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Shooting at Washington Navy Yard

Aired September 16, 2013 - 15:30   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Wow, and this area of D.C., I used to live in Washington. I've been to the Nats ballpark. This is really sort of this up and coming -- you mentioned the construction -- up and coming part of Washington.

And just across the street, just to give people who don't know the area, the lay of the land, across from this Navy yard, you have homes and there are schools. And at some point, there were six schools on lockdown.

Just talk to me about this part of D.C.

WILLIAMS: The crazy thing about it is I've only worked there like for two weeks. I've been there a few times for the Nats games. Like you said, it's a very good area.

After work, I actually jog over there. I have never had any problems. I always feel comfortable in that area. People are always friendly. There's always different events going on.

So just to have this happen is just very strange, and it's very upsetting, you know, to have this happen, of this magnitude. And I just hope that the victims and their families are doing well --

BALDWIN: We hope so, too.

WILLIAMS: -- as well as they can be, obviously.

BALDWIN: We hope so, too, Paul Williams. And we're glad you're OK. And thank you for talking to me as long as you have. I appreciate you very much.

And coming up, as we hear from people who heard things and saw things, to the president of the United States.

He spoke today about the economy, but off the top, he made some comments, calling this a cowardly act, so we'll play that for you from the president.

We'll also talk to security experts. That's coming up next. Stay right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back. Bottom of the hour, as we continue our breaking news, I'm Brooke Baldwin. Tragedy in Washington, D.C., we have learned from Washington metropolitan police, 12 people have been killed as a result of this massive shooting right around 8:15 this morning at what you're looking at. This is the Washington Navy Yard.

Something we have now learned here in the last few moments at CNN, that a government official with detailed knowledge of this specific shooting investigation has told us that the dead shooting suspect has already been fingerprinted and identified.

That's all we know, but this individual has been fingerprinted and identified.

Also we know at this hour, think of the loved ones. Think of the moms, the dads, the husband, the wives, who have family members who work.

Three thousand people work at this Washington Navy Yard, so they are all, if they're not there already, heading to right next door, Washington National Stadium, which by the way, has canceled that braves game tonight.

Instead, it's now changing the use, now allowing family members to wait and hope to be reunited with their loved ones who had been sheltered in place for much of the day here at work.

And we're also hearing today from the president of the United States. He was scheduled to speak, specifically about the economy, but right off the top, he had some comments for what happened in the district of Columbia, specifically calling this a cowardly act.

Here's the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have been briefed by my team on the situation. We still don't know all the facts, but we do know that several people have been shot, and some have been killed.

So we're confronting yet another mass shooting, and today, it happened on a military installation in our nation's capital. It's a shooting that targeted our military and civilian personnel.

These are men and women who were going to work, doing their job, protecting all of us. They're patriots, and they know the dangers of serving abroad, but today, they face the unimaginable violence that they wouldn't have expected here at home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: To talk about the violence, let me bring in Larry Barton, a crisis management expert, and, Larry, here you have in this one particular building, I don't know how many employees, and to hear the thought of gunshots, you know, in rapid succession, according to those who were injured, what does one do?

LARRY BARTON, CRISIS MANAGEMENT EXPERT: Well, Brooke, I think part of it is that we have to understand that there are soft targets and there are hard targets.

And when we spoke after Sandy Hook, we know that elementary school was a soft target. The Boston marathon was a soft target. The Sikh temple, it's open to the public. Anyone could be here.

The difference here is that it was a hard target. And you look at a military installation, this Navy yard, no different than Fort Hood, in many ways, where society expects and the employees expect that there are certain parameters of security to protect them in their daily life.

Similarly, what I'd love your viewers to think about is that there are also soft perpetrators and hard perpetrators. Soft ones may have mental health issues. Why does a mother drown her children?

A hard perpetrator, and that's the issue today, I think, is that you're dealing with at least two to three perpetrators, and these suspects were orchestrated, they were organized, they were sophisticated enough to have a campaign in which at least 12 people are dead, and, it appears, to be wearing military uniforms or some type of camouflage.

So just think of it that way, that this was orchestrated, it was highly planned, and the question ultimately will be, for any of them, their families, their coworkers, what did we know, when did we know it, and what did we do about it? If there was any precursor to it.

BALDWIN: The question why? Why did this have to happen?

So far, it's so early in the investigation. No motive known as yet, but hopefully in the coming days, we will learn.

Larry Barton, crisis management expert, thank you very much.

And, coming, we heard from the delegate from Washington, D.C., Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, and she talked pretty powerfully and she talked in terms of fatalities. Again, 12 dead because of this massive shooting.

And you know what she said? She said we haven't had a day like this in D.C. since 9/11. You'll hear from her next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Back to our breaking news here. This fatal, tragic day from the Washington Navy Yard. You're looking at live pictures.

This is Washington Hospital Center where several of those who were injured this morning in the massive shooting were taken specifically to this hospital, one gentleman and two women all of whom suffering gunshot wounds.

What is significant and what we'll see is an official from the Navy will be speaking as part of this news conference. Stand by for that. That's happening in a matter of minutes. Back to what has still been this active crime scene. We heard not only from the metropolitan police chief and from the mayor of Washington, D.C., we also heard from the delegate from Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton who likened this in terms of fatalities that the District of Columbia has seen, likened it to 9/11.

Here she was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON (D), D.C. DELEGATE: We've not had a day like this since 9/11 for good reasons.

I want to thank all of those who are assisting the metropolitan police department. Our hearts, our prayers are with those who have died, with those who are injured.

Tomorrow at 7:00 p.m., when Congress returns, I will be on the floor for the moment of silence.

Meanwhile, I'm really asking everyone to withhold judgment about what happened here. I am very familiar with this facility. It began the revival of M Street when we were able to get the Sea Systems Command to come here.

It is a very secure facility, and the Navy has managed to keep it secure while it has been open to the public.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's pull away from that because we have learned there is a Navy captain speaking.

This is at the Washington Navy Yard where this tragedy struck some eight hours ago. This is Captain Mark Vandross.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After the gunshots, what happened after that? You shelter in place or --

CAPTAIN MARK VANDROSS, U.S. NAVY, SHOOTING WITNESS: We stayed sheltered in place.

Those shots happened, my guess is a little before 9:00. We were evacuated by police a little after 10:00.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happened in that hour? Did you sit and wait?

VANDROSS: We were on the ground, and like I said, most of that hour was taken up trying to gather information about where other people in my organization had sheltered and then passing that up to my chain of command.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it your understanding they're letting everybody out at this point?

VANDROSS: I don't know. They had a group of about maybe 150 folks who had been in 197 that the police had gotten out in one group.

They kept us together, went through witness statements with the authorities, and then just a little while ago, they got us all out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Captain, what is Building 197?

VANDROSS: What do you mean by that? A five story building.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is it called? What do you do there?

VANDROSS: Building 197 is the number of the building. The Naval Sea Systems Command, which is, I don't want to speak in jargon here, so let me help you.

The Naval Sea Systems Command is the Navy's organization that procures and maintains ships, submarines and ships and submarine systems.

There are three buildings on the Navy yard that house the Naval Sea Systems Command. Building 197 is one of these three buildings.

It has the headquarters staff, the contracting staff, the organization that I'm from, which buys non-nuclear surface ships. The folks that buy weapons systems, missile launchers and radars, they're on one of those.

A lot of the technical folks who do design of ships and ship systems and ship safety, those engineers are all in that building.

There are two other buildings that are also on the Navy yard that also house the naval sea systems command.

Building 197 is the largest of the three.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it your understanding all the gunfire took place at 197?

VANDROSS: I do not know and have no information. I was in Building 197 and I heard gunfire.

I don't know about any other part of the Navy yard since I wasn't there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible).

VANDROSS: So the fourth floor of that building, I work on the third, the fourth floor has the headquarters for the ship yard.

So the Navy owns four ship yards that do maintenance around different places around the country.

We also do oversee contractors who do maintenance and private yards, and the headquarters facility for those folks along with logistics, safety, trying to think of who else is on the fourth floor.

Lawyers are on the fourth floor. All our legal department, they're on the fourth floor. The third floor was my organization that does non- nuclear ship procurement and maintenance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is there some sort of relief you're able to come out or is there some anxiety knowing this is ongoing?

VANDROSS: That's a good question. I was very pleased with my folks. I would be lying to you if I told you we weren't scared, but I was pleased we weren't panicked.

The people in the conference room and the people we were texting didn't panic. They tried to remain calm. We knew if we sheltered in place, eventually, the police would get us.

BALDWIN: This is one eye witness, a naval captain working in Building 197, hearing the gunshots in 197, and here we are eight hours later and they're just now being allowed to leave this campus.

Coming up, we'll take you back to Washington, back to Washington Hospital Center, where doctors there are treating several gunshot victims.

We're awaiting a news conference. Back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back. We're covering the breaking news out of Washington, D.C. 8:15 this morning, someone walked into Building 197 and just began to shoot.

We now know according to the metropolitan police chief, 12 people have been killed. There were multiple injuries.

Again, we are waiting for this news conference to kick up in Washington talking about the state of some of those injured.

But I want to take you specifically to the Capitol, which is not too far away from the Washington Navy Yard. That's where we have our chief congressional correspondent, Dana Bash.

Dana, bring me up to speed as far as whether or not the Senate is on lockdown. What's happening where you are?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Senate is technically on lockdown and has been for a little less than an hour.

What that means is this door back here that goes directly into the Senate is closed and members of Congress who want to leave and come apparently can. That's according to some of the police officers I've talked to.

But everybody else is not allowed to enter the building, not allowed to leave the building, and same goes for the three Senate office buildings that are around the Senate complex.

However, if you look over here, if you can just pan over here, that, of course, is the House side of the capitol. Brooke, that's open, so people can go in and out of the Capitol building on the House side and also the House office buildings. So it is a little bit curious how they are dealing with that.

I can tell you that Ted Barrett, who is inside for this lockdown, tried to go from the Senate side to the House side inside the building, and there were police officers stationed sort of in between to prevent people from going from one side of the Capitol to the other.

Now, the question, of course, is does this mean there was a threat to the United States Senate.

The answer, according to the Senate sergeant-at-arms who sent out a notice to all Senate aides and staffers, is no, they are doing this because they want to make sure the area is secure out of an abundance of caution.

But there's no direct threat to the Senate and they're going to do this until at least 5:00, then they will send another notice out to say whether or not they're going to continue it.

I should also say the Senate itself was in session. They came in at 2:00 p.m. Eastern and pretty quickly went out of session because of this shooting which, again, is about a mile, mile and a half from where we're standing right now.

BALDWIN: Dana Bash, thank you very much.

I want to just broaden this out and talk about how this would have happened in terms of tactical teams coming in once the initial phone calls went in to metropolitan police.

Anthony Roman is a security expert joining me now. Anthony, it's impossible to know exactly what happened. We weren't there.

But to listen to Cathy Lanier, the metropolitan police chief, describe the tactical units from her side, now we know FBI has taken the lead, walk me through how these teams would have gone into the Washington Navy Yard to try to find the shooter.

ANTHONY ROMAN, FOUNDER & CEO, ROMAN AND ASSOCIATES: Well, once the shooting is reported to these tactical teams, they break down into their usual responsibilities.

First, we establish a perimeter around the entire facility. Then to begin a search of where the shooter may be present.

Once that's established, they establish a tight perimeter and control of the building or the floors.

They attempt to make communication with the shooter so that perhaps they can talk him down, try and get him to surrender.

And in this particular case that didn't work out. The shooter was shot and killed.

BALDWIN: Let me ask you this. Forgive me as I'm checking my e-mail live on air. Can we go with this? OK. Forgive me, Anthony. We will go with this.

I'm getting word from the control room, Washington FBI field office has told our correspondent Pamela Brown that the dead Navy yard shooting suspect has been identified and fingerprinted as 34-year-old Aaron Alexis, Aaron Alexis, a military contractor from Texas.

Just going to keep reading my e-mail to all of you. In addition, a metropolitan police officials tell CNN the suspect was positively identified from a photo I.D. removed from the suspect's body.

The military contractor I.D. matched the appearance of the dead man, according to this law enforcement source. The name on the I.D. was Aaron Alexis.

So Anthony, bringing you back in as we are now learning for the very first time this dead shooting suspect, 34-year-old Aaron Alexis, had a military I.D., was a military contractor. What does that tell you?

ROMAN: In this terrible mass shooting, you have a facility that has multiple entrances and exits. It's a mixed facility and what I mean by mixed facility, there are military personnel, there are military civilian contractors who are permitted access and have special government I.D. badges but there are also visitors, and visitors in bulk allowed on this facility.

Now, I know that's surprising for one of the oldest naval facilities in the country and one that houses some classified operations, but the Naval Museum is present there, and so busloads of tourists are actually permitted on.

Now, they are checked in a cursory fashion, photo I.D.s are checked, they may have to go through further screening, magnetrons and that kind of thing, but there are picnic tables within the facility and they are allowed to stroll to certain areas.

BALDWIN: OK. Anthony Roman, thank you very much. Forgive me for cutting you off.

I want to go from you to this hospital news conference happening. This is the Washington Hospital Center.

Doctors there treating multiple gunshot victims. Let's dip in.

RAY MABUS, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY: -- victims who were brought in here, two of those were Navy employees, the third a metropolitan police officer, and when I'm finished, the doctor will give you a detailed medical briefing.

I got to meet or we got to meet one of the victims, a young woman, and her family. She is under the circumstances doing very well.

Also got to talk to the husband of a second victim who is in surgery right now, but none of the injuries are expected to be life- threatening.

I want to thank two groups very specifically, the first-responders who got there so quickly from all sorts of different agencies, all sorts of military organizations, federal, local organizations from this area, and second is to thank the team here at the hospital.

The victims have been receiving absolutely excellent care and they were brought to a great place.

We immediately upon hearing about the shooting put in motion contingency plans for a situation like this, including things like just getting people out of the Navy yard, getting people home tonight because most of them will not have access to their vehicles, figuring out about their personal belongings because it is a crime scene.

Two, I have made every victim a secretary of the Navy designee, so if they need any additional or specialized care, that they can go to Walter Reed, Bethesda.

I'm absolutely confident they won't need it because of the excellent care here, but just in case, we have some specialized care that is not available anywhere else. They can go as my designee.

Third is to arrange for counseling. Grief counselors are available now, and counseling as we go forward to make sure that the trauma associated with this will be dealt with appropriately.

And finally, if you have a loved one that was at the Navy yard, there are two phone numbers that you can call for Navy, 202-433-6151, or 202-433-9713.

Now, when you call, we will not be able to give you a status report. We'll have to check and call back.

We have taken a muster, as you do in these situations, but because people are scattered -- because they're scattered, one, from the event but, two, just in normal day-to-day business, there are some that are scattered. It normally takes between 24 and 36 hours to make a complete muster and to find out the status of everyone.

So again, to the doctors, to all the medical personnel, to all our first-responders, thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Secretary, can you tell us anything about the situation, about the gunman?

DR. JANIS ORLOWSKI, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, MEDSTAR WASHINGTON HOSPITAL CENTER: I'm Dr. Janis Orlowski. I'm the chief medical officer at MedStar Washington Hospital Center.

I'm here to give you an update regarding the three individuals who were brought to the hospital center.