Did Audrey Hale manifesto say “You mess with our kids, we kill your kids”?

A widely shared quote about Audrey Hale’s manifesto prompted fierce discussion about the targeting of Christians, but the quote might be being incorrectly attributed.

Hale, whom police confirmed identified as transgender, fatally shot three children and three staffers Monday at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, before being killed by police.

Police said Hale might have had some “resentment” about attending the school, and the 28-year-old leaving behind a manifesto sparked discussions about whether the shooting was a deliberate attack on Christians.

In the aftermath of the shooting, people began sharing on social media an alleged line from the manifesto that said, “You mess with our kids, we kill your kids.” When asked if police could confirm that the line was in the manifesto, Don Aaron, public affairs director for the Nashville Police Department, told Newsweek, “no.”

The phrase appears to have originated from a tweet by conservative commentator Jack Posobiec. On Tuesday, he noted that Hale left a “manifest not a suicide note” and said it wasn’t “hard to infer the message intended, ‘You mess with our kids, we will kill your kids.'”

Posobiec’s tweet has been viewed 1.9 million times and has been shared as a direct quote from the manifesto.

Donald Trump Jr. put the phase in air quotes in a video he posted on Rumble on Tuesday and posted on Twitter that Hale wrote “You mess with our kids, we kill your kids” in the manifesto.

Newsweek reached out to Posobiec through his website and Trump Jr. through the Trump Organization for comment.

Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, wants the shooting to be investigated as a hate crime because a Christian school was targeted. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, when asked Tuesday by Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana whether he planned to open a hate crime investigation, said that a motive remains unclear.

Twitter hashtags including “TransTerrorism” and “TransDayofVengeance” have popped up on the social network since the shooting. Georgia GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene had her Twitter account temporarily suspended Tuesday for linking the group antifa to “Trans Day of Vengeance.” On Wednesday, she claimed that there is “still no acknowledgement of the innocent Christians that were slaughtered in Tennessee by a trans mass shooter.”

The trans community remains fearful that Hale’s actions will lead to violence it.

Denise Sadler, a transgender drag performer in Nashville, told Sky News that she increased her armed guards from four to eight as part of a drag show she is hosting at a gay bar in the city this weekend.

“You don’t know if [the shooter’s gender identity] is going to trigger a community of people who already hated us to come and try to shoot us to prove a point,” Sadler said.

Nashville Police Chief John Drake said during a press conference Tuesday that Hale, who also went by Aiden, in the manifesto mentioned plans to attack “multiple” locations in The Covenant School. Detailed maps of locations accompanied the threats, in addition to descriptions of how the killings would take place.

Drake, who refuted rumors that Hale targeted certain individuals, said specifics of the manifesto were still under investigation because there has been “quite a bit of writing to it.” He added that he hadn’t read all of it, and that his officers and the FBI are working on it.

“There’s some belief that there was some resentment for having to go to that school,” Drake told NBC News.

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department told the Daily Caller News Foundation on Tuesday that it had no intention of releasing the documents anytime soon, saying, “We will not be releasing the manifesto during an open investigation.”

The decision not to immediately release the manifesto prompted mixed reactions. Some argued it needed to be released for the sake of transparency and to establish trust that nothing was being covered up because of the identity of the shooter. Others, including some LGBTQ+ groups, argued that the manifesto should remain out of the public view.

Charles Moran, the national president of Log Cabin Republicans, a GOP organization that advocates for equal rights for LGBTQ+ Americans, previously told Newsweek that there are “serious consequences” for the public release of the manifesto.

“While it would certainly give insight into the motivations of this deeply troubled individual that could help shed light into root causes, we know from tragedies like this that additional glorification of the shooter could inspire others to take similar violent acts for attention,” Moran said.

Police have not released a motive for the shooting, and Drake told NBC News that an investigation is being conducted into whether Hale’s transgender identity played a role.