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Stabbings in Pennsylvania; Suspect in Custody after Mass School Stabbing; Doctor Gives Updates on Student Patients

Aired April 09, 2014 - 09:30   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello.

Let me bring you up to date on our breaking news out of Pennsylvania. Twenty students have been injured in a high school stabbing in suburban Pittsburgh. It happened this morning at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pennsylvania. That's about 15 miles east of downtown Pittsburgh.

Here is what we know. Those 20 students are hurt, some of them quite seriously. I just interviewed a doctor from one of the hospitals who said that some of these students have deep stab wounds to their torsos, to their stomachs and backs. Many of them are in surgery at this time. Investigators also tell us the suspect is in custody. That suspect is male and a student at that high school.

Jean Casarez is following the story from us. She's been talking to her sources. What have you found out, Jean?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Carol, there are four different hospitals that victims have been taken to. And the one thing we are learning, Dr. Chris Kaufman (ph) said it to you, that there are life-threatening wounds at this point. Currently, there are two victims that are being operated on right now. One is being taken to surgery. The others are having x-rays, CAT scans, ultrasound tests to see if there are deep, internal injuries. So there is so much unknown.

But here's what we do know at this point. It was about 7:15, 7:13 this morning when the first call came in. The doors had just been opened to the high school. Students were just coming and classes start around 7:30, 7:40. That is when this all began, 7:15, before the first class of the morning. Students just arriving in their school bus. Parents dropping off their kids.

And we are understanding it began in the classroom or the hallway, but it definitely, Carol, went some distance because the hallway into the classroom, the classroom into the hallway, the stabbing continued with lacerations and puncture wounds. And at this point, we are hearing 20 victims.

COSTELLO: It makes you wonder how long this attack went on because some of these stab wounds that some of these students suffered were deep stab wounds. CASAREZ: That's right. That's right, because deep stab wounds versus a laceration where you just slash someone and keep going. But as we just heard from Dr. Chris Kauffman, the trauma surgeon at the nearest trauma center, there is at least one adult who was a victim. Because of the people that he is treating right now, one is that adult. We don't know at this point if it is a teacher or a parent that could have been in the school. Parents do go into the schools of their children.

COSTELLO: Yes, I know, I'm just thinking about what Dr. Kauffman told me, some of these injuries that these students suffered are life- threatening. You know, they're in surgery right now and I'm sure a lot of prayers are going out for them at this moment.

There was a school resource officer in the school at the time. That school resource officer called police. I don't know if that school resource officer was armed, do you?

CASAREZ: No, we are not hearing why he was there, what he was doing. But, obviously, it appears as though he witnessed it, heard of it, was the one that made the call. And the victims, we are hearing, 14 to 17 years old. So that is right, every age level at that high school in Pennsylvania. But also with at least the one adult victim that we know, it involved others, also.

COSTELLO: Jean, stand by. I want to - I interviewed Dan Stevens (ph), the public information officer from the Westmoreland County Police Department. That's the police department who responded to this incident. I want to replay that tape for our viewers. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN STEVENS, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, WESTMORELAND COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT: At 7:13 this morning, the school resource officer at Murrysville - or at Franklin Regional High School called our 911 center by radio and asked for assistance. He had an incident going on. When he got back on the radio, he said he had a stabbing, asked for additional law enforcement and multiple ambulances. The actor (ph) was taken into custody fairly quickly once it was determined who he was. We have approximately 20 students that have been injured. Of those 20 students, four of which have been flown by medical helicopter with what appear to be non-life-threatening injuries. Those students were transported to four hospitals, Allegheny General Hospital, Forbes Regional Hospital, UPMC East and Presbyterian Hospital. The suspect is in custody being questioned right now by the Murrysville Police Department and the Westmoreland County detectives.

COSTELLO: Dan, can you tell me where inside the school this incident happened?

STEVENS: It happened in the classrooms and a hallway in the school. School was just actually coming into session. It was, again, quarter after 7:00 in the morning. We have students arriving for school. I believe their sessions start at either 7:30 or 7:40. I don't have that information in front of me. COSTELLO: And does it involve -- this suspect that's in custody, is it a student and does this incident involve just one suspect, just one student perhaps?

STEVENS: Yes, it is a student, and it involves only one individual. The school has been searched twice for any additional, and some of the students in the area were immediately questioned to see if there was more than one actor involved. And currently we're reporting only one actor.

COSTELLO: Do you know the age of the suspect?

STEVENS: No, I do not have that information available at this time.

COSTELLO: Boy or girl?

STEVENS: It's a male.

COSTELLO: And this male was allegedly armed with one knife?

STEVENS: Again, I don't have that information. I'd be - you know, this is breaking. It's about two hours old right now. And we will have additional information as the day goes on.

COSTELLO: These 20 students who were injured, were all of them stabbed or were they injured in some other way?

STEVENS: No, they were - they were all stab wounds, whether they be lacerations or actual puncture wounds. They were all, you know, stabbing type wounds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right, back to Jean Casarez right now.

Obviously the school remains on lockdown as police go through the scene to try to figure out what exactly happened. But right now it's hard to get your mind around it. One student, perhaps armed with one knife, managed to injure so many other students.

CASAREZ: And, that's right, with life-threatening injuries at this point. You know, the one thing that we don't know much about is who allegedly perpetrated this crime. He was a student at the school, as you just told everyone. But motive? Why would he do this? And what was his state of mind to come into the school, first thing when the doors opened, armed with this knife? And, obviously, Carol, this had to be an extremely violent attack. Something that endured for probably some time to injure 20 people with knife wounds penetrating their torso front and back.

COSTELLO: It's just - it's just - it's just another - it's just so sad. Jean Casarez, stand by. I got to take another break. We'll be back with much more out of Pennsylvania for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. I'd like to welcome our international viewers, as well, and bring you up to date on the breaking news out of the state of Pennsylvania.

There was a terrible stabbing at a school, Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pennsylvania. That's about 15 miles east of downtown Pittsburgh. We know at least 20 students have been injured. We also know that police have arrested a suspect. That suspect is a student and he is male. No known motive as of yet.

Now, these injuries inflicted are quite serious. I just talked with Dr. Chris Kauffman at the - he's chief of the trauma center at the Forbes Regional Hospital in nearby Monroeville, Pennsylvania. He tells me that seven teenagers and one adult have been admitted to that hospital. Teenagers around the age of 15. He didn't have any more information of the adult. Two of those victims are now in surgery with life-threatening injuries, suffered stab wounds to the torso, to the abdomen and to the back. They were quite deep stab wounds. Other injuries that we know of involve lacerations and more shallow wounds.

We're also getting word from our affiliate KDKA in Pittsburgh, at Allegheny General Hospital, they've also admitted some patients. The ages range between 15 and 60 (ph), although we don't know how many victims Allegheny General is treating right now.

I want to bring in Ken Trump. He's the president of the National School Safety and Security Service.

Welcome, sir.

KEN TRUMP, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL SCHOOL SAFETY AND SECURITY SERVICE (via telephone): Good morning, Carol. Once again we have this conversation. It's sad.

COSTELLO: It's more than sad. It's just hard to wrap your mind around why this keeps happening in our schools.

TRUMP: I'm a father as well as 30 years in the school safety business and I think this just illustrates what we've talked about as we work with schools across the country is that it may be that gun, it may be a stabbing. I think that in the upcoming days, one of the questions is, was there any warning signs? Did somebody know? Were there any clues? Was there something on social media, FaceBook, Twitter or other postings by this perpetrator?

But it also raises an issue that we've been talking with schools about when we are doing their security assessment is that early morning arrival. This happened, as you covered with the spokesperson, about 7:13 was the initial call. The good news is, they had a school resource officer there. While it obviously didn't completely eliminate this from happening, it's very possible the scenario could have been even worse if there wasn't an officer immediately on scene to call for help to get ambulances.

But the other part is, we've been looking at schools across the country and many high schools are opening their doors at 6:00 in the morning. Staff is often not in until 7:00, 7:30, depending on their starts time, and kids often arrive with minimal adult supervision, not just police, but staff. And they're in school, they're there for early morning activities. Some of them are just dropped off by parents and we need to really focus on that this time of the morning in our security planning.

COSTELLO: Yes, I was talking to the public information officer from the Westmoreland County Sheriff's Office and he was telling me that - he talked about this school resource officer and he said that they had a plan in place in case something like this happened. And he said the school resource officer did the right thing. Can you tell me, in general, what that might have been?

TRUMP: Well, the first (INAUDIBLE) having school resource officers, the hit (ph) in the story is, how many incidents like this are actually prevented by having a police officer there? But in terms of response, there are just some incidents, unfortunately, that aren't going to be able to prevent -- be prevented. So the actions that have to be taken, obviously you want to stop the person who's doing the attack. You want to lock down the school, get students out of harm's way, immediately call for the ambulances, the additional police support.

But one of the other dynamics that goes on, Carol, at this point in time is the social media, the texting to parents, the phone calls on the cell phones, what's out on Twitter, FaceBook and other things that's going to cause parents to expedite their return to the school. The parent-student reunification. How do you get parents back in the arms of their children? And that's another dynamic. You have the incident unfolding. You have the threat. You have the attack. You have to get the emergency medical services responding. You have to secure the perpetrator.

At the same time, parents are coming, traffic flow is going on. You need to -- parents want their kids immediately. You have to safely reunite parents and kids. You have to communicate effectively, press conferences, social media, your district's communications.

Carol, all this stuff is unfolding simultaneously. So if you put yourself in the position of the school official, it's absolutely overwhelming.

And planning cannot be done as the incident unfolds. You have to know how you're going to hit the ground. What type of drills that you have in place that you practice. How your communications mechanisms are ready to roll. How to get the first responders? Who is going to deal with staging areas? Where are you going to reunify them?

As I'm rattling this off, you're probably overwhelmed. The parents listening are overwhelmed. And that's the importance of planning. Parents want to know two things. School officials have to prepare for two things. Number one, what can we prevent? How can we do our best to prevent it? Number two, how well prepared are we to hit the ground rolling if something happens that we can't prevent? COSTELLO: Ken Trump thanks for your insight. We really appreciate it. I want to go back live to the scene at Franklin Regional High School. A reporter a local -- from our local affiliate KDKA is reporting from the scene. Let's listen.

(BEGIN LIVE FEED)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know we've covered from afar, you know, incidents at schools and I always go back and I think about my high school days here at Franklin and I think of the people that I went to school with. And I mean I can remember one time there was a play being put on where we had -- we had a, you know, firearms involved and it was a faculty play. And I actually held the principal and vice principal at my school at gunpoint. Can you imagine trying to do that in this day and age?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Again I mean I'm tempted to be like my friend Herb and say it doesn't happen here. It can happen here. But you know it just shows where the world is going -- where it's been over the last few years. I'm not going to make any speculation about where we're going in the future. But it's a -- it's a pretty stark reminder of where we are right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ok let's just pray for a u-turn, you know what I mean, let's turn stuff around.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely, absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Before -- before we let you go, just set the scene for us right now, what are you seeing from your vantage point?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am seeing parents show up. I'm seeing an increasing media presence here which, you know, sometimes isn't always the most nice thing the parents want to see. But they are remaining calm. The ones who are walking up are asking simple questions, what school do I go to pick up my child? And they're proceeding methodically.

And the area around Franklin Regional High School right now locked down by police. No one is getting close as they continue the investigation.

But the good news, Rick and Jen, the good news I haven't seen an ambulance come out of here in quite some time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right and we are seeing some of those parents moving around the campus as you're telling us that information. So thank you so much for checking back in with us and keeping us posted.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- the opportunity.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right Bill Raycoff (ph) from KDK Radio, an alum, parent in that district. He lives in that district. And it's a -- it's way too close to home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes we are seeing movement now as you're watching live. This is Heritage Elementary School. This is where we were told that the high school students were moved. Now early on some of the parents tried to go directly to the high school and some got pretty close before things were blocked off. Those parents were later told, well we've moved all the kids to this building, this Heritage Elementary building that you're looking at and this is where the students have been.

So we're seeing some more movement from parents being able to go and hopefully be reunited with their children very shortly. It's been a long wait I m very sure for both parents and students to be able to see each other and give each other big hugs after all of this, this morning that they've had to deal with there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ok we do have some more information coming into us. We're told that there will be another press briefing coming up at 10:30. That will be at Forbes Hospital where we have heard all sorts of different things about you know for instance of a doctor saying during that press conference a little bit ago that perhaps one student saved another student's life by applying pressure to wounds that were there.

So some of the training that the kids pick up, whether it in health class or whether it's something that they saw on TV or whatever, again, people starting to do some -- starting to hear some tales of some of the heroic things.

What we do not know at this point is a whole lot of information about who the suspect is other than that we were told by Dan Stevens with Emergency Management there in Westmoreland County the deputy director, that it is indeed a student at Franklin Regional High School. As to why it happened that we don't know.

But that person is in police custody, being held by Murrysville Police. They weren't sure exactly what the particulars were as to how this person was taken into custody other than simply say the person was in custody and it was that person who was responsible for the 20 people who were injured this morning.

Ages of the victims range between 14 and 60, 6-0, 60. We know that at least a couple of adults, one of them we are told, was taken to Forbes, another taken to Allegheny General Hospital. Four of the 20 patients had air lifted out to those various hospitals. Four hospitals received patients.

And again, think about it. It is a Wednesday morning. You're not expecting a whole lot going on at 7:15 in the morning.

(END LIVE FEED)

COSTELLO: All right we're going to break away from this local coverage. We'll be back with much more out of Pennsylvania.

I'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right we're getting another update from the Forbes Regional Hospital, the trauma center there. As I've been telling you, a terrible stabbing incident at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pennsylvania. At least 20 students injured, some of them quite seriously in fact at the Forbes Regional Hospital, seven teenagers and one adult have been admitted all suffer from very serious wounds. Two are in surgery right now they are suffering from stab wounds to the torso, to the abdomen and the back.

Let's listen to Dr. Chris Kaufman, the director there.

(BEGIN LIVE FEED)

DR. CHRIS KAUFMAN, FORBES REGIONAL HOSPITAL: We had a call this morning that there was multiple stab wounds and patients at Franklin Regional High School. We activated our trauma team within Forbes Hospital which an accredited level to trauma center here Pennsylvania. We told them that we could easily handle three or four critically injured patients at once. And if there were more than that many critically injured patients they would have to be transported to trauma centers not as close by as we are.

We did receive seven patients from the scene who were teenagers, and an adult person additionally. Two of the patients are right now in the operating room. And the third one is being transported to the operating room at this point. These are all patients who had stab wounds of the chest and abdomen. So these were significant injuries and the patients are being appropriately managed. There are additional patients right now who are having CT scans and x-rays performed. It may be that additional patients will require operative care throughout the day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So in total, eight patients here.

KAUFMAN: Yes, from that scene.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We understand that seven of them are students and one of them possibly an adult.

KAUFMAN: Yes. There are patients of teenage years, seven of those and then an adult who is older than 21 as the eighth patient.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In terms of severity of the injury, that's three that are going to need surgery -- right. Two that in the OR --

KAUFMAN: Yes, yes, correct.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So the others do not need surgery -- superficial wounds.

KAUFMAN: No, these are not superficial wounds either. These were patients who were hemo-dynamically stable and so we have to stage the patients. The patients who are unstable with the most severe injuries go to the operating room first. Some of those patients don't even need any type of imaging. You can tell based on their stab wound and their blood pressure, that they just need to go to the operating room.

Other patients who come in stable with normal blood pressure, normal heart rate, we have time to do a more typical approach to do a cat scan and see what's injured inside and make a plan according to what we see. So there are patients who just now have completed their cat scans. The radiologists are looking at those and will help us with the interpretation of what we see on those images. And again some of those patients may also require an operation. It is less likely.

(END LIVE FEED)

COSTELLO: All right. We're going to break away. Dr. Chris Kaufman at the Forbes Regional Hospital -- the trauma center there, seven teenagers and one adult admitted there. Other victims admitted to three other hospitals around the Pittsburgh.

We will be back with much more on this terrible breaking news this morning at the top of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: I would like to welcome my viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Carol Costello, thanks so much for joining me this morning.

Two big stories we are following for you.

New pings detected in the Indian Ocean as the search for Flight 370 continues. We're going to take you live to Perth, Australia in just a few minutes.

First though, we begin with the breaking news out of suburban Pittsburgh. 20 people now injured in a massive stabbing attack. Here's what we know. It happened just after 7:00 this morning at Franklin Regional Senior High School -- that's about 50 miles east of downtown Pittsburgh. A male student is now in custody. He is being questioned.

Four of those students -- four of the students out of the 20 who were injured were flown to hospitals. At least two of them were sent straight to surgery. That's how severe their injuries were.

The high school went into lockdown mode during the attack.