Body camera footage from the Nashville shooting shows officers running through the school

As Officer Rex Engelbert ran towards the Covenant School on Monday morning, a woman standing outside directed him inside and upstairs: The students were locked in, but two children were missing . Gunshots had been heard upstairs, near the trading room.

About three minutes after leaving his car, Mr. Engelbert, a four-year veteran of the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department, reached the second floor of the school, where he and a second officer, Michael Collazo, shot dead 28 years heavily armed. -old shooter.

A six-minute compilation of body camera footage from Mr. Engelbert and Mr. Collazo, released by the police department on Tuesday, shows how officers ran through the school, passed artwork of children hung on walls, searched classrooms and bathrooms, and ultimately killed the shooter. (Note: the video includes some disturbing footage.)

After police received an initial report of the shooting at 10:13 a.m. Monday, it took officers 14 minutes to arrive and shoot the assailant, identified by police as Audrey E. Hale.

“I was really impressed that, with everything going on, the danger of someone taking over and saying ‘let’s go, let’s go, let’s go,'” chef John Drake of the Nashville Metro Police Department during a press conference on Tuesday. He added that he had spoken to President Biden and expected Mr Biden to contact the two officers.

Surveillance footage, released late Monday night without audio, captured the gunman parking a car outside the school and then shooting through two sets of doors, the bullets smashing through windows. A gun drawn, the shooter can be seen walking through the halls and hallways of the school, at one point passing the children’s ministry.

Body camera footage shows officers quickly rushing into classrooms and bathrooms, looking for the shooter. They run down the hallways and pass lockers containing children’s jackets and backpacks.

“Let’s go, let’s go,” shouts an officer, as a fire alarm and sirens sound in the background. At one point, an officer on the second floor shouts that “we’ve got one down”. A series of gunshots – nearly a dozen in total – are heard.

Officer Engelbert turns a corner to face a hall with seats and shelves, and spots the assailant, whom he shoots four times, according to footage from his body camera.

Officer Collazo then walks towards the shooter, who by this time is on the ground, surrounded by broken glass, and the officer fires his gun four times, shouting, “Stop moving, stop moving.” Then, Officer Collazo shouts “Suspect down, suspect down” and moves two guns out of the assailant’s reach.

Jean Ismay contributed report.