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Oregon College Mass Shooting. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired October 01, 2015 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:03]

DAVID JACQUES, "THE ROSEBURG BEACON": It's completely cordoned off. No one is allowed in or out.

They are -- there's been a second school bus that has just left. They are evacuating students from the UCC campus right now. They are taking them to the fairgrounds, I would imagine, for some kind of debriefing.

And no one is allowed to get in past this cordoned-off area. We have got state police, lots of local law enforcement. Every available ambulance has been sent to the scene. I would also tell you that the latest report we have is 10 confirmed dead and the numbers may be going higher. We don't know.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: David, I just talking to an official with Douglas County Fire and he was saying to me that they have transported 11. Two have died. I don't know if that's two in addition to the other 10 that we have been reporting here.

Do you know anymore? He told me that the shooting happened in one of the classrooms. Can you add to that?

JACQUES: It was in the reports that we got initially when this first broke out, is it was in the science building. And they put the entire campus on lockdown. We have several students that are associated with us that we know that were on the campus and have been feeding us some information out, but they won't let them leave the building.

But it did break out in the science building. And the other thing is that there was some question amongst the students -- and this may be just innuendo, rumor, but that there may have been more than one. They have one male in custody that we're aware of.

BALDWIN: More than one what? More than one shooter?

(CROSSTALK)

JACQUES: Well, that's the shooter. And it's supposedly a male. I don't have anymore description of that yet. But that's the word we're getting.

BALDWIN: Any idea whether this male shooter was a student? Any indication?

JACQUES: No indication at this time whether it's a student or a visitor to the campus.

BALDWIN: OK, and, David, I think you told me you're a little bit away, because as we're all looking at these pictures for the first time together, you see I'm counting three different police officers, it looks like going through -- on the far right going through a backpack potentially patting people down as they are letting them exit, to your point, and go to the fairgrounds.

Can you give me anything more as far as what police, what first- responders are doing with all of these students who want to get out of there?

JACQUES: Well, I don't know. The one student we just talked to moments ago was asking for permission to leave the classroom. They said we're not letting anyone out yet.

It's obviously a very organized and thorough effort that's under way. And they are still, I guess, looking for the possibility elsewhere on campus that somebody else may have been involved. I'm now seeing a third bus leaving the campus here at the blockade where we're behind. This is the third bus now that we have seen leave with students being transported.

BALDWIN: What about, David, the hospitals in the area? We were hearing that Mercy Medical is the main hospital in Roseburg. Is that a trauma one hospital? Do you know how capable this hospital is in dealing with this many gunshot wounds, victims?

JACQUES: I would say that I don't know their status, if they are trauma one, but I would say this is going to tax them. It's a world- class medical center, to be sure

They are also sending responders from Eugene, I believe, just every -- Eugene is about a 60-mile trip from here, but they are -- just all available ambulances were being dispatched to the scene.

BALDWIN: And then just finally and then I'll let you go, are you hearing -- I know you're describing these buses leaving heading to the fairgrounds. Have you or anyone else at "The Roseburg Beacon" spoken with any of the students who have left campus?

JACQUES: We talked to one student who got out before the lockdown. She was nearly hysterical. She wouldn't give a name. And we understand that, a very young, I would say late teens, young woman, obviously very shaken by what she saw.

She did not see the shooter. So, we weren't able to get any comments from her. But that's the only person so far that we have had direct contact with, other than students that have called us or texted us from the campus.

BALDWIN: Thinking of those students and the faculty there at that community college. David Jacques, thank you so much for dialing into us here at CNN, reporter for "The Roseburg Beacon."

If you're just joining us, I'm Brooke Baldwin. I want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. We're covering just a horrific scene in Roseburg, Oregon. This is a rural area of Oregon in which we can report there's been a fatal school shooting in which the latest numbers, and, again, this is all very fluid as this has just been developing over the course of the last couple of hours.

At least 10, according to preliminary reports, least 10 people have been killed, and more than 20 have been wounded as a result of a shooting, according to reports, within the science building, as we just heard from that local reporter, on this campus within one of the classrooms.

[15:05:13]

Some of the huge questions, who was it? We do know that the shooter has been detained. Don't know if the shooter was injured or not. Also don't know if there were more than one shooter involved in what has happened here at the Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon.

We have just talked to a fire official from Douglas County who told us they did transport 11 of the wounded, two of whom died at the hospital. And, again, just describing this area, it's a rural area, a lot of people, including those who are responding, as you see the paramedics here in these photos from the ground.

A lot of these people have gone through this community college. A lot of people know folks in this community. This is absolutely atrocious for everyone here in Oregon.

Monique Danziger, the public information officer at Sacred Heart Medical Center is with me.

Monique, tell me, where is your med center? Is it in Roseburg and what can you share?

MONIQUE DANZIGER, SACRED HEART MEDICAL CENTER: We are located in (INAUDIBLE) we are about an hour north of Roseburg.

And we are at this time expecting some, but we don't know exactly how many patients we're going to get, but we are ready.

BALDWIN: So you're telling me you don't know how many patients. That's what we heard from Mercy Medical as well, expecting an unknown number of patients. Have you gotten any sort of descriptions as far as injuries or descriptions of shooting wounds? We understand one of the 20 who is being taking to a hospital is a female shot in the chest.

DANZIGER: I don't have that information at this time.

Actually, we are in the process of setting up a media briefing area. It's going to be at the Riverbend annex, which is just five minutes down the street at 123 International Way. And there will be interacting with reporters and answering questions, giving live updates as we get more information. Of course, we may have HIPAA regulations that will require us to keep

that information confidential, but in an emergency situation like this, we are able to disclose a little more information than we normally would because of the high level of public interest.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Monique Danziger, thank you so much. I'm going to let you go and set up that newser situation.

We also know that we're anticipating a news conference from the community college as well, the Umpqua Community College, hoping to get some more, additional information. Still, we're really in the thick of it. I just want to be clear with you that these are again preliminary reports, 10 dead, preliminary reports, 10 dead, at least 20 wounded.

Jonathan Gilliam, let me bring you in, former Navy SEAL, former FBI special agent.

You were listening to the reporter speaking with me a moment ago from the scene saying they have certainly gone classroom to classroom to classroom. We saw the photo -- in fact, Alan (ph), if you could put the photo back up -- of these three police officers, looks like they were searching backpacks. This is the paramedics, but there's another photo. You have police officers searching backpacks.

Tell me what they're doing here.

JONATHAN GILLIAM, FORMER U.S. NAVY SEAL: Right now, I'll tell you I think it was the fire chief or a spokesman I think for the fire department that was talking to earlier.

That shows you the level of anxiety, first of all, that is in the first-responders when they respond to something like this. This is a smaller community college. It's not like a huge state university. So, I think he said there's 17 buildings.

What you're seeing happen is all these things are happening at the same time. They know this one shooter, at least this one shooter, was in this science building. So, the way things changed after Columbine is that with an active shooter, law enforcement will immediately rush to that location, whereas before they may set up a perimeter. Now the job is to get in is and confront the shooter as quickly as possible.

That seems to have happened fine. At the same time, they still have to assume that there could be other shooters. So, they are going to continue to search the other buildings, 17 buildings. That means they have 16 other areas to search that comprise of a lot of different rooms.

As they bring those people out, it sounds like they are triaging not the people that are hurt, but they're triaging the people that -- just the students to a different location and then they will search their bags. They will search them because they have to assume that -- this has happened in other locations -- that a possible second shooter could try to escape now with these students as they triage them out.

This is safe thinking. This is the way law enforcement has to think when they are triaging it and clearing the people as well as the buildings.

[15:10:02]

BALDWIN: Right. Jonathan, I have one more thing, I have a follow-up for you.

But let me just tell everyone, we are now confirming, as we have been reporting multiple buses. They are getting these students off of this campus. They are taking them to the Douglas County Fairgrounds. We can confirm that that first bus has arrived at the fairgrounds.

Jonathan, you referenced that Douglas County fire official who was speaking with me on scene who was just really hitting home this is affecting everyone and this such a small community. He was saying to me that they arrived on the scene and he had been in the classrooms and didn't want to go into detail as far as what he had seen, but said that they found multiple patients in multiple classrooms.

What does that tell you?

GILLIAM: Well, it definitely tells me -- I think you had Colonel Francona on earlier that was talking about the number of people that are dead.

So, that number of people could have been shot specifically that died with one pistol, for instance, but the amount of people that are injured is telling me that this individual either had a weapon that did not have as high a capacity and reloaded or he had a weapon that had a high-capacity magazine such as an automatic weapon.

And as he finished in one room, he moved to another room, which tells me that there was -- when this happens, people are so shocked when it happens that he probably -- I would surmise to say that you're probably going to see more people dead in the first room than you would in the second room, depending on how fast law enforcement got there.

BALDWIN: Why?

GILLIAM: Also, we don't know right now if he had a specific target. That specific target could have been in one of the other rooms and he could have actually been jumped on in the second room by students. We don't know that yet.

BALDWIN: That's right. The fire official used the word neutralized, they neutralized the shooter. Stay with me, Jonathan.

I'm looking over at you, Deborah Feyerick. You have been listening and reporting on all of this as well. But to you, again, multiple patients, multiple classrooms obviously tells me that this shooter continued on until he was neutralized. DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right.

I have been sort of working the phones and texting people right now. Some of the information that I'm getting right now is that according to a source it does appear the shooter did post online before the shooting happened.

He may have posted as early as this morning, and because of the fact that the dead and wounded were found in multiple classrooms, it appears that he began in one building, whether he began in the science building and moved on to another classroom or whether he moved -- started in a different classroom, all of that right now under investigation.

We do know the major crimes unit has responded. They have secured the scene. All those students that we saw in fact who are now leaving the campus are being searched to make sure that they are not either removing anything or whether they are not part of what this plot may or may not have been.

The good news is that law enforcement does know the identity of the shooter. They are looking at the social media of the shooter. There's a very strong indication that he did post online early this morning. They are vetting to make sure that the contents of those texts, which may have even come in the form of a warning, is, in fact, attributable to this individual.

And so right now unclear whether the shooter belonged to the college, was a member of this college, but he clearly knew what he was about to do and why he was about to do it. This was not something that happened spur of the moment. It was clearly planned.

BALDWIN: So as they are interrogating, again, we don't know -- that's the other big question. We know that the shooter has been neutralized, detained. A lot of these cases, the shooter sometimes turns the gun on himself. So, the fact that this individual is not dead, then law enforcement if this person cooperates can glean much more information.

FEYERICK: Absolutely. The use of the word neutralized is just so odd. As somebody who covers law enforcement a lot, neutralized is not really the kind of term that you use. You use that he's in custody or he's been shot and wounded or -- neutralized seems a lot more significant. It makes me wonder how they are using the word neutralized. We don't know whether he's alive or dead. That's the bottom line.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: OK. Deborah, thank you so much. Stay with me up here.

Listen to Colonel Rick Francona, who is in Oregon, who is familiar with this area of Roseburg, Oregon.

And just hearing, listening to that Douglas County fire official who was on the scene who didn't want to describe what he had seen within these classrooms on this campus, but again I could just hear it in his voice how this is a tight-knit community, to your point.

So many people he knows and he works with have gone through this community college. This affects a lot of people in this community.

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: This is a college is -- as you mentioned, the average age is in the late 30s. It's more of a vocational, retraining.

[15:15:10]

So, you have got a wide variety of people that attend classes there. This is going to touch almost everybody in the community. And we're talking about this campus up here. This campus, although it's isolated and up on a hill and just north of town, it's readily accessible. There are no gates, no guards. You can just drive right into the parking lot and walk around the campus. So, you do have easy access to it.

BALDWIN: Just off the interstate you said, off the I-5.

FRANCONA: Yes. It's about -- I would say you could get from the campus to I-5 in four minutes. It's very convenient. It will be good for first-responders and other people that need to get there to get there.

But it also allows people to get out of there very quickly if they had to. We were talking earlier about these gun-free zone in Oregon. If I could give you a little perspective on that...

BALDWIN: Please.

FRANCONA: Oregon is a shall issue carry permit state. A lot of Oregonians do have concealed handgun licenses. That's what we call them here.

And we're kind of one of the unique states that they do actually a mental health check when they issue that carry permit. The gun-free zones are areas that tell licensed gun owners that you are not allowed to carry your weapon in this facility.

So, they do serve a purpose to let everyone know that this is a gun- free zone. Conversely, as Jonathan Gilliam pointed out, I believe, and Art mentioned it as well, if you're going to perpetrate some act, you know that most people are not going to be armed.

BALDWIN: That's right. That's right. And we also don't know if at this community college -- you mentioned it's a gun-free zone. Would that then negate the need for any kind of metal detector walking in this community college or these different buildings?

As the fire official pointed out to me, this is a decent-sized campus, something like 16 to 18 different buildings. But thank you so much for weighing in, because it is an important point that this was a gun- free zone and also the mental health checks for those concealed permits is significant indeed. Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona, thank you so much. If you are just joining us, you're looking at this photos. This is in Roseburg, Oregon. This is the Umpqua Community College there. We have reporting on a breaking story in which a shooter has been neutralized. Does that mean the shooter is alive or dead, we don't know that yet.

But apparently this all began in the science building within one of the classrooms. In speaking with one of the fire officials on scene, this individual went into multiple classrooms, because they found multiple shooting victims in different classrooms. They neutralized the shooter. We don't know how. We also don't know who the shooter is, if this individual was a student at this community college or not.

According to a local reporter who I talked to just a moment ago said that their reporting is that it is a male and that's really all we know. We also know that the students, you have been seeing pictures, lines of students getting their backpacks checked out from law enforcement.

All right, I'm just being told here in my ear we're just going with this.

Marilyn Kittelman is on the phone with me. She's a mother of a student.

So, Marilyn, first of all, is your child OK?

MARILYN KITTELMAN, MOTHER: Yes, he is OK. Thank you for asking. He was in a building ironically just right next to the science building hiding behind a desk with his teachers when I was able to get in contact with him by text message.

BALDWIN: So he's OK. Has he been taken to the fairgrounds?

KITTELMAN: He has not. He's currently awaiting evacuation. They have had five absolutely packed buses pull out. I just watched the last one go by here the entrance. You can see it's completely shut down.

The way the UCC campus is oriented, there's about a three-quarter-mile paved road in. They have all traffic stopped here. The good news is they can kind of control ingress, egress in a city atmosphere. But he's awaiting evacuation.

BALDWIN: So you were saying he was near the science building, did I hear that correctly?

(CROSSTALK)

KITTELMAN: He's in the history building, which is near -- yes, near the science building. And the science building is apparently where the shooting took place.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: That's exactly what we're hearing as well. Did your son tell you anything as far as what he saw or heard?

KITTELMAN: Well, what's ironic is, my son is well-versed with firearms. He's only 17, but my family shoots and hunts.

And he said, mom, there were no sound. He said 30-some shots and no sound, how does that happen unless there's a suppressor or somebody knows what they're doing? And he was pretty surprised at that.

BALDWIN: Can I ask you how he knew it was 30 or some shots without hearing anything?

KITTELMAN: Well, you know how social media works and text messages. These kids knew what was going on almost as it happened.

A lot of the information I have gotten has come from right inside from him and with kids texting back and forth.

[15:20:02]

BALDWIN: OK. So this is all through the kids texting.

So, let's just be -- I just want to be clear with our viewers, we don't know what kind of firearm...

(CROSSTALK)

KITTELMAN: I can also tell you that, as a former county commissioner, I have quite a lot of access and I have had confirmed reports of 10 dead, that's for sure, and there's up to 25 wounded or involved. And that is not for sure.

And the number of shots is a number I was also given and I'm not sure how accurate that is.

BALDWIN: No, I appreciate that. And we have obviously been in touch with the county commissioner as well confirming what you're hearing as well, that 10 have been killed.

I also talked to a Douglas County fire official on scene who said that they had -- and this was about 20 minutes ago -- that they had transported 11 of the wounded, two of them had already died in the hospital. I just don't know if that's part of the 10 fatalities or if that is in addition to the 10.

KITTELMAN: I don't know.

BALDWIN: Tell me more about the community college and just the lay of the land for those of us who aren't familiar with it. When we say the science building?

(CROSSTALK)

KITTELMAN: This is a small, pretty close community. A lot of hunters, a lot of people verses on firearms, a lot of military or former military and just a nice little community. And so it's a pretty shocking event obviously no matter where you're at, but especially when you're not in a big city. We just don't have that atmosphere, a lot of concealed carry folks here, obviously not in that classroom today.

And we do know of several veterans who were (AUDIO GAP) head out and go help and they would not allow them to leave the room, which could have been a wise decision. Hard to say. But it's a small campus. It's a small community. Roseburg has 26,000 people. We only have 100,000 in the whole county. And it's just a really nice college. It's a real diverse age group, a lot older than most community colleges, a lot of displaced workers, a lot of adults.

BALDWIN: I think we just lost her. I think we just lost her. But that was a mother of one of the students. Obviously, she's pointing out a lot of these students passing back and forth information. I just want to be clear we just don't know really true numbers yet as this is really developing, even though apparently the shooter has been, to use law enforcement's word, neutralized.

Kristin Goodwillie is joining me. Kristin is a reporter for our affiliate there, KVAL-KPIC.

So, Kristin, tell me where you are and what you have heard.

KRISTIN GOODWILLIE, KVAL REPORTER: Hi. I'm at Oregon State Police, which is right next to a block from the Umpqua Community College.

So far, it is blocked off. We are seeing school buses are going in and coming out. We have been told all the students are being bussed to the fairgrounds, so that's where parents should meet them. And there have been ambulances coming back and forth. There's a helicopter. And we really don't know much. They're not confirming much for us.

BALDWIN: Do you know anything more about the shooting itself? I have spoken to a number of people. It sounds like it happened inside the science building, moved within multiple classrooms, as I was told, multiple patients, multiple victims were found in multiple classrooms. Can you add anything to that or anymore on the shooter himself?

GOODWILLIE: Like you guys said, we have just been seeing tweets. This is a very small community so we all know people who go to Umpqua Community College.

So, we are hearing things from them. And we did talk to a school official I want to say 20, 30 minutes ago, and she while we were talking to her said that the shooter was apprehended. And that's really all we know right now.

BALDWIN: So just to -- I think the language is so, so important. Apprehended, because we're hearing neutralized. And that could mean a lot of things. You're hearing specifically apprehended?

GOODWILLIE: Yes, that's what a school official told us. In her voice, you could tell she was very, very scared, so, yes, the

terminology, she may not have used the right terminology, but that's what she told us.

BALDWIN: OK. Kristin Goodwillie, thank you so much. Keep up your reporting for us there in Roseburg, Oregon.

Harry Houck is with me here on set, and so I just want to bring Harry in, former NYPD. We have talked about a number of scenarios like this.

As you're looking at these pictures and we're hearing your voice for the first time and hearing 10 dead, that number could go up, at least 20 wounded. That number could go up. Male shooter neutralized.

HARRY HOUCK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: The first thing I thought when police say neutralized, to me, that means he's dead. So, I think what's really important right now is for the police to ascertain if there is a second or third shooter.

And so they are probably checking the whole school area to ascertain if there is. And also how did this guy get to the school? Is there a car out there in the parking lot?

BALDWIN: We know canines are there.

GOODWILLIE: You got canines there. They are going to be checking that vehicle to see if it's lined with explosives, all right?

[15:25:01]

Also, they are probably executing search warrants at his home right now. They probably already have him identified. Executing search warrants at his home, also trying to find out whether or not his home is rigged for explosives also.

When you have this many people dead and this many people shot, it's safe to assume it's some type of an automatic weapon being used there. Not fully automatic, probably a semiautomatic weapon.

Somebody mentioned the fact that somebody didn't hear shots.

BALDWIN: That was the mother just saying to me according to her son who was nearby, she was saying -- and, again, this is just, this is according to this mother, who was the county commissioner -- 30-some shots, no sound.

HOUCK: Right. I'm sure it's more than 30-some shots with this many people shot and killed.

He might have had a suppressor on the weapon to keep it quiet as he went through. We know we have got victims inside classrooms where he went from classroom to classroom. What I'm trying to think of, did an alarm go out as soon as the shooting first started? Why weren't some of these classrooms in lockdown? This is something we're going to look at later on, I'm sure. The fact

is -- or did they not have enough time? Did an alarm go out or maybe it was a suppressor used on this weapon and the fact the alarm didn't go out because nobody knew a shooting was going on inside the building. There's a lot of things they're going to be looking at here.

BALDWIN: Yes. We still don't know that yet. It really could have been happening so quickly. As we have reported on so many school shootings, so many of these protocols have been put in place in the wake of that. Maybe it was just too quick.

We're getting -- this is a photo we have been looking at. OK, just lost some of the photos. We're going to try to get some new pictures in.

Deborah Feyerick, let me just -- Harry, stay with me.

Deborah, bring you in, because you have reporting. As far as the shooter is concerned, what were you hearing about possible postings today?

FEYERICK: We are hearing from a source who is involved in this investigation that there appear to be postings, that he was having conversations early this morning back and forth and that this was a subject of conversation. That's being investigated right now by detectives to make sure that this thread of texts was, in fact...

BALDWIN: So text messages is what you mean by conversation?

FEYERICK: It was something on social media. That is all being evaluated and investigated by the detectives.

They do know who the person is, so they are going back and they are checking all his social media to find out why this happened, to find out what the motive was for the shooting. We do know that he started in one classroom and then went to another classroom and sort of moved methodically shooting the people inside those classrooms.

At least 10 are dead. We're told that two additional died at the hospital. We don't know whether that's in fact the number, the 10 number, but there are a number -- right now, the emergency teams are doing the best they can to try to save the lives of those who are so critically injured, so a very frantic time at the hospital right now.

BALDWIN: David Jacques is back with me. Thank you, Deborah.

David Jacques is back with me. He's a reporter for the -- all right, we lost him. Let's try to get David back up.

So, back to you and back to you, Harry, as well. Again, I'm just getting this information here. This is just very fluid, so let me just apologize, but Mercy Medical, they are now tweeting this patient update. They say: "We have received nine patients from the UCC tragedy and three more en route. Please continue to pray." My question to you, Harry Houck, is what's happening now? If the shooter is neutralized -- and again we don't know if that could mean very well that the shooter is alive or dead, and we're seeing these busloads. We just heard five, five different busloads crammed of these students going off to the fairgrounds. Does that then tell you the lockdown has been lifted and they are now allowing the students to be off campus, to be picked up by someone else? What is happening with that?

HOUCK: It sounds like to me the police have already secured the school.

Whether or not they identified another shooter or not, I'm not sure. I don't think so, based on what we see here right now. So, they are taking the students to a safe zone. Once those students have been identified, because we could -- there's a possibility of a shooter pretending he's a student trying to get out of the building. We have to make sure we understand that. And when we have students coming out, we check their I.D.s, put them on a bus and send them to a safe location, where they can meet with their parents or family members or whatever they want there.

BALDWIN: When you hear -- we also have been learning it's a gun-free zone. That's what Deborah has been saying. The school is a gun-free zone.

HOUCK: What does that mean?

BALDWIN: What does that mean?

HOUCK: Gun-free zone doesn't mean anything to a shooter. It means that the people who are there are vulnerable to a shooter, like we have seen today.

Is it a gun-free zone? Does the law enforcement in the school itself, are they armed? That's a question, because most colleges have their own police departments. And do they have armed police officers at the school to be able to protect these students? And I'm certainly hoping so.

And I'm certainly hoping the fact that they are calling this a gun- free zone doesn't mean the police aren't armed either that work in secure -- or the security that they might use in the school. So, that's a very important part. And it's very important here. Gun-free zone means nothing to a shooter.