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At Least 6 Hurt, Suspect in Custody After Mass Shooting at FSU; Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Arguments Over Birthright Citizenship. Aired 3:30-4 pm ET

Aired April 17, 2025 - 15:30   ET

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

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: -- as long as they're not a convicted felon.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Very interesting. John, just one more thing to be as precise as possible. As you were describing the suspect, you described him as a he. We've confirmed that it was a male?

MILLER: Yes, and we do believe now that he was the only shooter involved in this incident, except for whoever shot him.

SANCHEZ: John Miller, thank you so much for walking us through those details.

We understand that the shelter in place order that has been put on campus by law enforcement has now been lifted. This obviously a significant step as this press conference or rather as this investigation gets underway with a press conference coming later this afternoon.

We're going to sneak in a quick break and we will be right back with the latest from Tallahassee, a mass shooting at Florida State University. At least six injured. The suspect now in custody.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:35:35]

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Welcome back. President Trump has received a briefing on the shooting at Florida State University. Of course, that happening just as his meeting with the Prime Minister of Italy was getting underway.

I want to bring in now Jeff Zeleny, who joins us from the White House. He did address the shooting a short time ago. What more do we hear from the President, Jeff?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: He did, Erica. The President received a couple briefings, I'm told, when he was having a luncheon with the visiting Italian Prime Minister as well as before they went to the Oval Office.

Now, Florida has a very strong connection with this White House. The President, of course, a resident of Florida. Many of his top advisors are also from Florida. I'm told they have been actively monitoring it all afternoon. The President had this to say a bit earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENT: And I've been briefed on the Florida State University, Tallahassee, active shooting. I guess it's an active shooting. Fully briefed as to where we are right now. It's a shame. It's a horrible thing. Horrible that things like this take place. And we'll have more to say about it later.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So the President is saying he will have more to say on this later. Again, administration officials as well as the Department of Homeland Security advising the President on this. We will see and bring you an update when or if they do have more to say on it.

But there is no doubt the White House is keeping a close eye on this as they do in every active shooting. Sadly, there is much experience for every administration with these shootings, Boris and Erica.

HILL: Yeah, it is true. And a sad commentary as well. Jeff, appreciate it. Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Let's bring in former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis who has been following along as we've been receiving these breaking details. And Ed, I want to get your reaction to our sources indicating that the suspect was shot. Law enforcement in Tallahassee saying that he was neutralized.

Also, John sharing with us that -- and this is preliminary information, that this is a young person who grew up in the area. Unclear at this point if they were a student at FSU.

ED DAVIS, FORMER BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: Right. Thank you, Boris. It's a terrible tragedy. And the police right now are working really hard to try to determine all of those facts so that during the briefing in the near future we'll have an idea of where this threat came from. They're going to be looking at the suspect. They're going to be looking at social media from the suspect. Any kind of witnesses, friends of his, things like that.

And tracing the gun, which is a really important component of this. Trying to figure out where that gun was obtained. Who else was involved in getting the gun into the hands of this young man. And then trying to determine exactly what it was that spurred him to do this. You know, the hope is that we can prevent these things in the future. But they just keep happening.

HILL: Yeah. You know, it's interesting. The number -- we've spoken with a number of students. And some of them bringing that up. Bringing up that things were happening. We heard from other students it sounded like we were playing as well.

Looking at where things stand, the fact that they have now told, you know, everyone in the area that the threat was neutralized while a number of buildings, including the student union, are still considered an active crime scene. They are also noting now that individuals can move about campus. We do know that classes have been canceled. Of course, the last day of classes is just next Friday. Graduation is in two weeks. How do you then move into this next phase, where they are still managing, of course, this investigation.

And as you noted, we'll be hearing from law enforcement shortly. But they also then have to manage this campus, which, you know, is going to be still filled with student life, likely for the next week, two weeks, as they wrap up the semester there at school. And also have to manage the aftermath of what is happening.

DAVIS: Right. It's an extremely difficult situation. They're going to have to secure the facility, get all the evidence that they need to prosecute the case, get all the facts on the table for the criminal side of it.

But at the same time, and just as importantly, is the human side of this. Making sure that the young people are handled appropriately and are counseled and treated psychologically after this trauma.

[15:40:05]

This isn't just the people who were shot or just the people that were killed. Those are the biggest tragedies, and we all look at that very closely. But the effects that occur to the people around this in the area of PTSD, and never forgetting what happened to them here, are just as devastating.

So the school has done a really good job in putting together a reunification center, evacuating the young people there, making sure that they have counselors there, and they're making sure that their parents and loved ones are reunited and contacted by the people affected by this. But this is an ongoing process. And frankly, there'll be a crime scene there at least for 24 hours. So it's very difficult to open that building up where the incident happened for the next day or two. So that will be affecting things.

And then on top of that, some of these young people are going to be walking wounded for the next few weeks until graduation. And I hate to say it like that, but that's really, from a psychological perspective, that's what the school has to deal with and do the best that they can.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, important to put that into perspective. Ed Davis, thank you so much for being with us.

We're going to take a quick break as we await this news conference from officials in Tallahassee. An update on this mass shooting, at least six hurt. The suspect now in custody at Florida State University. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:46:24] SANCHEZ: We've been juggling some breaking news this afternoon into CNN. We're following some news out of the Supreme Court as well. The justices just agreeing to hear arguments over President Trump's plan to end birthright citizenship.

HILL: CNN's Chief Supreme Court Analyst, Joan Biskupic, is joining us now with the details. They're going to hear this. I guess the question then will be, when will they learn what they feel about that after the hearing?

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN CHIEF SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Good to see you, Erica and Boris. This is very big news. This is the first time that the Supreme Court is taking up anything related to Donald Trump's new initiative since he became president on January 20th. And on January 20th, one of his executive orders was the one lifting birthright citizenship for certain temporary residents, people who are here unlawfully, all countering what is in the 14th Amendment that says that anyone born or naturalized here in the U.S. essentially is a citizen.

Now, I should tell you that immediately after Donald Trump signed that, immigration rights groups, civil libertarians, and states sued to try to block his new order. And they won in lower courts. Judges immediately blocked Donald Trump's attempt to enforce this limit on birthright citizenship. One judge even calling it blatantly unconstitutional. And as the Trump administration has come to the Supreme Court, it's not saying rule immediately on the constitutionality of what Donald Trump has done. Rather, it's saying rule on whether these judges can outright block it. So it's come up here on what the Trump administration has said is a, quote, "modest request." But at the core of all this is this whole question of birthright citizenship.

But the justices might instead just go narrowly on the procedural question of whether judges can so immediately block it nationwide. If they rule for the Trump administration, it would allow him to start putting into place this new plan. But if they block the Trump administration, then everything will stay the same. The 14th Amendment, which says that anyone born or naturalized here essentially becomes a citizen, that will stay in place.

As you can see, the central interest here goes to, you know, one of American equality and identity. But we've kind of got a little bit of a chance for the justices possibly to take an off-ramp. But it's still big news that they even agreed to hear this case in any form on May 15th, scheduling rare May arguments. They normally finish their session for oral arguments at the end of April.

And to go to Erica's question about when would we get an answer on this, it would likely be at the end of June or early July when they finish their -- this annual session. But as I say, the initial question that they will be hearing from the Trump administration is just the power of these lower court judges to block his effort to enforce this rather than the pure constitutionality of whether Donald Trump can roll back more than a century of understanding about the protections of the 14th Amendment and birthright citizenship here in America.

HILL: Yeah, it is, as you point out, it is -- these may not have been your exact words, I'm paraphrasing Joan, but this is a very big deal, right? The fact that they are willing to hear this.

BISKUPIC: Very big.

HILL: Yeah, and that coming again.

BISKUPIC: Right, and it's the first -- right, and it's the very first initiative that they're actually hearing of Donald Trump sweeping new plan to overhaul the government and individual rights.

[15:50:01]

HILL: Yeah, absolutely. Joan, really appreciate it as always. Thank you.

BISKUPIC: Sure.

HILL: As Boris mentioned, we are juggling a lot of breaking news here on this Thursday. We're going to fit in a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We've been tracking the breaking news all afternoon, a mass shooting on the campus of Florida State University. At least five people there hurt. The suspect has been hospitalized. And we have new video from the scene. We should warn you some of this video is disturbing. CNN is still working to verify whether this footage actually includes the shooter himself.

Let's watch.

(GUNSHOTS)

SANCHEZ: You hear gunshots going off. There's obviously something that is blurred. We believe that to be a victim. And then obviously you see people running away.

[15:55:07]

We're still working again to get the latest details on exactly what we're watching in that footage, but obviously it's from the scene in Tallahassee.

Let's go to CNN's Ryan Young, who has been following and gathering news for us. Ryan, what's the latest you've heard?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris and Erica, look, we've been tracking this since, you know, right after 12 o'clock. And I talked to you before about the social media videos that were out there. This is one of the videos that we've been working on for the past few hours. And we had to try to make sure it was what it was before we showed it to our viewers. Obviously, very disturbing. As you walk through that though, you can hear what it sounds like, shot after shot after shot. You can hear somebody scream. You can see the pain in people's faces as they're trying to run away from that scene. And that's actually what was described to us by so many people who've come on CNN to talk about what they witnessed and also the local affiliates.

I'm talking to a source. I actually shared that video with the source. They hadn't even seen some of the pieces of what we were able to show just a second ago, because they're still collecting all these data points from around the area, whether it be social media, whether it be people in the area who had video cameras. And then on top of that, there is an extensive video camera system at that university as well.

What we do know now is the shooter is included in the people who are at the hospital. So we have five injured, and then we of course have the shooter as well. We know one person is in critical condition. Five others are in serious condition.

This shooting happening around that student union, the center of campus at Florida State University, around 12 o'clock, that shelter in place was put into action and students had to barricade themselves in classrooms, in other areas. And so this has all been ongoing for now, but we'll continue to follow this, Boris and Erica.

HILL: Absolutely. Ryan, thank you. And we of course are also awaiting information from local officials. We are expecting a press conference just a short time from now. So we'll be bringing that to you as well.

Jonathan Wackrow, still with us as well. Jonathan, in terms of that video, again, as Ryan pointed out, it took some time. We obviously want to be careful before we bring anything to air. The way you hear the shots, what we're seeing in that video, is there anything that stands out to you as we're piecing all of this together?

JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, what stands out to me is that,, you know, when we see this attack, we hear the sounds of gunfire. Now knowing how densely populated this area around the student union was at the time of the shooting, the fact that we didn't have immediate loss of life and a higher number of victims, you know, I'll take that as a silver lining in all of this right now.

But it was all predicated upon the swiftness and the accuracy of the response of law enforcement, both local, state and federal law enforcement entities, to bring about a quick end to this active shooter situation.

And it's something that FSU Police Department has been training for, for a long time. And actually they promote a lot of active shooter awareness training, even on their public website. So great job done by law enforcement today.

Now, that the immediacy of the threat though is now over, with law enforcement confirming that the threat has been neutralized, we're now going to move into that next phase of the incident management, which is really the investigation. And through that, law enforcement is really going to try to determine what was the motive behind this tragic shooting today.

SANCHEZ: And Jonathan, as you were watching that footage and hearing that sound, given what we've learned from sources about the weapons that were used, does the profile acoustically of the sounds you heard match what we have from law enforcement, that there was a shotgun and a pistol found on the suspect?

WACKROW: Yeah, just again, just listening to those acoustics, Boris, it does not sound like it was a semi-automatic rifle where we hear, you know, rapid fire, you know, of rounds. So it did align with what we've heard from law enforcement right now. But again, you know, rifles can fire in single shots as well. So I think until we actually hear what weapons platforms were used by the shooter from law enforcement, I don't want to speculate too much onto what type of gun was associated with that sound right away.

HILL: And as we wait, we have a little time left with you, but as we wait for this press conference, this update from officials, what specifically are you going to be listening for in that moment? What are some of the answers that you hope it will bring?

WACKROW: Well, what I'd like to understand is, you know, what do they know about this suspect thus far? You know, is there any indication of a motive right now? You know, typically when you have targeted acts of violence such as this, it is in response to some sort of grievance. So to have the -- identified what type of grievance this individual, you know, may have against the school or a faculty member or another student there.

[16:00:13]

Also really concerning, 75% of the time of these active shooter situations, the shooter made what's known as concerning communications just prior to the attack. I want to know if law enforcement knew of any of that prior to.

SANCHEZ: That's a really good point. Jonathan Wackrow, thank you so much for the perspective.

We're going to track more from this mass shooting at Florida State University next on The Arena with Kasie Hunt. It starts right now.