Mayor Launches Investigation Into Alleged Leak Of Mass Shooter’s Manifesto

(UnitedHeadlines.com) – After images of three pages of the Covenant School shooter’s manifesto were leaked online Nov. 6, Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell launched an investigation into how the purported images “could have been released.” O’Connell stated that Metro Law Director Wally Dietz would be launching the investigation alongside local, state, and federal authorities.

Dietz stated that he would neither “confirm or deny” the documents authenticity “due to the existing lawsuit.” Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) communications director Josh Devine as well as Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) also would not confirm the authenticity of the documents. MNPD did state that the images were “not MNPD crime scene images.”

In March, the 28-year-old former student, Audrey Hale, killed three 9-year-old children and three adults before the transgender shooter was killed by police. The images released online Nov. 6 by a conservative political commentator Steven Crowder were said to be from a personal notebook that authorities stated the shooter wrote in before the attack. The writings described a timeline of the shooter’s plan for what the shooter referred to as “Death Day” as well as a desire to kill as many white, privileged children as possible. The writings were full of hateful references, anti-white racism as well anti-Christian expressions.

The release of the manifesto has been part of an ongoing legal battle. While some groups are trying to use Freedom of Information Act requests to gain access to the writings, parents of two of the children killed and the school are attempting to block the request. Many of the groups seeking the release of the writings feel they would benefit public safety by shedding light on the thinking of the killer. Erin Kinney, the mother of one of the students killed, does not want the writing released. Kinney stated that the “mass murderer” should not get to speak, through the writings, from the grave while those killed cannot speak. The Tennessee Court of Appeals is expected to issue a ruling in the case.