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Reports of School Shooting in Colorado; Uncle of North Korean Leader Executed

Aired December 13, 2013 - 15:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Listen, I have some breaking news I want to get to here. I just want to read it. This is just in to CNN. All schools out of Littleton, Colorado, currently on lockdown. That's according to the school district's security office. We're told it stems from an incident at a high school in a nearby town.

They haven't revealed a reason yet, but we're going to get updates just as soon as we get them here on CNN. Can you bring that to me? An update just as soon as we get it here on CNN, but, again, all high schools in Littleton on lockdown, on lockdown, and we're getting information here into CNN. We will bring it to you.

In the meantime, now to the diplomatic bombshell that top officials say Iran has likely known for some time. Robert Levinson, the longest held American hostage, was working for the CIA when he disappeared visiting Iran's Kish Island nearly seven years ago.

The Associated Press and "The Washington Post" found Levinson was gathering intelligence for an analyst in a rogue operation that led to the firing of three CIA employees. "The Post" and the AP also report the CIA paid $2.5 million to Levinson's family to avoid the publicity of a lawsuit.

Levinson's wife and son just last month said that the former FBI agent had been on a business trip when he vanished.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE LEVINSON, WIFE OF CAPTIVE: Bob had business. He was running his own business and doing well. And then this happened. And our whole world fell apart.

QUESTION: And this man, your husband, did work in the FBI, but this wasn't an FBI caper gone wrong. This was a business trip, just to make that clear. Is that correct then?

LEVINSON: Correct. Bob retired from the FBI in 1998.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, just within the last two hours, the White House decried the story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Believe it was highly irresponsible to publish, and which we strongly urged the outlet not to publish, out of concerns for Mr. Levinson's safety. I'm also not going to say anything that might further harm our efforts to bring Mr. Levinson home safe, which has been our goal for the six-and-a-half years he's been missing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Talk about this more now.

CNN's national correspondent, Susan Candiotti, joins me.

Levinson, what was he doing for the CIA in Iran?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, according to a family friend who is a lawyer who has been working for the Levinson family, he said that Bob was gathering information on Iran's nuclear program and also Hezbollah.

Now, this man that I have been speaking with, David McGee is his name, has been closely working with the family for years. And he said that he was one of the people that got to the heart of this information after he and a paralegal who he was working with was able to gather information from Levinson's own files and e-mails showing that he was in contact with a CIA employee who was helping to organize the work that he was doing.

Now, what's interesting to point out here is that Jay Carney, what you heard him just say, that Levinson was not an employee of the government, well, in fact -- you have to watch the words carefully. If in fact -- remember, a contract employee is not the same as a government employee. So, of course, there is a difference there. He was making that clarification, but you have to keep in mind, Levinson, technically, that is true. He was a contract employee, according to McGee.

LEMON: Let's listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARNEY: Bob Levinson was not a U.S. government employee when he went missing in Iran.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK, so again, more specifically, what you're saying is read between the lines. It's more about what he's not saying than what he's saying.

CANDIOTTI: That's right. Words are chosen carefully and for a reason.

And what's important to remember of course that all of this is a very delicate situation, the family, of course, very concerned about Bob Levinson. At the same time, they said, we have been lied to. We have been lied to for a very long time. We want Bob to come home safely.

Some people, they said, in the U.S. government, have been trying to work very hard to get him back. But others, they felt, have not been doing that.

LEMON: All right. Thank you very much, Susan Candiotti, our national correspondent here.

All schools in Littleton, Colorado, have been placed on lockdown. We're trying to gain information as to why, but we're hearing from officials there, and that's the only information we're getting. Littleton, Colorado, all schools placed on lockdown. We're gathering more information for you. We should have it on the other side of the break, hopefully.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

LEMON: OK, just a little bit more now on the breaking news that we have been reporting here on CNN.

All of the schools in Littleton, Colorado, currently on lockdown, that's according to the security office. And we're told that it stems from an incident at a high school in the nearby town of Centennial. No reason is revealed, and of course, we know that is the sight of the Columbine High School shooting, Littleton, Colorado, so we're keeping a close watch on that.

She said the lockdown stems from an incident at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado. Again, all public schools in the Littleton area on lockdown, that's according to a district security officer there. We will keep you updated as we get more information on the story.

You know -- OK, you know that uncle, a little too opinionated, risque, and a show-stealer at holiday dinners? We all know that guy. Well, North Korea leader Kim Jong-un can sympathize, so he killed him, ordering the execution of his uncle, a purge of the Kim family dynasty with a swift and violent end to a man long considered one of the country's most powerful men.

Why? Well, state-run media says it's because he's -- quote -- "despicable human scum, worse than a dog."

Joining me now is CNN International anchor and correspondent...

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they don't mince words, do they?

LEMON: Yes. I was like, why don't you say how you really feel there, Kim?

So, Jim, tell us what exactly, what did -- his name is Jang Song Thaek, right?

CLANCY: Thaek. Thaek. LEMON: Thaek. Why did he deserve this? What actually went down?

CLANCY: Well, he was always kind of the loner. He was a very extravagant man.

He had a luxurious lifestyle. He was a womanizer. And, remember, this is Kim Il-Sung's daughter that he's married to. There are who say that the leader, the old leader, Kim Jong-un's grandfather, did not want this man in the family. He's always had this style, rambunctious style. He was the one who had a contact with the South Korean businessman, he had contact with Chinese businessman.

Some say he used drugs. But the whole point is here he may have gone too far. He was purged back in 2004 and spent two years out in the cold. And he was then brought back, rehabilitated, but suddenly, he has apparently stepped across some line or another. This may be evidence of an ongoing power struggle, more purges to come.

So, you know, as we look at it right now, this guy was well known to everybody. He had a lot of the contacts that were going on. There are rumors that some of his aides may be seeking shelter at the South Korean Embassy inside China. We don't know if that's true or not, but a lot of people are thinking...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Hey, Jim, Jim?

CLANCY: Yes.

LEMON: Sorry, I have to run. I have to run.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: As I was looking down on camera, the viewer was wondering why. I'm trying to get information and -- from my producer in my ear and looking on my e-mail here.

I'm being told that this story out of Littleton, Colorado, that we have been telling you about, the schools being on lockdown, apparently, there's a shooting in Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado.

We're told, Eric (ph), again, two people? Two people believed to be shot, the suspect still inside of the school. This is in Centennial. And we're trying to get more information on this, but again, according to the information that we have from sources here at CNN, there's been a shooting inside Arapahoe High School.

And I want to bring in -- let's bring in -- let's talk to Jane Velez- Mitchell.

Jane, you covered Columbine, right?

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: Of course.

LEMON: This is where -- the area where Columbine happened.

The normal security measures, let's talk about that in schools in that area and schools across the country.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: This is gut-wrenching.

And every time we hear one of these stories, you know, it gives me a pit in my stomach because I remember Newtown and how it started and how it was started just the same way. Oh, there's been a shooting and we don't really know what's happened. And then it just got worse and worse and worse. I pray, I pray that whatever happened here, as horrible as it is, is limited, and it is not a mass shooting of any -- any sort.

Unfortunately, with gun violence in this country the way it is, we wonder, what -- how bad is it? That's the first thing we wonder, how bad is it? And I know obviously parents in that area have got to be concerned. I know everybody will stay calm. I know law enforcement, the height of professionalism in these kinds of crises, and they respond with calm and with courage. And they go and they put their lives on the line, and they go in to situations where they don't know what the outcome will be.

So I hope this is something that's very limited and maybe we will find out that it's not as bad as even you have reported.

LEMON: Yes, we hope so. And I remember, I was on the -- first person to report on the anchor desk about Newtown, and about Sandy Hook, the elementary school at Sandy Hook, and at first, it was just a principal, we thought, a school official, and a lone gunman, and it had all been taken care of.

And by the time I got home or I was in Washington, back to my hotel, we heard about the 20 children who had died there. But, listen, we don't know if this incident is as serious as that, but we are being told through officials in Colorado that at least two people have been shot in Arapahoe High School, and the gunman is still inside the school.

According to officials there, there's been a shooting at the school. Believe there are two victims and that the suspect is still inside the school. Again, Arapahoe High School is in Centennial. This is in the same district, the Littleton Public School District, as the Columbine shooting.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And we know that schools have developed protocols and they train and they actually train and they drill on what to do in situations like this. And teachers have been told to get their students out of harm's way.

And I know parents who have talked to me personally about drills that their kids have gone through at school. It used to be, back in the '50s, you would do a drill by hiding under the desk. And now we do drills that hopefully will get kids out of harm's way, out of the school, and into a neighboring property or into an area within the school that they can be safe from harm. LEMON: Again, if you're just tuning in, we're getting reports now that -- out of Littleton, Colorado, that all the schools are on lockdown. It's apparently because there's been a shooting inside Arapahoe High School, which is in Centennial, Colorado.

There's been a shooting there. At least two people have been shot. We're told the gunman is still inside of the school. And we're working on getting you pictures and more information coming from Centennial, Colorado, but, again, Littleton on lockdown. We all remember the Columbine shooting there, and, as has been reported, the number of people who have died.

We don't know, again, if anyone has been killed in this, but we do know that two people have been shot. That's according to reports from officials there near Arapahoe High School, and the gunman, again, still inside the school.

Our Jane Velez-Mitchell joins us.

Jane, we are here to talk about a completely different story, but both of us have covered these school shootings. Both of us covered Newtown.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes.

LEMON: Both of us covered the Columbine High School shooting, and I remember vividly covering that story. And that was sort of the beginning of this wave of school shootings that we have been seeing recently.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: It's absolutely horrifying.

And the problem is if there's a shooter inside that school, well, the imagination runs wild, because we don't know how many rounds this person may have, what kind of weapons this person may have, what their motive might be, whether this is something where they have a gripe or whether they're mentally ill and/or both.

So this is really a big question mark and a big unknown. And, again, as soon as we get any information, that will help us tailor our sense of what actually is the magnitude of what's happening there. But at this point, we do not know whether this is something that is relatively minor and is something we can sort of say, ooh, thank God, you know, it's OK, or if it's something much more major.

LEMON: Any time, though, there is -- something like this happens inside of a school, it is serious, whether one person or no one gets injured, because to bring a weapon inside of a school and to expose people there who have no idea that you're coming into the school with a weapon is just horrific.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, take a look at this. It's big, a big school.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: And most of the high schools are big now. I was actually surprised when we were just in Danvers just a couple of months ago, just how big that high school is.

Yes, this is a big high school. It's Arapahoe High School. It's in Centennial, Colorado. And, again, all schools there in the area, which is the Littleton area, have been placed on lockdown. Again, two people dead inside of the school. Excuse me -- not two people dead, two people shot. Scratch that, two people shot inside of the school. We're not sure of the injuries yet.

And that is all we're learning. Getting information from my producers now and we're working to get information from sources and from officials there on the scene. Jane Velez-Mitchell, the host on HLN, joins me now.

And, Jane, as I said, we were going to talk about a completely different story. But since you're here, we can talk about this story.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Sure.

Well, take a look at this from the air and you see that there's a parking lot. There's a baseball diamond. So there are areas where if the students can get out of the building, they can really run and make a break for it. And I don't know if it's something that is necessary, but I would assume that that would be something you would want to do, is get those kids out of there, get them away, and as far away from the facility as you absolutely can.

Now, we saw in Newtown that there were teachers who performed so heroically and put themselves in the line of fire to protect the students. The students rely on their teachers to guide them in situations like this. And, of course, you have the issue of cell phones. This is a high school, so these are not little kids. These are high schoolers who have the capacity to text and the capacity to call and the capacity to e-mail other adults and let them know what's going on.

So we may be getting information from inside the school.

LEMON: And let me just read this information that I'm getting from the producers here at CNN.

And it's saying that Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson told one of our affiliates that there has been a shooting at Arapahoe High School. He believes there are two victims and that the suspect is still inside the school, again, Arapahoe High School. It gives the address there. It's part of the Littleton Public School District.

There are 70 different classrooms in the high school, which covers about 254,000 -- as you were saying, it's a big school, Jane, 254,000 square feet, and there are 2,200 students, at least, that attend the high school. The school was built back in 1964.

Again, all of this information just coming to us here on CNN. The schools are on lockdown. That's according to a district security officer. She wouldn't give her last name, but this is from the office, and she says it stems from an incident at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado. So, again, for those of you just watching this, this is a serious story. We never know just how serious these will turn out to be and if there will be a dire situations here, but we're hearing that there have been two people shot at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado.

Jane Velez-Mitchell joins me. I'm Don Lemon, 3:21 in the East here.

Jane, go ahead.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You know that police, EMS, firefighters, every able- bodied man and woman who is trained to respond to situations like this is descending on this school as we speak. And they are surrounding it, and they know the layout of the school.

This is part of the training. While the students inside have trained on how to get out with the help of their teachers and the principal and the other administrators, the cops and the EMS teams are trained how to get in and how to help. So what you would have right now, even though we're looking at a Google Earth, in real time, this school is going to be surrounded by law enforcement, and they and the SWAT teams, the highly trained SWAT teams that are deployed in situations like this, are finding their way into the school if they're not already in the school.

And these are the heroes who put their lives on the line, going in, not knowing what they're going to face, what kind of weapons the suspect has, what the aim of the suspect is, and whether or not the suspect is mentally ill or somebody with a grudge, a former student. We have no idea.

And so to deal with the unknown, here we are sitting here, talking about this, dealing with the unknown. Imagine the courage it takes to go into the building while dealing with the unknown. But this is what they're trained to do.

LEMON: And imagine -- but imagine the students inside of that school if the gunman is still inside. The students -- if there are students who are still inside, I imagine, in Colorado, it's still early, so 1:00 in the afternoon, so there would still be students inside the school for the most part, unless they're out for Christmas break, which I don't think -- I think it's a little too early for that.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes.

LEMON: And then the staff as well. There would be people who are inside of the school, and, as you said, it would be these brave men and women who rush to the school, going in, and don't knowing -- without knowing the complete circumstances, if there are more than one gunman, because who knows. They think it's one gunman one now, but you never know. There could be other...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And there are lockdown procedures. In other words, what they try to do is limit the ability of this individual to move around the school. That's part of the training. They try to create areas, safe zones, where the students can go, even if they can't get out of the building, that they can then lockdown, for example, a high school cafeteria or a gym where they can get all the kids in that area and then protect them from, and limit the area where the suspect can roam within the school.

Now, easy to say on paper, easy to say in training. A lot more difficult to do in real time when there's a crisis unfolding as it is now.

LEMON: If you're just tuning in, you're watching CNN. Don Lemon here with Jane Velez-Mitchell from HLN.

We're getting information from Colorado, specifically Centennial, Colorado. It's part of the Littleton, Colorado, School District. Of course, we know that's where the Columbine school shooting happened back in 1999.

We're told that in Arapahoe High School, the school that you're looking at this Google Earth representation of, inside of that school, two people have been shot, and the gunman, according to officials, still inside of the school. And we're waiting to get more information to find out the extent of the injuries and obviously who the gunman is and whether or not they have the situation under control, but this is all just coming in to CNN as we speak.

And we're checking with our sources and with officials there in Colorado to try to get more information.

Jane has been telling you about the procedures that are used when schools are put on lockdown and how these officers and officials go inside to try to figure out, to get control of these particular situations.

And since Columbine, since Newtown, since all of these shootings, Sparks High School -- Sparks Middle School, that we have been going over, talking about these particular incidents, there have been measures put into place...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Absolutely.

LEMON: ... to try to figure out what to do, first of all, to stop these incidents from happening, but if they do happen, to try to figure out how to handle them.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, you have got to wonder, in light of all that we have been through in the nation with tragedies and horrors and violence in schools, how somebody could still get into a high school with a gun in this day and age.

Obviously, it's hard to turn them into essentially prisons where kids are traumatized by having to go through metal detectors to go into school.

LEMON: And they're locked in, basically.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. And that has to have an effect. Where do you find the balance? LEMON: Stand by, Jane.

I want to bring in CNN's Tom Foreman. Tom was a reporter in Denver, Colorado, and is familiar with the Colorado area.

Tom, do you know anything about Arapahoe High School or the Centennial area?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I lived out there for about 10 years. We lived about four miles, I would say, from Columbine High School. We knew people inside Columbine High School when that event happened.

I'm not very familiar with Arapahoe High School, other than having passed it's numerous times before. I do know this. There's been a lot of sensitivity in that area ever since Columbine to not only school security, but how a community reacts to incidents inside of a school.

And Jane mentioned a minute ago the officers who are now doubt dealing with the school right now. One of the criticisms that came up after Columbine was that perhaps officers could have moved into the school more quickly to secure it when the shooting was going on because many of the victims at Columbine were actually shot sort of near the end of the standoff because the shooters were in the library and had barricaded themselves in there.

I don't remember the entire timeline perfectly, but there was a sense that even though officers have to be very careful...

LEMON: Some of the students were shot leaving, yes.

FOREMAN: Well, that was early on. The other part was in the library of the school, where they were basically stuck there, and officers were outside trying to get in, but trying to be very careful.

Here's one thing that you really do have to bear in mind. When something like this happens, it would be nice if all the students who are not involved or who are not caught up in it could somehow get out of the school, but they can't. It's simply impossible.

There's too much chaos, it's too many people. Even doing that often exposes people to danger. What officers told me after this event was when they went into the school, there were students hiding everywhere. It makes it incredibly hard to go in and find the alleged shooters.

LEMON: All right, Tom, stand by. I'm going to keep you here.

Just want to alert our views you're getting -- these are the pictures now. Are these live, Eric? These are live. These are live pictures now from Centennial, Colorado. You can see folks there. The traffic has been blocked off. I'm not sure. These are mostly officials, because you can see the police emblems on the side of the car or the sheriff's deputies. But you can see the official labels on the side of the car. That's the amount of emergency workers you have showing up to this particular school, as well as in that traffic you see some civilian vehicles as well.

I would imagine the traffic in the area has pretty much been brought to lockdown. There may be a few cars who are able to leave the area, but getting into that area, you most definitely cannot. Again, this is Arapahoe High School. This is in Centennial, Colorado, part of the Littleton, Colorado, school district.

And of course we know where Littleton -- Littleton was part of the Columbine school shooting or massacre, really, that happened back in 1999. I'm Don Lemon here with Jane Velez-Mitchell. Tom Foreman joins us, as well as Mike Brooks, CNN's security contributor.

So, Mike, talk to us about security. Jane has been talking about it as well and what happens in these particular situations.

MIKE BROOKS, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Well, you know, Don, after Columbine, that was -- kind of everything changed on the whole first- responder community of police, fire, EMS, on how they would respond to active shooters.

You know, just recently, I was in Philadelphia at the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and this is one of the things we were talking about there, had to do with active shooters, shooters inside of schools. We're coming up on the anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting.

But I guarantee you that law enforcement here, everything changed after Columbine, the way that they would approach a shooting like this. You have now departments that trained their officers to put together three to four officers as an active shooter team, instead of waiting for a SWAT team to get there.

And schools practice this, along with the local law enforcement. And that's why many times you will go to schools, you will go to mostly -- and you ride around a school and you will see numbers on doors. This is all part of the preplanning, Don, that was done after Columbine when things changed greatly on the response to these kind of things.

But you have got to make sure on the fire and EMS side if you do have victims, you want to make sure that the area is secured, that law enforcement maybe has this person in custody, have them maybe confined to one area, contained inside the school. Again, we don't know what's going on inside the school right now. We're looking at pictures.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Mike, yes, I want to -- these are pictures, and we want to be very sensitive.

BROOKS: Absolutely.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: We're not controlling these cameras, so if they get in on these kids' faces, listen, this is part of our -- this is our affiliate bringing these in. But you see kids coming out of the school now with their hands up. That's part of the procedures that we learned, Jane, after Columbine. There's an officer there telling them where to go. And you can see that they're out on that track field that you see right there to the top right of your screen. They're walking on that running path around that track field, and, again, kids coming out of the school now with their hands up.