Receives commitment from U.S. Attorney General to pursue full, transparent investigation
WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, today in a hearing delivered remarks mourning the victims and families of the Covenant School shooting and honoring the brave law enforcement officers of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department for their heroic actions. Hagerty also received a commitment from U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to deploy all necessary Department of Justice (DOJ) resources to investigate and provide transparency regarding the killer’s motive and planning, including whether this gruesome tragedy constitutes a hate crime or domestic terrorism.
Partial transcript:
Hagerty: “This is an unspeakable act of evil, and it is a depraved murderer’s gruesome actions that have led to the deaths of three nine-year-old children and three adults in my hometown, in my home state of Nashville, Tennessee. I join my friends, the families there, the communities in mourning for the victims, for their families, for the Covenant Church community, and for the city of Nashville and the state of Tennessee, and I appreciate the outpouring of condolences that have come from every direction. I’d also like to take the opportunity to speak to the bravery of the heroism of the Nashville Police Department. I know you’ve been in contact with the police chief, General Garland. The Nashville Police and the other first responders were there almost instantaneously. My wife, in fact, was in traffic as the sirens went by; she pulled over. She could tell that the massive amount of resources were being deployed, and in just minutes, these officers stepped into the fray [and] incurred massive risk with shots coming at them. And I specifically wanted to acknowledge officer Rex Engelbert and officer Michael Collazo, and all their fellow officers who willingly ran toward danger and put their lives at risk to bring the situation to resolution. It’s a very complex set of circumstances, and the families there not only deserve the full resources of the Department of Justice to find out what happened, but transparency about what happened and why. We’ve got to do everything we can to prevent a tragedy like this from happening again.”
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