Five police officers from the Metro Nashville Police Department were honored for saving others during the Covenant School shooting and immortalized in a portrait by American painter Steve Penley at the 2023 Fox Nation Patriot Awards.
Det. Michael Collazo, Officer Rex Engelbert, Det. Sgt. Jeff Mathes, Det. Ryan Cagle and Det. Zachary Plese were awarded the first-ever T2T (Tunnels to Towers) Stephen Siller Award for their heroic response to the school shooting in Nashville earlier this year, Fox News reports.
On March 27, 2023, police responded after Audrey Elizabeth Hale began shooting at students and teachers at the Covenant School. The killer murdered three 9-year-olds and three adults and left a community reeling in the aftermath of the massacre.
"On behalf of the Metro Nashville Police Department, there are patriots that I'll accept this for, but patriots like our friend and detective on our team — Eric Wegner — he ran outside and was the stimulus of getting shot. He got shot at, and that's what we needed to find what we needed and the work that we needed to do. So being a patriot is going for others, respecting each other, respecting your country and most importantly, putting your God first," Det. Sgt. Jeff Mathes said on behalf of the other officers.
