Nashville officers who responded to Covenant shooting receive Medal of Valor

Five Metro Nashville Police Officers involved in ending the Covenant School shooting have been awarded the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor, the highest honor the highest national award for valor by a public safety officer.

President Joe Biden announced Metro Nashville Police Sgt. Jeffrey Mathes, Detectives Michael Collazo, Ryan Cagle and Zachary Plese, and Officer Rex Engelbert are among the eight recipients of the award this year. The Medal of Valor to a public safety officer for extraordinary valor above and beyond the call of duty. It is the nation’s highest award for valor by a public safety officer.

The nominees were recommended by the Attorney General and the Medal of Valor Review Board, whose members are appointed to four-year terms by the President, the Senate majority and minority leaders, the Speaker of the House, and the House minority leader. The medal recipients have exhibited exceptional courage—disregarding their own personal safety—in attempting to save or protect human life. 

On March 27, 2023, Mathes, Engelbert, Collazo, Cagle, and Plese ran towards gunfire to take down an active shooter at The Covenant School, a Nashville school. The heavily-armed shooter had already killed six people, including three nine-year-old students. 

The officers rushed to the scene, and as they arrived, the shooter opened fire on them. Still, the officers entered the school, cleared classroom after classroom, and ran towards the sounds of gunfire where they encountered and took down the shooter.