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School Shooting in Littleton, Colorado

Aired December 13, 2013 - 15:30   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Don Lemon. You're watching CNN. It's 3:30 here in the East.

You're looking at live pictures of Arapahoe High School. This is in Centennial, Colorado. There's been a shooting there. Two people, so far, we know from officials, have been shot. It's believed the gunman is still inside.

We don't know who the gunman is. We don't know what type of weapon. We don't know the extent of the injuries.

We do know that all of the public schools, all the schools in the Littleton Public School District are on lockdown right now

That's according to a district security officer, because of this shooting, and this particular school is in that Littleton School District where Columbine happened back in 1999.

Jane Velez-Mitchell?

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, ANCHOR, HLN'S "JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL": And there are 2,229 students that attend the high school, so you're talking about a lot of kids.

Now, that picture we just saw, that video of kids milling about, they appear extremely calm. They do not appear panicked. They're not running, and I would be interested to know from mike brooks what that indicates to you. Just to me on a gut level, it seems comforting that they're not, you know, racing.

LEMON: Hang on. We'll get that from Mike, but I want to go to CNN's Joe Johns.

Joe, you have new information for us.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Just a sliver. Talking to law enforcement officials in Washington, D.C., especially the FBI, we're told at this stage, they're just monitoring the situation, watching it, because it's not clear how serious this is, as Mike said.

It appears to be that the law enforcement officials on the ground, at least for a while and maybe still, are treating this as a potential active shooter situation.

But FBI officials caution that the first reports that come in on things like this are often not right. We know from past experience, very recent past experience, even, that there have been occasions when people thought that there was an active shooter inside a school building or on a university campus, as happened in Washington, D.C., just two days ago, and it turned out there was nothing found or the shooting that people thought occurred on the campus actually occurred off the campus.

So there are a hundred different questions before assuming the worst. So let's keep our fingers crossed as we watch this, Don.

LEMON: Stand by, Joe.

Eric, what were you saying?

Sorry, a lot going on.

OK, We're going to go to Mike Brooks. Listen, Mike, as we look at the pictures, Jane Velez-Mitchell had a question for you.

You're looking at pictures of law enforcement sources there on the ground. I want to point out this is December 13th, the anniversary of Newtown is December 14th.

MIKE BROOKS, HLN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Right.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes.

LEMON: Here we are reporting this.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: That says something.

BROOKS: And Jane, what you were talking about is the way the students were coming out of the school, very, very orderly. It's important that law enforcement is there because there could be potential witnesses there.

Keep in mind, also, Don and Jane, there are cameras inside of these schools. Most schools now have some kind of surveillance camera system so the officials can go in and hopefully take a look and see exactly what happened, how this -- how these persons or person got there, their movements inside the schools.

Again, right now, it looks like there might have been at least two people injured. We don't know if the subject is in custody, if the subject has fled, but we're looking at the live pictures.

And again, our viewers are always very careful because during Columbine, some of the live footage showed the movements of the first- responders going into the school, of the kids leaving the school.

We want to be careful not to show any of that like we've been doing. We've been very, very careful not to show the movements. We see the kids here, very orderly.

But, again, Don, one of the things they're going to do, what did you hear, what did you see, what happened? They want to try to put together a timeline of exactly what happened and who was responsible for this.

LEMON: And right, and you've said these kids -- Jane pointed out, these kids appear to be orderly, which is what the officials there want. And I'm sure I would be freaking out, inside.

I want to get, though -- quickly, I want to get to CNN's Tom Foreman who is a reporter, was a reporter in Colorado, and has knowledge of this particular town.

As you look at these pictures, Tom, what information are you getting as well?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I would say, too, the orderliness of this, I'm going to guess, reflects one of two things. It could reflect that things in the school are somewhat better.

But it also shows exactly what Mike was talking about. There's no question law enforcement around this country, but especially in Colorado, and in these communities, went over the case of Columbine, over and over again, so they would be ready for this day.

Look at the search that's going on with these students coming out here. In the days after Columbine, Mike knows this, we went through days where there were debates about, was there a third gunman, or a fourth gunman?

Did they get away among the students? How do you keep that from happening?

And you can see right now, right there, these officers in an orderly fashion, enacting the very policies that came out of Columbine.

LEMON: And doing pat-downs. They're doing pat-downs there.

And this reminds us of Columbine. Do you remember the pictures, Tom, if you were reporting? I reported on it, and it was -- we remember these pictures of these kids coming out with their hands up.

The kids in Columbine were -- they were running out of there. I just want to say, listen, for some reason, because of Littleton, Colorado, we think of Columbine High School, but Columbine High School is not in the same district as this. Columbine High School is actually in the Jefferson County.

FOREMAN: But they're close, Don. These are --

LEMON: Yeah, they're right there.

FOREMAN: It's very -- if you were to drive from Columbine as I did many times before, from Columbine over by Arapahoe, you're covering a half dozen miles or more.

But it's all through the same kind of suburban neighborhoods of Denver, same kind of shopping district, same sort of everything very, very similar.

In fact, I believe in size they're fairly similar, because there was debate at the time, also, about how much the size of schools and the potential for violence gets -- general violence -- gets a little bit higher when you pass the 2,000-mark in terms of students.

So very similar, even though they are separated by a bit of distance here. There's no question that in this community, people are thinking about that proximity.

LEMON: As you say, a bit of distance, but they border each other, so I mean, it's just a line, a simple line, that distinguishes them.

Jane Velez-Mitchell, again, I want to remind the viewers, first, though, the one-year anniversary of Newtown is tomorrow, and here we are.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: It's chilling. It chilling. And you know, it says something. It says something about our country that we're talking about this at this juncture, and certainly, I hope that we focus in on some of the root causes of these incidents.

Going back, though, to the pictures that we were looking at, and I believe those were live pictures that we were looking at, students milling about, I was curious to know from Mike Brooks, based on the procedures that you're aware of, what would it indicate that the students are milling about and that there is this pat-down procedure -

LEMON: And orderly, right?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: -- in effect And orderly.

LEMON: Some of them are running.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Some running, but --

LEMON: I would be.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But not in the manner you would expect if there was horrific violence unfolding.

And we don't know. Again, we have no idea what's going on inside, but is there any way to extrapolate, obviously with caution, we can never assume, but what this might indicate, that they're doing these pat- downs procedures with the students in this manner, Mike?

BROOKS: It's really hard to tell. But you want to get the students away from where the immediate threat could be in the high school, because high schools have windows and you want to make sure all the students are in a safe location.

But I can guarantee you, they have drilled this. High schools all around the country, especially in the suburban Denver area after Columbine, they have been drilling.

They drill for fire drills. They drill for bomb threats. They drill for active shooters. And it's a coordinated, you know, training exercise, if you will, between police, fire, EMS, the school districts there.

You know, as Tom Foreman said, this is a short distance from there because it was the Jefferson County sheriffs that took a lot of heat on why they didn't go in immediately when they got to Columbine.

But, again, a lot of things have changed, I mean, dramatically, in the first-responding community, especially law enforcement.

But from what I'm seeing here, this looks like something they've drilled before, and they're going through the procedure.

You see where the school is. You see where they're taking the students.

You know, you drill on where to take the kids in reference to where there's a possible threat, because again, you want to get the kids away from any possible threat that might be still inside that school.

LEMON: And, Mike Brooks -

BROOKS: Yeah, go ahead, Don.

LEMON: I need to report this. Just in from the producers here, we have been in contact with Littleton Adventist Hospital, and they're telling us that one victim was brought into that hospital, and it is a minor.

We don't know the condition, and many times they don't give out a condition obviously for patient confidentiality. But, again, Littleton Adventist high school -- Littleton Adventist Hospital, one victim has been brought there. That victim is a minor.

But according to the reports that we got initially and that we're getting on CNN, two people shot at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado.

The pictures you're looking at are pictures that were shot just moments ago. And you see the school, it's a very typical Colorado town, Tom Foreman, snow on the ground, very big high schools and lots of land.

And you see the facilities there. I believe these are live pictures we're looking at now. And these are students who are exiting the school, appear to be in an orderly fashion.

Tom foreman lived there and reported from Denver, Colorado, this area, for years. And, Tom, take us behind the scenes here. This is very typical of high schools in Denver, Colorado.

FOREMAN: Yeah, it is. This is -- look, these are suburban neighborhoods south of Denver where truly, we still have a great many friends back there.

Many people move here specifically because they love the peace and quiet and beauty of Colorado, and they love these communities down there.

And, truly, many of them have -- ever since Columbine, they have struggled to get past it.

We lived very close to Columbine High School. We had friends in the school when that shooting happened. And it was very difficult for people in the community to get past it, because there was so much that sense every community has of how could it happen here?

But I do want to go back to the scene of what you're seeing happen right here, and by the way, I want to point out, this is actually not terribly far away from the Aurora movie theater where the other shooting happened.

It's closer to Columbine than it is to that school, but you could probably drive to the Aurora scene within 25 minutes, I imagine.

LEMON: We drove there when I was there covering it.

FOREMAN: I would argue that there probably -- there may be no community in this country better prepared to handle all of this than Denver and its suburbs, simply because they went through it, and there's an institutional knowledge among the police officers, among school officials, among the state officers.

They do know how to handle this and they have an idea how to handle it.

Of course, nobody wants to deal with it, but they have been ground zero for this for really quite a long time, and they know it's a hard thing to deal with, but they do know how to deal with it. I think you can see some of that here.

LEMON: Tom, I want to update our viewers because people are just tuning in And when they hear the breaking news, they tune in to CNN.

I want them to know that there has been a shooting at a high school. This is Arapahoe High School. It's in Centennial, Colorado. You're looking at live pictures right now.

This is in the Littleton, Colorado, school district, very close to Columbine High School, where that school shooting happened back in 1999, not far, as our Tom Foreman has been telling us, from the Aurora movie theater where the shooting happened over a year ago.

And we're just in the anniversary, tomorrow, of the Newtown school shooting. And, again, we're looking at live pictures now coming in.

We're being told that two people have been shot. The gunman is believed to still be inside of the school. According to one hospital there, there is one victim that was brought into the hospital, so far, and that victim is a minor.

I'm here joined by CNN's -- HLN's Jane Velez-Mitchell. CNN's Tom Foreman is here, as well. Our justice correspondent Joe Johns is here, as well as Mike Brooks, a security expert.

I want to go to Joe Johns. Joe, you have some new information for us. What do you have?

JOHNS: Again, just a sliver. The FBI, as well as Colorado state police, now headed to the scene there of this shooting at Arapahoe High School.

Of course, this is a community, as I think Tom has said before, very sensitized to two of the most horrific mass shootings that have occurred in this country, Columbine as well as Aurora.

So some of those people who were there, at least for the shooting at the movie theater, are certainly reliving some of this, even though we don't have all the facts, Don.

LEMON: All right, Joe Johns standing by in Washington.

Jane Velez-Mitchell, listen, we don't know the severity of this, but for some reason, the kids are calm, it appears, it provides some comfort, at least to me.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh, yes.

LEMON: That this is not going to go on much longer, we hope not.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I think about the parents, parents who are finding out about this in the area with 2,229 students. Parents obviously going to be very concerned. And generally, as I have seen covering these cases, they tell the parents, don't come directly to the school because what happens is they don't want to clog the roads for the emergency personnel to get in. So they say, go to a staging area, and sometimes they'll name a specific location.

LEMON: We need to listen in to a reporter from KUSA on the ground.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To come on the site closer to the school from the police tape. It appears they're just trying to make sure they account for and interview every student possible to make sure that everyone is accounted for here.

Mark, Cheryl?

LEMON: Again, that is a reporter from KUSA reporting from the ground there.

We're still monitoring our official -- our affiliate's air there, and as soon as they get information, we get information from them and from officials in the Centennial, Colorado, area. We'll bring it to you here on CNN.

What you're looking at, viewers, this is the track field around the football field there at Arapahoe high school.

Listen, Tom Foreman and I were talking about the beauty of this particular town, and it's very representative of Colorado towns, as you look at your picture and see it. I don't have to explain it to you.

And in the background of those beautiful geese, you see kids who have come out of school with their hands up. And many of them being patted down by officials, security officers there, making sure that they don't have weapons on them, themselves.

We know there was a gunman inside of that school. We don't know who the gunman is. We know -- there is the hug. You see that in the middle of your screen there?

We don't know who the gunman is, and we know, at least according to officials, there have been two people who were hurt in all of this, shot, one of those taken to a Littleton Adventist High School. It's a minor. We don't know the condition of the minor.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You have to applaud these young people for being as calm as they are. They are so calm that it almost looked like a drill at some points, because there was no hysteria, and you see some hugs, but essentially, these young people, and this has got to be stressful, no matter what.

Look, having to have their hands above their heads, I'm sure their hearts are pounding and they're confused, and they're probably wondering about their parents, and their parents are trying to get information.

But generally what they say in situations like this, and what they usually do, is provide the area for the parents to go so that thousands of cars, if there's more than 2,000 students, there could be plenty of parents and other relatives who want to find out, oh, how is my child, racing in there, and that blocks the emergency personnel who need to go in and out.

I'm wondering what is going to happen in terms of informing the parents where to go, so they can get the information they need and reunite with their child safely and calmly.

LEMON: You see the officers there. If you look to the bottom left of the screen, just the thing that says newsroom, you can see the kids being patted down. You see that?

Moving to the top, you see everyone in formation in a single line with their hands up as they come out to the track field, and those are police officers, security officers, sheriff's deputies, I'm sure, school safety officers, all out there, all patting these kids down, and making sure, probably, that they're OK as well.

This is really just the beginning of this investigation. And again, we don't know if it is over inside of the school.

At last word, we were told that one gunman was still inside of the school. Two people had been shot, this coming almost to the day, just if it had happened tomorrow, it would be the same day as the Newtown Sandy Hook shooting.

But this area is no stranger to these situations. Tom Foreman, we had this. We had Columbine. We had Aurora. And on and on.

FOREMAN: Yes, it's interesting, I will say something about that, Don. The area is no stranger to it. But it's worth bearing in mind, all these young people we're seeing right now, they are strangers to it.

Columbine happened, what is this, 14 years now? Probably the oldest kid in the school was maybe 3, maybe 4 when it happened at best.

They probably have only the faintest memory of that, and most of the memory is probably through the drills they've gone through in school and the knowledge they've been taught in school about how to respond to such a thing.

I think this is a very different experience right now for the adults in that town, the people who are over 30-years-old, than for people who are younger, because the younger people, to them, this is a distant event that happened a long time ago in the past.

For the adults, they know what it's like.

LEMON: Yeah, it's something they read about and it's something the older people have experienced. To them, it might not be real, but it certainly is now, Tom.

FOREMAN: Absolutely. It's a different experience.

I will say that, you know, when we talk about the coincidence of something like this happening near a date. When Columbine happened, there was a tremendous amount of discussion about whether this was triggered by a date.

But the thing is, the more we have events that happen at schools, at movie theaters, at malls, all over, the more, statistically, you get closer to any one of these events happening near the anniversary of something else.

So until we have some proof about having a link, we can't make much of that.

LEMON: The reason Tom Foreman speaks with such expertise is he lived in the Denver, Colorado, area, which is close to here and knows about these particular districts and schools.

He may not be absolutely familiar with Arapahoe High School, but certainly it's in his purview that he covered school districts in that area.

Also joining me is Mike Brooks, a security expert. Mike, we see what's happening there. We see what's happening -- we don't have Mike Brooks. I'm sorry.

Joe Johns is joining us. We see what's happening on the ground. We see the school surrounded by police officers, surrounded by security officers, and I'm sure parents are driving to the school freaking out, and I'm sure they have set up zones, safe zones, to go and meet their children as well. There are procedures in place, Joe Johns, for this.

JOHNS: Right. There are a lot of procedures in place.

For the authorities, there are a lot of procedures as well, including trying to get a sense of what every person who came out of that school saw and heard and if anything that they saw or heard might help the authorities figure out whether this is an active shooter situation or what's happening there on the ground.

LEMON: Joe, I hate to cut you off. I'm getting instructions in my ear.

This is -- look at this. This is an armored vehicle, again, arriving on the scene here. Not sure what that is an indication of, if anything, but I wanted to point that out.

I also want to get to our affiliate KUSA. Let's listen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- those are questions that we're asking, but obviously, law enforcement's first priority is to take care of that and then they will communicate the information.

We have not heard anything confirmed about that person with the gun, or people with a gun.

You might be seeing a lot on Twitter at this moment, but there's a lot of unconfirmed information floating around out there right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly. They are trying to control these parking lots at the moment.

As you can see, I'm guessing those are a lot of parents, and perhaps a lot of onlookers now, right there near the Chase Bank, just across the street, kind of watching this and monitoring it, and they're trying to control the parking lots as best they can.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to share some breaking information from Pete Williams.

NBC has some law enforcement sources that have told him the danger is over, that law enforcement has the suspect. That suspect is wounded or down, as they described it.

Again, this is a huge relief. The danger is over.

LEMON: OK. I guess we lost that information that was coming in. That was our affiliate KUSA, and they're reporting on information that's coming in to them.

And whatever they're reporting that they have about the danger, that is not -- CNN is not confirming that. I would imagine that they are an affiliate of whatever news source is reporting that particular information.

Here's what we do have. We do know that, just about an hour ago, we got word from Colorado officials that two people had been shot inside of Arapahoe High School and that the gunman was still inside, and that all the schools in the area, in the Littleton, Colorado, area were on lockdown.

We want to get now to a news conference in progress.

SHERIFF GRAYSON ROBINSON, ARAPAHOE COUNTY, COLORADO: -- south metro area assisting us.

We cleared the school and secured all of the students very quickly. While we were securing the school, we found one additional student with a minor gunshot wound. That student has also been transported to a local hospital.

While we were securing the school and ensuring the safety of the students and staff in that school, we located the individual that we believe to be the suspect and the active shooter. That individual is currently deceased and he apparently killed himself.

That will still be part of the investigation. We know the identity of the suspect. I am not going to release it at this time.

I want to again repeat to you the suspect has been found inside the school and he has deceased as a result of what appears to be a self- inflicted gunshot wound.

We are slowly and methodically clearing the school and ensuring that all of our students are safe. They were safer inside their locked school room classes than they would have been had we allowed them to exit and that was part of our strategy and part of our protocol.

We are now slowly but methodically allowing students to leave the school in groups. We are bringing them to a location that's directly east of where we're standing.

They will be boarded on school buses and transported from there to a church just south of here called shepherd of the hills. At Shepherd of the Hills is where we will reunite families with their students.

We have now directed all families to go to the Shepherd of the Hills Church so that they can be reunited with their families or with their students within the next half hour to 45 minutes.

I will also tell you that the response protocols around active shooters were put into place immediately. The first deputy sheriffs and police officers that were on scene immediately entered the school to engage the shooter if they could locate that individual, and also keep these students absolutely safe.

Before I will take any brief questions, and they will be very brief, I will tell you that I will do another very detailed brief at 3:00 p.m. and I'm not sure of the location, but we will put out an all media release and let you know exactly what -- where that 3:00 p.m. brief will happen.

Again, at 3:00 p.m., I will give you additional details and I will let you know where our investigation stands. From this point, I will tell you that I will allow media trucks and media representatives to place themselves in the westbound turn lanes on Dry Creek Road just east of University.

I know this is a confusing site right now and in order to accommodate your needs, if you want to put your trucks and vehicles in the turn lanes, westbound Dry Creek just east of university, that's where we will set up for you to have your vehicles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) can you tell us what that may be and how it will be used?

ROBINSON: I will share that with you at 3:00. At this point in time, it's a precautionary measure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible)?

ROBINSON: We know the suspect was a student at Arapahoe High School. We have his identity and we are currently in contact with his family.

One at a time, go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible)?

ROBINSON: Yeah, the student was transported by Littleton fire rescue in serious condition.

Steve?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible)?

ROBINSON: We had a PIO and he immediately initiated the active-shooter protocols on his own, waiting for -- didn't wait for assistance. He immediately implemented and went after the threat.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There were reports the shooter had some sort of device.

(AUDIO BREAK)

ROBINSON: The injured student was found while we were clearing the school that had been locked down, and again, that individual is suffering a minor wound, and we, very frankly, we are not sure that it's a gunshot wound.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How long ago did the shooting take place?

ROBINSON: Can't talk about it right now. We will in a little more detail at 3:00.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know how long it took to find the suspect?

ROBINSON: It happened very quickly. The time of call on this was 12:33 p.m. today. We had information on the radio that my deputies believed they had the shooter down inside the school within about 14 minutes of the initial call through -- of the call. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The other student that was hurt, how seriously injured is that student?

ROBINSON: Again, we have one student that was transported in serious condition with a gunshot wound. I won't -- I can't go into any further detail on that.

We have a second student that had a wound, but again, we don't know if that was a gunshot wound or exactly what the cause of that was.

I'll have that information for you at my 3:00 news brief.

Hold it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) that he wasn't acting alone, that he was acting alone?

ROBINSON: At this point in time we have not been able to locate a second suspect, but that's part of our ongoing investigation. That's why we are dealing with family and colleagues of the suspect to identify any other potential suspects.

We will assume other suspects until we know differently, and that was certainly the focus of the deputies and police officers that entered the school to alleviate the threat.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Were any other weapons (inaudible)?

ROBINSON: No weapons found other than the one weapon that was used in the shooting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many shots, sir?

ROBINSON: We won't go into that at this point.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Any more about what the teacher (inaudible)?

ROBINSON: That's something that will be part of our investigation.

The student identified a specific teacher at Arapahoe High School that he was interested in confronting, and that teacher was informed of this situation and exited the school quickly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did he name that teacher?

ROBINSON: Won't go into that right now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Any other threats made from school earlier this week?

ROBINSON: We have had no threats. We've had no issues that we've had concern with at this school this week or in the immediate past.

I will take two more questions and then I'll close, please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's the most important message you want to get out to the parents (inaudible)?

ROBINSON: That most important message right now is that we have -- the shooter is dead as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. There are no other threats at this time.

We have one student, sadly, that has been injured. We are trying our very best to ensure that we have immediately notified the family of that student.

All the --

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE LEAD": Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

We're following the breaking news out of Centennial, Colorado this hour. Let's listen.

ROBINSON: -- school, which is located on South University directly south of Dry Creek Road.

Thank you all. I will see you at 3:00, and we will notify your newsrooms where we will have that briefing.

Thank you.