Audrey Hale was infatuated and heartbroken with school crush, Sydney Sims, with the woman’s death provoking Nashville school shooting- assertion twin’s surviving sister describes as ‘disgusting’.
A report has suggested Nashville transgender shooter, Audrey Hale was provoked to go on her gun rampage that left 3 children dead along with three adult staffers following the death of a female crush who she had once played on the same basketball team with in school. A claim that the twin’s surviving sister disputes.
Samira Hardcastle speaking to the nypost said that ‘tomboyish’ Hale,28, had been deeply affected by the death of Sydney Sims, who was killed in a vehicle accident in August 2022, according to an obituary.
Hardcastle, a classmate of both girls in middle and high school, told the tabloid, ‘After Sydney’s tragic death, Audrey was really heartbroken over it … I just feel like she took it differently than some of us did. She was still posting about Sydney almost daily.
‘What I knew of her was more admiring [Sydney]. Maybe even infatuation. That’s specifically who she really, really looked up to.’
Hale, who police said was transgender and had started to identify using he/him pronouns, posted a TikTok in February on a since-deleted account, ‘iam_aiden10,’ dedicated to ‘Syd.’
Triggered by the death of female crush?
The clip showed a shadow of a person bouncing a basketball and the words: ‘For Syd. I look up the sky is bright. It’s a beautiful day. I wish you were here…’
Hardcastle said she had last seen Audrey — who shot her way into her former private Christian elementary school on Monday and killed three 9-year-olds and three staff members — a month ago when they had both attended a taping of their friend Avieranna Patton’s radio show.
‘I don’t think she was with anyone. She was just kind of by herself,’ Hardcastle said, adding, ‘I don’t think that they were very close but I think Audrey looked up to [her] like she looked up to Sydney. But I don’t know that it was ever, like, a two-way thing.’
Patton was the last person Hale contacted in the minutes before her shooting spree, sending her a message saying: ‘This is my last goodbye. I love you … See you again in another life.’
Referencing the report that alluded to Hale being triggered by the death of her twin sister, Taylor Sims, 28, went on Instagram to dispute that her sister was ever involved with Hale and that her sister’s death triggered Hale to kill others.
‘Please don’t attach such a nasty, disgusting tragedy to my sister’s name,’ the twin wrote according to a now private Instagram account. ‘This is very sick and just goes to show people talk. Please leave my sister out of it.’
While Hale may have had a crush on Sims in the past there was never any suggestion it was reciprocated according to Hardcastle.
Former classmates and instructors of Nashville shooter, Audrey Hale, told reporters that Hale was devastated by the death of friend Sydney Shere Sims, which ended up taking a great emotional toll.
Nashville shooter spiraled after death of a close friend: https://t.co/t1wjWhHVQs pic.twitter.com/rytwD5Yxg9
— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) March 30, 2023
Death of crush leads to gender identity crises
Hardcastle said Hale was a ‘tomboy’ back in school but did not appear to transition until adulthood.
Maria Colomy, a former instructor at the Nossi College of Art & Design in Nashville, who taught Hale as an adult, said her transition began around the same time as she was grieving the loss of a romantic partner, the New York Times reported.
Hale had written about how she missed the person and frequently posted pictures of the pair playing basketball, according to the teacher.
‘The only thing I would see [Hale] post would be about this girl,’ she told CNN.
‘She had been openly grieving about that on social media, and during the grieving is when she announced that she wanted to be addressed as a male,’ Colomy added to the New York Times.
Nashville Metro police say they are still searching for a motive for why Hale chose to shoot up the private Christian elementary Covenant School, which she had at one time attended, while having recovered a manifesto she had written before she embarked on the spree.
Nashville Police Chief John Drake said they are looking into whether Hale’s identity played a role in the slaughter.
