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Shelter-In-Place Order At Navy Yard; Obama Briefed About Shooting; Police Describe Naval Shooting Suspect; FBI At Scene Of Naval Yard Shooting

Aired September 16, 2013 - 10:00   ET

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


BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT As far as we know, this is still a very fluid situation. They have evacuated part of the Navy Yard but apparently there is a shelter in place for a part of this facility.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We just got word that President Obama has been informed by the Homeland Security Office that this is taking place, the president is keeping up to date about this and you said that part of the Navy Yard had been evacuated. What about the neighborhood that you're standing in, Brian?

TODD: Well, there's a heavy police presence and they are blocking off the roads here in this neighborhood, but you can still walk freely in this general area. But down the street on M Street, that way to my left to your right, there's a heavy blockade, heavy police presence down there. No traffic getting through. Only some pedestrian traffic and we believe that's going to probably be restricted as well.

COSTELLO: You know, I used to work in Washington, live in Washington. This seems so unusual to me that a gunman could create this kind of havoc at a U.S. military facility.

TODD: Yes.

COSTELLO: Have you ever heard of it happening before, Brian?

TODD: I'm sorry, Carol. I missed that question. Could you repeat it, please?

COSTELLO: I was just saying that this is so unusual because it's such a heavily secured military facility. I've worked in Washington for many years and I've never heard of such a thing happening.

TODD: Well, we haven't either in this area, Carol. This is the first time we've seen something at least in many, many years. Now, of course, you remember the Fort Hood shooting in 2009 where that was a member of the service who was convicted eventually of doing that shooting. So, you know, we're not going to speculate as to who the shooter might be, but we can only say that this is an area of very heavy security.

You have to have a clearance to get in here. You have to have I.D. to get in this facility. I believe your vehicle has to have some identification or else you're not allowed on it. I have to talk over the helicopter here. This is home to the chief of naval operations, this base. It's a very old base in Washington.

And so because of the level of command that exists in this base, you have to have just heavy -- just high clearance to get into this base. So again, not speculating as to who this shooter might be, but that's something that we're going to be finding out I'm sure in the coming hours.

COSTELLO: All right, Brian Todd, stand by. Just to reset things for our viewers just joining us, we continue to follow this breaking news out of Washington, D.C., there's an active shooter at the Navy Yard in Washington. Several people, including a Washington, D.C., police officer have been injured, outside or inside the headquarters for the Naval Sea Systems Command and the situation is affecting aircraft at Reagan National Airport.

In fact, we've heard that all air traffic has been stopped at Reagan at this point. The neighborhood surrounding the Navy Yard has been partially voluntarily evacuated because, as you know, people are concerned about this.

I want to take you live to the Pentagon and Barbara Starr. She's been working her sources. What have you found out, Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, you know, in these situations, first reports are often very sketchy, details do change as more information comes in. It's just about an hour and a half now, 90 minutes since the situation unfolded when at 8:20 this morning it was reported at least three shots fired in this building at the Washington Navy Yard. So we're going to be very cautious in proceeding here. We want to get the right information to our viewers, of course.

So details sketchy, three shots fired, the Navy itself says several people injured. The Navy says it is still an active shooter situation. They have every reason to believe, based on reports they are getting from inside the building, people calling out, making telephone calls out there that the shooter is still active. But what we don't know, how many shooters, where the shooter is exactly, how many people have been injured.

We've seen some effort on camera here to evacuate the wounded out of the building. And this is very rapidly spreading -- the impact across downtown Washington, D.C., that plane hold at Reagan National Airport reports that one of the bridges into town, the 11th Street Bridge, traffic halted so the helicopters can move in and out.

Reports that the Marine Corps, which operates its own facility just a few blocks away. I've just gotten off the phone with the Marines, they are not in lockdown but they are under orders that nobody leaves the Marine Corps facility unless they are on essential, official business. The Marines very determined to keep their part of this very secured and very under control.

I think one of the reasons you see so much of this spreading across Washington is the pure geography of the nation's capital. Every school child knows the capitol is laid out on a grid. So when these things happen, it can tend to spread. The security forces come in very quickly and sort of lock down the area around it.

This is in the middle of this neighborhood, houses and elementary school, people living very close to the gates of the Navy Yard, that voluntarily evacuation going on, people very concerned in the neighborhood. A lot of them the reports are they are simply leaving their homes at the moment to get away from it until it's resolved.

But the pictures that everyone is seeing on camera here, the massive security response, this is Washington, D.C., since 9/11. Very well practiced, well rehearsed, and thankfully not too often used security response across the nation's capital. Local police, the metropolitan police, the FBI, federal law enforcement, U.S. military security forces, aviation authorities, quickly, you know, command centers are set up.

Communications go into high gear and they really flood the security zone with as much of a response as they can. They want to get this under control. They want to get the shooter. They want to get help to the people who have been injured -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, I'm getting a bit of information. I want to welcome in our international viewers. We're dealing with this situation of a shooter inside the U.S. Navy Yard. That's a naval facility, that man is holed up somewhere inside the building. We understand there have been injuries.

I just got an update from the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. The suspect is an adult black male, 6 feet tall, bald, medium complexion, wearing black clothing and black top and black jeans.

This police spokesman whose name is Chris Kelly says there have been ten victims. One is a Metropolitan police officer, a Washington, D.C. police officer and one is a law enforcement officer not associated with the Washington, D.C., Police. So with that information, we're going to go to Lou Palumbo. He is a former -- we lost him. OK. Todd Sperry, he is a CNN employee/CNN producer. He is on the scene right now. Set the scene for us, Todd.

TODD SPERRY, CNN PRODUCER AT SCENE OF SHOOTING (via telephone): Can you hear me, Carol?

COSTELLO: I can.

SPERRY: OK, since the last time we've spoke I actually tried to move in a little closer here. You may hear a helicopter overhead. There are multiple helicopters. These are not D.C. helicopters. They are police or responding helicopters from agencies and what we see here now is just the cordoned off areas. I see fire trucks coincidentally from the Washington, D.C. Fire Department here.

And then also the area itself has a handful of onlookers here just kind of dumbfounded as they look around and try to make sense of what is going on here. Let me just also add. As I walked in, I live in this area. This neighborhood is usually bustling on a Monday morning. It was somewhat of a ghost town as people stay indoors or elsewhere at this point and not leaving so. It's almost a surreal feeling as you walk in here with what is going on.

COSTELLO: Well, that's probably a good thing, Todd. So you stand by. I want to go to Brian Todd who has new information from near the Navy Yard. What can you tell us, Brian?

TODD: Carol, the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington has told us something now about the suspect. According to the Metropolitan Police in Washington, the suspect is an adult black male, 6 feet tall, bald wearing black clothing, a black top and jeans. According to the police, there are ten victims, ten victims. Not clear what their condition is at this time, but there are ten victims of this shooting, including one Metropolitan Police Officer from Washington and one law enforcement officer who is not affiliated with the metropolitan police.

But that's the latest that we know now from the metropolitan police department in Washington. The suspect is described as an adult black male, 6 feet tall, bald, wearing black clothing, black jeans and a black top. There are ten victims associated with this shooting, including two law enforcement officers, one of them from the Metropolitan police -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes, we saw at least one emergency helicopter taking what we presume is an injured person to the hospital. Barbara Starr, you were hearing that some of the injured were being treated inside the building? All right, we lost Barbara again so let me head back to Brian Todd. Are you still with me, Brian?

TODD: I am, Carol. Yes, Carol, I can hear you. I'm reading a Twitter feed from the U.S. Navy. The U.S. Navy confirms several injuries with reports of fatalities. That's according to the U.S. Navy's Twitter feed right now, several injuries with reports of fatalities. I can repeat the information that I gave just a moment ago. The suspect described as an adult black male, 6 feet tall, wearing dark or black clothing, a dark top and jeans.

There are ten victims associated with the shooting. At least one of them is a Metropolitan Washington police officer and another law enforcement officer not affiliated with the Metropolitan police. And again, according to the Navy Twitter feed that I'm reading right now, it confirms several injuries with reports of fatalities at the Navy Yard.

Again, a very fluid situation and again we can tell you massive police presence all around us here. This is M Street and 11th street southeast in Washington. Again, this is a secure facility and it's very difficult to get on this base under normal circumstances. Massive police presence on M Street from my left to your right here to my left, to your right.

Police vehicles circling around us. Helicopters circling around us. Still a very fluid situation, Carol, but again, I'll repeat the information. The suspect described as an adult black male, 6 feet tall, bald, wearing black top and black jeans. There are at least ten victims including two law enforcement officers, one of them from the metropolitan police. COSTELLO: Heartbreaking information. Brian Todd, you stand by. I want to go back to the Pentagon and Barbara Starr. I thought you said earlier, Barbara, that some of the injured were being treated inside the building or on the scene or near it. What can you tell us?

STARR: Well, in the initial moments of this, Carol, some of the injured certainly are being treated helped out by their co-workers inside the building. That is the information that we had as this unfolded. They, of course, are trying to get these people to medical care.

On the question of fatalities, we want to be very cautious here. There is some information emerging that there is or may be a number of fatalities in this incident. The Navy is not yet officially confirming it. The Navy is very aware. I just got off the phone with them of some Twitter reports out there of a particular number of fatalities, but this is a very sensitive matter, of course. Nobody wants to be wrong.

Nobody wants to speculate or guess on fatalities. So we're going to be careful on this other than to say the Navy is very aware and believes now at this hour it in fact may have some fatalities in this incident. We will try and confirm the numbers as fast as we can. Active situation still by all accounts and by looking at the security presence in the neighborhood they are going to want to make sure they've got this fully resolved, that there are no other potential perpetrators in this incident.

This will go on I can only think for some time. How someone got on the Navy Yard with a weapon is going to be the key question. As I said a little while ago, I've been there many times as a reporter. You have to call ahead. You have to have an appointment. Your car has to be cleared, license number, tags. A contact will meet you and escort you. Nobody drives on to this just by themselves with no purpose.

People who work there have that parking pass in their window, very typical these days of government installations. There's only a couple of ways that you can get on to the facility. It is along the Anacostia River, but there is security there as well. Not clear how someone would have gotten on to the compound and through the security in this building, very, very difficult to speculate.

COSTELLO: Well, we presume somebody being evacuated from the scene. Todd Sperry is on the scene. Can you see this helicopter, Todd?

TODD (via telephone): You know, I've seen that helicopter. There are a couple of helicopters circling around dhere. I don't know specifically the one you're thinking of but I will tell you this, they are flying very low. They are probably about 100 to 150 feet above the ground and focused in on one area. They continued to circle that area.

And then as I'm standing here -- to give a point of reference, I'm about five to six blocks east of where Brian Todd is reporting from and what you see here are just lines of fire trucks, emergency responder vehicles that would go in after the scene is safe, I would assume. So they are lined up and ready to go.

As I walked towards this area, the school that was mentioned earlier, very nearby the scene is a ghost town. There is nothing going on. There are very few residents looking out the window. It's a very quiet area except for the chaos of the police activity in this vicinity.

COSTELLO: Let me interrupt you, Todd, because our local affiliate, I think Channel 13 out of Baltimore may have an eyewitness. Let's listen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- of the Navy Yard, what to do today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Only thing I've been told is just to sit tight and just wait on further instruction.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, John. Thank you very much. You know, now only have we noticed the helicopters hovering one after another here for the fast half hour. But we also saw armored federal agents, what appeared to be the ATF or FBI. They came in with heavy machinery with what looked like a bomb shield, if you will.

Very similar to what you would see in a barricade hostage situation and they were in full uniform and bomb gear, armored gear, if you will, moving in closer to the area and you can see some of the fire trucks that have moved out of the area and you have more personnel coming in.

That right there is M Street. That's basically the main entrance of the Navy Yard there and just beyond that I would say maybe 200 yards, 300 yards from that point there is where this Building 197 is. That's where the shooting occurred at 8:20 this morning. Back to you inside.

COSTELLO: All right, we're going to jump away from WJLA's coverage. I apologize for calling it the wrong affiliate. That's WJLA Channel 7 out of Washington. CNN's Rene Marsh is now on the scene around the Navy Yard. Rene, what are you seeing?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, Carol, I've had the chance to speak to a couple of people who they were inside of the building at this time that these shots were fired. One man who I spoke with tells me that he works inside of this building and he heard about four or five gunshots. And after he heard that, he said alarms started going off and they were all ordered to leave.

I spoke to another woman who said that she was in the cafeteria. She was getting breakfast. That's when she heard three shots. She said the shots stopped and then she heard another three. These are the witness accounts that we're getting on the ground here, again, from people who say they were inside of the building.

Now, these same people tell us that they have undergone training for situations like this so although they were very frightened by the sound of gunshots, there was a plan in place on what to do next. They all knew where to go to seek shelter. We are hearing that there is a ground stop at Reagan National Airport. We know that from their web site. However, again, we know that from the FAA's web site.

However, we don't know if that has anything to do with the situation here. Carol, I don't know if you can hear it or not, but lots of sirens, lots of police cars. This is still very much an active scene here. We've got a lot of yellow crime scene tape up around the vicinity as well keeping us a ways back because this is an active scene.

COSTELLO: We're getting word in addition to the Metropolitan officer shot, the Washington police officer shot, a second officer was shot. He was a base officer. We don't know exactly where these people sustained their injuries, but I'm just giving you information as I'm getting it in. You have a chance to talk to some of those witnesses, Renee. How many were -- I know 3,000 could possibly be inside that building because that's how many people work inside Building 197. How many people were evacuated and how many people remain inside? Is there any way of knowing that?

MARSH: These two individuals that I've been speaking to at this point, they are unable to give me those kinds of numbers. So we don't know at this point at least not from these two individuals. But I can tell you that on the way here I stopped inside a subway that was right by the police line and I spoke to a gentleman who works at the Navy Yard.

He's spending the morning inside of this subway because he cannot get to work. The scene right here is where a lot of employees cannot get into their office because it's such an active scene. What I'm seeing now is a fire truck. I see several police cars zooming by me here, Washington, D.C. police. Carol, as we get more information about those numbers you're asking about. We'll get back to you.

COSTELLO: OK. So stand by, Rene. I want to go to Brian Todd now because we're also getting information, Brian Todd, that this is from the Washington, D.C., Police Department that the gunman has still not been apprehended. The emergency response team is on the scene and they are still trying to clear the building and trying to get to the gunman and despite reports from "The Washington Post" saying that the gunman was barricaded inside Building 197. What are you hearing?

TODD: I'm hearing the same thing, Carol, from the Washington Metropolitan Police that the gunman has not been apprehended. That doesn't mean that he's not barricaded. What it means is that it's still fluid and they are trying to ascertain what is going on with this gunman. This is a U.S. Marshal official here. All of the police in this area are swarming around the base with S.W.A.T. gear and helicopters all over the place. There's a massive police presence with multiple jurisdictions.

According to the Metropolitan Washington Police, there are at least ten victims of the shooter including at least two law enforcement officers. One of them, as you just mentioned, the base police officer and the other a Metropolitan Police officer shot in this incident and we can give you that information now, ten victims including two law enforcement officers. Here are some more police vehicles circling around towards the scene here. They are not allowing any other traffic in here. This is a marshal service official here in SWAT gear in this vehicle and they are trying to figure out where to send some of these other law enforcement vehicles, Carol. But that's what we can tell you right now. According to the Metropolitan Washington Police, the gunman is still not apprehended at this time.

COSTELLO: All right, Brian, thanks so much. Stay on the scene. We're going to go back to WJLA because they have some more eyewitnesses who want to tell their story. Let's listen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fire alarm went off first and I was on the phone and someone said, this is not a fire alarm. Someone has been shot in the building. So we went around trying to get people out of the building and as we were exiting the back door, we noticed him down the hall. We heard shots. As he came around the corner, he aimed his gun at us and fired at least two or three shots and we ran out of the building to get out and there were still shots in the building.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He aimed a gun at you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a group of us and he aimed the gun and fired our way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you were there, too?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Looking down the barrel of a gun.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was far enough down the hall that we couldn't see his face. But we could see him with the rifle and he raised and aimed at us and fired. He hit high on the wall just as we were trying to leave.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was going on in your mind?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get everyone out of the building right now. Get everyone out of the building because there is someone shooting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Could you believe what was going on?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. You never believe anything like this is going to happen in your building.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What were you doing at the time?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were just working at our desks and occasionally there's a drill and then there was an announcement and our fire wardens celled for everyone to get out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's Miss Terry Durham, is who you are now and this is Todd Brundit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did you think? When you saw this guy aim a gun?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just get out as quick as you can. Just get out. I mean, everybody is going down the stairs, people were pushing, shoving, people were falling down. As we came outside, people were chiming the wall and trying to get out of the spaces. It was just crazy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sounds like it was pandemonium.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any kind of idea what kind of gun it was? Was it a long gun?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It appeared to be a rifle. That's the best that we could tell from that distance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Could you describe the guy, what he was dressed like?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was tall, he appeared to be dark-skinned, he did not have -- I don't think he had a hat on. We saw a rifle and we saw him raise it and aimed it in our direction.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He appeared to be a black person?

UNIDENTIFIED MAEL: A tall black guy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did he say anything?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He didn't say a word. You just looked at him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was maybe two or three seconds, we got a look at the guy and he turned and started shooting and we immediately made a left to get out of the building.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you all are lucky today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is this someone --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This happened around 8:20 this morning?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't look at the clock.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we're hearing is around 8:20 this morning?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, so you're very lucky, very blessed. I'm glad to see that you all are with us and some people were not as lucky. Thank you so much. That's the situation from here.

COSTELLO: You heard those frightening eyewitnesses account. I just can't believe these people were in the hallway. They saw the gunman. The gunman turned toward them and just started firing.

On the phone right now, we have Matt Maasdam. He is a former Navy SEAL and he has his own security firm, right now. And Matt, were you able to hear those testimonials?

MATT MAASDAM, FORMER NAVY SEAL (via telephone): I was and it was really encouraging to hear that people were running away from the threat. That's exactly what they should be doing.

COSTELLO: I don't know if I would use the word encouraging, but I'm sure glad those people were OK, but talk about lucky. The gunman just turned and opened fire on them and, of course, unbelievably their first instinct was to get everyone out of the building, which I would call heroic right now.

MAASDAM: That's perfect. A lot of the people would freeze and that's the last thing you should do because the shooter can just keep shooting at you until they hit you. What these people did was great. They saw the guy and went immediately to the exit and got out of the building. That's perfect.

COSTELLO: How are police handling this situation right now? We've got conflicting reports on whether they have him cornered or not.

MAASDAM: They are going to try to lock down the area and confine the guy to a smaller and smaller space and either arrest him or eliminate the threat if he continues to pose a threat to people.

COSTELLO: Does it say anything to you -- I don't know. I mean, it seems to be an unusual gunman. Here's a guy dressed all in black. He is armed with some sort of rifle. Doesn't seem to be a high-powered weapon at all and we know that there are ten injuries right now including two police officers. What does that tell you about him?

MAASDAM: Typically what happens in these situations is somebody comes in, they have a gripe and they come in to find one specific person and so they will shoot and try to kill that person and then once they start, they just kind of keep going and they just start shooting everybody. And so what you want to do is get away as fast as possible from that situation. Move out of the window, out of the emergency exit, get out of the way. When you get outside, keep running. Get away from that threat as fast as you can.

COSTELLO: Just in, Reagan National has now been reopened. Planes are taking off and landing again. They had put a stop on all traffic out of Reagan National earlier because of this incident and we understand now that the airport is opened. Tom Fuentes is on the line, our FBI expert.

TOM FUENTES, LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST (via telephone): Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Hi, Tom. Thanks for being with me. So would the FBI be the lead agency in this even though it's a military facility?

FUENTES: Yes, the U.S. military base or U.S. military facility would be FBI jurisdiction in serious crime.

COSTELLO: And what do you suppose is going on right now? I know I'm asking you to speculate but this has been going on for quite some time now, almost two hours.

FUENTES: Well, the main concern for the FBI and the authorities at the scene is do they have it contained? Is it one individual or more? If they have one individual, is he in fact within a building and within a particular location within a building and then, most importantly, in this situation does he have a hostage? A lot of times people will say, why don't they just go in and blast gas in there and go in there gun blazing and get the guy? We don't know that right now.

COSTELLO: Even if he's barricaded in some room by himself, that creates problems of its own, doesn't it?

FUENTES: Well, no, that's actually a much easier situation. As long as they can one or another verify that there's no hostage involved and they only have the shooter and he's contained within a particular location, you know, they will try to get the person to give up and surrender. But at the end of the day that's a much easier tactical situation to resolve if you do not have the threat of an innocent person being nearby and possibly getting killed in the attempt.

COSTELLO: OK, so Tom, stand by. Matt, I was just informed you worked in this very building. Am I correct?

MAASDAM: I worked in the Navy Yard. I don't know if it's the building I worked in or not.

COSTELLO: It's called Building 197. That's all I know. Three thousand people work in the building. So we're all wondering how a gunman could get into the facility in the first place because to get into the complex itself, there's heavy security at the front gate. You have to show the I.D. and then check out.

FUENTES: Well, I'm speculating but if the person were -- if they worked on that base, they would be able to show their I.D. and maybe they drove a car on. If the gun was in their car, they could just drive right through the gate and park their car and take out the gun and start doing the bad things. So I'm sure they didn't come through the gate all armed looking threatening. They probably came through the gate like they would on a normal day and once they were in they started causing problems.

COSTELLO: OK, thanks, Matt. I understand Barbara Starr, who is reporting live from the Pentagon, just got the defense secretary's feelings on what's happening at the Navy Yard. Barbara, what can you tell us?

STARR: Well, let me adjust that a little bit, Carol.