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Portland School Shooting

Aired June 10, 2014 - 15:00   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.

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Randi Kaye.

Right now, we're waiting to hear the very latest details on a rapidly evolving story, a police news conference on a deadly shooting at a school just outside Portland, Oregon.

We have just learned a teacher was wounded in the shooting that killed a student and left the gunman dead. As students piled into classrooms, a lone shooter entered the school, gunning down one student with a semiautomatic weapon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT ANDERSON, TROUTDALE, OREGON, POLICE CHIEF: A gunman entered the high school this morning, shot one student. Unfortunately, that student has died. The gunman was located, and the gunman is also deceased.

LINDA FLORENCE, REYNOLDS SCHOOL DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT: This is a very tragic day, one that I had hoped would never, ever be part of my experience.

And, as we are able to get more information, the district will provide that to the public. We feel very sorry for our parents. Our kids were absolutely wonderful today at exiting the building.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Now, it is still unclear if any other students were hurt, or how the gunman died. But here is what we know right now. At 8:07 this morning, that's Pacific time, shots were fired at Reynolds High School in Troutdale. This is about 12 miles east of Portland.

Police and tactical teams responded, evacuating students from the school, as you see it right here. They were led off campus in droves with their hands over their heads.

Parents were waiting anxiously to hear that their kids are safe, relief as the buses pull up, reuniting parents and students. What an emotional moment there.

One extraordinary moment, though, caught live on television with one of our affiliates. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're sure he's OK. But until you hear that -- until you hear that final word, you always have the thought. We're just waiting.

Hello? Good.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what we were waiting for. That's OK. I'm -- yes. Yes, I know. That's what they were saying. So I am glad to hear from you. All right. So, are you almost ready to get on the bus to come down here, or what's the deal?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can breathe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Really, an incredible moment there.

Joining me now, Evan Perez, CNN justice reporter, and on the fun with me, Kenneth Trump, president, National School Safety and Security Services.

Evan, to you first on this. There were still some questions about injuries to other students. At this point, what do we know about that?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we don't know if there were any other students injured. They're still clearing the school to make sure that there is nobody else perhaps that was injured and perhaps is hiding or was injured and has gone somewhere and wasn't found by police in the initial search.

One of the things that we know the police are doing at this hour is they're trying to figure out where the gunman found his -- obtained this firearm. We also know that they are -- they are doing searches to try to figure out any history they can find on him, obviously, the social media, computer, anything written that may have indicated or may have given any signs that this gunman was looking to do something like this, Randi.

This happened obviously at the beginning of the school day. School year is wrapping up at that high school. Kids were looking forward to getting away for their summer holiday. And then this happened. So, right now, the authorities are getting some help from the ATF and the FBI at the scene to try to put together what exactly happened, Randi.

KAYE: And, as you said, they're first trying to figure out what they can about this shooter. We don't even know if he was a student, right?

PEREZ: Well, they haven't said. So, what happens often in this -- in situations like this is, there's a lot of initial reports from the scene. We have heard reports from the scene of -- law enforcement has seen reports that they believe it was a student. But, again, this is not confirmed, and it's not something that they're

willing yet to talk about. And we expect we're going to get a little more information from the police at this press conference that will come up shortly.

One of the things -- one of the reasons why they don't tell us that information right now is, they want to try to do a search of the home, perhaps, without the media being present, so that they can try to get to the bottom of this before we do, Randi.

KAYE: And they also have not released yet how this shooter died; is that correct?

PEREZ: No, that's right. That's right. We just know that the shooter is dead.

And then very quickly, within an hour, they were already letting students out. So, they knew the situation was contained fairly, fairly quickly, which is unusual in these situations, Randi.

KAYE: All right. Evan Perez, thank you so much for that.

Let me bring in Kenneth Trump here.

Kenneth, each time this happens, we turn to school safety. It always turns to that. We know that this shooter walked straight in, he shot a student. Could anything have been done on the campus to stop this from happening yet again?

KENNETH TRUMP, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL SCHOOL SAFETY AND SECURITY SERVICES: Randi, the initial gut feeling is, we need to look at physical security. How do we put equipment and technology and hardware to keep the shooter out?

But what we haven't done since Newtown, since the Sandy Hook shootings, is look at the people side. Typically, when we have incidents, the school shootings, and they're found that there are gaps and failures, it's a failure in people, not equipment or technology.

But yet, in the last couple years, we have seen a lot of rushes to put in hardware and hardening the front doors, bulletproof, ballistic, shatterproof and window film, more cameras, cameras and cameras. But we're dealing with people safety at multiple levels.

Number one is the issue of mental health, kids who across the board with these shooters have undiagnosed and/or treated -- untreated mental health. We don't know at this time, but as the onion gets peeled back in the next few days, my prediction is we will hear something there.

And, secondly, we need to invest in our people on the -- in the school end. We need to invest in support services for students, with the counseling and psychological services, coordination with the community on mental health. We also need to go back and invest in our people on the training, recognizing warning signs, what to do to intervene, basic crime prevention and security procedures, what to do in emergency preparedness and response, but we're not doing that.

We're looking for quick fixes, throw up some cameras, put in a few dollars as possible and a one-time hit and say we throw up some equipment, make people feel safer, but they may not actually be safer, Randi.

KAYE: Well, let's talk about some of the training that is going on inside the school. Students say that they were told to stay in the classrooms. We hear that very often. The school goes on lockdown. They train for this.

Some people say, you know what? Maybe they shouldn't go on lockdown. Maybe the kids should just evacuate right away. Are we teaching the right thing or the wrong thing?

TRUMP: Well, the majority of schools are teaching the right things, with focusing on lockdowns, getting students away from harm's way. Since Sandy Hook, we have seen some emotional responses that may sound good and they feel like it as they empower people, but they can make the kids and the staff less safe.

When you have hundreds of kids who leave secure areas and run through the hallways -- we saw this over in Pennsylvania with the slashing and stabbing incident a few months ago -- people are running out. They're running into the police, the fire, the first-responders coming in, and those first-responders don't know who the good guys from the bad guys are.

And it just delays and impedes their getting in to neutralize the shooter and to help those who have medical injury. We have heard ridiculous things in the last years few since Columbine. There's been one school in one state where a deputy says his teachers had been taught in his school to throw to cans -- to bring cans of soup, have the children bring cans of soup to throw at the heavily armed gunmen.

KAYE: Wow.

TRUMP: We need to focus on what works, best practices from 15 years ago from Columbine, use some common sense, invest in people.

KAYE: Kenneth Trump, appreciate your time. Thank you.

TRUMP: Thanks, Randi.

KAYE: There was a massive police response, which comforted some parents who were very panicked about the well-being of their children, as this one mother describes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Panicked. Come out, flying down the street. I was shaking. Just needed to get out here.

QUESTION: And describe the scene this morning as you have seen it all morning long, more parents starting to show up here. What has the mood like -- been for you and the other parents? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just still a lot of panic and worry, people

trying to get ahold of their kids. There's some aunties that had brought their kids -- their nieces and nephews to school, so trying to get ahold of their parents, and just waiting to hear, hoping the kids are OK.

I was very surprised at all the different municipalities that came out, Camas, and Clark County, and Clackamas County. So I'm thankful for the large response, just because they -- you never know if there is more than one shooter, or what's going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Another mother describes seeing the terror on the students' faces as she yelled for kids to get inside and take cover.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was dropping off my daughter. And she was headed toward the gymnasium. And the school staff said, come in, come in. And they swept them into the front office. And then the cops all showed up.

And suddenly there's like seven or eight police cars all around me. And they were wedging me in. They were telling me, get out, get out, there's a shooter, there's a shooter, there's a rifleman. Get out, get out.

And so I could not back out. I could not turn around. I ended up going up on the curb to back my car around, as well as three other vehicles. So as the cars just starting to come in to drop their kids off, everybody was, where do I go?

And there was even another little child, she was walking across the parking lot, and I said, get inside. Go. There's a shooter. And the look of terror on that young girl's face -- anyway, I left the scene finally. And, oh, I just fell apart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Now, again, I want to remind you, we're waiting on that news conference out of Troutdale, Oregon, expected any moment now. And we will bring it to you live here on CNN when it happens.

Meantime, the married couple who carried out a deadly ambush in Las Vegas were out for blood. And there was no shortage of warning signs. Video on the Internet shows their state of mind as they prepared to begin their so-called revolution -- the new video coming your way next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back, everyone, 14 minutes past the hour now.

We have been telling you that this press conference there in Troutdale, Oregon, is expected to start here at any moment now. It looks like it is under way. We're hoping to get the latest on this school shooting that occurred much earlier this morning.

So, let's listen in.

LT. STEVE ALEXANDER, MULTNOMAH COUNTY, OREGON, SHERIFF'S OFFICE: The Reynolds School District will talk. And then Mayor Doug Daoust, Troutdale city mayor, will be up after that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unfortunately, we had a very tragic incident this morning at Reynolds High School.

One student is deceased as a result of a lone gunman who entered the school. The lone gunman was also deceased at the scene. We are in the process of notifying the next of kin for both.

We have tentatively identified the shooter, but we're not confident enough at this point to reveal the details. I can tell you that the weapon that was used is a rifle.

In addition, one teacher was injured with non-life-threatening injuries. The teacher was treated at the scene. Not related to this incident, and during the evacuation process, a gun was found on one person. This is not believed to be a part of the incident.

That person was taken into custody. The investigation will take some time, as you can imagine, and we have several tactical teams working through this investigation at this time.

For reunification for the families, we have located a spot at Wood Village Fred Meyer for parents to respond to pick up their kids.

I want to thank all the law enforcement agencies that came to assist us, as well as the non-governmental agencies, such as the Trauma Intervention Program.

There will be several days of healing and ongoing attention given to the students and the staff and anybody impacted by this tragedy.

I also want to thank Superintendent Florence. We have two school resource officers at Reynolds High School. They were the first- responders. And they responded immediately. They and another tactical team brought this to conclusion. And I can't thank them enough.

Now I would like to introduce the superintendent, Linda Florence.

FLORENCE: This is such a tragedy. My heart goes out to the individuals involved and to their parents.

I, too, want to especially thank to -- our first-responders. Those are our school resource officers -- and for our students and staff who did some real quick thinking and went into lockdown within seconds of hearing about the active shooter.

I also want to thank our students and staff and teachers, who did an excellent job, a calm job of evacuating the school today and for implementing all of our safety procedures that we have at the school. Parents are meeting their students at our Fred Meyer Wood Village

parking lot and being checked out with our school staff. Students who need mental health, someone to talk to, we have lots of counselors available.

And for students who are already at home, and need some additional help, I have a phone number for them to call, Multnomah County Mental Health at 503-988-4888.

Later today, we will also be notifying our parents and students of school closure. There are some things that we will have to do, some work that has to be involved. And so later on today, we will be notifying them of that.

So thank you.

DOUG DAOUST, TROUTDALE, OREGON, MAYOR: Hello. I'm Doug Daoust, the mayor of Troutdale.

This has been a very unsettling day for our precious city. I have been on the cell phone all morning long with the national news media. As you can imagine, they have shown quite a bit of interest in what's going on in this small city, suburb of Portland.

I have been on the phone constantly with media back East. I really want to say, though, that -- and I shared with them that I'm very impressed with how the police handled this whole operation.

I think going through a dry run a few months ago helped. And the school police officers helped a lot. But I am very impressed with the cooperation amongst all the police departments that showed up. And there were a lot of them.

I was watching on the news to see how many police departments showed up, along with the sheriff's department. So my heart goes out to all the families.

And that's all I have to say. Thank you.

ALEXANDER: All right. Thank you.

We will have another media briefing tentatively set for 4:00 p.m. this afternoon, same location. We will let you know once we confirm that. I do have a few things.

We're unifying students with parents, again, is occurring at the Wood Village Fred Meyer parking lot. The parents, if you're looking for more information about your students or have not been able to contact your student, you can contact the Reynolds School District. Their main number is 503-661-7200.

But that's where we're taking the students to reunify with parents. And we will be at that location until we make sure everybody has connected.

The Troutdale Police Department has set up a tip line for witnesses or anyone at the scene that saw part of the incident or knows information about the incident. That number is 503-250-7943. Witnesses can call that line. It is staffed so there will be somebody there.

The Multnomah County...

KAYE: All right, you have been listening there to the latest that we know at this hour from that school shooting there in Troutdale, Oregon.

We are hearing from officials. They are not I.D.ing the shooter, who is dead, or the student who was killed in that. But we do know that one teacher as well was injured, but that is not a life-threatening injury. So, that is some good news there. The weapon of choice today was a rifle.

On the phone with me right now is a Reynolds High School student, Jaimie Infante (ph).

Jaimie, you were inside that school when the shooting occurred. Tell me what happened. What did you hear? And what did you do?

JAIMIE INFANTE, STUDENT: When it first happened, I didn't really know what to expect.

Mr. Dixon (ph), I believe, was the one who announced it, saying, this is a lockdown, go in the room, turn off the lights and lock the doors. And at the end, he said, this is not a drill.

And from then on, I just -- I just fleed (sic) to the room nearest to us, where my original teacher, Mr. Larson (ph), told us to go to Mr. Moffit's (ph) room.

And from then on, we sat in there for about 40 minutes in the dark. And we found that it was actually in the gym building, not in the main building, so we were able to turn on one light, and to have some communication with what was going on outside.

And about like 15 minutes or so later, Mr. Moffit comes in and he says, all right, I need you guys to stay calm, but there has been a few gunshots. And there was a teacher that has been shot. And then later on, somebody on their phone found out from, like, Twitter or something that mr. (INAUDIBLE) was the one that got shot.

And I thought he was legitimately shot, but then later, I only found out that he was just grazed by the bullet.

Then, about 10 minutes or so later, police officers and SWAT team and FBI came banging on the door, saying, police, police. Everybody, stand up. Put your hands behind your head.

And then we went out. And, before then, I heard some people, like, wanting to come inside, like -- just like some students who just arrived there pretty late.

(CROSSTALK)

KAYE: So, let me ask you about -- just take me back to when it all started. Do you remember hearing the gunshots, and, if so, how many?

INFANTE: I don't remember hearing gunshots.

I heard something that turned out to be a gunshot. I thought -- I didn't even realize it was a gunshot. I thought somebody just like dropped something, you know, on the outside.

And I didn't think anything of it. And later on, I found out it was a gunshot. And it just sounded like somebody dropped a book.

KAYE: We have all seen these scenes play out so many times. I'm sure you have as well. How did you find the strength and your fellow students to remain calm inside this classroom? I mean, did you barricade yourselves or did you just remain calm?

INFANTE: To be quite honest, the people that took it seriously were scared.

But the majority of the people that I was with in the room did not take it seriously. There were people who just laughed about the whole thing, and kind of didn't really want to believe it, but also wanted to seem pretty calm about it.

But, if anything, they weren't taking it as seriously as they should.

KAYE: And Jaimie, tell me, in the press conference we were just listening to here on CNN, they said that there had been a dry run of sorts. Is this a lockdown dry run, or what type of drill were all the students put through?

INFANTE: Oh, it was just a lockdown where you -- everybody goes into a room, as far away from the windows and as far away from the door as possible, turn off the lights and everybody has to be quiet. That's what we went through.

KAYE: And how quickly were you able to call your family and let everybody know you were OK?

INFANTE: When we were still sitting in silence for about the first 20 minutes, I was -- I saw some people going on their phones, like texting.

And I just decided maybe that's OK, and so I started texting and I started letting my mom know what was happening, where I was. It was kind of like short, brief text messages, because I wasn't sure what was going to happen.

And if anything, I was trying to hide the light from my phone, just in case.

KAYE: Right.

INFANTE: But it didn't seem like anybody around me really did all that much precaution. So, at least I was able to let her know what was happening.

KAYE: Well, I'm sure she appreciated that, as did so many other parents who were so worried about their children and their students.

Jaimie Infante, thank you so much. And glad you're safe. Appreciate your time.

INFANTE: Thank you.

KAYE: And we will, of course, have much more on this tragedy in Troutdale, Oregon, ahead.

Up next, more on a married couple's rampage in Las Vegas, including disturbing new videos from the killers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)