Killer Bought Multiple Guns In Weeks Leading To Mass Shooting, Police Say

The killer of three children and three adults at a Christian elementary school in Tennessee bought numerous firearms in the weeks leading up to the mass shooting, police have revealed.

- Richard Luscombe

Audrey Hale, 28, was under a doctor's care for an unspecified emotional disorder at the time of the attack, the Nashville police chief, John Drake, said yesterday.

Drake said he believed those killed at the Covenant school, including three nine-year-olds, were not specifically targeted.

"We've determined that [the killer] bought seven firearms from five different gun stores here legally," Drake said. "Three of those weapons were used yesterday during the horrific tragedy.

"Law enforcement knew nothing about the treatment she was receiving but her parents felt she should not own weapons. They were under the impression that she sold one weapon and did not own any more. As it turned out, she had been hiding several weapons within the house."

Police released highly dramatic body-camera video of officers moving though the school and confronting and killing the attacker. The officers, Drake said, "heard gunfire, immediately ran to that, and took care of this horrible situation".

The video prompted many to draw a contrast between the handling of the Nashville shooting and the one last year at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where officers waited more than an hour to confront and kill an intruder who killed 19 children and two teachers.

However, Nashville law enforcement has been accused of failing to respond properly to a report that Hale sent social media messages to a friend before the attack, warning: "Something bad is about to happen."

Drake did not address the matter at yesterday's briefing.

The messages to a former middle school basketball teammate, sent less than an hour before the killings, were "basically a suicide note", the attacker wrote, and "you'll probably hear about me on the news after I die".