The shooter who gunned down six victims at a private Christian school in Nashville Monday sought to inflict violence on other targets, police said Tuesday.
“We strongly believe there was going to be some other targets, including maybe family members, and one of the malls here in Nashville,” Nashville Police Chief John Drake told CBS News Tuesday. “And that just did not happen.”
The shooter, identified as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, stormed into The Covenant School Monday morning and began firing at victims indiscriminately.
Hale shot and killed three 9-year-olds and three staffers before police fatally shot her inside the building.
Following the deadly tragedy, police searched Hale’s Nashville home and recovered a stockpile of guns as well as a manifesto and “some more maps pertaining to maybe some thinking about some other incidents,” Drake told the news station.
Hale also had a map of the school, where she was once a student years ago.
Drake said the killer “had some history there” and that the attack was “targeted and planned.”
Police do not believe any of the victims were specifically targeted.
“What detectives have said so far is there’s possibly some resentment for having to go to that school,” he added.
Investigators, however, have not determined an official motive and have not revealed the contents of Hale’s manifesto.
Hale was undergoing treatment for “an emotional disorder” before the shooting, Drake previously said.
A friend that Hale messaged from the parking lot of the school right before she began the violent rampage said she has been suicidal in the past.
The dead have been identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all 9, as well as custodian Mike Hill, 61, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, and headmaster Katherine Koonce, 60.
