NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Newly obtained records take us to the meeting room with the parents of The Covenant School shooter.

This was only a few hours after the shooting, but it was the first opportunity for Metro Nashville Police Department detectives to understand why Audrey Hale had to carry out one of the worst school shootings in state history.

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

The gunman was dead at the time, but police asked the gunman’s parents about mental health issues Hale had long before the shooting.

You can hear it in the player above.

“Did any of the treatments that he went through, any of the therapists, if you can tell, ever express to you that he was having homicidal thoughts or anything like that?” a detective asked.

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

“Only when he has suicidal thoughts related to his own health,” Hale’s mother, Norma Hale, replied.

Can’t understand from short clips NewsChannel 5 Investigates What emerged from that interview, which lasted more than an hour, was whether Hale’s parents thought 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 to eight years ago that Hale “needed to go to Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital because he had mentioned suicidal thoughts, particularly related to school shootings.”

Hale was not admitted to a psychiatric hospital, but parents said Hale received some treatment.

HaberChannel 5 legal analyst Nick Leonardo said Hale’s doctors should have kept their conversations confidential, not unlike attorney-client privilege, unless there was an immediate threat.

“So does Vanderbilt have any responsibility? This will be determined by what they know and when they know it. This is information you can’t really access because it’s privileged,” Leonardo said.

The Tennessee Star, an online publication, recently published some of the last diary entries Hale wrote: “For 5 years I planned to die. Now I’m finally ready to go.”

This was two weeks before the shooting at The Covenant School, and Hale also wrote: “I want the massacre to end in a way that Eric and Dylan would be proud.”

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

“He saw the documentary about the Columbine shooting and talked about how close he felt to them, how he could empathize with them and how they felt,” detectives said.

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

“I haven’t read any of it,” Norma Hale said.

“I didn’t know if he meant it or not. Because it just seems like something we should ask,” the detectives replied.

“No, the thing is, I thought it was part of the treatment. I thought it was part of the therapeutic process,” Norma Hale said.

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

“Did he ever talk about his experience at Covenant School? Did it seem like a positive experience?” the detectives asked.

“It was very positive,” Norma Hale replied.

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

What we found instead had more to do with what Hale’s parents said: He was obsessed with death after losing a friend he “adored his whole life.”

“I know Sydney is waiting for me. Soon it will be time for me to leave this land behind. “All my pain and everything I have…except you,” Hale wrote.

Hale’s parents said they didn’t notice any changes in his behavior, but it raised another important question: How did someone with a history of suicidal thoughts, school shootings and an obsession with death gain access to firearms?

“If this isn’t a wake-up call for people who have the power to create change in America, I don’t know what is,” Leonardo said.

Hale purchased and then sold firearms at least once.

Hale’s family told detectives they were unsure how Hale purchased the firearms, but that they always forced him to sell each gun.

We later learned that therapists met with Hale and “agreed not to have a gun,” but it’s unclear if anything was documented.

That’s where lawmakers could pass a law that allows healthcare professionals to raise concerns about a patient’s access to guns without jeopardizing the patient’s privacy, Leonardo said.

“The General Assembly may take initiatives that we can direct, soften this privilege, or report it to a confidential database.

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

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

Many of Hale’s writings were part of an ongoing legal battle between the families of the dead and those whose children attended school and various news organizations seeking access to those documents.

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

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

Judge Myles ruled that “original writings, magazines, artwork, 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 days; Some of these may be released as part of the police file after the case is officially closed. That is, as long as they fall under the state’s TPRA.

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

There is no indication from Metro Police as to when we can expect this to happen.