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At Least Four Killed In GA High School Shooting; GBI: Suspect In Custody And Alive After GA High School Shooting; Statement From President Joe Biden On Shooting At Apalachee High School In Georgia. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired September 04, 2024 - 14:00   ET

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

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We're following breaking news this afternoon on CNN News Central. I'm Boris Sanchez alongside Brianna Keilar in Washington, DC. And the focus is on Georgia, where there's been a school shooting in Winder. At least four people are believed to have been killed, approximately 30 more injured. This is according to law enforcement sources outside of Georgia.

Speaking to CNN's John Miller, we should point out of those approximately 30 that are injured, it's not clear how many of them were gunshot wound victims. Some of them may have been hurt while trying to flee the scene. Officials say that at least one person is in custody, a suspect, but that it could take multiple days to get clarity on exactly what transpired.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The first 911 calls began coming in around 9:30 this morning there at Appalachia High School in Winder, which is a city about an hour from Atlanta. And some of those who were critically injured in this had to be airlifted to hospitals.

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JUD SMITH, SHERIFF AT BARROW COUNTY, GEORGIA: So I want to lift up our community. I want to give our sympathies to our community, our school system, our kids, our parents that had to witness this today. Obviously, what you see behind us is an evil thing today.

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SANCHEZ: Multiple agencies, including the FBI on scene right now ATF is. We just heard that from the Attorney General. Authorities are working as we speak to reunite students with their parents. And we are starting to hear from some of those students. Let's listen.

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MAN #1: Towards the end of it. like, I could hear -- I heard screaming and they, like, unlocked my door and they came with the flashlight and the guns. And we had to, like, have our hands up and stuff. And then that's when they took us outside. JOHN MILLER, CNN'S CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST:

Wait, who came with guns? The individuals that were opening fire in the school?

MAN #1: No, not the individuals. The police came and they got us.

MILLER: Oh, police came in. Police came in to save you. Can you describe those tense moments, what that was like?

MAN #1: Like, I don't know. It was just really -- it was scary. Like, my heart was kind of racing. I didn't even have my phone or anything, so I couldn't talk to my mom. I was just kind of scared.

MILLER: Do you know anybody that was injured?

MAN #1: Yeah.

MILLER: Can you tell me? What did you see or did you see it?

MAN #1 I didn't -- I haven't seen anything so far. But I've heard people, like their teachers getting shot and they're getting shot and, like, barely getting missed by the bullets and stuff.

MILLER: How do you feel about being saved? I mean, you made it safe.

MAN #1: I feel I got pretty lucky for this being a good place at a good time or at a bad time, but --

MILLER: Yeah. Were you in the school as well?

MAN #2: Yeah, I was.

MILLER: Okay. And --

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KEILAR: Now, again, we have learned that at least four people have been killed here, 30 more injured. This is according to law enforcement sources there in Georgia talking to our John Miller. And we do have a team of reporters tracking all of the breaking developments. Let's start with CNN's Isabel Rosales, who is live at the scene. You have begun speaking to some of the families. What are they telling you, Isabel?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brianna, yeah. About half an hour ago, we started seeing students walking away from the school and parents holding them. Some of them, their facial expressions look shell-shocked. Others, a very clear sign of relief of having their kids, being able to hug them again.

I did just speak with a 16-year-old. Her name is Julie Sandoval (ph). She told me she was in her class when she heard what at first appeared to her as heavy books falling down. But then, it was a pop, pop, pop, pop that she quickly realized, she told me was the sound of a gun going off. Then students started screaming, she told me, and gathered toward the corner of a classroom there. And that was the moment that she took out her phone and she showed me the text message to her mother saying, I know I haven't been a perfect daughter. I love you. I'm sorry. She couldn't think of anything else but to apologize for her being in that situation in that moment.

And she says, luckily, soon thereafter, she saw officers start to come in in vests with their guns, telling the students to put their hands up. She showed me video inside of the classroom of the students putting their hands up.

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And in that video, I could hear her, Julie, crying, but also a cry of relief, of knowing that she was safe. We, just an hour ago, saw the sheriff standing right over here, Sheriff Jud Smith of the local sheriff's county, sheriff's office, a very somber expression on his face calling what happened here an evil thing, asking for patience from the community, from us, the media as they work to piece this together.

But clearly, this is still a very active scene. Right behind me, you can see lots of police officer vehicles. You can see fire and rescue. We have seen the FBI out here, state police as well. So they're going to have a tall task ahead of them of whether it's looking at surveillance video, talking to witnesses, figuring out what happened. And of course, they have someone in custody, which is a rare occurrence in these school shootings to actually have someone alive and present that they could speak to and figure out what it is that happened here, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Isabel, thank you so much for that. We know you continue to monitor the latest as we're seeing their parents and students being reunified after this shooting.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. As the Sheriff described, a chaotic scene. You can't imagine what's going through the minds of those parents and those students about a month into the school year facing this tragedy. We want to bring in CNN Law Enforcement Expert John Miller.

John, the Sheriff outlined this morning that calls first started coming in of an active shooter at 9:30 this morning. It wasn't that long after that we started getting word that that suspect was in custody. What do you make of that response time and what we know so far about what took place?

MILLER: Well, it sounds like, and we'll need to know more about this. But initially it sounds like the response was rapid and effective in that, you know, you're hearing from students that SWAT teams and armed officers without SWAT teams were literally going classroom to classroom, making sure that they made entry to where the students were locked down because of the reports of shots fired, making sure they removed them from the building to a safe area while they continued to clear the building. Again, we'll learn more as the days goes on.

But as you asked, you know, an hour or so ago, you know, we've seen these things. We've seen, you know, what happened in places like Uvalde. And when we look at these now, we look at what was the speed and direction of the response. And this one looks like it was by the book. As Isabella pointed out, you know, you have FBI on the scene, you have ATF on the scene. You have GBI on the scene, and that's what's unfolding now.

Everybody has a different role here. The FBI will be basically providing support. In all likelihood, there is no federal violation that's in the FBI's purview here. But what the FBI brings is resources. They'll bring media relations people to help organize for the local authorities, the national media, and how to pull that together.

They'll bring victim witness services together, which will bring in counseling. and they'll bring them in from all over Georgia, from the Atlanta Field Division, from the RAs, but from other states if necessary, if they have a lot of people and families that are going to need that kind of help, victim witness counseling from the agencies.

ATF, of course, is going to be focused on that weapon or weapons. Where did it come from? Was it something that belonged to the individual? Who was the shooter? Was it something that was sold to him from someone else? Did it belong to parents at home?

And when you look at this school district in the larger sense, you know, you have Barrow County, Georgia, that is a county school district with over 15,000 students. You have Apalachee High School in the town of Winder. That is a school of 1,900 students. So a fairly big high school serving a town of about 18,000 people. And they're very aware of threats.

One of the things that we are asking today, and we're searching on social media to determine, was there a threat in advance? As we have seen before? Most of these threats are baseless and unfounded. But was there some threat or warning on social media? That's what the FBI will assist in looking for at the same time. But we also know that's something that the Barrow County school system has thought a lot about.

In their posting on school safety on the Barrow County Board of Ed website, it says, while we have dealt with unsubstantiated threats in the past, we are always concerned about a threat where the intention to cause harm is real. Access to guns is one of the leading, leading risk factors for deadly violence.

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Therefore, firearms should be -- firearms and weapons should be stored securely at home. And they talk about how parents need to engage in conversations with their children about bullying, about their state of mind, about problems they're having in school, and about these thoughts and concerns. So this is something they've put a lot of thought into before this day. And unfortunately, some of that has come to the fore.

KEILAR: Yeah. And we're waiting for some more information. We heard from the Sheriff. His hope is to get some of that to us here in a couple of hours if they do have another press conference there. He said. 04:00 p.m. eastern. It's a little after 2:00 now. Noting the suspect is of student age, according to the sources you've been speaking to, John Miller, and I do also want to note that Vice President Harris has been briefed on the school shooting there in Georgia in Winder at Apalachee High School. She actually has an event that is supposed to be taking place, an event about her economic agenda a little later this hour. And we're expecting for her to make some comments on that off the top.

But, John, if you could stay with us, as we do have reaction as well from Governor Tim Walz who said that it is tragic and that this kind of thing is all too common. Can you talk to us, John, a little bit more as you've been speaking to sources about these casualty numbers. Four people believed to be dead, 30 more injured. Talk to us a little bit about what you know there. And also, since we're hearing from the Sheriff, he's just saying multiple injured that sort of reticence to get into the numbers. Tell us a little bit about that.

MILLER: Well, a sheriff is unique in American law enforcement. You know, the police chief is someone that's hired by the town or the city who reports to the mayor. Sheriffs in this country are by and large elected, which means they're more than just the law in a county like Barrow County. They are a community leader who has been placed there with popular support of the community.

So I think the Sheriff is being very cautious here because he's dealing with human beings, he's dealing with families and very raw emotions. If you give a number of casualties and then it goes up, people will say, you know, that we were robbed of hope. If you give specifics and the information changes, you know, you can be criticized.

So I think what he is working towards is building with those law enforcement partners the support system to reach out to those families, to make sure that the information they're getting is certain. We have seen in past cases where someone was listed as deceased and then they were revived on the way to the hospital. We've seen cases where they came out with a very small number, and that number expanded.

So I think what he's doing is out of not just an abundance of caution in terms of statements, but out of an abundance of compassion to make sure that whatever he reveals beyond that at 4 o'clock is information he's very certain of, at least at that moment.

KEILAR: Yeah. These are some parents getting the worst news that any parent can get, and he's certainly sensitive to that. John Miller, thank you so much. We're going to have much more on our breaking news after a quick break. At least four people killed at a high school about an hour outside of Atlanta in Winder, Georgia. We'll have the latest ahead.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) WOMAN #1: I was in my second period when everything was happening. I can just remember the announcements going on saying that there's a lockdown. And then police just came in there with their guns, telling us that this is not a drill. I heard like the policemen were chasing the person up and down the hallways. You can hear the shooting, but from like afar. And right when you can, like, about to hear the shootings, that's when, like, the announcement was going on for everyone to stay in their classrooms.

And then after sitting in the classroom for, like, 10 minutes straight, that's when we can, like, evacuate (inaudible).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Yet another chilling account from a student inside Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, where we're following breaking news this afternoon. A deadly school shooting there. And we just got an update from the Georgia Bureau of Investigations. They posted this to social media writing, update, four dead, an additional nine taken to various hospitals with injuries. And this is important, suspect in custody and alive, reports that the suspect has been neutralized are inaccurate.

We have CNN's Josh Campbell tracking all of this for us. And Josh, it's significant that officials are pointing out that this suspect is alive, not only because there had been apparently reports that he had been neutralized, but also because this is a significant factor in the investigation as they try to figure out a motive and exactly what happened at the school.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. And I think some other outlets have used that word neutralized, which obviously signals that the person may have been killed by law enforcement or, you know, by a self-inflicted gunshot wound. But here, you know, obviously in these situations, it's important to take this methodically and to be conservative as facts continue to come in.

But what they're saying now, now with him being alive is critical because as you mentioned, the motive, if this individual is in a state where he or she can actually be interviewed and is willing to cooperate, that will obviously assist authorities in trying to determine why this actually happened today.

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Now, one thing that, you know, we heard from that press -- I don't know if we call it press conference, a statement from law enforcement a short time ago, which was very brief, they didn't provide much information at all. You can imagine how frustrating that can be, obviously, to members of the community if they're not getting that information.

But I can tell you and our colleague John Miller, you know, we were both in law enforcement. He can attest as well that one calculus that law enforcement is making, particularly when you have a suspect in custody, is you want to ensure that you don't do anything to jeopardize a potential prosecution. Obviously, with people that are now deceased here, we can expect, you know, murder charges quite likely for this individual. And so when the suspect is taken into custody alive, you often see a posture by law enforcement where they will hold information close to the vest.

If they need help from the public in identifying the whereabouts of a suspect or, you know, something that might be critical, then they might provide a little bit more. But with the person in custody now, it appears that the emergent phase of this is over. We expect that they're going to be very circumspect, but they still have a lot of work to do. Obviously, they're not just going to take the shooter's word for what transpired, assuming the person talks.

But we can imagine right now that search warrants are likely being written up to be presented before a judge on the suspect's residence vehicle, if they have a vehicle, trying to determine if there's an online presence, social media accounts and the like to try to determine was this something that this individual had telegraphed in advance?

Were there other individuals who potentially knew that this was about to happen? Again, we're not saying that's the case here, but we have seen that in other instances, which is something that law enforcement certainly wants to run to ground just to ensure that they know as much as they can about this incident. So guys, a lot of work going on behind the scenes right now.

KEILAR: Yeah, there certainly is, Josh, as you put it into perspective there. Let's bring in CNN Law Enforcement Contributor and Retired FBI agent Steve Moore. We also have former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis with us.

Steve, it's not -- unfortunately, we've seen many of these, right? And it's not every time that we see the suspect being alive and in custody. And certainly, that is going to hopefully reveal some information here.

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR AND RETIRED FBI AGENT: Yeah, that will reveal some information. And you're right, this is very rare that you find somebody being taken alive because that's not part of the psychological profile of people who kill at schools. They don't want anybody to have any kind of input into their disposition, the end of their life. They want to take control of that.

But I think the problem here, or not the problem, the thing here that we need to just manage our expectations here is you're not going to find a reason. You're not going to hear a reason that justifies this. You're just going to hear a cycle, a reason that justifies some kind of homicidal or ideation that this person has. It will tell scientists. It will tell forensic scientists. It will tell profilers why they did it.

And it will be a great science experiment -- not to -- I don't mean to make it sound petty, but I mean, this is where you find out why they're going to do it, what's going to happen in the future, how we defend against it. But you're not going to get any answers that will satisfy you into the killing about the killing of four people at that high school.

KEILAR: Yeah. No, you're saying it becomes academic at that point. Well, there are the many families there in Winder, Georgia, who are experiencing something just horrific. It is not academic for them. They are having the worst days of their lives as we speak.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. And as we were speaking, we just got a statement from President Joe Biden. The White House had previously been briefed on what transpired at Apalachee High School this morning. The President writing, quote, "Jill and I are mourning the deaths of those whose lives were cut short due to more senseless gun violence and thinking of all the survivors whose lives are forever changed.

What should have been a joyous back to school season has now turned into another horrific reminder of how gun violence continues to tear our communities apart." He goes on to say, "ending this gun violence epidemic is personal to me." And he talks about signing into law the bipartisan Safer Communities act, which came about in large part because of the shooting in Uvalde, Texas. When we saw this national outcry following what happened there, yet another tragedy.

Let's go to Ed Davis now, who has been standing by. And Ed, as Steve was just describing this process of trying to find a motive while the logic for this shooter may be twisted and irrational, and would never be able to satisfy for those affected by this shooting why it took place.

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I'm curious about the methods that law enforcement used to -- in a situation like this, potentially get cooperation from a suspect. I imagine there's an attorney involved, and then there's a delicate process to gather information from a suspect who, in situations like this, is usual -- unusual to find alive.

ED DAVIS, FORMER BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: Yes, that's absolutely true, Boris. And, you know, my experience has been, if an attorney becomes involved in it at an early stage, the questioning stops. There's no benefit to defense counsel allowing police to question someone. But the good news is that sometimes, you get a person like this in your custody for a period of time. And you have the ability to connect with them. A lot of times, people who do things as tragic and just crazy as this want to talk. They want to tell you what led them to do what they did.

And as was said, it's not logical. It's not anything that's going to be of assistance to the victims' families, but it does offer insight into the thought patterns of someone who is planning something like this. So in that way, it's beneficial. It's also helpful if this individual had assistance from anyone. Sometimes, someone will either wittingly or unwittingly assist in preparing for a terrible thing like this.

And they should be held accountable, even if it was an unwitting assistance, providing an underage person with a firearm, for instance, or giving ammunition to someone who shouldn't have it legally. All of those things really important to understand and to hold people accountable for, whether it'd be a gun dealer or a person in the family or someone who is otherwise assisting.

So there's a lot of important work going on right now. And hopefully, they'll get some idea as to what this individual was thinking before it happened.

KEILAR: Ed, talk a little bit about this delicate process right now of law enforcement interacting with parents, especially, as you know, they'll be wanting to get absolutely positive confirmation on, of course, the victims. Tell us the process they're going through.

DAVIS: Right. It's a very complicated process, one that requires balance on both sides. I've been in meetings where we've gamed out or played out what would happen if there was a shooting at a school. And, you know, there are some people that say, well, you know, put up a perimeter and tell parents they can't come in. They're coming, whether you like it or not.

And you really have to keep in mind the mentality of someone who's got a child in that school and do whatever you can to provide outreach to the individuals involved and not to treat them badly or to try to eliminate them from the conversation. But it really is sort of an opening the doors up, having them come into a controlled area and then very quickly, getting them information and being compassionate, and getting the children as quickly as you can into the arms of their family.

They're never going to be satisfied until they can physically touch the kids that are in that school. And, you know, it's heart wrenching to see a group of 40 or so students standing in a circle praying on a football field. The parents want to be part of that. And it's hard to keep them away from it.

KEILAR: Yeah, understandably, they are ditching their cars and running down the street. They have been to get to this school. We know that was the scene this morning. Ed, Steve, thank you to both of you. We'll be back with much more ahead on this shooting at a Georgia high school.

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