Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
At Least 5 Dead, 21 Injured in Texas Mass Shooting; Hurricane Dorian Intensifies and Heads for Southern U.S.; VP Pence Comments on Mass Shooting in Texas. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired August 31, 2019 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[21:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was super beneficial in the position of a doctor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These things don't just happen. You have to prepare. So, everything from who comes in to where family members go, to how to keep ourselves safe, how to prevent wrong messages going out to the media, how to keep the calm and do this in a calm situation, this doesn't happen by accident. This takes years of preparation and I encourage every community to do this. This is not an urban community here, but this happened here. And this can happen anywhere across America. And I think what I personally took from this is a team here in West Texas -- in the deserts of West Texas was maximally prepared at this trauma center to take care of everyone. And I don't think this is beyond us. Anybody can do this. Please be prepared.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much.
UNIDENTIFED MALE: I got one more. I do have the information on the family center is located at a set-up at Ector County Annex Building on 1010 East 8th Street -- 1010 East 8th Street. And that's for the family center, the reunification center there, OK? Any other questions before we wrap this up?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many doctors were called in?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Several. We called in --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we had our basic emergency department crew and then on top of that, we have backup emergency department crew, but often you have to figure out the bottlenecks in your system, and this came from our preparation. The bottleneck may not be the emergency room. It may be the operating room, the anesthesiologists. So we prepared this in advance. Everybody was called in from extra nurses, extra techs, extra -- you know custodians. They may save more lives than anybody by preventing infection. So this is a team effort and we were prepared for this and the whole team was called in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just, last thing, we're going to stay on lockdown until 10:00. At 10:00, we'll reassess the situation and make sure we're safe. I don't plan on having another one of these unless something drastically changes, OK? But if we do, we'll get the notification out to everybody, but thank you all for being here and one final word just to everybody listening to our voice today, tonight, when you go to bed tonight with your families, you need to grab them and hold on tight, because nobody is guaranteed the next day. And grab on to your families and love them and pray for our staff, our doctors, and these victims and these victims' families. And hold on to your loved ones tonight. And all I can say is God bless Texas, God bless Odessa and the medical center and the United States and love on your family tonight. Thank you all very much. That's all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, everybody.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, guys.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.
We are just listening into the latest update on the conditions and the situation at the medical center where they are treating now a dozen patients. They initially had 13, we learned, in that last update, that at least another person has since died. So here we are, a late summer Saturday evening and another American city is reeling from a mass shooting, in the same state, Texas, that saw a mass shooting just weeks ago. At least five people are dead. Another 21 are injured in Odessa after police say a white man in his mid-30s opened fire after a traffic stop. And this is what followed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEX WOODS, EYEWITNESS: There's a shooting going on in Odessa, Texas. Oh, God, they're shooting right there. Oh, he hit the barrier! The cop just hit the barrier!
Get down! Get down! Get down!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get down! Get down! Get down!
WOODS: Stand still. He's shooting him! He's shooting him! Oh, he killed him! He killed him!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a shooting.
We're watching the shooting happen.
WOODS: Oh, he's shooting him up. He hit the barrier.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: That was at the end of what was a scary afternoon in Midland and Odessa, Texas. Now, that hospital update we just got moments ago, we learned 7 of the 13 victims they received are in critical condition. We now know the detailed timeline of how the shooting unfolded in Odessa.
According to police, the situation started around 3:17 afternoon Central Time when a trooper attempted to stop a gold Honda. When he stopped the car, he was shot by the vehicle's occupant. And according to police, that vehicle continued westbound into the city of Odessa and the suspect then shot another individual. That was at I-20 in the east loop. Police say he then drove on the east loop to East 42nd Street, where there were more, multiple victims. At some point, police say the suspect stole a mail truck, ditched his car and then shot more people.
[21:05:02] He then went back on 42nd towards Cinergy. Cinergy is that movie theater complex where he was confronted by various law enforcement officers, gunfire was exchanged and ultimately the shooter was killed.
Joining us now is CNN crime and justice correspondent Shimon Prokupecz and CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem.
Juliette, police say this whole episode started when the suspect shot the officer who executed a traffic stop. When you heard that detail, what did you think?
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So, this is, I think, just a key detail right now, because what we don't know -- I mean, when they say they stopped him for a traffic stop, was the violation happening at that moment? So the state trooper pulled him over? Was there a pre-existing warrant? We're just not quite sure the details of why the pullover happened.
What we do know is that the trooper was alone. And the trooper was armed. So I know a lot of people say, well, we just need to arm more people. The trooper was presumably armed and he -- the assailant gets away.
So to me, that's the key issue. Did they know who this guy was? Were there sort of warrants or other things existing around the shooter? And then, of course, the uniqueness of this, I will say, is often when someone is pulled aside, they want to get away, they may shoot at a police officer. We don't generally see what happened afterwards. That this continuing shooting, this going after the public. This is just very unique, very scary. And so this may be a combination of different kinds of incidents as we've seen in the past. We just need to figure out who this guy is.
I want to say one other thing. The issue about guns is key right now. And the reason why is because what we saw today was a shooter going after people in cars. So it's almost impossible to tell people in cars, pull over, you know, hide, or whatever else. So other active shooting cases, you know, people will say, oh, we just have to make schools safer, we just have to make movie theaters safer, we just have to fortify more things. And I think unless we get to the core issue of -- you and I and Shimon yet again on another Saturday night are looking at a mass death event in the United States because of guns. No amount of fortifying is going to solve this problem. And today is a perfect example.
CABRERA: We don't know a lot right now, especially about the shooter. We know he is in his mid-30s, a white male, no other identifying characteristics. Certainly don't have an idea about the motive at this point.
Shimon, what do we know about the investigation, who all is involved and what they'll be working on?
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: So it appears right now the local authorities, Midland Police, Odessa Police, the Texas Rangers, they're some of the top-notch investigators in Texas, probably in the country, also. So they're involved in this. They would be heavily involved in this. And then the FBI is assisting, as well, the ATF, and also postal inspectors. These are the officers, the law enforcement agency within the postal services. They're involved, because the mail truck was hijacked. So they're involved, as well. So you have a lot of agencies, you have local sheriffs that are involved in all of this.
And, you know, you can tell the police know who they're dealing with. They have identified the shooter, they haven't publicly identified him, but they certainly know who he is. And the big question is going to be that car stop. Was this all -- was that all part of the plan? Was there a plan to ambush a police officer? This does happen, obviously, in this country. It's happened quite often. Was this part of the plan? Ambush this officer and then go on this rampage and shooter other people. So, that's the big thing.
Where was this person going? Why did this person have the weapon? That's going to be a big part of -- and was there something else going on here. We just -- we don't know enough yet about this shooter. But, you know, such a hard night, I think, for so many people again there in Texas having to deal with this.
In listening to the doctor from this hospital, just how they have to prepare for this. No matter where you live. You could be a small community, a small hospital, a big hospital. Just to hear him say, everyone needs to prepare for this moment. Almost as if you're preparing to enter a war zone. He described his training in war zones and how that helped him and put this team together there at the hospital to treat all the injured.
And then we heard about a 17-month-old that was injured, shot here, airlifted out of that hospital into a children's hospital, difficult days ahead for people there who are going to be reeling from this yet again. And so, now the question is going to be what could have been done to prevent this, obviously. And then you're going to have the politics of gun rights.
CABRERA: When we're continuing to see presidential candidates for 2020 coming out and saying what they think action needs to be taken.
On the point that Shimon made about the victims, Juliette, we heard the doctor said they trained for situations like this.
[21:10:02] They believe they had strong teamwork. They believe that because they had prepared for something that they hoped would never happen. That they were able to really act effectively and we heard, you know, one of those officials say, quote, "We saved 12 people today."
And yet, you know, one of the victims is under 2 years old. We don't know what kind of weapon was used, exactly, but this person had a ton of ammo, apparently, to be able to have such a number of fatalities and a number of victims involved here with at least five people being killed. What kind of person would they be dealing with or do you have any sense.
KAYYEM: Well I think - just going to the first part of your question about the emergency managers. You've seen a shift, I think, based just on reality, that it's almost impossible to stop this kind of gun violence. And so what you've seen in the sort of Homeland Security apparatus is what we call sort of right of boom planning in other words. You have to assume that the bad thing will happen until we are able to manage this gun violence.
And so you see a lot of preparation from small hospitals to large metropolitan hospitals on what do you do in that moment? How do you surge resources? How do you get the personnel in? How do you protect them?
And then the most important thing which I unfortunately say too often on this is family unification. It is the thing that is the most important in any crisis. You have to get the family members notified. They need to know what's going on. You have to get them with the patients, if they are able.
And so, you saw that sort of choreographed response and it's - it is sophisticated because of this need for us to prepare, because these incidents that are happening too much. We just simply can't stop them enough.
And so, then to your second part about motivation, we just don't know yet. We know his identity. We know he's a white 30-year-old male. That tells us very little about specific motivation and whether he had a record or whether he's radicalized in some ways or there's some ideology behind it.
And so, all we know is that he had some weapon that was able to wreak serious violence across a period of time while he's driving. That's not a handgun, in my experience, or in my professional judgment, that is something much faster.
CABRERA: And Shimon, here we have another community that was terrorized. I mean the fear that so many people in that area had to feel, knowing that somebody was out shooting, not knowing who it was, where that person was going, if there were more than one shooter for a long time this afternoon. Those minutes must have felt like hours for people in that community. We spoke to the one man who we showed the video, who was at the scene where all of this ended. And you could hear how traumatic it was for him.
PROKUPECZ: Yes, that's the thing also that certainly has struck me through this. And all of these that we cover, it's always about the people who witness this, the victims and the trauma that they go through and the moments hearing this gunfire. They don't know where it's coming from. They're running for their lives. Thinking they're going to get shot. They're going to get killed.
And we saw that and we heard that from the guy who took the video that you played. We heard all those guns being the gunshots. The other thing is the cars. You could see the way some of the cars were parked, that had bullet holes in them. People were trying to escape, their cars were turned around.
So I'm sure there were people trying to just escape the gunfire and they were just trying to drive out of there. You know you see there bullet holes. That -- and it's got to be one scary moment for so many of these people who were just driving on this road going shopping, going - you know it's a holiday weekend. And you're seeing so many cars there riddled with bullets. So you can only imagine.
And just for this community, it's going to be a tough few days. You have this 2-year-old -- under 2 years old that was injured and we don't yet know the victims. We don't know anything about them. And that's going to come in the coming hours and the coming days.
CABRERA: We do know that at least three of the people who were shot were law enforcement officials from three different jurisdictions.
Juliette, Shimon, please both stay with me and thank you for that latest information.
Still to come, an eyewitness describes what he saw. We'll have that.
This is CNN special live breaking news coverage. Thanks for being here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:18:14] CABRERA: More now on the shooting in West Texas that has left five people dead and at least 21 injured. So many details remain unknown at this hour and investigators have much work ahead, but here is one moment from a very chaotic day in Texas. Mike Barrett is a friend of one of the shooting victims. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE BARRETT, FRIEND OF SHOOTING VICTIM: You know he found me dead lying on the floor of February 18TH. And if it wasn't for him doing CPR on me, I would have died. But he saved my life. And I want God to do the same thing. Please help save his life. And everybody pray for him. His name is Coy Edge. You know he's been here for -- his whole life, you know? It's just unreal that it has happened in our town. All I know is they were on their way home, him and his wife, and he got shot. I guess it went through the door of the car and shot him right in his side. And my shop foreman is in there right now and he said his wife was just covered in blood, but he had made it to the hospital still talking and breathing. He was way out there at Mission Dorado, in that area, you know, when it happened, I guess.
I just dropped to my knees and put my head on the floor and I started praying like you wouldn't believe. Saying, you know, this can't happen to him. He saved my life. I'd trade my life any day for his. I would.
First thing that went through my mind, I couldn't believe it, you know? And he told me again and I still, what? And then the third time is when I just fell to my knees, you know, because it's just unreal. I've never known anybody that's been shot in my life, you know?
[21:20:03] Especially this man that saved my life, you know? I don't know what else to say.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: I want to show you some new video that we just got in from the shooting near Odessa, Texas. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WOODS: There's a shooting going on in Odessa, Texas. Oh, God, they're shooting right there. Oh, he hit the barrier! The cop just hit the barrier!
Get down! Get down! Get down!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get down! Get down! Get down!
WOODS: Stand still. He's shooting him! He's shooting him! Oh, he killed him! He killed him!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a shooting.
We're watching the shooting happen.
WOODS: Oh, he's shooting him up. He hit the barrier.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: OK, that video was taken by Alex Woods outside the Cinergy Entertainment complex. We understand that's where the gunman was shot and killed. And Alex, that witness joins us now by phone. Alex, wow, intense to watch that video, to hear you. Walk us through what you saw starting with what made you begin recording.
WOODS (via telephone): Well, we had arrived about five minutes before the shooting had begun and the police were heading up towards the hospital, which was next to the movie theater. The next thing you know, I hear a pop. So I put the camera to where the theater's at and I just see a bunch of gunfire going off. And I could see the officer walking up to the mail van and discharging his weapon into it and I believe that is when the shooter was killed.
CABRERA: Wow. What was going through your mind?
WOODS: A very surreal moment. I never thought it would happen in my life.
CABRERA: I imagine you're pretty shaken up still, now.
WOODS: A little bit, yes.
CABRERA: Yes. Did you happen to get a look at this man who was the shooter?
WOODS: No, I did not.
CABRERA: And what was the situation like around you? You talked about the mail van and the person who was shooting, who was eventually killed. Were there a lot of people in the vicinity? Was this man opening fire and shooting all over the place? Help me understand what was happening.
WOODS: So when he had arrived about five minutes before the shooting had begun, I had no clue the shooter was even there. There was just police everywhere and there was a bunch of people behind the theater in the field walking and the next thing you know, this gunfire is going off. So it just all happened so quickly. It was a lot to take in.
CABRERA: Is it clear whether the gunman was able to harm people at the theater before police encountered him?
WOODS: When we had arrived five minutes earlier, it was just police everywhere, so not that I'm aware of.
CABRERA: And where are you now and what can you see?
WOODS: So I'm outside of Odessa mall and there are many police around it and it looks like they're evacuating the building, it looks like. There's many people running out of it, earlier, and I see police parked outside of Dillard's right now.
CABRERA: Have you had a chance to speak with any law enforcement officials? I would imagine that they might be interested in speaking to you as a witness.
WOODS: I have not had a chance to speak to them.
CABRERA: What is your plan now?
WOODS: I don't know. CABRERA: I so appreciate you taking this time to talk with us, given officials are saying they can't rule out another shooter being out there, possibly, you know they're telling people to you know be extra cautious. They're telling people to stay indoors, to stay inside, to stay off the streets until they have more additional information, so I just wanted to pass that along to you, because I want to make sure you stay safe and I would encourage you to reach out to law enforcement and share your video with them, as well. I'm sure they would be interested.
Alex, thank you for taking the time with us, I'm glad you're safe and let's all hope this is all over.
WOODS: Thank you.
CABRERA: Still ahead, a closer look at the gunman's profile and the police response to this latest mass shooting in Texas. Stay with us. This is special CNN live breaking news coverage.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:28:07] CABRERA: We are back with the breaking news out of Odessa, Texas, where five people are dead and another 21 injured after police say a white man in his mid-30s opened fire following a traffic stop. They say they then cornered the suspect in the parking lot of a local movie theater and that's where he was shot and killed.
Joining us now is CNN crime and justice correspondent, Shimon Prokupecz. Shimon, you just got new information.
PROKUPECZ: Yes. This is coming from the Texas Department of Public Safety, updating us. We've been asking all night questions about the car stop right there. There's this car stop with police, where the suspect, the gunman opens fire on them.
Well, now, police putting out new key pieces of information. Information first they tell us that he was armed with a rifle. And that that rifle was with him in the car. Police pull him over, and as they're getting out of their vehicle, the two troopers in that vehicle, as they're getting out, the police say the suspect's car is still driving. It's slowly moving. And this driver, the suspect turns his rifle through the back window and starts firing at these two officers, hitting one of them.
They say it's a male driver, so the shooter here is a male. He was the only occupant in the vehicle. That he pointed a rifle toward the rear window of his car and fired several shots towards the police officers and then they say that one of them was hit by the gunfire, and then he fled the scene and continued shooting innocent people, including a Midland police officer and an Odessa police officer.
So, key facts here. We now know he was armed with a rifle and we have some more information about what transpired in that traffic stop. However, we yet don't know why those officers - those troopers decided to stop him. There could be a reason as to why they're withholding that information or they may just not know yet as to why they stopped him.
[21:30:00] But there's nothing to indicate here that they were looking for him, that he was wanted for something, at least not right now. So was this just a regular traffic stop that turned into this situation, into this rampage? It appears so. What else was going on here?
Did they stop something? Did they intercept him? Was he off to do something far worse and did they stumble on him, pull him over, and interrupt his plans? That's something you have to think that law enforcement is asking.
CABRERA: Let's ask law enforcement. Jonathan Wackrow, he's a CNN law enforcement analyst, former Secret Service agent. Jonathan, now given these additional details, what does the new information tell you?
JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Shimon's right. We don't know what the catalyst was for the actual traffic stop. Was there some sort of precipitating event that had occurred prior to, whether it was a traffic infraction or something else that caused the DPS officers to engage with this suspect and actually make the vehicle stop.
What we do know is that clearly intent of this individual was not to engage with law enforcement at that time. I look at some key indicators right here in that reporting which is that the car never came to a complete stop. That you know it wasn't put into park and it kept rolling away. That's a key indicator to me that this individual was going to -- had the intent to flee. Then, you know, firing upon the officers makes this a real dangerous situation.
CABRERA: Police are no doubt trying to figure out the motivation of this shooter, and because he's dead, maybe we'll never learn, but what sort of factors will they be looking at?
WACKROW: Well, listen, now that we are really transitioning into the investigative phase, they're going to look at -- try to answer that question why. What was the motive? As you said, the shooter's dead, we can't interview him. So what can do?
We can look back. We can look at social media. Law enforcement is going to start engaging in a process by which the investigative process, launching and executing search warrants on the vehicle, the shooter's residence, try to acquire as much data points as possible. Search social media. See if there's any type of ideology that this individual was potentially connected to. Did he have a fascination with violence? All of those things they're going to look at. And what they're going to try to see is, was there some type of grievance?
The National Threat Assessment Center by the Secret Service has looked backwards at different data points from mass shootings that have indicated that in more than half of these shooting incidents, the shooter was motivated by some sort of grievance, whether it was a workplace violence or domestic dispute. Some sort of grievance had caused the shooter to engage in this activity. But also, something that, you know, law enforcement does know is that in more than 75 percent of cases of active shooters, there was some sort of communication made prior to that was really a red flag or a warning made to others of this type of violent behavior.
Listen, Ana, at the end of the day, it's not normal behavior for someone to shoot and kill others. This is a behavioral continuum process that we have to look back at. And we have to look back at, you know, where did we miss red flags of this individual, understanding that he could take this type of violent act?
CABRERA: At some point, to the other detail that I thought was really interesting is, remember, initially, there was a concern there were two shooters, from two different vehicles. And now the latest update was that they believe that this one gunman ditched his initial car that they had pulled him over in and then hijacked a mail truck and the shooter was in that mail truck when the officers and him exchanged fire in that cinema parking lot. And where he was killed if but what do you make of it that he was able to ditch his car and then he hijacked a mail truck?
WACKROW: Listen. He was definitely motivated not to engage with law enforcement, and that is typical. What we see is mass shooters do not want to engage with law enforcement. They want to engage with, you know, the active, you know, destruction and killing. So this is, again, following a very similar pattern. I mean it goes back to very early on, right when we first started reporting on this, we heard about the chaos.
Shimon was actually talking about how law enforcement and the community, there was just this sense of chaos. That's fully understandable in the infancy of these incidents because reporting coming in from moments in time. They're not piecing together everything.
Now, hindsight, we understand why we could have understand that there were two shooters, because we're seeing shooting coming from a mail truck, we're seeing shooting coming from another vehicle. But that just points to the challenge that law enforcement has in addressing these active shooter situations.
[21:35:00] CABRERA: And Jonathan, still no all-clear, though. We heard earlier, a few hours ago, in fact, from one of the official on scene saying, you know, since this individual was killed, there have been no new victims, but he could not say with 100 percent certainty that there wasn't still a threat out there. Does it seem like it's taking them a long time to do the all-clear or is this what you would expect?
WACKROW: Listen, in these types of instances, Ana, why rush it? You know we need to look at this very systematically. Our law enforcement is absolutely airing on the side of caution on this one.
Again, the suspect is dead. We can't question him. We don't know if this was you know part of a coordinated attack. We don't know if there are other members that were supporting the shooter.
So there's just a lot that's still unknown. So for law enforcement to not give the all-clear, that's OK right now. The community is safe, but let law enforcement do their job. You know, the FBI is on scene, other federal resources working with state and local police. I mean, they will give the all-clear when it is safe to do so.
PROKUPECZ: I also just want to make one point. I think the fact that this shooter had his rifle ready in the vehicle, in such a way, I think is very strange and is going to be an important part of this investigation. Was it out there laying on his seat, because you would assume that it was. It wasn't that he needed to take it out of a box or do something with it, but it seems, at least right now, from reading this, that he was ready. I don't know. It seems a little difficult to be able to keep your car moving. Then you have to turn around. Maybe it's not. And then you start firing from the back window.
And really for these officers, they had no chance to defend themselves. Really, he just fired on them as they were coming out of their car, doing one of the most dangerous part of police work, traffic stops, car stops. Coming out of their car and he just opened fire on them and striking one of them. And then he just goes off. You have to assume this guy was ready. Something was going on here and hopefully within the next few hours, we're going to learn that.
CABRERA: We have much more to learn. Shimon, thank you. Jonathan Wackrow, really appreciate it. Thank you for being here. More ahead on this breaking news out of Texas.
Plus, another breaking story. Hurricane Dorian, we're still tracking this monster storm shifting course, headed toward the Carolinas and Georgia now. We'll have the latest on its track, straight ahead live from the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:41:14] CABRERA: Let's talk about Hurricane Dorian. Already, Category 4, but it's flirting with Category 5, and it's still days away from making landfall in the U.S. Right now, the Bahamas are in the line of fire. They could be in for a long siege. It's possible this massive, powerful storm could just park right on top of them for an entire day, maybe even more. Then what happens?
CNN's Chad Myers joins us again from the severe weather center. Chad, I know we won't get another update from the National Weather Service until around 11:00 Eastern, so that's a little more than an hour from now, but it's clear, this storm is barely moving right now. What does that mean?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, even at 7 or 8 miles per hour, it's still getting new water to deal with. When it finally stops or gets very close to stopping over the Bahamas, Grand Bahama Island, the Great Abaco. That's when it's going to sit there and churn and mix up the water.
And then it's going to cool it down, because this water is only 60 or 70 feet deep. It's not that -- it's very warm, but eventually, it will use it up. And when that water cools down, there is a potential for this storm to lose some power.
Right now, not losing anything, 150 miles per hour. It just keeps right on going, turning to the west now at about 8 miles per hour, just an unbelievable eye. This would be a beautiful storm in any other ocean. Give it to me any place elsewhere there's not land around, and I would be marveling at this storm, 167-mile-per-hour wind gusts. That is Category 5. But that's a gust.
You have to get over 157 sustained to get to that category 5 hurricane. And we know they're not quite there yet, because these airplanes are actually sending out these little parachutes. Kind of like an upside-down weather balloon. You know how weather balloons go up? These go down. They drop them out of the airplane at 10,000 feet. They hit the surface of the ocean, and we know how fast they're going because of what they're doing across the ocean? How many miles per hour they're doing? What the pressure is, is the storm going up or down? So we really need these guys out there. And I bet that that airplane there at 167-mile-per-hour wind gusts had a real bumpy ride. So I'm glad we don't have to fly around those.
We will fly back and forth and back and forth, but that's their job and we appreciate them for what they do, certainly. Tropical storm watches in effect from Vero Beach, all the way down to Boca, called Sebastian inlet all the way down to Deerfield Beach, but that's about where we are right now. That's the only watch or warning in the U.S., because the storm does take a right-hand turn, at least, we hope it does. Because if it doesn't and this storm sits over parts of the U.S. Rather than over the ocean, all of a sudden we're in trouble.
Here is tomorrow afternoon, we're probably going to see wind gusts around 114 and likely higher than that. Anywhere around Freeport, Nassau. The Bahamas going to see probably 100 miles per hour. But it not only stays there for a couple of hours, it stays there for a day. Think about your house being battered by wind for 120 miles per hour for 24 hours. You'll lose one shingle, then another, then another, then the roof, and then something else. That's what the deal is going to be for the people in the Bahamas. 50 miles per hour in Charleston.
So, this is only one model. This could change significantly even tonight. We'll have another model run come in around 2:00 a.m. but Wilmington picking up gusts with this model to 91-miles-per-hour. But that's not until Thursday. This is another week ahead we have to worry about this storm going on up the East Coast. Turning left, turning right.
Ana, this has been one of the worst models I can imagine, I've seen in a very long time. Model run after model run, changing minds left, right, left, right. Finally, now, the European model, and we don't know if it's right. But it has been consistent, at least, for the last five runs. Taking it to the Bahamas, stopping it, and turning it to the north and moving it away. We'll see.
[21:45:00] CABRERA: OK. Moving it away. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that stays true. Thank you, Chad Myers.
Up next, we'll have the latest from West Texas, where at least five people were killed in a mass shooting that started with a traffic stop.
We'll speak with the former FBI director, Andrew McCabe, next. Stay with us.
This is CNN's special live breaking news coverage.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:48:57] CABRERA: So, another Saturday, another mass shooting in Texas. First, a traffic stop, then a hail of gunfire from a moving vehicle. And earlier, I spoke with former FBI deputy director and CNN contributor, Andrew McCabe. He talked about where the investigation goes next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREW MCCABLE, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR (via telephone): Each time you have one of these incredibly tragic incidents, you have the opportunity to mine it for all the intelligence you possibly can. And some of that is a focus on understanding what that person's progress or trajectory was leading up to the violent event. So, we're constantly trying to figure out, are there signs or signals that people exhibit as they are moving down this path to radicalization or extremism and their thoughts and beliefs that ultimately lead to violence.
So, this will be one more opportunity to build out that entire timeline, that picture, that rich picture of this person's background and what they were saying, what they were thinking, what they were writing, what they were doing in the lead up to this event. And they will use that knowledge to try to be predictive in the way that we view potential future events.
[21:50:12] I think one of the things we've seen since the last two mass shootings is a lot more forward-leaning law enforcement activity. So, you're seeing people around the country being arrested after exhibiting extremist or violent tendencies, people who are collecting firearms or explosive materials, things of that nature. There is no question that law enforcement is taking those sorts of threats and that sort of intelligence very seriously right now. Which is a very good thing.
CABRERA: And we're seeing a lot of politicians reacting right now. Again, let me read you the tweet from President Trump. "Just briefed by Attorney General Barr about the shootings in Texas. FBI and law enforcement is fully engaged. More to follow."
A couple of tweets from the Texas members of the 2020 race. Beto O'Rourke saying "Our hearts are with Midland, Odessa, and everyone in Texas and West Texas who has to endure this again. More information is forthcoming but here's what we know. We need to end this epidemic."
And also, from Julian Castro, the former HUD secretary, former mayor of San Antonio. He writes, "Heartbreaking news out of Odessa and Midland, Texas as police search for an active shooter at large. Stay indoors. Monitor news alerts and safety protocols."
That was obviously a little bit earlier. You know, Congress will be back in session here in the coming week. Gun control was front and center of course, expected to begin debate when they get back. Presidential candidates are offering, you know, their policies to reduce gun violence. I spoke with Castro just last hour.
If they asked you whether there's anything that can stem from this tragedy and other mass shootings, what would you tell them?
MCCABE: I'd tell them there is no single thing that we can do to guarantee that we won't see another mass shooting in this country but there are many things that we can do to the current legal regime that surrounds things like background checks and accessibility of firearms to folks. We have a system where we're trying to do the best we can essentially under the weight of an enormous burden of firearm sales. So, there is no doubt in my mind that the background check system that we currently work in could be strengthened, it could be more effective, it could be more efficient. That's going to take legislation. Whether or not the Congress has the stomach and the political will to do that, I guess we'll have to see.
CABRERA: Andrew McCabe, thank you so much for joining us this afternoon, this evening to offer your insights and expertise on this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Vice President Mike Pence spoke to reporters a short time ago at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. He's on his way to Poland to mark a key World War II anniversary. And Pence says, the White House is being kept fully informed of the situation in West Texas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I just spoke to the president and he's at Camp David and he's closely monitoring the developments in the investigation in the mass shooting in Odessa. Our hearts go out go out to all the victims, families of loved ones that lose their lives. We commend the law enforcement in Odessa for their swift and courageous response. At the president's direction we've deployed the full resources of the federal government. They're on site. The president spoke to the attorney general. The FBI is already assisting local law enforcement in the investigation going forward. We'll continue to monitor those events. But the president is fully engaged.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: And here is the tweet from the president a couple of hours ago. "Just briefed by Attorney General Barr about the shootings in Texas. FBI and law enforcement is fully engaged. More to follow."
We're also hearing from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tonight. She writes on Twitter, "Enough is enough. Every day the gun violence epidemic inflicts a devastating toll in communities across America. This time in West Texas. The Senate GOP must end its obstruction and finally pass House-approved legislation to end gun violence."
We have not heard from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tonight. He has refused calls from many Democrats to reconvene the Senate during the August recess in the wake of the two mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio earlier this month. This shooting hits close to home for some 2020 candidates.
We'll have more reaction from the campaign trail next in our special coverage live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:58:28] CABRERA: We continue to follow the breaking news out of Texas where five people are dead, another 21 injured after police say a white man in his mid-30s opened fire following a traffic stop. Police say they then cornered this shooter in the parking lot of a local movie theater and shot and killed him. Our affiliate KOSA talked to an eyewitness.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHANE REVELS, EYEWITNESS: I looked to the left, saw a gold sedan or tan sedan, AR-15 barrel sticking out, firing, and just about that same time at that same time I was looking left I saw a bullet hole come out of the truck next to me out of his bedside. So, honestly, I'm surprised we didn't get hit one way or another on my truck or even us. You know, my co-worker was with me. He ducked down. First time being in an experience like this. It's pretty surreal and scary at the same time you know. Seeing that little baby get injured one way or another, I don't know the exact situation with her, I got two little ones at home and it's a scary thing to think about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: He referenced a baby getting injured. We do know at least one of the victims was under the age of 2. Transported to the hospital and then transported from there.
Here's what 2020 candidates are saying and who are weighing in on this shooting in Texas. Mayor Pete Buttigieg writing, "Enough. Texas, my heart is with you. America, we must act."
This from Senator Elizabeth Warren saying "I'm heart sick for the victims of this latest mass shooting in Odessa and Midland. We shouldn't have to live with this near-daily fear and horror. We've already lost far too many to gun violence. Congress must act now."
Senator Kamala Harris writing, "I'm heartbroken for the families of the victims in the Odessa and Midland shooting. Our children deserve a future without multiple mass shootings in one month. We need gun safety reform."
