The mayor of Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday called for an investigation after images purported to be the writings of a shooter who killed six people at The Covenant School in March were posted online.
The three images of writings were posted online Monday by a conservative podcast and YouTube show host and are said to be from the shooter. NBC News has not confirmed whether the documents are authentic.
Audrey Hale, 28, was killed by police after opening fire on March 27 at the private Christian school, which Hale had once attended.
The shooter killed three children and three adults.
Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell said he directed Metro Nashville Law Director Wally Dietz “to initiate an investigation into how these images could have been released.”
“I am deeply concerned with the safety, security, and well-being of the Covenant families and all Nashvillians who are grieving,” O’Connell said in a statement.
The images were posted online Monday by podcast host Steven Crowder. The writings in the images appear to have language about carrying out a shooting at a school and a date.
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said the three images “are not MNPD crime scene images.” A spokesman for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said the department was aware of the images but cannot speak to their authenticity.
Audrey Hale, 28, was killed by police after opening fire on March 27 at the private Christian school, which Hale had once attended.
The shooter killed three children and three adults.
Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell said he directed Metro Nashville Law Director Wally Dietz “to initiate an investigation into how these images could have been released.”
“I am deeply concerned with the safety, security, and well-being of the Covenant families and all Nashvillians who are grieving,” O’Connell said in a statement.
The three children killed in the attack were 9-year-old students, and the adults killed were a custodian, a substitute teacher and the head of school.
A group of parents whose children were at The Covenant School during the attacks have filed a motion seeking to keep the writings secret.
On Monday a spokesman for those parents called whoever posted them “a viper,” and said that person “released evidence that was gathered in our most vulnerable moment.”
“You have now allowed this woman, who terrorized our family with bullets, to be able to now terrorize us with words from the grave,” said the spokesperson, Brent Leatherwood, whose three children were at the school and survived.
Officials have not made the writings public, and the release of any writings is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit.
The parents in their motion seeking to keep them secret argued that no good can come from the release, that they do not wish them released, and calling them “the dangerous and harmful writings of a mentally-damaged person.”
Tennessee House Republicans have called for them to be released.
David Raybin, an attorney for Hale’s parents, told NBC affiliate WSMV of Nashville that they could not authenticate the writings that were shared.
“We have absolutely not released anything, but we certainly did not release this,” Raybin told the station.
Police have said Hale had planned extensively for the shooting, and investigators found drawn maps of the school with surveillance and entry points.
The shooter was armed with what police have described as two assault-style rifles and a handgun.
Leatherwood, the parent of the three children who were at the school, said the release of the images had little value, and that the world already knew that Hale was deeply disturbed, but that the release caused harm to him and other parents and children.
“To the online shock jock who aired these images, I would challenge him and anyone who amplifies them online: Just be a human, for once,” Leatherwood said.
A request for comment from Crowder’s show was not immediately returned Monday night.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
