The transgender-identifying woman who murdered six people at The Covenant School in Nashville originally planned to attack a different school but changed her target to avoid being perceived as racist. Detailed police findings revealed that she had developed an extensive plan to carry out a mass shooting at Creswell Middle School, which she once attended and associated with emotional distress.
Her planning began in December 2018. She drew maps from memory, noted locations of classrooms and exits, and outlined who she would target and in what order. The plan included how she would bypass school security to launch the attack with the element of surprise. Her notes showed obsessive focus, with timelines, clothing choices, and attack routes recorded in disturbing detail.
Throughout 2019, her anger intensified. She admired the Columbine killers and wanted to emulate them by targeting children. She saw their actions as a pathway to a twisted form of god-like power and infamy. But by March 2020, her perspective changed—not out of moral restraint, but due to concerns about public perception.
She realized that Creswell Middle School had a predominantly black student population. While she claimed she didn’t care about race when choosing victims, she feared the media and public would brand her a racist. That label, she believed, would distort the message she hoped to leave behind and rob her of the notoriety she craved.
By April 2021, she shifted her focus to Covenant School. It was a private Christian institution with a more isolated location, which she believed would allow her more time to kill. She also believed attacking a Christian school would draw greater media attention and avoid the racial narrative she feared.
Her decision was rooted in a desire for infamy and ideological control over how the attack would be perceived. She wanted to be remembered for targeting a place and people she associated with religious and cultural values—not for racial motives she never intended to embrace.
