Transgender school shooter Audrey Hale’s manifesto WILL be released, Nashville police say
The manifesto of Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale will be released, the Nashville police have confirmed, after they were accused of hiding the blueprint for destruction.
A police source confirmed the imminent release of the document to the New York Post on Thursday.
But they didn’t say when it would be made public – nor could they confirm whether its content would be shared in its entirety.
Hale’s detailed writings have been called a “blueprint for utter destruction,” describing why she chose to go to The Covenant School on March 27 and murder three children and three staff members.
A motive for the massacre has not yet been given.
Hale fired 152 rounds from two assault rifles and a handgun, killing Hallie Scruggs, William Kinney, Evelyn Dieckhaus, all 9, and Principal Dr. Katherine Koonce, 60, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, and custodian Mike Hill, 61, were killed.
Audrey Hale, 28, had detailed writings plotting her sick attack months before she slaughtered three children and three adults at The Covenant School last week
Hale, 28, had fired 152 rounds from two assault rifles and a handgun during the vicious shooting that rocked the US. Pictured: Hale before transitioning to male
Officers recovered the “manifesto” — along with hand-drawn cards, a suicide note, 20 diaries, laptops, phones, and various writings — from Hale’s home and the Honda Fit she had left in the school parking lot.
A Metro Nashville Police Department official said the contents of Hale’s manifesto “keep him up at night.”
Metro Nashville Councilman Courtney Johnston previously suggested that the manifesto would not be released in its entirety.
“What I was told is that her manifesto was a blueprint for utter destruction, and it was so, so detailed to the level of what she had planned,” Johnston said.
However, after speaking to investigators, Johnston says she doesn’t think it would be good for the rest of America to deal with the toll it has taken on them.
“Personally, I don’t want to know how deep her psychosis went… If I’m told by a senior MNPD official that it’s keeping him awake at night, I’ll defer to that person in that office that I don’t need to read that .’
While the police work to release the manifesto, they have not provided any clarification in an investigation of the New York Post how much would be shown to the public.
“The investigation has progressed to the point where the writings of the Covenant shooter are now being reviewed for public release and that process is ongoing and will take some time,” a police spokesman told the news outlet.
The manifesto has been shared with the FBI’s behavior analysis unit in Quantico, Virginia, and details Hale’s “plans to commit mass murder” at the school over a period of months, police said.
To some, Hale’s decision to target the Christian elementary school she once attended, along with her shifting gender identity, suggests the attack was an expression of violent transgender activism.
Hale was born female but used the names Audrey and Aiden, along with he/him pronouns. There is a debate about how correctly to refer to her in media reports. She is described as having “high-functioning autism.”
Reporters have revealed that Hale’s conservative, Christian parents couldn’t accept that she was gay or trans, which may come down to personal motivations for the attack. She also mourned the recent death of a friend in a car accident.
Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9, was one of the victims shot by transgender shooter Audrey Hale, 28, after she opened fire at the private Christian school on Monday
Tributes have poured in for a second victim, Will Kinney, (pictured) who was shot and killed along with Hallie Scruggs, both 9, during the massacre
Hallie Scruggs, 9, was killed in the shooting and is pictured with her father, a minister at the church, Chad Scruggs
Katherine Koonce, principal of the school (left), and Cynthia Peak, a substitute teacher (right) were among those shot dead by Audrey Hale
The daughter of Mike Hill (pictured), who worked at the school for more than a decade, said she ‘never imagined’ he would be killed in a mass shooting
Around 10 a.m. on the day of the shooting, Hale attacked the school she had previously attended. She sent a farewell letter to an old friend before storming into the school.
Within minutes, Hale shot and killed six people, including three students. Police entered the school about ten minutes later and shot her.
Police have previously said that Hale mentioned a different location in her manifesto, but decided there was too much security to launch an attack.
Hale has since been surpassed by another American mass shooter.
Connor Sturgeon, 23, a bank employee armed with a rifle shot dead five colleagues and wounded nine other people at his workplace in Louisville on Monday while livestreaming the attack on social media
Another young transgender woman – William Whitworth, 19, whose name is Lilly – is in police custody after officers found a manifesto detailing her plan to attack three schools and churches in Colorado.