the hill to see if their children are okay,’ Lisa Debusk told DailyMail.com.
Susan Perkins, 68, told DailyMail.com that her daughter and step-grandson were in the school at the time of the shooting, and unhurt.
Her daughter is a communications director and her step-grandson is a sixth grade student.
‘I talked to my daughter and she was so busy she just couldn’t talk, just enough to say she was okay,’ said the mother, who lives in Knoxville, TN.
‘I’m just shaking with fear and so sorry that this happened,’ she said. ‘I just can’t hardly believe that three children got killed.’
She described Covenant School as a small, tightknit, Christian school where everyone knows and supports each other.
‘I did not think it would ever hap to my school and I would like to see the guns off the street,’ Perkins said.
- Terrified parents wait for their kids at The Covenant School in Nashville. The woman was killed by police
- Parents rushed to the scene to collect their children after the incident on Monday morning
- Children pour out of The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday
Parents gather in the sanctuary of Woodmont Baptist Church in Nashville on Monday after a shooter opened fire, killing three students
At the National League of Cities conference on Monday, First Lady Jill Biden said: ‘I am truly without words. Our children deserve better. We stand with Nashville in prayer’
‘Thank you to the first responders working on site. Please join us in prayer for those affected.’
Sen. Bill Haggerty tweeted: ‘Devastated and heartbroken about the tragic news at Covenant School.
‘I’m grateful to law enforcement and first responders for their heroic actions.’
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee tweeted: ‘I am closely monitoring the tragic situation at Covenant…as we continue to respond, please join us in praying for the school, congregation & Nashville community.’
At a press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the shooting was proof the ongoing need for stricter gun reform.
First Lady Jill Biden, speaking at the National League of Cities conference on Monday, told the crowd: ‘We just learned about another shooting in Tennessee – a school shooting.
‘I am truly without words. Our children deserve better. We stand with Nashville in prayer.’
Monday’s shooting is the 129th shooting this year.