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School Shooting In Connecticut; Multiple Casualties

Aired December 14, 2012 - 13:00   ET

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- is now where they were staging. You could see a number of ambulances. We saw stretchers. We actually saw someone taken away on a stretcher from that area. This is the woods and probably that woman we spoke with lives right in that area.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She said she was adjacent to the playing fields, and you can see a --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, you can see the wide space.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's right there, because that might be her home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. And she kind of echoed the reality that you -- try and help children today, but they're so reluctant.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. She was wise. She said, don't -- you don't have to come in the house, I'll just get you a hot chocolate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But get on the main roads.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And those kids did not want to remain -- we have an update on the president being informed. A White House spokesperson says that the president feels enormous sympathy for the families of the children. And then when asked about gun control policies, the spokesperson said, there is, I am sure -- will be, rather, a day for discussion of the usual Washington policy debates, but I don't think today is that day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. This is a tragedy of historic proportion, a national tragedy now as we learn that the death toll is 27 and of the 27, 18 children. And we know that they're very young children because Sandy Hook Elementary is a school that has kindergarten through fourth graders. So, virtual babies attend -- very -- so young attend an elementary school that is not even k through 8. It's k through 4 at this school.

So horrific, horrific news that we are all learning. The shooter -- now, this is the -- there were reports of two. But one or two suspects. One is dead, one taken away in handcuffs. The one we're assuming with the ties to New Jersey whose home the feds are in the process of raiding. We assume that is the deceased gunman but we don't know at this point. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we don't know. Now, that is the other facility we were telling you about. The volunteer firehouse. You can see all the vehicles there. Up on the top there above the building, you can see a fire truck taken out of the building. But in the middle of your screen is where all the ambulances gathered. I want to reiterate this is -- this was shot a couple of hours ago now. This is where the children were taken following the shooting. They were led by staff members probably through the woods there that you see in the bottom of your screen to that as a staging area. And then, eventually parents came to lead their children away. At some point in this video, we did see an ambulance taking away someone on an ambulance -- on a stretcher. Lots of vehicles there.

That's also where the media gathered, and we're told that about a half hour ago all the media were asked to leave that area. That's the school. Sandy Hook Elementary. Becky, I don't know if you heard it. We're told that all of the news 12s are watching this now. So, if you just are joining us, that school consists of 600 students from kindergarten through fourth grade. And shortly after school started, the school day began, one report says, during the announcements that were being made over the loud speaker system the shots began ringing out. And before all was said and done, 18 children and nine adults were killed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can only imagine, at in the point, if -- the reports that we received are --

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to bring in our Susan Candiotti who has the very latest. Susan, what are you learning there on the ground?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, We're getting ready for a news conference to start anytime now here in Connecticut. We are a short distance away from where the school is located and there is still a crime scene there, very active crime scene at this time. We know that there are multiple people dead, at least 20. And among them, at least -- at least 10 of those dead are children in this horrific shooting. The other information we now know is that the shooter was discovered in a classroom. We don't know whether that shooter took his own life or was killed by police or in some other way. Still waiting to get that information as well.

But it is a heart-breaking scene here as children were led through the school one hand on the shoulder of the child in front of them as they are led away from here, taken to a local firehouse. Many of them meeting already with their parents who were notified. Many of them had signed up and learned about this tragedy by text, that there was a shooting at the school or e-mail notified to -- about what had happened here. Many of those parents, of course, showing up quickly to comfort their children and be with their children as police continue to look around this scene.

MALVEAUX: Susan, are there still children inside of the school?

CANDIOTTI: We don't believe so but I don't have any official confirmation on that. This happened at about 9:40 or so Eastern time. Police rather quickly responding to the scene of multiple gun shots and injuries. And immediately, as soon as it was safe for them to do so, children -- you know, first the school was locked down which is usually the case. And once it was safe to lead the children out of the school. That's exactly what happened.

We have local police, state police, as well as federal law enforcement on the scene here, including the FBI and ATF canvassing the area to make sure that there was only shooter -- suspected shooter, involved in this terrible massacre as well as whether there was anyone else involved. To that end, they've been walking down the street looking at various cars. One car is corned (ph) off, taped off and they're looking around the area as well just to make sure that they have -- that there is only one suspect involved in this case.

MALVEAUX: All right. Susan, we're going to get to you and certainly we're going to take that press conference as soon as it happens, but I want our viewers to listen to this because this was just moments ago.

Our CNN digital managing editor Meredith Artley, she spoke with us and she actually talked to a woman who has a child, a second grader, inside of that school who was there, who witnessed the shooting. I want you to listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MEREDITH ARTLEY, CNN V.P. AND MANAGING EDITOR: She was in a -- she was in a meeting this morning, she said it was around 9:30, 9:35 and she -- there were about seven people in the room. It was a meeting regarding one of her kids. She has children at the school, and she volunteers at the school as well. And she heard -- she described it as a pop, pop, pop in the hall, and they all heard it. There were about seven people in the meeting room, and they heard that sound in the hall. And they -- she said, three people went out into the hall, the principal, the vice principal and the school psychologist.

And to hear her describe it, she said, three people went out into the hall, and only one -- only one person came back which was the vice principal, she said, who was shot in the leg or the foot who came crawling back. And she said that she cowered under the table during that moment, and she called 911, as did the other people in the room. She said she never saw the shooter, that she was -- you know, she was under the table, that the shooting happened in the hallway. And to hear her describe it, she said that there was -- there must've been 100 rounds. And I asked her to clarify that, is it really, truly, 100 rounds? And she said, at least.

MALVEAUX: When the vice principal came crawling back, what happened at that point? What did she say? How did the vice principal manage to move or escape? Can -- did she describe what was the situation as he was crawling back?

ARTLEY: She described -- she said that -- she said that there was confusion, there was yelling -- understandably, she said there was yelling in the hallway, and she couldn't tell for a while if it was the police or the shooter. When I talked to her, she was still inside the school. The school was on lockdown, so she couldn't tell -- she didn't know if the shooter was dead yet or still there.

MALVEAUX: What did the vice principal look like when she saw him return?

ARTLEY: I didn't -- I did -- I didn't hear her describe that. She said -- you know, she said, listen, this is a nice town. This is a nice school. These are the kinds of things that don't happen there. She noted, this was not some high-powered meeting. It was, you know, about my -- about one of my children who is in second grade there. And she's -- you know, she's tearful. She's -- you know, just understandably panicked. And she said they marched -- at some point -- I don't have the length of time, but she said at some point after the shooting, they marched us out in the hallway right past the two bodies laying in the hallway in a pool of blood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Unbelievable. Seven people in an office there and experiencing something as tragic as that. I want to bring in our Susan Candiotti, because Susan has been reporting that it could be as many as 20 people who have been killed in this school shooting. Of them, 10 -- and we're talking about little children, K through fourth grade who were marched out of that school. Susan, what do we know? What do we expect to learn in the moments ahead from this news conference?

CANDIOTTI: Well, as you said, we hope to get more details about how this happened, if they have a precise number about now how many are dead, as you said. We have our source with knowledge of the investigation saying there are at least 20 dead or close to 20 dad and at least 10 of them being children. In this grade school, as you mentioned, it has grades kindergarten through the fourth grade. We know that they have found at least two guns with the shooter, according to another source with knowledge of the investigation. Two weapons.

We don't know how the shooter died, whether he took his own life or whether someone else killed him. And then, as soon as it was safe, as you heard, for children to leave that class -- to leave the school, the children were led out of the school to a nearby firehouse that is being used as a staging area for children and parents who, of course, rushed to the site just as soon as they could. Just a terrible, heart-breaking information. The shock for these children and parents and this entire community are going through now to try to understand how this could have happened, if there -- a motive has been discovered for why this happened, whether there was any connection between the suspected shooter in this case and the school itself --

MALVEAEUX: All right.

CANDIOTTI: -- that led that person to the school this morning. These are all some of the many questions --

MALVEAUX: Right.

CANDIOTTI: -- that we all have. MALVEAUX: All right. Susan, we're going to take a quick break here. We're going to try to get some of the answers to those questions as soon as we get to that news conference expected momentarily.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Following this breaking news story at Sandy Hook Elementary school where CNN is confirming that 20 people have died in that shooting incident. I want to go to WABC, our affiliate there. They're talking about conditions of some people who were brought to Danbury Hospital. And, again, we want to remind people, we are hearing many different numbers in terms of fatalities. This is raw information coming that is coming in. CNN can only confirm 20 fatalities at this time. Let's listen in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, WABC REPORTER: What do you have on that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, WABC REPORTER: Well, Liz and Dave, you know, you've been raising a lot of issues about the whole issue of security since Columbine. And the fact of the matter is that we have received this letter that the principal of the school, Dawn Hochsprung, who was appointed in 2010, sent to parents earlier in year, and I'm actually going to read it to you, at least the first part. Dear members our Sandy Hook family, our district is implementing a security system in all elementary schools as part of our ongoing efforts to ensure student safety. As usual, exterior doors will be locked during the day. Every visitor will be required to ring the doorbell at the front entrance and the office staff will use a visual monitoring system to allow entry. And then this is highlighted here. Viewers will be required to report to directly to the office and sign in. If our office staff does not recognize you," it goes on to say, "you will be required to show identification with a picture I.D. Please understand with nearly 700 students and over 1,000 parents representing 500 Sandy Hook families, most parenting will be asked to show identification." And then a little later on it also says, "there may be a short delay until someone can view you on the handset and allow you to come in electronically."

Now, of course, we have been talking about the possibility of a parent being involved here, but clearly there are security measures that are in place, that were in place this year so it would be very strict for any visitors getting into the school.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very strict. Do we know why they were implemented?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't know why. We just have this letter. But, you know, clearly, as a number of elementary schools have done and a number of high schools as well, you know, they've -- they've -- you know, we're all parents. They've taken this very seriously. You know, most of them, when you do go into the school now, you do have to sign in. I remember when, you know, when our son was in elementary school, we had to go in, sign in, sign out when you left. So clearly, you know, schools have been addressing this. And this school did as well. I think that's important to mention here. But, you know, if you're dealing with a parent, who knows.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So true. Sarah (ph), thank you.

And, Nick (ph), I just want to bring you in on this, because I would think that most elementary schools in this country were probably -- when they think of security, they're probably thinking of maybe a parental custody case --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Things like that. Not something as violent as this.

And, I - before we get to that point, I also want to say that we are learning a little bit more about the shooter through ABC News. Sources telling Chris Cuomo that the shooter, one shooter, was 24 years old armed with four weapons and wearing a bulletproof vest. Police are continuing to investigate the possibility of an additional shooter, and state police have confirmed to ABC News this afternoon that the two shooters were initially believed to be involved in this shooting. But right now we're learning that the one shooter, 24 years old and wearing a bulletproof vest, as well as armed with four weapons.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean that -- that's just outrageous. But to go to the report on the letter from the school, I mean, look, it's reasonable what they did. I mean they addressed the security issues. They took excellent precautions.

MALVEAUX: You've been listening to WABC there. I want to, again, remind our viewers, this is raw reporting. This is reporting from various networks. CNN cannot independently confirm some of those facts that you are hearing there. But we are awaiting a press conference. We'll hear from police officials directly about what the ultimate fatality count is, those injured, how many suspects and those involved.

We're going to take a quick break. We expect that that news conference is going to happen very shortly.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Sandy Hook Elementary School, the site in Newtown, Connecticut, of a massive shooting. At least 20 people killed. Of those killed, 10 children. Just a few minutes ago we heard from a little girl early this morning who was actually inside of the school when that shooting started.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Third grade. Alexis, you told me that you were sitting in class this morning and you saw a lot of police. Tell me -- tell me how you found out what was going on.

ALEXIS WASIK, WITNESS: Well, we found like there was all these people. And we found out because there was -- we were like right near the window in our classroom. And like we saw like police officers and we heard them on the roof and in our building.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was everybody crying, scared, wanting their parents to come get them?

WASIK: Yes, they were. And then some people were even like -- they kind of (INAUDIBLE), they got a stomachache.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you hear any gunshots or anything like that?

WASIK: Well, police officers, like they were -- they were kind of, because there were police officers, like right out the door, like trying to find the guy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Joining us by phone, security expert, retired Nassau County, New York, police officer Lou Palumbo.

You and I were speaking earlier today about who this whole morning has unfolded and really worst nightmares coming true here when you listen to the -- now the suspected number of fatalities, at least 20 killed, of those 10 children. How does this even compare, I mean, to what we've experienced in the past? I mean it's just unbelievable.

LOU PALUMBO, SECURITY EXPERT & FORMER NASSAU COUNTY OFFICER (via telephone): You're asking me, Suzanne, how this compares to prior incidents?

MALVEAUX: Yes.

PALUMBO: I think it's escalated. You know, when you look at a death toll with our children to this magnitude, I don't -- I don't know how much worse it's going to get. But I will tell you unequivocally with this death toll that we've surpassed any of these prior incidents, of which there are approximately seven in the past couple of years. I mean I certainly hope we don't have a repeat of this or anything that outdoes this, so to speak.

MALVEAUX: I can't even imagine what happens next. As a law enforcement expert, can you explain to us, where do you begin? Where do you start here in terms of the children, their safety, the parents, identifying the dead? What happens now?

PALUMBO: What they're doing right now is to -- not to be trite about it, but they're putting the pieces of this together on many levels, as you just alluded to. They're trying to figure out who is dead. They're trying to figure out notifications. They're trying to run a crime scene. They're trying to create a profile on the individual who perpetrated this. They're tracking down these firearms that were in his possession to determine how he was capable of obtaining them.

And Susan -- Suzanne, excuse me, you know, I have to say this to you. I think -- I think we have to gain some sensibility in our culture. This is the seventh or eighth incident involving firearms. And I support the Second Amendment. But I don't think that that's what this is about. It's quite apparent that people are able to obtain firearms when they are not in the right state of mind. And I think we need to, how would you say, impose part of the vetting process similar to one that we go through in law enforcement, which includes --

MALVEAUX: Lou, we're going to have to -- we're going to have to --

PALUMBO: Psychological screening. The Minnesota multiphase screening tests --

MALVEAUX: We're going to have to get back to you on that point. I know you made a very good point here and I hear your point.

I want to go directly to WABC and just dip in on some news that they're learning.

LIZ CHO, WABC ANCHOR: Come from a scene and hug each other so early on in their investigation. So clearly a very telling moment.

DAVID NOVARRO, WABC ANCHOR: Must be very bad (ph).

CHO: And you can -- one can only imagine the carnage inside that school that you are looking at down there.

Dan Rice (ph) in News Copter 7. Dan, thanks for the update.

If you are just joining us now, it is 1:25 in the afternoon. I'm Liz Cho, along with David Novarro. We are continuing to follow just a tragic story out of Newtown, Connecticut. It started around 9:30 this morning. A gunman walking into Sandy Hook Elementary School. From what we know now, the very latest, 27 people have been killed, mostly children.

NOVARRO: The gunman believed to be in his 20s. He had at least two guns on him. They were recovered at the scene. He was wearing all black, according to our sources, and a bulletproof vest.

CHO: Yes. Most of the children -- the school was evacuated. Those children were taken to a nearby firehouse early this morning. Most of the parents being able to pick up their children there. But now this wait, this agonizing wait for those parents who have not been able to locate their children. As many as 18 children may be dead.

Other schools in the area, Monroe School District, remains on lockdown at this hour. Danbury Hospital, where three of the victims were taken to, also on lockdown at this hour as an abundance of caution. You can see right now, investigators -- Dan Rice had shown us this minivan a short time ago. It's the second car in the parking lot that investigators have cordoned off and are paying particularly close attention to. But you can see the officers there. We understand the FBI, ATF, and local police all now converging in this -- onto this one little town in Fairfield County, Connecticut.

NOVARRO: And initially there was some concerns or some questions if there was more than one person involved, primarily because people were running from the school and they had to question whether some of the people running were involved and the chaos of the moment. They are pursuing every lead just to confirm whether it was one person or more. At this point we only know specifically of the one person, but they're not going to end their investigation with that. They're going to continue looking.

And we've been seeing a lot of activity all along surrounding that. And to answer many of those questions, they've set up a space near the school where the governor and other law enforcement officials are expected to brief reporters when they have enough information, I guess, that they can really give us something to go on because, as we've been stating all morning and afternoon long, the information comes in and it gets updated and changes as this -- more clarity comes to what occurred in this horrifying situation.

CHO: Yes. And we should tell you that President Obama has been briefed, not only by Homeland Security, but also by FBI Director Bob Muller. And he is -- the president has also spoken with Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy, to discuss the incident. Also express his condolences.

We are waiting for the governor, as well as state police, to hold a news conference, which is expected to happen -- it was supposed to happen at around 1:00 this afternoon. But, obviously, they're continuing to try and gather some more information on this.

We want to go right now to Eyewitness News reporter Marcus Solis (ph). He's been outside the firehouse where many of the parents have been going to pick up their children.

Marcus, what's the latest from there right now?

MARCUS SOLIS, EYEWITNESS NEWS: Well, Liz, we're at Washington Avenue here and this is the final point where parents can come to. They have to walk up to that hill to get up to the firehouse and pick up their children. And so many people are ditching their cars and going up there. Certainly less now.

We know that there are several parents who are still awaiting word, their children unaccounted for. But we are still seeing some who are making it back down the hill with their children, certainly relieved after what has been an incredibly emotional morning.

And we just spoke with a parent and his fourth grade son who describes some of the chaos that was going on inside of that school when it was on lockdown and when police were trying to apprehend the shooter and bring this to an end. Let's hear a little bit of what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was in the gym at the time. And so the teachers -- we heard like lots of bangs. And we thought that it was the custodian knocking stuff down. We heard screaming. And so we -- we -- we went onto -- like we went to the wall and we sat down. And then police came in. It's like, is he in here? Then he ran out. And then our teacher -- then somebody yelled, get to a safe place. So we went to the closet in the gym and we sat there for a little while. And then the police like were knocking on the door and they're like, we're evacuating people, we're evacuating people. So we ran out. They're police at about every door. They were leading us down this way, down this way, quick, quick, come on. And we ran down to the firehouse. There was a man pinned down to the ground with handcuffs on.