NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Bureau of Criminal Investigation has raided the home of a former Nashville police lieutenant who was being investigated by his old department in an ongoing investigation into the leaking of evidence from a deadly school shootingthe authorities confirmed.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokesman Josh DeVine confirmed Tuesday that the search warrant was executed on Sept. 17 as part of an ongoing investigation, but declined to provide further details. The address agents searched in Portland, Tenn., is a home owned by former Nashville police Lt. Garet Davidson, according to Robertson County property records.

The Associated Press left a message for a phone number believed to be associated with Davidson.

Authorities continue to investigate two rounds of case file leaks in the March 2023 shooting at The Covenant School, when a shooter killed three 9 year olds and three adults at the private Christian school. Audrey Hale, the onetime school shooter, was killed by police but left behind at least 20 journals, a suicide note and an unpublished memoir, according to court records.

Months ago, the Metro Nashville Police Department made a connection to Davidson, but stopped short of definitively accusing him of leaking the material. Another lieutenant noted the connections in a court filing filed in June, as trials unfolded over which of the shooter’s documents could be released publicly.

In that file, Lt. Alfredo Arevalo of the Nashville police noted that his division is investigating the leak of three pages from a diary. to a conservative commentator who posted them on social media in November 2023. As part of the investigation, Davidson was given a copy of the criminal investigation file stored in a safe in his office, where he only had the key and combination to the safe, Arevalo said.

Davidson has since left the force.

In his statement, Arevalo noted that Davidson spoke about the details of the Covenant investigative file on a radio show with Michael Leahy of Star News Digital Media, which owns The Tennessee Star, and on another program. Star News Digital Media is among the plaintiffs who sued for access to the records.

Arevalo wrote that he was “appalled” by the leak and “appalled by the impact this leak must have on the victims and families of the attack at Covenant School.”

The Tennessee Star published dozens of stories based on 80 pages of the Covenant shooter’s writings provided by an unnamed source. The station later released what it said were 90 pages of a diary written by Hale between January and March 2023.

Previously, Davidson obtained publicity by filing a complaint claiming that the police department actively lobbied to destroy the city community supervisory board.

Finally, the judge in July spoke out against the release of the shooter’s writingsreasoning that the children and parents of The Covenant School own the copyright to any writings or other works created by the shooter. The decision is under appeal.

Part of the interest in the records stems from the fact that Hale, who police say was “assigned female at birth,” may have identified as a transgender man, and some experts have theorized that the journals will reveal a planned hate crime against Christians.

In the public records lawsuits, plaintiffs include news outlets, a gun rights group, a law enforcement nonprofit and state Sen. Todd Gardenhire. Star News Digital Media is also suing the FBI in federal court over the release of the documents.

As part of an effort to keep the records closed, Hale’s parents transferred ownership of Hale’s property to the victims’ families, who then argued in court that they should be allowed to determine who has access to them.

In addition to the copyright claims, the Covenant parents argued that releasing the documents would be traumatic for families and could inspire copycat attacks.

Certain documents in the police file can be released once the case is officially closed, as long as it falls within Tennessee’s open records law.