The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) denied the left-wing extremism of Nashville shooter Audrey Hale, instead claiming that right-wing extremists were the cause of “all” extremism-related shootings in 2023, according to The Daily Signal.
Hale, despite using racial slurs against white people and other terms, was not considered to show “clear evidence of extremism,” according to the ADL.
“The case of Hale does not appear in the report, as we did not find clear evidence of extremism,” an ADL spokesperson told the outlet. “Hale left some writings, not released by police, that they described as lacking any specific political or social issues. Three pages of a document were later leaked that contained hateful epithets directed at white and LGBTQ+ people, which did not provide evidence of any particular extremist ideology, but rather primarily resentment and grievance at students from the shooter’s former school perceived to be better off than the shooter was.”
The ADL maintained that Hale was not a left-wing extremist due to her use of a slur against LGBTQ people.
Hale was also not included in the ADL’s list of 2023 extremist murders.
American Faith reported that Hale had been studying the way other “mass murderers” carried out their fatal shootings.
“In the collective writings by Hale found in her vehicle in the school parking lot, and others later found in the bedroom of her home, she documented, in journals, her planning over a period of months to commit mass murder at The Covenant School,” authorities said. “The writings remain under careful review by the MNPD and the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit based in Quantico, Virginia.”
Following the shooting, transgender pastor Micah Louwagie of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church compared the Hale to Jesus Christ, saying, “There are a significant number of people who have deemed that the fact that the Nashville shooter happened to be a trans person, so it’s been reported, is just the excuse they need to call for the eradication of trans folks,” suggesting that opposition to transgenderism is equivalent to opposing Christ.
“The disciples were afraid to even be associated with Jesus, lest they suffer the same fate, lest their bodies be put at risk,” Louwagie added. “I have observed that it is often the people with the most power and privilege who desert those they are called to defend when those people start getting harassed, beaten, arrested, targeted.”