By Erik Ortiz and Dvid K. Li –
NBC News
Audrey Hale had trouble dealing with the death of a close friend in the months before the attack that killed six people at a private Christian school, people close to Hale said.
Hale, 28, who attacked The Covenant school on Monday, was devastated by the August death of Sydney Shere Sims in a traffic accident, said Samira Hardcastle, a former classmate.
Hale and Sims attended the Isaiah T. Creswell High School of the Arts and the Nashville School of the Arts.
"Audrey definitely admired Sydney," Hardcastle recalled.
Maria Colomy, who was Hale's instructor at the Nossi College of Arts and Design, said Sims' death had an emotional impact on Hale.
Children sign a cross outside the Covenant school in Nashville, Tennessee, Tuesday, March 28. AP
"[There were] a lot of comments like 'you're all that mattered [and] I'm going to miss you forever," Colomy said, paraphrasing what he saw on Hale's social pages.
Sim's father declined to comment.
Hardcastle has struggled to reconcile the image of Hale as a teenager, a decade ago, and the person who killed three 9-year-olds, a school principal, a custodian and a substitute teacher last Monday.
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"I saw the [cops'] body camera videos. The way she was dressed on Monday is exactly what she looked like when she was in high school," Hardcastle said.
"She would wear baggy clothes, kind of mixed. Sometimes she would wear a baseball cap," Hardcastle said.
"She looked on the police camera video exactly how I remember her and how she always dressed."
Another classmate from the high school broke down in tears while speaking to NBC News on Wednesday, expressing sympathy for the victims and Hale, who was killed by police.
Photos of the victims of the attack in Nashville, Tennessee, at a memorial near the school where the shooting occurred.Getty Images
"I doubt there's anyone you can talk to who can say why [this happened]. It doesn't make sense," said the woman, who requested anonymity for fear of online retaliation.
"I will never understand why it is not logical. I am very sad for the death of my friend; I am very sad for the families and loved ones of the victims. I am very sad for the parents because they lost their children."
[On video: This is how some students escaped from the shooting that occurred at the school in Nashville]
Hardcastle, a high school art teacher, ran into Hale last month in downtown Nashville at a show hosted by mutual friend and radio personality Averiana Patton.
Just before the shooting at The Covenant school, Patton received a message from Hale, who warned him that something bad was going to happen.
Nothing in the brief encounter at Patton's show indicated to Hardcastle that anything was about to take a horrible turn.
"She looked like always, just kind of quiet," he said.
"But I don't think she could tell based on those two minutes of interaction how she felt about herself."
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Sonia Castelar, another classmate of Hale's, said the pre-college focused on the arts and attracted students of all kinds.
He recalled Hale dressing in a "90s style, quirky" and appearing to be "nice and quiet."
Now, she confessed to herself, she is "in 'shock' and upset with everything."
“We had other students who were transgender or LGBTQ,” Castelar said.
"Our high school accepted that."
Investigators have not publicly stated a motive for Monday's attack, though Police Chief John Drake hinted that "resentment" may have prompted Hale's attack.
High school Hale showed no sign of "resentment" toward anyone, Hardcastle said.
"No, definitely not. She was very affectionate with everyone and, I think, maybe she just wanted to be accepted," Hardcastle said.
"Everybody was nice to her, because they knew she was maybe on the spectrum [phrase related to autism in general], and she was so nice, so people reciprocated that energy."