FBI investigators are combing through the Nashville school shooter’s “manifesto” for clues about her motive even as pressure mounts for its release to the public.
The attack inside the Covenant School on Monday left three young children and three adults dead. Heroic police officers killed the heavily armed shooter, a 28-year-old woman who identified as a man, before she could kill more. Although her motive is reportedly spelled out in a document police recovered Monday, police have so far been mum on its exact contents. That has left some officials frustrated.
“I believe in transparency,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) told Fox News. “I know they have to do an investigation, but the shooter is dead. And I think the families need to know what was going on in the mindset of this person. And frankly, the country does, too.”
The FBI and Behavioral Analysis Unit have joined the Metro Nashville Police Department’s investigation into the tragedy. Sources say that the MNPD has authority over when the manifesto will be released. For now, it is not being made public as the investigation continues, but it will be made public.
Federal involvement points to suspicion of a potential hate crime, said Metro Nashville City Councilman Russ Pulley, a former FBI agent whose district includes the school. In this case, a possible hate crime motive could be religion, as the pre-K-6 Covenant School, where the shooter once attended, is run by the Covenant Presbyterian Church.
“In my experience there had to be a federal nexus, meaning [the FBI] would be involved in the investigation for some capacity,” said Pulley, who added that he has not seen the manifesto or been briefed by MNPD on the incident.
The FBI informed The Daily Wire earlier this week that it wasn’t treating the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism. The FBI spokeswoman further noted that they weren’t monitoring trans activists as a source of potential domestic terrorism.
The radical transgender community is increasingly angry over new laws against chemical and surgical sex change treatments for children. A “Trans Day of Vengeance,” organized by the Trans Radical Activist Network, was scheduled for this weekend in Washington before being abruptly canceled on Thursday, with the group citing a “threat to life and safety.” It is not known if the Nashville shooter was affiliated with that group.
Burchett told The Daily Wire he is worried about radical transgender activists fomenting potential violence.
“There’s a real mental illness problem in the trans community, and I want everyone in mental distress to get the help they need so they don’t grow up to have major issues like the shooter obviously had,” Burchett said. “But if this group is directly calling for violence in the name of ‘vengeance’ and it results in someone killing kids, there needs to be some serious accountability for that.”
Metro City Councilman Robert Swope told The Daily Wire there would be no reason to withhold the manifesto once the investigation is closed. Swope added that he has confidence it will be released at the right time and praised the police department for its overall handling of the situation.
“MNPD’s response is textbook perfect,” said Swope. “You can use our body cam footage as training material for every other police department in the world. We, in the city are unbelievably proud of our law enforcement.”
The six victims of the shooting were nine-year-olds Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, as well as Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; and Mike Hill, 61. The Daily Wire is not naming the shooter in keeping with a policy of not providing notoriety to mass killers.