Warning: The following article contains sensitive material with mentions of violence and death. Please read with extreme caution.
As the entire country continues to mourn the deaths of three children and three adults in yesterday’s Covenant School shooting, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department has now officially released body cam footage of several officers searching through rooms and hallways of the Christian school.
As per The Independent, the aforementioned footage showcases officers Rex Engelbert and Michael Collazo arriving on the scene, entering through the school’s locked front door, and carefully searching through each classroom as the school’s sirens are heard in the background. Throughout the video, both officers can be heard screaming and exchanging gunfire with the shooter.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, 28-year-old Audrey Hale was identified as the shooter, having attended the school as a child and apparently planning the events before arriving at the Nashville private school yesterday morning. As police tirelessly searched the school, all six bodies of the victims were discovered and eventually identified.
Nashville officers first responded to the scene at around 10 am CST and fatally shot Hale at about 10:27 am, just 14 minutes after the initial call was placed to 911. The Nashville Police Department also released footage of Hale walking through the school’s hallways just minutes before opening fire on the victims.
The Covenant School shooting has reignited talks of pushing Congress to implement stricter gun laws, and to pass safe gun legislation in an effort to ensure tragedies like this cease happening.