Recently filed charges against a transgender woman who threatened mass school shootings similar the Covenant Killer only heightens the urgency of releasing Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto, according to attorneys in nationally watched public records battles.
“In school shootings in the past, an enormous amount of information has been released in order to help first responders and teachers and school officials protect themselves,” said Dan Lennington (pictured above), deputy counsel for the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) “It seems that the only reason why information [in the Hale case] is not being released is because of the gender identity of the shooter.”
The Milwaukee-based civil rights law firm is representing Star News Digital Media, parent company of The Tennessee Star, in a federal lawsuit demanding the FBI turn over mass murderer Hale’s manifesto and related writings.
As The Star reported over the weekend, Jason Lee Willie, a biological male who identifies as a transgender woman, has been charged with 14 felony counts of Interstate Communication of a Threat to Injure. Willie, an Illinois resident who goes by “Alexia,” allegedly threatened to shoot, rape, and infect children in school with HIV.
According to the indictment, Willie, praised the mass shootings last March at the Covenant Presbyterian School in Nashville. The suspect allegedly made the comments during a a video call on an online platform, saying, “A person in Tennessee walked into one of your schools and shot up a bunch of your Christian daughters. That’s not the last of them if you don’t shut your f***ing mouth.”
Willie’s statement was in reference to Hale, a biological woman who identified as a transgender male named Aiden. The 28-year-old Hale shot and killed three 9-year-old students and three staff members of the private Christian school before being fatally shot by responding police officers.
The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and the FBI have refused to make public Hale’s manifesto, citing an ongoing investigation — despite the fact that the shooter is dead.
In May, Star News Digital Media filed the lawsuit against the FBI. Star News also is a plaintiff — with The Tennessean, the Tennessee Firearms Association, and the National Police Association — in a state lawsuit demanding the release of Hale’s writings. The Covenant Presbyterian Church, its private elementary school, and parents of the school’s students have sought to intervene in the lawsuit, asking that the records remain locked away from public view.
The lawsuits have been grinding their way through the courts for some six months.
“Our continued position is the actual motive of the individual responsible for the Covenant School murders is important information to have if Tennessee and Tennessee cities are going to have the information they need to develop policies [to keep the public safe], said John Harris, executive director of the Tennessee Firearms Association.
Earlier this month, conservative commentator and comedian Steve Crowder published three photocopied pages from Hale’s prolific writings. The killer, who is white and had for a time attended Covenant Presbyterian School as a child, wrote racist comments about the school’s white students and parents and included a timeline for the rampage, what Hale labeled “Death Day.”
“I do think it’s important to note that the Metro Government took the position that they wanted 12 months to investigate whether or not they wanted criminal charges brought against someone else,” Harris said. “Now we’re eight months in that window and we’ve not gotten any information about the ongoing investigation at this point.”
MNPD officials have said that releasing redacted copies of Hale’s writings would not hurt the investigation. Metro Nashville government officials have since dubiously claimed that the writings are under court seal and cannot be made public until the litigation is settled. The FBI continues to insist none of the documents — redacted or otherwise — may be released until the investigation has concluded.
Parents and attorneys for Covenant Presbyterian School argue that releasing the manifesto could fuel “copycat” incidents around the country. The charges against Willie suggest such violent plans have materialized without the Hale manifesto being made public.
“There’s a lot of transgenders out here that are tired of being picked on and we’re going to go into the schools and we’re going to kill their fu**ing children out here, and that’s the end of it. We’re at war,” Willie said online, according to the federal indictment.
Lennington said law enforcement officials have been expansively transparent in previous school shootings.
“And the details of all of these infamous school shootings are taught to law enforcement and to teachers and administrators … to deal with school shootings,” the attorney said. “I don’t know why we should create a new category of school shootings that are exempt from transparency requirements.”
Willie’s public defender, Judy Kuenneke, declined to comment. Lauren Barry, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Illinois, said there was no new information regarding the case as of Monday morning.
Willie remains in custody, pending a January 16 trial.
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Dan Lennington” by WILL.
