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Patients Rushed to Hospitals after Shooting at YouTube HQ. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired April 03, 2018 - 17:00   ET

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


JAMES GAGLIANO, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST (via phone): The lesson learned from that is we cannot wait for organic homogeneous teams to go in and show up. We have to put together whatever law enforcement folks, from whatever heterogeneous units or organizations show up. You've got to go to the sound of the guns. That's what we have to do.

[17:00:21] Law enforcement accepts a higher level of acceptable risk. That's what we -- that's what we take on when we take that badge or that shield and strap on that sidearm and swear that oath to protect and serve. And I'm confident that's what happened in this instance.

I'm looking at the scene right now, and it looks like we're moving into a different phase right now. So hopefully, we'll get some word here pretty soon.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. James, stick around. Josh, too. I know Wolf Blitzer will probably want to talk to you both in THE SITUATION ROOM. Stick around.

Keep watching CNN for more on this breaking news. Thanks for watching.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM. We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. We're following breaking news as police confirm an active shooter at YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California. That's just south of San Francisco. It's a very tense, unfolding situation right now as police ring the company's sprawling campus.

Let's get straight to CNN national correspondent Miguel Marquez, who's tracking all the late-breaking developments. What are you learning, Miguel? What's the latest?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I can tell you that Stanford Hospital says that they are getting to receive four to five patients, and there are reports that other local hospitals are either taking patients in from this incident or getting ready to receive them.

On the ground from helicopter pictures, you can see authorities are setting up triage areas outside YouTube headquarters in San Bruno. It is not clear, though, if these injuries are related to the mass exodus of people leaving this facility. More than 1,000 employees work there. Just around 1 p.m. Pacific Time, 4 p.m. Eastern Time, came the first

reports that San Bruno Police were responding to a possible 911, or to several 911 calls. And then the worst news, the news that's become all too common in our country, that they were, in fact, responding to a mass shooter situation at YouTube headquarters in San Bruno.

Very quickly, you started to see not only streams of employees coming out of there with their hands raised in many situations, lining up. Allowing themselves to be checked and frisked by police before they could go on their way. As a very heavy police presence started to move into the several buildings that comprise this campus of YouTube.

In some cases, you had police officers in short sleeves and jeans, heavily clad in armor with their guns drawn. A shield out in front, moving into the building very slowly, literally in a line. Five or six of them along, pointing their weapons in different directions, so that they could basically cover every location.

From employees that CNN has spoken to, it sounds like most of the activity centered around an area where employees there eat, an outdoor patio area, where shots were heard. It becomes very murky, though, after that as to whether or not this person, whoever fired the shots, went into the building, escaped the grounds.

Police now responding in very, very heavy form. Both police, fire and ambulance services in the event of a mass casualty situation, responding in very, very heavy form to try to get into that building, make sure that anyone that may have been involved in the shooting, if there was one, can't get out as they go through those many, many warrens and rooms in the YouTube headquarters to try to figure out if and where that shooter is -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes. The -- it looks like the situation is still unfolding. As you point out, we're just getting word from Stanford University Medical Center, the Stanford University Hospital, confirming that four or five patients are en route to the hospital right now. And presumably, Miguel, that could just be the beginning.

MARQUEZ: It could be. It's always the first disturbing signs of these incidents as they start to happen. It is possible, given the number of employees and the number of people trying to get out of that building very quickly. Because everybody that we have spoken to, everybody that has -- that we're watching on social media, they talked about moving out of that building very quickly.

Some of these individuals could have been injured while trying to get out of that building, falling down stairs and the like. Or just panicked and in need of medical assistance because of that.

So it is really not clear at the moment just how bad, or if, in fact, there was anyone injured by a shooter. But police believe that they are -- that there is a shooter there, that they are responding accordingly, and that they are going through that building methodically trying to figure out what in the world happened.

[17:05:19] BLITZER: And we're seeing live pictures of more SWAT police officers arriving on the scene right now. This is an incident that clearly is unfolding.

Just to recap, the city of San Bruno received what were described as multiple 911 calls from the YouTube campus and the surrounding area, with callers reporting multiple shots were heard fired. That according to the San Bruno city manager, Connie Jackson. The city has responded, the city manager says, with, quote, "a massive police and fire response."

That's what we're getting from officials. I want to quickly go to CNN's Shimon Prokupecz, who's working his sources. What are you learning about this?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf. So as we've been reporting, the ATF and certainly the FBI is assisting in this. The FBI responding. The FBI also has some folks on the scene. They like us are just trying to get a handle on what exactly they have, what they're dealing with right now. We don't have any number of casualties or any number of dead or any number of injured at this point.

Much of like what's out there right now, they themselves, the federal authorities, are trying to confirm. Obviously, we don't have a motive. We don't know if this is work-related or something else.

But it would appear that they believe that it would be pretty hard for someone to get into this building and to do something like this. So perhaps maybe there was an employee or something. But that's all obviously still under investigation. There were all sorts of reports early on as this was unfolding. None of that has been confirmed yet.

BLITZER: ATF headquarters tweeted this just a little while ago. This is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "The ATF San Francisco field division is responding to a reported shooting at YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California."

And the San Bruno Police just tweeted, "We are responding to an active shooter. Please stay away from the Cherry Avenue and Bay Hill Drive area." Police clearly on the scene.

Phil Mudd is monitoring this with us, as well. We don't know a lot of details other than multiple 911 calls, individuals are being rushed to Stanford University Hospital, and there's a massive police presence that has now emerged on this YouTube campus.

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: You can't make any assumptions here. For example, you're talking about an active shooter. I wouldn't assume that there's a -- just a single shooter. There's a couple of things you've got to be thinking about, especially on a campus this large.

No. 1, don't assume there's only one individual, even if the eyewitnesses say that. Eyewitnesses are not reliable. They obviously don't know what's happening elsewhere on the compound. We don't know if there are devices involved, so somebody in the ATF or else the FBI, the police, is going to have to sweep the facility at some point. So there's a situation here where you can't assume that what you think

are facts are actually true. You can't, for example, as I said earlier, assume that when someone walks out who was at the shooting and says, "I only saw one person," that that means there's only one person.

One quick other point. There are parallel investigations here. One is happening on the scene. What's going on with individuals there? What's going on with the shooter, how to take shooter out. There's got to be an intelligence investigation as soon as you identify that shooter with one question in mind: Is this a conspiracy? Or can we be confirm that there's only one person involved? So a lot of action right now, Wolf.

BLITZER: And it's just the beginning of this investigation. We don't even know if the incident has been complete. Shimon, you're getting more information?

PROKUPECZ: Yes. I mean, right now, it's exactly what Phil said. I think everyone is just trying to exactly figure out what's going on here. Keep in mind that some of the people that may have been injured here may have been running from the scene, trying to escape. Naturally, in this kinds of situations, there's chaos. People get injured as they're fleeing.

You know, I did speak to one person that seemed to think that the local officials have this under control. It doesn't mean in any way that this is contained, but it did appear, at least that the locals here, with their -- with law enforcement there, and their resources, was handling this.

The ATF being there simply also would mean as back-up, as resources, just in case the locals would need the response. We shouldn't read anything into that, that there's any kind of incendiary device or anything else there. Certainly, if there was, that would be something the FBI and really, I mean, the local police there of California. Highway patrol is on scene. So all of those folks would certainly be able to deal with that.

BLITZER: This is a huge area, this YouTube campus. We did some checking, "Business Insider" article. It informs us the YouTube headquarters includes open areas, communal-style work spaces. Employees from all levels and positions sit side by side, work together. YouTube headquarters has complimentary breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's a high-tech area that occupies about 1.1 million square feet of space in this area in multiple buildings.

Josh Campbell is with us. He's a former FBI supervisor -- supervisory special agent, now a contributor to CNN. What's your sense?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Wolf, another tragedy playing out.

[17:10:09] And I was just thinking, you know, a month and a half ago, I sat there with you and with Shimon and Phil Mudd; and here we are with yet another -- another incident that we're trying to make sense of. As we look at the size of this facility, that's going to be key here

as far as the length of time it takes to determine where is the threat, is there still a threat. Obviously, law enforcement officers responding in proportion to, you know, the massive undertaking that's ahead of them as far as working through that facility, determining what they're dealing with, talking to witnesses. We've seen that fusion of state, local, federal law enforcement officers. In an incident like this, you're going to see that mutual aid. You're going to see officers responding and assisting.

At the beginning, no one cares about who's in charge. It's having that unified command. People coming together, being able to determine is there a threat and how can we best put our resources to use in order to protect lives and determine if there's still a threat here. So we're seeing that.

I think, you know, at the top of the hour, we learned that hospitals are now starting to receive victims, which changes things a lot. You know, a lot of these incidents, unfortunately, in the last couple years, hospitals have now become a huge part of the planning and practice of some of these drills and some of these active shooter incidents. You know, ready for that kind of response. And I think, you know, unfortunately, we always hope the number is low, obviously, but to hear them now taking victims, obviously, changes this a lot. And we'll just have to continue to monitor, to figure out what the extent is that we're dealing with and, you know, what the next step is.

We see law enforcement officers there, you know, frisking people, as they come out. You know, trying to put the employees in an area where they can talk to them, where they can go through to determine, is there a threat here? Obviously, you know, in Parkland, there was the issue with the shooter actually being able to exit the facility and, as you'll recall, was arrested offsite. And so that's obviously forefront in mind for law enforcement, as well. Is, you know, do they know who the threat is? Or could he or she be among those that are now outside the building?

BLITZER: And we're told that more than 1,000 employees over there at YouTube headquarters in San Bruno. It's the largest private employer in the area, and they expected to grow by an additional 1,700 or so in the next couple year or so.

I quickly want to go to our chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta. Jim, I assume they're monitoring all these developments at the White House, as well?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, I think we have to assume they're monitoring these developments at the moment. As of right now, we have not been told whether or not President Trump has been briefed on these developments out in California. It may simply be too early, with the lack of information that we have at this point, as to whether this is some sort of domestic situation or whether it rises to the level of something much more frightening. And at this point, until those details come in, it's difficult for the White House to respond at this point. We should also point out that the president has been involved in a

series of meetings this afternoon. He'd been meeting with the Baltic leaders. As you know, earlier today had that news conference. And he was also scheduled to have a national security meeting this afternoon to deal with the situation in Syria, going after ISIS in Syria. It's unclear whether or not that meeting is still ongoing. It was ongoing to the point of when the shooting happened out in California, and perhaps that came up during the meeting. We just don't have the answer to those questions yet.

But Wolf, as you know, in recent weeks, these mass shootings have been front and center for this White House. The Parkland shooting, of course, which happened back on Valentine's Day. The White House grappling with that issue of gun control for so many weeks and feeling like, the White House officials have been feeling like they've been putting that matter behind them, that issue behind them with the passage of bills into law that tighten the background check system in the country and also harden security at schools around the country. Those two items may not go as far as some people would like. But until we know all the details, in terms of how this shooting unfolded, what kind of weapons were used, what were the circumstances of this shooting, it is unclear what the political implications of any of this might be at this point.

And the first step in that process. You hear folks over at the White House, reporters like us, saying the president has been briefed on something. That's usually the very beginning of the White House or administration gathering facts on something like this, Wolf.

BLITZER: Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House, just tweeted, "My staff and I are closely following developments from the active shooter situation. Thank you to our first responders, our Bay Area community, and all American communities deserve real action to #EndGunviolence."

So Nancy Pelosi weighing in. This is her area in California near her area, I'm sure her district.

You know, as we look, Shimon, at this -- at these images that we're getting, and it's eerie to once again see individuals with their hands up, being escorted, removed from a campus. This is the YouTube campus. It's not a high school; it's not a university. It's the YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California. And then you see long lines of individuals as they're leaving, being frisked.

[17:15:09] PROKUPECZ: Yes. And the police seem to know what exactly they're doing here. I mean, we just sat here a few months ago during the Parkland shooting and watched the same type of video. This one obviously involving high-school-age kids.

The thing here, though, you can see, based on this video, that it does appear that they do have it somewhat under control. They're now searching people who have exited the building. At this point, everything, I'm told, it's all being handled locally. The ATF providing some sort but everything seems to indicate this is being handled by the local police. And we still don't have an act number on how many people were injured or shot or what the motive here is.

But certainly, the police, as we know, and as we've sat here and said so many times, train for this. Do this training almost on an annual basis. And they're prepared for these situations.

And you know, YouTube headquarters would be a target for anything like this so they would have their own security. And the police there would probably be familiar with the building, with the layout of the building. They probably have maps. So they know the inner workings of that building. So they would be prepared to respond to something like this.

BLITZER: We just heard from an eyewitness who spoke to one of our affiliates, our TV affiliates out in the area. Let me play the clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Man, it was just like two or three shots. And then, like, within 30 seconds after that, or 40 seconds after that, then I seen the girl running out and then she was shot in the leg. And then the other people behind me, they opened the doors to let her in, pulled her in. And I grabbed a bunch of napkins. So I come back, and I checked on the girl. I checked on the girl. Is she all right? Yes, yes. She got shot in the leg. Then I ran back over there. Then I'm looking, I'm looking, the other guy goes, he just shot the other person. And that person got shot ten times. I mean --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Phil Mudd, you hear those eerie, eerie eyewitness accounts. And unfortunately, as you and I and all of our viewers know, it's too obvious what is going on. A shooting like this. We don't know the details. We don't know if it was personal. We don't know much but it is an awful situation that we have to report on.

MUDD: But there are some details that already should be emerging for the federal and state, local guys who are on the scene. Let me give you a couple.

We've got a lot of eyewitnesses here. If this individual happens to have been a YouTube employee, I would expect someone looked at him and said, that's John or that's Jane Doe. So you might have eyewitnesses who can already give you an answer to the biggest question I would have right now, which is who is this person and is this person part of a broader conspiracy?

The second question I've had that might be being answered as we speak would be, especially in a high-tech compound like this, surveillance video. Is there surveillance video that can give responders a view on wherever this individual is? And a picture of their face? If I can get a picture of a face, I might be able to identify. Go to a social media account and start looking at what that person was saying, whether they're speaking to other people, whether they're sympathizers this person spoke with before they went to the compound.

I suspect behind the scenes, there's a lot of information that's flowing in already.

BLITZER: I also want to bring in Brian Stelter, who's watching all of this.

You know individuals over there, Brian, at YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, and I know you've been on the phone with some of them. What are you hearing?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And these evacuations, which we've also seen in the area, are continuing very much in an active time for interviews as you were talking about. These employees. And visitors who might have been on campus today now being interviewed to find out what they do know, if anything.

You think about the time of day this happened, Wolf. It was the lunch hour, 1 p.m. local time. People were coming and going on a campus like this right there in Silicon Valley. This is a typical kind of suburban-looking Silicon Valley campus, a college campus with multiple buildings. You have to have a badge coming in and out. You have to be escorted if you're a visitor.

But you have hundreds, and we know in this case, at least a thousand people working on this campus, which means it is going to be a massive crime scene. It's going to take a lot of time to process.

We have not heard much from YouTube, by the way. I've been checking in with the company's spokespeople. The only thing they're sharing at this time is that they are working with local law enforcement and the authorities on site, and they have nothing more to say. The employees I've spoken with haven't heard much from the company either, because obviously, everyone is just trying to find out what exactly happened.

BLITZER: We're just told that we'll be getting a briefing from local police in San Bruno momentarily. We'll, of course, have live coverage of that. We've also just been told the White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, telling the White House pool of reporters the president has been briefed, and we are monitoring the ongoing situation in San Bruno, California. That's from Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary.

Josh Campbell, what does your -- what's your gut tell you right now as we watch all of this unfold?

[17:20:04] CAMPBELL: Well, I'm glad to hear about the pending briefing from the police, because obviously, we're going to learn a lot of details there. But also, you have to step back and think, in an incident like this, you know, unfortunately, we've seen too many of these.

But I talked to the victim -- family members of victims in San Bernardino and Orlando, and the one thing that they said, almost to a person, was that it was this period right here, that period where they don't know what's going on. If you think about it, with 1,100 employees that, hopefully, now able to reach out to the loved ones and say that "We're OK," whether it's via Twitter or social media, some other method. But this is that period that is, you know, perhaps the most dreaded

when you just don't know. If you know someone in that facility, you know somebody who works there, you're wanting that information. So to hear that the police are standing by and, you know, possibly going to provide initial information shortly, that's key. In these types of investigations, there are at least two different phases. The first is the preservation of life and that emergency response. And we've seen that. We see the law enforcement assets that are there on place, on site.

As I look, obviously, we don't know what's going on inside the facility. We do know law enforcement officers will be going through a methodical clearing of the facility that there are their aren't additional threats. But we look at these pictures and you don't see that continual flood of resources and of information, and the ingress and egress of emergency vehicles that at least suggest. And again, we don't know exactly right now that the immediate threat is over or we wouldn't have police officers pulling resources away to give a press briefing.

The second part is going to be that investigation. As Phil alluded to, there's so much that we want to know about the person or persons that were involved in this. And if you think about it, as well, not just the identity. But this is a type of phase, an incident like this, where if you have someone that may have provided -- been provided assistance by someone else, or someone else may have simply known about it.

Now is the time that law enforcement, they're going to want to get to those people. So fully identifying the person, identifying -- or persons, identifying who they are, you know, who their contacts are. That's going to be key, because law enforcement officers are going to want to determine, what's the motive? What are we dealing with here? A lot of it's going to come from here as far as, you know, what's the story, this person. What's the picture? As you talk to people that might know him or her, whatever it turns out to be. Those are going to be key details that help us determine why we're dealing with yet another potential shooting here.

BLITZER: You see these long lines of individuals being escorted away from that YouTube campus in San Bruno, California. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California has just tweeted, "My stomach sinks with yet another active shooter alert. I'm praying for the safety of everyone at YouTube headquarters."

We're awaiting the police briefing, Phil Mudd. And as we await a relationship briefing, we can only hope the incident has ended, and we'll get some specific details. We don't know if it's still an ongoing shooting incident, though.

MUDD: You would expect that the police aren't coming out to talk to the press unless they have something to say about resolution. But even if we have some -- as some short-term resolution as an intel guy, I'm still asking questions in three circles.

No. 1, co-conspirators; No. 2, facilitators; No. 3, people who might have been aware. You go back, for example, to The Pulse shooting. The wife in The Pulse shooting, as you know, was just acquitted in that case. But there are questions there about whether she knew The Pulse shooter was going to do the shooting, even if she didn't participate.

If we have closure on this case, what I'm saying, Wolf, is if we have closure here, you still have open questions that say, did friends or family associates ever see anything happening? Was there a concern about this individual or individuals' behavior before the event? So when the imminent event closes, you've still got some imminent work to do to move through the case.

BLITZER: And Brian Stelter, you know this campus. You know the individuals, a lot of the individuals who work there at YouTube, which is part of Google. It's going to raise all sorts of questions. Was this simply some personal incident that occurred? Or was there something involving the social media giant?

STELTER: That's exactly right. Those are the obvious questions that I think are on people's minds. Your mind and my mind but also on the minds of staffers at the company. They're wondering if this is a complete coincidence. It could have happened to the place or if it is related somehow to YouTube? By the way, just another update. No official word from the company beyond the statement earlier that they are working with the authorities. YouTube doesn't have anything more to say at the moment.

But this is the kind of company that is iconic, and its headquarters is iconic for a lot of people who grew up on YouTube and making YouTube videos. You know, just -- you think about the power of YouTube, Wolf. How so many people seek to achieve YouTube stardom being at San Bruno. It's sort of a big deal. You get to visit the headquarters.

At this point, though, YouTube also has offices all around the world, and we should mention this headquarters for YouTube is actually further north than the main Google campus. When you think about YouTube owned by Google, you might think pictures a giant Googleplex that exists in Silicon Valley. This is a separate campus, much smaller than that main office. But that said, more than 1,000 employees do work here at this YouTube office, and this is the kind of place. You have a lot of visitors on a daily basis, as well as staffers.

[17:25:10] We don't know if this was a murder-suicide situation, something targeting the company or something random that happened to be near or at the headquarters of YouTube. That remains to be seen. But I think those are the questions I'm hearing from staffers. They are wondering just like we are here.

BLITZER: Yes, YouTube Google communications tweeted this, "Re: YouTube situation. We are coordinating with authorities."

We'll provide additional information here from Google and YouTube as it becomes available so we're anticipating statements from them, as well. Miguel Marquez is monitoring the situation. You're working your sources. What else are you picking up?

MARQUEZ: Yes, San Bruno Police, as you say, just about to do a press conference to update people. This is a massive effort by the San Bruno Police and their emergency services, both fire and medical services. We know that four to five people are already on their way, if not already at Stanford Hospital. There are reports of many others who are moving to other hospitals. It is not clear, though, if these individuals are the victims of gunshot wounds, or if they were injured in just the panic of trying to get out of this building.

Clearly, just after 1 p.m. in the afternoon, was, you know, a Tuesday afternoon, fully staffed up, over 1,000 people in there, rushing out of that building as police, heavily armed police, are trying to get into that building. It caused a lot of confusion. There were pictures of employees filing out of the YouTube headquarters. Hands in the air, being frisked by police to make sure that nobody was trying to escape the scene.

That while police clearly scrambling on their own. Some of them just short-sleeved shirts and Levis. But clad in armor and weapons drawn with the shield in front of them, moving slowly into that building and trying to figure out what's going on. The police said that they will have far more for us here shortly.

The mayor, the city manager of San Bruno, said they responded in massive fashion to this area. And as we have seen the scene there, it has seemed the sort of calm in the hours since this thing first broke.

This area that you're looking at right now seems to be the area where most of the discussion on social media, and from those that we've talked to on the campus, seems to be focused. It's an area where people may have been having lunch at the time. People heard gunshots and then began to move away from the area and out of building very quickly. It is -- you know, this is the South Bay in San Francisco. This is a very, very heavily trafficked area. There's a big freeway that goes right along that area.

I saw pictures where police have shut down part of that freeway, because they didn't want cars moving so close to the YouTube headquarters. It is several buildings. Four buildings in total. A thousand people trying to get out. Some of them were sheltering in place. Others were trying to get out of the building. This as a massive police presence was trying to get into the building and emergency workers setting up triage areas outside that building just in case they have a mass triage situation.

So a lot of confusion. The one good sign, we can say, is that, I mean, what you're looking at now is a triage area. And you don't see anybody there, except for somebody a person who appears to have suffered a sprain or a fall at trying to get out of that building. We don't know if any of these victims at this point, moving to hospitals or in hospitals, were injured in the evacuation or just needed assistance because they were overcome with panic in a situation that has just become far too common -- Wolf.

We just got a tweet from the San Mateo County sheriff. San Bruno's in San Mateo County. In regards to active shooter situation at YouTube headquarters, San Bruno Police chief Ed Barberini will be making a statement at 2:30 p.m. That's Pacific Time, 5:30 p.m. Eastern. Media staging areas at the corner of Prager Avenue and Bayhill Drive in San Bruno.

So momentarily, it's almost 5:30 on the West Coast. We should be getting a statement from the police. Police Chief Ed Barberini.

Shimon, you're getting more information.

PROKUPECZ: Yes, that's right. It's coming from our CNN, our Evan Perez. We're being told that the shooter here was a woman, was a female shooter and that she is dead.

And it would appear, according to the sources, that the situation, at least at this point, is contained. It doesn't appear they're looking for any other shooter. We don't know if anyone else was shot, but the shooter at least is dead. We don't know if that's from a self- inflicted wound or if someone -- if police shot her.

But at this point, it appears that the situation is contained and somewhat under control.

BLITZER: Do we have any information about casualties?

PROKUPECZ: No. We don't have any other information on any other casualties. All we know right now is at least some information about the shooter.

BLITZER: That's pretty unusual, Josh Campbell. A female shooter in an incident like this. We rarely hear that.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: No, you're absolutely right. This is obviously a different dynamic, something that we're not used to. I was talking with a law enforcement source. And you know, I asked, was this someone that was perhaps a victim that you just came across? And they said no, that we at least suspected this was a person was involved in perpetrating this incident.

So at least they are comfortable enough now, saying that we'll have more details that are going to come, obviously, at this press conference. But you're right, Wolf. This is not the typical, you know, profile of one of these type of shooters. Obviously, there's so much that we don't know about her, and we can see her now about her past, her history.

You know, one thing that we've seen in a lot of these shootings is now law enforcement will go back and look back through their own holdings and say, you know, try to determine, did we know this person. That's going to happen at the state level, the local level, the federal level, in order to determine was this someone that was on law enforcement's radar, or is this someone who just, you know, acted, maybe without anyone else knowing or, you know, being someone law enforcement at least was aware of.

So that will all be part of this investigation. We can be assured that look back, research that investigation taking place right now to watch the event unfold.

BLITZER: Basically, just to recap, it's now believed a female shooter, apparently dead, involved in this incident at YouTube headquarters at San Bruno, California. We don't know the extent of casualties. We do know Stanford University Medical Center, not too far away, is reporting at least four to five individuals en route to the hospital or other hospitals in the area are reporting individuals on the way or already admitted this clearly doesn't necessarily, Phil Mudd, fit the profile that we've seen so many times over the years.

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: It doesn't, but we've got a lot of questions to answer to close this out.

So we have an identification now, I would assume. We've got digital and other information here you're going to acquire. I've got to interview the friends and family and determine whether she was the only one. I want to look at the digital profile, including things like Facebook, to determine whether there was communication with somebody else.

But you're right. In terms of looking at female shooters, very few. Though I would say, in my world, terrorism over the past ten years, the involvement of women in terrorism has changed. Shootings like this, though, really unusual.

BLITZER: Yes, very unusual. But go ahead.

PROKUPECZ: The FBI, they're tweeting there that they're on scene, but it's being handled by the -- by the locals, which would give you some indication, at least at this point, that the FA (ph) doesn't think that this is terrorism. Because if it was terrorism, they would be taking over the investigation. At least right now, you know, there are some indications that perhaps this was more of a local type thing. Maybe the folks, some of the people knew even other. This could have been some kind of a dispute and not something bigger like a terrorism -- any kind of terrorism.

So the FBI is there. ATF is there, certainly supporting whatever the locals need. But you know, as we've been saying, there appears to be under control. Contained now and the locals are handling and hopefully will get more information on exactly who else may have been hurt here shortly.

BLITZER: We're standing by to hear from the San Bruno police chief, Ed Barberini. Momentarily, we're told, he'll be making a statement. We've got cameras over there. We're ready to take that live as soon as he walks up to the microphone. We'll get the latest from the San Bruno police chief. We'll get more information, as well, from our sources.

Phil Mudd, give us some perspective here. It presumably could just be coincidental that this is taking place at YouTube headquarters, the social media giant.

MUDD: I would agree with that. It could be coincidental. If you look at the volume of information people leave behind, especially people who are angry about something. They want to talk to somebody. They want to tell somebody, even if they've left a diary for themselves. I would expect in interview with family, friends, associates, and looking at the digital side of this, we'll have some idea of what motivated this person.

But let me point back to the Vegas incident. I mean, one of the most significant incidents we've had in my lifetime and I think still people are stepping back, saying there are financial issues involved there with that individual. But understanding the motivation of a single shooter, when that shooter is dead, sometimes can be really difficult unless they leave a trail themselves.

PROKUPECZ: And also, in terms of motives, as you probably know, the FBI certainly has been concerned, because there have been at least a few of these kinds of situations where they don't know the motive. Las Vegas is one of them. Austin in some ways, the man who was -- with these package bombs. They have not been able to clearly figure out a motive. And it's something that has troubled -- that has been troubling for the FBI. Because it's always an important aspect of their investigation, is to try and figure out why someone did something, obviously.

And they have seen a number of these kinds of situations where they just have not been able to determine the motive. In this case, we'll see, you know, what happens here. But they seem to have some pretty good leads, at least this point, certainly, on the shooter. They've identified her. And now that the scene's contained --

[17:35:06] BLITZER: But they haven't released any names.

PROKUPECZ: They have not released any names. I don't expect them to release any names any time soon.

BLITZER: But they have -- you believe they know, local police, the FBI, ATF know the identity of this female shooter?

PROKUPECZ: Yes. I believe they do. It wouldn't be that difficult -- difficult for them to pretty much figure that out. Especially if they think this is an isolated incident, maybe some kind of personal grievance. But that again, you know -- because they don't believe this is terrorism. There's no indication of that at this point.

BLITZER: We'll be anxious to get this woman's name. Clearly, once police and authorities release that name. There's so much we don't know. We know that there's a female shooter, apparently dead at this incident. We know several individuals have been taken to local hospitals, including Stanford University Medical Center. We don't know how many people have been injured. We don't know the extent of casualties, and we certainly don't know, Phil, the motivation for what happened.

MUDD: Let me give you a rule of thumb in these cases. When you have a single individual, determining motivation is much more difficult than in conspiracies. In conspiracies, obviously, you have an indication that can help you. But there's a significant factor I used to witness, and that is in conspiracies, people are going to explain to each other in a similar --

BLITZER: Hold on a second. I think the police are starting the briefing.

CHIEF ED BARBERINI, SAN BRUNO POLICE: Coming in, it's obviously a very fluid situation. We're doing the best we can to keep everybody up to date.

So at 12:46 p.m. this afternoon, the San Bruno Police Department received numerous 911 calls regarding gunshots at the YouTube campus located on Cherry Avenue in our city. The San Bruno Police arrived on scene at 12:48 and immediately began a search for a possible shooter or suspect.

Upon arrival, officers encountered numerous employees fleeing from the building. It was very chaotic, as you can imagine. We did encounter one victim with apparent gunshot wound towards the front of the business as we arrived.

Several minutes later, while conducting a search of the premises, officers located a second individual with a gunshot wound that appears, may have been self-inflicted. We are still working on confirming that.

Two additional victims were located several minutes later at an adjacent business. The extent of all of the injuries of our victims are unknown right now. They were all transported for emergency medical care. But they are all unknown. So if I missed that, we have four victims who have all been transported for gunshot-related injuries; and we have one subject who is deceased inside the building with a self-inflicted wound that at this time we believe to be the shooter, but we're still following up on that.

Multiple law enforcement agencies have responded to assist. We're very grateful for everyone's help and assistance. But we could not have responded and accomplished this without everybody's help. This is an active event and an active investigation; and numerous law enforcement personnel from numerous different agencies are still conducting a search of the businesses, just to make sure that it is clear.

We conducted a quick, immediate search of the premises when the first officers arrived, as pursuant to our active shooter protocol. And after that search was concluded, now we're going through with a methodical slow search, just to make sure we cover all the bases.

That's all I have for you at this time. We hope to have something a little later. I cannot give you -- I'm sorry, excuse me. I cannot give you the time of the next press update, but we'll put that out as soon as we have that information.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

BARBERINI: I'm sorry?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) employee? (UNINTELLIGIBLE) man or a woman?

BARBERINI: I cannot confirm that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

BARBERINI: It's a female.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

BARBERINI: My understanding is that they are -- they've been transported, and they're being treated for injuries that are treatable. We're hoping for the best, obviously.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are there people inside the building or --

BARBERINI: My understanding is the building has been evacuated. There are people in the immediate area. We're obviously trying to contact a large amount of people to try to identify and gain some information from witnesses at the scene. So you can imagine, it's a -- it's a monumental task with the number of employees that work inside the building.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

BARBERINI: I'm sorry?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

BARBERINI: I don't have that information. I'm sorry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

BARBERINI: No, we have -- I haven't taken an inventory of all the agencies here. There are numerous agencies. We work well with our neighboring partners, and we're grateful that they're here, but there's a lot of them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

BARBERINI: She -- I want to clarify that we did find -- we did locate a victim with a -- what we believe to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. It's a female. But the investigation is still ongoing before we can put all the pieces together.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was this person an ex-employee?

BARBERINI: I have no -- I don't have any information regarding that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you looking for another shooter?

BARBERINI: We are clearing the building and searching the building in a slow, methodical manner, like we do anyway. So we haven't eliminated that possibility, but we have no information to suggest that there's somebody -- somebody else in there.

[17:40:07] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where are the employees now? We saw them walking down the street.

BARBERINI: Yes, well, we have -- a lot of employees self-evacuated, as you can imagine. We've identified a group that we want to talk to, and we have staging areas where our detectives are reaching out to them and interviewing them. So we're trying to -- we're trying to do it as orderly as we can. But a lot of people, have a pretty hectic scenario. It's a task.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

BARBERINI: I believe -- my understanding is the building has been evacuated, so they're all out of that building.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many people are we talking about?

BARBERINI: Several hundred. A few hundred. My understanding.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

BARBERINI: I don't know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was it a boyfriend there?

BARBERINI: I have no -- I have no idea. I don't know the circumstances surrounding this at all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

BARBERINI: I don't want to eliminate any possibility. I don't know any of that for sure. Like I said, this is still active. We're still investigating this as I'm speaking to you. There's a lot of things that I simply don't know right now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

BARBERINI: I don't have that information. I will try to get you an update as soon as we can once we know more. But I think that I've given you almost everything that we know at this point. So --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

BARBERINI: Yes, when we know -- when we know -- I don't want to give you a time, because I may not have a lot for you. So when when we can identify a time that's appropriate to -- to come back and update you again, we'll do that immediately

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) get that information?

BARBERINI: We'll probably put that out through our media list and through social media.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chief, we understand one employee, the police had to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in order to enter the building. Did you have any trouble getting --

BARBERINI: I don't have any information regarding that right now. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) problem with security?

BARBERINI: I don't -- we're not even at that point yet. We're still trying to address the situation in front of us.

OK, I will get you some more information in a few minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

BARBERINI: I don't know. That's all I have. And I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Thank you.

BLITZER: There you have it, from the San Bruno police chief, Ed Barberini., saying the shooter, the suspected shooter, is dead, a female. Apparently, a self-inflicted wound. Killed, this individual, a female shooter. At least four others suffering from gunshot wounds taken to local hospitals.

The incidents occurred both at YouTube headquarters and, the police chief says, at an adjacent business. No more details than that. No identification of the female shooter. But it looks -- he says it looks like it was self-inflicted.

Phil Mudd and Shimon Prokupecz are watching all of this. Shimon, first to you. What did you learn?

PROKUPECZ: Well -- well, my question is how did this person get -- if this person was inside the building -- I'm not really clear from the press conference. It sounded like they found her inside the building. And obviously, is this an employee, and what their policies are, obviously, for guns. And so the question here is going to be certainly that.

And the other issue, there were some victims that were found outside of the building. Perhaps they were running from the scene, and that's when they were found with the gunshot wounds. So questions about how they were injured, perhaps.

And who was this woman targeting, I guess, is the big question now. Was this some kind of a domestic type situation? Perhaps a love triangle? It certainly seems that way.

I know early on, when I was talking to law enforcement officials, this was an indication to them that this was a murder -- perhaps some type of attempted murder-suicide, early on. We have not been able to, obviously, confirm that so we didn't go with it.

So they -- law enforcement had a really good handle on this very quickly when they went in. They knew exactly what they were dealing with, which I'm sure helped them kind of assess the situation and get it under control, which they seem to have done fairly quickly.

BLITZER: Yes, they're moving in -- the police chief acknowledging everything he told us is everything they know. And there are so many unanswered questions. MUDD: A lot of questions about motivation. But I tell you, looking

at a case like this, when you get a single shooter, which presumably is what we have here. The likelihood this extends beyond in terms of either conspiracy or some sort of intent that goes beyond, as you say, maybe a romantic issue, maybe an issue at the workplace, I think (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

Single shooters, in my experience, are going to have more incidents of either mental disorders or motivations that are not sort of complex conspiracies, than you would get when you get -- when you get three, or four, or five people who come up with a complicated plan for how they're going to conduct an operation like this.

We may come up with a very simple motivation here, is what I'm saying, that revolves around the mental state of one individual and a mental state that clearly was, in some cases --

BLITZER: And Shimon, we've got no indication whether this was a handgun or a rifle or some other type of assault weapon.

PROKUPECZ: Not yet. We've not gotten that indication. And again, I think we said this earlier, how, you know, to have a female shooter, certainly at times it seems very rare. So certainly that will probably go -- factor into whatever, perhaps, the motivation here was, which I think is what the police are now trying to certainly figure out.

BLITZER: Miguel Marquez is joining us. Miguel, you're getting some new information on those who were injured in this shooting incident?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it sounds like everybody who was injured in this will survive. We have a little bit of information out of San Francisco General Hospital about the ages and the sexes of those who were shot. A 32-year-old female is in serious condition but expected to survive. A 27-year-old female is in fair condition. And a 36-year-old male is in fair -- is in critical condition.

The police chief is saying that they found one of the bodies -- one of the victims as they entered the building, and then found two others in an adjacent business. So it is very unclear how all this transpired.

Much of the information that we've had all day is that the shooting began in the patio, the area where they would be having lunch. Now, we know that the first calls came in around 12:30. That would have been just in the middle of the lunch hour there at YouTube headquarters, Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, 12:36, they got the first of numerous 911 calls, according to the San Bruno Police Chief, Ed Barberini. And at 12:48, police arrived on the scene.

Josh Campbell, talk a little bit about how extraordinary it is that this shooter, who apparently then shot herself, killed herself, a female.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: No, it is rare. And I can tell, you know, obviously, from a law enforcement perspective, the FBI did an exhaustive study on active shooter incidents in the United States. And they looked at the period -- I believe it was 2000 to 2013.

And of the 160 some odd that they considered mass shootings, there were only six that were actually female. So it is very rare.

Obviously, we're not going to know a lot of the details until we learn more from law enforcement about who this person was and what was the relationship, if any, between her and the victims that we have that are now injured.

But, to me, it at least suggests, you know, based on experience, that there was some type of relationship there just because it is so rare to have that makeup not only physically but, you know, the psychological profile, which we still don't know of this person, kind of what was going through her mind as this happened.

Was this something that she had planned for, you know, long in advance? Or there are just so many different questions that we have that that investigation will uncover as it goes about.

One other thing also worth noting is that, now, we're in the period -- now that law enforcement officers are, you know, likely to start releasing some of the evacuees to, you know, return home, kind of go about their day after the witness interviews take place, after they are frisked to ensure that there were no other, you know, potential threats, we're going to start hearing from them.

And it's just a matter of time before someone -- you know, if this person was an employee there, someone's going to say, you know, as Phil Mudd was alluding to earlier, you know, I saw this person. I know this person. And then we'll be able to gather some additional information.

I think law enforcement, they're going to be, obviously, a little more on the conservative side about what information that they're going to present. Props to Chief Barberini there for doing it textbook, coming out quickly, telling us what he knew, what he couldn't tell us, and what he didn't know.

And so that's what you want to see in these types of incidents. So, you know, we have that information. This is an issue that is in the public interests. And obviously, with all the employees there, there are a lot of loved ones that want to know, you know, how their people are doing.

But we'll continue to get update, obviously, from law enforcement. The witness interviews will be interesting as, you know, people start to talk. And once we find out who this person was, then I think we can start reading a little more what's behind this.

BLITZER: Yes. Brian Stelter is getting more reaction now from YouTube and Google, the parent company.

What are you learning, Brian? BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I've been

covering YouTube for years, Wolf. This company has never seen a day like this before.

This has certainly shaken up the staffers who were on this campus, some who were nearby enough to hear the gunshots, others who were in there buildings but heard a fire alarm and had to evacuate.

So now, Google has issued a new statement both with a guidance for its staffers and for the public. Here is a part of what the company is now saying.

They say, we continue to actively coordinate with local authorities and hospitals. Our security team has been working closely with authorities to evacuate the buildings and ensure the safety of employees in the area.

The company also says, we've advised those who are currently at the San Bruno office to continue to stay there and shelter in place until further notice.

That may be because police want to interview those staffers.

And then finally, Google says, we advise all other employees in the Bay Area -- they have many buildings in the area -- to stay away from the area. There's no need to take any action. We even provided employees a helpline today.

So that's the word from Google updating the staffers and the public about what's going on. This is, of course, the headquarters of YouTube in San Bruno, California.

It's been the headquarters for the past eight years. There are several buildings on campus. Many hundreds of employees who work there.

And some of those employees are now recounting what they heard, what they witnessed, and having to flee. Some staffers say they thought it was an earthquake because of the panic. Others say they sensed right away this was a shooting situation.

What we don't know, of course, is whether this gunman, this woman who is now dead, whether she was an employee or an ex-employee, whether she was someone who just happened to be visiting YouTube that day, or if she had any connection to the company at all.

It seems rather random if she had no connection at all, but we just don't know. What we do know is this is one of the most famous work places in the country. Everybody in the world, at this point, knows what YouTube is and knows what YouTube is all about. And, today, of course, it's the sight of workplace violence.

[17:50:07] BLITZER: It certainly is. And as you point out, we don't know if this woman, this shooter who died with a self-inflicted wound, had any connection with Google or YouTube, was employed there, or just happened to go there. STELTER: That' right. And the sense I have from YouTube P.R. is that

they don't have the answer to that question yet either.

BLITZER: All right, Shimon is monitoring the situation. Shimon is just getting a statement from the FBI in San Francisco.

FBI is on scene at the incident in San Bruno in support of our local law enforcement partners. San Bruno Police is the lead agency at this time. That's significant that there's -- FBI is saying San Bruno Police is the lead agency.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Right, absolutely. And certainly, that will tell you that law enforcement, at least right now, is investigating whether there was some relationship between the woman and whoever the intended target was in this.

And perhaps the people -- the other people who were injured here were just injured and went perhaps running from the scene or maybe were injured after. Because witnesses report hearing several shots, so they may have been hit by gunfire.

And what it tells us also is that because the locals are taking on this investigation or leading, that this, obviously, is not terrorism.

BLITZER: If it were terrorism, the FBI would take the lead, take charge. This is the San Bruno Police Department in charge.

We're just getting a tweet from the President of the United States, President Trump. Let me put it up on the screen and we'll show our viewers.

Was just briefed on the shooting at YouTube's headquarters in San Bruno, California. Our thoughts and prayers are with everybody involved. Thank you to our phenomenal law enforcement officers and first responders that are currently on the scene.

That tweet just moments ago from President Trump.

Phil Mudd, it's encouraging that this is not seen as a terrorist incident. It's something local presumably because the FBI is not in charge.

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: That's right. If the -- it suggests to me that the law enforcement officers on the scene already have, as Shimon was suggesting, some indicators about motive.

Because if you had open questions about motive, if you thought that the motivation, for example, were political or terrorism, the feds would move in and probably take charge of the case.

So I think that's a pretty significant indication here of what the local officials think about the motivation of this individual. Probably local, probably a personal motivation.

BLITZER: Just to recap, the suspect and the shooter is dead according to the Police Chief Ed Barberini, self-inflicted wound. The shooter is dead, but at least four victims have been transferred to local hospitals with gunshot wounds.

We know that some have gone to Stanford University Medical Center. Others have gone to other hospitals in the local area.

And that number clearly could go up. These are all first reports.

PROKUPECZ: Right, yes, it certainly can go up. And we know the police are still searching the building. They said they were searching, so they could potentially find other people who were hurt, perhaps someone maybe afraid, maybe hiding in a closet -- we've seen this before -- and is afraid to come out.

But it seems, by everything the police are telling us, that they have this under control. And so now, we're just -- we're moving towards finding out exactly what happened.

It's significant that we know the FBI says that the locals -- the local police are handling this. So that gives us a lot of indication about where this investigation is going.

It does sound like there were a number of shots fired. That's certainly is concerning. And then, I guess, there's going to be this question about who is this person, how did this weapon get inside?

YouTube, you would have to imagine, understands, given who they are, that they're potentially a target and have all sorts of security measures in place to protect against something like this. So I think questions like that, certainly, for the people who work there and for those families, as to how that happened is going to need to be answered.

BLITZER: And, Phil, San Bruno, just south of San Francisco.

We got a spokesperson from San Francisco General Hospital tell CNN affiliate, KGO, the injured sent to the hospital in San Francisco --, a female, 32 years old, in serious condition; a female, 27 years old, in fair condition; and a male, 36 years old, in critical condition. Presumably all with gunshot wounds.

MUDD: Yes, but there's an interesting fact here that we ought to focus on for just a moment. And that is the contrast between this situation -- thank God we don't appear to have anybody who is dead beyond the shooter -- and what we saw in San Bernardino, California or what we saw in Broward County, what we saw at the Pulse nightclub, what we saw in Las Vegas.

What that tells me, getting inside the shooter's head, is that individual did not go and -- go in intending to maximize casualties. They didn't go in planning for weeks or months saying, how do I amass weapons and kill 30 people?

I'm going guess that part of the motivation here was a trigger that was relatively recent and, again, was a personal motivation.

BLITZER: We're staying on top of the breaking news. Coming up, much more shooting at YouTube's sprawling headquarters just

south of San Francisco. There are multiple casualties. Police say the suspected shooter was a woman dead of an apparent self-inflicted wound.

We're going to have all the details. All the day's other breaking news stories as well. We'll be right back.

[17:55:04] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Happening now, breaking news. YouTube shooting. Police say a female suspect is dead after opening fire at YouTube headquarters in California. Multiple people are wounded. What was the motive in this unusual case where a woman is the shooter?

Tough love. President Trump claims he's been tougher than anybody on Russia while still refusing to say a bad word about Vladimir Putin. What message is he sending to world leaders who need the U.S. to keep the Kremlin in check?

[17:59:58] Jail time. The first prison sentence is ordered in the Special Counsel's Russia investigation as the broad scope of Robert Mueller's authority is revealed. Did Mueller leave us clues about where his collusion probe is heading?