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At Least 6 Hurt, Suspect In Custody After Mass Shooting At FSU. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired April 17, 2025 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY STUDENT: -- the desks and started piling them up against the door.

We tried to get the bigger desk, the main desk, the presenter's podium, against the door. But, you know, we try to rip some wires out of the wall. So it was -- it was pretty hectic. But, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: Do you ever hear the gunshots?

UNIDENTIFIED FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY STUDENT: No, I did not. But I did hear ambulances or, I mean, what I thought was ambulances initially.

And I was kind of -- I found that a little bit concerning because usually when they get close to campus, they, you know, mute their -- their alarms to, you know, refrain from making, you know, big disturbance.

But I mean, prayers to, you know, all my peers, the professors, the staff, the community. I mean, really, the country.

You know, I'm going to call on, like, you know, Governor Ron DeSantis, the president, Donald Trump, for you know, this stuff keeps going on. Right? But we're, you know, praying every day. You know, prayer is good. Prayers -- spirituality is good.

But you know, prayers don't do much, right? So, you know, it's good for the soul, but it is it so happening. I think it is. So, you know, we need to make some gun reforms.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Just hearing from a student there, calling -- specifically mentioning Governor Ron DeSantis, mentioning President Trump, saying, you know, we appreciate the prayers, and spirituality is important, but we need some gun reform.

Be interesting to see. You and I have covered far too many of these.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yes.

HILL: And we know typically a pattern that this takes in terms of whether there is action. We'll be watching for all of that.

In this moment, though, of course, we are still following very closely what is actually happening at Florida State.

At this point, we do know that there is one person in custody, at least six people have been hurt. And what is it like for the students who are still there now?

Will Schatz is joining us. He's a senior at FSU.

Will, we appreciate you taking the time to be with us here.

So as I understand it, you were in the library. Did you hear gunshots? Can you -- can you walk us through what happened?

WILL SCHATZ, FSU STUDENT (via telephone): Yes. Of course. And thanks for having me.

But, yes, so what really happened is the first thing that set me off was there was just a lot of commotion. We were in the library, which is right by the Student Union. A lot of commotion.

People started running. So naturally, I thought to run with them. And once I got out of the building, that's when I heard about seven to eight gunshots, approximately.

SANCHEZ: And, Will, what was going through your mind when you heard that?

SCHATZ: I mean, just the fact that I had to get somewhere safe. I mean, it was really more shock than, like, being able to think about anything. I just knew something, you know, like a shooting was happening.

And, yes, I mean, it just wasn't a lot to think about at that moment, just to be safe. And that the people I was with hoping they were safe as well.

HILL: And, Will, you're -- you're in a safe place now, obviously, if you're able to join us.

SCHATZ: Yes.

HILL: Have you been able to get in touch with, you know, all your friends and family, your friends there on campus to make sure that they're OK?

SCHATZ: Yes. Thankfully, I have everybody that I know, they are OK. So that's assuring.

Yes, I'm back at my apartment now. I stuck around the scene for a while just to just to see what was happening, I guess.

(CROSSTALK)

SCHATZ: Because I couldn't even get to my car at the time. Sorry.

HILL: No, you read my mind. I was wondering, as you said, you're back at your apartment now. So I guess two-part question. Number one, is that an off-campus apartment?

And if so, when you were making your way from the library, you said it was a little tough to get to your car. But getting to your car, getting back to your home, were there, you know, moments did you have to go through? Did you have to speak with law enforcement? Were you questioned at all as you we're making your way around campus to eventually get home?

SCHATZ: So what I did was I spoke to an officer I saw and just asked him, like, what would be the best way for me to get to where my car was without, like, interfering with anything they we're doing.

So I took, like, the long way around. I was able to get to my car. Only at one point did I have to wait for a cop to direct me through traffic. But besides that, it was -- it was pretty easy to get back home.

SANCHEZ: Will, thank you so much for joining us --

SCHATZ: But, yes.

SANCHEZ: -- and sharing what you experience. We're glad that you're OK, and we hope that certainly all your friends on campus are as well.

Thanks for the time.

SCHATZ: I appreciate it. Thank you all.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

[14:34:35]

We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back with the latest from the campus of Florida State University, where at least six people have been injured after a mass shooting. The suspect, there in custody right now.

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COOPER ULGENALP, FSU STUDENT: The shots rang out and we were like, is that construction going on? Or what was what was happening? And so he got up, looked out the window, and I remember looking outside and, and hearing five more shots go off. And I was like, what's going on?

So I saw kids running away from the Student Union. And I walked away from the window, and I walked back to the window and heard six or seven more shots ring out.

And at that point, we were like, OK, there's a shooting going on. So we ran from our classroom, went to the offices, locked the doors, barricaded ourselves in there.

And then we waited and was looking out the window again and saw the SWAT teams pull up, the police cars, the FBI come.

[14:40:04]

And at that point, we're like, OK, we got to bunk ourselves in. And we were like, we were praying. We're like, OK, something's got to change here.

And the SWAT team came into the room. They're like, stay where you are, don't move. And we were in there for about 30 minutes. And at that point, we were escorted out.

About 100 SWATs were inside the building and our hands were up. And so then we were escorted outside past the union and then into a safe space.

UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: What was going through your mind when all this was unfolding?

ULGENALP: Yes, I was clearly in shock. I didn't think this could happen at Florida State. I mean, we're a pretty safe campus.

But, yes, this was just, like, unheard of to me. I'd never been in a school shooting before. An active shooter. This is like first time for me.

And I was -- I was honestly in shock. My hands were shaking. Just adrenaline kicked in. And I really didn't know what to do. I started tearing up, just like I was scared, to be honest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: You can only begin to imagine the range of emotions, right, that they're feeling. He says he's scared. Other students have told us they were terrorized -- terrified and traumatized.

Again, if you're just joining us, we are following are the developments out of Florida State University in Tallahassee.

We have just learned that there should be an update from the police department sometime later this afternoon. So we are standing by for that, and well obviously bring you those details.

But we do know at this hour is that at least six people have been hurt. We're told one of those is in critical condition, five in serious. And there is also a suspect in custody.

A total of three firearms have been found, one on a person taken into custody, a shotgun in the Student Union, and then an additional gun was found in a car on campus there.

So all the developments are flying at this moment. Of course, there are still people across campus who had been told to shelter in place who we're in lockdown. This is a campus that now needs to be cleared. A campus of tens of

thousands of students and faculty in the middle of a busy city.

SANCHEZ: Yes, we're looking at live images now, and we've seen this same shot now for throughout the, the hour or so that we've been tracking this -- two hours now that we've been tracking this. And you see a steady stream of students walking through that area as law enforcement clears the scene.

We have Juliette Kayyem and Ed Davis with us.

Juliette, first to you.

Part of this process is going to be reunifying a lot of these students with their parents, if they're local. I mean, that in itself is a delicate process and a challenging one at times.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It absolutely is. And the colleges and universities are odd for safety and security planning because they're -- they're adults. These are 18-plus year olds. Their parents don't know generally where they are at any given moment.

But their parents are very involved with their education and very involved with them in a way that, say, wouldn't happen with -- with older, you know, older 20-year-olds or 30-year-olds, for example.

And so the colleges and universities generally have an alert system for parents with information about what we would call family unification. But a lot of the parents will probably hear from the kids. The kids may go home and not want to stay in the dorm.

So you're not going to get that sweep of parents that we saw, say, at elementary schools. So it's just something that we've learned over the years, unfortunately, with these kinds of cases.

The second thing is, of course, this is a large school. It is not like a high school or middle school where there would be an attendance. Right? Large classes, the lecturer, the professor doesn't know who's -- who's there that day.

So the -- what they need to do now is also going to determine whether anyone's missing and then match that with who's in the hospital so that they can just have assurances that they are accounted for -- for all the students.

So it's just -- it's a different environment than, say, K through 12.

HILL: Absolutely. And, Julia, just -- just to follow up on one thing -- this is something that you and I have actually talked about a fair amount over the last couple of years -- and that when you're dealing with this -- this age group, too.

What is a little different in not only the way that the school has to plan for an event like this, and they do have to plan like this. And it is part of that orientation when kids get there on campus.

But this is also a generation of kids that has grown up with these drills. Like we grew up with a fire drill.

And even given that, you still understandably hear from them as we did, just hear from that one student, Cooper, talking about just how terrifying it was, and he had no idea what to do in the moment, managing that as well.

In the aftermath, that's also a massive undertaking.

KAYYEM: Yes. That is, I mean, we do call this generation lockdown. They are in college now or they're out of college. This is the -- the group of students that are that -- that lived the lockdown and the lockdown drill or, unfortunately, the real lockdown.

And I'm really glad you bring up that point about the social, educational impact, because that's something that we're also starting to study in the field.

[14:45:03]

You have -- you know, you have -- you know, we measure these things, say, by body count, unfortunately, or those in the hospital. But what we're not measuring well is the social and educational impact of each of these and the ripple effects it has.

You heard the trauma in the kids. I don't know if it's possible classes will be canceled. Educational, you know, exams that we're sort of at the end of the school term.

All of those ripple effects that aren't, you know, directly tied to a bullet. Right? And that -- that is what we are getting a handle on in our society. And you and -- and this is the generation that it's falling on.

SANCHEZ: Yes. It disrupts so much of everyday life.

I want to go to Ed Davis.

Ed. as we await this press briefing from law enforcement in Tallahassee, what are you going to be listening for closely?

ED DAVIS, FORMER BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: Well, it will be interesting to hear anything at all about who the suspects are here. The suspect or suspects?

We -- they definitely have information on the individuals now. And they're running them to ground to find out exactly who they are, what motivated them, what brought them to this -- to this end.

And there's a cadence here, you know? And, unfortunately, as many of us have reported on, this has happened so often that the process is response isolation and dealing with the shooter, saving as many victims as possible, making sure that you're stabilizing them and getting them to the medical care that they need. But then it's very much a conversation about evidence preservation and

an investigation that the ultimate end is the prosecution of the individual responsible.

So right now, there are scores of crime scene investigators that are looking at bullet fragments, spent shell casings, blood evidence, trace evidence, fingerprints, anything that will make a solid case against the person responsible.

It's too early to know if there's video of this. It's too early to know if we have witnesses that have survived that can testify directly as to what happened. But this is a very long, drawn out process that's just beginning at.

SANCHEZ: Ed, please stand by.

We have some new video to share with you. This is our first look of students evacuating, being evacuated out of what appears to be a study halls or at least the campus buildings.

You see the students there with their arms raised as law enforcement, you have to imagine, is screening each of them as they exit.

I wonder, Ed, as you see this video, I mean, talk to us about the process of -- of doing this and ensuring that every piece of evidence is secured as you have a campus of this size.

DAVIS: It's extremely difficult. And there will be some evidence that's disturbed in the evacuation process. And it's unsettling to see these young people walking out with their hands in the air, being treated as if they're suspects.

But the truth of the matter is, you don't know how many people are involved here. And you don't know what an active shooter looks like when you get to a scene like this.

It could be a student. It could be a staff member. It could be someone from outside the facility. So the police have to take precautions that they're taking, treat everybody with kid gloves but also be prepared for unspeakable violence at any moment.

I can't speak enough about the -- the coverage of the officers who ran in there and -- and face these -- these military-style weapons.

Usually, in these type of situations -- I don't know exactly what they used today, but any kind of gunplay is potentially fatal and very dangerous.

HILL: Yes, absolutely.

Ed Davis, Juliette Kayyem, stay with us.

We are going to fit in a quick break here as we continue to follow these developments out of Florida State University, where, again, a mass shooting happening earlier today. At least six are hurt. There is one suspect in custody. [14:49:07]

Stay with us. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We've been following the breaking news out of Tallahassee, Florida. At least six people hurt, a suspect in custody after a mass shooting at Florida State University.

We understand that law enforcement is set to give a press briefing shortly. Well, of course, bring that to you as it happens.

But first, let's go to CNN's John Miller, who has some new details about the ongoing investigation.

John, what have you learned?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT & INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Boris, as they have sorted through the crime scene and gone back and reviewed the video of whatever cameras they have available in that Student Union and conducted their search, authorities are very close to being certain that there was only one shooter.

There were reports of two shooters. There were descriptions of multiple people. But as we've learned in these things, that's extraordinarily common when you have a lot of witnesses calling in and giving fragmental information about what they saw.

But the baseline here is they think there was one individual involved in this as the shooter.

The ATF is working with those guns that are found on the scene, taking those serial numbers, if they can raise them or see them, and running that information to determine who were those guns sold to when they left the manufacturer, what store did they go to, who did that store sell them to?

That may help fill in whether these guns belong to the shooter, or perhaps to the shooters family or parents, or whether they were private sales. But that is a regular step in a process like this, as they trace those weapons.

[14:55:02]

We are told that the scene is secure. But as far as the shelter in place order, that may still be in effect simply because they are trying to manage going from building to building and section to section and move people out to the civic center in an orderly way, or get them to the point where they're going to be reunited with family or friends, or be able to return home.

The FBI office in Jacksonville, along with the ATF office in Tampa, are providing assistance here.

The FBI has basically a package, Boris, that that they offer to local law enforcement when you have one of these events that can be overwhelming to local resources.

That would include victim-witness specialists, evidence recovery teams, evidence response teams to help with the crime scenes, which sometimes can span multiple areas of the same building.

And people from the FBIs Behavioral Science Unit who provide guidance and study cases like this.

As you know, these things usually involve some kind of foreshadowing on the part of these suspects, and they'll be digging into that, too.

HILL: Yes, absolutely.

John, appreciate it.

We do want to let you know just a couple of things we are hearing from Florida State students, faculty and staff. The school is saying -- asked to call their loved ones as soon as possible to update them on their status.

And also noting that the Student Union and the area around it, is, according to the school, still considered an active crime scene. So avoiding -- individuals to leave to avoid that area. And also noting that they cannot return to the Student Union right now to retrieve any personal property.

We are going to fit in a quick break here. Again, we are following this breaking news out of Tallahassee at Florida State University, where a mass shooting happened earlier today.

Stay with us. We'll be right back.

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