President Joe Biden last week honored Metro Nashville Police (MNPD) Chief John Drake and the Nashville police officers who responded to the Covenant School shooting by awarding them the Medal of Valor, while the department reported that Attorney General Merrick Garland met with the Nashville police in the White House.
In posts to the social media platform X, the MNPD wrote, “Our Covenant School heroes, accompanied by Chief Drake, are at the White House & have just received our nation’s Medal of Valor from President Biden in the Oval Office. Attorney General Merrick Garland met with the team in the Roosevelt Room.”
Our Covenant School heroes, accompanied by Chief Drake, are at the White House & have just received our nation's Medal of Valor from President Biden in the Oval Office (photo forthcoming). Attorney General Merrick Garland met with the team in the Roosevelt Room. pic.twitter.com/z2ZWnPgCse
— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) January 3, 2025
The MNPD officers who responded to the attack at the Covenant School have received high praise from the law enforcement community, with just roughly 14 minutes transpiring between the moment police reached the scene and the time the killer was fatally shot. Body camera footage of the officers engaging Hale received nearly 3 million views after the department released it.
Biden awarded the medals nearly two years after the March 27, 2023 attack that saw Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a 28-year-old biological woman who identified as a transgender man, kill six at the Christian elementary school she once attended.
In May 2023, both Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Tennessee Star, and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy sued the FBI to compel the release of Hale’s manifesto, a collection of journals the killer began writing in middle school and continued until moments before her attack.
The Star recently invited Biden’s Department of Justice to end its opposition to the release of Hale’s writings, citing President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration.
Both Leahy and SNDM were additionally among the plaintiffs who sued to compel Nashville to release Hale’s writings. Leahy confirmed his appeal after Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles ruled that not one page of the killer’s writings would be released, citing the copyright ownership claims advanced by a group of parents who assert they own Hale’s written works.
The Star ultimately obtained the killer’s 2023 journal last year, and released the document in its entirety in September 2024.
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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].
