By Bill Juneau, April 21, 2023Like past school shootings, the assault on the Covenant elementary school in Nashville, Tenn., was tragic, sad and ugly, and it is now a part of this nation's history. Three small children and three adult faculty members were gunned down by a troubled 28-year-old woman in the process of changing her gender.
The shooter, Audrey Hale, packing a rifle, a 9mm carbine pistol and a handgun, entered the school through a glass door which she blasted open with gunfire. Inside, and as officers were speeding to the school, Hale fired 126 bullets from her rifle and another 26 rounds from the handguns. as she killed three nine-year-old children, two girls and a boy; and the head teacher, a substitute teacher; and the school custodian. Responding Nashville officers shot and killed Hale as she held to her guns.
Police Chief John Drake spoke with reporters, but he did so with visible reluctance, and declined to offer details on the woman assassin who years ago had been a pupil at the Christian school and now was transgendering to become man. Drake said that Hale harbored "some resentment" toward the Christian school and that she had left records that she now wished to be referred to with the pronouns, "he" and "him."
A Nashville officer since 1988, and chief since 2020, Drake said that papers and journals kept by Hale have been recovered from her Honda Fit auto which she drove to the targeted school; and from her Nashville home which she shared with her parents. Also confiscated by police, were a map highlighting the Covenant school and a "Manifesto" which reportedly spelled out in detail, Hale's motivation for her attack on the Christian school she attended for her third and fourth grades some 20 years ago.
Drake said that Hale papers, info from interviews by detectives and the "Manifesto" are being carefully examined. He said he would have more details as the investigation moves forward and indicated that the Manifesto would be made available for the public to see.
As the weeks have passed since the March 27 carnage at the private school, demands have continued for release of the important manifesto, but it appears that it is being kept under wraps as urged by the LGBTQ lobby, liberal Democrats and the far left media.
In the aftermath of past school shootings, news of the incident and stories of the shooter and his motives dominated national headlines and television for weeks and sometimes months. But with the Nashville school murders of three nine-year-old children, and dedicated adults supervising them, stories are infrequent and rarely contain details about the shooter and her background and her commitment to become a man. News about the Nashville assassin has been intentionally trimmed out of exaggerated respect for the LBGTQ movement and the misbegotten belief that Hale must not be condemned for her moral breakdown.
In the minds of the LGBTQ community, Hale was transitioning in the face of violent anti-"trans" sentiment expressed by Christians and others who view changing genders as a biological impossibility, and an abomination of the laws of nature.
A prominent U.K. teacher and journalist, Debbi Hayton, 78. who transitioned to female in 2012, has been critical of the "trans" movement when transgendered persons are treated as a "priestly class that can do no wrong." Some "trans" applauders, she has said, regard changing genders as "something to aspire to."
While decrying the tragic deaths of the six shooting victims at Covenant school, the liberal media and woke Democratic politicians pay allegiance to the LGBTQ by withholding condemnation of Hale because of the stress she was dealing with in changing her gender. Their focus is not the malicious murders by Hale. Rather, it is a call and a catalyst for new gun control legislation as the only real way to stop school shootings.
Conservative TV anchors and Republican politicians are continuing to request that the full story of Hale's assault and murder of six persons be revealed in its entirety. Transparency in government demands that the "manifesto" be made public. If the process of transitioning inspired Hale to shoot up a school, the public and "trans" aspirants should be so informed.
Hale's parents have told newsmen that their daughter suffered from an "emotional disorder" and was being counseled by a doctor. The specifics of her mental problems have not been released, but it is assumed that her problems are interwoven with her commitment to become a man. Some believe that she may have become stressed over contemplated "bottom surgery." .
Hale, unbeknownst to her parents, owned seven various type guns, all of which she purchased legally. He father said that it was their belief that Audrey had owned one gun some time ago, but had sold it. All of Hale's weapons have been seized by police and are being examined by ballistic experts.
In the minutes before Hale entered the school and began firing, she had sent an Instagram to an old friend, Paige Patton, a Nashville radio host who uses the name "Averianna."
Said Hale: "I'm planning to die today. This is not a joke. You will probably hear about me on the news after I die.... This is my last goodbye...... "I love you-- see you again in another life."
The shooting began 13 minutes later.
Laura Ingraham, Fox News host of the popular "Ingraham Angle." has delivered many demands that the "Manifesto" prepared by Hale be released for public perusal. Liberal Democrats, she said, fear that the manifesto and other Hale writings contain plans for the shooting and will reveal Hale's fear and concern of transitioning and becoming a man, and that the public is entitled to hear of those concerns.
Bill Juneau worked for 25 years as a reporter and night city editor at the Chicago Tribune. Subsequently he became a partner in a law firm and also served as a village prosecutor and as a consultant to the Cook County Circuit Court and to the Cook County Medical Examiner. He is currently writing columns and the 'Florida Bill' blog.
