The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) expects to make an announcement regarding the conclusion of its investigation into the Covenant School shooting sometime in the next two weeks, the agency told The Tennessee Star on Friday.
With the forthcoming announcement likely to occur in April, it seems clear any conclusion of the case will come more than two years after 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a biological female who identified as a transgender man, and killed three students and three faculty members at her former Christian elementary school on March 27, 2023.
After hearing from a source familiar with the matter that MNPD was on the verge of ending its investigation and releasing internal documents, The Star asked MNPD if a conclusion is imminent, and if so, what document production could be expected afterward.
MNPD Public Affairs Director Don Aaron told The Star, “I anticipate an announcement will be made in the near future, might be April, barring unforeseen circumstances.”
The forthcoming announcement follows nearly two years of litigation by Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Star, and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy, as well as from other media outlets and one state lawmaker, who all sought to compel MNPD to release Hale’s voluminous writings.
Hale reportedly left more than 900 pages of writings in notebooks, which the killer wrote over more than a decade, and while The Star legally obtained her 2023 manifesto, which was written during the final three months of her life, and published the complete document last September, Leahy and SNDM have maintained their legal claim for the entirety of Hale’s writings.
The September, 2024 release of the killer’s came despite the July 4, 2024 ruling from Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles, which explicitly forbade MNPD from releasing her documents, citing the purported copyright claim of the Covenant Children’s Trust, a collection of parents who claim to own the intellectual property rights to Hale’s journals.
Myles also ruled that MNPD could not release its case files until the conclusion of its investigation into the Covenant killings.
SNDM and Leahy have confirmed their appeal of Myles’ decision, and Leahy has indicated he expects to win a favorable judgement on appeal.
Simultaneously, Leahy and SNDM have both sued the FBI to compel it to release Hale’s writings, and a federal judge has been reviewing the killer’s journals to determine which are fit for release for nearly a year.
The federal lawsuit continued through the recent confirmation of FBI Director Kash Patel, who in December 2023 argued it was former FBI Director Christopher Wray who was the chief obstacle to blocking the release of Hale’s writings.
After Patel was nominated to lead the FBI by President Donald Trump, The Star extended a settlement offer that would see its lawsuit against the agency dropped in exchange for the agency dropping its opposition to the release of the killer’s writings. The Department of Justice (DOJ), representing the FBI in the lawsuit, recently confirmed the FBI was considering the offer.
In addition to the killer’s 2023 manifesto, The Star also obtained last year a series of police documents related to the Covenant investigation, including an FBI memo that “strongly” advised MNPD against releasing “legacy tokens,” which include all of Hale’s writings, according to FBI definitions.
Under Patel, the FBI recently denied a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request related to the creation and implementation of its legacy tokens guidance.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Image “Covenant Presbyterian School Shooting” by Metro Nashville Police Depatrment.
These data should have been public and in action use to prevent future “hate crimes” like her’s within weeks not years!!!!!!
I will believe it when I see it. But figure that they will withhold key information to protect the guilty.