Trans killer Audrey Hale used student loan cash to buy guns before Covenant School massacre

In writings from trans Covenant School shooter Audrey Hale that was released on Monday, it was confirmed that the 28-year-old had bought the weapons she used to commit the mass murder with student aid money from a Pell grant.

The newly released records from the FBI shed further light on her motivations, plans, as well as finances behind her plan in the attack. The documents included journal entries from Hale dating back to late 2021. Some of the writings included with the document released by the FBI listed "Christian school (hate religion)" as the reason for targeting the school.

The journal entries from Hale include a page labeled “Account Savings Record,” which also references a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) grant. Hale was attending Nossi College of Art and Design in Nashville at the time, per the Tennessee Star. 

“FASFA [sic] grant checks started at $2,050.86,” Hale wrote in one entry. There was then a series of apparent ledger entries from Hale on the page, including “$2,656.87 (x3 checks from Nossi)" and the next stated, "+$530.00 (x1 check Nossi) ($3,186.87).”

In her writings, she then mentions buying a gun and which ones she would use, which corroborates reports from 2023 that Hale had bought the gun using money from a Pell Grant. Hale's mother had previously stated about the firearm purchase, "It was the grant money."

Hale carried out the shooting on March 27, 2023, at the Christian elementary school she had once attended. She killed six people and wounded others before she was shot dead by police responding to the scene.