Audrey Hale: Ex-basketball teammates recall 'obsessive' Nashville school shooter's 'stalkerish behavior'
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE: The Nashville school shooter was deemed as “obsessive” and “stalkerish” toward her former middle school basketball teammates. Audrey Hale, 28, who was biologically female and recently began using 'he/him' pronouns, was a former student at The Covenant School. Hale gunned down three young students and three staffers before being fatally shot by police on Monday, March 27.
The ex-teammates claimed Hale was a shy girl at the time and apparently enjoyed shooting hoops at Isaiah T Creswell Middle School, The Tennessean reported. Because of her introverted persona, team members tried to make her feel welcome. However, things turned awry, after Hale became heartbroken over her teammate Sydney Sims' death who died in a tragic car crash and the 28-year-old was reportedly known to be “infatuated” with.
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A former head coach at Creswell remembered Hale as a shy eighth grader who was essentially a bench warmer. Antoine Buchanan said, “She would have played if we were really winning or really losing.” Another teammate Mia Phillips, 28, recalled Hale as being shy to obsessive over time. Hale was shy, “So we embraced her and really befriended her,” she said. The two girls later attended different high schools and drifted apart, but Hale immediately reached out to her in a way she found disturbing. When Philips moved to Middle Tennessee State University, she was surprised to see an email from Hale, who also sent her memorabilia from their time as teammates. “I’m trying to be as respectful and also as honest as possible. It felt obsessive. It felt like stalkerish behavior,” Phillips said.
Philips recalled another incident where she claims Hale made people uncomfortable. In February 2022, Hale showed up uninvited to a birthday party, which was attended by several of her former teammates at an eatery in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. At the party, Phillips said Hale was pretending to be intoxicated, stumbling and slurring words, while others believed she hadn't had anything to drink. When Phillips asked Hale for her phone so she could call her family to get her home safely, she apparently refused. “Everybody was confused. It was just rubbing us in a weird way of like, giving us a really negative feeling. It didn’t feel right,” she told the outlet.
'I’m planning to die today!'
However, when Phillips left the party, she said she soon received messages from Hale begging her to return. During Sim's memorial, Hale approached Phillips as she was about to drive off and asked if they could hang out. “I was expressing to her that it was not the time or the place — that we were all grieving,” Phillips said. Another former teammate Averianna Patton, who called 911 after receiving a slew of disturbing messages from Hale minutes from the massacre said, “Audrey was super timid when we first met her. We had real camaraderie. As far as on the court, we were like a family,” she told the outlet. Hale allegedly messaged Patton saying, “I’m planning to die today,” using the name Aiden. “'THIS IS NOT A JOKE!!!' You’ll probably hear about me on the news after I die,” she reportedly added. Hale gunned down three 9-year-olds Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, William Kinney, school janitor Mike Hill, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, and headmistress Katherine Koonce.