Footage shows female shooter, 28; here’s the latest on the shooting and the hero cops who took her out

With investigations are underway surrounding the suspected transgendered Covenant School murderer, Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) released surveillance footage and identified the heroic officers who put an end to the rampage.

Monday morning, just before 10 a.m., a Honda Fit can be seen entering the parking lot of the Covenant School later said to have been driven by 28-year-old Audrey Hale. Shortly thereafter, an interior perspective showed the suspect approaching an entryway where the glass doors were shot to provide access to the building wherein she would go on to fatally shoot nine-year-olds Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney, Hallie Scruggs as well as head of school Katherine Koonce, 60, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, and custodian Mike Hill, 61.

Throughout the video, the suspect, who reportedly identified as a man, can be seen brandishing one weapon described as an “assault-type” gun by the MNPD. She was said to have two such weapons and a 9-millimeter pistol when officers confronted her on the second floor of the building.

After having been fired upon from a second-floor window, officers who had entered and begun clearing the building engaged the suspect and fatally wounded her within 20 minutes of her initial entry. They were identified as four-year veteran Officer Rex Englebert and nine-year veteran Officer Michael Collazo.

Officer Rex EnglebertOfficer Michael Collazo

Images: MNPD

“The first call to 911 about shots being fired in the building came in at 10:13 a.m. Officers rushed to the campus, made entry, and began clearing the building. Shots were heard coming from the second level. It was on the second floor, in a common area, that a team of officers encountered Hale shooting (she had been firing through a window at arriving police cars). Two members of an officer team fired on Hale and fatally wounded her,” MNPD Chief John Drake explained.

As part of a statement, MNPD wrote, “Chief John Drake and the men and women of the MNPD join all of Nashville in mourning today’s death of six innocent persons, three nine-year-olds and three adults, at the hands of an active shooter at Covenant Church/School on Burton Hills Drive.”

Investigators had searched the Honda Fit that had been used to travel to the school as part of their effort to positively identify the suspect and, after executing a search warrant at the suspect’s home, reportedly discovered a sawed-off shotgun, a second shotgun and other evidence that included “a map of the school with entry points and surveillance…”

“We have also determined that there were maps drawn of the school in detail of surveillance entry points. At one point she was a student at that school. There was a vehicle nearby that gave us a clue as to who she was,” Drake noted.

Though a motive was not specifically assigned, the suspect’s identity, connection to the school, and further evidence referred to as “a manifesto” suggested the planned attack was ideologically motivated.

“There’s some belief that there was some resentment for having to go to that school,” Drake told NBC News. “Don’t have all the details to that just yet and that’s why this incident occurred.”

Nashville Mayor John Cooper (D) was among those offering their vocal support for the families of the victims as he said, “In a tragic morning, Nashville joined the dreaded, long list of communities to experience a school shooting. My heart goes out to the families of the victims. Our entire city stands with you. As facts continue to emerge, I thank our first responders and medical professionals.”

Kevin Haggerty

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