The Covenant School shooting in Nashville took place almost one year ago on March 27, 2023. Shooter Audrey Hale killed six people, three of them children, before being shot and killed by police.

After the shooting we learned several things about Hale. First, she was apparently trans and going by the name Aiden Hale prior to the shooting. Second, we learned that Hale had left behind a bunch of writings, described at one point by the police chief as a "manifesto," though later reports disputed that characterization.

Normally, material related to a mass shooting like this is made public unless law enforcement authorities believe its release would compromise an ongoing investigation. In the case of the Nashville shooting, the person responsible was dead so there wasn't going to be any prosecution. The manifesto should have been released once police decided the case was closed. And at first it seemed like that was going to happen. This report is from last April:

“The investigation has advanced to the point that writings from the Covenant shooter are now being reviewed for public release. That process is under way and will take a little time,” a Nashville metropolitan police spokesman told Fox 17 on Thursday. 

For weeks, elected officials and community members have been calling for release of these documents. Senator Hagerty said it was “perplexing” that this had not been done. “I want to be sensitive to our law enforcement officers that are going through this, but it’s certainly taken a long time to figure out whether and what information can be released,” Mr. Hagerty told Fox News on Monday. “I think people do deserve to know what took place, what was in the mind of this sick person that committed these heinous murders.”

But because of the slow-walking that seemed to be taking place, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department was sued for the release of the documents. At that point, the police took a step backward, claiming they couldn't release the documents because of pending litigation. Then parents from the school got involved. They asked the judge overseeing the case to be allowed to become parties to it. They wanted to argue that the documents should not be released at all.

Parents of The Covenant School victims and surviving students filed a motion in court asking for no release of the shooter's documents, even redacted versions to the public...

"These parents have all come together, with one voice, to ask that they be allowed to intervene in these cases against Metro’s planned release of the shooter’s writings," attorneys for the parents wrote in a brief to the court. "The parents wish to provide briefing, argument, and evidence to this Court to argue that Metro’s planned release of a redacted version of the writings is too much. Rather, the Parents see no good that can come from the release and wish to contend that the writings — which they believe are the dangerous and harmful writings of a mentally-damaged person — should not be released at all."

The judge agreed the parents could become part of the case. That seemed to be the end of it until last November when someone leaked a few pages of the manifesto to Steven Crowder who published them. The police refused to confirm if the documents were real but did issue a statement suggesting they were.

Today, Fox News is reporting a judge has ordered the FBI to turn over the documents in response to a lawsuit filed by the Tennessee Star.

A federal judge in Tennessee has ordered the FBI to hand over the "manifesto" left behind by a transgender killer who gunned down three adults and three children at the Covenant Christian School in Nashville last year before responding officers put an end to the mayhem...

The parent company of the Tennessee Star, a local newspaper, sued the FBI after the bureau denied its public records request under the Freedom of Information Act...

"The FBI is ORDERED to produce ex parte all documents that are potentially responsive to the defendants’ Freedom of Information Act request for in camera review, with the exception that, based on the plaintiffs’ concessions in this litigation, the FBI need not produce any documents that could not reasonably be construed to bear on Audrey Hale’s motives," [Judge Aleta] Trauger wrote.

Usually an "in camera review" means the judge gets to look at the documents and then decide what gets released. But there's another report which says the judge ordered the documents turned over to the media. So at this moment the exact procedure is a bit unclear but we seem to moving in the direction of finally releasing these documents to the public, something which should have happened months ago.