Middle Tennessee State University honors Nashville Covenant responding officers at graduation

The five officers lauded for ending the Covenant School shooting in late March were named honorary professors at one of Middle Tennessee State University's commencement ceremonies.

Metro Nashville police detective Ryan Cagle, detective Michael Collazo, officer Rex Engelbert, Sgt. Jeffrey Mathes and detective Zachary Plese were each honored for their "precision, duty and selflessness" in response to the shooting.

“It is my great honor as president to confer upon these five officers, the first-ever such honor extended by our university,” MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee said. “We do so not only to recognize their individual heroism and duty, but through them, the high standards and actions of the Metro Nashville Police Department.”

'Call it fate, call it God': Nashville police officers detail confrontation with Covenant shooter

All five of the officers snapped into action when the first dispatch came through that a shooter was on school grounds. Three students and three staff members were killed.

The five officers dilligently cleared each classroom on the first floor before confronting the shooter in a vestibule on the second floor. Officers Engelbert and Collazo fired the killing shots at 28-year-old Audrey Hale.

Chief John Drake, alongside MTSU President McPhee, handed the awards to the officers Friday evening.

“What made these five so remarkable, and such a testament to their training and sense of duty, was that some had never before worked together as a team. And, as a team, they acted with precision, bravery and selflessness, at great risk to their lives,” McPhee said.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: MTSU honors Nashville officers who stopped Covenant shooter