(LifeSiteNews) — The Metro Nashville Police Department released their final report on the deadly Covenant School shooting. Despite the fact that the shooter’s 42-page manifesto is packed with references to her “transgender” identity and her hatred for her Christian community, the police claim that the killer’s primary motive was “notoriety.”
On March 27, 2023, 28-year-old Audrey Hale, a trans-identifying young woman, entered The Covenant Christian School in Nashville, Tennessee, with two AR-style weapons and a handgun, shooting open a locked side door to gain access. She began her shooting spree at around 10:13 a.m., killing three 9-year-old children – Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney – and three adults – 61-year-old substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 60-year-old principal Dr. Katherine Koonce, and 61-year-old custodian Mike Hill.
Less than 15 minutes later, Hale was shot and killed by two police officers – Rex Engelbart and Michael Collazo – who rushed into the building.
As I noted in three reports for LSN on Hale’s manifesto, portions of which were leaked last summer (June 10 and June 14), and then the entire manifesto, published by the Tennessee Star in September. The manifesto is packed with angsty passages on her transgender identity and fury against her parents, writing at one point: “Parents actually believe religion can change nature. That could explain why I don’t practice religion anymore. Let kids think for themselves.” She also wrote: “Wanna kill all you little crackers.”
Later, she wrote that she wanted to kill “crackers going to private fancy schools.”
None of that, the police insist, is particularly relevant. “Regarding why she selected The Covenant, many have speculated (the shooter) selected this location for racial, religious, or economic motives,” the report states. “It is certainly true she raged over these topics at times in her writings. But none of those motives impacted her decision to attack The Covenant.” In fact, despite Hale’s manifesto containing long, pornographic passages on her gender identity, the police report scarcely mentions it.
“It should be noted that in life, the offender … gender identified as a male and used he/him as preferred pronouns. Under Tennessee law, a person’s gender identity must correspond with their biological sex or with information present on their certificate of live birth,” police wrote. “As (the attacker) was a biological female at the time of her death and throughout the incidents described in this summary and in the case file, (the attacker) will be referred to as a female.”
Only one other mention is made of the subject that preoccupied much of Hale’s manifesto. “Nothing has been found to suggest she initiated or was undergoing a transition at the time of her death, including medical documentation,” police wrote. “During her autopsy following her death, it was determined she was biologically female.” Considering the fact that gender identity dominated and determined Hale’s mental state up to the shooting, this lapse is clearly a deliberate one. At one point, she wrote, “A bare flat chest made me free. Girl puberty imprisoned me. And so does my mind. Puberty = life sentence. The people in this world adds more bullets to shoot violent thoughts into my head on full-auto.”
Despite Hale’s ruminations on her suicidal ideation that pervade her notebooks, the police also emphasized her competency. “Despite all her assorted mental health disorders, (the attacker) was certainly sane,” police wrote. “She was capable of adjusting her plans as needed, manipulating others into seeing her as meek and non-threatening, and fully understood her attack was not only criminal but morally reprehensible.”
“By this point, (the shooter) wrote how she was tired of being alone and ignored, ostracized by those she felt were her friends, and shunned by society for being autistic,” the police wrote, again choosing to focus on her autism rather than her gender identity. “After writing an expletive rant directed towards her ‘best friend’ for choosing a relationship with a man over her, (the shooter) decided it was time to make others notice her for a change. She felt by ‘killing a bunch of children’ she would no longer be ignored.”
The police do admit, however, that Hale chose Covenant Christian School because it was Christian — she felt that murdering children there would gain her more “notoriety.” The police assert that Hale believed that the Christian children would be more “meek and afraid,” and mapped out the school in advance to prepare for her shooting. Despite that, the police assert that because Hale appears not to have been targeted at Covenant, the religious character of the school was not a prime motivator.
“She never remarked of being bullied and ostracized there; on the contrary, she remarked on a couple of occasions how she established friendships, which included play-dates at the homes of other children and a sense of acceptance,” the report states. “She gave no examples of how anyone at the school belittled her or harmed her, as she did in other places she attended school.” The report concludes that Hale was the sole killer, and that the case is now closed. A trans-identifying killer who specifically chose a Christian school is thus dismissed as an autistic murderer who was seeking merely “notoriety.”
