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At Least 14 Wounded in College Stabbing; Dow Hits Record High; CNN Spots Abducted Kids in Cuba

Aired April 09, 2013 - 14:30   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: It sounds like now they seem pretty confident they have their guy, that they have this one suspect detained, that he or she was moving not building to building but classroom to classroom.

MIKE BROOKS, HLN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Right. The initial alert that was put out said by the college itself said two armed suspects at LSC Cyfair, Lone Star College Cyfair, one suspect still at large, but from hearing from detective -- Deputy Gilliland, the first one that gave the statement, if you will, to our cameras.

They were saying building to building and then heard from Alan Bernstein, Public Information Officer with the Harris County Sheriff, classroom to classroom. Interesting, I thought, talking to Robert Rasa, the PIO with the Cyfair volunteer Fire Rescue EMS, that at least 14 treated.

He said 12 transported total. Three on the scene treated, treated and released, four by helicopter, two by ground to a level one trauma center. That would say to me, there were six that are seriously injured and he was saying lacerations.

BALDWIN: We were asking lacerations. Can you be specific and you were saying and he was saying cuts, gashes.

BROOKS: Right. It could be, you know, inside cuts. It could be a stabbing with a cut, all these could be -- would be considered lacerations. You know, we're hearing apparently from one witness, because they say -- one witness was saying this started in the health sciences building and he had an Exacto knife, which is similar to what I have right here.

It is almost -- it is razor sharp, very, very, very pointed, so we don't know if it was an Exacto knife, don't know if it was some other kind of edged weapon, but something that Robert Rasa says were lacerations to these people who were the most seriously injured.

BALDWIN: We want to pick up more on the weapon and also what we're hearing from other students, our affiliates and our reporters are, of course, on that campus, trying to talk to people, trying to see what they saw, what they heard.

Let me play some sound. This is from some of the affiliates, from people there on campus at Lone Star College.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It started -- it was just really scary after hearing about it, you know. I didn't know anything like that could happen here. It was scary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it one of those things that you can't really control, but you just -- you don't think of it, but when it happens, it is like a shock to you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it is definitely a shock. I mean, here is somebody leaning -- yes, it is a shock.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the shooting happened at the other campus, a couple of months back, did it ever cross your mind that something similar could happen here?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it did. It sure did. But I wasn't too worried about it because it seemed so far away from us. And here, I mean, it is a nice campus, I mean, there isn't a lot of security. I don't see a lot of security. But it is just -- no, I didn't think that would happen here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is your name?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My name is Sherry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you for taking a moment for me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: How frightening for a lot of students there, of course, in the middle of class, Tuesday, late morning, early afternoon, in the Houston, Texas area, to be seeing and witnessing this, potentially from classroom to classroom, the stabbing that is happening.

We don't know. I asked this public information officer with the Harris County Sheriff's Department, was this a student who is this one suspect who is detained, he said they're getting conflicting reports. So they cannot say for sure.

We do know that the sheriff and also the chancellor of the school will be speaking within the hour. Maybe they will be able to provide a little bit more clarity on the situation. It is a fluid situation as we have been reporting.

Let me glance down because again we're getting this information from these great Houston, Texas affiliates. This is what KTRK is saying. They are reporting that a student at the school said he helped authorities take one person, this one person into custody.

This is where the Exacto knife comes in, Mike Brooks. He says the suspect who appeared to be a student. Maybe hearing impaired, and was armed with a knife similar to an Exacto knife that may be used in animal dissections. The student goes on, says he saw the suspect dressed in black emerge from the building at a run. He was chased, got tackled. Reportedly the suspect says I give up, I give up. The student adds that he saw several people bleeding including some victims with neck wounds and, of course, they then were tended to by folks like we talked to on the phone, fire and EMS.

Mike, let me bring you into this. Because the other question is why, why would someone do this? And right now, as we're looking at these pictures and a lot of students, just imagine, standing around, wondering what is going on.

They're all being talked to because it is the public information officer told us, this is still a crime scene. They're trying to figure out what they saw and why this happened.

BROOKS: And they're going to be talking to everyone, Brooke, to find out, do you know this person? Where did this person come from? Did this person say anything to you before, during, after this happened? How did this person get to the campus?

Did this person take a bus? Did this person come there by car? And if that person did come there in a vehicle, they're going to go ahead and get a search warrant and search that vehicle to make sure there is nothing that could harm anyone else inside that vehicle and to try to find out a motive.

Why did this happen? You want to know the who, what, when, where, why, how, but how did this happen and why did it happen at this particular time? What drove this person to commit this act?

BALDWIN: We talked about the sprawling nature of the campus and we know law enforcement are scouring the whole campus. What's the biggest challenge? You worked in law enforcement for years and years. Put yourself at Lone Star College, at the Cyfair Campus. What is the toughest part?

BROOKS: If I'm the lead investigator, I want to know who is this person and why did this person do this stabbing? What happened in the last 24 -- usually something that happened in the last 24, 48 hours that would drive this person to go ahead and commit an act like this, Brooke.

Because you just don't -- one minute you're in a health sciences building, and then you lash out with a knife, with some kind of edged weapon, Exacto knife, we don't know the exact weapon, but why? Why did this person do this? There has to be a reason and that's what they're trying to find out exactly what happened.

BALDWIN: As we mentioned, the sheriff and also the chancellor of Lone Star College will be speaking within the hour. We'll dip into that certainly and take that live and try to perhaps shed some light on the why.

Also getting some breaking news out of Wall Street on this Tuesday afternoon, more after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: Welcome back to CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Two stories we're watching. This is Lone Star College in Harris County, Texas. This is northwest of Houston, Texas. This is the Cyfair Campus.

Reports according to folks we've talked to on the phone from Harris County, at least 14 people wounded, possibly all stab wounds here, from at least they're thinking one suspect, who is now detained, running, according to the public information officer, from classroom to classroom.

We actually have a student who was in one of the classrooms just nearby, snapping photos of what was happening. It is chilling and we're going to talk to her here in just a moment from Lone Star College.

But, first, want to take you to Wall Street. Let me pivot for a moment. You can see the green up 92 points. Look at that number, 14,706. We're just about an hour away from the closing bell. And Alison Kosik, bring me some good news.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: There is good news right there on the board, up, up and away goes the Dow continues to break new records. You're seeing the Dow trading as you said at 14,706, well below that previous record high for the Dow of 14,662.

Now there is some actually news behind what is moving the Dow higher, propelling it higher. For one, China came out with an economic report showing inflation is tamer. Europe -- the U.K. actually showed that industrial production rose more than expected.

The way the U.S. sees it, you know, we've known that Europe has been in a recession. We've known that globally there has been a slowdown for the economy for the global economy. So when you see the stronger reports come out of Europe, come out of China, that in turn is good news for the U.S.

Interesting thing is, yesterday, actually, after the closing bell, the start of first quarter earnings season, the first big report out was from Alcoa, aluminum maker Alcoa, wasn't out there.

So it is interesting to see the Dow hitting these new record highs. It really is the trend though, one analyst putting it this way, Brooke, the economy, even though we had that lousy job report on Friday of what analysts saying the economy is still moving in the right direction, just less speedily than we would like to see -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Less speedily, but moving up, up, up, where we like it. Alison Kosik, thank you. Keep watching those numbers. We can come back and come visit you if it is looking better. We appreciate it.

But from Wall Street, I want to take you back to Texas, as promised. We have a student from the Lone Star College from the Cyfair Campus on the phone with me after these now reported at least 14 people have been wounded in this multiple stabbing on campus.

Maya Khalil is 19 years old. She is a freshman. Maya, first, how are you? Are you OK?

MAYA KHALIL, STUDENT AT LONE STAR COLLEGE (via telephone): I'm a little shaken up about what happened, but I'm OK now. I'm at home and I'm good.

BALDWIN: You are home. You are good. Can I ask you, how did you get off campus? Was it a process?

KHALIL: Well, I was in class and students were talking about how somebody -- a lot of kids got stabbed. And we got out of the classroom and everybody was out, like, right in front of my classroom, like bleeding on the neck and on the ears. And this girl, it seemed like she was bleeding like close to her mouth. It was really scary.

BALDWIN: Of course, it was scary. We're looking at some pictures, I think, that you snapped. It looked like some law enforcement, maybe paramedics. Can you walk me through what we're looking at?

KHALIL: Yes, the girl -- that girl right there is the one I -- the one that I think got stabbed near her mouth. She was covering up her mouth the whole time. And the other girl laying on the floor, she was stabbed, like, in the neck.

She had blood on her phone, on her -- around her chest and neck area. It wasn't a lot, but there was some blood. And there was people saying that the guy that stabbed those students was deaf. So I heard that from a few students.

BALDWIN: That was -- we were hearing that from KTRK, that they were -- there were reports that this student was hearing impaired. CNN has not been able to confirm that. In fact, we talked to the public information officer and he hasn't been able to confirm if the suspect was even a student.

So we just want to be very careful and very clear here. But let me ask you this, Maya, where were you when this was all happening? Were you in this classroom? Were you nearby? Clearly, you were nearby.

KHALIL: Yes, I was right there taking the pictures. I was in class and then when everybody was talking about it, we all got out of class to go see what happened. And it was right in front of us, right when we left class.

BALDWIN: What building is this? Is this the health sciences building?

KHALIL: Yes. This is the health science building.

BALDWIN: So what kind of classes? What kinds of classes were happening when this was going on? Do you know what was being taught? Was it science? Was it a dissection class?

KHALIL: The class that I was -- I was in, like, the computer lab downstairs registering for classes for next year. I don't know. There are all kinds of classes in that building.

BALDWIN: Did you have a question, Mike?

BROOKS: This was the health sciences building. And, Maya, how long before -- how long was it after all this started happening that EMS and police were able to get to the victims?

KHALIL: As soon as we got out of class, there were police officers and the ambulance there. So I think, like, 5 minutes. That's what I think.

BALDWIN: What, Maya, I'll let you go soon, but what were people saying as you're taking these pictures, I know this is incredibly frightening for you, for anyone, whether you're 19 or much older, what were you hearing?

KHALIL: I wasn't really hearing much. After a while, the police officer was telling us to step back and to return to class. And when we got out of class, we found out that we weren't even allowed to leave campus --

BALDWIN: Because of the lockdown, because of the lockdown.

KHALIL: Yes, but the people that were stabbed weren't crying or anything. They were just very calm and they were very scared. From the look on their face, they were very scared, but -- and very shaken.

BROOKS: Maya, was it just on that one floor where we're seeing the pictures taken, or were there other floors where there were victims that had been cut or had been stabbed?

KHALIL: I'm not 100 percent sure, but what I think is -- that's the only building where this stabbing took place.

BALDWIN: OK, and can you just describe for me what kind of college is Lone Star College? What is a typical day like for you?

KHALIL: I go to class and then I leave. I really like Lone Star. I'm surprised that --

BALDWIN: I think we're losing you. I'm just going to let you go. Thank you so much, Maya Khalil, 19 years of age. She said very shaken and understandably so here, snapping pictures of classmates bleeding, covered in blood, as she was describing after being stabbed here.

Again, we cannot confirm who this one suspect is in custody. We're waiting for the sheriff. We're waiting for the chancellor of this school to come out and speak, within hopefully the next hour or so but --

BROOKS: You know, Brooke, you go to school and you don't think about these things happening.

BALDWIN: It shouldn't happen.

BROOKS: It shouldn't happen, on any kind of campus, whether a grade school, a college campus, but they do. And, you know, I'm sure after the last incident that Lone Star College took a look at security. But when you have, again, we talked about this before, when you have a sprawling campus, an open campus like this, sometimes people who are students it come in there and do acts like this. We don't know if this person, again, is a student or if it was an outsider that came on to campus.

BALDWIN: We're just hearing, we just talked to a student and now we'll be talking to a professor at the top of the hour. So hopefully this professor can shed a little light on what happened. What he or she saw and what kind of school this is.

I remember talking to Ed Lavandera because we were talking about this college in the end of January, when he was there on the scene after the shooting had happened on a different college campus. But, you know, certainly, as you point out, they would take a good long look at school security.

But, again, this is what we're hearing according to reports, this little thing, shouldn't say little thing, can exact a lot of damage. This is an Exacto knife. According to our affiliate, this is possibly one if not the weapon that was used, but we do not know for sure what the weapon is.

We have talked to Harris County Sheriff's Department, they're not saying for sure. They're stopping a lot of these students and asking them the obvious questions, fill in the blanks as far as what happened, what weapon was used, was it this one individual, was this person a student, was this person hearing impaired as we're hearing, dressed in black, tackled and arrested.

BROOKS: Especially early on in the investigation. You know, you want to find out and me, you asked me if I was an investigator, I want to know who, I want to know why. Who was this person? Did this person live alone did this person live with someone else?

What drove this person to do that this afternoon there at Lone Star College campus, Cyfair? And was this Exacto knife there at the health sciences building? What happened inside that building that drove him to go out and stab and to slash some of the students.

That we heard, you know, Maya, one woman, a student, slashed around her mouth, another slashed on the neck. We heard from Robert Rasa that a lot of the serious injuries were lacerations.

And, again, this little -- it may look little, but it can be very, very lethal if you start slashing people around their neck, around their face, around -- anywhere on their body, but still --

BALDWIN: Here we are talking about the school and several other schools in recent months, you know, with gun violence. Here we have an Exacto knife and 14 -- at least 14 people wounded, four of them according to that PIO with the fire department saying they were taken -- airlifted to the hospital, which tells us they are -- there are serious injuries.

BROOKS: Two others taken by ground to a level one trauma center and others taken by ground. Two others that are serious enough to go to that level one trauma center.

BALDWIN: We are going to continue to follow this story here out of Lone Star College. Let's get a quick break in. More breaking news after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We'll take you back to the breaking news at Lone Star College here in a moment. I want to talk about this custodial kidnapping in Florida that has now become an international incident. You have fugitive father, Joshua Hakken, his wife and these two young sons he allegedly kidnaps are now in Cuba.

CNN's Havana correspondent Patrick Oppmann actually talked to this father, Joshua Hakken, who did confirm his identity. Patrick also took video of the sailboat. Here it is, called the "Salty," that this family used to reach Cuba.

You can see -- you see the little guy in the red shirt there, the middle of the screen that could be 4-year-old Cole, maybe 2-year-old Chase, just walking around the deck.

Hillsborough County, Florida investigators, say their father lost permanent custody of these two boys on Tuesday, kidnapped them from their grandmother Wednesday, tied her up, and then headed out to the Gulf of Mexico on this boat.

Detectives think Hakken's wife Sharyn is there helping her husband. We have Patrick Oppmann live now in Havana. Patrick, how did you find this family?

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Brooke, we had a little bit of a pause between our live shots, so just see what we can find and it is a tall order. This is a big country. But one of the places I thought they might come is this Hemingway Marina, named for Ernest Hemingway.

Drove up and down the marina, and the last boat slip, that's where this tiny really too small boat was. Small because it is really very rough off the coast of Havana and the boat looked banged up. I got there and sure enough it is the "Salty."

It looked like the boat that we have seen in some of the police photographs and there on the deck was a young boy playing and then I saw the huge guy walking across, just throwing some trash out in a nearby dumpster and I said, are you Josh Hakken. He said, yes, who are you and I knew I had the right people -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: So he said, yes, who are you? And then you keep talking to him. I imagine he didn't want to talk to you. Tell me what Cuban authorities are doing at this point about this family, Patrick.

OPPMANN: You know, it is so interesting, usually you hear very rarely that Cuban authorities say anything good about the U.S. and vice versa. But it seems like U.S. and Cuban diplomats, government officials, are working on finding a solution. Both sides have told sources from both sides told us they're very concerned with the well-being of the children. They realize these are probably not fit parents if you believe the allegations against them.

They're trying to find a way to make sure these children are safe and see how they move forward. Lots of discussions going on here today in Havana -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Patrick Oppmann spotting this family at the last boat slip there in Havana. Patrick Oppmann, thank you very much, live for us in Cuba right now.

Got to take a quick break. We'll be back on breaking news here at the top of the hour momentarily on that horrendous story this afternoon, unfolding, northwest of Houston, Texas, the Lone Star College. Reports of at least 14 people wounded after this multiple stabbing, happening on campus here this afternoon. We have a professor who is going to talk to us on the other side of the break. Stay right with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Top of the hour here. I'm Brooke Baldwin. If you are just tuning in, we have been watching this breaking story unfolding on the campus of Lone Star College. This is northwest of Houston, Texas. This is the Cyfair Campus.

And if Lone Star College sounds familiar, it should. It was just the end of January when we were reporting on a similar breaking story involving guns on one of the campus of Lone Star College, involving students there.

Today, we're reporting on stabbings, on stabbings in the Cyfair Campus. Talking to public information officer with the Harris County Sheriff Department, just a few minutes ago, he confirmed to me that at least 14 people have been wounded, in stabbings, possibly as this suspect has been running from classroom to classroom.

The news at this moment is that this suspect has been detained. He was tackled according to police and arrested. Although make no mistake, this campus is still considered a crime scene. This is a sprawling campus here, as I said, northwest of Houston, Texas.

And they are going through this -- this law enforcement with a fine toothed comb, just to make sure no one else is involved in these stabbings. We don't know if, in fact, this suspect who is in custody is a student.