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Seven Dead and Seven Wounded after Shooting Spree Near University of California at Santa Barbara

Aired May 24, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news at this hour, a deadly shooting overnight in California in a college town there. Seven people are dead, including the gunman. Seven others are waking up this morning in a hospital with what's being described as gunshot wounds, also some other traumatic injuries.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: We'll get you caught up on what we do know. The incident happened last night in the small community of Isla Vista, that's near U.C. Santa Barbara, near their campus. According to the sheriff, the first reports of gunfire came around 9:30 p.m., and after a 10-minute shooting spree, six bystanders had been shot. The gunman was found dead in his car, a semiautomatic handgun with him.

BLACKWELL: We're joined by Justice Correspondent Evan Perez, also HLN law enforcement analyst, Mike Brooks. Evan, we want to start with you. We know that there are some federal resources that have become part of this investigation. What do we know that maybe they've learned, as we've heard from the sheriff, about the suspect?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor, this morning, this is exactly what they're trying to do. They're trying to figure out what they can -- what they can glean from the social media, from his writings, from this video that we know the law enforcement authorities are looking at, because they want to figure out whether or not -- how much planning went into this, what the motivation might have been. Obviously, the suspect is dead, according to the police, so he can't say anything anymore. But he left behind a lot of information that authorities are going to be trying to figure out.

One of the other things that the federal authorities are involved in is trying to trace the handgun, the semiautomatic handgun recovered from the scene. There is a great deal of resources there, because the ATF and the FBI can help use their crime labs, they can do a lot of stuff to figure out where he got this gun, perhaps when he obtained it, whether it was his or someone else's. And if there was anything -- anyone who might have known this was going to happen. The ATF, for example, has a ballistics system that can trace perhaps if this gun was stolen and if it was used in any other crimes. So those are the things that are being done at this hour by the ATF, by the FBI, as they try to help the local police to try to solve this.

PAUL: Mary Ellen, he's being described by the sheriff as a madman, saying this was premeditated mass murder. When you've got a guy in a car who, as we've heard from people, interestingly enough, engaging with people, actually talking to people before he shoots it sounds like, what does that tell you about who this person is and what his mindset is?

MARY ELLEN O'TOOLE, FORMER SENIOR FBI PROFILER: Well, I would caution -- I would -- and I know the sheriff said to use caution -- to use the word "madman" to imply this person was debilitated by mental illness. I have had cases that I've worked in the past where the shooter has gone up to the victim, engaged in conversation, and then shot them in the head. So this is not foreign behavior. I've seen this before.

This behavior, just from what we can see right now, this is behavior that this shooter was enjoying. And I know that sounds very odd to your listeners that someone could do this kind of thing and really enjoy it, but that's what it appears to be. We've seen that in other cases. The intention was to probably kill as many people as he could before the police interceded with him. Some of the victims could have been people that he knew, but others were strangers, he didn't know. He was OK with collateral damage.

But I think the whole scene that we're seeing here is that this is someone that thought about this ahead of time, and once he's in the midst of did doing it, he was able to think pretty clearly, and he was enjoying the behavior as long as it lasted. It gave him a feeling of power and omnipotence.

PAUL: OK, we just want to reference here, the video that you're watching is the first we're getting in of this new video from the scene. You can see people standing there shaking their heads. We talked to witnesses this morning who said the feeling there now in Isla Vista is just a strong sense of confusion. Nobody understands, obviously, why it would happen. And some people are probably trying to wrap their head around exactly what did happen. But you can see the strong presence of police cars, the tape that has cordoned off, as we understand, a huge swath of that little downtown area in this small college town. It's a beachside community.

Mike Brooks is with us now. Mike, how long do you think -- with nine crime scenes pocketed throughout this area -- it's going to take for them to compile their information and let people get back there?

MIKE BROOKS, HLN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Just looking at the video coming in now, Christi, it looks like a very, very large area. When you have nine crime scenes -- so I would say a good part of the Isla Vista downtown area is going to be shut off for at least the rest of the day while the Santa Barbara sheriff's office, the FBI, California Highway Patrol, while they process each one of the crime scenes, because even though the gunman is now dead, the alleged gunman is dead, they still have to process the scene just like they would any other scene. So they're going to take their time. There's no hurry. There's no rush. And now, also try to find out what the motive was for this shooting, you know, and if, in fact, this YouTube video, which I was just looking at during the last break, is involved in this, they are going to come to the bottom of what the motive was.

BLACKWELL: OK. And, of course, we're waiting to get more guidance on a video that the sheriff has referenced. Of course, we're not naming the alleged suspect here. I want to go to John Palminteri, reporter with CNN affiliate KEYT. John, we've heard from the sheriff's office. We've heard from eyewitnesses, ear-witnesses, people who heard things, but we've not heard from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Have you heard from them? Have they released a statement to maybe the local affiliates? Why haven't we heard from them considering that, you know, there were witnesses, at least, who were students there? Still no positive victims or those in the hospital, but nothing from U.C. Santa Barbara.

JOHN PALMINTERI, REPORTER, KEYT (via telephone): I want to frame this that the university is immediately adjacent to Isla Vista, and a lot people view them as one and the same. But they're two different properties. And the university will likely come out today very supportive of all of the students that need any counseling or therapy, and they're going to find out who the victims are and whether or not they were their students or not, as well. But this is truly an off- campus shooting incident, although everyone knows that they're one and the same and tied together in many ways. But the university is certainly up and operating and were notified, and they're probably getting everything lined up so they can find out who was injured, who was killed, and what they can do to offer either services or places for the families to gather to talk or meet with investigators along with the students who are -- there are so many eyewitnesses, the students, who not only go to the University of California Santa Barbara but also the nearby community college. And we're talking 17, 18, 19, 20, 21-year-olds, and this has to be a tragic start to the day for them. And they will need help in counseling, beyond their friends and their social media.

BLACKWELL: John, any confirmation that either from U.C. Santa Barbara or the community college you're referencing, that they are involved officially with the investigation?

PALMINTERI: There's no message to us that they are at this time. But in any past off-campus incidents at this level, or something close to it, we had a street riot, an extension of a party seen out there recently, and the university was engaged in the response as well at that time. So they will be in line with the sheriff's department. They won't be a distant party to this at all.

BLACKWELL: John, you mentioned earlier when we talked to you -- we know that the seven people that are hospitalized are being treated not only for gunshot wounds, but some for traumatic injuries, a head injury, a bicyclist who was hit with the car that the suspect was driving. He has a massive -- massive head trauma, we understand. Do you know whether the suspect was not only using his gun as a weapon, but did he seem to be using his car as a weapon, as well?

PALMINTERI: It doesn't appear as if he, that we know of, that he was trying to drive into people. I haven't heard any eyewitness say he was weaving around and doing that. You have that shot of the windshield of the car that you've been showing our audience, that is smashed in as it is in the location where it wrecked at the final stop, where the suspect -- alleged gunman -- was taken out of the car and had that head injury. And that windshield is smashed in, and witnesses and experts in the investigation team have told me personally that that kind of impact, that smashes a windshield like that, is definitely from someone going up and over, or someone into. And they pointed out and said that's the bicyclist that hit the windshield. So we believe it was on that same street, which is called Del Playa Drive, which is one stop from the ocean's edge in Isla Vista. And that is always crowded with young people on a Friday night, both on bikes. It's a heavily use bike community. There's probably 10,000, 15,000 bicyclists out there on the campus and on foot. So anybody driving down that street is likely to hit somebody if they're driving, either speeding running from the cops, or driving erratically. It's a tragedy.

And that also speaks to that they were calling on the police and fire scanners aggressively for as many ambulances as they could in trying to deploy them to make sure they could sort them out. And that particular victim may not have been one of the first ones that assisted by an ambulance service but was assisted by sheriff's deputies who were on the radio calling, "We need one here, we need an ambulance for this bicyclist with a traumatic head injury right now." And that was in addition to all of the responses for the gunshot wounds going on at the same time.

BLACKWELL: All right, John Palminteri, reporter with CNN affiliate KEYT, HLN law enforcement analyst Mike Brooks. Both of you stick around. We're going to sneak in a quick break here, but we will continue right after the break our continuing coverage of the shooting in Isla Vista right next to the University of California, Santa Barbara campus, seven dead, seven injured. We'll have more after the break.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAYLA BERGMAN, UCSB STUDENT: All of a sudden, we hear, like, five really loud gunshots, and originally, I thought it was fireworks or something, because it was so loud and we're used to the loud noises around here. Then all of a sudden, a bunch of people from outside just started running into the store.

DERRICK POE, UCSB STUDENT: And people started running in and getting down and, like, huddling in corners. And that's when I was, like, this is real.

MIKE HASSAN, DELI OWNER: I still don't believe this has happened. Even though I've seen it in front of me, I don't believe it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: The breaking news this morning, the shooting in Isla Vista, in California, just next to the University of California, Santa Barbara campus. You're looking there at new video we're getting in as crews are investigating the nine crime scenes where seven people have been killed, including the alleged shooter. Seven injured, in hospitals there. We know that one person has undergone surgery. We're still waiting for updates on them. No names have been released, Not of the shooter, of the six people that he shot, we're hearing from the sheriff, nor of the seven people who are at hospitals. PAUL: James Allen Fox is on the phone with us now. He's a criminologist at Northeastern University and the author of "The Crime and Punishment" blog at "The Boston Globe." So when you hear about this -- and James, thank you so much for being with us -- what is the first thing that stands out to you?

JAMES ALLEN FOX, "BOSTON GLOBE" (via telephone): Well, what the reason is. People often presume in a case like this, it's someone who snaps and suddenly goes berserk and shoots indiscriminately. Most mass murderers kill for a reason, it's generally revenge. They feel they've been wronged by society or wronged by a group of people, and they're out for payback. They're not mentally ill. They don't hear voices commanding them to kill. But they are depressed, despondent, don't want to live anymore, but first, they have to get even with all the people they hold responsible for their problems.

PAUL: OK, we've got some sound from the sheriff's department that kind of speaks to part of the investigation and some of the things they're looking at regarding this suspect. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have videotaped evidence and we have written evidence that appears to have been completed by the suspect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would that videotaped evidence include the video entitled --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're investigating to determine that at this time, but it would appear that that is connected with this crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: So, Mike Brooks, when you have somebody who, as the sheriff is saying there, believes to have left written notes on what was going to happen or videos, how much of that plays into, you know, the very early stages, where we are now?

BROOKS: I think it plays a big role in it, because early on they said that they had identified who this person was. So if they go back and look at this videotaped evidence that they're speaking of, and they say that they feel it is him involved with it, then that kind of gives them a good track on where to go, who to talk to, and looking for other written and other videotaped evidence that maybe this subject had in the past.

BLACKWELL: Let's go back out to James Allen Fox, who runs this crime and punishment blog. Let me ask you, beyond the video -- if this video was, indeed, produced and recorded by the suspect -- are there usually signs that people miss? The conversations, the, you know, the comments that are made in passing?

FOX: Sure. In hindsight we can always find those red flags that people miss, but they're actually more yellow flags that don't turn red until after the fact. So many people, unfortunately, will give off these kinds of warning signs, but they do nothing. So if we want to believe that we can identify mass murderers in advance and prevent them or stop them or intervene, we'd be sorely disappointed. These are rare events. And unfortunately, we cannot identify them in advance.

Now, certainly, if, indeed, we do find there's videos and letters, this is very common. Mass murderers typically will tell the world why they're going to do what they're going to do, because they don't want to be seen as crazy. They want to be seen as someone who was getting justice. They're right and everyone else is wrong, and they're punishing the people they hold responsible. So they want us to know why they've done what they're about to do.

BLACKWELL: All right, James Allen Fox, criminologist for Northeastern University, and also writes the "Crime and Punishment" blog for "The Boston Globe." Thank you very much. Stick around, we have HLN analyst Mike Brooks here to talk about the law enforcement element of this. We're going to take a quick break, but we've got much more on the breaking news from Isla Vista right next to the University of California, Santa Barbara campus. Seven dead, seven injured. The question is, why?

PAUL: We've got Kyung Lah who is on her way to the scene. She's going to be with us shortly. Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This incident appears to be a mass murder situation. The timeline, as we've been able to put it together thus far, is as follows -- at 9:27 p.m., the sheriff's dispatch center received calls of multiple gunshots being fired in the Isla Vista area. We had deputies in the area on foot who also heard a number of shots being fired. The deputies began responding in the direction of the gunshots, and immediately found several victims who were suffering from gunshot wounds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: So seven people -- seven families -- waking up this morning to the news -- or possibly got the news overnight -- that they have lost somebody they loved, these seven people that died. Seven other families most likely at the hospitals with the seven other people who have been shot, wounded traumatically in some way from this incident, and in this really small college town, a beachside community, as it's known, Isla Vista near U.C. Santa Barbara.

John Palminteri with KEYT, I know you all were on the scene very quickly after this happened. It's been described as a slow-rolling - scene, a slow-rolling driving, this man shooting, at random. But what have you heard about the reports we're hearing that he actually stopped and engaged with people, that he talked to some people before shooting at them?

PALMINTERI: We have some eyewitnesses that believe that some of the female victims did hear his voice, or turned to him when he called out at them, when he came by, and at least two were fatally shot. One was on a bicycle, as we have shown the audience, in the pictures that have come out, and also another was shot in front of a convenience store and wounded and was rescued heroically by the employees of that 7- Eeleven there that came out and got her even when sheriff's deputies were engaging in gunfire, to rescue her and get her out of the way.

But on the other side of the equation, there is a store that has broken windows we've seen with bullet holes in it. And that was a group of people -- both young men and young women -- going into the Isla Vista deli market, I believe it's called. And as I understand from my eyewitnesses who were on bikes in that area right behind the car, slowed down and shots were fired at the building there.

And then, around the block at another area that was a small restaurant, pizza cafe-type place, and bullets hit the window there, hit the trash can there. And so they have all these areas cordoned off. And what they do in this investigation as this day goes forward now is to find out what the roadmap was, where it started, and then try to gather the evidence on the ground, the casings, shell casings, how many shots were fired, where did they hit, where didn't they hit, who was struck. Were there any conversations? There's a whole list, as we've talked about.

And Lou made reference to, the number of investigators that are going to be needed to do this. And they have all of their notes from all of the people they've been investigating throughout the dark of the night and into the morning that were eyewitnesses and were very cooperative to stick around and give their story. But, also, just map this out. When were -- when did this start, and where did it end? But it appears as if the sheriff's deputies who engaged in gunfire with this suspect are the ones that slowed him down, and then brought this to an end. And had they not done that, who knows? He could have kept driving around and shooting at people until he was stopped somewhere else.

BLACKWELL: All right, John, stand by. CNN Justice Reporter Evan Perez is with us this morning. Evan, you have new information about the federal resources that have now become part of this investigation. What have you learned?

PEREZ: That's right, Victor. The ATF and the FBI are both assisting the local authorities with this scene. Obviously, they have a lot of experience with these types of incidents. The Santa Barbara sheriff and the Santa Barbara police are smaller agencies, so you would suspect they don't deal with these types of things very often. So the FBI and the ATF will help with the tracing of the handgun, which was recovered at the scene.

And this is something they've been doing a lot of work on simply because there have been, unfortunately, a great deal of these incidents across the country. They're trying to figure out how to help local police deal with these incidents, because they're happening all too commonly now. And what they find is, you know, what the police there did, which is respond within minutes -- this is a very crowded area, so obviously, it was very key to get to the scene and to be able to try to engage the gunman as soon as possible. But you can see within 10 minutes, there's still seven people who were able -- who he was able to shoot, according to the sheriff's office, and seven people are dead as a result.

PAUL: All right, Evan Perez with the justice department, thank you so much. Our justice department correspondent, I should say. Kyung Lah, our CNN reporter, is at the scene. We're going to be talking to her on the other side of this break. Just have to take a quick one. But again, she has reached the scene there today. She's going to let us in on exactly what's going on now with this investigation at that point.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: We welcome our viewers here in the U.S. and tuning in from around the world. We're covering the breaking news this morning out of California, that deadly shooting overnight in a California college town. Seven people dead, including the gunman. Seven others are at a hospital with what's being described as gunshot wounds, also some other traumatic injuries.

PAUL: OK, so here's what we know this hour. The incident happened last night in the small community of Isla Vista. This is near the U.C., Santa Barbara campus, described as a beachside community. According to the sheriff, the first reports of gunfire came in around 9:30 last night. And after a 10-minute shooting spree, six bystanders had been killed. The gunman was found dead in his car, a semiautomatic handgun with him. And seven other people were injured. Our reporter Kyung Lah is at the scene now. Kyung, what are you -- what are you seeing there this morning?

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can tell you that this entire college town -- and this is, Christi, a very typical college town. I'm looking at 7-Elevens and various pizza shops, coffee shops, a very typical college town -- there is police tape strung back and forth across the streets here. It's zigzagging. There are a number of scenes. I see police officers and sheriff's deputies, just counting from where I'm standing it looks like they're covering several different corners here, because we're talking about a series of shootings.

This all started at 9:27 last night, Friday evening, here at the University of -- U.C., Santa Barbara. Kids are filling the streets at this time of the day. They're getting ready to go out. They're out at the pizza shops, out at the coffee shops. And that's when all of the firing, the shooting began, the suspect's vehicle zigzagging its way across through this very busy area. And that's -- when you're standing here and you're looking at the number of crime scenes and the businesses I'm looking at, you can see how so many people could be hurt so quickly.

So a very large investigation, a number of agencies involved here. You know, I can't see anything beyond the tape, but this looks like a very, very large area that they're going to be combing through, Christi.

BLACKWELL: Kyung Lah, stand by. I want to get to HLN law enforcement analyst Mike Brooks. Mike, we know that this ended when the suspect was shot. It has not yet been confirmed if it was a self-inflicted gun wound --

BROOKS: Right.

BLACKWELL: -- or if it was from one of the deputies with he had shots back and forth, this shoot-out. But what does your experience tell you how these typically end? Is it typical that it would end with a self-inflicted gun wound or that this person would kind of go toward these officers?

BROOKS: You know, there's a possibility that he could have encouraged a gun battle between he and law enforcement, because we know he got involved in at least two gun battles. One six minutes after the first calls started coming in, one three minutes later when he was found dead. You know, a lot of times people who are involved in mass shootings like this, they will confront law enforcement and hoping law enforcement kills them. It's victim-precipitated homicide, better known as "suicide by cop." What we don't know in this particular situation, if he took his own life or if he was killed by sheriff's deputies in the second gun battle.

PAUL: I want to reference the video you're looking at here. If we can get back to that video of the black BMW, the one that he was driving, we will see that that windshield is shattered, that front windshield. See it there.

BROOKS: Yes.

PAUL: We thought perhaps earlier somebody shot that out. But John Palminteri with KEYT, our CNN affiliate there, said he was told that is the result of a bicyclist that the suspect hit. So what you're seeing there is not from a shot. It's not from the accident where this ended and he hit a parked car. That was from the bicyclist that he hit who hit the windshield. That bicyclist, by the way, has massive head trauma, is in the hospital, as well. So we can look at that, Mike, and think, you know, had that not happened, perhaps he would have continued to move?

BROOKS: He could have, and also if not confronted by law enforcement the second time. You know, so again, we don't know -- we probably won't know the cause of death of him -- whether it was suicide or if the law enforcement killed him -- until the autopsy is done. But you look at that damage. It's called pedestrian-type damage, even though the person was on a bicycle.

PAUL: Yes.

BROOKS: And I'm sure there's other damage to the car that we can't see. But still, you heard John Palminteri from our affiliate KEYT talking about the number of bicycles.

PAUL: Yes.

BROOKS: And sure, you're going to see a lot of bicycles in a college town like that, especially there on the coast. And this guy for 10 minutes, driving through the streets just firing indiscriminately at people, and maybe targeting some people, we heard, maybe some females, engaging them in conversation before he shot them. Just unbelievable.

BLACKWELL: Our reporter Kyung Lah is there, just arrived on the scene. You talked about the tape zigzagging through the streets, all these crime scenes. Are the streets this morning abandoned? I know that it's early there on the west coast, but considering all of the action that happened overnight, are there students, are there people there around?

LAH: I've actually sort of walked my way in to an area -- it's a little difficult to maneuver, but they are allowing traffic in and out, as well as some pedestrians. And I've gotten to what appears to be an apartment complex. One of the windows has been shot out, it appears. There are a number of bullet casings.

And what is so frightening is you're asking about some of the students who are starting to wake up. It's 7:30 here in the morning on the west coast. And I can see windows are beginning to open up, and the people who are inside these apartments that can't be any older than 19, 20 years old. So, yes, they're starting to wake up here. It is -- you know, it is a college town, and you can definitely see the faces of the people that are waking up. But very much a crime scene, and it is difficult to maneuver your way here. But this is something that police are going -- they're going try to keep this area -- it appears, at least some of the businesses open, because this is such a busy area for the college area.

PAUL: Some of those businesses most likely needed by the college students, but what a sobering morning for them to wake up. Obviously, they most obviously knew what happened last night. But, you know, when you go to bed when something awful has happened, and you wake up and you have to -- you have to reconcile that again, that's always tough. So we're certainly thinking about all those people there.

Listen, we're going to take a quick break here. But again, we are on top of this story out of California. Seven people dead, seven injured, in a shooting from a man who just drove a black BMW through these small streets of Isla Vista, in California, near U.C. Santa Barbara, and really terrorized those people for 10 minutes until he finally crashed his car and ended up dead himself. More for you in just a moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERGMAN: All of a sudden, we hear, like, really five gunshots. And originally, I thought it was fireworks or something, because it's so loud, and we're used to these loud noises around here. And all of a sudden a bunch of people from outside just started running into the store.

POE: People started running in and getting down, and, like, huddling in corners, and that's when I was, like, this is real.

HASSAN: I still do not believe this has happened. Even though I have seen it in front of me, but I don't believe it. (END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Welcome back, covering the breaking news out of Isla Vista, the small college town next to the University of California Santa Barbara campus. Seven dead this morning, seven in hospitals. We spoke with a young man named Robert Johnson who works for the U.C. Santa Barbara newspaper, "The Daily Nexus," and he was standing there on a street corner. And I asked him what he heard and what he saw. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERT JOHNSON, WITNESS, (via telephone): I was standing on a street corner. I had heard, I guess, what sounded what I now know to be gunshots, but at that time I thought maybe they were fireworks or firecrackers going off, which isn't an uncommon occurrence here. And then I was standing on the street corner, and this black BMW turns through the intersection and goes down the street away from me. And about maybe two seconds later I heard a pop. At first, I remember looking at the car and thinking it had backfired, which I remember thinking was strange because it was such a new car. And then it happened again. And by this time, it had reached -- he was right outside a restaurant-convenience store, a deli mart, and maybe there was a group of six, seven, eight people eating out in front of it, and he stopped in front of it and fired upon the group.

PAUL: Robert, did he -- did it seem to be targeting anybody, or did it just seem very random, the shooting?

JOHNSON: It all happened very quickly, but I think that this just happened to be the largest group on the street.

BLACKWELL: So you say he was just aiming for the group there?

JOHNSON: Yes. I think it was just target because it was the largest group on -- in the area.

BLACKWELL: What was the response from the crowds there? I mean, was there screaming? Did they start running? What did you see and hear from the people who were standing on the corner?

JOHNSON: I saw the people that were fired upon immediately they all jumped up, and many tried to run into the building. Let's see, I don't recall hearing any screaming, and then it was at that point where I turned and ran in the opposite direction.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: You know, Mike Brooks, HLN law enforcement analyst, when he says that he didn't hear any screaming, I think, from speaking with him and speaking with Daniel and John Palminteri, KEYT, was on the phone, I think people were just shocked that it was happening there.

BROOKS: Right. BLACKWELL: And this person was just driving slowly through this community.

BROOKS: And they thought maybe it was firecrackers to begin with. And that's why, you know, everybody says it took a long time. But people -- when something like that, you're not expecting it to happen in this community. And it takes time for them to react. And when they finally see some people running, see a little bit of panic, then they realize, whoa, we are in danger. And that's -- in the whole law enforcement, you know, they heard the shots. You had some sheriff's deputies who were on foot patrol. They started running towards it. That's when they started finding victims and started to aid the victims. And then you heard more calls coming in, and they heard more shots. And then they realized exactly what they were dealing with then.

PAUL: And you realize how hard this is for people who went there. I've got a tweet here from Marco on the web who tweeted me and said, "I went to UCSB 15 years ago. I never imagined something like this. So unbelievably sad." So when we talk about what these kids are waking up to, they're just trying to reconcile what happened last night, most likely, obviously, they know about it already. But they're also probably trying to figure out who was it? We don't know the names of the victims yet, so they can obviously let their first of kin know. We don't even know the names of the people in the hospital.

BLACKWELL: True.

PAUL: We just know that they had -- people who died had very violent, public deaths.

BLACKWELL: What we learned from the sheriff's office, though, is that none of the people who were shot were members of his department. So no deputies who were involved in at least two shoot-outs, I remember, from his tick-tock of what happened, six minutes after the initial call, there was a shoot-out with deputies, of course, that final shoot-out with deputies. And at that time, that's when the suspect was shot, whether it was by deputy or whether it was a self-inflicted gun wound, we know the suspect is dead this morning. No sheriff's deputies injured in this.

Again, seven dead, seven in hospitals. We'll continue our breaking news coverage of this shooting near the University of California Santa Barbara campus in a moment.

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PAUL: Breaking news this morning. Seven people are dead and seven people injured after a shooting in the small town of Isla Vista. This is a small college town near U.C. Santa Barbara. I'm looking at twitter right now. There's a lot of people on there saying, you know, praying for everyone over at UCSB. Another person asking, have you heard if Alpha Kai Omega girls OK? Everybody is really starting to hone in on this and who may have been hurt. But there is some sound that we've just gotten in from one of the witnesses there. Listen to what she had to say last night. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then, he, like, lifted up a little black pistol. And, like, I just thought it was an air soft gun or something, so I was, like, hey, what's up? And I turned around and I started walking the other way and he -- he shot, and I felt -- like, I felt the wind pass right by my face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Wow.

PAUL: John Palminteri with KEYT, I know that your station talked to her, John. Did she -- if I understand this correctly, did she actually engage at all with him? Was she -- did he say something to her before she noticed the gun?

PALMINTERI: It doesn't appear as if they had a conversation, but she clearly is one of the closest persons that could describe exactly what happened that was not a victim. The others, of course, were wounded and taken to the hospital or part of the fatalities out there. But this witness describes exactly what we've heard from other people, where it was slow enough they could see the vehicle, see the suspect, see the weapon, and as Mike was pointing out, absolutely stand there in shock.

We did not hear a lot of screaming or stories like that, or people running in all directions as much as they might have been just in shock at what they saw. And then others immediately, heroically, coming to rescue those who were wounded or hurt and trying to assist law enforcement. But this particular eyewitness, as you can tell, is welled up with emotion, as many people are to start the day in Isla Vista, California, where they come back and see these scenes that are now cordoned off with yellow tape and maybe even some of the victims still out there, because these investigations take so long to do it right. They've got to do it exactly and precisely right every step of the way this morning.

BLACKWELL: Hey, John, the spokesperson for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's office talked about this written and video evidence suggesting this was a premeditated mass murder that the sheriff's office has obtained. Did they clarify, was that something they were given or something they found as part of their investigation?

PALMINTERI: Well, I was at the press briefing about 2:00 a.m. this morning, in the dark of the night, and this was widely distributed to people in the community, the Isla Vista community. As 20,000, mainly college students, and when something is on social media and somebody gets wind of it, it just goes like wildfire. And we had it in the briefing room, as well.

But, you know, at this point, nobody wants to jump the gun on what this is or who this person is. That's why the identification hasn't been clearly released. And they're taking very careful steps here not to do that, even though the sheriff did openly reference that that video that's out on YouTube and that statement was something that was part of the, you know, highest level of the investigation. So it's they know about it. I had it. We all were watching it. It was not verified. And until it is, we're not going to go much further on that.

BLACKWELL: Absolutely.

PAUL: We know a lot of people are looking at it, not only California authorities, but ATF is involved, FBI is now involved, somebody from the FBI flying out there today. Mike, our law enforcement analyst, Mike Brooks with us now. How does that work, when you have multiple jurisdictions here and agencies, what is the hierarchy?

BROOKS: The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office, they'll be the lead agency in this investigation. You know, ATF, they'll come in and try to find out the history of that gun, and where was it bought, who bought it, those kinds of things. The FBI will most likely be assisting them, also, with the crime scene. Their evidence response team experts will come out, because in that area there are also a number of different task forces --

PALMINTERI: Yes, I'd be real careful with that last answer to stay with --

BLACKWELL: OK, we still have John on air, actually, if we could -- OK, go ahead.

BROOKS: No, there are a number of different task forces in that area that include local, state, and federal agencies. So they're all involved in this investigation.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And again, I want people to know this is not something that is kind of cordoned off to one small area. We've got, according to the sheriff there, nine crime scenes. And this will act, not just take the ATF and the FBI, but neighboring communities, as well. We know that there are 20,000 students potentially there. What do you do with all these people? They've got to get home.

BROOKS: We heard from Kyung Lah, who just got to the scene, that they're allowing some traffic and some of the stores are open. But we also heard that it's pretty tight there, and that these streets will be closed down I would say at least for today. You know, as John Palminteri said, some of the victims are probably still on the scene while they go ahead and process the nine separate crime scenes over a number-of-block area.

PAUL: All right, again, if you're just joining us, as we talk about the nine crime scenes, seven people are dead this morning and seven others in the hospital, hopefully recovering. We understand there is at least one bicyclist who was hit with this car and has massive head trauma. He hit the windshield of the car. And that may be, actually -- it shattered the windshield, as you can see it there. That may be the very moment, the incident that stopped this from going even further and claiming more lives. But listen, that's going to do it for us today. We're going to pass it over to Fred here in a moment.

BLACKWELL: Yes, keep it right here. We'll have more on the California shooting in the next hour of the CNN Newsroom. We'll pass it on to Fredricka Whitfield up after the break.

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