Audrey Hale manifesto still withheld

When Audrey Hale shot her way into Nashville’s Covenant School and killed six people, she left a manifesto behind. That was more than a month ago and the manifesto is still in police hands. Now the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department refuses indefinitely to release it.

Where the Audrey Hale story stands

Audrey “Aidan” Hale, on March 27, 2023, attacked the Covenant School, of which she appears to be a disgruntled alumna. She killed three nine-year-old pupils, including the pastor’s daughter and one other pupil who tried to summon aid by triggering a fire alarm. Though that pupil failed in that effort, someone else succeeded. Sadly, Audrey Hale also killed the principal, a substitute teacher, and a janitor.

Metropolitan Nashville police responded within ten minutes. Two officers entered the school, followed the sounds of gunfire, confronted Hale, and shot her dead.

Other officers, investigating, recovered maps and other evidence that she had been planning this attack for months.

Yet the police insisted that her motive was unclear. In fact she left behind a manifesto that almost certainly will make her motive clear – when the police release it. The FBI entered the case and ordered the local police to withhold the manifesto.

Furthermore, a Metro Nashville Council member seemed to urge that this manifesto never see the light of day.

What I was told is, her manifesto was a blueprint on total destruction, and it was so, so detailed at the level of what she had planned … That document in the wrong person’s hands would be astronomically dangerous.

Exactly what would make any given person a “wrong person,” Council Member Courtney Johnston never made clear. In any case, several Nashville residents sued to force its release under Tennessee’s Public Records Act.

Last week the Metro Nashville Police said they were reviewing the manifesto in preparation for its release. But now, apparently under the cover of the very lawsuit demanding its elease, they refuse to release it.

Reaction

Several journalists and other commentators have expressed outrage at the continued withholding of the Audrey Hale manifesto.

Audrey Hale, who went by the name Aidan, had been taking testosterone and other hormones to “transition” into a man. Ironically, her act became a flashpoint for a renewed gun control push that saw two legislators expelled. They are back in the Tennessee House – temporarily, pending a special election.