The Nashville Police Department has released bodycam footage from the officers who took down Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the shooter who killed seven people at the Covenant School. The bodycam footage comes from MNPD Officers Rex Engelbert, a 4-year veteran, and Michael Collazo, a 9-year veteran and starts as their police vehicles first pull up to the school in response to emergency calls. “The kids are all locked down, but we have two kids that we don’t know where they are,” a woman tells Engelbert as gets out of his car. The officers quickly enter the building and and check classrooms before they hear gunfire coming from the second floor.
Around the three minute mark of the video, the officers sprint to the second floor and come into direct confrontation with the shooter. After exchanging fire for nearly thirty seconds Engelbert and Collazo shoot and kill Hale near a large window in the second floor lobby. Watch the full video below:
Nashville Police release six minutes of body cam footage showing how officers engaged and stopped the shooter. While some details are blurred, this footage is graphic.
Absolute heroes. pic.twitter.com/RD8tyfFyic— Brick Suit (@Brick_Suit) March 28, 2023
The CEO of Global Security Group and a former DEA special agent Dave Katz has said that officer Engelbert and Collazo are “heroes indeed.”
“That’s exactly what has to be done,” he told Fox. “Heedless of officer safety, you enter and dispatch the shooter.”
According to Fox:
Hale had attended the school years ago, the Metro Nashville Police Department said Monday.
They said the killer left written material indicating the attack “was calculated and planned.”
According to its website, the Covenant School opened in 2001 as part of the Covenant Presbyterian Church and served children from pre-K through sixth grade.
The child victims included the pastor’s daughter, Hallie Scruggs, as well as Evelyn Dieckhaus and William Kinney. Police identified the adults as 60-year-old Head of School Katherine Koonce, Cynthia Peak, 61, and Mike Hill, 61.
