A summary of the police investigation, released two years after the attack, found that the shooter had spent years planning the violence and covering up mental health problems.
The shooter who killed three third graders and three staff members at the Covenant School in Nashville two years ago acted alone in hopes of achieving infamy, a police investigation has concluded.
The investigation, a summary of which the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department released on Wednesday, found that the shooter, a former student at the private Christian school, had spent years carefully planning an attack. It also found that the shooter had hidden growing mental health struggles from relatives and therapists to ensure the attack succeeded.
The investigation absolved family members, therapists and those who sold guns to the 28-year-old shooter, whose legal name was Audrey Hale, of any culpability. The report noted that legally, there was little the shooter’s parents could do, given that the weapons were purchased and owned legally in a state with few restrictions.
In the aftermath of the school shooting, the worst in Tennessee’s history, there were months of protests calling for tighter gun laws. Gun rights groups, journalists and a Republican state lawmaker sued for the release of writings left by the shooter, something the families of the victims and most surviving students sought to stop.
Last July, a judge in Nashville refused to allow the publication of journals, art or video created by the shooter, though the judge ruled that any investigative findings could be released. Her ruling was appealed.
The absence of a clear motive or significant social media postings by the Nashville shooter inflamed rampant speculation that has not fully subsided. After police officials said that the shooter identified as transgender, right-wing activists intensified attacks on transgender people, claimed a connection between the shooting and the assailant’s gender identity without citing any evidence, and speculated about a conspiracy to cover up details about a killing at a Christian school.