Audrey Hale: Nashville school denies shooter targeted pastor Chad Scruggs whose daughter died in shooting
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE: A former pastor of the Covenant School is denying his claim that Nashville school shooter, Audrey Hale, was possibly targeting the school’s head pastor who was the father of one of her victims. The 28-year-old trans man opened fire at the private school where she was a former student, killing three students and three staffers before being shot dead by police on Monday morning, March 27.
In a startling development to come three days after Hale killed six people, ex-head pastor Jim Bachmann walked back his claims that the shooter was receiving “private counseling sessions” from the school’s head pastor, Chad Scruggs, before the massacre. “Metro Nashville Police have been clear that no one was targeted in the shooting, and Pastor Scruggs was not counseling the shooter. The former pastor had said on a television program he had heard that, but it is not accurate and is based on hearsay, not fact,” the school representatives told the Daily Mail on Thursday, March 30.
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Chad Scruggs's daughter Hallie was one of the victims
Bachmann also spoke to the NY Post confessing that he has made false claims. "I think there’s just some confusion because she had, years earlier," the ex-pastor for the Covenant School stated on Thursday. According to the Telegraph, Hale gunned down three nine-year-olds identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and Hallie, who was pastor Scruggs’ daughter. Among the school staff killed in the mass shooting were headmistress Katherine Koonce, 60, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, and chef Mike Hill, 61. As of now, no official motive for the incident has been discovered.
Bachmann's original claims
Bachmann had initially speculated that Hale could have been targeting Pastor Scruggs' other three children. He told InsideEdition that she would have "left his daughter alone" if she had been able to find Scruggs. However, the current head pastor of the Covenant school was not present on-site at the time of the tragic incident. "I'm hearing he was providing counseling for her, and something didn't sit right with her, and so she targeted his daughter and perhaps his two sons that attend another private school. If she'd found Chad and tried to kill him, maybe she would have left his daughter alone, I don't know. She was a very normal, happy-go-lucky little girl who liked to play kickball with the boys, and her parents were wonderful people." said Bachmann. Notably, Hale had recently started going by the name Aiden and used he/him pronouns.
Hale was planning to attack two other sites
Nashville Police Chief John Drake stated that Hale had been suffering from an “emotional disorder” at the time of the shooting. The MNPD also discovered a left-behind “manifesto” and “drawn out” maps of the school detailing how the shooting “was all going to take place.” Hale was also reportedly planning to attack two other sites including a nearby mall and a second school before he was shot dead by the responding police officers.