Jill Biden, first lady, attends the vigil; officers Engelbert and Collazo, captured on body camera, are hailed as heroes

NASHVILLE – The citywide vigil on Wednesday night was attended by hundreds in memory of the three adults and three children who were killed earlier this week at Nashville's The Covenant School.

As each speaker paid tribute to the six victims, the mourners in the crowd held small white candles and stood shoulder to shoulder. Prior to her visit to Covenant, First Lady Jill Biden stood alongside the other attendees of the vigil.

John Cooper, mayor of Nashville, took the first step toward the podium.

Cooper stated, "Just two days ago was the worst day in our city." I sincerely wish we weren't required to be here, but we must be — as a community."

Cooper assured the grieving parents, friends, and family that they were not alone. He added, "A city in mourning joins you." A lamenting country."

Cooper was joined by Metro Chamber part Russ Pulley, State Rep. Fire up. Harold Love Jr., Metro Nashville Police Boss John Drake, Nashville Fire Boss William Swann, and Fire up. Dirt Stauffer of Woodmont Christian Church.

Every speaker repeated the names of the people in question and gave their sympathies.

The Nashville police officers who responded quickly to the deadly shooting at the Christian elementary school in Green Hills were praised as heroes by mourners.

"Guardians sent their youngsters to school on Monday early daytime anticipating that they should get back like some other day," said Pulley, who addresses the Green Slopes area. " Sadly, three of those kids and three staff individuals didn't. In an effort to safeguard the children in their care, Covenant staff members laid down their lives."

Before the vigil started, participants had assembled at the grass court in midtown Nashville early and many pondered the occurrence and its result.

Devon Stewart, a 36-year-old transgender nurse, stated, "We're all united to stop hate in this state... it's going to start here." Love your neighbor to end hatred."

A group of people in black gathered for a "mourners walk" as the plaza emptied after the vigil. They took a moment to pay tribute to the 146 Tennesseans who had been killed by guns since January before they left.

Contributing: Thao Nguyen The Tennesseean

14 MINUTES: From the break-in to the police response, Nashville's school shooting is represented by a visual timeline:

He told reporters on Wednesday that the White House is planning for President Joe Biden to travel to Nashville in the wake of the shooting. He stated on Tuesday in North Carolina, "We owe these families more than our prayers." We owe them activity."

A number of proposed firearms bills were delayed by Tennessee lawmakers on Tuesday, drawing criticism from advocates for gun safety.

Dear Companions: Tennessee Gov. Lee, his wife, and the victim's close friends; Bodycam footage shows the Nashville shooter being confronted by police: Updates

The 'calculated and planned' attack was stopped by two officers.

Two cops are being hailed as legends for their part in finishing the shooting frenzy at a nearby Christian grade school that left three small kids and three staff individuals dead.

The officers whose body camera videos from inside The Covenant School were made public by the Metro Nashville Police Department are Rex Engelbert and Michael Collazo. After the initial 911 call at 10:13 a.m. on Monday stating that an active shooter was roaming the school's hallways, dozens of Metro Nashville police officers stormed the building.

Audrey Hale, 28, a former Covenant student, was the shooter. She passed away less than 15 minutes later. The attack was "calculated and planned," according to the police.

The body camera footage shows Engelbert leading the line of officers who were clearing the school with a rifle. According to the authorities, Engelbert fired at least three shots at Hale. Engelbert was closely followed by Collazo, who fired four shots at Hale. Peruse more about the officials underneath.

Chief says police are looking into whether shooter had "resentment" toward school.

Metro Nashville Police Boss John Drake told CNN on Wednesday morning that policing a journal having a place with the shooter with roughly 60 pages in it. He stated that the number of pages containing writings was not immediately apparent.
"We're still in the profound periods of examination," he said.
Drake stated that Hale, who was receiving treatment for an "emotional disorder" but was never "committed" to an institution, was never contacted by law enforcement. The aggressor might have had "some hatred" around the school, which he once joined in, yet policing not affirmed that, he said.

According to a former teacher, the shooter was saddened by the death of a romantic partner.

In 2017, Hale, then a student in Maria Colomy's social media class at the Nossi College of Art & Design in Nashville, was remembered as a talented artist. Colomy recalled Hale as "one of the students I expected to have a job right away" and as "going above and beyond" on projects.

Colomy claimed that over the course of the previous year, she observed Facebook posts in which Hale wrote about the death of a romantic partner and requested to be addressed using male pronouns and a male name.

Colomy stated that Hale had "been very publicly grieving" on Facebook. Hale declared, "In this person's honor, I am going to be the person who I want to be, and I want to be called Aiden" during that time of grief.

– Press Association

Rex Engelbert, who is he?

Engelbert, 27, has been with the police department for four years. He attended Loyola Academy high school and graduated in 2014 after growing up in Chicago. In 2018, Engelbert received his diploma from Ohio University of Dayton, where he majored in criminal justice and played rugby. Kevin Engelbert shared with NBC Chicago that he was pleased to learn of his brother's heroism.
Kevin Engelbert stated, "My mom always taught us to be brave, and it's almost not surprising to see that bravery come through." Rex has always been brave and compassionate in my experience. And a placid giant."

Who is Michael Collazo?

31-year-old Collazo has been on the force for nine years. The veteran of the Marine Corps also assisted with the Nashville Christmas 2020 bombing, in which Anthony Quinn Warner detonated a bomb downtown, injuring eight bystanders and killing Warner. Police Boss John Drake said Collazo has prepared as a paramedic with the Specialized squad. Deanna Collazo DeHart, his sister, told Fox News Digital that her brother enjoys his job.

She stated, "I sit and think about all the training and different classes that he does, as well as all the family events that he has had to miss because of training or leaving to go through this training or this class." Everything really pays off."

Two of the victims were friends of the wife of Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee for a long time.

Politicians occasionally make trite public statements following tragedies like the school shooting on Monday. That was not the situation with Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, whose family was straightforwardly impacted.

According to Lee, substitute teacher Cindy Peak and head of school Katherine Koonce, two of the three adults who were killed in the Covenant School attack, were longtime friends of Maria Lee's. Peak was scheduled to join Maria Lee for dinner on Monday night, as the three had previously worked together as teachers at a different school.

The events of Monday were described by the Republican governor as "a tragedy beyond comprehension."

In a video address on Tuesday night, he stated, "All of Tennessee was hurt yesterday," but "some parents woke up without children," "children woke up without parents and teachers," and "spouses woke up without their loved ones."

"Maria woke up this morning without Cindy Peak, one of her best friends."

New gun laws? Not going to fix it. Criminals will always be criminals.

The butcher of three schoolkids under age 10, alongside three grown-ups who worked at their school, will no affect the country's firearm regulations.

In spite of the most recent high-profile mass murder, lawmakers from both parties believe that President Joe Biden's push to ban assault weapons won't get through a divided Congress.

In a nation where mass shootings have become common, calls for comprehensive gun reform at the federal level are likely to be met with silence, as has been the case in numerous similar instances. Even though not all Democrats are on board, Republican opposition to tighter gun regulations remains steadfast. Biden stated that he has utilized executive action to its fullest extent.

U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., stated, "We're not gonna fix it." informed reporters on Monday. Criminals will always be criminals.

Minutes prior to the violence, the shooter texted a friend from the school's parking lot.

Before the attack, Hale had sent threatening messages to a friend while he was already in the school parking lot. At 9:57 a.m. on Monday, Averianna Patton was talking on the phone when she received an unusual message from her middle school basketball teammate Hale.

Hale wrote, "I'm planning to die today." I'll probably be mentioned in the news.

Patton shared the messages with Newschannel5 without mentioning the killing of others. In response, Patton tries to convince Hale not to hurt himself. Additionally, Patton contacted a suicide hotline, which referred her to the non-emergency police number. About the time the shooting started, Patton called the police, and he was put on hold for seven minutes.

Patton stated, "I'm just numb right now." Moments like "What in the world?" are literally mind-blowing for me.

Melissa Joan Hart, an actress, helped children flee a gunman.

Melissa Joan Hart and her husband were driving by when children fled The Covenant School as a shooter roamed the hallways. In a video she posted on Instagram on Tuesday, Hart stated that she was on her way to a parent-teacher conference at the Covenant School, where her children attend. Hart claimed that she and her husband assisted a kindergarten class in crossing a busy road.

They were making their way out of the forest. She said, fighting back tears, "They were trying to escape the shooter situation at their school." As a result, we assisted a mother in reuniting her children with her children and helped all of these tiny, tiny, little kids cross the road and reach their teachers over there.

Schools near Covenant were put on lockdown as a result of fear.

Shawn Johnson East, a former Olympic gymnast, stated on her Instagram account that the Nashville school where her children attend went into lockdown just minutes after the Covenant shooting. "I haven't been able to catch my breath since reading the news and getting a call from our school that they were on lockdown," East wrote in the Monday posting. She stated that her children, Drew, 3, and Jett, 1, were safe and that she and her husband, Andrew East, a former NFL player who played college ball at Nashville's Vanderbilt University, had retrieved them from their school. "I haven't been able to catch my breath since reading the news and getting a Shaking. Crying. Heartbroken. Horrific."