Nashville shooter’s gender rage revealed in newly released writings

The full contents of journals belonging to the Nashville Covenant School shooter have been obtained by conservative commentator Megyn Kelly from the FBI.

The writings, reviewed by Kelly’s team and reported on her show, reveal a disturbed individual who meticulously planned the March 27, 2023, attack.

That attack killed three 9-year-old children and three adults at the Covenant Presbyterian Church and School, where the shooter had attended 16 years before being fatally shot by Nashville Metro Police.

Typically Kelly said she would not consider publishing or giving notoriety to a mass shooter, but because Nashville authorities “mischaracterized” the shooter’s motivation, public interest “compels … publication” of the journals.

The documents, spanning over 1,000 pages with minimal redactions according to Kelly, were withheld from the public by authorities for over two years.

The victims’ families reportedly opposed publication.

Nashville police recovered the journals from the shooter’s vehicle shortly after the rampage.

The final investigative report dismissed the idea of a single “manifesto,” and instead summarized a curated selection of writings that downplayed the killer’s gender struggles.

As has been previously reported by The Lion, the shooter, born female and named Audrey, used the name Aiden and “he/him” pronouns, reflecting an obsession with gender identity that was largely omitted from the official 48-page police report released earlier.

Instead, the official report framed the motive for the shooting as a desire for fame, but not a political “grudge” against Christians. 

“She felt safe and accepted at The Covenant and made friends with other students,” the report said, according to CNN. “She considered her family life during this time as happy, with a positive relationship with both of her parents and her brother.”

The journal writings revealed by Kelly, and the shooter’s subsequent actions, tell a very different story.

Spanning from 2020 to days before the attack, the writings detail the shooter’s struggles with autism, racial animus, and a profound desire to transition genders, in which she felt thwarted.

In one passage, she expressed hatred for her female body, writing, “I’d like to dispose my vagina.” 

The shooter also expressed frustration at being unable to transition to male earlier, believing it was “too late” by 22. 

The shooter’s entries also show a fixation on other mass shootings, notably Columbine, and a desire for infamy.  

She documented her firearms training, her sexual frustrations, and resentment toward what is called by liberals “white privilege,” along with a longing for “black love and acceptance.”  

Recurring motifs such as “dark abyss” and a radioactive-like symbol are found throughout the journals, underscoring her depression and violent fantasies. 

Kelly highlighted entries such as one from April 12, 2022, titled “Let kids choose their sex,” where the shooter lamented her normal upbringing as a girl: 

I only wore some nice girl clothes as a cover up from the truth, which I denied myself all these years. And I hated all of it. It was miserable being raised a girl because I had no choice. There was lack of education, research and medicine to help society or parents better understand transgender. I didn’t know trans existed. I thought you could only be gay or bi, and that’s the fate you had. But transgender is transcending way deeper to the core. There is still medicine to be approved by the FDA, and so little research has been done. If I had puberty blockers back then, I would have transitioned a long time ago, but I didn’t know you could possibly change your sex. 

The 22-year-old claimed if she started to transition to male now, she’d be too old, with a “bald spot on my head and look like an old man.” 

The next page was titled “Trans man,” said Kelly:  

I knew I was a boy the moment first memories and development formed. Being a tomboy wasn’t a phase. Parents forced children into … the way they were biologically born. I don’t care what authority says, but no adult is fair when they don’t let their children want to choose being a boy or girl because they think children don’t know anything. 

Another page, “F Me,” expressed visceral distress at being called female, stating, “female pronouns make me feel like I want to die.” 

The journals contained a “Killer List” of infamous murderers – especially school shooters – adorned with drawings of guns and knives. 

A printed section titled “I hate the American people” railed against white Americans and predicted the nation’s destruction, signed “I hate you all. Aiden.” 

As reported by The Lion, Steven Crowder had previously leaked three pages in November 2023, revealing the attack’s timeline and the attacker’s racial resentment. 

But the additional documents now reveal the full scope of the shooter’s state of mind in the years leading up to the shooting. 

FBI Director Kash Patel released the documents to the Megyn Kelly Show and to a U.S. House Committee in a bid to improve the agency’s transparency with the American public. 

“Director [Kash] Patel is leading the FBI toward increased transparency with Congress in order to restore trust, and we hope these documents assist in that regard,” said the letter obtained by Kelly. 

The journals paint a picture of a deeply troubled individual whose gender dysphoria, racial hatred and sexual frustration culminated in self-hatred so severe that it exploded into mass murder under the mesmerizing allure of self-indulgent violence. 

That it was targeted at something so familiar as her former Christian school also challenges the politically correct narrative previously offered by local officials. 

“I have to kill so I can be remembered in the most horrific way possible that no one will ever forget. The end,” signed “Aiden.”