After Audrey Hale, a 28-year-old transgender, shot and killed 6 people in the Covenant School – a Christian, private elementary institution in Nashville, Tennessee – on Monday, many people, including lawmakers, believed that the attack was a hate crime against Christians.
The school was founded in 2001 as a ministry of the Covenant Presbyterian Church. The church also has the same address as the school.
Meanwhile, Senator Josh Hawley, (R-MO) called on federal law enforcement agencies to investigate the shooting as a religious hate crime on Tuesday, saying that it was “targeted” against the Christian school. The shooter was revealed to be an ex-student of the same school.
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“It is commonplace to call such horrors ‘senseless violence,’” Hawley wrote in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “But properly speaking, that is false. Police report that the attack here was ‘targeted’ — targeted, that is, against Christians.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland was also pressed about the target of the shooting when he testified Tuesday afternoon before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee as part of a budget hearing. GOP Senator John Kennedy asked Garland whether he planned to open a hate crime investigation “for the targeting of Christians.” Garland said the motive of the shooter has yet to be determined in the case.
“As of now, motive hasn’t been identified,” Garland said. “We are certainly working full time with them to determine what the motive is and of course motive is what determines whether it’s a hate crime or not.”
Nashville Police Chief John Drake told CBS News Tuesday that Hale sought to inflict violence on other targets too but never got an opportunity to do so. “We strongly believe there was going to be some other targets, including maybe family members, and one of the malls here in Nashville,” Drake said. “And that just did not happen.”
