Nashville Covenant School shooter’s unredacted manifesto given to judge ahead of public hearing: report

A judge in Nashville has received the unredacted manifesto of Covenant School shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale following several lawsuits demanding its release to the public, according to a local report.

Attorneys representing the city delivered the unredacted writings and a second version with proposed redactions to the Davidson County Chancellor’s chambers for review on Friday, FOX17 Nashville reported.

The release of the journals has been debated since the March 27 mass shooting in which Hale killed three 9-year-old children and three adults with two semi-automatic rifles and a handgun before being shot and killed by responding police officers. 

With no motive known, some believe Hale’s writings will help to understand why she carried out the deadly shooting. Others say there should be less focus on the manifesto and more on gun reform, while some believe the writings could create a “blueprint” for copycats.

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A county judge and city attorneys will hold a status conference on Thursday ahead of a June public hearing in which members of the public can express concerns over the release of the writings, the station reported.

Calls for authorities to release what Hale left behind have grown in the weeks since the shootings.

In April, Nashville police confirmed to Fox News Digital that they would release the manifesto recovered from the car of Hale, a 28-year-old transgender former student. 

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The release, however, was delayed with the police department blaming pending litigation for the holdup.

“Due to pending litigation filed this week, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department has been advised by counsel to hold in abeyance the release of records related to the shooting at The Covenant School pending orders or direction of the court,” the department tweeted May 3. 

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Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake previously said investigators had not immediately determined a motive, but that they believed Hale had specifically targeted the Christian school and its affiliated church. 

Fox News’s Greg Norman and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.