The officers who skillfully gunned down Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale should receive “the highest honors,” including an in-person visit to the White House, a police group said Friday.
Metro Nashville Police Officers Michael Collazo and Rex Engelbert who fired upon Hale —bringing an abrupt end to her 14-minute shooting spree — and their team displayed “second-to-none” heroism when they rushed into the Covenant elementary school, said Joseph Imperatrice, founder of Blue Lives Matter New York City.
“These officers are heroes and the actions of the White House should reflect that with the highest honors awarded to them in person in Washington,” Imperatice added.
Metro Nashville Police officers were seen in body camera footage running into the private elementary school around 10:20 a.m. on Monday, minutes after Hale, 28, shot through a locked side door and slipped in.
Transgender Hale killed three schoolchildren and three staffers before the officers were able to get to her on the second floor of the school.
A spokesperson for Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles told the Post the congressman believes Engelbert and Collazo “deserve to be honored by the entire country — including their local community, the State of Tennessee, Congress, and the White House.”
Ogles has already introduced the Covenant School Heroes Congressional Gold Medal Act this week, to honor the officers.
President Joe Biden did phone the officers earlier this week, but others have taken to social media to say in-person recognition is warranted.
“President @JoeBiden should honor the officers that stopped the Nashville shooter with a White House reception and bestow on them the Presidential Citizens Medal!” one user wrote Tuesday.
A second user wrote Friday: “He should invite those Nashville officers to the Whitehouse and give them medals.”
James Smallwood, president of the Nashville Fraternal Order of Police, lauded the work of all officers involved.
He noted, however, that they did not become police officers for the recognition but rather to serve their communities.
Smallwood said the officers were still reeling from what they had witnessed while responding to the scene, and noted Metro Nashville Police Department had been offering services for all those involved.
Tennessee Sens. Marsha Blackburn called for recognition of the officers’ swift and “heroic” action.
“We owe a debt of gratitude to the brave Nashville police officers who willingly ran toward danger without hesitation, putting their lives on the line to save others. In the face of unspeakable evil, they showed true professionalism, courage, and selflessness — the very definition of heroism,” Blackburn said in a statement.
Hale was armed with two assault rifles and a handgun when she carried out the 14 minute killing spree.
The victims have been identified as 9-year-olds Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, as well as school janitor Mike Hill, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak and headmistress Katherine Koonce, who reportedly ran toward the shooter to try to protect the school.
Hale left behind a manifesto as well as detailed maps of the school she had methodically planned to attack.
A local official told The Post that the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit is reviewing Hale’s manifesto.
