(NewsNation) — Nashville Police Chief John Drake said he’s “greatly disturbed” by the “unauthorized release” of three pages of writings from the shooter who killed three children and three adults at a private Christian elementary school in Tennessee earlier this year.
Saying the action showed a “total disregard” for families affected and the court system, Drake added police are “extremely serious” about investigating who’s responsible for the leak.
Authorities have not released any of the shooter’s journals or writings that were collected after the March 27 attack at the Covenant School. Court filings show the shooter left behind at least 20 journals, a suicide note and a memoir.
Nashville police said they would release the documents only after the investigation into the shooting was closed, which could take months. Groups seeking the documents filed a lawsuit saying they should be released immediately. In response, police said they would wait for the direction of the court on whether to release the writings.
Conservative radio host Steven Crowder posted three images of pages from what is allegedly the shooter’s notebook on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday. Crowder told NewsNation local affiliate WKRN the images were taken by a detective at the Covenant School scene and sent to his source. His team, according to WKRN, then flew to Nashville to obtain the images and verify them.
Images Crowder showed were not “MNPD crime scene images,” Nashville police said in a statement Monday.
Due to the situation being argued in the courts, NewsNation, which has not independently verified the documents, is not reporting on the details of what was on those leaked pages.
Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell said in a statement that he’s directed Wally Dietz, the Metro’s top attorney, to investigate how the images were released.
While Dietz confirmed the investigation in a statement Monday, he did not immediately confirm nor deny the authenticity of the documents shared by Crowder.
The investigation, O’Connell said, may involve local, state and federal authorities.
“I am deeply concerned with the safety, security and well-being of the Covenant families and all Nashvillians who are grieving,” the mayor said.
Most of the victims’ family members have fought against unsealing the writings.
After the leak, “I walked around all day with like a gut punch,” Brent Leatherwood, an attorney representing Covenant families, said Monday at a news conference reported on by WKRN. “Once I was kind of able to wrap my head around what I was seeing, I immediately went to Metro and then I went up to TBI.”
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation declined to confirm the authentication of the writings shared by Crowder.
“We don’t want our children to someday read this stuff and whatever else may be there, because they are disconnected ramblings, but they are connected by one thing – they’re evil,” Leatherwood, who also had three children inside the school during the shooting, said.
Leatherwood called out Crowder in his remarks Monday, calling him an “online shock jock.”
“I would challenge him and anyone who amplifies them online, just be a human for once. Quit seeking clicks and retweets and platform building,” Leatherwood said, according to WKRN. “You have now allowed (the shooter), who terrorized our family with bullets, to be able to now terrorize us with words from the grave. How could you?”
Crowder, meanwhile, told WKRN that exposing these documents can help people avoid future shootings and missteps when responding to them. In an interview with the news outlet, Crowder maintained the accuracy of the pages he posted online.
“If I’m lying, if my investigative unit…look, we stake our reputation on this. We do it all the time. We make all of our references publicly available when we’re covering news, let alone breaking news,” Crowder said. “If it’s not real, I should be admonished, I should be called to the mat, and you shouldn’t trust a word that I say.”
The Associated Press and NewsNation local affiliate WKRN contributed to this report.
