Appeals court rules Covenant School shooting records must be released

America First Legal announced Thursday that it secured a victory after a Tennessee appeals court ruled that the Metro Nashville Police Department must release all of its records related to the Covenant school shooting.

The appeals court this week overturned a lower court's ruling that kept the investigation records hidden for the past two years. Shooter Audrey Hale, who was born female but identified as male, fatally shot six people at a Christian school in Nashville on March 27, 2023. 

The appeals court ruled that the local police department cannot keep everything hidden and must instead conduct a record-by-record review, redacting only what is protected under Tennessee’s Public Records Act, and releasing the rest. 

“This ruling is a clear rejection of Nashville’s attempt to keep the public in the dark,” America First Legal President Gene Hamilton said. “For nearly three years, government officials blocked the public from seeing records they have a right to inspect. Transparency matters. Especially when government power is used to suppress information after a tragedy.”

The ruling comes after the Nashville police appeared to downplay the role that religion and gender played in the 2023 shooting in their final report last year, claiming that Hale's primary motivation was notoriety, and that neither the shooter's clear hatred for affluent white people or Christianity played a role in picking the Presbyterian school.

The case now returns to the trial court to determine which specific documents can be released and what information needs to remain redacted.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.