Nashville police have revealed the names and photos of the two officers who shot and killed Audrey hale, the 28-year-old transgender, who killed six people, including three nine-year-olds, at a Christian private school in Nashville on Monday. Officers Rex Engelbart and Michael Collazo were the two hero cops from the responding team who fired and shot dead Hale.
Hale was shot and killed by police after a roughly 14-minute shooting spree. Authorities said that she had a detailed manifesto to attack the Christian academy and was heavily armed. Nashville police released images of the two semi-automatic rifles and the handgun Hale was carrying during the massacre on Monday.
Real-Life Heroes
Officers Rex Engelbart and Michael Collazo were the team members who fired at Hale, killing her, a spokesperson for the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department said on Monday night.
Collazo has been a member of the force for nine years, while Engelbart has only recently joined the Nashville Police Department.
According to the police, officers reached The Covenant School, managed to enter, and cleared the building as they heard gunfire coming from the second level.
However, before Collazo and Engelbart took down Hale, she had already shot dead three nine-year-olds Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, and a pastor’s daughter Hallie Scruggs.
Others who were killed were custodian Michael Hill, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, the administrator of the school, and substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61.
A team of officers, including Engelbart and Collazo, arrived at the second story when they came upon Hale, who had been firing through a window at the approaching police cars. She was killed by their gunfire.
This comes as the police released a chilling video that shows Hale breaking through the school’s doors before beginning her murderous spree.
The video shows a Honda Fit arriving at the Covenant School building. Surveillance camera footage shows the car moving at a slow speed before entering the parking lot. The visuals cut after that and next, the back entrance of the school is seen.
Given that classes were on, there is initially no movement near the glass door. Suddenly, Hale can be seen firing through the locked glass door, shattering it.
Motive Is Unclear
Police also released the photos of the two semi-automatic rifles and a handgun Hale carried during the attack. A shotgun and a sawn-off shotgun were also found at her home.
Police said Hale was transgender, although they haven’t specified further details. Hale was born a female, but a LinkedIn page that is believed to be hers uses the pronouns he/him, implying that Hale was living as a man.
Police have continued to refer to Hale as she or her.
On Monday evening John Drake, the chief of Nashville police, said Hale had a comprehensive attack manifesto and blueprints in her family’s Nashville house, which police raided.
“We have a manifesto, we have some writings that we’re going over that pertain to this day,” Nashville Metropolitan police chief John Drake said about the discovery.
According to him, Hale had plans to target another nearby school but abandoned them because the building was too guarded since she was “prepared to do more harm than was actually done.”
Hale’s motive is still unclear, but investigators believe she once attended the school. According to authorities, she had drawn comprehensive maps of the school and had been surveying it.
Norma Hale, Hale’s mother, was a coordinator at a nearby church and frequently discussed religion on Facebook.
“The person we know as Audrey Hale, she’s a 28-year-old Nashvillan. We have belief that she went to school in the area – at that actual school.
“There’s some belief that there was some resentment for having to go to that school,” said Drake, speaking to NBC News.
“Don’t have all the details to that just yet and that’s why this incident occurred.”
Drake said that the victims were chosen at random on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. “She targeted random students and persons in the school – whoever she came into contact with,” Drake said.
“We feel that she identifies as trans but we are still in an initial investigation into that, and if it actually played a role in this incident.
“Right now we are unsure if that played a role.”
Nashville police said Hale used a car to get to school, which cops claim made it easier to identify her. “Active shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale, 28, drove this Honda Fit to the Covenant Church/school campus this morning and parked,” the police tweeted.
According to him, Hale had plans to target another nearby school but abandoned them because the building was too guarded since she was “prepared to do more harm than was actually done.”
He said her manifesto has been handed over to the FBI.
