Episode 1005: He Stopped a School Shooter: The Michael Collazo Episode

Street Cop Podcast

Street Cop Training

Education

4.9 • 967 Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this powerful episode, we sit down with Detective Michael Collazo, the Marine infantry veteran and Nashville officer who stopped the Covenant School shooter in March 2023. Mike breaks down the moments leading up to the entry, the rapid decision-making under active gunfire, and how his Marine Corps background kept him calm, focused, and mission-driven in one of the most chaotic environments imaginable.

He discusses the real-world importance of range training, fitness, and continuous education, and how years of conditioning, including intense fitness work while deployed overseas, built the foundation that allowed muscle memory to take over when seconds mattered most. Mike shares how officers can prepare mentally and physically for high-risk encounters, and why repetition and training are the difference between hesitation and decisive action.

Mike also takes time to honor the three children whose lives were tragically lost, Will, Evelyn, and Hallie, and reflects on how their memory continues to motivate him to teach others, lead by example, and help officers be as prepared as possible should they ever face a similar threat.

This is a rare and honest look into the realities of confronting an active shooter, and the preparation, mindset, and purpose behind the man who ran toward the gunfire.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey guys, if you're not a member of the street cop community, you are missing out.
0:02.6	It is where you can find all the e-books and all the resources that I put out to help you do your job better. Check it out at streetcop community or streetcop.com. Just look for the link there and we'll see you inside the community. Have a degree. We shouldn't cut that out. I don't care if it's a two year or four year. you've got to have some type of education because you got to understand that you know laws are
0:21.5	wrote in certain ways you got to be able to interpret those and enforce those. Know what you're doing. And that's just the same with the physical. You know, you've got to be able to go at least run a mile at minimum. Our foot chasers don't usually last that long, but you've got at least stay at a mile. That's just my opinion. And I feel like agencies are realizing we have to get back to that.
0:52.1	Hey, guys, one of this episode of the street cop training podcast. We're host, founder and CEO of Street Cop Training.
0:55.1	And today, it's part two.
0:57.8	And Michael Colazo and I have discussed, actually, I just gave the order that I'm going to try to keep us on crack here today.
1:06.3	I think there was actually some reviews on the podcast of like um hey like you've got to stay on track
1:12.6	or like i talk too much which is fine and so i accept your critiques yeah i i know but dude you know
1:20.9	me and you we're we're not good together like we're great together but not good for this
1:26.7	oil and water yeah this is like birds of fetters. We just start becoming Mike and Den, and then it's not, you know, you don't want to, not really good for a podcast episode. So let's just, let me direct you. First of all, welcome back to the podcast. Thank you. Thank you for letting me come out again. Please, dude, just stop. Thank you for letting me come out again. Thank you. Thank you for let me come out again.
1:45.7	Please, dude.
1:46.3	Just stop.
1:47.8	Thank you for letting me come out again.
1:49.0	Stop being nice.
1:52.8	If people don't know who you are, this is your first time picking on this episode.
1:54.7	There was a previous episode with Mike.
2:19.2	Mike is one of the officers from Nashville that responded to the school shooting and him and his compadres ended the which could have been a lot worse massacre from the animal that showed up looking to take and taking people's lives so um mike before we start because I think I have an idea where we left off,
2:24.7	I want to pick up where we left off. Maybe you could, if you want to say something to everybody to get that momentum rolling a little bit of who you are, what you do. Clearly, I've explained
2:30.5	why you're here, but, you know, that's the way to do it. Yeah, no, police officer for, oh my goodness, it's been a long time.
2:40.4	Almost a little over a decade now, what, 12, 13 years with Nashville Police Department.
2:48.0	Been working dope for several years now on that day in question. I was
2:53.5	a part of our field intelligence team along with four of the other five that responded. And then
	...

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