A woman is condemning "disgusting" reports that her sister's fatal crash drove a "heartbroken" shooter to kill three students and three staffers at The Covenant School in Nashville.

According to reports, 28-year-old Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale was "infatuated" with Sydney Sims, her former middle school basketball teammate.

In August 2022, Sims died in a car accident. Samira Hardcastle, another former classmate, told the New York Post on Wednesday (March 29) that Hale wrote "heartbroken" messages on social media in the wake of Sims' sudden death.

"I just feel like she took it differently than some of us did. She was still posting about Sydney almost daily," Hardcastle said.

Sydney Sims' twin sister, Taylor Sims, slammed reports linking her sibling's death with the Covenant school shooting, per the Daily Mail.

"Please don’t attach such a nasty, disgusting tragedy to my sister’s name," she wrote on Instagram, per the outlet. "This is very sick and just goes to show people talk. Please leave my sister out of it."

Following the fatal car crash, Hale, who played basketball with the victim roughly 15 years prior, sent the family flowers and attended the funeral. Hale also attended an unveiling of a painting dedicated to Sydney Sims. The Nashville school shooter previously posted a TikTok of herself bouncing a ball, with the caption "For Syd. I look up the sky is bright. It’s a beautiful day. I wish you were here…"

Former friends said Hale may have had a crush on the late Sims, but it was never reciprocated, per the Daily Mail.

"Truth is none of us know why she did that," Taylor Sims said of the shooting, according to the outlet. "Nothing about what she [Hale] has done is Ok, we’ve not had any contact with that girl for years due to other things."

"We all played middle school basketball together. That’s it and that is all," the sister explained. "Granted everyone was welcomed to my sister’s funeral and that’s when we saw her for the first time in a while."

"She then popped up uninvited to my sister’s painting that my mom held a few weeks ago (odd) and still don’t know how she found out, Taylor Sims added. "So with all due respect don’t attach my family, especially my sister, to this mess."

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