Transgender Nashville shooter worried plan to attack 'black school' would inspire 'white shooters'

The FBI released more documents Monday related to transgender shooter Audrey Hale, who is responsible for the Covenant School shooting in Nashville. The documents included a list of “advantages” and “disadvantages” in deciding whether to attack a predominantly black middle school Hale attended.

Hale, who was born a white female but identified as male, notoriously slammed white privilege, women, and Christianity in writings prior to the 2023 attack. Hale previously listed "Creswell Middle Prep" on a list of possible targets for the shooting.

The new documents shed light on Hale's decision to target the Christian elementary school she attended as a child instead of the middle school.

Hale listed four reasons against targeting Creswell in 2021, highlighting the shooter's concern about how race would influence people's perception of the attack and the harm it would bring to the black community. Hale also listed "hatred of religion" as a reason to attack Covenant instead.

“[Predominantly] black school (black people I love),” Hale wrote as the first reason against the attack, before noting it would also leave "the black community in despair [and] suffering (I don’t want to cause that) = don’t want to harm them = dread.”

Hale also noted that the shooter's black friends would "hate me" if Creswell was the target, and targeting a black school would “likely influence [racist] white shooters in future.”

Although race and religion appeared to play a role in deciding where to carry out the attack, the Metro Nashville Police Department, in their final report earlier this year, said notoriety was Hale's primary motivation and that Hale chose the school because of the belief that killing children would get more attention.

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