The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) released a statement Monday afternoon indicating the broadly circulated images–purportedly of the Nashville shooter’s manifesto–are “not MNPD crime scene images.”

Earlier in the day, Breitbart News reported that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) would not confirm that the purported leaked pages from the Nashville shooter’s manifesto were real during a Monday morning phone call.

Breitbart News spoke with TBI communications director Josh Devine who said, “We’re aware of the images, yes, but we’re not offering confirmation on their authenticity.”

Hours later the MNPD released their statement, which said:

The MNPD is in communication with the Metropolitan Department of Law as an investigation, begun this morning, continues into the dissemination of three photographs of writings during an on-line discussion about Covenant School. The photographs are not MNPD crime scene images.

The police department has been in contact with a representative of Covenant families. Police department counselors are available to assist them in coping with the emotional trauma caused by the dissemination.

The images of the purported leaked pages in question were posted to X/Twitter by Steven Crowder and included statements, attributed to Hale [Audrey Hale, the alleged shooter], about killing “crackers” with “white privlages [sic].”

The Tennessee Star, owned by former Breitbart contributor Michael Patrick Leahy, says it independently confirmed the images via “[s]ources in the Tennessee General Assembly who were allowed to view the Covenant Killer Manifesto by the Metro Nashville Police Department.”

WSMV 4 indicated Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell (D) has launched an investigation into how purported images of the manifesto were released.

O’Connell said, “I have directed Wally Dietz, Metro’s Law Director, to initiate an investigation into how these images could have been released. That investigation may involve local, state, and federal authorities. I am deeply concerned with the safety, security, and well-being of the Covenant families and all Nashvillians who are grieving,”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010, a speaker at the 2023 Western Conservative Summit, and he holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com