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.
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In response the a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says it has no record of any documents containing the terms “legacy token” or “legacy tokens,” despite the fact that The Tennessee Star has such a document from the FBI in its possession.
“Based on the information you provided, we conducted a main entity record search of the Central Records System (CRS) per our standard search policy,” the FBI said in response to the FOIA request. “However, we were unable to identify records subject to the FOIPA that are responsive to your request. Therefore, your request is being closed. If you have additional information pertaining to the subject of your request, please submit a new request providing the details, and we will conduct an additional search.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale began receiving treatment from a speech pathologist in September 2001, which is when a mental health professional first indicated to the killer’s parents that Audrey Hale suffered from autism, according to a transcript of the July 12, 2023 police interview with Ronald and Norma Hale obtained by The Tennessee Star from a source close to the investigation.
The Star previously published police documents which established Hale was a 22-year mental health patient at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) prior to her March 27, 2023 attack on the Covenant School, when she claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adult staff members before she was heroically shot by two responding police officers.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The Tennessee Star retrieved metadata from the Microsoft Word document titled “Vandy Psych,” which contains notes summarizing 75 pages of documents retrieved from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) following a June 1, 2023 search warrant for materials related to its treatment of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale.
The Star reported it obtained the document from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation on Wednesday, when its contents were published alongside the revelation a source claimed Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) Chief John Drake acknowledged VUMC failed its duty to warn Hale’s intended victims after she expressed fantasies of killing her father and enacting a school shooting.
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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.
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The 2023 Nashville Covenant School murders understandably received massive news coverage when they occurred. The fight over obtaining the murderer’s diary also received news attention. But when “nearly four dozen pages” of the murderer’s diary were finally released last week, the mainstream media completely ignored it. It turns out that behind the scenes, the FBI had fought hard against the diary’s release. Some Covenant School parents also opposed releasing the diary because it would force families to re-live the nightmare. The Tennessee Star’s parent company, Star News Digital Media, successfully filed two lawsuits to obtain the diary.
Five days after the release of the diary, with the exception of the New York Post, which is a national news outlet, the news coverage was limited to seven other conservative outlets such as The Daily Wire and Newsbusters.
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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.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote entries in her journal about her social isolation about one month before her devastating attack on March 27, 2023.
The Star confirmed last week it obtained 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a journal police recovered from her vehicle at the Covenant School from a source familiar with the investigation.
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The FBI declined on Monday to confirm to The Tennessee Star the authenticity of a memo it sent to the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) that “strongly discourages” the release of “legacy tokens” left by those who commit devastating attacks like the Covenant School attack orchestrated by Audrey Elizabeth Hale.
The Star published the memo last week, revealing it was addressed to MNPD Chief John Drake and sent on May 11, 2023.
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The Tennessee Star has obtained the suicide note left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale to her parents before her devastating March 27, 2023 attack that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adults.
Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) investigators found the note posted to Hale’s bedroom wall, which The Star has learned was adorned with childhood memorabilia and photos.
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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.
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Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale claimed to witness an accidental injury after training at a Nashville-area gun range just two days before her terrible attack.
Hale reported witnessing the incident in a handwritten journal or diary entry that was recovered from her vehicle, photographed, and eventually provided to The Tennessee Star as part of a portion of Hale’s writings.
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The Tennessee Star has obtained a judicial subpoena sent by a Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) detective to Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) on May 13, 2023, which sought “any and all records of medical and psychological treatment received by Audrey Hale,” who committed the Covenant School shooting on March 27, 2023 that resulted in six dead.
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The Tennessee Star has obtained dozens of handwritten pages authored by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who committed the horrific Covenant School shooting on March 27, 2023.
The Star reviewed nearly four dozen images of notebook pages written by Hale that were recovered from the vehicle she drove to the Covenant School which were obtained from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation.
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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.
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The Tennessee Star has obtained the FBI memo sent to the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) on May 11, 2023 from a source familiar with the Covenant killer investigation.
The letterhead and heading used for the memo indicate it originated at the FBI’s Critical Incident Response Group in Quantico, Virginia. The opening paragraphs reveal it was sent by the FBI’s Behavioral Threat Assessment Center (BTAC), the home of the FBI’s Behavorial Analysis Unit (BAU-1). The memo was not signed.
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A retired Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) officer told The Michael Patrick Leahy Show on Tuesday that the psychologist who treated Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale referred her patient to Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) for treatment and involuntary commitment after Hale expressed violent fantasies.
Retired MNPD Lieutenant Garet Davidson, who recently filed a 61-page complaint against the department and claimed the FBI told MNPD not to release documents from the Covenant investigation, revealed the information to The Tennessee Star editor-in-chief Michael Patrick Leahy.
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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.
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The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) announced Monday morging that it shuttered a market in North Nashville due to excessive violence.
“MNPD officers & detectives now are raiding & padlocking Star Market, 1613 Buchanan St, after a prolonged disruption of quality of life in this area (drug deals, gunshots, fighting, drunkenness). This is a court ordered action under TN’s public nuisance law,” MNPD said on its X account.
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A man with a lengthy criminal record was arrested and charged on Sunday for allegedly following, touching, and exposing himself to a woman at a WeGo bus station in Nashville.
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A source provided The Tennessee Star with the name of the psychologist who was reportedly part of the care team for Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale. That psychologist allegedly failed in her professional and legal duty to warn law enforcement after Hale purportedly expressed fantasies about murdering her family members and carrying out a school shooting while under treatment.
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A source provided The Tennessee Star with the name of the psychologist who was reportedly part of the care team for Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale. That psychologist allegedly failed in her professional and legal duty to warn law enforcement after Hale purportedly expressed fantasies about murdering her family members and carrying out a school shooting while under treatment.
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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.
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The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) on Thursday confirmed the arrest of 15-year-old De’Anthony Osasosifo and named him as a suspect in the Wednesday night shooting that left a 13-year-old dead and his 16-year-old sister hospitalized.
MNPD revealed on social media that a 13-year-old boy was fatally wounded and his 16-year-old sister was shot and suffered non-life threatening injuries after “gunfire erupted during a teen fight” in the parking lot of the Red Caboose Park in Bellevue.
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A man was shot three times at a WeGo bus stop in Nashville on Friday, marking the third violent crime related to the city’s bus system in under 10 days.
Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) confirmed the shooting and arrest of 19-year-old Dejuan Prime in a post to the social media platform X, explaining the crime happened on the steps of 4th Avenue North.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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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).
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Michael Patrick Leahy, editor-in-chief and CEO of The Tennessee Star, said as a plaintiff in the case seeking to compel the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) to release the manifesto left behind by the Covenant School shooter, he believes the the full manifesto should be released – not just the “documents in the car” found on the day of the shooting which Metro Legal suggests would satisfy the plaintiffs in the case.
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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.
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The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) has released the identity of a suspect being sought for the shooting that occurred at Roasted, a small restaurant in the Salemtown neighborhood of Nashville, on Sunday that killed one man and injured four others.
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The family of Riley Strain, the 22-year-old University of Missouri-Columbia student whose body was pulled from the Cumberland River in West Nashville last week, requested that a second autopsy be performed on Strain’s body.
Strain went missing after being asked to leave Luke Bryan’s bar on the night of March 8 before being recovered in the Cumberland River in West Nashville, approximately eight miles from downtown, two weeks later on March 22.
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The body of Riley Strain, the 22-year old college student who had gone missing after being asked to leave Luke Bryan’s bar on the night of March 8, has been recovered in the Cumberland River in West Nashville, approximately 8 miles from downtown.
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Metro Nashville Police Department on Tuesday announced the department made new changes in a bid to recruit more female officers, including lactation rooms for nursing police officers, flexible schedules to better accommodate families and new physical requirements for officers that are more accommodating to women.
The department is driving up its recruitment of women in a bid to comply with the 30×30 initiative joined by Police Chief John Drake in 2021. The effort, which is tied to Hungarian-American financier George Soros, seeks to compel police departments to ensure 30 percent of officers are female by 2030.
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The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) Tuesday announced the arrest of man with a lengthy criminal history after he left his wallet at the scene of an alleged kidnapping.
According to an MNPD press release, convicted felon Jaymes Greer, 24, was arrested by local authorities for the kidnapping and assault of a female acquaintance after an attentive gas station employee witnessed the alleged crimes, and found that Greer had dropped his wallet in the parking lot.
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The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs has quietly canceled a webinar event for sworn law enforcement personnel focusing on the “lessons learned” from the Covenant School in Nashville shooting last year.
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A police captain with the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) is slated to hold a “webinar” for law enforcement to discuss the “lessons learned” from the Covenant School shooting last year, including factors which potentially led Audrey Elizabeth Hale to commit her horrific crime.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs (OJP) reveals Captain Steven Bowers “will provide an overview, review factors that may have contributed to the violence, and share lessons learned on effective prevention, response, and recovery strategies” learned in the aftermath the Covenant School shooting on March 27, 2023 in a “webinar” to be held on February 29.
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According to the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD), four of the city’s residents have been arrested following a methamphetamine and fentanyl bust conducted by local, state, and federal authorities.
“A joint investigation by MNPD narcotics detectives, DEA agents and the TBI’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force led to Monday’s seizure of 12 pounds of pressed fentanyl pills (approximately 120,000) and 27 pounds of meth arriving in Nashville from California,” MNPD said in press release.
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A hearing in the public records lawsuit against the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County related to release of records from The Covenant School shooting took place before Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles on Monday.
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