Hero Cops Who Shot Christian School Shooter Have Amazing History of Service to Country
The police officers who braved bullets to take down the shooter in The Covenant School in Nashville on Monday are being praised for their courage and valor.
Responding officers moved towards the threat with determined, fearless action — as shown in their own body camera footage.
🚨 BREAKING: Police have released body-camera footage of the Nashville officers fatally shooting transgender shooter Audrey “Aiden” Hale inside the Covenant School yesterday. pic.twitter.com/Pgmw1fJnbY
— Mia Cathell (@MiaCathell) March 28, 2023
Viewers of the footage praised the men for their tactical proficiency in close quarters combat.
The officers cleared rooms of the school meticulously — adopting an aggressive approach when they heard gunshots on the second floor of the building.
Betsy Brantner Smith of the National Police Association hailed the men for their “selfless service,” according to the New York Post.
“It doesn’t get any more heroic than that,” she said.
A look into the men’s backgrounds reveals that the values of courage and bravery aren’t new to them.
Rex Engelbert and Michael Collazo were the officers who fired on the school shooter — who was herself armed with a semiautomatic rifle and two other firearms.
Kudos to officers Rex Englebert and Michael Collazo for immediately running toward to sound of gunfire and taking out the murderer, preventing an even larger tragedy pic.twitter.com/V41m6OzRoj
— Jeremy Carl (@jeremycarl4) March 28, 2023
One of the officers involved in neutralizing the threat is an infantry veteran of the Marine Corps, according to the military-oriented website Task & Purpose.
Michael Collazo served in the Marines from 2010 to 2016.
He told his parents that he relied on his military training in responding to the life-and-death scenario, according to Fox News.
Collazo also was on-scene during the police response to the bombing in Nashville on Christmas Day, 2020, according to Fox.
The Marine veteran is also a former firefighter.
Another officer who responded to the threat is a four-year veteran of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, according to Fox.
Rex Engelbert received a police commendation decoration for his role in an operation that recovered nearly two dozen stolen credit cards, a stolen gun, and hard drugs just last week, according to Fox.
Three adults and three children were killed in Monday’s shooting, carried out by Audrey Hale, a former student of The Covenant School who identified as transgender.
The nature of the attack has led many to consider it a hate crime against Christians.
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