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At Least 4 Killed in Mass Shooting at Georgia High School; Georgia Hight School Shooter Believed to be 14-Year-Old Male. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired September 04, 2024 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was confused at first, but like, as soon as it happened, as soon as it popped up, I heard gunshots.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You heard gunshots? What did it sound like?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like, pop, pop, pop. I was scared. I mean, the teacher, he like, immediately after it happened, he was like, go to the corner, go to the corner. He turned off the lights. He put the, like, the big screen in front of the door.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How were the kids reacting?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, they're all so scared. Some people were crying. I heard yelling and shouting, and like, a little after, I heard more shots.

And yes, and then after a while, the police came in. They like, kicked down the door. They're just asking if everyone was OK.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: You hear the emotion in that student and now witness's voice. We're following this deadly school shooting in Winder, Georgia, just northeast, roughly an hour northeast of Atlanta. At this time, we know at least four people are dead, nine others being treated at area hospitals. Sources tell us the suspect, a 14-year-old boy, is alive and in custody.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Officials have not said whether he was a student at Apalachee High School. Another press conference is scheduled for 4 p.m. Eastern. That is when the sheriff said he was hoping that he would be able to update the media again, and he has not said that that is not happening. So we're operating under the assumption that it is here.

Let's bring in our panel of experts. We have former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis and CNN law enforcement analyst and retired supervisory special agent for the FBI, Steve Moore.

Ed, first to you, what are you thinking as you're hearing these accounts coming in from students describing injuries that they saw, describing shots that were fired?

ED DAVIS, FORMER BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: Well, it's certainly troubling to hear those descriptions. I mean, they're essentially seeing what you would see on a battlefield in their own school, which is something we hope none of our children have to go through. So very disturbing.

And the fact that it was a 14-year-old suspect really magnifies the tragedy here. There's clearly going to be a lot of mental health issues here. There's going to be issues around how he got his hands on a gun, and people will look for failures as to how this could have happened.

So this is just a terrible start to the school year. It reverberates across the nation. And unfortunately, it just continues to happen. So it's very disturbing.

SANCHEZ: Steve, I'm curious to get your response to this reporting. Law enforcement officials telling CNN's John Miller and Mark Morales that Apalachee High School received a phone call this morning warning that there would be shootings at five different schools in the area, but that Apalachee would be first. It's not known who placed that call, but it seems significant that a call like that would come in and then hours later you would have the scene at that high school that we're witnessing.

STEVE MOORE, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Yes, that's obviously very, very significant and concerning. I think there's a very strong possibility that your shooter actually made that call because otherwise the coincidence is almost hard to fathom.

[15:35:00]

But if he did make that call, probably the purpose for it was so that after he made his attack on Apalachee, it would essentially shut down the other four schools. And frequently we see shooters and even terrorists, it's not far afield from terrorism. They want to cause as much collateral panic, collateral damage, and disruption as they possibly can. And so if that was the call from this student, then that's probably the reason why.

The other concerning possibility is that somebody else knew about this and didn't know the exact mode of the attacks and made that call.

KEILAR: And Steve, can you speak to how they might be engaging right now with the suspect and also how the FBI may or may not be involved in that?

MOORE: The FBI probably is not going to be directly involved in the interview unless they're asked to be in for say a skill as a profiler or something like that. The issue here is likely they don't need a confession from this person. They really don't. They've got witnesses. They've got fingerprints on the gun. They've got the gun rounds that are fired.

This is kind of an open and shut case. And so at least as far as guilt is concerned. What they could do in the interview is damage because he's a minor, such a young minor. They could damage their ability to prosecute him.

So they really need to take this interview, any interviews they're doing, extremely carefully because you don't want something to interfere later on that really wasn't necessary. What you really want to know from this person is, is there more? Are there others?

And tell us about your thought process going in because that is crucial going down the line as we try to prevent and react to other shootings.

SANCHEZ: Steve Moore, Ed Davis appreciate the perspective as always.

Please stand by as we await this press conference set to begin potentially at 4 p.m. That's what we heard from the sheriff there. Again, we were tracking the breaking news out of Winder, Georgia at Apalachee High School, at least four people killed, nine rushed to area hospitals. The shooter believed to be a 14-year-old boy, though. It's unclear if he was a student at the school.

Stay with CNN. We'll bring you the latest in just moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Our breaking news today, another mass shooting in the United States. This time at a high school in Georgia, where at least four people were killed. Another nine had to be rushed to area hospitals. According to the Gun Violence Archive, the U.S. is now averaging one and a half mass shootings every day this year.

KEILAR: And moments ago, the vice president took the stage in New Hampshire. She addressed the shooting. She said it doesn't have to be this way.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is on the trail there in the, in New Hampshire. And Priscilla, what more did she say about the shooting?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the vice president calling it tragic. And as you mentioned there, she started her remarks talking about the shooting in Georgia and the crowd was surprised and shocked. The internet has not been very good and the cell service hasn't been good here at the venue.

So many of those in the crowd had no idea that there had been a shooting at that school in Georgia. So the vice president filling them in that there had been, to her understanding, multiple fatalities and injuries, but also going on to say that it didn't have to be this way.

In fact, in one notable moment, and I'm going to paraphrase here, she said, our kids are sitting in a classroom, essentially dreaming big dreams, and some part of them is worried about a shooter busting through the door.

Now, the vice president also went off script briefly and reflected on a college tour that she did not long ago. And it was during that time where she had an opportunity to talk to multiple students who told her that they had grown up doing active shooter drills at their schools and that stood out to her.

And the vice president doesn't often go off script, but that was a moment where she said she was going to do so to reflect on that and to essentially say that this is outrageous.

Now, she went on to give her remarks on the economy after that, and I'll get to that in a moment. But during that, she also talked about the need for there to be more gun violence prevention. And she said that she is for the Second Amendment, but she is also for gun safety laws.

Now, the president had tapped the vice president to lead the White House Office of Gun Violence. That is an office that has been working on identifying executive actions, working with state and locals, and trying to get resources to these communities. Clearly, a lot of work to be done.

The vice president, again today, just saying that these moments are tragic and it really doesn't have to be that way. This was her message today to the crowd.

KEILAR: All right, Priscilla Alvarez live for us in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We do appreciate the report and we'll be right back with more on this breaking news, this Georgia school shooting.

[15:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: We are standing by for an update from officials. Minutes from now on a deadly school shooting in Winder, Georgia, which is just northeast of Atlanta.

At this time, we know that at least four people have died. Nine others are being treated at hospitals, some with serious injuries. Sources telling us the suspect is a 14-year-old male who is alive and in custody.

SANCHEZ: We're still working to confirm whether he was a student at the high school where it happened. Let's go live to the scene now with CNN's Isabel Rosales. Isabel, describe for us what you're witnessing there.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Boris, Brianna, this reunification process still seems to be ongoing because every couple of minutes I'm seeing a wave of parents escorting their children out from the side of the school.

[15:50:002]

And down and away back to their cars where several parents have left them abandoned even blocks away. I saw them when I first got onto the scene, leaving the driver's side, very worriedly on their phones attempting to communicate with their children and then making the hike all the way here to where the school is at. And on their faces, Boris, Brianna, you can see either just relief, them hugging their kids, some crying, or others just shocked, very focused, walking away, wanting to take their kids away from the site.

I spoke with those students, giving their account, something no children should ever have to witness, of what they saw, what they heard. And many of these students describing hearing those gunshots, what they first thought maybe was a joke or books falling, something heavy falling. They recall seeing a hard lockdown alert on the screens, on the monitors of the school, knowing that this was for real, this was not a drill. Teachers barricading the doorways, many of them on their phones, contacting their parents, texting them, hey, I love you, making sure that they either told them they were OK or had those words with them in case they weren't OK.

Here's what one of the students described.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard screaming and everything at first. I thought it was like someone just like playing around in the hallways or something. I thought it was like someone just yelling or something.

So I didn't think much of it. But then like it got harder. The noise kept getting louder and louder. And I was like, no, no, guys like I told everybody to get down, get down, because there's like you don't joke around with that, you know. So then like that, like we got, we got in a corner. Some girls started crying. And then like I was like, calm down. And then the teacher was she was shaking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: And another student described to me actually seeing a girl on the ground who she says appeared to have been shot on her shoulder, paramedics helping her. And to know, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, that the shooter was a 14 year old that just brings so many questions how this could happen, how they got in there with that gun. Hopefully, we'll get more details here in this hour from the sheriff here who has called what has happened here an evil thing.

SANCHEZ: We will, of course, keep an eye and find out exactly when that press conference is set to happen. Initially, we were told 4 p.m. Hopefully, law enforcement is able to give us a statement in just moments. Isabel Rosales, live for us from the scene outside Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, where at least four people have been killed, the suspect, a 14 year old boy.

We'll be back in just a few minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We got some new video just moments ago showing the scene inside Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, the site of the shooting where at least four people were killed, nine others having to be rushed to area hospitals. And this video apparently taken inside the school after law enforcement had arrived. And it appears to show students moving out of the school, many of them with their hands raised.

And you see a glimpse of law enforcement and you hear a voice asking students to keep their heads raised. It appears that law enforcement was screening people out of the school. Let's go ahead and watch that video and listen closely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(Video of Apalachee High School students with hands and heads raised)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Keep your head up, keep your head up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller is back with us now. John, as you see that video, does anything stand out to you? It is it's obviously a delegate process as law enforcement is handling a scene like that.

I imagine those students were also shaken by some of what they experienced.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, sure. And I mean, what you're watching there is law enforcement is trying to get them out of the building so that they can do that entire search for the building. But they asked them to put their hands up because we've seen before where there have been either a school shooter that they don't have in custody yet or one who's disappeared into the building.

They want to see their hands to make sure that, you know, they don't have anybody who's holding anything like a weapon as they get them out and they can sort through the rest later. But it's just an abundance of caution because you have to make sure that you have the shooter or that you only had one shooter. I mean, remember Columbine, you had two there. So they just want to see their hands.

And I mean, we're looking at a number of questions as we approach this four o'clock news conference. We are told by our sources that the shooter is a 14 year old, perhaps a ninth grader, perhaps from that school.

But we're going to want to know where, what kind of gun and about this telephonic threat that may have come into the school this morning.

KEILAR: Yes, we are awaiting that. Lots of questions. Certainly we'll see if they take them. They did not take them at the 1:15 p.m. Eastern press conference that they had earlier at the school. But this is the latest at Apalachee High School, four dead, nine transported to hospitals. The shooter believed to be a 14 year old male.

We will have more ahead here on CNN. In the meantime, "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news. JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Just a jarring image in Winder, Georgia, today. This is just east of Atlanta. You see their students in a prayer circle outside Apalachee High School. This is moments after a mass shooting in their school.

Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

The breaking news today is that four people were killed and nine others were taken to local hospitals, according to the ...

END