(VitalNews.org) – Following the mass shooting of three schoolchildren and three adults at a Christian elementary school by transgender shooter Audrey Hale on 27 March 2023, the Covenant Presbyterian Church has moved in order to prevent the release of a manifesto and journals belonging to Hale.
Hale, who was a former student at The Covenant School, was not previously known to law enforcement and had no previous convictions, but a manifesto and journals found by police in the aftermath of the shooting (in which Hale was shot dead by two armed police officers returning fire) allegedly contained many sensitive details about the school.
Police said that the journals contained details about the staff and elaborate schematics concerning entry and exit points at the school. The motion filed by the Covenant Presbyterian Church against the Nashville Police Association (NPA) and the Tennessee Firearms Association (TFA) lists “privacy concerns” as one of the reasons behind the legal move.
Investigators subsequently discovered that Hale had been receiving treatment for a mental health disorder and was under the care of a doctor at the time of the shooting. However, there are no “red flag laws” in Tennessee that would have alerted police to Hale’s purchase and ownership of firearms, although Hale’s parents said that they would not have thought Hale to be a suitable person to own a firearm and were unaware of the stash of firearms hidden in the family home.
Based on what had been written in the manifesto and journals, the local police chief said that it would appear that Hale had planned multiple attacks on other locations, including a shopping mall and other family members. Hale had been heavily armed with two AR15-type rifles and a handgun, and police recovered a sawn-ff shotgun and other firearms from the family home, at least two of which had been legally purchased by Hale.
The exact motive for the attack is unknown at this time.
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