A former Nashville police officer who allegedly leaked case files, including ones related to the 2023 Covenant School shooting, has been arrested and charged, authorities announced Tuesday.
Garet Davidson is accused of abusing his position as a lieutenant of the Office of Professional Accountability at the Metro Nashville Police Department to steal case files he was not authorized to access, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a press release.
He was arrested and charged on Tuesday on two separate indictments, according to the TBI. The first indictment charges him with one count of theft, two counts of burglary and 30 counts of official misconduct, while the second charges him with six counts of official misconduct specifically related to the Covenant School shooting.
He was booked into the Davidson County Jail on $150,000 bond.
In a statement shared with The Associated Press, Davidson’s attorney said the charges are an attempt to “silence a whistleblower” who shined a light on misconduct within the police department.
Davidson, 38, retired from the department’s internal affairs unit in January 2024, roughly 10 months after 28-year-old former student Audrey Hale shot and killed three students and three teachers at Covenant, a private Christian elementary school.
Investigators later found that Hale, who was killed by police at the scene, left behind at least 20 journals, a suicide note and an unpublished memoir.
Hale’s writings were leaked to conservative media and Davidson quickly came under scrutiny as conspiracy theories swirled around the shooting.
While lawsuits has since played out over which of the shooter’s documents should be released publicly, the FBI made some of the materials public last month, days after the police department released its final report about Hale.
With News Wire Services
