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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Aviation Mess; Dow Tanks; Three Shot in Potland, OR, School Shooting

Aired December 12, 2014 - 16:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

You're looking at live pictures from KPTV in Portland, Oregon.

And we're beginning today with some breaking news in our national lead. You're looking right now at live pictures, as I said, about a school shooting in North Portland at Rosemary Anderson High School, where at least three victims have been shot, three people have been shot, according to the fire department there.

It is unknown if the people shot are dead or alive. Portland police say the suspects have fled. They would not say if they were still believed to be armed or if they clashed with police. Nearby Jefferson High School and Portland Community College in lockdown, we're told. Media have been told to set up at North Killingsworth Street and Kirby Avenue.

Parents are told that that is the staging area. We will update more on the story as soon as we know more. But to recap, there has been a school shooting in North Portland, Oregon, at Rosemary Anderson High School. And as of right now, we know of at least three individuals who were shot. And we are waiting for more information as we learn it.

We will bring to it you as soon as we get it.

Now let's turn to our money lead and a not-so-happy Friday for Wall Street, stocks tanking today, the Dow tumbling 110 points this morning before sliding further and ending the day down about 300 points.

CNN Money correspondent Alison Kosik is live at the New York Stock Exchange.

Alison, another day, another day of bad news. Why do the markets keep falling?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's all about oil, Jake.

Plunging oil prices taking a toll on investors today yet again, oil falling almost 4 percent, settling below $58 a barrel for the first time in 5.5 years. Why so much selling? Well, today, there was yet another prediction about oil demand, this one coming from the International Energy Agency, saying global demand for oil is going to fall next year and that's as supply is growing.

What's rattling Wall Street is the question of what's really behind this drop in oil prices. The concern is it's because economies in Europe and Asia are slowing down. Also, you look at the plunge in oil over the past six months. It's happened really, really fast and that's making investors very, very nervous.

Meantime, if you drive, you are loving the lower gas prices. Look at this. In Oklahoma City, you can fill up for $1.89 a gallon. That's just one city across the country that's enjoying these lower gas prices. It's like a tax cut putting an extra $100 a month into your pocket. And that extra money actually looks like it is going towards spending because we got retail sales numbers for November coming in stronger than expected.

The funny is, is usually Wall Street sees that extra spending as a plus, but, Jake, today, it's about worries that lower demand for oil is a symptom of slower growth for the rest of the world -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Alison Kosik in New York, thanks.

Our national lead right now is that monster storm slamming the West Coast, the weather responsible for two deaths, both in Portland, Oregon. A young boy was killed when a tree fell on the car in which he was traveling. Another tree fell on the tent of a homeless man, killing him. The same system that washed this house into the ocean in Washington State is still lashing the West Coast.

In California, some people ended up trapped inside their own homes. Mudslides sent debris sliding. The result? Houses crushed by big boulders.

CNN's Paul Vercammen is live in that very neighborhood in Camarillo Springs.

Paul, it's an absolute mess there and frankly amazing that anyone survived.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, it was absolutely astonishing, Jake. As you pointed out, these houses absolutely swallowed up by all these rocks, tons and tons of rocks that came down over the hill.

You can see just over my right shoulder utility workers trying to make sure everything is turned off in terms of the power and the gas. And then, as you walk down the street, we have got 10 houses right around this part of Camarillo Springs that have been red-tagged. That means they're uninhabitable.

As you can see, they're just swallowed up and surrounded by rocks. And a harrowing story out of this house right here. When the rocks came and surrounded the house, a couple was pinned inside along with their caregiver. And the fire department had to come in and pull them out. We talked to their son and he was so glad to hear that the caregiver and his 86-year-old parents survived this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) VERCAMMEN: When you think about what you see over there, these rocks and your parents at the age of 86 going through this, what does that say about them?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's pretty darn amazing. I heard about the rocks, but until I looked at the sides of the houses and heard from some of the cameramen that went to the back and saw how extensive the damage was, yes, it gets you by surprise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: And why did this happen? It's because there was a major fire that roared through here about a year-and-a-half ago. It stripped the vegetation from these hills.

And then overnight, the Weather Service telling us in just three hours, they got an inch-and-a-half to two inches of rain in an already saturated hillside. And that's when the mud, but mostly rock, as you can see, came roaring down here and engulfed these houses, Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Paul Vercammen in Camarillo Springs, California, thank you so much.

Another amazing situation, this is the rescue of two people clinging to trees in the swollen Los Angeles River. At one point, the rushing water swept a rescuer downstream. Luckily, everyone survived. The threat of these intense waters bringing more mudslides is the biggest fear right now in California. Areas once scorched by wildfires now have nothing to hold back the debris.

Let's bring in Mark Ghilarducci, on the phone from Berkeley, California. He leads emergency services for the state of California.

Mark, thanks for joining us.

What is the main concern right now? How are you getting people out of harm's way from the potential mud slides?

MARK GHILARDUCCI, CALIFORNIA EMERGENCY SERVICES DIRECTOR: Well, of course, the most important factor right now is the ongoing, consistent rain.

At times, the rain is going to be very heavy. And we have identified those areas that could potentially be impacted by mud flows. We know where the burn scars are from this past summer. And we have done mandatory evacuations in all of those areas where they potentially could result in mud flows.

That's given us the ability to get folks out of harm's way and get the area closed off to potentially other people who may be impacted by that.

TAPPER: Up north, flooding was the big problem, of course. You also have crews racing to reopen roads and get power restored. We're now of course heading into the weekend, where more people could be leaving their homes. How long do you see this cleanup process lasting? GHILARDUCCI: Well, given the fact that we're still -- it is still

raining and we will be between two storms here -- there's another storm that will be coming behind this one in the next day or so.

The crews have been out. They were out before the storm hit and being prepared to respond. And they have worked all through the storm to keep the drains open and keep the highways clear. But we anticipate it will take a few weeks to be able to get through the cleanup process throughout the state.

BALDWIN: You had as of now, knock on wood, no deaths reported in California. We have heard of two in Oregon. You say preplanning is responsible for a lot of that, right?

GHILARDUCCI: Well, absolutely.

We had the -- really the great opportunity of seeing the storm coming towards us, which gave us the ability to do a lot of outreach to the citizens of California and to our public safety agencies, to our emergency managers throughout the state of California, to get the word out about winterizing your home, what to do when it started to rain hard, how to drive through water.

And all of those were great messages that we were able to put forth. And I think it really did play out well for us. And we do -- we are blessed. At this point, we have nod had any reports of fatalities.

TAPPER: Mark Ghilarducci, director of California's Emergency Services Office, thank you so much. And good luck.

And turning now to our world lead, and anarchy in the skies today -- today, Heathrow Airport in London had to divert flight after flight when its computers failed, saddling one of the world's busiest hubs without a surefire way to make sure planes could land safely.

Just an hour ago, a spokesman for NATS, U.K.'s air traffic control center, told CNN they have ruled out a cyber-attack. And they say it was a hiccup in their state-of-the-art computers.

CNN aviation correspondent Rene Marsh joins us now.

Rene, even if it wasn't a cyber-attack, this does expose just how easily our way of managing airplanes in this computerized world can easily implode.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You're absolutely right.

It truly is a vulnerability that makes a lot of people uncomfortable. If you're flying through London, one thing is certain today, you can expect delays for hours to come. About 100 flights in and out of Heathrow, a major international hub, canceled, and even more delays. And then there's the ripple effect.

It's all because of this computer failure, a real-life demonstration of just how a downed computer system can cripple air travel for thousand and thousands of travelers. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARSH (voice-over): This is what traffic in the skies over London looks like on a normal day. This is what it looks like today after a major disruption from what officials call a computer failure at a British control center.

MARTIN ROLFE, NATS: We will obviously work to make sure that it never happens again. It's a complex system. Failures do occur and actually we plan for those failures and have a plan in place for those failures.

MARSH: London Heathrow Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world, at a standstill today, no flights going in or out.

MAN: We have been waiting on the plane an hour. So we get -- the flight got canceled, so we had to get out.

MARSH: The airspace closed after the system that helps coordinate flights in the crowded airspace went down, many planes diverted. An hour and 20 minutes later, the problem at Swanwick air traffic control center was fixed. But the damage had been done.

The ripple effect felt at airports across the U.K., Heathrow saying the flight disruptions could continue to Saturday, delays also in Paris. U.S. carriers also experiencing some delays. The question now, what caused the system failure? British officials have ruled out a hack and aviation security analysts agree.

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: There's been a lot of attempts. But there have not been any actually through the firewall to take control of any kind of control in any way. So unless this is a first time, I don't think that's what happened here.

MARSH: There are backup systems, but as we saw in Chicago this September, when wires were cut and a fire ignited inside an FAA facility disrupting thousands of flights for days, those redundancies may not be enough to prevent disrupted travel on a major scale.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARSH: The majority of problems we are seeing, they are with international carriers like British Airways, Ryanair, and some of the other British short-haul carriers.

We do know that the U.S. carriers, some of them, experiencing just a handful of delays. What you really want to do is make sure you call your carrier if you're headed in that direction just to make sure you won't be impacted.

TAPPER: Yet more evidence of the vulnerability in this new computer age of what can happen because of a glitch.

MARSH: Exactly. One glitch and so many people, their flight plans disrupted.

TAPPER: All right, Rene Marsh, thank you so much.

Let's go back now to the breaking news out of Portland, Oregon. We are looking right now at some live pictures from KPTV. It's Rosemary Anderson High School, where police say there's been a school shooting.

Let's go over what we know so far. At least three victims, all students, have been shot. Police say the students were transported from the scene. They were conscious and breathing when they left the scene and they have been taken to nearby Emanuel Medical Center, we're told.

Portland, Oregon, police say the suspect or suspects have fled. Police would not say if the individuals, the suspects, were still armed or if they clashed with police. We're also told nearby Jefferson High School and Portland Community College in Portland, Portland, Oregon, are on lockdown.

Rosemary Anderson High School is an alternative high school. It opened in 1983. It has just under 200 students.

Let's go now to Rich Tyler on the phone. He's with the Portland Fire Department.

Rich, are you there? Are you still looking for the shooter?

RICH TYLER, PORTLAND FIRE DEPARTMENT: Yes. Portland police is looking for the shooter. We as a fire department provided the emergency medical services to the students that were transported.

TAPPER: What can you tell us about the students? Three students, all wounded. What kinds of wounds were they, how serious were they?

TYLER: I do not know the extent of the wounds. All I know is they were all three shot and transferred, transported to Emanuel Hospital.

TAPPER: We're just learning about this. Can you tell us what time it happened?

TYLER: Approximately 30 minutes ago.

TAPPER: Just about 30 minutes ago you got the call and you went there. And do you have any idea how serious the wounds are? We heard one report that somebody was shot in the back. Are they considered to be life-threatening injuries? Do you have any idea?

TYLER: At this point, we're treating all of them as life-threatening injuries. The physicians there at Emanuel hospital will do an excellent job of taking care of them to the best of their ability.

Portland police is on scene, not only investigating the shooting here, but also out looking for the shooter.

TAPPER: All right, so it's about 1:15 Portland time. You're saying this happened about half-an-hour ago, so at about 12:45. Were the students outside the school or inside the school? Do you know?

TYLER: They were inside the school.

TAPPER: And what other details can you tell us? Is the shooter or shooters thought to be students? Is it more than one shooter?

TYLER: We don't know that at this time.

TAPPER: And what kind of capability do you have there at the scene right now? How many fire trucks are there? How many police cars are there?

TYLER: I don't know exactly how many.

We pulled a full multi-patient incident for the fire department. And, of course, the police bureau brought everybody in, including their task force to help assist.

TAPPER: What message do you have for the parents who are learning about this right now? I would imagine if it only happened about half an hour ago, is there a staging area for parents to meet up with their students? Are the students inside the school in lockdown?

TYLER: Yes. The students inside the school are in lockdown. We're asking all parents who are coming to pick up their students to come to North Kirby and North Killingsworth court. There we have police officers who will help reunify the parents with the students.

TAPPER: We're told by the Portland police this is not an active shooter situation. Police are beginning to investigate the incident. Translate that for us. That means that the shooter is not inside the school itself or thought to be near the school but he or she is still at large, I believe, correct?

TYLER: Correct. But no longer actively shooting anyone. They have left the scene and are no longer here at the school.

TAPPER: We're told that nearby Jefferson High School and Portland Community College are also in lockdown. Are there any other businesses or schools that are in lockdown? Is that just because they're close by?

TYLER: Correct. Yes, that's standard protocol to lock those down. Keep those students safe as we look -- as the Portland police looks for the shooter or shooters.

TAPPER: What can you tell us about Rosemary Anderson High School? We're told it's an alternative high school, has fewer than 200 students.

TYLER: That's about the extent of what I know. It's a high school that started here a few years back and has a small student population.

TAPPER: And this is an area of North Portland, is that right?

TYLER: That's correct.

TAPPER: What can you tell us about North Portland? Is this an area that has a lot of shootings in the neighborhood? Is it an area that is high crime or is this -- obviously, school shootings are horrific whenever they happen. But is this unusual for there to be a shooting in this neighborhood?

TYLER: It's unusual to have a shooting at a school anywhere.

TAPPER: Unfortunately, it's becoming more and more usual these days, it seems.

But, Lieutenant Tyler, I do appreciate your time. Hopefully we can come back to you and get more information about this school shooting. We're all thinking about the three students who were wounded in this attack.

Thank you so much, Lieutenant Rich Tyler.

TYLER: No problem.

TAPPER: In our world lead -- he is one of the few people connected to the CIA torture scandal who is in prison right now. The operative who claims to have blown the whistle on the whole program. What does he think about the shocking details in the new Senate torture report? We'll go to that prison interview, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD, where we continue to follow breaking news in our national lead. You're looking at pictures of Rosemary Anderson High School in North Portland, Oregon. Police say there's been a school shooting.

Let's go over what we know so far. There are at least three victims, all students. They have been shot. Police say they were shot -- we just heard from Portland Fire Department which said that the students were shot inside the school. Police say the three were transported from the scene, conscious and breathing and taken to nearby Emanuel Medical Center. Portland police say it is not an active shooter situation, meaning the shooter is not on the scene or inside the school. But the suspect or suspects have fled, according to police. Police will not say if the individuals or individual was still armed or if that person clashed with police.

Rosemary Anderson High School has been -- it's a place where there are under 200 students. It's an alternative school. It has been declared safe. Police have nearby Jefferson High School and Portland Community College in lockdown because they are close by. That is standard operating procedure, we're told, from a member of Portland, Oregon's emergency management services.

Let's go to CNN justice reporter, Evan Perez, who has some new details about this school shooting.

Evan, what can you tell us?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: Jake, you know, as often happens in these situations, there's a lot of conflicting information early on in this case, as well. The police are indicating that they believe the shooting actually happened outside of the school. I know you just said, I think the fire department said they transported three people from the scene. And they believe that the shooting -- they were shot inside the school. We'll have to wait a little while for these details to be clarified by the police.

We know that the suspect -- the person who was believed to carry out the shooting has fled the scene and the police are now preparing to provide a little more detail on who they're looking for. We know that they have now alerted the federal authorities who are now heading to the scene. I've talked to people who say the ATF is heading to the scene and I expect that the FBI is as well because as they -- that tends to happen in these cases, Jake. The feds come in to try to provide any assistance that the local police may need, including trying to figure out where the gun might have come from for the suspect, the suspect used in this shooting.

Right now, we know that there were three victims and we know that the suspect is no longer there. So, we expect that the police are going to provide an update in a little while.

There's not a lot more that we know from how this went down, Jake. It's one of those situations where it always triggers a lot of response from federal and local authorities. The feds come in typically to try to do gun trace, to try to see if they can help, perhaps get some of the background on whoever the shooter was, if there was any information in their computers or in any of their background that indicated why this might have happened. Again, it's still very early. And we don't know exactly what precipitated, what caused this shooting, whether or not there was a disagreement or whether it was something that was premeditated, Jake.

TAPPER: That's right. Evan Perez, always a good reminder that information coming in so soon after an incident like this can often be conflicting. We're told by the fire department spokesman with whom we spoke that the incident happened roughly 12:45 Portland Time, 3:45 Eastern Time. We were all three students were wounded but were conscious and breathing. The fire department spokesman said that they were treating the injuries as if they were life-threatening. Of course, that does not mean that they are life-threatening. Just that they are treating them with urgency.

Evan Perez, thank you for that. We're going to come back to you as you learn more information.

I have on the phone now, Parker Bolden, who lives in the neighbor.

Parker, you were on the scene just after the shooting, I'm told. Tell us what you saw.

PARKER BOLDEN, RESIDENT (via telephone): Well, I heard a siren. I was in the apartment complex right on the corner. And I heard a siren. And then I heard a couple more, and they all seemed to be coming our direction. So, I walked outside.

And there was a very small gathering of people, just a few cops at the time that I got there. And they were starting to take the victims out on stretchers.

TAPPER: And you were in your apartment building when you were watching this?

BOLDEN: No. I was on the street right outside of the school that it happened at.

TAPPER: And can you tell us anything in terms of the urgency with which these students were being taken onto the ambulance and rushed off? I just ask because it might say something about the seriousness of the wounds.

BOLDEN: It was very quickly. I mean, they were out of the school, they were on stretchers.

They actually came by where I was standing next to a couple of people who knew the victim. And he was responsive, talking back to them. He seemed sort of -- I don't know, he wasn't going in and out of coconsciousness but he was not very in clear mind, you know? He was definitely in a bad situation. And they were quickly put on and taken to Emanuel Hospital right around the corner.

TAPPER: That's what we were told. Did you see all three shooting victims or one of them?

BOLDEN: I did. I saw all three of them.

TAPPER: Were they three males, do you know? Two males --

BOLDEN: They were -- from what I could -- I saw two males. I didn't see the other victim very clearly. I saw two males who had bandages, around the midsection.

TAPPER: You describe one of the victims as having been talking, which is great news. What about the other two? Were they speaking at all, could you tell?

BOLDEN: The other one that I saw clearly, his eyes were open. He was definitely alert. He wasn't talking to anybody. Nobody was really shouting at him like the other victim. And he was alert but I just saw it for a short amount of time.

TAPPER: Is there anything you can tell us about anything anyone may have said about why this happened or anything about the shooter or shooters?

BOLDEN: I didn't hear anything about the shooter or the shooters. It is sort of the conversation on the scene was that there's a lot of gang activity in that area, specifically in that school, because it's an alternative school.