Rex Engelbert and Michael Collazo are the Nashville police officers credited with taking down school shooter Audrey Hale on Monday.
Bodycam footage of the shooting has been released, and these officers are being praised for running toward the danger and ending it quickly.
FOX News has done a profile on the officers:
Rex Engelbert and Michael Collazo: Who are the Nashville officers who took down Covenant School shooter?While a team of Nashville police officers swarmed a Christian school Monday morning to stop an active shooter, the department praised two of the responding officers, credited with taking down the suspect, by name.Hero Metro Nashville Police Officers Michael Collazo, 31, and Rex Engelbert, 27, have served in the department for nine and four years, respectively. The department declined to make either of them available for an interview on Tuesday.Collazo, a Marine Corps veteran and former firefighter, also responded to the Christmas Day bombing in 2020, his sister said Tuesday. He is also the father of a young girl himself.Engelbert, one of the first officers on scene, is shown on bodycam video calmly retrieving his rifle from the back of a police SUV as a teacher outside explains the situation.”[He’s] obviously very brave, braver than I ever imagined,” Deanna Collazo DeHart, his older sister, told Fox News Digital. “He really does love his job. When I sit and think about all the training and all the different classes that he does, and all the family events that he’s had to miss because of training or leaving to go through this training or this class… it all really does pay off.”…Speaking separately at a news briefing Tuesday, Nashville Police Chief John Drake said Collazo had also served as a SWAT team paramedic.He was born and raised in Nashville, joined the Marine Corps right out of high school and told his parents hours after the shooting that he drew heavily from his military training during the ordeal, according to DeHart.
These brave men deserve the praise they are receiving.
These are the victims:
In case you missed it, this is the bodycam footage of the event:
If that video won’t play, here’s another:
The Nashville Police Department deserves credit for releasing this footage so quickly.
Now, if only the public could see the manifesto the shooter left behind.
Featured image via YouTube.
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