NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Newly obtained recordings take us into the interview room with the parents of The Covenant School shooter.
This was only hours after the shooting, but it was the first opportunity for Metro Nashville Police Department detectives to understand why Audrey Hale was compelled to commit one of the worst school shootings in state history.
Covenant School students Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, were all killed in the shooting. Covenant staff members Cynthia Peak, Katherine Koonce, and Mike Hill, also died.
The shooter was dead by then, but police asked the shooter's parents about Hale’s history of mental health issues long before the shooting.
You can hear that audio in the player above.
“Do any of the treatments she went through, any of the therapists, if you’re able to say so, did they ever express to you guys that she was having homicidal ideations or anything like that?” a detective asked.
“None of the therapists ever felt that they had a duty to warn anybody," Hale’s father, Ronald Hale, responded.
“Only when she had suicidal ideation about her well-being,” Hale’s mother, Norma Hale, replied.
It’s not clear from the short clips NewsChannel 5 Investigates obtained of this more than hour-long interview whether Hale’s parents felt Vanderbilt doctors could have done more if they knew Hale was a threat to others.
A police report summarizing this interview shows doctors told Hale’s parents sometime between five and eight years prior that Hale, “needs to go to Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital because she is talking about suicidal ideations specifically about school shootings.”
Hale wasn’t admitted to the psychiatric hospital, but parents said Hale did receive some treatment.
NewsChannel 5 legal analyst Nick Leonardo said that no different than attorney-client privilege, Hale’s doctors were required to keep their conversations confidential unless there was an immediate threat.
“So, is there liability on Vanderbilt? That’s going to be determined by what they know and when they knew it. That’s information that you really can’t get into because it’s privileged,” Leonardo said.
The Tennessee Star, an online outlet, recently published some of Hale’s final journal entries where Hale wrote, “For 5 years, I planned to die. Now I am finally ready to go.”
This was two weeks before The Covenant School shooting, where Hale also wrote, “I want my massacre to end in a way that Eric and Dylan would be proud of.”
Detectives said Hale was obsessed with the two teens responsible for the 1999 Columbine School shooting where 13 people died.
“So, she saw the documentary for the Columbine shooting, and she said something along the lines of how she felt close to them, how she could empathize with them and how they felt,” detectives said.
Hale’s parents said they knew nothing about an obsession with Columbine or anything else written in the journals.
“I’ve never read any of them,” Norma Hale said.
“I didn’t know if she expressed it. It’s just kind of like the thing we have to ask, just because,” detectives replied.
“No, the thing is, I just figured this is part of the therapeutics. I thought this was part of the therapeutic process,” Norma Hale said.
Columbine may have given Hale the idea to attack a school, but it still didn’t explain why Hale chose the school she once attended.
“Did she speak about her experience at Covenant School at all? Did it appear to be a positive experience?” detectives asked.
“It was very positive,” Norma Hale replied.
There was very little mention of Covenant in these journal entries.
What we found instead had more to do with what Hale’s parents said was a fixation with death after the loss of a friend that, “she worshipped her whole life.”
“I know Sydney is waiting for me. My time is coming soon to leave this realm behind. All my pain and all that I have…except you,” Hale wrote.
Hale’s parents said they never noticed any changes in behavior, but this raised another important question: How did someone with a well-known history of suicidal thoughts, a fixation on school shootings and death, get access to firearms?
“If that’s not a wake-up call for the people in America with the power to make change, I don’t know what is, “Leonardo said.
On at least one occasion, Hale bought firearms and then sold them.
Hale’s parents told detectives they weren’t sure how Hale purchased firearms, but they always forced her to sell each gun.
We later learned that therapists met with Hale and “agreed she should not have weapons,” but it’s not clear if anything was documented.
Leonardo said this is where lawmakers could pass a law allowing healthcare professionals to raise concerns about a patient’s access to guns without jeopardizing patient privacy.
“The General Assembly could take actions to where we could make referrals, soften that privilege or it could be reported to a database that is also confidential.
If you look at what Hale said and wrote, it was clear years ago that something was wrong.
We still don’t have a clear motive for the Covenant School shooting, but Leonardo said just as important as understanding why the shooting happened, is understanding how we can keep this from happening again.
Many of Hale’s writings have been part of an ongoing legal battle between families of those who died and have children attending the school and several news outlets requesting access to these documents.
Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles ruled in favor of The Covenant School parents, who argued that they now held the copyright to these writings after Hale’s parents transferred ownership.
That effectively kept anyone from trying to obtain these documents through Tennessee Public Records Act (TPRA) requests, since they were now, in fact, part of a police investigation.
Judge Myles ruled that “the original writings, journals, art, photos, and videos created by Hale are subject to an exception to the TPRA created by the federal Copyright Act.”
Hale left behind at least 20 journals, some of which may be released as part of the police file, once the case is officially closed. That is, as long as they fall under the state’s TPRA.
Attorneys have long said they plan to appeal Judge Myles’ ruling but are currently waiting to see what documents could be made public once Metro Police close their case.
There’s been no indication from Metro Police on when we can expect that to happen.
