Tennessee Republicans are calling for the release of a manifesto written by the person who killed six at The Covenant Presbyterian School on March 27, before entering into a special legislative session that will be focused on gun control.
State Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has filed a public records request with the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) in order to obtain information about the manifesto left behind by 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who identified as transgender, after Hale’s rampage at The Covenant School in Nashville.
According to a report in The Tennessee Lookout, Gardenhire believes it is critical to know Hale’s motive before the upcoming special session.
That session was called by Gov. Bill Lee (R), who is seeking to implement “Order of Protection” laws, commonly known as Red Flag Laws.
“Giving an indication of Republican lawmakers’ resistance to passing gun control reform, whether in a special session or in the just-completed regular session, Gardenhire said Gov. Bill Lee ‘should know better than to rush a special session under these circumstances,'” The Tennessee Lookout reported.
U.S. Rep. Jeremy Faison (R-TN-11) also publicly called for the release of the manifesto, which has been under lock and key with MNPD and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) since the shooting.
“Audrey Hale murdered 6 Christians, and many Tennesseans are demanding that their state legislature ‘do something,'” Faison said Tuesday on Twitter. “We cannot possibly address this horrific situation until we know what was in her manifesto. I am calling on the Metropolitan Nashville Police Deparment [sic] & the FBI to immediately release this document so we can examine it, then take the appropriate steps.”
Audrey Hale murdered 6 Christians, and many Tennesseans are demanding that their state legislature “do something."
We cannot possibly address this horrific situation until we know what was in her manifesto.
I am calling on the Metropolitan Nashville Police Deparment & the FBI…
— Rep. Jeremy Faison (@JeremyFaison4TN) April 24, 2023
State Rep. Andrew Farmer note the importance to know what was in the mind of the shooter in order to inform good policy making during a recent appearance with Brian Kilmeade on Fox News. “We don’t know where that investigation is at this point in time, but we’d like to. I think it’s important,” he said.
He echoed the sentiment on Twitter Tuesday on Twitter. “There were 6 innocent lives taken & we are told that the killer left a manifesto. I urge @MNPDNashville and @TBInvestigation to release the document in order to look at effective policy that addresses the root of the issue,” he wrote.
There were 6 innocent lives taken & we are told that the killer left a manifesto. I urge @MNPDNashville and @TBInvestigation to release the document in order to look at effective policy that addresses the root of the issue. pic.twitter.com/Fl1wxzYnSj
— Rep. Andrew Farmer (@RepAndrewFarmer) April 26, 2023
Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO of Star News Digital Media, Inc., which owns and operates The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network is also calling for the release of the manifesto.
He completed an MNPD open records request Monday afternoon, but was denied by the department.
Leahy requested the following:
[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.
He also called upon Lee to demand the release of the manifesto from MNPD.
“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.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter.
Photo “Todd Gardenhire” by Sen. Todd Gardenhire. Photo “Jeremy Faison” by Ncrawford604. CC BY-SA 4.0. Background Photo “Covenant School Shooting” by Metro Nashville PD.
Lee is wasting his time calling a special session to push (strongarm?) through red flag laws that most law-abiding citizens do not want. Such “snitch” laws are likely unconstitutional but Lee does not care a hoot about anything but the loudmouthed and unruly people showing up to protest at the capitol. I guess we of the other side will have to take a day or two off work to rally at the capitol with bullhorns and meaningless banners to force him to listen to reason. The legislators have already firmly stated that they are opposed to Lee’s dangerous proposals. Lee is like a spoiled child lying in the floor kicking and screaming because he did not get his way. Disgusting!
Does anyone else recall that Lee would not call a special session to hear our reps and senators speak out on his unconstitutional COVID-19 execution orders/mandates? But, of course, the legislative “leaders” hid in their closets refusing to call a special session themselves? So much for representative state government.
Exactly right. You cannot even entertain any potential legislation without knowing the cause of a problem. You don’t create solutions first and then identify issues afterwards. Unfortunately, too many in government think this way, especially the left.
So tell Lee to get off his rear end and get the manifesto released – without redactions. Enough already! It’s time to stop protecting the protected class because someone’s feelings might get hurt.
Nashville needs to do work in the MNPD like start at TOP and work down.
I agree with you Randy.
96.2% of all mass shootings between January 1998 and December 2015 have taken place in so-called “gun-free zones.”
The Tennessee Public Records Act grants Tennessee citizens the right to access state, county and municipal public records. “Public Records” are defined as “all documents, papers, letters, maps, books, photographs, microfilms, electronic data processing files and output, films, sound recordings, or other material, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received pursuant to law or ordinance or in connection with the transaction of official business by any governmental entity.” Tenn. Code Ann. § 10-7-503(a)(1)(A)(i).
YES we want the Manifesto as well as the many journals the woman killer kept. We want her autopsy with Toxocolgy Screen. Her Counselor’s notes, which will probanly require a subpeona.
She had considered other targets before settling on Covenant School because, according to her own written words. The other targets had too much security.
Security & Preparedness are the only practical solutions to protecting schools. We sure have plenty at the Metro Courthouse because the Mayor & Judges don’t want to be murdered by some crazy
Person whobhas a grudge.
RED FLAG LAWS ARE UNCONSTITUTIONAL
& will absolutely give a lot of people with a grudge a tool to punish perfectly honest people by accusing them of something they may or may not be guilty of.
If Governor Lee wants to offer a Solution listen to the People in the business of Security. They will all tell you that Muderers on a killing spree look for Soft Targets.
HARDEN THE SCHOOLS PLEASE.
Without release of the manifesto, any gun control regulations will be speculative and not calculated to reduce crime. The point will be to “do something,” which will likely be meaningless on the one hand and oppressive on the other.
Has Lee demanded the manifesto be released? McNally?
What a joke. This is a case of letting the terrorist win.
we’ll never see this manifesto. or at least we will get an either modified or heavily redacted version.
nashville will want to protect the trans agenda as much as possible
While I understand that any information left behind by the woman that murdered six people in cold blood would be investigated by law enforcement, the morbid curiosity of some and the media in search of narrative support. There is nothing to be gained by having our legislature use the horrific evil she demonstrated to limit the freedom our constitution provides. Shame on Gov Lee and anyone that supports an effort to make it easier for evil people to prey on the innocent. A protection order recommended by a Physcologist because someone is a threat to themselves or the public certainly would require that the person be removed from society. Anger and rage brought on by mental instability is not properly addressed by simply telling someone they can’t have a gun. Anyone that believes it does needs their mental fitness evaluated.
When the Babylonians openly and brazenly abused the temple vessels of the Lord God placed a human hand in the room and spelled out the impending doom of their reign and their lives. Do not think that the “handwriting” isn’t also on the wall for our country’s leaders as well. Their wicked schemes aimed at children and the true vessels of God…human beings…are going to be addressed by the same God using the same tools and with the same cataclysmic results. Daniel 5 “Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote. 6 Then the king’s color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together.” We should read the entire chapter 5…it is our future.