Editor: Nashville Police Report On Trans Killer Conceals Motive

The long-awaited Metropolitan Nashville Police Department report on the twisted trans killer who stormed into a Nashville Christian elementary school and killed three children and three adults is nothing more than a “whitewash” of the facts, according to Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO and editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star. 

“I think the purpose of the report and the way it was written was to conceal that the motive was not notoriety but the hatred of Christian schools and the hatred of those who did not accept her identity as transgender,” Leahy told The Federalist Tuesday in a phone interview. 

The editor’s Nashville-based news outlet has been on the forefront of covering the case of Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the 28-year-old woman masquerading as a man who took out her rage on Covenant School in late March 2023 in a horrific mass shooting. Hale’s deadly attack claimed the lives of three 9-year-olds and three staff members at the private Christian school. Responding police officers fatally shot the mass murderer mid killing spree. 

Leahy’s Star News Digital Media is one of several organizations that has sued the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD)  to release Hale’s “manifesto,” a voluminous collection of journals and other writings. Leahy and I also are plaintiffs in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Justice demanding the FBI also make public Hale’s documents. Both agencies have speciously insisted they could not turn over the records until the investigation is closed. 

MNPD closed its plodding “investigation” this week with the filing of a 48-page report. 

“After two years of meticulous detective work, including analysis and review of thousands of pages of potential evidence, Chief John Drake today announces the closure of the investigation into the March 27, 2023, murders at The Covenant School in which three children and three adults were killed in a planned, calculated attack,” the police department declared in a press release. 

The district attorney has reviewed the report and “has determined that no criminal charges will be placed against anyone in connection with the Covenant case,” MNPD said. 

‘I Swear to God I’m a Male’

To many following the hideous crime, the report is a joke — a very sick one at that. MNPD concludes that Hale was simply seeking “notoriety,” that she “longed for her name and actions to be remembered long after she was dead.”

“She wanted absolute control of the narrative surrounding the attack, particularly her motives,” the report asserts. 

While there is truth in the conclusion, Leahy said the official account is missing some key facts, not the least of which is the word “transgender.” MNPD does, however, note that the killer “gender identified” as a man, using “he/him” as preferred pronouns “prior to her death.”  Dozens of pages of documents, Hale’s journal entries in the weeks before the attack, seem to paint a picture of a disturbed mind bent by trans ideology. 

“I am of no society. And I hate society [because] society ignores to see me,” Hale concluded one of the 90 pages of writings obtained by The Tennessee Star. “I’m a queer; I am meant to die,” she wrote and signed the entry “Aiden.” 

Hale also wrote about her “imaginary penis” and that she would “kill” to get her hands on puberty blockers less than two weeks before her attack, the Star reported.

“My penis exists in my head. I swear to god I’m a male,” the killer wrote in one of the many journals recovered by police.

But the MNPD report focused almost exclusively on Hale’s craving for fame. She wanted “books, documentaries, movies to be made about her life and her attack.” She wanted “her firearms to be placed in a museum; wanted her bedroom to be left as it was when the attack occurred as a memorial to her.” She wanted “to mentor other shooters to show how they could succeed with proper planning.” 

‘A Very Poor Job’

All of that longing for attention — at any price — is detailed at length in the report. But arguably how she came to that obsession is lacking, Leahy said. Were the omissions by design?

“Metro Nashville did a very poor job of undertaking basic investigative research, such as obtaining the medical records of the killer,” Leahy said. “They stopped after the first investigator secured the medical records of Audrey Elizabeth Hale from her treatment at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.”

“After that, the investigator on the case mysteriously left the department,” he added. Leahy said MNPD apparently did little to obtain further medical records, insisting Hale’s parents stopped cooperating with investigators. 

“It must be pointed out that not all of Hale’s mental health records were able to be obtained during the investigation due to factors outside of the control of the MNPD Homicide Unit,” the report states. The Department blamed the leak of the 90 pages of Hale’s manifesto and medical health treatment records to the Tennessee Star for her parents losing confidence in MNPD’s ability to protect the information from public viewing. Police abandoned their attempts to obtain the records apparently after the parents refused to give their consent. 

Leahy said the assertion doesn’t hold water. Hale’s parents would have no right to stop a judge’s court order requiring the killer’s medical records be released.

“A thorough investigation would have sought a warrant for all medical records in summer of 2023,” the media executive said. 

‘Makes Me Think About Dying’

The report on multiple occasions notes the shooter’s struggles with mental health issues. But Hale, who attended Covenant from kindergarten through fourth grade, “considered these years the happiest of her childhood. She felt safe and accepted at The Covenant and made friends with other students,” according to the report.

Yet, Hale’s writings obtained by the Star point to a biological woman embroiled in gender confusion and how it seemingly shaded her disdain for Christianity. In one portion of the journal, Hale writes disparagingly of the biblical idea that humans are made in God’s image.

“If God won’t give me a boy body in heaven, then Jesus is a f-ggot,” she wrote. 

Hale also criticized her parents for apparently holding similar beliefs, writing that “conservative religion gay sh-t makes them believe that the child they are given should stay that way.”

The Tennessee Star reported that at least once in the years preceding her attack, “Audrey Hale was referred by a psychologist to Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) for immediate mental health intervention after she expressed violent fantasies.” The news outlet obtained police records that showed Hale had “expressed animosity toward her father, including one page where Hale wrote of her desire to kill him.”

In one entry, Hale wrote of her father in capital letters, “Well guess what? Your [sic] a loser. I hate your (life, you). I don’t care if you die. I want to kill you.” 

“This f***** is so g******* ugly,” wrote Hale. “Disgusted with that like disgusted being in a female body. Makes me think about dying…”

MNPD concludes Hale was sane. But the report notes that, based on the available mental health records, “Hale was diagnosed with major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, social phobias, and other emotional disorders. At times, Hale suffered from anorexia nervosa.” 

“Hale was without question highly depressed and highly suicidal throughout her life. She embraced her death at the end of the attack and considered any other outcome as failure,” the police report states. 

‘Unintended Consequences’

There are other curious inconsistencies, Leahy notes. The police report states that Hale completed a “will,” in which she “explained in detail who was supposed to obtain her possessions following her death, which included her toys, video games, movies, stuffed animals, and the writings and videos she created regarding the attack over the previous three years.” But the killer’s parents claim she died intestate, or without a will. 

The Tennessee Star obtained documents showing the Biden administration’s FBI, particularly its Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), calling the shots in the investigation. MNPD notes the BAU’s involvement. An FBI memo sent to Nashville police on May 11, 2023, shortly after the Star’s parent company filed its FOIA lawsuit, shows the bureau “strongly discourages” local police departments from releasing “legacy tokens” left by mass murderers. According to the memo, legacy tokens are often items the shooter leaves behind “to claim credit for the attack and / or articulate the motivation behind it.”

Interestingly, a federal agency known for lying claimed that releasing “legacy tokens” would spawn “false narratives and inaccurate information.” 

“This also may lead to unintended consequences for the segment of the population more vulnerable or open to conspiracy theories, which will undoubtedly abound,” the memo states. It’s not hard to imagine that an FBI in a Biden administration steeped in identity politics and LGBTQ dogma would push to suppress records presenting a trans community member in a violent light.  

‘They Are Trying to Conceal’

With the MNPD’s investigation now closed, Leahy said police should have no reason to block the release of the full 1,200 pages of Hale’s writings. A challenge is tied up in state and federal courts. Leahy believes Nashville police will continue to resist. They hint at as much in the press release announcing the report. 

“Recognizing the notoriety motive previously mentioned, it is this police department’s concerted belief that Hale’s specific action plan, if ever made public, would be used by future potential mass murderers in the United States or anywhere in the world to attack and kill innocent persons, including school children,” the release states. 

Attorneys for Leahy’s Star News Digital Media have asked the Trump Administration Department of Justice to come to a deal to end the lawsuit and release the documents. The DOJ and FBI have yet to respond. 

“They are trying to conceal the full motive of the killer, and that motivation is hatred of Christians and the hatred of anybody not fully supportive of transgender ideology,” Leahy said. 

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.