A clarification was made to this article. Authorities misidentified the shooter at first, but they later said that he identified as a transgender man.
According to investigators, the heavily armed shooter suspected of killing six people at a Nashville Christian school left behind papers and a map describing his motivations for the crime.
Police identified the attacker as Audrey Elizabeth Hale, 28, a transgender man who was assigned female at birth. Police initially identified Hale as a woman. Hale entered the Covenant school with an AR-style rifle, and AR-style pistol, and another handgun, police said.
“We have a manifesto, we have some writings that we are going over that pertain to this date, the actual incident,” Metro Nashville Police Department Chief John Drake said at an afternoon press conference. “We have a map drawn out of how this was all going to take place.”
Nashville resident Hale was slain by responding police in a school lobby, according to Drake.
Authorities reported that the sixth victim was declared dead at the site, while the other five victims were declared dead at the adjacent Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.
Drake stated, “That could have been far, far worse.”
