First responders break silence on Covenant School shooting incident
Officers who confronted and killed a school shooter in Nashville shared their first-hand experiences just over a week after the tragic event. Audrey Hale opened fire at The Covenant School, Nashville, killing three 9-year-old students and three adults. She was subsequently killed by responding officers within three minutes and thirty seconds of entering the school. Officer Rex Engelbert, Detective Michael Collazo, and Detective Sgt. Jeff Mathes were among the first to arrive on the scene of the shooting.
Engelbert, who had decided that day to complete “administrative” activities at the police headquarters, was not normally assigned to the school area. He stated that he had no business being at the school but a sequence of irregularities led to him being at the school. He never worked with the officers he went into the school with but knew through their training what needed to be done.
The Metro Nashville Police Department credited the school for its training in an active shooting to minimize the casualties. “Their efforts also saved lives. They knew how to have the kids on the wall, away from the windows, out of the hallways. Where we could have had a lot more casualties, they were able to protect these kids as well,” said MNPD Chief John Drake.
Nashville’s Chief of Police revealed that he had attended five of the six victims’ funerals and that the sixth funeral would take place the next day. The community is still struggling to make sense of the tragedy that took place at The Covenant School.
The shooting incident has once again ignited the debate on gun control in America, where such incidents are alarmingly common. The country has seen many school shootings in recent years, leading to calls for stricter gun control legislation.
The state authorities of Tennessee have initiated an investigation into the case and are working to find out the motives behind the shooting. The incident has once again brought to the forefront the importance of police training and preparedness in responding to such emergencies.
