Nashville police have released their final report on the investigation into the 2023 Covenant School shooting and the perpetrator, Audrey Hale, who was killed by responding police. Audrey Hale, the report indicates, not only planned the shooting but had been writing and planning it since 2017 - and left behind an extensive stack of notebooks and other materials.

Nashville police have released their final report on the Covenant School massacre – a targeted March 2023 attack on a Christian school by a transgender shooter who killed three third-graders and three adults.

Rather than a highly anticipated manifesto, the report found that killer Audrey Hale left behind numerous notebooks, art books and computer documents about her plans to commit the attack and gain notoriety, partly inspired by the Columbine school shooting in 1999.

Hale, the 28-year-old attacker and biological female, began "fantasizing" about and researching mass shootings as far back as 2017, according to investigators. A year later, she wrote "detailed fantasies" about shooting up the Isaac T. Creswell Middle Magnet School for the Arts, killing her father and killing her psychiatrist.

To say that Audrey Hale was disturbed is a gross understatement. It's hard to imagine how these fantasies and this deeply involved and detailed planning escaped anyone's notice. 

According to the Nashville police, there was no single manifesto, although one could argue that the entire body of detailed planning and general ranting makes up a sort of disjointed, disorganized manifesto in and of itself, which one might expect from someone as deeply disturbed and mentally ill as Audrey Hale.

"In this case, a manifesto didn’t exist," the document reads. "Hale never left behind a single document explaining why she committed the attack, why she specifically targeted The Covenant, and what she hoped to gain, if anything, with the attack."

Instead, her motives were scattered across those many notebooks and other writings, investigators found. They included an image showing more than two-dozen notebooks seized from Hale's car and bedroom. They also said she left a suicide note addressed to her parents.

Hale killed three adults and three children in her rampage. We should remember their names: Hallie Scruggs, age 9; Evelyn Dieckhaus, age 9; William Kinney, age 9; Katherine Koonce, age 60; Cynthia Peak, age 61; and Mike Hill, age 61.

See Also: Covenant School Judge Nonsensically Claims Manifesto Is Copyrighted and Will Remain Hidden

NEW: Nashville Trans Shooter's Full Manifesto Released, and It Makes the Cover-Up So Much Worse

Responding officers killed Hale in a response that was captured on bodycam video. I will not present that video here.

It's a little baffling how Audrey Hale's family didn't seem to realize how deeply disturbed she was or what a horror she had been plotting for close to six years. We can all be subject to a little cognitive dissonance where our children are concerned; many people, myself included, acknowledge some of our children's faults but overlook them because they are our children and we love them.

But this is a whole different ball of wax. Audrey Hale plotted this attack for years. She left behind reams of detailed information. She obtained a weapon, went to a range and practiced, apparently while wearing custom clothing bearing a disturbing message. How is it that nobody noticed? If they did, why was nothing done to prevent this atrocity?

Hindsight is always 20-20. Even so, everyone should learn from events like this. Pay attention to the people around you. This is an event that shouldn't have happened. Maybe, just maybe, if other parents learn from this, learn what signs to look for in their children, one or more such events may be prevented.

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