Steven Crowder, host of Louder with Crowder, a daily political podcast and YouTube channel with commentary segments, somehow got possession of photographs of three pages of the ‘Death Day’ notebook of Audrey Hale, the 28-year-old white woman who was so mentally ill that she thought she was a male named ‘Aiden,’ and who killed six people at the Covenant School outside of Nashville, Tennessee. Plenty of other people, including Robert Stacy McCain, have commented on Miss Hale’s notebook — I can’t seriously call it a ‘manifesto’ — and the fact that Miss Hale was just plain off-her-rocker.

Rather, what interests me is the reaction from the authorities:

State, Local Leaders Respond to Leaked Photos of Covenant School Shooter’s Writings

Mayor Freddie O’Connell calls for investigation into the documents’ release

Hamilton Matthew Masters | Monday, November 6, 2023

Three pages of writings by deceased Covenant School shooter Audrey Hale have been published by right-wing podcaster Steven Crowder, leading Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell to call for a Metro investigation of the leak.

Crowder, who hosts Louder With Crowder, published excerpts of what the outlet has called a “manifesto,” a term that has been criticized by families of the March 2023 school shooting that killed three children and three adult staff members. Hale was killed by responding MNPD officers.

The Metro Nashville Police Department would not confirm to Scene sister publication The News the authenticity of the photos released of the documents — one of which shows a marked MNPD vehicle in the background — or comment on the leak.

Guffaws! Perhaps the police would not confirm the authenticity of the released photos, but His Honor the Mayor, for all intents and purposes, did! 🙂

Soon after Crowder published photos of the documents, Mayor O’Connell released the following statement:

I have directed Wally Dietz, Metro’s Law Director, to initiate an investigation into how these images could have been released. That investigation may involve local, state, and federal authorities. I am deeply concerned with the safety, security, and well-being of the Covenant families and all Nashvillians who are grieving.

This incident naturally invokes additional emotional trauma, and families or individuals who need support should reach out to professionals at National Alliance on Mental Illness (615-891-4724), MNPD support counselors (615-862-7773) or MNPS Family Information Center (615-259-INFO).

Dietz later issued a statement confirming his intention to launch an investigation with “multiple law enforcement agencies.”

You can find page 2 and page 3 here.

For some as yet unknown/undisclosed reason, Miss Hale hated white people, even though she was white. She thought that she was a guy, so she was clearly just plain nuts, and it is an exercise in futility to try to make sense of the insane. She did want to die, and apparently wanted to commit suicide-by-cop, and take other people with her, I suppose, but do not know, so that we’d remember her name. Insanity does not mean that she wasn’t wholly evil as well. Were she alive today, I have no doubt that she’d be supporting Hamas and the Palestinians!

Nashville’s News Channel 5 has a lot more, and their chief investigative reporter, Phil Williams, tweeted:

Multiple sources have told me that the selective leak of three pages of the #CovenantSchool shooting “manifesto” is EXTREMELY misleading. People who have read the whole thing say “there’s something in there for everybody.” Another, “She hated everybody.”

Channel 5 also reported that:

Metro Police said the shooter had several journals detailing plans for the shooting and had been planning the attack for months. So far, police have indicated it would take a year to analyze all of the writings and documents from the shooter.

A year? A year? Perhaps, as Mr Williams said, the three released pages really are “extremely misleading,” but now that three pages of her babblings have been leaked, it will be hard to keep the rest secret for another year. Trying to keep it secret now can only generate more conspiracy theories.

Does Mr Crowder have more pages he can send out, or were those the only three he had? Regardless, I am amused that the Mayor’s response was primarily concerned with how the leak occurred.