Nashville Official Says School Shooter’s Manifesto Is ‘Astronomically Dangerous’

Officials have identified the suspect in Monday's Nashville Christian school shooting incident as 28-year-old Audrey Hale as Nashville Police released surveillance footage, seen above, on March 28, 2023. Nashville Police Department

Federal officials are delaying the release of a manifesto written by Audrey Hale, who killed six people in a Nashville Christian school, according to local officials, with one calling it “astronomically dangerous.”

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) told the New York Post this week that the FBI is currently behind the delay. He said that the documents should be made public for grieving family members and for members of Congress.

Hale, who was born female, used “he/him” pronouns, and police officials previously told a news conference she identified as transgender. Later, Nashville Police Chief John Drake said Hale suffered from mental health issues and was under the care of a doctor, while her parents did not know she had procured several firearms.

The shooter’s notes “could maybe tell us a little bit about what’s going on inside of her head,” Burchett told the newspaper. “I think that would answer a lot of questions.”

About 20 journals, five laptops, a suicide note, and other materials written by Hale were taken from the house where she lived with her parents, according to a search warrant in the case.

“What I was told is, her manifesto was a blueprint on total destruction, and it was so, so detailed at the level of what she had planned,” Metro Nashville Council Member Courtney Johnston told the NY Post, without elaborating. “That document in the wrong person’s hands would be astronomically dangerous,” she added.

Johnson claimed that the “the vast, overwhelming majority of it“ would be too dangerous for the public to see. “I personally don’t want to know the depths to which her psychosis reached … When I’m told by an MNPD high-ranking official that it keeps him up at night, I’m going to defer to that person in that agency that I don’t need to read that,” she added.

The official did not elaborate on why the documents would be a danger to the public. Based on the interview, it’s not clear if Johnson was worried about detailed plans to attack other sites or was worried about Hale’s mental health issues.

The Epoch Times has contacted the FBI’s press office for comment.

Audrey Hale in an undated image. Nashville Police Department via The Epoch Times

Hale, 28, was a former student at The Covenant School when she shot and killed three children and three adults at a private school last month. The victims who were murdered include Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9, Hallie Scruggs, 9, William Kinney, 9, Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61.

Since the shooting, a range of conservative commentators have publicly called for Hale’s manifesto to be made public, saying that the FBI’s delay is part of a cover-up to keep the public from knowing about the dangers of transgenderism. About a week after the Nashville mass shooting, a 19-year-old male who reportedly identified as female was arrested in Colorado with detailed plans for several school shootings.

Rep. Walter Hudson (R-Minn.) told the NY Post this week that the documents should be released and said that by doing so, the FBI and other agencies could gain more Americans’ trust. He cited conversations with his constituents who have exhibited an  “increasing distrust with the FBI and with government agencies generally.”

“One of the greatest threats to democracy or, as I would say, threats to the Constitutional Republic, is the erosion of trust in institutions. The FBI is one of those institutions,” he told NY Post. “If you’re going to wield power in a free country, then you have a responsibility to maintain the public’s trust in that power—and the FBI needs to figure out how to do that,” the lawmaker said.

Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) told the paper that if the documents are not ultimately released, “then we need to investigate why.”