Nashville Covenant School shooter Audrey Hale wrote in diary entry that she hoped to make Columbine shooters proud: report

Nashville school shooting victim Audrey Hale wrote in a diary that she hoped to make the Columbine shooters proud by opening fire on her former Christian elementary school, killing six people.

“I want my massacre to end in a way that Eric (Harris) and Dylan (Klebold) would be proud of,” Hale wrote in scribbles at the bottom of a lined page in her diary, according to photo evidence from the book obtained and published by the Tennessee Star.

“April of ’99 – the year Columbine/NBK was born… (04-20-1999). The year Aiden was born… (03-27-23!)” Hale wrote in another post, referring to the male name, Aiden, she had chosen for herself.

Hale, a 28-year-old transgender artist, stormed the Covenant School on March 27, 2023, shooting three 9-year-old children and three adult staff members before being killed by police officers.

She planned the “massacre” months in advance and described her suicidal thoughts in the diary entries — which have become the center of a highly contentious legal battle between the publisher of the Tennessee Star and the victims’ families.

“Idc (I don’t care) if people die because I’m the shooter because I’m gonna die too,” Hale scribbled on another page. “I’d kill 2… My only real motivation = mass suicide plus death (infinite).”

The diary is filled with largely incoherent texts, scribbles and descriptions of self-loathing, but also of plans to shoot up the private school.

Hale’s final post on the day of the mass shooting is labeled “Day of Death” next to a drawing of a gun.

“Today is the day. The day has finally come! I can’t believe it’s here. I don’t know how I got this far, but here I am,” she wrote.

“I’m a little nervous but also excited, I’ve been excited for the last 2 weeks,” she continued. “There were multiple times I could have gotten caught, especially in the summer of 2021. That doesn’t matter anymore. I’m almost an hour and 7 miles away.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this, but I’m ready. I hope my victims aren’t,” Hale scrawled harshly.

The entries were part of 90 pages of text from Hale’s notebook, which were released by The Star on Tuesday.

The local newspaper obtained the diary entries in June 2024 from a source familiar with the Hale investigation and has argued that it has a First Amendment right to publish the findings.

But the parents of the three children Hale murdered — William Kinney, Evelyn Dieckhaus and Hallie Scruggs — have begged a judge to ban media from publishing the killer’s writings.

“I will not allow the writings of this shooter to be published in any way. This mass murderer should not be allowed to speak from the grave,” Erin Kinney, William’s mother, wrote in a sworn statement.

The families’ lawyers have argued that they own the copyrights to the lyrics because Hale’s parents signed over the estate to the victims’ families after the shooting.

Free speech advocates and media outlets like The Star have also sued law enforcement agencies to release all of Hale’s writings, arguing that the public has a right to know what motivated the senseless killings.

The entries published Tuesday came from just one of two dozen diaries Hale kept, along with a suicide note and unpublished memoirs.