A federal grand jury indicted a Nashville man accused of shooting an 18-year-old six times on the steps of a WeGo bus station in May, according to the Middle District of Tennessee U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Kenneth Johnson, 31, was arrested by Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) officers on May 16 after he allegedly shot the 18-year-old six times at the WeGo bus station located at the intersection of Rep John Lewis Way & MLK Jr Blvd.
Read the full story
The parents of Audrey Elizabeth Hale told Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) investigators during a July 12, 2023 interview that two of their daughter’s childhood friends changed their phone numbers to cut contact with the killer in the years prior to her attack on the Covenant School, where she claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three staff members, according to a transcript of the interview obtained by The Tennessee Star.
Last month, The Star confirmed it obtained approximately 80 pages of writings left in a journal by Audrey Hale from a source familiar with the investigation, and reported the killer wrote extensively about the death of her middle school basketball teammate Sydney Sims.
Read the full story
The rainbow crosswalk located at the intersection of 14th St and Woodland St in East Nashville will be repainted this weekend after being defaced last week.
Read the full story
The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) referred The Tennessee Star to the court of Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles when asked if the department provided specific documents to Judge Myles before she declared in her decision that not one page of the writings left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale will be released, citing the copyright allegedly held by the parents of Covenant School children.
The Star asked MNPD Public Affairs director Don Aaron whether investigators provided Judge Myles with the document titled “Vandy Psych.” The document contains notes written by an MNPD investigator who received at least 75 pages of documents from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), where Hale was a 22-year mental health patient, after obtaining a search warrant in the wake of her March 27, 2023 attack that claimed the lives of six.
Read the full story
Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles last Thursday ruled that not one page of the materials written by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale will be released to the public, citing the copyright claims raised by parents of minor students who claim to own the copyright to the killer’s works.
The parents of Covenant School students successfully claimed before Myles that they were assigned the intellectual property rights of the materials left by Audrey Hale before to her attack, and a probate court filing reveals Ronald and Norma Hale appear to have transferred the copyright to the parents of in June 2023.
Read the full story
Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles ruled in a decision released at 11:58 pm on Thursday that none of the writings left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale shall be released to the multiple parties who sued Metro Nashville to secure their release, citing the copyright claims of the parents she earlier allowed to intervene in the lawsuit.
Read the full story
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) on Wednesday denied Chief John Drake privately acknowledged staff at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) knew Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale told mental health professionals she fantasized about killing her father and committing a mass shooting at a school, but failed to warn potential victims in violation of Tennessee Code 33-3-206, as was alleged by a source familiar with the investigation to The Tennessee Star on June 19.
MNPD Public Affairs director Don Aaron contacted The Star on Wednesday via email to state, “Chief Drake confirms that he DID NOT acknowledge what” The Star first reported in its June 19 article.
Read the full story
The distraught father of a teenage daughter contacted The Tennessee Star on Thursday and expressed his concern about the treatment his daughter has been receiving at Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital, part of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC).
The Star received the email after it published the notes taken by a Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) investigator the department obtained at least 75 pages of documents from VUMC following a June 1, 2023 search warrant.
Read the full story
Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said he believes Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s (VUMC) connection to Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the Covenant School killer, is the “biggest part” of the unraveling story.
On June 7, The Star was the first to report that Hale was a 22-year patient of VUMC from 2001 until the time of the horrific school shooting on March 27, 2023.
Read the full story
The Tennessee Star received a response from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) regarding its apparent treatment of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, which was revealed in a number of Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) documents obtained by The Star.
After The Star obtained a police summary describing 75 pages of notes retrieved from VUMC following a June 1, 2023 search warrant for information related to Hale’s treatment, and asked VUMC president and CEO Jeff Balser for comment, a spokesman said he was unable to confirm Hale’s treatment due to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA) Act of 1996.
Read the full story
The Tennessee Star has obtained a Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) internal document labeled “Vandy Psych” which appears to be notes taken by an MNPD officer tasked with reviewing documents obtained via a search warrant granted for Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital, part of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), on June 1, 2023.
Read the full story
Autopsy results in the high profile death of college student Riley Strain were released Tuesday.
According to several reports, Strain’s cause of death is officially lists as “drowning and ethanol intoxication.” His death was classified as accidental.
Read the full story
The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) on Friday confirmed the authenticity of the 80 pages of writings from the journal of Covenant School killer Audrey Hale, which were obtained by The Tennessee Star last week.
A Friday morning legal filing by the police department involves a declaration by MNPD Lieutenant Alfredo Arevalo, who claimed to have information about the possible identity of the individual or group of people who provided the Covenant materials to The Star.
Read the full story
99.7 WTN afternoon radio host Brian Wilson on Friday unveiled portions of recorded interviews of Metro Nashville Police Department investigators revealing details and asking questions about Covenant School shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale to her parents.
Read the full story
Metro Nashville Police Department learned Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale was a 22-year patient of mental health professionals at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) on March 27, 2023, the same day she orchestrated her devastating attack that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adults working at the school.
The Tennessee Star obtained the June 1, 2023 affidavit filed by an MNPD detective to obtain a search warrant for VUMC from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation.
Read the full story
Covenant School shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale reportedly used funds from a federal Pell grant to buy the guns she used to perpetrate a mass shooting in March, 2023.
99.7 WTN afternoon radio host Brian Wilson reported Wednesday that Hale “took money from an education grant she received to purchase her weapons and to pay for training at a local gun range.”
Read the full story
99.7 WTN afternoon radio host Brian Wilson asked three big questions about the Covenant School shooting investigation in an on-air report on Thursday that he posted to his website.
Read the full story
A man pushed, grabbed, and choked his granddaughter at a downtown public bus station in Nashville in the latest incident related to criminal activity associated with WeGo, WSMV reported.
Metro Nashville Police Department arrested Kevin Figgins, 58, on Monday. He is charged with domestic assault with bodily injury, and his bond has been set at $1,000, according to Davidson County court records.
Read the full story
Retired Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) Lt. Garet Davidson told Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO and editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star, that Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the Covenant School killer, received treatment from the Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital, where professionals failed to report her violent fantasies to law enforcement. Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital is a part of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center system.
Read the full story
Tom Pappert, the lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said the photograph released by the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) that shows the 15-year-old arrested for the fatal Wednesday night shooting in Bellevue smiling after the incident is “bone-chilling.”
On Thursday, Pappert reported that MNPD confirmed the arrest of 15-year-old De’Anthony Osasosifo and named him as a suspect in the Wednesday night shooting in the parking lot of the Red Caboose Park in Bellevue that left a 13-year-old dead and his 16-year-old sister hospitalized.
Read the full story
Covenant School shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale reportedly told her therapist that she was fantasizing about killing her family and committing a school shooting, according to a report by 99.7 WTN radio host Brian Wilson. The therapist reportedly did not report these findings to authorities.
Read the full story
Metro Nashville Police Department declined to comment on allegations by a recently retired MNPD officer who claimed police searched the home and office of a “practitioner” involved in the Covenant shooting investigation.
Former Lieutenant Garet Davidson is skeptical the Covenant shooting investigation is still “active, open, and actually being worked” despite MNPD’s claim that the investigation is open, he said in an interview with 99.7 WTN host Brian Wilson on his afternoon drive radio show.
Read the full story
A 61-page complaint against the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) by a retired officer was obtained in full by 99.7 WTN radio host Brian Wilson and published on his website Thursday afternoon.
Wilson interviewed the complaint’s author — former MNPD Lieutenant Garet Davidson — Thursday on his afternoon drive time radio show.
Read the full story
A suspect is in custody for allegedly stabbing a homeless man at the WeGo bus station on Thursday morning in Nashville’s Edgehill community, according to WKRN.
Police were dispatched to the incident around 5:15 a.m. on Thursday about two men fighting at the intersection of 12th Avenue South and Wedgewood Avenue, the outlet reported.
Read the full story
Metro Nashville’s newly formed Community Review Board (CRB) held a special meeting on Tuesday about a series of allegations by a disgruntled former Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) officer.
The 61-page complaint contained allegations that high-level MNPD officers engaged in lobbying behind closed doors to pass a 2023 state law that banned the city’s Community Oversight Board (COB). The complaint also alleged that MNPD undermined the Office of Professional Accountability (OPA), MNPD’s internal affairs division responsible for investigating police misconduct.
Read the full story
The man police arrested for an alleged May 11 sexual assault of a woman outside a Vanderbilt Medical Center parking garage is a sex offender and a repeat felon, according to MNPD and court records about the suspect.
The suspect is Daniel Revette, 39. Before he was arrested, he already had outstanding warrants for attempted rape, sexual battery, and kidnapping, MNPD posted to X. Officers arrested Revette after he tried to be admission to a Nashville hospital for an evaluation.
Read the full story
Eighty-three percent of people who answered a Fox 17 News online survey said they do not feel safe on Metro Nashville’s WeGo public buses.
Fox 17 posted the survey to X after a recent string of violent incidents at WeGo locations in Nashville and criticism of Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s efforts to invest in the city’s public buses.
Read the full story
Metro Nashville Council Member Jeff Eslick provided an inside look of the council’s decision to deny a sign from being displayed on the exterior of country music artist Morgan Wallen’s downtown bar, explaining how the ordinance to deny such display dealt with “aerial encroachment” and was a “standard operating procedure” before members personally smeared the artist for his past actions.
Read the full story
Gun thefts from vehicles in Nashville have decreased compared to this time last year, according to numbers released by Metro Nashville Police Department on Wednesday. The fall in thefts came after MNPD started an initiative to combat car theft and related crimes.
MNPD said 305 guns have been stolen from Nashville vehicles so far in 2024, according to a Wednesday press release. Numbers from around this time last year recorded 477 gun thefts from vehicles, making for a 36 percent decrease.
Read the full story
Nashville suffered 30 combined overdose incidents across Sunday and Monday, Metro Nashville Police Department told The Tennessee Star about a recent spike in overdose activity in Nashville.
MNPD announced the recent overdose spike in a Tuesday press release, detailing the department’s efforts to fight overdoses in Nashville in response to the rise in overdose activity. For example, MNPD highlighted its detectives distributing kits of Narcan, a medicine that can treat drug overdoses in emergency situations, to about 40 homeless individuals.
Read the full story
A viral video has emerged of a shootout outside a Nashville bar that took place two weeks ago, during which three people were injured and more than 50 shots were fired.
The video, which has garnered hundreds of thousands of views on X alone, was reposted by conservative commentator Ian Miles Cheong.
Read the full story
Metro Nashville Police Department handed out kits for Narcan, medicine that can treat drug overdoses in emergency situations, to about 40 homeless people on Monday in response to a spike in overdoses on Sunday and Monday.
Detectives are investigating the overdose spike, according to an MNPD press release. In only one incident downtown, eight individuals overdosed together, causing two fatalities while the other six were revived with Narcan.
Read the full story
A bill to combat street racing has passed the Tennessee General Assembly and is awaiting the signature of Gov. Bill Lee (R).
HB 2062 “creates a street racing task force to study and determine best practices for curbing illegal street racing in this state,” according to its summary.
Read the full story
One month after announcing a transportation plan focused on more busses, Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell reportedly requested a full safety review of the city’s public transportation service, WeGo, after a man was shot six times on the steps of the bus station located at Rep John Lewis Way & MLK Jr Blvd, according to WSMV.
On Thursday, the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) announced that a 31-year-old convicted felon was arrested for the shooting of an 18-year-old at the bus stop earlier in the day.
Read the full story
The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) is asking for the public’s help in solving a decades-old cold case.
“Do you know what happened to Ricky Rydell Young, 36?” asked a Thursday post on MNPD’s Facebook page. “On May 14, 1998, A resident on Greenwood Avenue in East Nashville was walking his dog when he discovered Ricky suffering from a gunshot wound to his chest in a nearby driveway. There were no witnesses to his murder. Someone knows what happened to Ricky Young.”
Read the full story
A new Forbes study ranks Tennessee the 11th worst state in the country when it comes to porch piracy, stealing packages delivered to homes before the homeowner receives them.
“Porch piracy peaked during the pandemic when more people shopped online than ever before, according to Security.org’s annual package theft report,” according to Forbes. “Theft of parcels in general tends to increase during the holiday season as well. As online shopping continues to be on the rise, so do incidences of porch piracy.”
Read the full story
First Liberty Institute, the legal counsel for the organizing groups of the 2024 Israel Summit, raised questions to the Sonesta Nashville Airport Hotel’s reasoning behind its decision to break its contractual obligation to host the event next week.
The Israel Summit was expected to be hosted next week at the Sonesta Hotel until hotel leadership contacted one of the summit’s sponsors, notifying the group that it was dropping its contract to host the event, citing “threatening” calls and messages.
Read the full story
The Tennessee Department of Homeland Security, a state-level law enforcement agency, conducted interviews of transgender alleged cyberstalker McKenzie McClure while Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) did not take action.
According to the criminal complaint against McClure, who left a voicemail of a “threatening nature” for her former school Christ Presbyterian Academy (CPA) in Nashville, the Tennessee Department of Homeland Security became involved in the investigation of McClure. As of now, there are no publicly available details as to how the department became involved in the case.
Read the full story
A transgender alleged cyberstalker who caused a Nashville Christian school to close for a day in March after sending a disconcerting message was previously charged with domestic assault, according to court records.
McKenzie McClure, also known as Kalvin McClure, was charged twice with domestic assault according to Williamson County public court records. The records list the “violation date” on each charge as August 21, 2022.
Read the full story
The Metro Nashville Police Department told The Tennessee Star it did not interview an alleged cyberstalker now in federal custody who left a concerning message for Christ Presbyterian Academy (CPA) in March that caused the school to close for one day.
McKenzie McClure, a self-identified “trans man” also known as Kalvin McClure or Kalvin Mikoledes, was arrested on suspicion of cyberstalking by federal agents on April 29 for the message she left for CPA and her social media activity where she made several concerning posts about CPA and threatened Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and his wife Maria Lee. McClure is still in federal custody.
Read the full story
A former student of Christ Presbyterian Academy (CPA) in Nashville was arrested on suspicion of cyberstalking days after possibly making a public threat toward Governor Bill Lee and his wife Maria Lee.
McKenzie McClure, also known as Kalvin McClure, was arrested by federal agents after they observed troubling social media activity and McClure left a concerning voicemail to CPA on March 24, 2024, that caused two schools to shut down the following day.
Read the full story
An individual who sent a message causing a Nashville private Christian school to close back in March was arrested for alleged cyberstalking, according to court documents. The person also appears to identify as a member of the LGBTQ community.
On March 24, days before the anniversary of the Covenant School shooting, Christ Presbyterian Academy received a message containing “disconcerting language towards the safety of our campus,” school officials said in an email to parents at the time, WSMV reported. CPA and neighboring Currey Ingram Academy in Brentwood closed the next day due to safety concerns.
Read the full story
Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) confirmed on Monday that suspected murderer Adrian Cameron Jr., the 19-year-old accused of killing rapper Chris King, wore an ankle monitor while out on a $100,000 bond at the time of the King’s death.
A Monday post to the social media platform X by MNPD confirmed Cameron Jr. “was out on bond for the 2021 murder of Josh Evans” and was “on an ankle monitor at the time of the fatal shooting” of the rapper, whose given name was Christopher Cheeks.
Read the full story
The man who allegedly shot and killed rapper Christopher Cheeks, who went by the stage name Chris King, in Nashville early Saturday morning was out on bond for another alleged murder that took place in September of 2021.
Cheeks was shot and killed after an altercation with a group of men who attempted to rob him, according to a press release from the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD).
Read the full story
Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles on Monday afternoon ordered the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) to provide a redacted copy of the manifesto written by Covenant School shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale for the judge to review.
Myles made the order after Metro Nashville attorney Lora Fox previously confirmed MNPD holds no objections to releasing a redacted version of the manifesto, and would now make less redactions to the manifesto than were previously proposed in 2023.
Read the full story
Metro Nashville attorney Lora Fox confirmed on Tuesday there is no objection to the release of the manifesto written by Covenant School shooter Audrey Hale with limited redactions.
Fox told Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) maintains the position previously articulated by Assistant Chief Mike Hagar in an affidavit which declared a redacted version of the manifesto could be released without harming MNPD investigations.
Read the full story
The man who allegedly shot six outside a Nashville nightclub on Sunday was previously released from jail on a $50,000 bond, the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) confirmed.
Williams is accused of injuring six in a shooting near the Soho Lounge in South Nashville, with MNPD reporting officers were initially responding to a call about “persons with guns fighting.”
Read the full story
The man police allege is responsible for killing one and injuring five in an Easter Sunday shooting in Nashville was a convicted felon out on bond for felony charges in Rutherford County.
Rutherford County District Attorney Jennings H. Jones said the suspect, 46-year-old Anton Rucker, should not have been released on bond.
Read the full story
The man accused of opening fire on Easter Sunday at a restaurant in the Salemtown neighborhood of Nashville was arrested in Kentucky late Tuesday night, according to the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD).
Read the full story
Roasted, the restaurant in the Salemtown neighborhood of Nashville where a gunman opened fire on Easter Sunday, killing one and injuring multiple others, announced Tuesday it is closed until further notice in the wake of the incident.
“As our team continues to process and heal we will be closed until further notice. We appreciate your continued thoughts and prayers for everyone involved in this tragic incident,” the restaurant wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
Read the full story