Seven Nashville officers placed on administrative duty after shooting manifesto leak

By Steve Gorman

(Reuters) - Seven Nashville, Tennessee, police officers have been placed on administrative duty as part of their department's investigation into the leak of "manifesto" writings left by the shooter who killed six people at a Christian grade school earlier this year.

The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) said in a brief statement on Wednesday that the officers' administrative assignments were "absolutely non-punitive" and were ordered "to protect the integrity of the active, progressing investigation."

All seven retain "full police power," the statement added. A spokesperson, Brooke Reese, said they continue to receive pay. Neither the names of the seven officers nor their connection to the leak inquiry were given.

The officers' reassignments became effective on Monday, the day that the investigation was opened by the department on its own initiative, Reese said. The inquiry was also requested by Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell.

Police have said since the day of The Covenant School massacre that the suspect left behind a "manifesto" and other writings, but the contents of that material was kept sealed by investigators. Three 9-year-old students and three adults were slain in the March 27 attack. The suspect was shot dead by police at the scene.

The images of three pages of writing began circulating on social media on Monday after they were posted on the website of the podcast "Louder with Crowder," which claimed to have "exclusively obtained" the photos.

Podcast host Steve Crowder said in an interview with a Nashville journalist on Tuesday that the leaked material came through anonymous sources, including a detective involved in the case.

Within hours of the shooting, Police Chief John Drake had identified the suspect as Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a 28-year-old former student of the school who the chief described as a "transgender person." It soon emerged that Hale had been going by the name Aiden and using male pronouns on social media in the months before the shooting.

Drake at the time said Hale had been under a doctor's care for an "emotional disorder," had amassed a collection of guns and might have harbored "some resentment" for having to attend the Covenant School as a child. But police have never offered a conclusive motive.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; editing by Diane Craft)