Covenant School shooter Audrey Hale walks past the Children’s Ministry desk. (Twitter @MNPDNashville)

Due to Hale’s meticulous diaries kept over several years, police noted they could gather significantly more information about her compared to a standard investigation.

The Covenant School was linked to a church that Hale had once attended. The 9-year-old victims included the pastor’s daughter, Hallie Scruggs, as well as Evelyn Dieckhaus and William Kinney. The police identified the adults as 60-year-old Head of School Katherine Koonce, along with Cynthia Peak, 61, and Mike Hill, 61.

The perpetrator had also devised plans for additional targets labeled “B” and “C,” which included the Opry Mills Mall and a section of Belmont Boulevard near the Belmont University campus in Nashville. Investigators revealed that if her parents had uncovered her plans, Hale intended to kill them and proceed with the attack on the Belmont target. 

She spent months practicing at the firing range and painted the phrase “Dark Abyss” on her clothes and guns. That was the name she had given to her depression.

A homemade shirt made by Audrey Hale and found in her bedroom. (Metro Nashville Police Department)

But the attack was delayed multiple times, including once after the death of a close friend in a car crash. 

Hale, who began using the name “Aiden Williams” in the years before her death, was killed by responding officers in harrowing bodycam video.

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.