A retired Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) lieutenant told The Michael Patrick Leahy Show on Tuesday that the FBI sent a memo to Police Chief John Drake in May of 2023, two months after Audrey Elizabeth Hale killed three students and three staff members at the Covenant School, instructing the department not to release certain materials from the Covenant School shooting investigation and instead pointed out to the MNPD the precedent for destroying such documents.
The information was divulged to Michael Patrick Leahy, the editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star, by recently retired MNPD Lieutenant Garet Davidson, who filed the recent 61-page complaint against the department and made other claims about the status of the investigation of Covenant School shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale to 99.7 WTN radio host Brian Wilson.
Davidson told Leahy that he filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request approximately three weeks ago to obtain the FBI memo.
He explained he specifically sought “the memorandum from the FBI Behavioral Threat Assessment Center (BTAC), which made statements about ‘legacy tokens,’ that they should not be released to the public and that there is a precedent for their destruction.”
According to Davidson, the FBI argued, “the public would not understand these, they would misconstrue them, they would fuel conspiracy theories, and therefore in the best interest of preventing future shootings, with similar incidents, these should not be made public.”
Davidson told Leahy that his FOIA request was officially denied due to the active status of the Covenant investigation.
Davidson explained that while the FBI did not overtly suggest MNPD destroy the materials, it provided a precedent for its destruction.
“To me, the context is like a wink-wink, nod-nod, don’t make these public and remember that the Columbine basement tapes were destroyed,” said Davidson. He added, “There’s a precedent for that.”
Davidson told Leahy the FBI’s stated reason for sending the memo was to preserve public safety.
“Because it’s for the best for the public and to protect future citizens,” said Davidson. “That’s the official line.”
He added that he has no knowledge of whether MNPD acted on the memo.
MNPD Media Relations Office Director Don Aaron told The Star the information sought by Davidson remains “protected” due to the ongoing investigation, but added, “None of our team has destroyed anything related to the Covenant murder investigation.”
Davidson added that he is “skeptical” of the FBI’s intentions to involve themselves in the Covenant case and remind MNPD of the “precedent of the past destruction of documents.”
Asked about how he knew of the memo’s existence, Davidson told Leahy, “I was given the opportunity to view it.”
He confirmed, “I’ve seen it,” and added, “There’s no doubt it’s authentic. It was a part of a greater case file.”
Davidson also confirmed to Leahy he is concerned about reprisals for releasing information about the FBI memo.
“I don’t put it beyond anybody,” said Davidson. “Part of the reason why I left law enforcement was to avoid some aspects of retaliation, but that doesn’t guarantee anything.”
Explaining his decision, he said, “I’m one of those naive and idealistic fools that believes in certain principles and one of them is that law enforcement serves the public and when things have a public interest they should come forward and do what’s right.”
Davidson also told Leahy that he has viewed many of Hale’s writings, some of which have been referred to as a manifesto. He described the writings, in part, as “prolifically filled” journals and notebooks.
From the pages he viewed, Davidson said, “It’s obviously somebody who is affected with some mental health needs. There was a lot of rambling, incoherence, that kind of thing.”
He added that Hale, who was biologically female and identified as a transgender male at the time of the Covenant shooting, was fixated on gender issues.
“There was a lot of fixation on perceived gender issues, gender identity, that kind of thing,” said Davidson.
He added, “Being born the wrong way, and then being angry, it seems like at everyone in the world. Just life itself, for being born wrong.”
Potentially contrary to the FBI’s claims about legacy documents, Davidson said Hale’s writings are likely to evoke “complicated” emotions.
He explained, “I think when something like this happens, you really want to just only maybe hate the person who did it, but it’s very complicated. You see that this was a person who was dealing with some darkness that I think won in the end.”
Both Star News Digital Media, Inc., which owns The Star, and Leahy are plaintiffs in the lawsuits against the FBI and MNPD that seek to compel the full release of Hale’s written materials.
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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].
Plainly it was a mentally and spiritually ill sodomite.