Court To Hear Arguments on Releasing Covenant School Shooter’s Manifesto in Nashville

Oral argument will be heard today by a three-judge panel in the Tennessee Court of Appeals in the public records lawsuit Judicial Watch brought against the Nashville Government and Davidson County seeking the records related to the March 2023 Covenant School shooting.

There, an ex-pupil, Audrey Hale, who identified as a man, shot her way into the school and killed six people before being fatally shot by law enforcement.

Nashville Covenant School Shooting Court Hearing To Release Shooter’s Manifesto

On March 27, 2023, Audrey Elizabeth Hale (also known as Aiden Hale), shot her way through a set of the Nashville, Tennessee, school’s secured exterior doors and opened fire on pupils and staff.

Hale was armed with two semi-automatic rifles, a handgun, and a significant amount of ammunition, and was under a doctor’s care for an unspecified emotional disorder at the time of the shooting.

Three students and three staff members were killed during the shooting. Law enforcement officers responding to a 911 call found Hale on the second floor, and, during the confrontation, Hale began firing at responding officers before being killed by law enforcement. Investigators later recovered approximately 152 casings.

During the investigation, Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) investigators uncovered approximately 20 journals, six laptops, seven cell phones, one tablet, and 11 computer drives, and evidence that Hale had been planning the attack.

In an open records lawsuit on behalf of retired Hamilton County Sheriff James Hammond and the Tennessee Firearms Association, Inc. (“TFA”), Judicial Watch and several others sought the release of public records from the Covenant School shooting.

The case has been delayed over disputes over whether the school and the school/victims’ parents could intervene to prevent the release of the “manifesto” and other material gathered during the investigation.

So far, Judicial Watch has received 112 pages and an additional 231 pages of records, plus a further 485 pages of the “manifesto” that detail the shooter’s violent thoughts, the targeting and planning of the shooting attack on The Covenant School, and transgender-related obsessions.

828 pages of the entire “manifesto,” which consists of 2,056 pages, were made available.

The lawsuit also asks that materials provided to the FBI by local law enforcement that are currently being withheld be released. The FBI says these are categorically exempt from disclosure under FOIA. Judicial Watch continues to press for its public release.

On Thursday, oral arguments will be heard regarding the release of the records.