Four months after Audrey Hale murdered six people at the Covenant School in Nashville, her manifesto remains in the hands of the FBI. While revelations await, autopsies enable the victims to testify. Consider Mike Hill, 61, the school’s custodian.
According to medical examiner Kevin B. Jenkins, Hale shot the African American in the right lateral chest, causing wounds to the lungs and mainstem bronchi, thoracic spine, aorta and left rib. Hale’s shot perforated Hill’s vertebral body and lung, causing marked disruption of the parenchyma.
Hale also shot Hill in the upper left arm, with a trajectory “slightly back to front.” A “deformed copper jacketed bullet with green colored tip” was recovered, indicating Hale’s preference for the AR-15 style rifle, labeled “CRUNT///,” in bold white letters, and firing .223/.556 mm ammunition. Hale also deployed a 9 mm Kel-tec SUB carbine and a Smith & Wesson 9 mm handgun.
The rifle reports alerted Covenant headmaster Katherine Koonce who confronted the shooter in the hall. Hale shot her in the head, and according to medical examiner Emily Dennison, the bullet entered through the left side of the scalp and perforated the left temporal lobe of the brain. Another shot to the head perforated the left orbit before perforating through the left eye and the base of the skull.
Hale’s shot also perforated the roof of Koonce’s mouth, oropharynx and tongue before exiting the body through the mandible. Koonce also took a shot in the neck and the right side of her torso, causing rib fractures, pulmonary lacerations and soft tissue hemorrhage. The shots damaged Koonce’s right lung, diaphragm, liver and other organs. “Due to the amount of destruction,” the medical examiner wrote, “the pathways cannot be fully determined.”
The Covenant School headmaster also suffered “traumatic loss of teeth,” and loose teeth were found near the body. That may have resulted from the “blunt force trauma” the shooter applied.
Hale shot teacher Cynthia Peak (née Broyles) on the right side of the face, 4 inches from the top of the head and 2 inches anterior to the right lateral midline. According to Dr. Dennison, who performed the autopsy, the shot caused a hemorrhage in the left and right temporal scalp and extensive radiating and comminuted fractures of the calvarial and basilar skull and fractures of the anterior mandible.
On the left lateral neck, 7 inches from the top of the head, is a “gaping gunshot exit wound.” Bullet fragments were recovered from the head, and the trajectory was right to left, downward and front to back.
Hale’s gunshot to Peak’s left lateral chest perforated the upper lobes of both lungs, creating marked disruption of the parenchyma. The shot also perforated the aorta and caused “multiple transmural lacerations of the aortic arch.”
All told, the victim suffered multiple gunshot wounds, causing injuries to the brain, brainstem, cerebellum, skull bones and soft tissues of the left neck. The manner of death was judged to be “homicide.”
Audrey Hale was a former student at the Covenant School, which she carefully surveilled for months. With adults down, the shooter moved on to children like Halley Scruggs.
According to forensic pathologist Kevin B. Jenkins, the 9-year-old girl sustained gunshot wounds to the head, pelvis, abdomen, thigh and “upper lateral back.” Hale’s shots caused injuries to multiple ribs, lungs, spleen, kidneys, thoracic vertebra, spinal cord, diaphragm and liver, from which a bullet was recovered.
According to forensic pathologist Emily Dennison, 9-year-old William Joseph Kinney suffered a gunshot wound to the head, perforating the skull and bilateral cerebral hemispheres. Hale also shot Kinney in the torso, right arm, abdomen and back. One wound showed stippling, evidence that Hale shot the male child at close range. The pathologist discovered “minor blunt force trauma of the body.”
Dr. Dennison also performed the autopsy on Covenant School student Evelyn Dieckhaus, who suffered gunshot wounds to the arms, posterior torso, right hip, left leg, buttock and pelvis. Hale’s shots wounded the child’s abdomen, spleen, stomach, liver, diaphragm, pericardial sac and heart. A bullet was recovered, and there was “minor blunt force trauma of the body.”
Emily Dieckhaus, William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs all died from “multiple gunshot wounds” and were “shot by another person,” which indicates “homicide.” The three youngest victims were also shot “in school” on Monday, March 27. Katherine Koonce tried to stop it.
“I guarantee when it was time to spring into action, she did because she wanted to protect those kids and her teachers,” said friend and former co-worker Jim Lee. “That was her job and she knew it. I’m sure she did not hesitate for a second.”
Cynthia Peak “was a bright star and we all loved her dearly,” said friend Peggy Murphy. “She probably considered those children in that school her family,” added Louisiana state representative Chuck Owen, a longtime friend.
Nikki Roberts, who knew Mike Hill from the Covenant School, called him “a hero.” According to pastor Jim Bachmann, Mike Hill was “big and he was strong, and he was tough, but he was also soft and tender.” Hill leaves behind seven children and 14 grandchildren.
When a white person guns down a black person, in any circumstance, the default explanation is racism, hate crime and so forth. None of that with Audrey Hale, who pretty much got a pass from the media and the White House.
Joe Biden failed to identify or condemn the shooter, failed to name a single murder victim, and did not attend any of the funerals. Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “Our hearts go out to the trans community as they are under attack right now.” In reality, the trans forces are on the attack, becoming more hostile.
“Trantifa,” a combination of transgender and Antifa, denotes a “far-left trans movement spreading across [the] U.S” and “intimidating and physically assaulting those who disagree with them. Trans swimmer Lia Thomas was recently photographed wearing a black T-shirt reading “Antifa Super Soldier.” Call it violence signaling.
“Trans violent militancy is the current focus of #Antifa,” contends journalist Andy Ngo. “They believe that critics of trans ideology should be silenced, maimed or murdered. Some call for sexual violence against females in particular, as revenge.”
In the run-up to the April 1 “Trans Day of Vengeance,” Audrey Hale murdered Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, Hallie Scruggs, Katherine Koonce, Cynthia Peak and Mike Hill. Hale’s manifesto remains under wraps, but her slaughter of six in Nashville could be a sign of “trantifa” violence to come. The struggle against trans hatred and violence is the struggle of memory against forgetting.