Nashville police officers who intervened during school shooting honored at Fox Nation's Patriot Awards
"FOX & Friends" co-hosts, President and CEO of Tunnels to Towers Frank Siller and Stephen Siller Jr. present Michael Collazo, Rex Engelbert, Jeff Mathes, Ryan Cagle and Zachary Plese with the T2T Stephen Siller Patriot Award in Nashville.
When crime, tragedy and accidents threatened or claimed lives in 2023, police officers helped prevent additional casualties.
While officers across the country put their oaths into action this year when they saved civilians from shootings, robberies, accidents, drownings and more, the following five moments stood out as some of the most heroic actions officers took in 2023.
Nashville police respond to Covenant School shooting
On March 27, five officers with the Metro Nashville Police Department — who were recently honored at Fox Nation's Patriot Awards — responded to a shooting at the Covenant School, a private Presbyterian elementary school.
Shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale parked at the school just before 10 a.m. CT, made her way to one of the entrances, used a firearm to shoot through glass doors and began her 14-minute rampage around 10:11 a.m. CT. Hale killed three children and three adults, including Evelyn Dieckhaus, 9; Hallie Scruggs, 9; William Kinney, 9; Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; and Mike Hill, 61.
MEET THE EVERYDAY HEROES COMMEMORATED AT FOX NATION'S 2023 PATRIOT AWARDS
The police officers who responded to the scene — Michael Collazo, Eric Wagner, Rex Engelbert, Jeff Mathes, Ryan Cagle, Zachary Plese — fatally shot Hale on the second floor of the school building.
Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake said Hale fired at the officers as they drove up to the school. The gunfire came from the second floor and struck a patrol vehicle's windshield before officers entered the building.
Engelbert said during an April press conference that he was not supposed to be in the area where the shooting happened when the first 911 call came through.
NASHVILLE POLICE OFFICERS AT CHRISTIAN SCHOOL SHOOTING GIVE FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF HARROWING EVENTS
"I think you can call it fate or God or whatever you want, but I can’t count on both my hands the irregularities that put me in that position when a call for service came out for an active deadly aggression at a school. I immediately turned on my lights and sirens, knowing the severity of such a call," Engelbert said. "I’ve been to I don’t know how many false active deadly aggression calls. Something told me it was time to really get to this one. I treat them all the same, but I was driving as safely [as] I could get my body there."
Mathes said during the Patriot Awards in November that he was accepting the award on behalf of his fellow patriots like Officer Eric Wagner, who was shot at while responding.
"We put others first. That's our biggest thing."
"That's what we needed to find … the work that we needed to do," Mathes said of Wagner. "So, being a patriot is [doing] for others, respecting each other, respecting your country, and most importantly, putting your God first."
Louisville police end shooting at bank within minutes
Louisville officers on April 10 responded to a shooting that left five dead, including Josh Barrick, 40; Deana Eckert, 57; Tommy Elliott, 63; Juliana Farmer, 45; and Jim Tutt, 64; at Old National Bank within minutes of receiving a 911 call.
DEADLY LOUISVILLE BANK SHOOTING BODYCAM VIDEO RELEASED, OFFICERS’ ACTIONS DESCRIBED AS ‘HEROIC’
The first call came in at 8:38 a.m. ET. By 8:41, officers were at the scene.
Deceased shooter Connor Sturgeon, a 23-year-old bank employee, shot at officers when they arrived. The officers returned fire and "stopped the threat," Louisville Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said during a news briefing at the time.
"It is clear from the officers' response that they absolutely saved people's lives," Louisville Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey said. "This was a tragic event."
Texas cop neutralizes Allen outlet mall shooter
On May 6, an Allen, Texas, police officer went from advising a family on the important use of seat belts to running toward a shooting in just seconds at an outlet mall.
Mauricio Garcia, the deceased shooter, killed eight victims between the ages of 5 and 61 and injured seven others at the Allen Premium Outlets on the afternoon of May 6. The victims were identified as Aishwarya Thatikonda, 26; Daniela Mendoza, 11; Sofia Mendoza, 8; Kyu Cho, 37; Cindy Cho, 35; James Cho, 3; Christian LaCour, 23; and Elio Cumana-Rivas, 32.
"I think we got a mass shooter. I got a mass shooter on foot," the officer can be heard saying on his radio in police bodycam footage released in June.
The officer located Garcia within minutes and fatally shot him.
ALLEN, TEXAS, MALL SHOOTING SUSPECT MAURICIO GARCIA HAD 3-MONTH STINT IN ARMY
"I got him down," the officer can be heard saying. "I'm not hearing any gunshots."
Florida officer saves 2 swimmers in rip tide
On Sept. 19, Flagler Beach Police Officer Dylan Coffman saved two swimmers caught in a rip current.
"Literally watched him SPRINT out of his police car, ripped off his vest, and dove into the water (sic) and save not one, but two people who were … so far back in the water, stuck in NASTY rip currents," eyewitness Brooke Qualls said in a public Facebook post.
FLORIDA OFFICER HAS ‘BAYWATCH’ MOMENT, SAVING 2 SWIMMERS IN DARING OCEAN RESCUE
Video of the incident obtained by FOX 35 shows Coffman, fully clothed, helping the two swimmers to shore.
This view shows Officer Dylan Coffman after the rescue. (Flagler Beach Police Department)
"I'd never seen anything like it," witness Sean McSweeney told the local station. "It was shocking — at the same time, heartwarming — to see that a first responder would just jump into action like that, and it was great."
Upstate New York cop's professionalism helps lead to missing girl's rescue
Saratoga Springs Senior Patrol Officer Kristen VanWert played a pivotal role in the rescue of a 9-year-old girl who was kidnapped from a campsite at the Moreau Lake State Park on Sept. 30.
VanWert, a 32-year veteran of the department, previously pulled over the kidnapping suspect, Craig Ross Jr., during a drunken-driving incident in 1999. Due to VanWert's decision to fingerprint Ross at that moment, the suspect's prints were still on file 24 years later when he was identified as a suspect in the girl's kidnapping.
When state troopers were standing guard outside the victim's home after her disappearance, one officer noticed a suspicious vehicle place a ransom note in the family's mailbox.
The officer called in a description of the suspect vehicle, and investigators tested the fingerprints on the note, which came back to be a match for Ross. State and federal authorities then began a search throughout Saratoga and eventually located the girl in a camper in Ross' mother's backyard.
New York City police rescue suicidal man standing on ledge
New York City Police Department Officers Eleodoro Mata and Carl Fayette saved a suicidal man standing on the edge of a bridge on Oct. 5.
"I care for you, brother. I love you, brother. Please, listen to my voice."
"You have my shoulder, brother. Lean on my shoulder, brother. I promise you, you're my friend," Mata can be heard saying in police bodycam footage while he is trying to talk the man off the ledge. "I promise you I'll give you the services you need."
Mata broke down in tears after officers successfully rescued the man as onlookers cheered.
"Police officers frequently interact with people having the worst day of their lives," the NYPD said in a statement shared to X. "… Officers Fayette & Mata talked to a distraught man in crisis for nearly 40 minutes until ESU officers rescued him."
Georgia officers rescue victims from burning cars
Rome Police Department Officer Dow Turrentine on Nov. 1 saved a woman and her son from a burning vehicle.
Video footage obtained by FOX 5 Atlanta shows Turrentine running from a nearby gas station to the scene of the crash, where he began smashing the vehicle's windows in an effort to save its passengers.
"Dispatch, the car is almost fully engulfed. We got everybody out of it," Turrentine can be heard saying in bodycam footage after helping victims Samantha Bostick and her son, Liam, escape the burning car.
GEORGIA OFFICER SAVES WOMAN FROM BURNING VEHICLE AFTER HIGH-SPEED CHASE
"I noticed it had flames coming out of the hood of the car, so my main priority was getting whoever was in there out," the officer said in an interview with WSB-TV at the time. "'Please don’t let it blow up.' That’s what’s going through my mind. And ‘please let everybody be OK.’"
A day earlier, on Oct. 31, Cobb County Police Department Officer Clay Musselman rescued a woman from a burning vehicle after she apparently attempted to flee police.
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The Cobb County Police Department said in a statement at the time that the officer was "racing against time" during the rescue and displayed "extraordinary bravery" by putting his own life "at peril" to save another.
Fox News' Michael Ruiz, Adam Sabes, Greg Norman, Lawrence Richard, Stepheny Price, Pilar Arias and Brie Stimson contributed to this report.
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