Hero Nashville cop who took down transgender school shooter is Marine Corps vet

The hero cops who apprehended a transgender shooter at a school in Nashville are a Marine Corps veteran and award-winning officer.

Michael Collazo, 31, and Rex Engelbert, 27, of the Nashville Metropolitan Police, have been hailed heroes after taking down Audrey Hale, 28, on Monday after she shot and killed six at The Covenant School .

Hale opened fire inside the small church-run private elementary school on the outskirts of town shortly before 10:13 a.m. Dramatic body camera footage showed Englebert and Collazo shot her dead at 10:27 a.m.

Collazo is a Marine Corps veteran who responded to the 2020 Christmas bombing, which also took place in Nashville, where Anthony Quinn Warner detonated a bomb downtown, killing himself and injuring eight others.

Collazo, a nine-year veteran of the force, was also a firefighter and previously served as a SWAT team paramedic. He has a little daughter, according to foxnews.

Engelbert received an award last week for “precision surveillance” for his work in recovering more than 20 stolen credit cards, a handgun and fentanyl.

Englebert (left) fired his rifle first, hitting her. Collazo then went over to her body to strip it of the weapons and checked to see if the shooter Audrey Hale was still alive Monday.

The Nashville native had joined the Marine Corps straight out of high school and is said to have relied on his military training during the active shooter situation, his older sister, Deanna Collazo DeHart, told Fox News.

‘He really loves 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 due to training or leaving to get through this training or this class…everything really it’s worth it,’ she said.

‘[He’s] obviously very brave, braver than I could have ever imagined,” he said. “Seeing the bravery of all of them storming and clearing the rooms is absolutely phenomenal.”

Engelbert, a four-year veteran, was one of the first officers on the scene and deployed the precision shots that initially took Hale down. Officer Collazo, a nine-year veteran of the force, approached with a pistol and fired four more shots as Hale writhed on the ground, before walking up to Hale’s body and stripping him of his weapons.

Engelbert received an award last week for “precision surveillance” for his work in recovering more than 20 stolen credit cards, a handgun and fentanyl, Fox News reported.

“These seizures took two dangerous felons with multiple outstanding warrants off the streets of downtown Nashville,” Central Precinct said. “We are very grateful for your dedication to keeping our city safe.”

Hale is shown after being shot by police on the second floor of The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, yesterday.

After shooting her to death, the officers approached Hale. Her weapons are clearly displayed, along with what appears to be an armored vest.

Hale was born female, but had recently begun using he/he pronouns and the name ‘Aiden’

Experts have praised the perfect accuracy of the responding officers, saying the body camera footage looks like “training video.”

‘Look at the minute they heard shots. What did they say? “Gunshots! Gunshots! Move! Move! Move!” They were faster. Rifles first. They are there, patting each other on the back. They are doing all the right things to encourage each other, knowing that they are putting themselves in danger, running into the shots, to stop the shooter,” Betsy Brantner Smith, a spokeswoman for the National Police Association, told Fox News.

“The National Police Association is incredibly proud of these police officers, and we’re also proud of the 750,000 other officers who go out every day and do what these men and women did at the Nashville Police Department.”

From her arrival at the school around 10:22 a.m., it took officers five minutes to find Hale and kill her.

By then, he had already managed to kill three nine-year-old boys and three staff members.

Students Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all nine, and staff members Cynthia Peak and Mike Hill, both 61, and school principal Katherine Koonce, 60, were killed.

The transgender shooter harbored a “resentment” for having to attend school as a child.

Hale was believed to be living as a transgender man named Aiden using the he/he pronouns.

Hallie Scruggs, who died in the attack, is seen with her father Chad Scruggs, the pastor of the school’s affiliated Presbyterian church.

Will Kinney, (pictured) and Evelyn Dieckhaus, both nine years old, were shot to death on Monday. Dieckhaus’s family said she died trying to save her friends.

Substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, (right) is shown with her daughter Ellie. Peak was one of six people shot to death at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 27, 2023.

Katherine Koonce, the school’s principal (left), and Mike Hill, a janitor (right) were among those shot to death by Audrey Hale.

She shot and killed the principal, Dr. Katherine Koonce, in the hallway in a ‘murder’ style killing, as well as shooting church custodian Mike Hill and substitute teacher Cynthia Peak.

Hale also murdered three nine-year-old students; Hallie Scruggs, William Kinney, and Evelyn Dieckhaus.

It is unclear if she targeted those children or her class.

Before driving to school, he messaged a friend on Instagram telling them: ‘I’m planning to die today. THIS IS NOT A JOKE!!!

You’ll probably hear about me on the news after I die.

‘This is my last goodbye. I love you. ‘See you in another life.’

‘Audrey (Aiden)’.