Police Silent on Unaccounted Firearms Purchased by Covenant Killer Audrey Hale amid Claim FBI Secretly Seized Evidence
February 10, 2025 Tom Pappert
Audrey Hale
The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) on Monday declined to provide additional details to The Tennessee Star about the firearms legally purchased by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the biological woman who identified as a transgender man when she killed six at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023.
MNPD declined to provide the information just days after a source told The Star that a police captain ordered officers not to complete standard evidence documentation procedures during the search of Hale’s residence and that the FBI absconded with certain evidence without any chain of custody documenting its transfer.
After the attack in 2023, MNPD stated that Hale had legally purchased seven firearms, but The Star has only been able to determine the fate of five of the weapons based on MNPD statements, public reporting, and police documents The Star obtained from a source close to the investigation in June 2024.
Hale used three of the guns during the attack, including two 9mm handguns and one AR-15 rifle. These were recovered from her body after MNPD fatally shot the killer.
One more weapon was recovered from the Hale family residence by law enforcement, and according to an inventory of evidence published by The Star last year, this firearm is a Mossberg 590 12 gauge shotgun. Hale also paired the weapon with a Browning sleeve for transportation.
Photos of the shotgun, obtained by The Star, appear to reveal the killer created a label for the firearm, naming it “Slugger.”
