Bodycam video shows officers converge on Nashville school shooter
Authorities released police body camera footage Tuesday showing officers entering the Christian school in Nashville where six people were killed a day before, searching the hallways for the attacker and taking down the shooter.
The six-minute video shows footage from the body camera of responding Officer Rex Engelbert, a four-year veteran of the force. In the video, he approaches the school in his vehicle, parks and arms himself before briefly speaking to a woman who says students are in lockdown and gives information about the scene.
The school's alarm and shouts can be heard in the background as he enters the building. Engelbert, following other responders, identifies the team as Metro Police as they enter hallways, classrooms and offices in search of the shooter.
Additional body camera footage, from Officer Michael Collazo, shows a similar response: armed responders moving through the building at speed, searching for the shooter as sirens blare. On the second floor, Collazo appears to run past a body that's been digitally blurred in the video before shots are fired in the background.
Collazo is seen firing at the shooter, who is on the ground with multiple weapons nearby, and declares that the suspect is down.
Engelbert and Collazo were part of a team of first responders who arrived at The Covenant School within minutes of being alerted to the presence of a shooter on campus. Officers took down the assailant within 14 minutes of receiving the report of the school shooting, according to Nashville Mayor John Cooper. "Many lives" were saved by the quick response, he said on "CBS Mornings."
Police said that the shooter, a 28-year-old former student at the school, was armed with "at least" two assault-style rifles and one handgun. The shooter has been identified by police as Audrey Hale.
Three children and three adults were killed in the shooting. The children have been identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all 9. Scruggs was the daughter of Chad Scruggs, the senior pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church, which the school is associated with.
The adults were identified as 61-year-old Cynthia Peak, a substitute teacher; 61-year-old Mike Hill, a custodian; and 60-year-old Katherine Koonce, who is listed as head of the school on the school's website.
Nashville Police Chief John Drake said on "CBS Mornings" that police believe the shooter had other targets, including a local mall and possibly family members. More weapons were found in the shooter's home, Drake said.
Drake added that the shooting was "targeted and planned," and said the shooter may have had "some resentment for having to go to that school."
"We have a manifesto, we have a booklet, that shows … exactly what she had planned to do," Drake said on "CBS Mornings." "We have maps that show the entry point into the school, the weapons that were going to be used, the clothing that she was gonna wear, and she had drawn it up, almost like a cartoon character. It was exactly what she had on during this incident."