How response of hero Nashville cops shames the cowards of Uvalde

Less than three minutes after Nashville police officers Michael Collazo and Rex Engelbert stormed the Covenant School in response to an active shooter, the attacker who’d killed three children and three staff members was dead.

Hellish body cam footage reveals how the two hero cops and their colleagues moved swiftly and methodically through the school’s corridors and classrooms before they came face to face with the shooter, Audrey Hale, and took her down with a volley of precision gunshots.

Engelbert, armed with a scoped rifle, bravely leads the team towards Hale’s gunfire then fires four shots which bring her down. Collazo, wearing a baseball cap and armed with only a handgun, approaches the downed shooter, who’s still armed and moving, and unleashes four more shots to neutralize her.

Police said 14 minutes passed from the initial 911 call to when Hale was killed, but haven’t said how long it took them to arrive at the scene. While the full timeline is still emerging, the decisive response of Collazo, Engelbert and their colleagues has been credited with saving lives. 

Their actions are in stark contrast with the police response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24 2022, when nineteen children and two teachers were killed while police took more than one hour to engage the gunman.

Officer Rex Engelbert bravely ran towards Hale’s gunfire and took the shooter down with a volley of precision shots from his rifle

As Hale remained armed and moving, officer Michael Collazo approached her armed only with a handgun. Less than three minutes after Collazo and Engelbert entered the school, Hale had been neutralized

Surveillance footage from inside Robb Elementary showed dozens of officers stood idly in the school corridors as some even checked their phones while Ramos was holed up in a classroom and desperate children repeatedly dialed 911 to beg for help.

Police in Uvalde missed an opportunity to stop the gunman before he even entered the school. After Ramos barricaded himself inside the building, hundreds of heavily-armed law enforcement officers – some with shields and military-grade body armor – massed at the scene but failed to act. 

In contrast, the officers in Nashville were lightly protected. While they can be seen in bullet proof vests, some are dressed in jeans, t-shirts and – in the case of Collazo – a baseball cap. They don’t have helmets or other tactical gear. 

Law enforcement analyst Jonathan Wackrow said the officers who responded in Nashville showed ‘law enforcement at its finest’.

Wackrow, a former secret service agent, added: ‘Not knowing what the circumstances really were upon arrival, officers remain calm and collected, not raising anxiety but making the entry as necessary to go search for the suspect.’

He told CNN that moving at speed is ‘essential for the preservation of life’, adding: ‘These officers did a remarkable job.’

Surveillance footage from the Covenant School shows Hale arrived in the parking lot at around 9.54am, according to the timestamp. Footage from one of the parking lot cameras shows a group of children using swings in a play area as Hale drives past and parks the vehicle.  

Hale enters the school at around 10.11am through a side door, after firing several gunshots through panes of glass to gain entry.

Police were first called at 10.13am, and the school’s alarm system was also activated. 

Engelbert’s body cam footage begins at the moment he arrives outside the school in his Ford police cruiser. The video isn’t timestamped, but the fact that Hale was dead less than four minutes later suggests Engelbert arrived at around 10.23am.

Nashville Metropolitan Police Officer Rex Engelbert fired first with his rifle. Officer Michael Collazo then moved in, firing four shots with his handgun

Officer Michael Collazo, who was armed with a handgun, fired four shots at Hale. Collazo went into the school with just a bulletproof vest for protection

Nashville Metropolitan Police Officer Rex Engelbert, who brought down Hale, also had only a bulletproof vest for protection

After shooting her dead, the officers approached Hale. Her weapons are clearly shown, along with what appears to be an armored vest 

Just 62 seconds pass between Engelbert parking his vehicle and entering the school. In that time, he removes his rifle from the trunk of his cruiser and interacts briefly with a woman outside the building who tells him: ‘We have two kids and we don’t know where they are.’

Engelbert is calm but urgent as he approaches an entrance to the school and uses a key to gain access. He shouts ‘give me three, let’s get three!’ as he assembles a small team to enter the school with him.

Engelbert twice shouts ‘Let’s go!’ as he leads the team into the building.

The officer and his team then begin to move methodically through the school, searching classrooms and teachers’ offices, spending just a few seconds in each location before progressing.

The officers ascend to the second floor after hearing gunfire. Shots can be heard ringing out through the corridors as Engelbert and the other officers sprint towards the danger and come face to face with Hale in a second floor atrium.

Engelbert steps towards Hale and quickly fires four shots from his rifle, taking down the shooter. He’d been inside the building just two and a half minutes when Hale was shot down.

The footage from Collazo’s body cam illustrates a similar mix of urgency and composure.

Collazo’s body cam footage shows he used a different entrance to Engelbert to gain access to the school building. Immediately after leading a small team of officers inside – through what appears to be a side entrance – Collazo shouts ‘second floor’ and leads them up a staircase.

The team reach a locked door and are forced to turn, descending the stairs again and making their way through the first floor corridors.

The police response in Nashville has been contrasted to the ‘failure’ of police who responded to the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in May 2022, when 19 children and two teachers were killed. Pictured: Police officers in a corridor at Robb Elementary, including one checking his phone, while waitimg over an hour to engage the shooter

Police in Uvalde had shields, battering rams, rifles and handguns but still didn’t enter the classroom where the gunman was holed up for more than one hour and 14 minutes

The failure of police in Uvalde sparked a national backlash

Collazo delivers clear orders at the officers around him as they make their way through the school, at one point shouting ‘rifle first’ as he commands another officer to take the lead.

Little more than a minute after entering the building, Collazo and his unit are climbing another staircase towards the sound of gunfire. As they get closer to Hale, another officers shouts, ‘we got one down’ and part of Collazo’s bodycam footage is pixelated as they move through a corridor.

The officers then sprint towards Hale’s location. Collazo is heard shouting, ‘shots fired, shots fired’. At this point – just two minutes after Collazo entered the school – he’s joined by Engelbert, who leads the officers into the second floor atrium where Hale was shot.

Engelbert fires four shots which bring down Hale. Collazo then steps towards the shooter, who remains armed and moving, before firing four shots and shouting, ‘stop moving!’ He then radios, ‘suspect down!’

The victims were children Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all age 9. The adults were Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61. 

The shooting in Nashville happened less than one year after the horror at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. 

A report from the Texas House of Representatives accused law enforcement leaders and responding officers of ‘systemic failures and egregious poor decision making’ in their response. 

The gunman, Salvador Ramos, arrived at the school shortly before 11.30am. He travelled to the school after shooting his grandmother in the face at her home nearby.

Hale was born female but had recently begun using he/him pronouns and the name ‘Aiden’

A makeshift memorial grows at the entrance to the Covenant Presbyterian Church school shooting site in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, 28 March 2023

A boy leaves flowers at a makeshift memorial for victims by the Covenant School building at the Covenant Presbyterian Church following a shooting, in Nashville, Tennessee, March 27, 2023

Within minutes, teachers started to lock down the school – but some hadn’t received the warning about an active shooter due to trouble with the school’s warning software.

Ramos fired multiple rounds outside the school before gaining entry through an unlocked door at 11.33am. While he was still outside, one officer ‘drove right by [Ramos] who was hunkered down behind’ a vehicle – missing an opportunity to prevent the attack.

In the minutes after entering the building, Ramos fired more than 100 shots into two adjoining fourth-grade classrooms.

He then barricaded himself in the school for more than one hour and 14 minutes while 376 law enforcement officers descended on the school, but failed to engage him.

Police eventually engaged and killed Ramos at 12.50pm.

Former Uvalde Police Department Lieutenant Mariano Pargas Jr – the active chief on the day of the shooting – stepped down in November 2022. Families of the victims said he was aware that people were dying and ‘did nothing’.

The Uvalde schools police chief, Pedro Arredondo, was fired for failing to order officers to act sooner despite being in charge at the scene.