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Shots Fired At LAX; No Flights In Or Out; Emergency Efforts Underway

Aired November 01, 2013 - 13:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We're following the breaking news, very disturbing information coming out of LAX, the Los Angeles International Airport. Shots were heard, shots were fired. We're told about a half an hour or so ago, 9:30 a.m. Pacific Time. That would be 12:30 p.m. here on the East Coast. About a half an hour or so ago, this incident apparently started with the shots fired. There are injuries. We've seen people evacuated. And we've seen people who have been injured.

We have no idea what caused these shots to be fired. We do know that as a precaution, as they always do at these kinds of incidents, authorities are taking precautions and evacuating the terminal. We believe it's terminal three at LAX If you're familiar with LAX, as a lot of us are, this is a huge terminal. This is a huge airport. On a Friday morning, when traffic is just building up, for something like this to happen, obviously very, very disturbing.

L.A. -- Los Angeles -- LAX police confirming, and I'm quoting now, "there is an incident at LAX and evacuations are underway. Shots have been fired and people have been injured." Apparently multiple injuries in this incident. Tom Fuentes, our Law Enforcement Analyst, is on the phone. He is joining us right now. Just walk us through, Tom, what happens in an incident, shots are heard at a major U.S. airport like this. What's the normal standard operating procedure?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST (via telephone): Well, the first thing, Wolf, would be to try to isolate the shooter and determine if he can be apprehended or did he do the shooting and take off running to another location in the airport? Obviously, a key factor would be trying to rescue and provide medical assistance to anyone that was wounded there and especially if it's life-threatening injuries to try to save them.

The next step would be evacuate all the other innocents out of that airport in case this turns into a situation where the individual wants to shoot it out with the police and they end up with bullets flying all over the airport. So, they'll want to get innocent people out of there, the wounded out of there. Isolate the location. Basically set up a perimeter of some kind and then begin the effort to search that terminal and determine where that individual is. The person may have run into a restroom and then killed himself or killed herself. That's a possibility. But the key thing is the medical assistance to the injured and wounded, the evacuation of the innocents, the isolation of the incident and go from there.

BLITZER: At LAX, police would be in charge or do they bring in the police from LAPD?

FUENTES: Well, they'll be -- all the police will end up being called in to assist. This will be a massive undertaking and it'll be police from every possible agency in the area from the local, the airport security, airport police, LAPD, L.A. sheriff's county, other nearby agencies if they're required. It will take a large number of officers to basically cordon off the area to enable the crime scene investigation which will have to go forward but also just to try to end the incident. Until they get that shooter either apprehended or at least locked down in a position where they have a barricaded subject, they're going to need a lot of police to deal with that.

As far as who's in charge of it, down the road in terms of who coop -- or who prosecutes the case, that'll be determined by the motivation. Do we have a mentally deranged individual? Do we have someone motivated by a possible terrorism motivation which would cause the FBI to be the lead agency? Those are facts which are not yet determined. So, right now, everybody works together. And, again, airports like LAX and other large airports throughout the United States conduct training exercises on a continuing basis for everything from airplane hijackings to incidents in the terminals themselves. So, this is not going to be something that they're not used to dealing with in terms of at least they may have trained for this particular incident on many occasions.

BLITZER: And you can see from the pictures we're showing our viewers, courtesy of our affiliates in Los Angeles, there's a heightened intense operation underway right now to deal with this incident at LAX.

Casey Wian is joining us on the phone right now, one of our reporters based in Los Angeles. What are you hearing, Casey?

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, Wolf, what we're hearing from KNX radio here in Los Angeles, they had someone on the air just a couple minutes ago who they described as an eyewitness to the shooting, and he described a white male, a clean cut guy with a rifle. We don't know -- you know, we can't independently verify if this person was an actual eyewitness to this event but local radio here did present him as one. We do know that terminal three, this is the place where the shooting actually happened, according to local officials here.

We also know that the area around the airport is just jam packed with cars, police obviously shutting down access to the airport to try to get control of this situation.

I also just want to talk about just over the last couple of weeks, Wolf, it's been a very, very difficult time for LAX in terms of potential security problems. You probably recall just within the last several weeks, there was a TSA agent who was arrested for making threats against LAX, claiming that he would plant explosives and blow up the airport. Also not long ago, there were a couple of contractor employees arrested at LAX for planting dry ice bombs which is a very bizarre incident. Apparently, some sort of a prank gone wrong. Obviously, this incident though appears much more serious -- Wolf. BLITZER: When you say much more serious, I see what the reaction has been from local authorities from local police. This looks like a massive under -- operation underway right now at terminal three at LAX. It doesn't look like just a small little incident. It looks like be something pretty serious.

WIAN: That's what our understanding is, as well, Wolf. We are not on the scene yet. We are on the way from our bureau to LAX. But we do have a producer, Traci Tamura, who is in the area and she describes it as basically locked down. There's no way to get a car into the airport. So, it's clear that the authorities are trying to restrict access to the airport and get the situation under control -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And we see the firefighter fighters there on the left part of our screen. They are dealing with the injured. And there seem to be multiple injuries right now. We don't have an exact count. We don't know if there are any fatalities or anything along those lines. But we do see the Los Angeles Fire Department there evacuating people, bringing folks out of that terminal three right now.

This is something, Tom Fuentes, that has to be closely coordinated. The police authorities who are there plus the firefighters who come in, the rescue operations, if you will.

FUENTES: Yes, it would be, Wolf. And as I mentioned, the authorities including rescue personnel, first responders, medical, hospital, are frequently training together to address any kind of an incident like this, whether it's a bomb that goes off and injures hundreds of people or whether it's an attempted hijacking or whether it's any kind of an incident in the terminal. Either in a secure area or, you know, it's not a secure area when you go to the ticket counter and you go from the ticket counter toward a gate, that's the point where you would go through security and have a search happening.

So, up until that point, there's hundreds and thousands of people in the area of the airport both on the street approaching it and as well as in the airport itself who have not yet been through security. And, therefore, you could have somebody with a firearm in that area because there would have been no way to check them yet.

The other issue of importance is that in terms of eyewitnesses to the incident when they report seeing somebody with a rifle or a shotgun, at this point, you really have to be careful that you could be reporting on plain clothes law enforcement who are maybe arriving from another terminal or another part of the airport. So, you will see people in uniform and out who may be brandishing weapons within than airport that are law enforcement now. That are responders or off duty police officers. Not just necessarily the shooter.

So, we would want to be clear that a witness is a person who actually saw the person holding the weapon, shooting the weapon, giving you a smoking gun description of who pulled the trigger and who was injured at the other end of it if they know.

BLITZER: It shouldn't be surprising to any viewers, there now has been a ground stop at LAX, meaning no flights are coming in, no flights are taking off as this incident continues. And we see law enforcement. We see fire and rescue operators on the scene as well. It looks like they're gearing up for something protracted. You can see some temporary structures now being established there. Unclear what has happened.

We did see some wounded folks evacuated from terminal three at LAX a little while ago. In fact, we had some video of one individual wearing a blue shirt with -- you could make south some blood on that shirt as well. We don't know if that was a TSA uniformed personnel officer or anyone -- or if it was just someone else wearing a uniform or wearing an outfit similar to what the TSA wears. But it's clear that this is a -- they're gearing up for a big operation.

Casey Wian is on the way to LAX. I don't know how close you're going to get, Casey, because, as you say, our producers on the scene say the whole area has been cordoned off for understandable reasons.

WIAN: That's right, Wolf. We don't know how close we're going to be able to get. In normal traffic, we're probably still about 15 minutes away from the airport. But we're anticipating it getting a lot heavier as we approach LAX. There are several entrances into LAX so it's a big job shutting this down. But, obviously, this is a Friday. A very busy travel day. So, that's going to just increase the amount of work that authorities are going to have to go through to get this shut down and get this area secure. We're going to get as close as we can. And we're just going to have to give you an update once we get closer -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And you just saw a lot of passengers walking around. Obviously, they're being escorted to safer locations. And then you see -- you see the SWAT teams basically on the roofs up there taking precautionary measures, gearing up for what could be an extended operation right now. We have no idea what's going on inside terminal three, but we do see a lot of law enforcement, firefighters, a lot of emergency personnel on the scene. It looks like they're gearing up for something extensive right now. Tom Fuentes, you were the assistant director of the FBI. You understand what's going on. They have to -- they have to worry about a worst case scenario right now, don't they? FUENTES: That's absolutely true, Wolf. They have to, you know, hope for the best but absolutely plan and prepare for the worst possible situation. The worst situation could be, there's more than one shooter. This was part of a coordinated attack on the airport or the shooter is still at large. It could still shoot other people. The shooter may also have explosives in addition to firearms. So -- and it could take them a long time to actually locate the person. So, those are all worst case scenarios that could cause the situation to drag on for hours even before they even locate the person that has caused this.

BLITZER: But if they did spot one individual with a rifle or a shotgun, they -- if one eyewitness said that -- if that initial eyewitness account is accurate, at least they have an appreciation of where this -- if it's an individual doing this, where that person is.

FUENTES: Well, that's true. But as you recall, Wolf, during the Navy Yard shooting incident not too long ago, you had eyewitnesses cite a number of individuals and the police put out descriptions looking for multiple persons that later turned out to be identified as law enforcement in plain clothes. And that could still be the situation here where airport personnel, other police officers or TSA personnel who may run in that will airport in plain clothes or maybe not having their badges adequately displayed carrying a weapon. We just don't know.

I would like to hear more about what the eyewitness saw. Now, if the eyewitness saw an individual with a rifle shooting people, then, of course -- then that's a very valid eyewitness account. But often the eyewitnesses are reporting what they've seen after the shooting, after the occurrence and they didn't actually see the shooting itself.

BLITZER: You know, this statement just released by the FAA, Tom. I'm going to read it to you and to Casey Wian, our reporter who's heading to LAX right now. And you'll give us some analysis. This is the statement, Tom. Due to gate issue, there is a traffic management ground stop program in effect for traffic arriving LAX. So, when they say a gate issue, Tom, do you have any idea what that means?

FUENTES: Well, it could mean that possibly the person has gotten through security and could be at one of the gates, could attempt to storm his way onto an aircraft if the aircraft is at the gate and the doors are open. And certainly, that would be the case. If people -- if planes land, you're adding hundreds and hundreds of people per flight into the terminal. And you're adding an open door the other way that a person could get on the jetway and board an aircraft that -- while other people are trying to get off and possibly hijack the plane, take the crew hostage or other hostages. So, that would be, you know, a concern about gate security by not bringing in any additional planes and by doing the ground stop. They're shutting down all aviation particularly at that terminal so that there can be no threat of an individual getting to an aircraft.

BLITZER: Los Angeles Fire Department now describing the situation at LAX, the Los Angeles Airport, as, quote, "a multi-patient incident." Meaning there are obviously lots of patients who are being treated right now.

Let me just recap at a quarter past the hour for our viewers here in the United States and around the world who might just be tuning in. Parts of Los Angeles International Airport were being evacuated Friday morning after reports of shots being fired there, this according to local police. Airport officials say a police incident began at around 9:30 a.m. Pacific time. That would be 12:30 p.m. Eastern time at terminal three at LAX, that according to a spokeswoman for the airport.

One passenger, Robert Perez, who was getting ready to fly Virgin Air was taking a nap in the terminal when panic erupted. He told CNN affiliate KCAL, CBS. He said this, "I heard a popping sound and everybody was diving for cover." Perez told the station the TSA said there was a shooting in the terminal and evacuate the building. He said at least 100 people came running down the staircase. Everybody, he said, started to panic. The passengers were directed to a bus and were taken to a smaller terminal.

This individual Robert Perez, a passenger, told our affiliate and there you see emergency personnel fire department folks, local law enforcement, they're gearing up for what looks like a serious, serious incident, multi-patient incident, meaning there's lots of injuries right now. We have no idea how many. We're getting just very, very preliminary information in from LAX authorities, from are fire -- LA Fire Department, from LAPD and from LAXPD right now.

So all this information just coming in. I suspect fairly soon they'll have a - some sort of briefing for reporters. But this is clearly, Casey Wian, I don't know how close you are to LAX right now, this is clearly an ongoing situation. And it may be only just beginning. Casey is unavailable right now.

Mike Brooks is joining us, watching all of this unfold.

It's now about 45 minutes into this incident. We see sharpshooters. We see folks on roofs, on parking facilities nearby. What do you make of what's going on, based on your experience, Mike.

MIKE BROOKS, CNN/HLN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, Wolf, I can tell you that the L.A. Fire Department, you see there is those tarps outside, they are set up for a mass casualty incident. That's a triage area where you have a red tarp, yellow tarp and a green tarp. And as you see right there, that's the triage area. The most - the most serious will go to the red area. Other possibly injured, wounded will go to the yellow and then the least of them to the green. And that's how you set up a triage. It goes in line with a triage tag that they will put on a patient.

But, you know, right when all this began, we were seeing - I saw at least - at least two or three people being brought out. One looked like he was -- he or she was in critical condition. The other two being put into an ambulance. They were talking to paramedics. But with the response you have from both police and fire, it sounds like, Wolf, that they - they are expecting possibly more, but we don't know what's going on inside that terminal right now.

BLITZER: And so just to recap with those tarps, if it's a red tarp, that's for the most severe injured folks, the yellow tarp is for the intermediate and the green is for the least severe. So if you see someone on a yellow tarp right there, that's described as an intermediate emergency, is that right, Mike?

BROOKS: That's correct, Wolf, yes. You know, they -- if you see someone on red, they'd be working on them. Those would be the most critically injured people. But LA Fire, they do drills like this all the time in preparation for they call it MCI, a mass casualty incident. So that's a triage area they have set up there now. And it looks like they are working on one patient there in that yellow area.

BLITZER: As we watch what's going on, Casey Wian is heading there, Tom Fuentes is watching what's going on. We've got all our teams in Los Angeles gearing up for what could be a prolonged incident. We hope it won't be. We hope this is resolved quickly, but it's now going - it's been going on for more than 45 minutes right now. Shots fired inside terminal three at LAX and there are multiple injuries we are told. Authorities getting ready for the worst, obviously, so we're watching what's going on.

I think we have an eyewitness joining us on the phone right now from someone who was there at the terminal.

Alex Neumann, are you there?

ALEX NEUMANN, EYEWITNESS (via telephone): Yes, I am.

BLITZER: Tell us where you were and what you saw.

NEUMANN: We were at the food court and all of a sudden I hear a big commotion and people start running. And I thought it was rather interesting, so I walked back toward the direction that people were running. And in the distance I saw a gentleman with - say he was about maybe 5'8", 5'9", not a particularly tall gentlemen, and he was running and was shouting something while he was doing that. And pretty much that's everything that I saw. It was mostly like a blur (ph). People were running and people were getting knocked down and there was luggage everywhere and mayhem is the best way of describing it.

BLITZER: Mayhem is a serious word. Now, so I take it this was inside the secure area. You have to go through TSA, you have to go through the metal detectors in order to be at that food court where you were, right?

NEUMANN: You know, exactly. But that's what I'm thinking, maybe he came back through the gate entrance, because he came from the direction other than direction that people walk up into the gate. He came from the other side where the - where the planes board and unboard. So I don't know how he got there, how he managed to walk through the security, because I know he would not be able to go through regular security that way.

BLITZER: Did you - so where are you now? Are you still inside or did you get outside, Alex?

NEUMANN: We are -- we are under lockdown in terminal two, the international terminal I believe, and we're just waiting words from anybody to be honest with you. We have no idea what's going on.

BLITZER: So you're just -- they've just moved you to terminal two, which is presumably secure, right?

NEUMANN: They -- yes. Yes. I feel very secure in here. There's about maybe (INAUDIBLE) officers around this area and they all have their guns drawn. So I feel very secure at the moment.

BLITZER: If you're watching what's going on -- are you waiting to take off, to fly someplace else or are you, Alex, had you just arrived?

NEUMANN: No, we were planning on boarding the plane to Miami. And that doesn't look like it's going to happen any time soon.

BLITZER: And so there's no flights taking off, no flights leaving. They've got a lockdown at the airport for good reason right now.

NEUMANN: Yes.

BLITZER: Alex, we'll stay in touch with you. Alex Neumann was an eyewitness, saw what was going on at one of the food courts and he saw someone running and obviously mayhem was the word he used.

Tom Fuentes is still with us, the former assistant FBI director, our CNN law enforcement analyst.

Are you surprised, Tom, that this is still going on as intensively as it is, approaching one hour into this incident?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST (via telephone): Wolf, I would question whether or not this may have already ended. And the reason I say that is watching the video feed of the area around the terminal, they're bringing passengers out, putting them on buses. And they seem to be fairly nonchalant about it. If they thought they still had someone running around that airport that has a high-powered rifle or explosives, there would be much greater urgency on the part of the law enforcement authorities to get those people out of there, make them run to that bus, get those buses out of there. And it's kind of -- you know, you have people looking like they're going on a vacation excursion here boarding the LAX buses. So there's a good possibility that this is already over on the inside of that terminal and they've just not said so publicly. The police may be aware of it, but the public and the media may not be aware of it yet. I'm just - again, it's my opinion, looking at what appears to me to be a lack of urgency in evacuating passengers from the vicinity of that terminal.

BLITZER: Why wouldn't -- just a technical question. Why wouldn't police, if it's all over, why wouldn't they immediately do a quick announcement it's all over and we're going to clean up the situation right now? Why wouldn't they immediately tell us if it's all over?

FUENTES: Well, they may be - they may be trying to dial down the speed of evacuation to avoid further injury to people just tripping over each other or getting run over by a bus or rescue vehicle, like we've had in other incidents. So that could be a circumstance.

But with the public announcement, they just want to be absolutely certain that if they had a lone gunman, that lone gunman has either been killed or apprehended and neutralized one way or the other and that -- so to their knowledge, there's no additional threat at large in that airport.

And, again, we've seen this in other incidents, the person in the Navy Yard was alone and on the ground dead for a pretty long time before the police finally came out and said that that situation was over and handled and the public would be safe. And, of course, they did have to track down whether -- whether uniformed officers were actually suspects. But, you know, in this case, it just - it just doesn't seem anymore like there's a mad dash to get away from that terminal.

BLITZER: Hold on a minute, Tom. Deborah Feyerick is joining us. She's getting some information on what's happening at LAX. What are you learning, Deb?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we can tell you a couple of -- some preliminary information. We're being told by an intel source formerly of the LAPD that the shooter apparently approached a checkpoint there at terminal three in LAX and then opened fire on a TSA agent. Now we're told also that there were multiple shots that were fired. The weapon they believe may be a rifle. But again, this was somebody who walked up to the checkpoint, opened fire on a TSA agent. Not clear right now, according to the people that we're talking about, as to whether they actually breached that security checkpoint or whether the target was there. So all of that right now under investigation.

You heard Mike Brooks earlier describing that sort of on-site triage center there. They do that just in the expectation that there might be numerous casualties, but you also see that there are a number of ambulances that are on-scene that are still there. So whether this was somebody going after one person, all of that right now under investigation. They believe right now there's one shooter, but clearly they're going through all the terminals to see whether in fact there might be anybody else who was involved in this shooting.

And, Wolf, terminal three, which is where it took place, is connected to other terminals, terminal two, by sort of a breezeway, a jetway. So this is a rather large scene right now that they're looking at, Wolf.

BLITZER: And clearly this is still an ongoing situation. It looks hopefully it's over with, but we have - but certainly there's been no formal announcements or any announcement by local authorities that it may be resolved. Let's hope it is resolved. But we do know that the L.A. Fire Department is saying there's multiple injuries, multiple patients that were injured in this incident in terminal three at LAX.

Tom Fuentes is still with us. Mike Brooks is with us. Deborah Feyerick. Our own Casey Wian is on the way. We've got our affiliates monitoring what's going on. Still an ongoing situation as we speak right now. LAX has been shut down. It's clearly closed. No flights are taking off or landing right now. The FAA has issued that announcement a little while ago, and that is going to cause some major flight disruptions coming out of Los Angeles.

Clearly, Mike Brooks, as you watch what's going on, does it look like these folks are calm - calmed down or -- we're only getting little snippets from the video. We only see, you know, what's happening outside. Really we don't know what's going on inside terminal three.

BROOKS: No, we don't. And, you know, you don't see a lot of immediacy, like Tom was saying, but you do see the law enforcement command post set up there. Earlier on in the situation, I saw some FBI agents arriving. But, you know, there is an FBI office, there's agents assigned to LAX, they're there and have an office there at the airport. But you do still see the L.A. Fire with their triage area set up, with a number of medic units lined up there. We don't know if that's possibly out of an abundance of caution. You know, we don't know if they have this person contained, in custody. We don't know any of this right now, Wolf.

But one of the other things they're also doing, they're going over all of the video surveillance to see, OK, if this -- was a single gunman, if it was someone who may have had some assistants, where they went. They're looking at all the video screens, because you have hundreds of cameras inside of that airport that they're able to bring up and take a look at the movements of this - of this shooter as he possibly parked at the airport, as he entered the airport and possibly approached that TSA checkpoint.

BLITZER: And if it occurred, Tom Fuentes, inside the secure area, inside the metal detectors that the TSA obviously conduct at all the - at all airports in the United States, if someone had a weapon inside that area, that raises a lot of concerns, Tom.

FUENTES: Well, the concern there is, and possibly here the shooting occurred at the checkpoint, not past the checkpoint, meaning there was no breach of a checkpoint with a person with a rifle and then turning around and opening fire. So if they're in the unsecured area, people getting out of cars coming to catch flights, you know, they can get out of those vehicles with a bazooka. They're not going through any security yet until they get to the gate checkpoint.

Now as Mike mentioned, and it's a tremendous point, the cameras that they'll be going through now will cover everything from the vehicles unloading people on the -- at the front doors, the sidewalks, the entries, the gate areas, the hallway areas leading to the security checkpoints. They'll be going through that now in detail trying to see if there's more than one person that walked in there, when did they see the weapon, are there other multiple people that maybe were with that person and somehow disappeared into the airport. All of that is under review and analysis right now and has been since the initial incident, wanting to know is this person alone or was this person alone when the attempt was made.

BLITZER: And they'll be reviewing all those videotapes very, very closely. I assume they've probably already started.

Casey Wian, I take it you're now at LAX, is that right?

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): That's right, Wolf. I'm just outside the gates of LAX. For those who are familiar with the airport, I am at the intersection of Sepulveda (ph) Boulevard and where Lincoln turns into the airport, just north of the airport.

You can hear the sirens behind me. What that is, believe it or not, is the bomb squad and an LAPD vehicle actually stuck in traffic. They're trying to get to the airport. But because the traffic is so bad, they can't get past all of the cars that look like they're backed up for maybe a mile around the airport. And that LAPD officer has now gotten out of his vehicle, instructing other vehicles to move out of the way so they can get bomb squad trucks into LAX It's really a chaotic situation around the perimeter of LAX right now. Traffic blocked for miles on some of these roads.

One other interesting thing. What we have reported and we have confirmed that there is a ground stop in effect at LAX. Just over the past two or three minutes, I've seen a couple different commercial flights either landing or taking off. So we're not sure which planes are being allowed to leave, which planes are being allowed to come in, but some flights are actually coming and going out of LAX So it's really not as many as normal.

But it looks like that bomb squad has had some success in at least moving forward a few hundred yards as they make their way toward LAX. So, you know, if the bomb squad can't get in, I don't know how the rest of us are going to get any closer than we are, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes. An airport spokeswoman just said outgoing flights have been halted at LAX right now. I assume a ground stop means incoming flights, as well. But we'll get some clarification on that.