Ownership of the writings of a shooter who carried out a deadly attack at Nashville’s Covenant School will be transferred to nearly 100 families who sued to prevent the documents from being made public.
The unexpected announcement came Thursday from attorney David Raybin. He represents the parents of the shooter, who was a former student at the school and killed 3 students and 3 teachers in March.
The group of parents getting the shooter’s personal writings have said they don’t want the messages in the documents to be able to traumatize survivors of the attack or inspire copycat shootings.
Journalists, including USA TODAY Network’s The (Nashville) Tennessean, have sued Metro Nashville seeking various records relating to the Covenant School shooting. The lawsuits have been consolidated and are being heard as one case.
Tennessean reporters requested several records from MNPD within a day of the shooting, including the shooter’s writings and calls for service to The Covenant School. Police investigation records are generally publicly available and regularly reviewed by The Tennessean.
Raybin told the courtroom that ownership of the writings found in shooter Audrey Hale’s car and residence, which transferred to Hale’s parents after Hale’s death, will be transferred by the end of the week to the group of parents of Covenant students who intervened in the case.
The physical papers will remain in the custody of the Metro Nashville Police Department and will be unaffected by the change of ownership, Raybin said.
Raybin said transferring ownership of the records to the parents solidifies their standing to intervene in the legal fight which seeks to release the papers to the public. While Chancellor I’Ashea Myles has already granted the parents’ intervention in the lawsuits, petitioners seeking the records — including The Tennessean — have appealed that ruling.
“If they own the papers, then they have standing over whether they will be released or not,” Raybin argued outside the courtroom.
Deborah Fisher, executive editor of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, said the move could mark a change in strategy for the intervenors in the case.
Fisher said she worried if that argument eventually succeeds, it may set a precedent where fewer records are made public.
“If that happens, I think that the public, lawmakers, … the governor, we’re all going to be in the dark,” Fisher said.
Brent Leatherwood, parent of three Covenant School students, was at the hearing on Thursday and called the move to transfer ownership to the parents “extraordinary by any definition,” but added that their attorneys need to process what it means for the case.
“But you should know, the parents and the families have asked our attorneys to leave no stone unturned as we pursue our objective to keep all of these writings out of the public domain,” Leatherwood said.
