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Details of a Shooting at LAX

Aired November 01, 2013 - 13:30   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Let me, for viewers just tuning in at the bottom of the hour right now, update you on what we know. Around 9:30 a.m. Pacific Time, 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time, parts of the Los Angeles International Airport began to be evacuated after reports of gunfire, shots being fired, according to local police. Airport officials said the incident was at Terminal 3 at LAX. And passengers said there was a lot of popping sound. Everybody was diving for cover. Hundreds of people started running down staircases. According to one eyewitness, everybody started to panic. Passengers were directed to board buses and were taken to smaller terminals nearby or taken outside. So, there's a lot of activity going on right now.

More information is coming in even as we speak. The former LAPD ranking officer is telling us that the shooter approached the checkpoint and shot a TSA agent. Multiple shots were fired in quick succession. Rifle was used. Not clear whether the shooter breached the security checkpoint.

Deborah Feyerick has been reporting this.

So quickly, Tom Fuentes, to you.

What does that sound like, if this is true, that the shooter approached the checkpoint and shot a TSA agent?

TOM FUENTES, FORMER FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR AND CNN ANALYST: Well, it sounds Wolf, like the shooter did not breach security. And that's the danger that security officers at any public building or airport facility, manning the checkpoints, it's the point of danger. People up to that checkpoint can walk right up carrying a weapon. They haven't gone through any screening yet. And that's where they get screened. We had a similar situation a while back where two capitol police officers at the checkpoint were shot. We had the Holocaust Museum incident where the checkpoint officers were shot. The officers that run those checkpoints are at the point of attack. If someone is trying to breach the airport security, they are the first line of defense.

BLITZER: And you don't really -- Mike Brooks, you don't really realize how dangerous potentially it is for those TSA officers who deal with security at airports around the country.

MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: No, you don't. And you don't. You see the ones there, the officers in the blue shirts, most of them are unarmed. You have law enforcement that is usually on the other side in the secure area that will assist them should they need some help, but those officers from TSA, they are don't have weapons. So yeah, very, very vulnerable.

Tom's absolutely right. I was part of the team that actually responded to the capitol when those two officers, Officer Chestnut and Officer Gibson, were killed by an armed gunman as he entered the capitol building itself. So absolutely. There's officers manning those checkpoints, extremely vulnerable -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And why aren't they armed?

BROOKS: Well, the TSA, you know, I think their main mission is operating the checkpoints looking for -- you know, the screening of passengers, and you have law enforcement -- in this particular case, you've got the airport police there at LAX that they are behind them usually in the secure area. But I'm sure that's something, again, after incidents like this, that they will review and maybe change the policy and have more additional armed officers on the other side of the checkpoint. So I'm sure, you know, when we have instances like this, law enforcement takes a close look, OK, what can we do to be more proactive than reactive to active shooters and such.

BLITZER: Let me bring Deborah Feyerick -- if Deborah Feyerick is still with us, she's getting good information what's going on.

Deborah, are you still with us?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I'm here, Wolf.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: I want you to update viewers on precisely what you're learning. Go ahead.

FEYERICK: OK. So these are the details that we are learning. Apparently, a shooter entered the terminal, Terminal 3, approached a security checkpoint and then shot a TSA security agent. It's not clear whether this person actually breached that checkpoint. We are told by intelligence sources that, in fact, two people were shot, the TSA agent, but also responding officers were able to wound the gunman, the shooter. We don't know what the condition of the gunman is. But we are being told that he was injured. Other people were or did sustain some injuries as they were running from all of this that was going on that was happening. They are now searching the terminals just to make sure that this was a lone gunman.

But right now, it does not appear that he had gone through any checkpoint or that once the shooting took place he actually breached any checkpoint. That is what we are learning right now.

Again, two confirmed injuries, the TSA agent and the gunman, along with some others who were injured during this incident when they were fleeing from this active shooting -- Wolf?

BLITZER: And we know there's a ground stop at LAX, departing flights have been halted as of right now, according to LAX personnel.

We've got an eyewitness, Deb. Chuck Gauthier (ph), I hope I'm pronouncing your last name correctly.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: You were near the food court. What did you see? What was your impression?

CHUCK GAUTHIER (PH), WITNESS (voice-over): Well, I was actually at gate 30 just walking towards the food court. And I think gate 30 is the closest to where the security checkpoint is. And suddenly, I heard a couple of popping noises and I turned to look. It sound like somebody banging on something but there was a stampede of people coming my way and he realized something was very wrong. People were panicking just seeing the stampede of people that started to run. So people were running into the bathrooms. People were screaming run into the bathroom. You know, get behind something. And actually, I was very close to the escalator that goes to the baggage claim area and I decided to head down the escalator, you know, picked up my carry on bags, ran down the lone corridor. And at the end of the corridor where we had to go out through security, the security guard didn't know anything going on at that point. She just kept saying, if you go out, you can't come back in. All of a sudden, the police came and said everybody down on the floor. So everyone immediately went down to the floor and police ran the other way down the corridor, and a few moments later, the police asked us to get up and run, run, run, get out. So we ran across -- everyone ran different ways. I ran to the parking structure across the street, got into one of the stair wells where I figured I was surrounded by concrete. And eventually, the police came and escorted us all to the international terminal where the bulk of the people are, as far as I can tell, right now.

BLITZER: Are you waiting to take off to go someplace or had you just landed?

GAUTHIER (PH): Yeah, I was headed back to New York. And I'm coming back here on Monday. But I was heading back to New York. You know, I had had an 11:00 flight, plenty of time to wait. And I may just stay here the weekend.

BLITZER: Yeah, obviously, it looks like there's a ground stop at least of for now. And no flights are taking off. I suspect only a few are landing right now until they clean up and resolve this entire incident. They haven't told us it's all over, local authorities. We're waiting for some sort of announcement. Were most people relatively calm, Chuck, or pretty panicky?

GAUTHIER (PH): At the beginning it was a complete panic. People were screaming and I saw children crying. You know, I mean, people here are still very shaky, especially people who were close by. And had -- we ran top speed carrying our luggage you know, I guess might have been more prudent to leave it where it was I suppose, but just you had what was in your hands and you just ran.

BLITZER: And so right now, you're in Terminal 2. You've gone through the metal detectors, the TSA checkpoints and you feel safe and secure inside there, right? GAUTHIER (PH): Actually, we didn't go through any checkpoints. We're standing just inside the entrance to the terminal. You know, I guess you know, there's a bistro here and I'm not even sure what part of the terminal this is. This looks like this might be the exit to the terminal.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: So you're waiting --

(CROSSTALK)

GAUTHIER (PH): All of us sitting here centrally. They're trying to keep us away from the windows. You see armed police everywhere.

You know, as we were coming to the terminal, they were stopping cars and making people get out and being very, very stern with people, you know, show us your hands you know, don't go back into the car. I see handguns and, you know, more impressive looking weapons. But the police are obviously taking this very, very serious. We feel pretty safe where we are right now because there's such a police presence, and they seem to be much more relaxed around here than they were initially.

BLITZER: Do you get the impression, Chuck, that it's over with right now or that it's still an ongoing incident?

GAUTHIER (PH): It feels less like an ongoing incident than it did before. Before, the police -- you would see police just running around, going through the parking structure across the street. Looking up and down, you know, scanning you know, the roadway that's above here. Now I don't really see them actively looking around here anymore.

BLITZER: All right. So stand by, Chuck.

Thank you so much, Chuck Gauthier (ph), an eyewitness to what was going on giving us very good insight into clearly a very difficult situation, a shooter apparently opening fire at a checkpoint at Terminal 3 at LAX.

Mike Brooks, when you hear what Chuck was describing, what did you think?

BROOKS: No, that's -- it sounds like right there at the checkpoint, and it sounds like most of the passengers there were very, very cool, calm, collected. Did exactly what law enforcement told them to do. And when you have a situation like this, Wolf, in the early stages, you don't know if that gunman is acting alone. That's the reason the officers take precautions of having everybody show their hands and having people get down on the ground initially because you don't know exactly what you have.

Now what law enforcement is going to be dealing with, and I'm sure Terminal 3 will be closed for some time, Wolf, because you now have an active crime screen. If they have the lone gunman in custody, they're going to have to deal with the checkpoint as a crime scene for quite some time. There's a good possibility Terminal 3 could be shut down for the foreseeable future.

BLITZER: It looks like planes are now taxiing on runways and some are taking off, which would be a very good sign if that is the case, right?

BROOKS: Absolutely. Yeah, because right when something like that happens, all operations, the airport operations go ahead and stop. We heard the FAA. There was a ground stop. But it looks like now that maybe they're taxiing, starting to line the planes up again. But I seriously will doubt any flights that were scheduled to take off, you know, this afternoon from Terminal 3, passengers most likely will not be able to get there. Right now airport operations are trying to figure out exactly what they're going to do with all the flights scheduled out of Terminal 3 because, as long as that security checkpoint for 3 is shutdown, they're not going to be able to operate any flights out of that terminal.

BLITZER: Hold on a minute.

Casey Wian is at the airport, getting more information for us.

What are you learning, Casey?

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, I don't know if -- are you hearing me all right?

BLITZER: Yeah, I hear you fine. You look good. Go ahead.

WIAN: Sorry about that.

Well, you can see some of the traffic that has backed up here approaching LAX. You can see there are fire engines trying to get into the airport. They've got to have probably three-quarters of a mile or so to go before they reach that airport. They're not able to get through because of the traffic. There you can see a guy outside of his car. Just a few minutes ago, we talked to you on the phone. We had a bomb squad trying to get through traffic and they couldn't do it. So maybe the incident has sort of calmed down as you were reporting earlier inside. But outside of LAX, it's still an absolute nightmare, an absolute mob scene.

What I can say is, despite the fact we have had that ground stop, just over the last four or five minutes or so, I have seen I think three or four different commercial flights actually landing on the runway that's just behind our camera shot here, just in front of our camera shot, I should say. We've also seen a couple flights on the other side of the terminal taking off. So there are a limited number of flights that are operating in and out of LAX. But obviously, much, much fewer than normal because of this absolute gridlock that you're seeing around the airport that's going to take hours and hours, I'm sure, to unwind -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Do you know offhand, off the top of your head, Casey -- you fly out of LAX a lot -- which airlines usually use Terminal 3? WIAN: You know, I don't know off the top of my head. But I believe Virgin Atlantic or Virgin America was operating out of there at one point. I'm going to have to get back to you on that. It's not a terminal that it is used by any of the major domestic --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Casey, Casey, hold on a second, because now we're putting up on the screen -- Air-Tran, Alaska Airlines, Horizon Air, JetBlue, Midwest, Spirit and Virgin America. Those are the major airlines that use Terminal 3. So we're on top of that.

WIAN: I've got to say, Wolf, if I could, one of the flights I just saw land, maybe four or five minutes ago, was an Alaska Airlines flight. Flew right over our head and landed on the runway just behind us. So at least some flights are still operating.

BLITZER: It's not a complete ground halt. Some planes are landing and maybe some will start taking off. We see some planes on the runway right now. It looks like they're getting ready to taxi and take off, which would be an excellent sign.

WIAN: There's a plane coming in right over us, Wolf. That's ANA. If that's one of the ones in Terminal 3 or Terminal 2, probably maybe to the Bradley International Terminal, which perhaps is not affected by this. It's in a separate building.

BLITZER: Yeah.

Mike Brooks, one thing that just dawned on me -- and you know a lot more about this than I do -- if it's an isolated incident, one shooter, that's one thing. There were accomplices, you don't necessarily want to see planes leaving that were scheduled to leave from Terminal 2 because somebody could be on board one of those planes, right?

BROOKS: There's always that possibility, Wolf. You know, that's why it's important to find out who this person is. I'm sure that they do already know who this person is, how that person got there. Because you know, you heard Casey saying that the bomb squad truck was coming in just a short time ago because, you know, out of an abundance of caution, if this person came by vehicle, they'll try to find out where this person parked. That's why the surveillance video comes so much into play as part of the initial investigation, Wolf, because you want to make sure that this was just one person and was acting alone and didn't have some accomplices with them. That's why it's all important to put together the timeline, how the person got there, what the exact movements of this gunman were when he arrived to the airport, when he approached the airport, if he brought a vehicle, all these things.

Also going out to try to -- with are this person lives, getting a search warrant, going out there to make sure there's no hazardous materials, anything else in this person's house. Where did this person come from? This is all part of the initial investigation once they identify this person, which we see right from our KTLA, a fire department helicopter at Los Angeles Fire Department helicopter approaching the scene also. So a lot of things still going on, Wolf.

We still see the triage area set out in front with the L.A. Fire Department. They have not broken that down. We see the police command post right here that was very active just a short time ago still set up. One of the mobile command vehicles also was approaching the scene just moments ago as we see this L.A. Fire Department helicopter land on the top of one of the -- looks like one of the heliports there.

BLITZER: At the airport.

BROOKS: Yes.

BLITZER: We are now being told, Mike, by CNN's Miguel Marquez, that a law enforcement source close to the investigation says the suspect has been shot and is now in police custody. So that's very, very reassuring news. And so obviously, that would be very, very important if it's an individual, one person involved in this incident, and the person has been shot and is in police custody, that had be excellent news.

Hold on for a moment, Mike, Casey.

We've got another eyewitness. Leah Osbourne is joining us on the phone.

Leah, where were you when all of this happened?

LEAH OSBOURNE, WITNESS (voice-over): I was in Terminal 3 sitting in the chairs when just a storm of people started running as we starred evacuating towards the stairs. And then we were hurried down the stairs. And just as we were exiting all of a sudden, they told us to get down. And we were down for, I don't know, maybe like 25 seconds, I would, say, when we heard the shots coming from behind us. And then everybody starred running out the exit toward the parking structure.

BLITZER: And you were getting ready to board a flight for Newark, New Jersey, right?

OSBOURNE: Yeah.

BLITZER: And where are you now?

OSBOURNE: We're in the international terminal. I think it's Terminal 4.

BLITZER: Yeah. And they took you because there's another Terminal 2. A lot of folks from Terminal 3 went to Terminal 2. You're just holding, just waiting to see what's going on before they let you go back?

OSBOURNE: Yeah, we're waiting. They're not letting anybody in or out.

BLITZER: No one from Virgin American, which was your airliner, has given you any information when your flight might be taking off, right? OSBOURNE: No, no information on that.

BLITZER: You're just going to have to wait. I assume you're going to still try to get -- hold on for a moment, Leah, because Jay Carney, the White House press secretary is now speaking about this incident at LAX.

JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Los Angeles International Airport by Lisa Monaco (ph), the deputy chief of staff. He will be regularly updated on unfolding events there. At this point, the lead is LAPD but we're obviously, at the federal level, in touch with law enforcement officials on the ground and will -- the president will be updated as the afternoon progresses.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: At this point, anything you can say about what he's been told, what the understanding is from officials on what happened there?

CARNEY: No, I have no more information than what you're learning from reports out of L.A. right now to convey.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: On a separate topic, intelligence officials say the leader of the Pakistani Taliban was killed in a U.S. drone strike on Friday. Can you confirm that he was killed?

CARNEY: There you hear that the president has been informed about what is going on. Lisa Monaco (ph), his homeland security adviser, is briefing the president.

I want to bring back Leah Osbourne, one of the eyewitnesses we have been talking to.

So, Leah, you were there, sitting in a chair near your gate, getting ready to board a Virgin America flight from LAX to Newark, New Jersey. Did you actually hear the popping sound of guns?

I think we may have lost Leah Osbourne. But I suspect she did hear those sounds.

Mike Brooks is watching what's going on together with all of us.

You see the intensity at the airport. You see a lot of emergency vehicles there. It's very difficult, according to our own Casey Wian, to get anywhere near the airport right now on a Friday, a lot of folks trying to get out of Los Angeles for the weekend. Their plans are going to be delayed clearly, as a result of what happened.

Mike, set the scene for us. A shooter arrives at a checkpoint over there, TSA checkpoint going in, and has a weapon, and starts firing. This is what we're hearing. And people are injured. Multiple people are injured. We don't know how many, but we are hold that the shooter was shot himself, or herself, and is now in police custody. So that would be good news if, in fact, the shooter is in police custody.

BROOKS: It would, Wolf. That would be very good news. That begins the investigation on trying to find out what the motive for this was. You know, did this person, did this shooter, possibly know this TSA agent? Was it a random act? Who is this person? What's their affiliation? These are all questions that law enforcement want to know.

Wolf, I still find it interesting, we haven't seen the triage area broken down. Maybe out of an abundance of caution before they go ahead and clear all the terminals and open some of the traffic back up. Casey Wian said there's planes that are landing. We see some action, planes moving around the taxi ways. But they still have not broken down this triage area. And I have counted five or six medic units, ambulances that are still there. And the fire department command post right there. We see a battalion chief's vehicle, probably an EMS supervisors still there, as well as, on the left, the law enforcement with the mobile command unit there, and a lot of activity there. There's a lot of work to do on the law enforcement side of things with this investigation. We saw two FBI agents, looked like one possibly with the evidence response team, walking into the airport. Saw them there early on. Because if, in fact, it was a TSA agent we're hearing who was wounded, it will be -- that is a federal offense, also, assault on a federal officer. And that will fall under the jurisdiction of the FBI, but assisted with the LAPD, the L.A. airport police, will all work on this together. And depending on what condition that wounded person, the wounded subjects are, what kind of condition they are in, if a death has occurred. A lot of different things come into play with the investigation. But it will be worked, jointly, I'm sure, with LAPD and the FBI.

BLITZER: Stand by for a moment, Mike.

Our Casey Wian, our reporter, is there, getting more information.

What else are you learning, Casey?

WIAN: I don't know if you can see the woman way off in the distance wheeling her luggage. She's an arriving passenger from JFK. Just came in to one of the other terminals today. She's got a four-mile walk, she says, to her house in Marina Del Rey, but there's no taxi cabs, no way for her to get off the airport, no way for her husband to come and get her, get close to the airport, so she's going to walk, as far as she can, until she meets up with her husband.

Now you can see also the traffic jam and how you have an LAPD vehicle trying to navigate his way through the incredible traffic jam. There's also an SUV behind him with his lights flashing. Shows you the difficulty that emergency responders are having trying to get to the airport because now the traffic is just gridlock. We talked earlier about the bomb squad truck that tried to get by here, and they couldn't arrive.

What we have seen, though, is an increasing number of take-offs and landing. We know still officially that the airport says there's a ground stop. But over the past 20 minutes or so, we have seen several flights, commercial flights taking off and landing from the airport, although it's quiet right now -- Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, stand by for a moment. Tory Belleci is joining us on the phone, another eyewitness.

What did you see?

TORY BELLECI, WITNESS: Well, I was in the terminal when the shooter took place. I was just waiting. We have been delayed. We had a flight at 8:00. We got delayed until 10: 30. Then I heard shots. It didn't register until everybody started, like, flying down the hallway and they were just jumping over chairs, jumping over people, hiding, and we were kind of trapped at the end of the terminal. I never saw the shooter, but we heard the shots, and then we were kind of trapped at the end of the terminal. It seems like an eternity, but finally the security came, opened up the door, and we all piled out onto the tarmac and just kind of hid underneath the plane.

BLITZER: We're showing the viewers a photo you took and posted on Twitter. It looked like a pretty panicky situation.

BELLECI: It is -- was probably the worst experience I have ever been in in my life. The most terrifying. You also kind of imagine what would you do? You know, you hear about these horrible instances and you have to ask yourself, what would I do in a situation like that? The only thing I could do is keep my eyes down the hallway to make sure he wasn't coming down and keep calm. Everybody was just going crazy. It was -- it was probably the most terrifying experience I have ever been through.

BLITZER: You heard gunshots? Did you see the shooter?

BELLECI: I never saw the shooter. We heard the shots, and that's -- you know, like I said, I kind of was sitting, waiting at my gate. Heard the shots, and then looked up, and then everybody was flying down the hallway, just trying to get out.

BLITZER: So did they evacuate you to another terminal? Is that where you are right now?

BELLECI: Then what we did is we're standing on the tarmac for a bit, and then about, I don't know, maybe about 10 minutes passed and everybody -- the security brought around shuttle buses, and now they have been shuttling everybody out of the terminal into a secure location. It's just, you know, everybody is here right now. It's getting packed.

BLITZER: Tory, do you get the impression that this incident is over? Because we are being told that the shooter has been shot himself and is in police custody.

BELLECI: Yeah. I have heard news that they did apprehend him. But I think we just got an update. Somebody came in from security and said, right as of now, they're just going to hold us here until they make sure that the entire area is secured. And at some point, maybe we might be able to get back to get our stuff, but who knows.

BLITZER: You left your stuff over there at Terminal 3, is that what you're saying? BELLECI: That's what I'm saying.

BLITZER: You just left your bags and you started running --

BELLECI: Yeah, I mean --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: -- with a lot of other people.

BELLECI: Yeah, I mean, it's like, the only thing that was going through my head was, get out.

BLITZER: All right, I'm glad you're OK, and I'm glad everyone else is OK.

There are multiple injuries. We don't know how many and we have not heard directly. There has not been a news conference, but we anticipate LAX authorities will be briefing us soon on what has happened.

Tory, thanks very much. Good luck to you. I hope you make it to your destination.

Mike Brooks is still with us.

I guess they don't want to brief reporters and have a formal news conference until they're sure they know precisely what happens.

BROOKS: You're probably right on target with that. LAX -- we know how much social media plays a role when incidents like this happen -- they tweeted out five minutes ago, "Suspect is now in custody. Press conference at 11:30 a.m. at Sepulveda Boulevard/Century Boulevard with airport police and LAPD chiefs. So it looks like we will be hearing shortly from the airport police and from LAPD on what happened here, at 9:30 -- it started 9:30 local time this morning -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Yeah, the incident is now -- hopefully it's over, but they're not yet ready to make any formal announcements. As we see, there is still a hold at the airport. Officials at LAX, though, will hold a news conference, 2:30 p.m. eastern, 11:30 a.m. pacific, about a half hour from now. CNN will have live coverage.

A dramatic development at LAX. So let's hope it has been resolved. But we'll get the details and update you as information comes in. I'll have more later in "The Situation Room," 5:00 p m. eastern.

Brooke Baldwin continues our coverage right now on CNN.