The Nashville Metropolitan Police Department (NMPD) denied a Tennessee Star public records request for the release of the manifesto left by the shooter who killed six people at a Nashville Christian school.
The existence of the manifesto has been common knowledge since shortly after the 28-year-old transgender shot and killed six people in the Christian school.
On April 18 Breitbart News pointed to an NBC News report about specific documents the shooter left behind, including a suicide note and 19 journals, among others.
On Tuesday, the NMPD denied the Tennessee Star’s public records request for the manifesto, claiming it is still part of an “open case.”
The Star reported that they sent their records request on Monday. The request made clear the oulet wished to:
[I]nspect and copy or duplicate all written records and documents, including written manifestos. journals, written notes, memoirs, and school yearbooks obtained by the Metro Nashville Police Department from search warrants executed on Monday March 27, 2023 and throughout the week of March 27, 2023 at the residence of Audrey Hale in Nashville and the car driven by Audrey Hale and left at the Covenant Presbyterian School parking lot on March 27, 2023 related to the investigation of the murder of six people at Covenant Presbyterian School by Audrey Hale on Monday March 27, 2023.
On April 21 Breitbart News noted a New York Post report that the FBI was stalling release of the manifesto.
John Jay College of Criminal Justice’s Joseph Giacalone commented on the delay of the release of the manifesto, saying, “I think what the FBI is really concerned here with, and I think law enforcement, is that if there is something in there that is truly damaging for the transgender community, I think they are hesitant to do it because they are afraid of a violent backlash against that protected class of people.”
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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. AWR Hawkins 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.