The Monday shooting at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, prompted Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) to urge Christopher Wray, the FBI Director, as well as Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas to launch a federal hate crime probe.
The Covenant School, which is connected to the evangelical Covenant Presbyterian conservative Church, is where three 9-year-old kids and three adults were allegedly murdered by a 28-year-old woman that identified as a transgender male. According to the authorities, the shooter—whom cannot be identified by The Daily Wire in compliance with company policy—performed a “targeted attack” that left a “manifesto.”
Hawley argued that the fatal shooting’s circumstances might have been motivated by a wish to specifically hurt Christians. In a letter to the top officials in the Biden administration, he stated that “yesterday the country witnessed the horrific murder of young schoolchildren in Nashville, TN. It’s usual to refer to these atrocities as ‘senseless violence,’ but that’s incorrect. According to the police, this assault was ‘targeted,’ or directed specifically at Christians.”
According to the Republican lawmaker, the federal law criminalizes actions of violence motivated by actual or imagined “religion.” Police detectives think the shooter harbored “some resentment” for being forced to attend that school.
“I implore you to launch an inquiry into this shooting as a federal hate crime right away,” Hawley said. “To understand how this crime happened and also who might have influenced this deranged shooter to commit these horrific crimes, the entire weight of the federal government must be applied. Violence fueled by hatred must be denounced. In addition, hate offenses must be punished.”
The Trans Radical Activist Network had asked for a “day of vengeance” the same week that the alleged shooter carried out her assault.
Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and Hallie Scruggs, were the three students slain in the shooting; they were all 9 years old. The school’s director, Dr. Katherine Koonce, 60, and employees Cynthia Peak and Mike Hill, 61, were also killed.
Chad Scruggs, the senior pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church, was Hallie’s father.
Moments before the attack, the alleged shooter texted her old basketball teammate from middle school, telling the friend that she was “planning to die today” and that she would “probably” be covered by the press. She continued, “My family is unaware of what I am about to do.This will make more sense in time. I’ve left far more than enough proof.”
Minutes after the gunman entered The Covenant School, police officers from the Metro Nashville Police Department arrived. Five officers raced into the building right away, and two of them engaged the shooter in gunfire, killing her there at the scene.
On Monday afternoon, local law enforcement and the FBI searched the suspect’s house and found a “manifesto” and meticulously drawn maps of the school that showed all of the entrances. According to the police chief, authorities have a hypothesis about the motivation but are not yet prepared to share it.
