On Tuesday, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department denied The Tennessee Star’s request for mass shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto because the case “remains open.”
Hale died on the day of the shooting, March 27.
The police department’s denial only raises more questions about why local and federal law enforcement officials have been slow to release the transgender Hale’s “blueprint of destruction” at a Christian private elementary school.
Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO of Star News Digital Media, Inc., which owns and operates The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network is asking top Tennessee officials to put pressure on Metro to release the manifesto.
“I call upon Governor Bill Lee and Mayor John Cooper to request that the Metro Nashville Police Department immediately release the manifesto and all related written documents obtained in the search of the residence and vehicle of the murderer Audrey Hale because it is in the public interest to do so,” Leahy said.
Leahy, a Tennessee resident, sent the police department the open records request Monday afternoon, seeking to:
[I]nspect and copy or duplicate all written records and documents, including written manifestos. journals, written notes, memoirs, and school yearbooks obtained by the Metro Nashville Police Department from search warrants executed on Monday March 27, 2023 and throughout the week of March 27, 2023 at the residence of Audrey Hale in Nashville and the car driven by Audrey Hale and left at the Covenant Presbyterian School parking lot on March 27, 2023 related to the investigation of the murder of six people at Covenant Presbyterian School by Audrey Hale on Monday March 27, 2023.
The police department denied the request less than a day later, stating the case remained open, citing Rule 16 of the Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure.
Hale, 28, identified as transgender and was a former student when she stormed into The Covenant Presbyterian School and shot and killed three 9-year-olds and three adults before being shot dead by Nashville police officers.
During a search of the house Hale shared with her parents, authorities seized 20 journals, five laptops, a suicide note and various other notes written by Hale as well as two memoirs, five Covenant School yearbooks and seven cellphones, a search warrant shows.
Nashville Council Member Courtney Johnston has said the FBI has already ruled the manifesto would not be released in its entirety.
“What I was told is, her manifesto was a blueprint on total destruction, and it was so, so detailed at the level of what she had planned,” she told The New York Post.
The slow walk runs contrary to the speedy release of such information left behind by previous mass shooters. Critics claim law enforcement officials, directed by the Biden administration’s Department of Justice, are covering up information because of Hale’s transgender identity.
U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN-02), told the New York Post the FBI was behind the delay while calling for the documents to be released to grieving loved ones and Congress.
The manifesto “could maybe tell us a little bit about what’s going on inside of her head,” he told the newspaper. “I think that would answer a lot of questions.”
The Star News Network has also filed a Freedom of Information Request seeking Hale’s manifesto from the FBI, which is assisting local law enforcement officials in the investigation.
Read the Metro Nashville Police Department’s denial:
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “MNPD Chief John Drake” by Metro Nashville Police Department.
The so-called authorities are demonstrating conclusively that they do NOT serve the public. That being said, one might conclude they consider themselves our masters.
What are the ‘officials in charge’ trying to hide from the citizens of Tennessee?
This entire thing smells like a dead fish lying in the sun on a hot July day!
“he is all ready to go with red flag laws despite not knowing if the solution can even possibly prevent recurrence”
Without the manifesto released, they are “solving” a problem they cannot even define. Take note that Lee has neither called for the manifesto to be released, or addressed whether transgenderism will be treated as a mental illness that bars gun ownership. As to the last part there, isn’t it just as reasonable to assume transgenders should be prohibited from owning guns just as much as someone whose wife is angry at him?
Info cannot be shared because the “case is still open” yet:
1. MNPD leaks info to Johnston.
2. Bill Lee is ready to declare a special session to solve the problem of the still open case without knowing details. But he is all ready to go with red flag laws despite not knowing if the solution can even possibly prevent recurrence. But the gun-free zone he, mayors-against-guns Haslam, the THP and Tennessee Sheriff’s Association all lobbied for worked to perfection. An unarmed, soft target. All the law-abiding citizens had their rights infringed by unconstitutional “laws” and the government that did the infringing also failed to protect.
Why is the case “still open”? Why are feds involved at all?
Were there more shooters? Accomplices? FBI handlers? A third pair of shoes worn by the shooter? 5 laptops and 7 phones? That’s a lot for anyone that age. Are they burners for the rest of the team?
There must be a good reason to protect the plans of the dead “lone wolf”. Whatever the “so detailed” plans were, they obviously didn’t account for any resistance whatsoever, in the TNGOP/THP/TSA unprotected gun free zones.