Hawley wants Nashville school shooting investigated as hate crime against Christians

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley wants the deadly shooting at Christian school in Nashville to be investigated as a hate crime.

“The nation witnessed the vicious murder of small schoolchildren in Nashville, Tenn.,” he wrote in a letter to senior Biden administration officials. “It is commonplace to call such horrors ‘senseless violence.’ But properly speaking, that is false. Police report that the attack here was ‘targeted’ — targeted, that is, against Christians.”

Police said a 28-year-old Nashville woman who identified as a transgender man killed three 9-year-old children and three adults at The Covenant School, which is associated with the conservative evangelical Covenant Presbyterian Church. Authorities revealed that the shooter executed a “targeted attack” and left behind a “manifesto.” Hawley contended that the nature of the fatal shooting might indicate a specific desire to harm Christians.

“I urge you to immediately open an investigation into this shooting as a federal hate crime,” he wrote. “The full resources of the federal government must be brought to bear to determine how this crime occurred and who may have influenced the deranged shooter to carry out these horrific crimes. Hate that leads to violence must be condemned. And hate crimes must be prosecuted.”

The suspected shooter executed her attack the same week the Trans Radical Activist Network called for a “day of vengeance.”

The students killed in the shooting were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all 9 years old. Katherine Koonce, the school’s 60-year-old principal, also was killed, as were 61-year-old staffers Cynthia Peak and Mike Hill. Hallie was the daughter of Chad Scruggs, the senior minister at Covenant Presbyterian Church.

The suspected shooter sent messages to a former middle school basketball teammate moments before the attack, saying she was “planning to die today” and that the friend would “probably hear” about her on the news. “My family doesn’t know what I’m about to do,” she added. “One day this will make more sense. I’ve left more than enough evidence behind.”

–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice