The number of gun thefts from vehicles in Nashville for the first six weeks of the year decreased 43% from 2023, according to a press release from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.
So far, 90 guns have been stolen from Nashville cars compared to last year’s 158. Gun thefts from cars comprise 72% of all gun thefts in Nashville so far for 2024.
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In the three pages released last week from Covenant Killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto and related writings, the hand-written notes were filled with racial and anti-LGBT slurs. Hale expressed at great length her hatred for white people, and in particular, her animus for the white children at the private Christian elementary school.
However, officials at the FBI won’t say whether or not they are handling the investigation of the March 27 school shootings as a hate crime.
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The Tennessee Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear oral arguments Monday afternoon in The Tennessee Star’s lawsuit demanding the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County release the Covenant School killer’s manifesto and related records.
The court is weighing whether to overturn Davidson County Judge I’Ashea Myles’ ruling to allow Covenant Presbyterian School parents, staff and others to intervene in the lawsuit and argue why the manifesto should remain locked away from the public.
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The Tennessee Star filed a public records request seeking information related to “handwritten words, drawings, and numbers” found on the clothing of Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the Covenant School killer, at the time of the mass shootings.
Michael Patrick Leahy, Tennessee citizen and CEO of Star News Digital Media, Inc., parent company of The Tennessee Star, filed the records request Thursday morning with the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. MNPD officials sent an automatic reply acknowledging receipt of the request.
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While the Federal Bureau of Investigation is fighting any release of the Covenant killer’s manifesto in federal court, an official with the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department says the local law enforcement agency would not object to a redacted release of some of the documents.
The problem could be just how law enforcement officials define “redactions.”
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation is doubling down on its insistence that an “ongoing” criminal investigation prevents the agency from releasing Covenant Presbyterian School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto, according to a response filed this week in federal court.
Star News Digital Media Inc., parent company of The Star News Network and The Tennessee Star, filed a federal lawsuit in May demanding the FBI turn over Hale’s manifesto and related writings.
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The Tennessee Court of Appeals in Nashville has agreed to expedite an appeal that will determine who is allowed to intervene in a lawsuit seeking the release of the Covenant School killer’s manifesto — a move that will push a July 12 show cause hearing into August.
“Until the appeal regarding the intervention is resolved, there is no way to know who the parties in the underlying action will be to participate in the show cause hearing,” the court wrote. “Without a stay of the trial court proceedings, this appeal would be rendered moot or the parties may be forced to conduct a new show cause hearing depending on the results of the appeal.”
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Pastor Jim Bachmann remembers the early, intimate days of the new Covenant Presbyterian Church in the early 1990s. A few dozen souls with a love of Christ and a thirst to grow in faith gathering at a small venue.
That little congregation has grown into a thriving, evangelical church of some 1,400 parishioners in the southern hills of Nashville since Bachmann took the lead preacher post in 1991. He served as pastor until 2016.
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Parents of two of the children murdered in the Covenant School massacre are joining others in asking Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles to keep the Covenant killer’s manifesto and related documents locked from public view.
The mother of William Kinney and the parents of Evelyn Dieckhaus, two of three 9-year-olds fatally shot in the March 27 mass shootings, issued declaration letters to the court detailing the pain they’ve suffered and lambasting the news outlets and other organizations suing to have the records released.
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A federal judge has given the Federal Bureau of Investigation until July 3 to respond to The Star News Network’s lawsuit demanding the agency turn over the manifesto and related records of Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the Covenant School killer.
The FBI had sought to delay the proceedings by another two weeks or a full month.
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Four Nashville private schools are seeking entry into a nationally watched public records lawsuit that demands the release of the Covenant School killer’s manifesto and related documents.
Attorneys for Franklin Road Academy, Montgomery Bell Academy, Oak Hill School, and St. Paul Christian Academy filed a motion on Monday asking Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles for permission to file an amicus — friend of the court — brief in the lawsuit.
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In a new twist in the legal battle over the release of the Covenant School killer’s manifesto, the parents of Audrey Elizabeth Hale are asking the court to give them assigning rights so that they may turn the deadly records over to the children of the school.
Attorneys for Star News Digital Media, parent company of The Tennessee Star, and the other plaintiffs suing the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department to release the records related to the March 27 mass shootings at Covenant Presbyterian School, were in court Thursday arguing against multiple parties intervening in the lawsuit.
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In the days following the horrifying shootings at Nashville’s Covenant Presbyterian School, police said the killer, Audrey Elizabeth Hale, acted “totally alone.”
Hale, a 28-year-old woman who identified as a transgender man named “Aiden,” was killed by police 14 minutes after her deadly rampage began. Before she was neutralized, Hale had taken the lives of three 9-year-olds and three staff members at the private Christian school she once attended as a child.
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We learned this week that Metro Nashville’s lawyers deliberately attempted to slow down court proceedings on the lawsuit seeking the release of the Covenant Killer’s manifesto and related documents.
Such delay tactics raise an important question: Is the city government colluding with the Covenant Presbyterian School and families of the private Christian elementary school to keep the records from the public?
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Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles heard plenty of opinions Monday — many of them dripping with emotion — on a consolidated lawsuit seeking the release of the Covenant School Killer’s manifesto and related writings.
Myles is expected to issue an order on Wednesday deciding whether Covenant Presbyterian School parents, the private Christian school and the Covenant Presbyterian Church can intervene in the lawsuit.
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Metropolitan Nashville Police Department Assistant Chief Mike Hagar claims there is an “active” investigation into the Covenant Presbyterian School shootings and that releasing the Covenant killer’s manifesto and related writings would be harmful. A lieutenant with the police department says it could take up to a year to complete said invetigation.
In a sworn declaration, Hagar said he is not opposed to the release of a redacted version of the documents.
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The Tennessean on Wednesday followed The Tennessee Star and other organizations in filing a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County demanding the release of the Covenant School killer’s manifesto and related documents.
The Nashville-based newspaper’s lawsuit comes nearly two months after Audrey Elizabeth Hale shot her way into the Covenant Presbyterian Scho
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The Tennessee Star’s state lawsuit demanding the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) release the Covenant School killer’s manifesto and related documents is being transferred to Chancery Court.
Tennessee First Circuit Court Judge David Briley this week granted the transfer, requested by attorneys for the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, defendants in the case.
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Metropolitan Nashville Police Department have refused to release the manifesto and related documents of the Covenant School killer, citing spurious reasons for their denials.
But is a shadowy Department of Justice unit billing itself as “America’s peacemaker” behind the information freeze? Some say the disclosure dance has all the markings of the Community Relations Service.
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Star News Digital Media Inc., parent company of The Tennessee Star, is suing the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County seeking the release of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto.
The lawsuit, filed in Tennessee’s 20th Judicial District Court-Davidson County, follows on the heels of Star News Digital Media’s federal lawsuit demanding the FBI turn over the documents that law enforcement officials have kept locked away from the public for more than six weeks.
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The Star News Network is suing the Federal Bureau of Investigation alleging the law enforcement agency has broken a critical First Amendment guard in repeatedly denying Freedom of Information Act requests seeking the Covenant School killer’s manifesto.
Filed Wednesday, the federal lawsuit asks the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee to order the FBI to release Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto and related documents and to issue a declaration that the agency violated FOIA in denying the request for the information.
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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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In a legal twist, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) now says it will not release the Covenant School killer’s manifesto and related documents because of pending litigation — lawsuits demanding the department turn over the records.
“Covenant investigation update: Due to pending litigation filed this week, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department has been advised by counsel to hold in abeyance the release of records related to the shooting at The Covenant School pending orders or direction of the court,” MNPD stated in a tweet Wednesday morning.
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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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The Tennessee Firearms Association is asking a state court to order the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department to turn over the Covenant School killer’s manifesto — documents law enforcement have kept from the public more than a month after Audrey Elizabeth Hale stormed into the private Covenant Presbyterian School and killed three 9-year-olds and three adults.
In a lawsuit filed Monday, the TFA and former Hamilton County Sheriff James Hammond request the 20th Judicial District, Chancery Court, in Davidson County to grant the organization access to the manifesto. The complaint also seeks an order from the court finding the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County’s denial of TFA’s records requests is unlawful.
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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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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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On Tuesday, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department denied The Tennessee Star’s request for mass shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto because the case “remains open.”
Hale died on the day of the shooting, March 27.
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U.S. Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) recently introduced legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives to honor Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) Officers Rex Engelbert and Michael Collazo with a Congressional Gold Medal.
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The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department continues to plead with the citizens of Nashville to lock their car doors and secure their guns as the number of firearms stolen from vehicles climbs to 1,163 this year.
“It’s become a disturbing trend, and it needs to stop; guns being stolen from vehicles. Criminals are continuously checking door handles, ready to steal, and it guns are left visible, they will do whatever it takes to break in. It takes just seconds for someone to grab your gun and go. Stats from this year shows a tremendous increase in guns being stolen from vehicles,” Chief of Police John Drake said in a video posted by MNPD in September.
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According to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, this year, 998 guns have been stolen from vehicles in Nashville, Tennessee, including 17 guns, stolen from vehicles last week.
In a video posted by the MNPD, Chief of Police Chief Drake said, “It’s become a disturbing trend, and it needs to stop; guns being stolen from vehicles. Criminals are continuously checking door handles, ready to steal, and if guns are left visible, they will do whatever it takes to break in. It takes just seconds for someone to grab your gun and go. Stats from this year shows a tremendous increase in guns being stolen from vehicles.”
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Tennessee Titans linebacker Bud Dupree on Tuesday was cited for a misdemeanor assault by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD).
The citation follows an altercation between Dupree and an employee at a Walgreens in Germantown, according to a release from MNPD.
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