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Breaking News

School Shooting

Aired January 15, 2002 - 14:41   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: In New York taking place right now, you see there a helicopter shot we are getting from our affiliate WABC, this is a shot of Martin Luther King Jr. High School, which is on the upper west side. We understand it is located in the Lincoln Center area of Manhattan.

We have just been able to confirm from out sources there on the ground, that there have been two students shot. They are in the hospital right now. We don't have any word on what their condition is. We are still trying to track that down.

And as you can see, there are police officers on the roof. They have got the building pretty much surrounded. And we understand that possibly all of the students are still inside this school. This school has enrolled up to 3,000 students and we understand that they may all be locked inside their classrooms right now, as police are searching for the shooter who may still be there on grounds.

We don't know if they believe he inside the building or somewhere around it. But as you saw there a second ago there were people on the roof actually looking around for something. So, we are still tracking this story. Again, the two students shot here, this happened moments ago.

They are in a hospital, in one of the area hospitals. We don't know which one just yet. We understand that they are still there. We don't know what their condition is, no idea whatsoever. Again, no idea about the shooter, the whereabouts, whether he is in custody, what they know about him.

Actually I'm getting some more information right now. The two who were shot, they were not both students. I am now being told that one was a student and another was a 63-year-old man. We don't know exactly, was he a teacher -- or if he was a person who worked there at the school in some other capacity? Not yet, we don't know that just yet but we are now being told that it was a 63-year-old who was man shot at this school and another student. And they are in an area hospital.

Not much activity there on the ground. But you can see plenty of emergency vehicles there on the campus of this Martin Luther King, Jr. High School. This is the Upper West Manhattan area, Lincoln Center area. And the school is something of a magnet school. It's open to students throughout the city who are interested in law, cultural arts, business, science and technology, quite a few innovative programs here and advanced placement programs.

The body there is 3,000, up to 3,000 go to this school. And as you can see right now, it doesn't look as though there are a lot of students -- we see some people running across the street. We can't tell if they are somehow related to the situation. Don't know the status of children, the students inside the school. Once again we are being told that they may still be in the classrooms. Perhaps, they are there for their own protection.

At this point we want to remind you that we are still trying to track down information. We know that there have been some shots fired at this school. And we are still tracking the information. Once we get some more we will deliver it to you and keep our eye on this situation.

Once again, if you are just now joining us, what you are looking at is a live picture outside of Martin Luther King, Jr. High School in Upper West Manhattan. This is a school near the Lincoln Center area. We are told now that two people have been shot at this school, they are now in a hospital.

What you are looking at right now is the crime scene. And the police there have the situation blocked off. Students, we understand, are still inside the building. They may still be in classrooms, or whatever. We don't know. We just know they are inside the building and you can see there, that there are police officers swarming the building around the parking lot and roof area looking for the shooter.

We presume, we understand the shooter is perhaps still there. We don't have any word exactly on what the status of the shooter is.

We will keep our eye on the story and in the meantime we want to go to John king standing by with Washington with more on other breaking story.

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