Covenant School DENIES Claims Shooter Audrey Hale Was Targeting Head Pastor Chad Scruggs In Rampage
The Covenant School has denied claims shooter Audrey Hale was possibly targeting the school’s head pastor when she murdered three children and three adults earlier this week, RadarOnline.com has learned.
In a startling development to come three days after Hale, 28, opened fire at the Covenant School and killed six on Monday morning, it was falsely claimed that the shooter was receiving “private counseling sessions” from the school’s head pastor, Chad Scruggs, prior to the massacre.
Hallie Scruggs, the head pastor’s 9-year-old daughter, was one of the six victims murdered by Hale on Monday, and some sources believed Hale was allegedly targeting Pastor Scruggs in the attack.
“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,” Jim Bachmann, the Covenant School’s former head pastor, said on Thursday.
“If she'd found Chad and tried to kill him, maybe she would have left his daughter alone, I don't know,” Bachmann added, confirming that Pastor Scruggs was not at the school when Hale stormed the building and opened fire on Monday morning.
But shortly after Bachmann spoke out on Thursday, the Covenant School released a statement refuting the former head pastor's claims and denying all reports that Hale targeted Pastor Scruggs in Monday's shooting.
"Metro Nashville Police have been clear that no one was targeted in the shooting, and Pastor Scruggs was not counseling the shooter," the private Christian school told Daily Mail.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Hale stormed the Covenant School at approximately 10:13 AM Monday morning before being killed by the responding Metro Nashville Police Dept. officers roughly fifteen minutes later at 10:28 AM.
Before being killed by the responding officers, Hale fatally shot three nine-year-old students – one of which being Pastor Scruggs’ daughter, Hallie – as well as three adult staffers at the school.
The MNPD is still searching for a motive for this week’s shooting, and it has been revealed that Hale was suffering from an emotional disorder and collecting firearms in the leadup to the attack.
“The parents felt [Hale] should not own weapons,” Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said in a statement on Tuesday, revealing Hale was in possession of seven different firearms. “They were under the impression that when [Hale] sold the one weapon that [Hale] did not own anymore.”
“As it turned out, [Hale] had been hiding several weapons within the house,” Chief Drake added.
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Although the MNPD is still searching for a definitive motive for Monday’s mass shooting, they revealed Hale left behind a “manifesto” as well as “drawn out” maps of the school detailing how the shooting “was all going to take place.”
Hale was also reportedly planning to attack a nearby mall and a second school before she was killed by the responding police officers after killing six on Monday morning.