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More Reporting on Connecticut Elementary School Shootings; Governor Malloy Remarks

Aired December 14, 2012 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: What can we say? This kind of situation is powerful and awful and we just saw the president of the United States make a -- deliver a statement to the American people in which he choked up.

He had to pause on several occasions. He started crying, wiping back tears, speaking as a parent who sends his two little girls, his daughters, to school every single day.

This is a story that millions and millions of people all over the United States will appreciate.

We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world.

Let's get some perspective on what is going on here. Dr. Drew is joining us from Los Angeles right now.

Dr. Drew, what can we say? How do you console parents who are going through a tragedy, a crisis like this.

At that firehouse. we heard from that rabbi who was there, meeting with these parents. They have been told that their 5-year-old, their 6-year-old, their 7-year-old has been killed.

DR. DREW PINSKY, HOST, HLN'S "DR. DREW ON CALL": Wolf, there are no words. There are no words. It is simply the worst experience imaginable.

There is no way to console. We just have to be present while people grieve.

We are in a new world today. We have crossed over to a world where somebody feels justified in acting out their rage by killing children at close range.

I spent a lot of time in the media trying to figure out why random acts of violence occur, why a kid in Oregon seems disconnected from reality for a while and does senseless things.

This is something different. This is sinister. This is somebody purposefully planning, going, killing his family and killing small children. That's the world we live in right now.

We live in a world where people feel justified in pushing somebody onto subway tracks and killing small children. This has got to change.

This has got to change. We all have to be aware of this. Our culture is sick. There are sick amongst us and we have to begin to address this.

BLITZER: It looks, Dr. Drew, like -- as if what happened was this individual, Ryan Lanza, 24-years-old, was at Hoboken, and, you know, this is -- it looks like the pieces of the puzzle are beginning to come together -- shot and killed his brother then drove, what, about 80 miles from Hoboken to Newtown, Connecticut, went inside this small elementary school, and shot his mother and then opened fire on children.

This is something -- you can imagine driving from Hoboken to Newtown, Connecticut, thinking about what he's about to do. He was well armed. He had assault weapons. He had a lot of ammunition.

And, you know, he's obviously dead, so we're not going to get his side of the story, unless he leaves some sort of evidence, a note or something to give us an indication.

PINSKY: Wolf, his side really doesn't matter. This sort of purposeful, goal-directed, rage-ful action, people talk about it as evil, this is truly in that zone. This is psychopathy and there must have been evidence that this was a problematic person, long before, and I'm saying now, we have to help people help them.

We have to prevent people from doing these things. We have to break down parents' denials who don't want to admit that their kid may be -- have tendencies in this direction. We must take action before something horrible like this happens.

This is not like in Oregon, where the kid seems just out of context, doesn't seem understandable. That's what you call a psychotic episode.

There may have been something of that nature going on here. We'll learn as we go along, but the purposeful, goal-directed nature of these actions suggest something far worse, far more sinister and far more chronic, in other words, far more potentially predictable.

We -- listen, I was thinking about this, Wolf, just sitting here in the chair waiting to talk to you and, when we're treating -- when we operate a hospital or in a treatment environment, we try to operate like a healthy family, in order to decrease the tendencies for the most vulnerable amongst us, the ones we're trying to treat, from acting out.

It is time for our government and our culture to act like a healthy family. Divisiveness is starting to have its effect amongst the most vulnerable amongst us and it is time to stop. We have to lead our way out of this and we need our leaders to behave in a healthy manner.

BLITZER: We're awaiting, Dr. Drew, the governor of Connecticut, Dannel Malloy. He's been inside that firehouse meeting with parents whose kids were killed today, first-graders, second-graders, third- graders and he's about to make a statement there.

He's walking up to the microphone, so, momentarily, we're told, we will hear what he has to say.

But what I'm interested in you telling us and maybe you'll tell us after we hear from the governor, what do parents tell their children tonight because this is -- these kinds of incidents, how do you explain what happened here?

PINKSKY: Right. What -- feel free to interrupt me if the governor starts speaking ...

BLITZER: Dr. Drew, go ahead.

PINKSY: but the fact is we have to begin to operate healthy within our families, within our communities, within our states, within our government.

We have to start in our families and helping kids understand that they're loved, they're in a stable environment, we are committed to them, and that we have to be committed to them, we have to be parents, and that they are safe.

Sometimes, you may pick -- depending on the age of the child, maybe that child will want to take action. They'll want to take self- defense classes. They'll want to do something where they can feel like they're in control of their environment.

But fundamentally, the safety and security and the commitment to the family needs to be reassured. It's the holiday season. We need to let the kids have their holiday season.

But I'm telling you, we need to operate on the macro-level as well as on the individual family level. We, as parents, need to take a page from our leaders ...

BLITZER: All right, hold on, Dr. Drew.

PINSKY: ... and our leaders need to bring us together. Let's see what they have to say.

GOV. DANNEL MALLOY, D-CONNECTICUT: Earlier today, a tragedy of unspeakable terms played itself out in this community.

Lieutenant Governor and I have been spoken to in an attempt that we might be prepared for something like this playing itself out in our state. You can never be prepared for this kind of incident.

What has happened and what has transpired at that school building will leave a mark on this community and every family impacted.

I only ask that all of our fellow citizens here in the United States and around the world who have already offered their assistance remember all of the victims in their prayers.

To all of you in the media, we will do our best to keep you as informed as we can. After I'm done speaking, a representative of the state police will speak to you and give you some additional information.

Earlier today, a number of our citizens, beautiful children, had their life taken away from them as well as adults whose responsibility it was to educate and supervise those children.

The perpetrator of the crime is dead as is an individual who the perpetrator lived with.

With that, I'm going to turn it over to Paul Vance, who will answer or will give you some additional information and then later in the day perhaps we'll speak again.

Again, I think on behalf of the people of the state of Connecticut, we extend our condolences as I have at the firehouse to the parents of these children, as well as the adults that are there.

I want to thank the president, who has been on the phone with us today for his statement released to you a little while ago as well as the statements he made to me earlier -- much earlier today, as the hours raced by.

And with that, I should also say that there are a number of public officials including the first selectwoman who has been on-site throughout the day. We have state representatives, state senator, other select people who are here.

We have the superintendent of schools who has done wonderful work in helping us get the information necessary to being the processes that will be ongoing for a number of hours.

In advance, I want to thank Senator Blumenthal and Senator-Elect Murphy for also joining us.

With that, I'm going to absent myself. Mr. Vance will come forward and speak to you. Thank you very much.

LIEUTENANT J. PAUL VANCE, CONNECTICUT STATE POLICE: Hi. Good evening.

I just would like to restate some of the information that we made available earlier. We'll take some questions, but I must preface my remarks by saying this is an active, ongoing investigation. There is a great deal of work to go and there is a lot of things that we cannot confirm or discuss as of yet.

But shortly after 9:30 this morning, Newtown police department received a call for help at the Sandy Hook Elementary School here in Newtown. Upon realizing the intensity and difficulty of the situation, Newtown called for surrounding police departments and the state police to respond to assist.

Upon arrival of law enforcement officers at the school, they immediately entered the school as we knew this was an active -- potential, active-shooter situation. Their focus was to search for students, faculty and staff and remove them to a safe area outside of the school.

They did search every nook and cranny, every room and every portion of that school and accomplished that task. They took the rescued to a staging area to reunite them with family members.

As has been reported, there were fatalities. There were 18 children that were pronounced dead at the school, there were two that were transported to area hospitals and pronounced dead at area hospitals and there were six adults pronounced dead at the scene at the school.

As the governor's reported, the shooter is deceased, is deceased in the school. There's a great deal of work going on relative to that. That's the reason we have not identified him as of yet. By that, I mean search warrants, examination of areas of residence, employment and any ancillary things that may be attached to the identity and to that individual.

The scene has been secured. Newtown police officers, state police major crime units from both western district and central district have responded and are working with several agencies to process this scene.

It is not a simplistic scene as you can certainly understand. We need to establish identity, we need to document the entire scene and, simply stated, we need to answer every single question surrounding exactly how and why this incident occurred.

As the governor said, we will be here through the night, certainly through the weekend and we're not even putting a time stamp on this as to when we will complete this project.

We'll work with the medical examiner's office. We have to establish positive identification and, again, a great deal of work that needs to be done here at the school.

And we'll take some very -- again, very brief questions but understand this is an active, ongoing case and there are many things we cannot and will not discuss at this time.

Yes, sir?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

VANCE: There is a secondary crime scene here in Newtown. That is, in fact, correct.

There is an adult deceased at that location. I can't discuss any further information on that at this time.

There is assistance being lended to us by New Jersey. I don't have the details on that, so I can't answer that. I'm sorry.

Yes, ma'am?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

VANCE: I can simply state that the information that we have right now that we want to publicize that the shootings took place in one section of the school in two rooms, OK? One section and two rooms. That's as much as we want to go in right now as far as location.

Our personnel are documenting that entire scene and we'll have literally everything mapped out in a final report, in final information, and we'll present the answers to those questions, but right now, I don't have any more detail than that, OK?

You had a question, sir? Someone ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

VANCE: Right now, there is one shooter, but, again, we're still looking at every ancillary fact and circumstance related to the deceased shooter at the scene.

Yes, sir?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

VANCE: No, I don't have that information. I'm sorry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

VANCE: To be determined. I don't have the answer to that question either.

The next step will be the medical examiner's office will certainly assist us in answering a lot of those questions, the manner and cause of death of all of the deceased.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

VANCE: That's it, 26 deceased.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

VANCE: I'm sorry, one injury. One person was injured, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Were the children in one classroom?

VANCE: I'm sorry?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Were the children in one classroom?

VANCE: They were in one section and one area of the school. That's the best I can do on that answer.

I don't know specifically how many rooms were involved. I was told that there were two, but in one section of the school building.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) adults (INAUDIBLE) ...

VANCE: Everyone was in that same section of the building.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was that kindergarten? VANCE: That is to be determined, sir. A section of the building is as far as we want to go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you already say (INAUDIBLE) ...

VANCE: We did not. We did not. That's to be determined once the post-mortem examinations are complete. As I ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does 26 include the shooter, as well.

VANCE: Excuse me?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does 26 include the shooter?

VANCE: Twenty children, six adults and the shooter, 27 in total, that's correct.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)

VANCE: That's correct. That's at the school itself. And then there's one more as we just said, at a secondary crime scene. There's a deceased adult at a secondary crime scene.

Yes, ma'am?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)

VANCE: To be determined. That's really something that our investigators are going to have to look at thoroughly and completely and that will take some time to try and answer that question.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)

VANCE: We haven't established any of that, ma'am. We have not made any positive identifications. We're working on that. There's some preliminary identifications have been made, but we have, as I said, a great deal of work. That's one thing we have to do is establish positive identification on all the deceased and that's a time consuming process.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do we know the ages of the victims? The ages, the age range?

VANCE: I don't know. No, I don't. This is a K-through-4 elementary school.

OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When police went into the school, were there still shots being fired at that time?

VANCE: That I don't know. I don't know the time sequence and that'll be something we will provide.

What I would like to do is -- no, we did not. What I would like to do then is tell you this is a briefing. We'll be back in 60 minutes. Myself and the lieutenant from Newtown will be back in 60 minutes. We'll see if there is any more details.

I've got some of the questions that you posed. I'll see if I can get some more answers to provide you with information and that will be just about :20-to 5:00, quarter-to-5:00.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

VANCE: I -- that I don't know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You say that's 20 children, 6 adults and the shooter. Is that correct?

VANCE: twenty children, 6 adults in the facility, plus the shooter, that's 27, and then a secondary scene with an additional adult victim at that secondary scene.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty-eight.

VANCE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty-eight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said quarter-to-5:00.

VANCE: Yeah, about 20-of, quarter to 5:00 will be ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have an age range on the children?

VANCE: I do not. I do not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) one thing about the families, that they don't want to talk to the media (INAUDIBLE) ...

VANCE: One thing, I would like to say is that we have been asked -- we've been meeting with all of the family members. It's a very, very difficult scene for the family members, for all the responding first- responders. It's a tragedy. It's a tragic scene.

I would -- we have been asked by the family members to ask the members of the press to respect their privacy and to please leave them alone at this time.

They're going through a tremendous amount of grief which I'm sure you can appreciate, so I would -- I've been asked to ask you that, personally, by the family members, all right?

I'll be back in 60 minutes with the lieutenant and we'll answer any additional questions we can.

BLITZER: All right, the police chief in Newtown, Connecticut, updating us, giving us the latest information, the latest numbers and these are awful, awful numbers, 26 people killed. You add the shooter, 27, at that one location at the elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, the Sandy Hook Elementary School.

He says one other individual was killed at a different location. We suspect that that's the location of Hoboken, New Jersey, where the brother of this suspected shooter, Ryan Lanza, has been found, so altogether 27 on the scene, 26 there, plus the shooter. Another person would be 28 dead people as a result of what has happened.

Twenty of those 26 who were killed, children, according to the police chief there in Connecticut.

We also heard from Dannel Malloy, the governor of Connecticut, earlier from the president of the United States who held back tears as he spoke, not only as the president of the United States, but as a parent. As a father of two girls himself, he appreciates, as so many millions of people do, the tragedy, the enormity of what has happened.

Dr. Drew Pinsky from our sister network, HLN, has been listening and watching.

Dr. Drew, what can we say? I don't know -- I don't think there is anything we can say that can console the parents who have lost a first-grader or a second-grader or a third-grader.

Twenty children were killed, another six adults, including teachers, one of those teachers being the mother of this suspected shooter.

PINSKY: Yeah, when you say it, Wolf, it just takes your breath away.

I feel -- I'm afraid I'll lose my lunch thinking about how awful it would just be to be one of those parents.

There is nothing that can be done from here to help those people other than to say our prayers and to keep them in our thoughts. It's the people close to them that are going to get them through this, not us.

But each of us has been affected by this experience. Frankly, Wolf, I'm sorry. I'm still disappointed by our leaders. I genuinely appreciate President Obama's display of emotion. That was a very big step forward.

But they have to do what each of us, what I will have to do as the head of a household tonight in my family. We need that from our leaders today, that things are going to be OK, that we are going to get along, that we are going to model healthy behavior going forward and that this has to -- this will stop.

We've had a year of unconscionable violence that's ending in a violent episode that, in my opinion, puts us in a new place, close range violence against children. Somebody willfully, in a goal-directed fashion, thought this was an OK behavior.

It's OK to push someone on a subway. It's OK to shoot up a theater. This is -- we are in a new zone now and we've got to pay attention to our culture and to the vulnerable amongst us and we must require people to get help if they have any tendency towards violence or to be disconnected from reality. There is such a thing as "healthy" and "not healthy."

You know, Wolf, I was explaining to somebody earlier that these days no one would allow someone in the workplace or at school if they were having chest pain and shortness of breath or had an infectious illness.

They would have to take care of their medical condition, get a letter from a doctor in order to come back. We need the same sort of attention to our mental health and we need to each of us redouble our efforts to have healthy families to which we are committed and then, again, on a macro-level, we need our leaders to show us the way.

Show us the way to a healthier future where this kind of thing is not OK and not contemplated.

BLITZER: Because what we hear -- see about these -- see these horrific crimes unfolding, whether at that movie theater or here, immediately law enforcement over the years has always said to be careful of copycats.

How big of a problem do you, Dr. Drew, think copycats are in these kinds of mass killings?

PINKSY: Wolf, I am sorry to say I think it is a major issue and it's a major issue today especially.

I was riding on an elevator yesterday night here in CNN Los Angeles with a security guard who looked at me and said, you know -- he said in a very sort of, you know, sorrowful voice -- there's going to be copycats.

And I looked at him. It was a guard I didn't even know and I said, really, are we there? We're -- that's how bad we've gotten?

Not only was he right, he was right and we've crossed over with a copycat into something truly evil, something unimaginable, where children are killed at close range. I can't even say the words.

I mean, the president of the United States is brought to tears by this. All of us are brought to tears by it.

We have to -- each of us has to pay attention today, pay attention to our families and pay attention to our communities and start to say no more of this. We have to focus on our health.

And, if somebody is aware of someone right now who's struggling, do not be afraid to enlist the help of law enforcement or mental health professionals. They are not there to be punitive. They are there to help. People in authority are there to help.

You need -- they are your friend. You need to use them. Do not let this happen in your community.

BLITZER: And, Dr. Drew, as we take a look at what -- you say there are signs in this shooter's life. What you're suggesting is in recent months or years there may have been signs of evil intent that were obvious to people who knew him, maybe close family members and others, and this could have been prevented if folks would have done something, is that what you're suggesting? PINSKY: I'm suspicious of that. Of course, I don't know this case. And, again, as I said, Wolf, I spent a lot of time in the media trying to help people.

It's important for us all to make sense of all these things. Part of leading us out is to say what happened, how do we make sense of this. That's good leadership. So, we're trying to understand this today as quickly as we can.

I have no direct knowledge, but my suspicion is this is somebody who has been struggling for a while and for whom probably there was a certain amount of denial on behalf of his parents or family or even his community and that these people who have histories of lack of empathy for others, aggression, criminality of any type, they need to be addressed in a cohesive, thorough -- and a manner without denial.

You don't pretend that things are different than you wish they were. You really go after these things, because if you don't, horrible things can happen.

BLITZER: We have the picture now of the principal of the Sandy Hook Elementary School that we want to show our viewers.

Susan Candiotti is on the scene for us, as well.

Susan, a heart-breaking, heart-wrenching story unfolding. What a tragedy. There she is, the principal at this school, Dawn Hochsprung.

We're told she was killed as well as -- she was also a psychologist at this small elementary school, kindergarten-through- fourth-grade, as the president of the United States said, 5-year-old to 10-year-old children.

Twenty of them killed now, according to the police chief in Newtown, Connecticut. Twenty-six people killed altogether, plus the shooter, that makes 27 and another person at a different location.

We suspect in Hoboken, New Jersey. I want to show our viewers some of the images of what has happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... continuously, car after car after car. Some of them were flying up past my house and coming back around again and going to the school. This house is three houses away from the school.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we first arrived there, there was not a lot of security to guard and there were three children that came out. One of them was -- had a very bloody face.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We immediately jumped in the car and headed down here, so it's troubling.

It was really kind of mayhem in the room with all of the kids and the teachers, trying to identify your kid, identify where yours is and making sure that they're safe and then trying to find out what the situation was and make sure everybody else was safe.

Started with the neighbors and then the rest of their friends at school and that sort of thing, so it's ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did your son or daughter first say to you when (INAUDIBLE)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were immediately crying, you know, petrified of what happened and what did it mean. And they're both older than some of the other kids in the school, so understanding what happened. My son was in the gym when it happened, so I think that he heard the gunshots.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We saw, like, police officers and we heard them on the roof and in our building.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you hear any gunshots or anything like that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, police officers, like, they were there, kind of, because there were police officers, like, right out the door, like, trying to find the guy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was just shocking. I got the call at work this morning and I can't believe a small town like this would ever have anything like this happen. And to be in an elementary school, that's unheard of.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It doesn't even seem real. It just does not seem like it's even possible.

It's like you read it in the paper or see it in the news. You're like, oh, my God, that poor family. And then you have something happen so close to home, it's like I think I'm still in shock.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can tell you that, first of all, obviously, our hearts and prayers go out to the victims of this terrible incident, very tragic.

Our police are currently working closely with the Newtown police department. We have mutual aid agreements in place that allow us to provide assets they may not have, along with the state police who have taken the lead in this investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's terrifying. I'm still terrified. I think I'm still in shock about it all.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was everybody crying, scared, wanting their parents to come get them?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, they were. And then some people were even, like -- they kind of thought they got a stomach ache.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They wouldn't even let us in the building. All I can say is that one of the cops said it's the worst thing he'd ever seen in his entire career. But it was when they told the parents -- all these parents were waiting for their children to come out. They thought that they were, you know, still alive.

There's 20 parents that were just told that their children are dead. It was awful.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The majority of those who died today were children. Beautiful little kids between the ages of 5- and 10-years- old.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we first arrived there, there was not a lot of security to guard, and there were three children that came out. One of them was -- had a very bloody face. It was a very violent scene.

And there were two other ones that they were, you know, they were in the arms of a state trooper. They did not move. Their face was very pale. It was very tragic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Terror at an elementary school in Connecticut, a gunman opens fire. Twenty children, six adults dead. The shooter dead, as well.

I want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in "The Situation Room." We're continuing the breaking news coverage of a horrific story here in the United States.

Let's bring in our national correspondent, Susan Candiotti. She's on the scene.

Susan, update our viewers what we know right now. What happened around 9:30 a.m. eastern this morning at that small elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a school, Wolf, that has the grades kindergarten through the fourth grade, a place that is supposed to be for learning and for fun for these young children ended up being a place of pure carnage.

At 9:30 or so this morning, shots rang out as at least one gunman entered that school and that gunman is dead.

As police have been telling us now, 20 children dead, 18 of them dead at the scene. And in addition to that, six adults are also dead, including the principal of the school.

We understand that yet another adult was found dead in another location that police are not officially disclosing as of yet.

And we are told that the mother of the suspected shooter, who is also dead at the scene, was also killed. She is a teacher and she was also killed at that school, according to our law enforcement sources.