Covenant Killer Manifesto Coverup Deepens as Metro Nashville Police Department Moves to Delay Open Records Lawsuit Hearings

The judge hearing lawsuits demanding the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department release the Covenant School killer’s manifesto has pushed back a show cause hearing on the litigation as MNPD attempts to maneuver around Tennessee’s public record laws. 

It appears the police department and its attorneys are going to try to bury the plaintiffs — and the court — in paper. 

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Court Date Set in National Police Association’s Public Records Lawsuit Against Metro Nashville’s Refusal to Release Covenant School Killer’s Manifesto

The National Police Association has filed a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County demanding the release of the Covenant School killer’s manifesto. 

And The Tennessee Star has just learned that Tennessee 20th Judicial District Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles has ordered a show cause hearing for May 11, examining whether the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) has failed to comply with public records laws. 

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MNPD Denies Tennessee Star Public Records Request for Covenant Mass Shooter’s Toxicology Report

After the CEO of Star News Media, Inc., the owner and operator of The Tennessee Star, submitted an open records request to the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) on Thursday asking that Covenant School mass killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s toxicology report be made public, The Star learned Friday that that request has been denied.

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Commentary: Is School Shooter Audrey Hale’s ‘Manifesto’ an Open Record Under the Tennessee Public Records Act?

In a press conference the day after The Covenant School mass shooting, Nashville police said they were looking into the motive of the shooter, Audrey Hale, and had found a “manifesto” that outlined her attack with maps and action plans for the killings.

Since then, the Nashville police have walked back the characterization of Hale’s writings seized at her home as a manifesto but have given little additional information about them. They say they have shared Hale’s journals and writings with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, which is studying them.

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The Star News Network Files Legal Action Against FBI in Seeking Covenant School Killer’s Manifesto

The Star News Network’s attorneys have filed a new case with the U.S. Department of Justice demanding the Federal Bureau of Investigation turn over Nashville mass shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto.

The Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) on Wednesday filed an administrative appeal with the Justice Department’s Office of Information Policy after the FBI twice rejected The Star News Network’s Freedom of Information Act requests, seeking the expedited release of the documents.

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Metro Nashville Police Department Says It’s Getting Ready to Review What It Will Release of Covenant School Killer’s Manifesto

A day after the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department denied The Tennessee Star’s request for mass shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto, an official says the department has entered a “stage” of considering how to release the controversial documents. 

“The investigation is now at the stage that we are beginning the close review/preparation process for the public release of written material,” Metro Nashville PD spokeswoman Brooke Reese wrote in an email Wednesday to The Tennessee Star. 

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Catholic Civil Rights Leader Requests Nashville Police Department Release Covenant Killer’s Manifesto

Catholic League President Bill Donohue is asking Nashville police to produce the manifesto they said they found among transgender shooter Audrey Hale’s belongings.

“The local police said she was planning the attack ‘over a period of months,’ and that she had studied other mass murderers,” wrote Donohue Monday. “They emphasized that the attack was ‘calculated and planned.’ Importantly, they found a manifesto that laid bare her thinking.”

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Leftist Lawmakers Raising Money Off of Their Expulsions from the Tennessee House

Tennessee State Representatives Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) are looking to cash in on their expulsion battles — and their friends on the far-left are, too.

Jones and Pearson, who were expelled last week from the Republican-led House of Representatives, are back in their seats after each was reinstated this week — Jones on Monday, Pearson on Wednesday. They were removed from their positions after being accused of inciting a riot on the House floor amid a chaotic protest demanding gun control laws. State Representative Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville), who helped lead the protest, survived expulsion by one vote.

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Commentary: Does the Legislature Have Constitutional Authority to Pass Governor Lee’s Call for a Red Flag Law?

On April 11, 2023, Governor Bill Lee called for the Tennessee Legislature to respond to the public’s emotional response to the Covenant School murders by enacting a law to make sure mentally ill people do not have access to firearms. He did not use the term “Red Flag” but that is the correct label for the kind of law that Governor Lee described as a “new protective order”.

Tennessee’s Legislature has a super majority of Republicans. Many of those Republicans have campaigned as strong Second Amendment supporters and continue to claim that they are. Many of them have told their constituents that they would never support a “Red Flag” law. Some may have answered candidate surveys or signed pledges assuring the voters that they would never support a “Red Flag” law in Tennessee. Now Republican Governor Lee calls on them to violate those promises and assurances and to pass a “Red Flag” law.

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Kamala Harris Takes Surprise Trip to Tennessee After Lawmakers Expelled

After two Tennessee State Representatives were expelled for leading an unruly mob during a riot at the state Capitol, Vice President Kamala Harris Friday visited Nashville to meet with the expelled lawmakers. 

Video shows Harris hugging former State Reps. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), along with State Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knox County), who narrowly escaped expulsion by one vote. 

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Governor Lee Amends Proposed Legislation, FY23-24 Budget to Accommodate Stronger Measures to Strengthen School Safety

One week after the school shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville that left six dead, Governor Bill Lee proposed additional actions to strengthen safety at public and private schools across Tennessee, including amending the budget for fiscal year 2023-2034 as well as an existing bill making its way through the state legislature.

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Tennessee Authorities: No Arrests or Pending Charges for Capitol Rioters

According to the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security (TDSHS), there will be no repercussions for a Thursday riot foiled by Tennessee State Troopers at the State Capitol. 

“There were no arrests made on Thursday,” TDSHS communications director Wesley Moster told The Tennessee Star Monday. “There are no investigations or criminal charges pending.”

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Trans Nashville Shooter Planned for ‘Months’ to Target Christian School, Police Say

Police announced Monday that transgender shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale had been planning an attack on the Christian elementary school for “months,” according to a Monday press release.

Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) gave an update to the investigation into the mass shooting at Covenant Presbyterian School in a press release, noting that Hale’s manifesto indicated that she had been “planning over a period of months to commit mass murder.” Hale had also been studying the way other “mass murderers” had committed acts of violence and “acted totally alone,” according to police.

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TBI Aware of Viral Post from Trans Activist Demanding Violence Against Tennessee Law Enforcement

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) Thursday confirmed to The Tennessee Star that it is aware of a viral video circulating the web in which a transgender activist encourages transgender people in Tennessee to commit acts of violence. 

“We are aware of the post, but don’t have any further information or insight to offer,” said TBI spokesman Josh DeVine. 

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School Safety Expert Says Ballistic Glass Could Have Prevented Nashville School Shooting

On the heels of The Tennessee Star’s report in which a security expert recommended that schools implement ballistic glass film to deter and prevent school shooters, another security expert has recommended the same. 

“So even if you shoot it 100 times, you’ve still not gained access,” said Wayne Gregory of Ever Safe, as reported by FOX17. “You’ve only put holes in the glass. And then beat it out of the frame of the hammer is the only way to get in.”

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State Troopers Foil Riot of Left-Wing Mob at Tennessee Capitol

A riot at the Tennessee State Capitol was stopped by state troopers Thursday as State Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and at least two other far-left Democrat state representatives encouraged a crowd of more than a thousand protesters to breach the Tennessee House of Representatives chamber floor during a gun control demonstration.

Tennessee State Troopers foiled the breach, as protesters attempted to enter the chamber from the gallery above and the ground floor.

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Governor Bill Lee Reveals Two Adults Killed in The Covenant School Shooting Were Longtime Friends of First Lady Maria Lee

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee addressed the state on Tuesday in a video posted to social media just one day after six victims, including three children, were gunned down by 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale at The Covenant School in Nashville.

The governor revealed that two of the victims – Cynthia Peak, age 61, and Katherine Koonce, age 60 – were longtime family friends of First Lady Maria Lee.

In a video posted to social media Tuesday evening, Bill Lee said, “All of Tennessee was hurt yesterday, but some parents woke up without children. Children woke up without parents, without teachers. And spouses woke up without their loved ones.”

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Commentary: In the Mind of the Fervent Left, ‘Aiden’ Hale Was Driven by … Pronouns

Audrey Hale attended the Covenant School in Nashville as a child before returning Monday morning as Aiden Hale to murder three 9-year-olds, the principal, a substitute teacher, and a custodian.

In some dark but loud corners of the internet, it’s not about the children, the teachers, or the janitor. It’s about them — they/thems to be precise. More significantly, this multiple-victim public shooting, like all multiple-victim public shootings, becomes about blaming them. Who are they? Not us, not our side, not our tribe.

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Security Expert Shares Thoughts on Fortifying Schools After Nashville School Shooting

A security expert joined The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network’s Editor-In-Chief and CEO Michael Patrick Leahy on Tuesday’s episode of “The Tennessee Star Report” and discussed ways in which schools can fortify themselves against mass shooters. 

The discussion occurred less than 24 hours after transgender female (biological male) Aiden “Audrey” Hale shot and killed six people at The Covenant School in Nashville. 

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Senator JD Vance Says ‘Extreme Left’ Needs to do a Lot of ‘Soul Searching’ After Nashville School Shooting

In the wake of the murder of six people at a Christian School in Nashville, Tennessee by an individual who reportedly “identified as transgender” on Monday, U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) said that the extreme left needs to do a lot of “soul searching.”

According to Vance, this terrible incident should prompt the extreme left to deeply consider the correctness of their ideals.

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Nashville Police Refuse to Release Trans School Shooter’s Manifesto

Nashville police will not be releasing the manifesto of the deceased Covenant School shooting suspect, a police spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation on Tuesday.

Nashville Metro Police Department (NMPD) announced that they had found “writings” from 28-year-old transgender suspect Audrey Hale’s home Monday that indicated a “calculated and planned” attack, according to an NMPD press release. An NMPD spokesperson told the DCNF Tuesday that the department had no intentions of releasing the documents to the public anytime soon, citing the ongoing investigation into Hale.

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Six Minutes of Heroism: Watch Nashville Police Officers Race Through School to Neutralize Shooter

Metropolitan Nashville Police on Tuesday released six-minutes of intense body camera footage showing how its officers rushed through The Covenant School a day earlier to track down the shooter and neutralize her.

The video features footage from the body cameras of Officers Rex Engelbert and Michael Collazo conducting a room-by-room search of the first floor of The Covenant School before confronting the attacker, identified as Audrey Elizabeth Hale, on the second floor.

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Metro Nashville Police Confirm: School Shooter Was Audrey Elizabeth Hale, Who ‘Identified as Transgender’

The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) Monday evening confirmed that the person who shot and killed six people on Monday morning at The Covenant Presbyterian School in Nashville is 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who “identified as transgender.” Hale was killed on scene by police that morning.

“Our investigations tell us she was a former student, at the school,” said MNPD Chief John Drake in a press conference, adding that he did not know how long Hale attended the school.

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Activist Hijacks School Shooting Press Conference, Demands Gun Control

An unidentified activist took to microphones shortly after a Monday briefing by Nashville authorities to rant about gun control, asking the media if they were tired of covering shootings.

“Aren’t you guys tired of covering this? Aren’t you tired of being here and having to cover all of these mass shootings?” the activist asked members of the press. “I’m from Highland Park… on a family vacation with my son, visiting my sister-in-law. I have been lobbying in D.C. since we survived a mass shooting in July.”

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