On Tuesday, Senator Josh Hawley called on the Biden administration, specifically the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, to open a hate crime investigation regarding the Christian school shooting on Monday in Nashville, Tennessee that left six people dead.
A 28-year-old transgender woman, Audrey Hale, broke into The Covenant School and opened fire, killing three children and three staff members.
Hawley wrote a letter FBI Director Christopher Wray and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, citing statements from the Nashville Metro Police that indicating the shooting was a “targeted” attack.
I am calling on FBI Director Wray and Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas to open a federal hate crime investigation into the massacre in Nashville – targeting a Christian school ???? pic.twitter.com/IvzrJUY2ZH
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) March 28, 2023
“It is commonplace to call such horrors ‘senseless violence,’” Hawley wrote. “But properly speaking, that is false. Police report that the attack here was ‘targeted’ — targeted, that is, against Christians.”
LifeSiteNews reports:
The three children who were killed have been identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and Hallie Scruggs, the youngest daughter of Chad Scruggs, senior pastor at Nashville’s Covenant Presbyterian Church. School custodian Mike Hill, 61, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, and head of school Katherine Koonce, 60, were also slain.
The threat was eliminated by Nashville police who shot and killed Hale within minutes of arriving on scene. The officers have been praised for their quick response.
The killings took place ahead of a planned Transgender “Day of Vengeance” set to take place in Washington, D.C. The group organizing the event also reportedly urged protests in Nashville – where the conservative Daily Wire is headquartered – and even promoted firearms training for protection against alleged anti-transgender violence. The event is meant to resist laws like the one recently signed in Tennessee banning mutilating transgender interventions for minors. It’s unknown whether Hale had any connection to the group.
Yesterday, my official Twitter account was termporarily suspended for warning about Antifa's Trans Day of Vengeance in front of the Supreme Court.
This planned event is being whitewashed by global brands and the left. Meanwhile, there’s still no acknowledgement of the innocent… pic.twitter.com/666WRD9EZX
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene???????? (@RepMTG) March 29, 2023
Hawley noted that the “acts of violence against individuals based on religious affiliation” are classified as “hate crimes” under federal law.
“According to Nashville law enforcement, Hale’s attack was both premeditated and ‘targeted’ against this Christian school, its students and employees,” he added.
