Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale’s manifesto will be publicly released after the FBI finishes its review of the material.
The FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit is working with the Nashville Police Department on “a very in-depth analysis of certain aspects of the shooter’s life,” according to Nashville City Council member Robert Swope.
The 28-year-old transgender shooter killed six people at the Christian Covenant School in Nashville on Monday — including three nine-year-old children.
Swope told the New York Post that Hale’s manifesto would be released to the public, but he did not know when.
“The manifesto is going to be released. It’s just a matter of when. There are some incredibly brilliant psychological minds and psychological analysts combing through her entire life,” Swope said.
Swope told The Post that Hale had “looked at” two other schools, both public, before deciding “the security was too great to do what she wanted to do.”
Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake said during a press conference after the shooting that in addition to the manifesto, they found a map detailing how the incident would take place created by Hale and writings “that pertain to this date, the actual incident.”
“We have a manifesto; we have some writings. We have a map drawn out of how this was all going to take place,” Chief Drake said on Monday.
Swope does not think that it was a coincidence that a private Christian school was chosen by Hale, though she did attend the school in her youth.
“So she chose a private Christian school, for, probably the reason is that the security is a whole lot less,” Swope said. He added that Nashville officials were exploring ways to “harden our schools from ballistics, active AI systems that can recognize guns at a hundred yards outside under any circumstances.”
“I’m beyond heartbroken. That this kind of evil actually exists in this world, it is amazing to me,” Swope said. “I don’t know how our community gets past this.”
LGBTQ groups have opposed the release of the manifesto. Hale was a biological woman who used the pronouns “he/him” to describe herself.
Jordan Budd, the executive director of Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere (COLAGE), has argued that the focus should be on guns instead of Hale’s motive, which many have speculated has to do with her transgender ideology.
“It should not be published,” Budd told Newsweek. “The focus should be on how this was able to happen in the first place. There should not be such easy access to deadly weaponry.”
Charles Moran, the national president of Log Cabin Republicans, a Republican organization, has also opposed the release, claiming that there could be “serious consequences.”
“While it would certainly give insight into the motivations of this deeply troubled individual that could help shed light into root causes, we know from tragedies like this that additional glorification of the shooter could inspire others to take similar violent acts for attention,” Moran said.
Many conservatives have argued that it should be released so the public can get answers on what influenced her to kill.
