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Active Shooter at Planned Parenthood, Colorado Springs. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired November 27, 2015 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Because she's been incredibly helpful in describing what this area is. So it's this main drag, Colorado Springs. You know, grocery store, banks, businesses. And then you have on the left side of the screen what you mentioned, that Google Earth rendering of this Planned Parenthood. Obviously not the current snowy Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood, but we understand what we're dealing with. And to your point, perhaps it advantageous because if this is happening inside of the Planned Parenthood -- and by the way, we don't know. You see on the screen police are being very precise in their language that it's an active shooter near Planned Parenthood. The fact that this is not -- that this building, art, is not attached to a strip mall, at least from my vantage looking at this, has to be a good thing for police.

ART RODERICK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST & FORMER U.S. MARSHAL (voice-over): It is, if it's in that location. But if you look at the picture on the right, it looks like they're trying to actually set up some type of perimeter around the strip mall itself, which is --

BALDWIN: That's right.

RODERICK: -- which is going to be difficult to do. Obviously, that's going to require a lot of resources and staffing and stuff.

BALDWIN: Do we still have Brigitte?

Brigitte, are you still on the phone with me?

BRIGITTE WOLFE, WITNESS (voice-over): Yes.

BALDWIN: Brigitte, let me just bring you back in. If you could explain to us as we're looking at these two different pictures. So is Planned Parenthood, this center Planned Parenthood and the medical building you were describing, is it next to what appears to be the strip mall?

WOLFE: What they have on screen right now is actually the medical building, and it's on the right side of that medical building.

BALDWIN: That is Planned Parenthood itself?

WOLFE: Right. It's its own building.

BALDWIN: OK. So on the right side of the screen, these look like businesses to me and separate from what we're looking at on the left side.

WOLFE: On the left side, yes.

BALDWIN: So on the right side, this is all in the same area, and this is, you know, strip malls and restaurants and banks, as you were describing.

WOLFE: Yes.

BALDWIN: So what are you seeing right now? As you are across the street from all of this?

WOLFE: They have gotten more police officers with guns drawn. But otherwise it hasn't changed.

BALDWIN: Police officers, guns drawn, are they, as we're looking at some of these pictures, still kind of crouched behind their patrol vehicles? Are they walking around? Can you be more specific?

WOLFE: No, they're in a standstill position behind a building. But none of them are in their vehicles, I don't believe.

BALDWIN: OK. Brigitte, stay with me.

Brigitte Wolfe happens to work across the street, and she is, you know, our eyes and ears right now.

I'm so grateful to you, Brigitte, for walking us through this area of Colorado Springs, and specifically the 3400 block of Centennial Boulevard.

Art, when you're looking at these pictures, the weather, the cold, the snow, how is that impacting the response here?

RODERICK: It's very difficult. I mean, obviously, the weather is going to have a huge impact on this issue. And you can see the fire department lined up there with the rescue squad trucks and response vehicles ready to go once the area is declared safe. But yeah, obviously the weather's going to have a huge impact. I just saw some ATF. It looked like ATF snipers carrying their weapons, responding. So you're going to have not only, you know, local police, sheriff's offices, but also, you know, federal law enforcement responding, and here comes the command vehicle right now that they'll be setting up pretty soon. So this looks like it's going to be -- this situation could if on for a while with this type of response.

BALDWIN: Yeah.

RODERICK: You know, it's either a hostage situation or it's a barricade situation at this point.

BALDWIN: When I saw that command vehicle as well pulling up. I am wondering, you know, when you have those sorts of vehicles pulling up that could mean a while. Tell me, for people who aren't as familiar, what is that vehicle capable of? RODERICK: Well, what that vehicle will be doing will be handling all

this ground traffic which you're seeing coming up. It also will be the main command post where everybody will come to get briefings and where all the information will flow into. And from there they'll go out and make decisions on what they're going to do either with SWAT or uniformed police officers. But as you can see, there's just more and more people arriving at the scene. So there has to be a command post. There has to be a command-level officer in that command post to go ahead and handle all this ground traffic.

BALDWIN: OK. Let me just reset for everyone. It is just a little past half past the hour here. And you are looking at two different pictures on your screen here. We're following this breaking story out of Colorado Springs. On the left side, this is a medical facility along a main area in Colorado Springs. And on the right side, according to our eyewitness on the ground, is the Planned Parenthood center itself.

We are getting reports from police. Calls have been coming in, in the last half hour that there is an active shooter scenario near Planned Parenthood. On the right side of your screen, you can see it is a cold, snowy day in Colorado Springs. You see this command post, this command control vehicle that art was just describing that will really be the headquarters for police briefings as likely federal and local and state law enforcement will be responding to this scenario.

[14:35:19] A lot of unknowns right now. Number one, we don't know how many shooters could be involved in this active shooting situation in a building. We don't even know where this is happening specifically as it's been described, there are homes in this area, but this main area is banks and grocery stores and strip malls and businesses.

We also don't know if there are hostages being held inside with this active shooting situation.

And we don't know -- we were talking to Kyung Lah, a correspondent who's been working the story for us well, we don't know if officers -- there was perhaps one report that an officer was injured, but that's not confirmed.

Just to be crystal clear with all of you as we're working this together, not a lot is known.

I have Kyung Lah, who's been working on this. We've been talking to Brigitte Wolfe, who happens to work at a business across the street and has been truly priceless in giving us information as far as what's happening and where. And also Art Roderick is on the phone with me, former U.S. Marshal and a CNN law enforcement analyst.

So if we have Brigitte still on the phone, for people who are just tuning in and learning what's happening -- and I know I sound repetitive because we've been talking for a while but bear with me -- tell me what you see across the street.

WOLFE: I see 11 to 12 police vehicles in total including the SWAT vehicles. As of right now, I see six officers with guns drawn and with shields. And they're in a standstill position. And -- but otherwise I don't see anything else.

BALDWIN: And again, describe this area for me. What kinds of businesses and shops?

WOLFE: So we have a grocery store and a couple of banks, a restaurant, and then there's a residential area behind us.

BALDWIN: And as it is Black Friday and it's lunchtime in your neck of the woods, how busy is the traffic flow along Centennial Boulevard and in these different shops across the street?

WOLFE: There is -- well, there was a lot of traffic until they blocked everything. People still trying to get through but obviously can't get through.

BALDWIN: Art -- Brigitte, stay with me.

Art, do you have a monitor? Are you able to watch these images coming in? I couldn't tell if it was ATF, but clearly -- Tom Fuentes, I'm told we have you, former assistant director of the FBI.

Are you watching what I'm watching?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST (voice-over): I don't have a monitor. I'm on the phone.

BALDWIN: OK. I see a lot of, you know, SUVs. We've seen a command control vehicle roll up. I've seen, you know, some of these guys with vests, with large guns, back and forth sort of crouched behind some of these vehicles. Tell me what's happening right now in terms of securing the area, setting a perimeter and keeping everyone else safe.

FUENTES: Well, normally the police would set up an inner perimeter which would be for law enforcement only to go in. They would set up an outer perimeter to keep all of the public and the media outside the outer. And then in between would be their staging area to set up a command post, to set up, you know, gearing up to find out what they have going on. The big issue now for the commanders would be do they have a barricaded subject which would mean a subject that's in some kind of a premises with nobody else with him, or do they have a person holding hostage? That's a much more difficult situation, obviously, because you have innocent people that may be held at gunpoint.

BALDWIN: How, Tom, how would they determine -- how would they determine whether there were hostages?

FUENTES: Well, a combination of by observation from the people -- they will put people all around that perimeter to have eyes on the location, front and back and above, if possible. And then if they can get communications into it, if they determine it's a specific business, call into that business and see if the person will talk to them and just try to assess from that whether or not they have people -- innocent people in that business as well.

BALDWIN: Yep.

Tom, stay with me.

FUENTES: As you mentioned earlier, the time of day, Black Friday --

BALDWIN: Yeah.

FUENTES: -- the odds are that if it's in a retail location, there's going to be people in there.

BALDWIN: Right. Lunchtime, Black Friday, lots of people out and about on this Friday afternoon.

Stay with me, Tom.

Pamela Brown, let me bring you, another voice in, justice correspondent.

And I thought I saw ATF there on the scene. Can you request I remember that for me?

[14:40:02] PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. I can confirm that ATF agents are on the scene. ATF has an office there in Colorado Springs. We see the law enforcement there. So among them, you have the local officials as well as federal officials. So far we're being told from the Homeland Security division in Colorado that state assistance has not been requested yet. And I can tell you that right now, Brooke, as tom just said, they're just trying to assess the situation and figure out how to proceed. We see the command, the mobile unit there on the scene. Presumably, the FBI will be there soon. The FBI has an office in Denver not too far away.

And just in terms of planning for this kind of scenario, law enforcement has been coordinating efforts between federal, local, state levels and these active shooter scenarios. This is something that they're well versed in. And I can tell you law enforcement has been on heightened alert especially recently, Brooke, given the threat environment. So you can bet that these officers are well trained and ready to handle the situation.

BALDWIN: I am sure they are.

Pamela Brown, thank you so much.

We're going to take a quick break here from our breaking news, active shooting situation. Colorado Springs, Colorado. Stay with me. Back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: And we're back with our breaking news. I'm Brooke Baldwin here. You're watching CNN.

Let me just bring you up to speed in case you are just joining us here. On this day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, lunchtime in Colorado, and we're specifically watching a story developing right now in Colorado Springs where about 400,000 people live here in the United States, and specifically police are responding to calls of an active shooter scenario near a Planned Parenthood here. This is a Google Earth image. This is not at all what it looks like right now. It's pouring snow. It's cold. But we've seen ATF, federal, presumably, FBI will be on the scene as they have an area not too far away in Denver. Obviously, police have responded. We've been talking to eyewitnesses who work just across the street describing how police have barricaded. We've seen ATF invest guns, crouch behind vehicles, trying to determine what exactly is going on in this pretty busy area of Colorado Springs, how many shooters could be involved, could there be hostages involved, and where precisely is this happening? A lot of unanswered questions at the moment.

Let me begin with Kyung Lah, who's been digging a little bit more on the story.

What more can you share?

[14:44:31]KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We've gotten in contact with an employee at the grocery store directly to the south of that building that you're looking at. That is the Planned Parenthood building in Colorado Springs. And she sounds quite calm. The way she explained it was that they couldn't really see anything, but the grocery store directly to the south of the Planned Parenthood building is a King Super's grocery store, and she says that the manager made an announcement that there's going on. All of the shoppers were told they could not get out. People are not being allowed in. There are about a dozen employees inside the store who are working. Everyone has been corralled to the back of the grocery store. So they're not near the front, not near any glass. They can't see anything. But you've been talking about, Brooke, that this is a busy area. This is, you know, a sizeable grocery store. If you have several dozen employees working inside that grocery store. A lot of people being impacted by this. A lot of concern. They just don't know exactly what's unfolding here.

BALDWIN: Yeah, we're hearing from police specifically it's a shelter- in-place situation, so that would vibe with what grocery store coming over the loudspeaker and saying you can't leave. And now we know from an eyewitness across the street that police have barricaded the area as they're trying to secure the situation and keep people as safe as possible. They're even urging media to stay away.

Pamela Brown is our justice correspondent. She's reporting on exactly who's responding here.

We were talking, Pamela, about ATF. Tell me who else.

BROWN: And the FBI, we know, is en route from the Denver office to handle and help assist with the situation. So we have ATF, FBI. We reached out to the Homeland Security division there in Colorado. We're told that so far no state assistance has been requested, but they are monitoring the situation and ready to provide help as need. So you have a plethora of law enforcement on the scene that we see in this video here. We have local police who are the lead investigative unit in this case as well as federal officials who will provide the support more on the periphery. And SWAT teams as well if this is, in fact, a barricade situation where there are hostages. That will play a key role. Just to point out here, we don't know what the motive is, if there is terrorism related or something completely different.

But I will say, Brooke, just in this past week, the FBI sent out a bulletin to law enforcement across the country asking them to revise their active shooter training, to go back and take a look. The FBI did a study not too long ago on active shooter scenarios. And so they've advised law enforcement to go back and practice their active shooter training. This is something that these types of drills they do all the time. And of course, we see it playing out in real time with what appears to be an active shooter situation in Colorado Springs near that Planned Parenthood -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: Pamela, thank you so much.

I'm just glancing down, as I'm talking to you, I have one eye on the Colorado Springs police Twitter page. If you are in the area, here are specifics. Centennial Boulevard where this is happening is closed from Garden of Gods to Fillmore, both directions, avoid area. And just one more tweet from there, Centennial and Fillmore, active shooter, scene is not secure, shopping center shelter-in-place.

Art Roderick, former U.S. Marshal, current CNN law enforcement analyst, here's my question. You know, when we cover these sorts of active shooting situations, I know that the most recent incident that comes to mind, you know, involving a similar setting, strip mall, businesses, remember it was Chattanooga, Tennessee, that that recruitment center back in July. I'm just curious, in terms of police preparation in the wake of that shooting, what's changed?

RODERICK: Well, I do remember the incident in Chattanooga. Usually what happens is not only does this active shooter training involve law enforcement, but it also involves mall security. It involves the private sector. It also gets involved in this training to make sure that if these types of scenarios occur, whether it's a ballpark or a mall, that we have everybody on the same sheet of music and everybody knows what the training is and what's involved. So a lot of it now does involve the private sector, especially in areas where you have large malls, ballparks, things like that. So the private sector is brought in on a lot of this training now.

BALDWIN: So I'm curious, to use your words, being on the same sheet of music, what would these private businesses -- what would be their go-to, their steps one, two and three, in this case of an active shooter?

RODERICK: Yeah, it really wouldn't be that much didn't than what you see law enforcement do, you know, obviously based on the type of private security you have at any of these facilities, they would also respond as law enforcement. But definitely make the call out to 911, secure the area as best they can, and then, you though, help law enforcement out when they arrive on the scene. So a lot of this training is done in concert with private security -- private security firms that are responsible for security at malls or strip plazas and stuff like that. So a lot of that training involves them. And bringing them in obviously is a big help to law enforcement.

[14:49:50] BALDWIN: Art Roderick, you are invaluable with your expertise. I appreciate that.

Actually, I was just handed this piece of paper. Let me just read this for you. "FBI agents, they are now on the scene as they have a Colorado Springs resident agency nearby. Reported shooting site at this time. They are not necessarily coming from Denver."

So there you go. FBI now on the scene in addition to, as we've seen ATF, local police, et cetera.

So quick break. We're back with this breaking news, active shooter situation they're the Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BALDWIN: We're back. Breaking news here on CNN. Welcoming our viewers in the United States and around the world.

Here's what we watching. This is Colorado Springs, Colorado. This is a city of about 400,000 people. Keep in mind, it is Black Friday. So a lot of people out and about shopping. It is lunchtime. It is cold. It is snowy in this part of the country, but that's not keeping people away. But police are keeping people out of this stretch of Centennial Boulevard in Colorado Springs, specifically because they're responding now to reports of an active shooter, an active shooter near the Planned Parenthood along the 3400 block.

Got a lot of voices we've been talking to for the past half hour or so, specifically describing the scene. This is near a grocery store. People in the grocery store are being told to shelter-in-place. They can't leave. Others can't come in. And that is the same situation for anyone up and down this stretch of Centennial Boulevard. Shops, banks, grocery stores, it's all the same because police are trying to set up this perimeter, this barricade, and try to determine what exactly is happening. A lot of questions as this is still very much a fluid situation. Are there hostages? Are there officers wounded? And I can tell you that ATF, police, they're on the scene, FBI as well trying to make sure everyone stays safe and they can lure this individual out with no casualties whatsoever.

Kyung Lah has been watching this for us. And Kyung can shed a little more light on what's happened, the area.

And any more on the officers' involvement in this active shooting situation?

LAH: Well, we were able to reach the mayor's office, the mayor of this town, and he says he's, in fact, just getting on board, just trying to learn what's happening.

We're monitoring some scanner traffic, some police scanner traffic, and we don't want to give away anything tactically, but we are hearing them start to go through checklists, and they're making sure everyone is OK. This is part of the active shooter drill. They want to make sure that anyone who's in that area is locked down. We've heard them go through the various businesses.

We've been able to reach a couple of the businesses. One of them is an eye care center. They said very briefly they're all OK, that they are staying inside the store. We were able to reach that grocery store. And the store says they're staying away from the front nowhere near the glass. They're all in the back. They have about a dozen people working. All shoppers have been told to stay inside the store.

As far as what we've been able to learn about this particular Planned Parenthood center, it appears, Brooke, that the very last protest was in summer, in August. I may remember all the national discussion about some of those videos, those Planned Parenthood videos, whether they were fake, how much they were doctored. There was a national outcry. There were a number of cities that had protests. In late August, there was a week-long protest at this particular Planned Parenthood center. On Saturday, August 22nd, there were 300 people who were near the center protesting because of those videos. Entirely peaceful. There was no clash between protesters or police or even the locals. So very, very peaceful. That is the last major protest we could find at this particular Planned Parenthood center -- Brooke?

[14:55:50] BALDWIN: OK. Kyung, stay with me. I have one more question for you, but I was just getting some information as we've been discussing the different, you know, law enforcement presence there on scene.

I am being told now from Colorado Springs P.D. that they have not requested assistance from the FBI, not requested assistance from the FBI, but the FBI telling us they are prepared to help.

Kyung, back to you.

I think the language is very precise from police, that the active shooter situation happening near the Planned Parenthood. So at this point in time, we still don't know where exactly this is happening, correct?

LAH: You're right. "Near" is the critical word here.

BALDWIN: Yeah.

LAH: And the reason we became very interested in this originally is that the first tweet that came out from the Centennial Police Department was the actual address of the Planned Parenthood center, that that is the address that there was some sort of a shooting occurring. So that really raised some antennas. But then now they're saying that it's near the Planned Parenthood center, that the address is in this particular hundred block. We don't know if that means that the police have now recognized that the shooter may be on the move or if the original information they got was inaccurate. But in the early part of something that's active like this, a lot of the information does tend to change. So the first tweet that came out from the police department was the actual address. Now they're using the word "near," and that is very important. Especially when you consider the number of businesses that are around the Planned Parenthood center. And we've heard a number of your guests here saying that it is Black Friday, so that's the concern.

BALDWIN: Black Friday, and its lunchtime. So a lot of people out and about. And police don't want them caught in the crosshairs of this active shooting situation.

Kyung Lah, thank you.

Quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

[14:59:44] BALDWIN: Top of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

We are in this breaking news here, watching the situation unfolding here in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It's a city of about 400,000 people. And when you think about this time of day there, it is lunchtime, Black Friday, and it's also cold and snowy. And this is all important because police are responding to an active shooting situation. The call came in just a little while ago. And we don't know a lot. Let me be totally transparent. We don't know a lot right now.