Covenant shooter documents won't be released at this time, Nashville judge rules

Editor’s note: This story contains some descriptions and references to gun violence against children.

A Nashville judge ordered police not to release any records related to the Covenant School mass shooting at this time in a decision published late Thursday night. The decision comes more than 14 months after several groups sued for access to documents withheld by Metro Nashville in the aftermath of the shooting, where three children and three adults were killed.

It is expected that at least one of the plaintiffs that sued seeking the records will appeal.

"School shootings and violence have unfortunately become commonplace in our society," Chancellor I'Ashea Myles wrote in the ruling. "Access to immediate information has also become a societal expectation which we all share.

"However, there are occasions when this immediate access to and demand for information must be balanced and moderated to safeguard the integrity of our legal system, particularly the criminal legal system."

In statements provided through an attorney representing Covenant School families, the families of the six victims said they hope denying the release of the records, particularly the shooter's writings, will prevent copycat crimes and protect them from additional trauma.

Read the full statements:Families of six Covenant victims respond to ruling in records lawsuit: 'We are thankful'

Some records created by police may still be made public once the Metro Nashville Police Department's investigation into the shooting and collateral criminal cases are done, Myles' ruling indicates. Any records lawfully released under her ruling must not have been created by the shooter or threaten school security directly or by potentially inspiring "copycat" crimes.

Metro Legal Director Wally Dietz said in a written statement that when police conclude their investigation, records in the investigative file, "other than the shooter's writings and records related to school safety or other statutory exceptions, will be released."

In her 60-page ruling, Myles was swayed in part by a novel argument brought by a group of Covenant School families, who argued that materials created by the shooter, including the shooter’s journals, were protected by copyright laws and should not be treated as public records. The shooter’s parents transferred ownership of these materials to a group of Covenant families, allowing them to assert a copyright interest in them.

Myles, who wrote she spent “countless hours” reviewing nearly two terabytes of materials relevant to the case, also said she was persuaded that the release of some materials could inspire copycat attacks at other schools.

The judge said the shooter “studied the plans, writings and video content, inclusive of news coverage footage, of past assailants” and idolized them and even mimicked some “not only in their methodology, but also choice of weapons and targets.”

She wrote that the release of those materials would violate the school security exception to the Tennessee Public Records Act.

Dietz praised Myles' ruling on a case that he said presented important issues "some of which are cases of first impression."

"Chancellor Myles issued a well-crafted ruling that will likely be cited by courts around the country," Dietz wrote.

Deborah Fisher, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, said if the ruling stands after any possible appeals, she thinks it will mean less access to police records.

"It will allow more ways to keep police records confidential," Fisher said, adding that granting copyright as an exception to public records law "opens the door" for criminals to keep more records confidential.

"And I think the public has an interest in police transparency and justice," Fisher said.

On March 27, 2023, a former student entered the Covenant School in Nashville and shot and killed six people, including three third graders. They were 9-year-olds Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs; headmaster Katherine Koonce; custodian Mike Hill; and substitute teacher Cynthia Peak.

In the days and weeks after the shooting, reporters and others requested certain records related to the shooting. Nashville police denied many of those requests.

In response, six groups, including The Tennessean, sued Metro Nashville about a month after the shooting. They sought a court order to grant them access to several different records, most notably a pair of journals found in the shooter’s home and car, which was parked at the school.

The case has been emotional and complex.

Initially between the city and a handful of records requesters — including a newspaper and reporter, a conservative news site and its editor, a state senator, a former sheriff, a member of the National Police Association and The Tennessee Firearms Association — those groups soon found themselves arguing against Covenant School families.

In May 2023, Myles allowed the Covenant School, Covenant Presbyterian Church and a group of more than 100 Covenant School parents to intervene in the case to argue against the release of the records, a decision that was upheld at the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

That development already made the case atypical, but the case become even more complex when a prominent lawyer announced in Myles' courtroom that the shooter’s parents were transferring the ownership of the shooter’s journals to the group of Covenant families. That transfer has been completed in court, Eric Osborne, the parents’ lawyer, said in April.

While the case was developing, a conservative media personality published three pages of the shooter’s journals that were leaked to him. MNPD did not identify the source of the leak. In June, additional leaked material was published.

Attorneys for all three sides clashed during a two-day hearing in April when the differences in their positions came into clear view. On one side, the petitioners said that none of the exceptions to the Tennessee Public Records Act applied to the case. The Covenant groups argued that several exceptions applied, including to ensure school safety — some of the records may reveal security information — and to protect their copyright interest as the owners of the shooter’s journals, an argument that Myles acknowledged was “novel.”

More:With few wins so far, Covenant parents settle in for long-haul gun reform push

Metro planted itself between the two groups, albeit closer to the petitioners. The city had cited its ongoing investigation into the shooting as its reason for withholding and said that records related to a “pending or contemplated criminal action” are exempt from release under public records law. It clarified, though, that its position was to release the records, including the shooter’s journal, with appropriate redactions after the police investigation was done, unless a court ordered differently. A police lieutenant estimated on March 1 that the investigation would last four more months.

At the hearing, Osborne read a statement from one of the parents of a child killed in the shooting. "May this evil die with the shooter,” Osborne read. “May we deny her any victory in death. May her name, her face, her writings be blotted from history."

Myles ended the April hearing with a compassionate address to the families affected by the shooting while pledging to make a dispassionate ruling.

"I want you all to know that I'm sorry,” she said. "Please just know that I don't take this burden lightly, and I realize that this decision not only affects the parents, the community, the children, but it will have a broad effect across the state of Tennessee.”

Timeline:The Covenant School shooting and the dramatic year that followed

Myles said she was poised to make a ruling in mid-June but stopped herself after she was alerted to the publication of more leaked information from the shooter's journals by the Tennessee Star, a conservative news site and party to the case. Myles initially threatened sanctions and contempt proceedings against the Star and its editor Michael Patrick Leahy but backed off after a tense, somewhat confusing hearing to "get the lay of the land" after the leak.

In seeking the records, The Tennessean has cited an interest in bringing to light "additional facts regarding this incident, societal and mental health issues, and issues regarding firearms more broadly, which have not yet been revealed through other means," according to the newspaper's complaint.

The records requested by The Tennessean are the documents in the shooter's possession prior to death, including those in the shooter's car and home; all police reports of the shooter in MNPD's possession; all calls for service to the Covenant School and the shooter's home from the past five years; and incident reports from MNPD's responses to the shooter's home on March 27.

The Tennessean has no plans to publish the writings verbatim and has sought to center coverage on public policy, the victims and the community.

Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him at emealins@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @EvanMealins.