(CNN) — An art instructor who taught Nashville school shooting shooter Audrey Hale at the university told CNN she once witnessed Hale’s outburst in class and that he appeared to be “suffering,” according to media posts. socials made during the last year.
Maria Colomy, the instructor, taught Hale for two semesters in 2017 at Nossi College of Art & Design in Nashville. On the first day of class, Hale couldn’t figure out how to set a password, she got upset and had to leave the room, Colomy told CNN. It was the only outburst from this person that she saw, she added.
Colomy described Hale at the time as a small, quiet student, detailing her work as “whimsical” and “childish.”
“I could have seen (Hale) make a living doing children’s books,” Colomy said.
Colomy followed Hale on Facebook, and for the past year her former student’s posts mourned the apparent death of a former women’s basketball teammate, the instructor said.
“The only thing I saw (Hale) post was about this girl,” she said.
Students from Nashville’s The Covenant School shake hands after getting off a bus to meet their parents at the reunification site following a deadly shooting. Credit: Mark Zaleski/USA Today Network/Reuters
It was around this time that Hale expressed his desire to use the pronoun “he” and the name Aiden on Facebook. Police reported that Hale was a transgender person.
“From what I saw on social media, (Hale) was in pain,” Colomy said.
Hale attended Covenant Elementary, and on Monday stormed the facility, killing six people, after carefully planning the attack, according to authorities.
His parents said the 28-year-old Hale was living with them and was under a doctor’s care for an “emotional disturbance,” Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake said at a news conference Tuesday.
Hale had several writings and maps of the school, as well as drawings of how to get inside, Drake said. Covenant Elementary is a private Christian school that offers classes from preschool to sixth grade and has about 200 students.
It is known that Hale left his home Monday morning with a red bag and that his mother did not know there were weapons inside, Drake said.
