NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Newly obtained footage takes us inside the interview room with the parents of The Covenant School shooter.

This was just hours after the shooting, but it was the first opportunity for Metro Nashville Police Department detectives to understand why Audrey Hale was compelled to commit one of the worst school shootings in state history.

Covenant School students Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney were all killed in the shooting. Covenant staff members Cynthia Peak, Katherine Koonce and Mike Hill also died.

The shooter was dead by then, but police questioned Hale’s parents about Hale’s history of mental health issues long before the shooting.

You can hear that audio in the player above.

“Did any of the treatments that he went through, did any of the therapists, if you’re able to tell, ever express that he had homicidal ideation or anything like that?” asked a detective.

“None of the therapists ever felt they had a duty to warn anyone,” replied Hale’s father, Ronald Hale.

“Only when she had suicidal thoughts about her well-being,” replied Hale’s mother, Norma Hale.

It’s not clear from the short clips NewsChannel 5 is investigating in this hour-long interview, we learned whether Hale’s parents felt Vanderbilt doctors could have done more if they had known Hale was a threat to others.

A police report summarizing that interview shows that doctors told Hale’s parents five and eight years earlier that Hale “needs to go to Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital because he’s talking about suicidal ideation, especially school shootings.”

Hale was not committed to the psychiatric hospital, but the parents said Hale received some treatment.

News channel 5 Legal analyst Nick Leonardo said that not unlike attorney-client privilege, Hale’s doctors were required to keep the conversations confidential unless there was an immediate threat.

“So is there liability for Vanderbilt? That will be determined by what they know and when they knew it. That’s information you really can’t get into because it’s privileged,” Leonardo said.

The Tennessee Star, an online outlet, recently published some of Hale’s final journal entries in which Hale wrote: “For 5 years, I planned to die. Now I’m finally ready to go.”

This was two weeks before filming The Covenant School, where Hale also wrote, “I want my massacre to end in a way that Eric and Dylan would be proud of.”

Detectives said Hale was obsessed with the two teenagers responsible for the 1999 Columbine School shooting that killed 13 people.

“So she saw the documentary for the Columbine shooting and said something to the effect of how she felt close to them, how she could empathize with them and how they felt,” detectives said.

Hale’s parents said they knew nothing about a Columbine obsession or anything else written in the diaries.

“I never read any of them,” Norma Hale said.

“I didn’t know if she voiced it. It’s kind of a thing we have to ask, just because,” the detectives replied.

“No, the thing is, I realized that this is part of the therapy. I thought that was part of the therapeutic process,” Norma Hale said.

Columbine may have given Hale the idea to attack a school, but it still doesn’t explain why Hale chose the school he once attended.

“Did she talk about her experience at Covenant School? Did it seem like a positive experience?” the detectives asked.

“It was very positive,” replied Norma Hale.

There was very little mention of the Covenant in these journal entries.

What we discovered instead had more to do with what Hale’s parents said was a fixation on death after losing a friend he had “worshipped all his life.”

“I know Sydney is waiting for me. My time is coming to leave this realm behind. All my pain and all I have… except you,” Hale wrote.

Hale’s parents said they never noticed any changes in behavior, but that raised another important question: How did someone with a well-known history of suicidal thoughts, a fixation on school shootings and deaths gain access to firearms?

“If that’s not a wake-up call to the people of America with the power to make change, I don’t know what is,” Leonardo said.

On at least one occasion, Hale purchased firearms and then sold them.

Hale’s parents told detectives they weren’t sure how Hale bought firearms, but they always forced her to sell each gun.

We later learned that therapists met with Hale and “agreed that he shouldn’t have guns,” but it’s unclear if anything was documented.

Leonardo said here lawmakers could pass a law that would allow health care professionals to raise concerns about patient access to guns without jeopardizing patient privacy.

“The General Assembly could take action if we could make referrals, mitigate that privilege, or report it to a database that is also confidential.

If you look at what Hale said and wrote, it was clear years ago that something was wrong.

We still don’t have a clear motive for the Covenant School shooting, but Leonardo said that just as important as understanding why the shooting happened, is understanding how we can prevent it from happening again.

Many of Hale’s writings have been part of an ongoing legal battle between the families of those who died and have children attending the school and several news outlets seeking access to those documents.

Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles ruled in favor of The Covenant School parents, who argued they now own the copyright to the writings after Hale’s parents transferred ownership.

This prevented anyone from trying to obtain these documents through Tennessee Public Records Act (TPRA) requests because they were now, in effect, part of a police investigation.

Judge Myles ruled that “the original writings, journals, art, photographs and videos created by Hale are subject to an exception to the TPRA created by the Federal Copyright Act.”

Hale left behind at least 20 diaries, some of which may be released as part of the police file once the case is officially closed. That is, as long as it falls within the state’s TPRA.

Attorneys have long said they plan to appeal Judge Myles’ decision, but are currently waiting to see what documents might be made public once Metro Police close their case.

There has been no indication from Metro Police as to when we can expect that to happen.