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.
