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'Just 14 minutes’: Nashville police lauded for quick response to Covenant school shooting unlike Uvalde cops

'It took 14 minutes to take down the shooter from the initial call... That's how police are supposed to respond,' wrote a user

Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers' discretion advised. 

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE: Three children and three adults were killed in a mass shooting by a 28-year-old former transgender student, Audrey Hale, at the Covenant School on Monday, March 27. They were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9, Hallie Scruggs, 9, William Kinney, 9, Katherine Koonce, 60, Cynthia Peak, 61, and Mike Hill, 61. However, Hale, who was born as a female and used he/him as pronouns, was shot dead by police just 14 minutes after the school first called police to report an active shooter. And now this prompt action by cops is being applauded by many who thanked them "for not being like Uvalde police."

Metro Nashville PD tweeted, "Active shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale drove to Covenant Church/School in her Honda Fit this morning, parked, and shot her way into the building. She was armed with 2 assault-type guns and a 9 mm pistol. According to ABC News, Nashville police received a call from the school at 10.13 am about the shooter, who allegedly entered the Nashville school through a side entrance and went from the first floor to the second floor as he fired gunshots. When police arrived, he fired shots at them from a second floor window. Five cops arrived on the second floor, saw the shooter and shot him. At 10.27 am, he was declared dead.

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Metro Nashville PD named officers Rex Englebert, a four-year department veteran and Michael Collazo, a nine-year veteran as the two officers who fatally shot the shooter. Many praised the swift action by the cops. One wrote, "Brave police officers in Nashville, TN were upholding their oath and following the recommended protocol of engaging the shooter immediately upon arriving at a mass shooting event and saved lives. They didn't allow this tragedy to become another Uvalde, TX by letting time pass." Another wrote, "Good on the Nashville police for not cowering like the Uvalde police, running towards the gun fire and neutralizing the shooter." One of many stressed, "The police actually did something about the gun violence. Nashville isn't Uvalde or Parkland."

'That's how police are supposed to respond'

One said, "Hey Uvalde police, it took 14 minutes to take down the shooter from the initial call in the Nashville Convenant school shooting! That's how police are supposed to respond!" Another pointed, "Police chief in Nashville saying just now 'we will never wait to enter' a place 'where our children are being threatened'. Very explicitly saying they acted quickly and decisively, unlike police in Uvalde Texas."

Uvalde parents speak out

Kimberly Garcia, who lost her 10-year-old daughter, Amerie Jo Garza, in Uvalde, tweeted, "Our kids aren’t safe. Schools aren’t safe. My daughter wasn’t safe, her life was taken from her. My son isn’t safe and it keeps me up all night. How am I supposed to be OK with leaving him at school? There’s no way.”

“When is enough going to be enough? 6 more innocent lives taken? But it’s not the guns right? Wake up people," she said in another tweet. 

The Uvalde family members, who now lead Lives Robbed, an advocacy group fighting to prevent gun violence, wrote in a tweet, “We are tired. We know that, for the families of the victims at Covenant, this hell is just beginning. We are with you. This is why we fight for change.” Kimberly Mata-Rubio, who lost her 10-year-old daughter, Alexandria “Lexi” Rubio, tweeted, "I’m tired. I’m so tired. #lexirubio." Ana Rodriguez, whose 10-year-old daughter, Maite, was killed in Uvalde, wrote, "Another school shooting , another life, another grieving parent, another assault rifle! All common denominators! Nashville you are in my thoughts."

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