Sheila Matthews, co-founder of the national non-profit parent organization AbleChild, is raising concerns about the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) omission of the use of psychiatric drugs when examining the common denominators among mass shooters across the nation.
Matthews’ (pictured above) concerns were raised one day after The Tennessee Star published all 90 pages of the journal written between January and March of 2023 by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the 28-year-old biological woman who self-identified as a transgender man and who, on March 27, 2023, murdered three 9-year-old students and three staff members at the Covenant School in Nashville before being subsequently killed by officers with the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD).
Hale, as previously reported by The Star, was a 22-year psychiatric patient of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) prior to the 2023 shooting.
A search warrant served by MNPD to obtain information from VUMC about Hale, obtained by The Star, revealed that the killer was prescribed at least four medications from VUMC staff – three of which to treat depression and anxiety.
Those medications prescribed to Hale all came with startling side effects, including “mood swings, brief feelings similar to electric shock, abnormal dreams, confusion, nervousness, outbursts of anger, musculoskeletal pain, tremors, physical weakness, unintentional trembling or shaking, and seizures.”
Matthews, who praised The Star for its reporting on Hale’s case and its publication of the shooter’s journal left in her vehicle on the day of the March 27 shooting, said the psychiatric drugs Hale was on leading up to the shooting is a “vital” part of the case, further calling for the release of the psychiatric treatment folder relating to the Covenant killer that remains under wraps by MNPD.
“Looking at [Hale’s] writings, it clearly shows that she is confused and depressed…Psychiatric drugs impact the way you think. So it’s a vital part of this case, and she had been on some very powerful mind altering drugs. This alters one’s thoughts. So I read what you released and we thank you for that. However, really what is being withheld is the psychiatric treatment folder,” Matthews said on Wednesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Matthews said the release of Hale’s full treatment folder would allow organizations like AbleChild to work on legislation with lawmakers regarding psychiatric drugs, further explaining how the FBI does not take into consideration the medications mass shooters were on at the time of their crimes.
“The FBI released a report…that when they go over shootings across the country, what are the common denominators, they leave out psychiatric drugs. So that’s a problem for the FBI considering this is more and more relevant,” Matthews explained.
“That is a concern for us because the FBI has a behavioral health unit within the FBI. So you would think that this industry, the behavioral health industry, would be very much on top of that report saying all these shooters were on psychiatric drugs, but no, the FBI excludes the drugs, which clearly shows there’s a conflict of interest within the FBI and the behavioral health industry that’s working within the FBI,” Matthews added.
Matthews said the National Association of the Mentally Ill (NAMI) is to be widely blamed for the corruption of the FBI’s lack of consideration of psychiatric drugs when examining mass shooters, explaining how NAMI, which is funded by pharmaceutical companies, works hand in hand with the FBI by training the federal agency’s CIT (Crisis Intervention Teams) police units.
“The FBI Behavioral Unit has a conflict of interest…This behavioral health within the FBI unit is also training the police units in CIT, which are crisis intervention teams, and that is funded by NAMI, which is funded by the pharmaceutical companies. We have a big problem within this country. The FBI is being severely influenced by the pharmaceutical industry,” Matthews said.
Matthews went on to point out the unfortunate truth of how mass shootings “produce more taxpayer dollars” for such crisis programs run by the FBI, which further allows the concern surrounding psychiatric drugs to be squashed by the influence of pharmaceutical companies that produce such drugs.
“Each mass shooting produces [the FBI] more and more taxpayer funded dollars for these programs, this crisis intervention, or we have… legislation that is being passed after each mass killing so that the industry gets more and more power within, not only the FBI, but the school systems. So they have a conflict of interest and NAMI Is supposed to be an advocate for the mentally ill, but they are a front group for the pharmaceutical companies,” Matthews said.
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Image “Sheila Matthews” by Sheila Matthews.
