{"id":94734,"date":"2023-07-27T04:06:23","date_gmt":"2023-07-27T09:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=94734"},"modified":"2023-07-27T04:06:23","modified_gmt":"2023-07-27T09:06:23","slug":"94734","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=94734","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

They\u2019re keeping it under wraps because if it got out it would hurt their agenda. They know it. We know it.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lawyer believes decision on release of Covenant shooter\u2019s writings could take up to 3 years.<\/a><\/p>\n

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) \u2014\u00a0<\/span>The\u00a0debate<\/a>\u00a0over whether the Covenant shooter’s writings should be released continues four months after the tragic\u00a0mass shooting that claimed six innocent lives<\/a>\u00a0at a private, elementary school in Nashville.<\/p>\n

The court battle has been back and forth for two months now, but one of the lawyers tells FOX 17 News this case may not be resolved for three years.<\/p>\n

Nashville Police Chief John Drake says the shooter had a detailed map, drawings of The Covenant School, known entry points, and journals. Almost four months later, the writings have yet to be released, despite public records requests from several organizations which are now suing the Metro government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was going on with The Covenant School shooter? What were the motivating factors? Were there psychological issues? Were there organic issues?\u201d says John Harris, the attorney representing the Tennessee Firearms Association.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

TFA is one of several organizations suing for the writings.<\/p>\n

Metro Police originally denied the open records citing an open criminal investigation, but Harris believes since the shooter is dead and they haven\u2019t identified another person of interest, that exception doesn\u2019t apply. Plus, Harris feels Metro Police need to comply with The Tennessee Public Records Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you think that this whole process would last this long?\u201d asks FOX 17 News\u2019 Amanda Chin.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely not. These cases were filed, and we expected that the show cause hearings would\u2019ve taken place as initially scheduled back in May, and here we are almost two months later and the case is nowhere near resolution,\u201d says Harris.<\/p>\n

This comes after the judge allowed The Covenant School, church, and parents to intervene and discuss why they feel the writings shouldn\u2019t be released. The petitioners appealed that decision, which is why the judge paused the case for now.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo the petitioners take any responsibility for this case lasting so long?\u201d asks Chin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think so. Two of the petitioners are news media outlets and they were extremely concerned with the intervention issues because it proposes to create new exceptions to the public records act that had never existed,\u201d says Harris.<\/p>\n

On the other side, most of the Covenant families do not want the writings released, with many penning emotional letters to the judge.<\/p>\n

The mother of William Kinney, one of the nine-year-old children who lost his life, believes those who are calling for the release of these records \u201cclearly care nothing about the wellbeing of their fellow humans\u201d and \u201cseek to rob the six murder victims of dignity in their deaths by demanding the release of sensitive details.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Nine-year-old Evelyn Dieckhaus also lost her life. Her parents say in part,<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are now lying in bed with our oldest daughter every night to console her, and our own, deep sadness of how we are to ever navigate life ahead of us without our Evelyn on this earth, by our sides.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Dieckhaus family believes the release of these writings could create a copycat effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe as Covenant parents and families are resolute in our commitment to one, protect our children and families including those who were killed and all those who survived. Two, to protect our beloved school moving forward, and three, do our utmost to shield any future communities from having to endure this nightmare,\u201d says Brent Leatherwood, a Covenant parent.<\/p>\n

A clinical psychologist who\u2019s an expert in trauma and disaster mental health even wrote a letter to the judge supporting Covenant parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a risk of public safety, I think there\u2019s a risk for mental health harm to the children and families who survived The Covenant School shooting,\u201d says Dr. Erika Felix, a clinical psychologist at The University of California, Santa Barbara.<\/p>\n

Dr. Felix also believes the release of these writings would also create a risk of inspiring a copycat attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat would you say to those petitioners who feel this will help us learn why the shooter did this so we can prevent this from happening in the future?\u201d asks Chin.<\/p>\n

\u201cA variety of law enforcement and emergency management organizations that work to try to keep our schools and communities safe, I think it\u2019s important for them to have access to that. We can get the lessons learned simply by releasing it to them. It doesn\u2019t need to be released to the public where it can live on the internet indefinitely,\u201d believes Dr. Felix.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen do you think this case can be resolved?\u201d asks Chin.<\/p>\n

\u201cDepending on the path it takes, it could easily be 2026,\u201d says Harris.<\/p>\n

To throw another curveball into the mix, the shooter\u2019s parents transferred ownership of the writings to the Covenant families in an effort to stop the release.<\/p>\n

But Harris thinks who owns the records is irrelevant and calls this an unprecedented public records case.<\/p>\n

As for a timeline, there isn\u2019t one since the Appeals Court doesn\u2019t have a deadline to make a decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They\u2019re keeping it under wraps because if it got out it would hurt their agenda. They know it. We know it.   Lawyer believes decision on release of Covenant shooter\u2019s writings could take up to 3 years. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) \u2014\u00a0The\u00a0debate\u00a0over whether the Covenant shooter’s writings should be released continues four months after the tragic\u00a0mass … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,50,89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deceit","category-goobermint","category-observation-o-the-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94734"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94735,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94734\/revisions\/94735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}