WARNING: This story contains graphic details about the Covenant School shooting.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - When Metro Nashville police officers first opened fire on the Covenant School shooter and she fell to the floor, she continued to move, raising her rifle to once again fire upon police, according to a summary of police action obtained by WSMV4 Investigates.
The summary, along with other documentation verified by WSMV4, are the latest detailed accounts that explain what police risked when encountering the shooter who killed six people, including three children, at The Covenant School on March 27, 2023.
According to the review by Deputy District Attorney Roger Moore on Feb 4, 2024, the two officers who fired on the shooter, Detective Michael Collazo and Officer Rex Engelbert, were justified in their actions.
“Detective Collazo and Officer Engelbert (along with other officers) unhesitatingly acted in defense of the defenseless on March 27, 2023, without regard to their own safety as they stopped an active and immediate threat,” Moore wrote.
The final case summary provides the frightening details of what officers faced when trying to stop the shooter, even after she had been shot.
The summary reads that Englebert fired four shots with his AR-15 at the shooter, who immediately fell to the floor.
However, the summary reads, “Audrey Hale was still moving and attempted to raise her rifle at Detective Michael Collazo and Sgt. Jeff Mathes.”
The summary goes on to state that Collazo then fired four shots from his 9mm Glock at the shooter.
In Collazo’s body camera footage, in which police blurred out the Covenant shooter, the detective can be heard shouting, “Stop moving! Stop moving!”
To further prove the danger Collazo faced, WSMV4 Investigates has confirmed he was the first officer on the scene.
Armed with only his pistol, MNPD confirmed Colazzo entered the school through the shattered glass of the door that the shooter had blown apart with assault-style weapons.
Metro Nashville police confirmed the exact details to WSMV4 Investigates in response to a series of questions raised about the timeline of police response on the day of the shooting.
David Reidman, a researcher who developed the K-12 school shooter database that examines every school shooting in the nation, raised questions in a substack in February about the transparency of Metro police’s response to the shooting.
In the article, “11 months later: Nashville police response to Covenant School shooting remains secret, leaving lessons unlearned,” Reidman writes Metro police’s lack of transparency raises questions.
A year after the shooting, the department has not released an after-action report of their response to the shooting, their investigative files and the writings of the shooter remain tied up in ongoing litigation.
Riedman told WSMV4 Investigates that he’d like transparency about how quickly police responded to the shooting.
“There is no question these officers are heroes. But what you are questioning is the timeline,” asked WSMV4 Investigates.
“The question that’s about broader accountability, and broader procedure, are if the closest officer or the first officers that were there went in immediately or waited. That’s an important theme,” Riedman said.
At our request to document who arrived first and when, Metro police confirmed key details to WSMV4 Investigates.
The first 911 call on March 27, 2023, went out at 10:13 that morning.
At 10:21, body camera footage shows Englebert arrived at the school, with another officer parked in front.
By 10:22, Englebert had obtained keys to the school and was leading a team inside, nine minutes after the first 911 call.
In Riedman’s substack article, he points out that in the much-criticized response from Uvalde police, police arrived quicker than in Nashville.
“By comparison in rural Uvalde, TX – even with no incident commander directing operations – multiple officers were inside the school less than four minutes after the first shots were fired,” Riedman wrote.
According to time stamps reviewed by Metro police for WSMV4 Investigates, Collazo arrived and made entry at the school at 10:20, two minutes earlier than previously thought.
At 10:22, Englebert had gained entry to the school at a different location, leading officers in.
Collazo later joins up with another set of officers until they run into a locked door.
“At the time, I was upset that we’d hit the locked door. But now, looking back, I’m thankful that we hit a locked door because it was the school doing what they were trained to do,” Collazo said at a news conference after the shooting.
Colazzo also said that as he and the other officers were rushing to the shooter, they began hearing gunshots.
Both Englebert and Colazzo are noted in the summary as stopping the shooter with their weapons.
By 10:24, 11 minutes after the first 911 came in, the shooter was dead.
For full transparency in our reporting, WSMV4 Investigates wants to point out that MNPD has released only what is referred to as the “officer-involved shooting” footage from the shooting, not the entirety of their response. The body camera footage that has been released does not have time codes.
The only body camera video that has been released so far includes Englebert arriving and responding to the shooter, as well as Collazo responding, but not him entering the building for the first time.
WSMV4 Investigates has asked for all the video, including the moments Collazo arrived, but the full investigative file has not yet been released.
WSMV4 Investigates listened over the phone as an MNPD spokesman reviewed all the time codes from the body camera video that hadn’t been released to complete this report, but we have not seen those time codes.
Metro police spokesman Don Aaron said the software they use to release body camera footage to the media has the metadata of time codes but it is not automatically imported when released.
WSMV4 Investigates will request the full video and the time codes when the investigation is complete.
A recent court filing by MNPD indicates they need four additional months to complete their investigation.
If there’s anything you want WSMV4 Investigates to know about, you can contact us here.
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