Audrey Hale Nashville shooting suspect sends final goodbye to friend, Averianna Patton forewarning of something ominous about to happen minutes before mass shooting. Friend reveals transgender was suicidal.
The transgender school shooter who killed three children and three adult staffers yesterday before being gunned down by police sent a message to a friend moments before the rampage, telling her: ‘I’m planning to die today… you’ll probably hear about me on the news.’
Audrey Hale, 28, shot and killed three students aged 9 and three teachers at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, shortly before 10.30am yesterday.
Audrey – who was transgender and also went by ‘Aiden’ – was then shot and killed by police.
Before traveling to the school, the killer sent a final message to Averianna Patton on Instagram.
They had played middle school basketball together and remained friends.
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NEW: Audrey Hale reached out to Averianna Patton, a former basketball teammate moments before committing the mass shooting at Covenant School in Nashville. https://t.co/xEji0aPmDD pic.twitter.com/auMA60CdDU
— FoxNashville (@FOXNashville) March 28, 2023
‘See you again in another life’
At 9.57am, 16 minutes before police were first notified to the shooting, Audrey wrote: ‘So basically that post I made on here about you, that was basically a suicide note.
‘I’m planning to die today. THIS IS NOT A JOKE!!! You’ll probably hear about me on the news after I die.
‘This is my last goodbye. I love you. ‘See you again in another life.’
‘Audrey (Aiden)’.
Responded Patton: ‘Audrey! You have so much more life to live. I pray God keeps and cover you.’
Patton immediately called the cops to report the messages but it was already too late.
By the time she called, Audrey had begun shooting children at the small, church school.
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Patton told News Channel 5 Nashville that another message read: ‘One day this will make more sense. I’ve left behind more than enough evidence behind.
‘But something bad is about to happen.’
During an appearance on CNN on Tuesday morning, she said Hale had been suicidal in the past.
‘Audrey has shared with others that she had been suicidal in the past and I knew to take this serious.’
She also revealed that she was on hold for seven minutes before someone answered her call to the non-emergency police line.
‘I called Nashville’s non-emergency line at 10:14am and was on hold for nearly seven minutes before speaking with someone who said that they would send an officer to my home.
‘An officer did not come to my home until 3:29 p.m,’ she said.
