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3 Killed, 5 Wounded At Michigan State Campus Shooting; Senators Will Get Classified Briefing On Unidentified Objects Shot Down Over Weekend. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired February 14, 2023 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[01:01:04]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm John Vause at CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta, where it's just gone at 1:00 a.m. and the manhunt is now over for the gunman who killed at least three people and wounded five others in a mass shooting at Michigan State University.
Officials say he took his own life after police tracked him down not far from the University campus.
The first 911 calls were made around 8:20 Monday night. Shots fired at Berkey Hall, home to the school's social science department and located on the northern edge of the East Lansing campus.
As police arrived, they responded to a second shooting reported at the nearby University Union building, which is where the gunman was last seen fleeing on foot.
A few hours later he was found by police on a nearby street, and it was then he fatally shot himself. At last report, his identity was unknown, also a motive unknown.
When the shooting began, campus police sent an email alert urging students and staff to secure in place at this hour that lockdown has been lifted.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were there, locked in the rooms, and the guys were telling us to run out the back doors as quick as we can and run for our lives. And I sprinted out there as fast as I can into the woods, and then from there I thought, you know, I thought the side of the campus would be safe. And then I got a text from my brother saying that they're over near that area. And then I entered Acres. When I came into Acres, people started running, telling me to run, that they came into Acres. So it was just a terrifying experience.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: Joining me now from New York, CNN senior crime and justice correspondent Shimon Prokupecz, in Washington, seat and senior law enforcement analyst Andrew McCabe and national Security analyst Sean Turner, who is Lansing at the moment, and CNN's Juliette Kayyem. Thank you all for being with us.
So let's start with you, Shimon. Let's bring this up to speed. What do we know exactly about what happened, how this all played out?
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right, so we're about what? Five hours or so around, as you said, 20 after eight, there was a first call of shots fired. And what we've learned from police is that they went from that one location at one of the areas, Berkey, that building that the gunman then went to a second building, Union Hall, where he shot and killed one victim. Two others were killed at Berkey, so that's three dead, and then five are in the hospital, some with life threatening injuries.
And then after the incident, police a short time after that released a photo of who they believed was the gunman. And then sometime after that is when they encountered him. A police officer encountered him and the gunman shot himself, according to police.
So now the whole thing is underway to try and identify him to try and figure out exactly who he is, if he has any affiliation to the campus. So that is what the work that's underway now by authorities as they try and figure out a motive, any affiliation or any other information.
Police at this point are not identifying any of the victims. As you can imagine, many of the family members are still trying to be notified. They have not been notified yet. And the other thing that's very important is that police are saying that it's safe now, they're on campus and that the threat is over. So students can go out, go about their business, be with their fellow classmates, students together, because this is going to just be a really rough few days for those folks on that campus.
VAUSE: Say the least. The FBI responded to this shooting. So Andrew McCabe, how do they go about now establishing some kind of motive, finding out who this guy was, what the connection is to the school?
ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Sure. Well, the FBI and their colleagues will go through all of the history they can pull together on this individual. They'll likely execute search warrants at his residence, on his vehicle, and anyplace else they can associate with him. They'll identify all those electronic devices they can associate with him computers, laptops, telephones, all that stuff.
[01:05:04]
They'll look at his social media, they'll look at his internet service providers, email providers, things of that nature to try to understand what his motivation might have been, embarking upon this incredibly dreadful act that he engaged in this evening. So, there's a lot of work for investigators to do here. It's basically building a timeline of events and statements and writings and postings on social media, anything they can associate with him that might shed light on his intent. And I suspect that investigation will go on for quite some time.
VAUSE: Andrew, though we do this after every shooting, once the gunman takes his own life, what's the benefit of all of that? Three people are dead and the shooter's dead.
MCCABE: Yes, so you can't undo that, right. Here we are again at the awful end of yet another mass shooting, but it helps us to understand what the shooter's motivations may have been. And so we can use those indicators to try to prevent acts of mass shooting in the future and also to understand whether or not this was an act that was motivated by individual grievances and, you know, kind of very specific motivations to this person. Or was it some act that was engaged in an act of allegiance to a larger, you know, ideology or political movement or something along those lines.
So, yes, it helps us to understand why people engage in this terrible activity, but it doesn't stop it. And here we are once again with yet another mass shooting in America. It's a bit of who we are in this moment in 2023.
VAUSE: And Shawn Turner there in Lansing, how will the community respond to this? What sort of impact will this have? Obviously there'll be devastation, there'll be heartbreak, a lot of grief. But what do you expect in the coming days?
SHAWN TURNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes, in the midst of this tragedy right now in the community, there is a sense of relief that the threat has been neutralized. But as I've been saying throughout the day, East Lansing, the Michigan State University community is a very tight knit, a very close community. Most of the people who live in this community outside of the university have some affiliation with the university.
And so over the coming days, it will be all about healing, it will be about working with each other to help everyone get through this. We've got a lot of students here on campus who will need help, to be quite frank, to get through this.
But when we think about what happened here tonight, that union, that student union where the second incident happened, that is a gathering place for our students here on campus. It's a place where they go to be among friends and to take a break from academics and to be students on campus, to have a college experience.
And so for that space to be violated, for something like that to happen in that space, it is really going to stick with these students. It's going to have an impact across this campus. But fortunately, as I said, this is a campus that loves Michigan State University. They love the students who are here. And so over the coming days, it's really just going to be about coming together as a family and making sure that everyone here gets through this. VAUSE: And Juliette, I've lost count of the number of times we've
talked about mass shootings over the years, but yet another one here. So, when you look at the situation where these buildings were located relative to the rest of the campus, so the northern part of the campus, right by a road.
And so, as far as security goes, as far as any deterrence to this government to actually gain access to those buildings. It doesn't appear that there was much. But they shouldn't be that kind of security on a campus.
So it then gets to the question. Like, how did this guy get on? Why did he choose those buildings? Were they targets of opportunity? Was there something else there? You know, from what we know at this point, what do you think?
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So your first point is exactly right. We have to stop thinking about we can make things perfectly safe or if we just fortify them enough, everything will be good. These campuses exist. These universities, Shawn is at one, I at one, you know, they're cities and you want them to be that way. Youthful people hanging out, you know, there's parties, there's all the things, classes, education, all the things that make this period in our kid's lives 18 to 22-year-old, if not older, exciting. And they become then citizens of this country and hopefully solve the problems that we haven't been able to.
[01:10:03]
There's no such thing as the safe college and university. So we're looking at safer. That is what all the planning is part of it is what Andrew was saying was there are things to learn from motivation, from access that can help minimize harms, help stop mass shootings. We should not think or there is sufficient evidence that shows us that there are triggering moments, other things that family members can do, access to guns, all of them, to try to stop it.
And then of course, as we've seen in the last 4 hours, a very well planned, well trained. These things, audiences should know these things don't happen on accidents. This is hours and days and months and years of planning, a unified command, making sure the hospitals are ready and then trying to minimize the harm.
You're going to see ripple effects over the next couple of days. Not just for MSU, but, you know, I think colleges and universities. My own is going to have a larger police presence in a way to satisfy, not satisfy, but just to make people feel comfortable in their whereabouts. But this is a big campus. There was no way, you know, you could make it safe and still have it be a campus because then it's just the jail. Right? And then we have to accept that.
VAUSE: Shimon, back to you. What do we know about the weapon that was used?
PROKUPECZ: Right, so it appears it was a handgun. If you look at that photo, I think that's our probably our best evidence of the weapon that was used. You can -- the photo that the police released of the gunman, you see a handgun in his right arm. So that's what we believed was used, which you know, certainly so many of the mass shootings that we covered. We see long guns, rifles. And so in this situation it appears that it was a handgun.
You know, your point about access to the school, it seems he was just easily able to open that door. We don't know which building this is. There are two buildings where the shootings occur. We don't know which building this is in. I mean, it just, you know, this is -- there's some public access here from my understanding, from some folks who've been tweeting at me who go there or are familiar with the campus. So they said that there was public access. So, I mean, that certainly struck me that he was able to open that door.
And so I guess the other thing that they really need to figure out and hopefully we'll know here soon and may perhaps is whether or not he had any kind of affiliation to the school, because it does appear that this wasn't random. It does appear that there was some planning that went into this and he seemed to know, seem but, you know, of course that could change where to go.
So --but yes, the handgun, it appears was used in this situation.
And the other thing is that what's also interesting is the fact that the shooting stops in one area, in one of the buildings, the Union Hall, the Union Building. And we don't really know yet why it stops. So that's going to be certainly something that's going to be interesting to hear about.
VAUSE: Also, you know, a fairly relatively low death toll compared to other machines (ph) we've seen when the automatic weapons have been used or semi-automatic weapons have been used.
But Shimon Prokupecz, Andrew McCabe, Shawn Turner and Juliette Kayyem, thank you all for staying up late. It's much appreciated.
Join me now on the phone. The mayor of East Lansing, Michigan, is Ron Bacon. And Mr. Mayor, my condolences to you and to your city, but thank you for being with us.
RON BACON, MAYOR OF EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN: Thank you.
VAUSE: At this hour, what are your first impressions? What are you doing? How is the city going to recover from this?
BACON: You know, we're in our command and control area here. We had a lot of support tonight. We had our congressperson, Elissa Slotkin, was here with us, our state representative, Julie Brixie, and Chief and our staff here. We were actually the support team back up to Michigan State, who has their own police force, Michigan State Police, and the FBI, which were all present on the scene. So we were just here in our command center providing support.
But as of tomorrow, we'll pick up and begin to, you know, piece things back together here as a community. It won't be easy, but we'll start there. VAUSE: Explain the role the university plays within the community. How
big is it? Is it a focal point? Is this where people come together? Obviously, it's a fairly big campus. In terms of what's happened there, how does that now reverberate across the community?
BACON: Our students are about half of our population, so we call it the town gallon relationship with East Lansing and Michigan State is strong. It's vibrant. We all consider ourselves Spartans here in a Big Ten city. So kind of whatever. Impacts Michigan State impacts East Lansing and Capital Region. So we're basically all in this together.
Governor Whitmer has been in contact our other local officials and everyone else. So it's a regional approach to things and that's of what happened tonight as far as law enforcement support and everything else. So we're kind of one big region here, along with the capital city of Lansing.
[01:15:07]
VAUSE: What often happens in cases like this is that there's the initial shock, the initial grief, and then sort of the focus shifts someplace else. But the people at the scene of these shootings have to deal with a lot, and it's not just in the days, but it's in weeks and months that come. So, this will be a long process of recovery for many people to be involved in this.
BACON: Yes. Just having conversation tonight, and these are constant, you know, public safety conversations that we're having. We're having around our public schools, around our large public communal events, around large football games. We host many things. Public safety and security and celebration, security and that kind of thing are a constant conversation for us. It just shows the difficulty to predict the unpredictable and readiness for that.
But we do spend a lot of our time on planning for and executing and drilling for public safety and even, you know, mass casualty type events. And I think the community responded accordingly.
VAUSE: Do you think there's a need for a review of security at the university and what was happening? What do we know about the condition of the five people who were wounded somewhere in a critical condition?
BACON: You know, I can't speak to that. I can't speak directly to security at the university. We're kind of indirect support of that. I'll let them speak directly to that. But we do work in direct cooperation with the university, and we provide fire and EMS to the university as a city. So we have some cross functionality there, but I can't speak directly to that.
VAUSE: And what about the five wounded? Do we know their condition?
BACON: Can you say that again?
VAUSE: The five people who were wounded and taken to hospital, do we know anything more about their condition? BACON: No updates yet. Obviously some of that's for probably
confidentiality or HIPAA (ph), that kind of thing. We'll find out soon and probably once families are informed and that kind of thing, we'll know we'll probably be the last to know, but we'll just be prayerful and hopeful those individuals make a full recovery.
VAUSE: Absolutely. Mayor, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it. Thoughts are with you. Thank you, sir.
Much more to come on the shooting ahead here on CNN, including any new details we learn on the gunman as well as a possible motive. In other news, we're learning more about the three objects shot down over the United States and Canada over the weekend, why officials don't think they're linked to the Chinese balloon. That's when we return.
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VAUSE: The latest hour, the breaking news we're covering this hour. Police say a gunman suspected of killing at least three people on the Michigan State University campus is dead, apparently from a self- inflicted gunshot wound. They made that announcement less than an hour ago. At least five other victims were taken to hospital, some with life threatening injuries.
Police released this image of the suspect. Still do not know his identity. They say the motive for the mass shooting is not known. Officials say there is no longer a threat to the campus and a shelter in place order has been lifted.
Mystery continues to surround the three objects shot down in as many days by the U.S. Air Force. Senators on Capitol Hill will receive a classified briefing in a few hours. Publicly, though, U.S. authorities have been unwilling to say or speculate where all three objects came from.
Unlike the suspected China spy balloon shot down more than a week ago. This is what we know right now about the three unidentified objects. The one shot down on Friday over Alaska has been described as a metallic object that broke into several pieces. It's believed to be carrying a known payload, just like the one shot down over Canada on Saturday. All three objects apparently look similar, but are different shapes, but none are as large as the Chinese spy balloon.
And just off the coast of South Carolina, the U.S. Navy and Coastguard have almost finished recovering debris from what's left of the China balloon. But their search will now move further from the coast for any parts which may have drifted out to sea.
And right now, there are a lot of theories about precisely what the mystery objects might be, but one possibility has been ruled out. The White House says there are no indications the objects are from outer space or are linked to extraterrestrial activity.
Details are from Phil Mattingly reporting in from Washington. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KIRBY, COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS AT THE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: We are laser focused on confirming their nature and purpose.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN' CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Three days three unidentified objects shot down by U.S. fighters. No precedent.
KIRBY: Efforts are actively underway right now at all sites to find what is left of those objects so that we can better understand and communicate with the American people what they are.
MATTINGLY: No shortage of unanswered questions driving a robust all of government response from President Biden.
KIRBY: Every element of the government will redouble their efforts to understand and mitigate these events.
MATTINGLY: Recovery efforts underway for the downed objects in critical.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY) MAJORITY LEADER: They are focused like a laser on figuring out what happened and coming up with a comprehensive analysis of how we deal with this present and future.
MATTINGLY: As even White House allies are raising concerns.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In an absence of information, people will fill that gap.
MATTINGLY: But a new Cabinet level task force underscoring a rapid evolution in the U.S. approach.
JASON CROW, U.S. HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: We're actually looking for these with extra vigilance. We're starting to see them in different ways and President Biden has now made the decision that we are going to not allow those over U.S. territory.
MATTINGLY: With U.S. fighters on three separate occasions using a single missile to take down objects over Alaskan airspace, over Canada's Yukon on Saturday and over Lake Huron on Sunday, all in the wake of the shoot down of a Chinese spy balloon earlier this month. Officials making clear these three objects are demonstrably different in appearance and capabilities.
CROW: First of all, these are not posing a threat to the United States or to Americans. These are benign objects from what we can tell.
MATTINGLY: With current and former officials signaling they don't believe they originated in China.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does that mean you think it's China?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I do not. MATTINGLY: Or any other state actor but acknowledging there has been a shift in radar parameters even as the White House dismissed the idea of political pressure has contributed to the rapid escalation in the use of U.S.
MATTINGLY (on camera): (INAUDIBLE) point at it. This isn't reactive to the Chinese balloon in the sense of there was political pressure. And so we are going to act quickly to take down any objects over our airspace because of the pressure that came from, say, Republicans.
KIRBY: These were decisions based purely and simply on what was in the best interest of the American people.
MATTINGLY (voiceover): All as they tamp down any theories tied to extraterrestrial or alien origin.
[01:25:01]
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There is no, again, no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns.
MATTINGLY (on camera): And while we still haven't heard publicly from President Biden since those three consecutive days of shootdowns of objects, officials say he is very engaged being briefed regularly on the matter. He's been consulting with people inside the government as well as with at least one foreign leader, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is involved in this process throughout.
And officials say they will also be keenly interested in keeping the Hill informed. Capitol Hill will be getting briefed on these issues. Some briefings have already occurred. There will be an all Senators briefing on the shootdowns of these objects classified briefing on Tuesday. Phil Mattingly, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Still to come here on CNN, the very latest on the deadly shooting at Michigan State University. We will hear from a student who witnessed everything that happened.
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VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. Coming back to half pass the hour. We return now to our breaking news from Michigan, where at least three people are dead, five others injured after a mass shooting on the campus of Michigan State University.
[01:30:08]
In just the last hour police reported the suspect was dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He has not been identified by authorities and a motive is still unknown.
The bodies of his victims were found at the student union at another building not far away. Earlier one student tried to (INAUDIBLE) on the East Lansing campus after the shooting began.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was in the (INAUDIBLE) dining hall. Once you hear the go, go, go, or the run, it is really -- it's really -- you've got to take care of yourself first. You've got to get out there. And then so I get out of there and I text my friends and make sure -- this is my roommate. So I got to make sure that he is ok. My other roommate was back there.
So it is more of just you had to take care of yourself first, and once you got out of there and you've got where the police led you to then it was a procedure of texting friends and family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: A quick programming note, we're waiting for another news briefing by police at Michigan State University. It was scheduled for around now. We will bring that to you live when it starts.
This week, a judge in Georgia is set to release parts of the grand jury report focusing on efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. It is expected to include an introduction and conclusion to the panel findings and will describe concerns they had about possible perjury.
CNN's Sara Murray has details.
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SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: A judge in Georgia says parts of the special grand jury report that looks at efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia can be made public later on this week but only parts.
The judge said the special grand jury that has been looking into efforts by the former president and his allies trying to determine if any crimes were committed, most of that is going to stay under wraps, including most importantly, whether the special grand jury recommended that anyone should face charges as part of this investigation.
But the judge says the introduction and the conclusion and another potentially important section of this report could be made public -- a section about whether any witnesses potentially perjured themselves when they came before the special grand jury.
The judge wrote that the special purpose grand jury discusses it's concern that some witnesses may have lied under oath during their testimony to the grand jury. Because the grand jury does not identify those witnesses, that conclusion maybe publicly disclosed at this time.
So that is what is coming on Thursday. The judge did not want the meat of this report released because a number of people went before the grand jury, they are not allowed to have their lawyers with them in the grand jury. He mentioned there could be people named in this report who never appeared before the grand jury. Former President Trump would be an example of one of those.
Either way, this ruling is making Fani Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County who's been overseeing this investigation pretty please. She says she had no plans to appeal this decision, she said last month that her decisions on whether she's going to bring charges against anyone are imminent.
Sarah Murray, CNN -- Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: More than a week after a powerful earthquake leveled neighborhoods in Turkey and Syria and left at least 36,000 dead, the U.N. says rescue efforts are coming to a close. Emergency crews will now focus on getting help to survivors.
In Syria the president has agreed to open two additional border crossings from Turkey to deliver aid to rebel-held northwest Syria. This comes after U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths met with the dictator Bashar al-Assad to discuss relief efforts. Griffiths says the U.N. will also help move aid to the northwest from government-controlled areas like Aleppo which were also severely hit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARTIN GRIFFITHS, U.N. EMERGENCY RELIEF COORDINATOR: I have been hearing stories here in Aleppo this morning that chill you with what happened on those early hours of that terrible day.
And what is the most striking here is even in Aleppo, which has suffered so much these many years, this moment -- that moment, a week or more ago was about the worst that these people have experienced.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: In Turkey, emergency crews have found some survivors more than 180 hours after the earthquake struck, among them a 13-year-old boy who's been trapped under the rubble.
Some of the developers of these buildings are now under investigation by Turkish authorities. State media reporting some have actually already been arrested, about a dozen or so.
Still to come here on CNN, the battle for Bakhmut. The very latest on the fighting for control of this city in eastern Ukraine.
[01:34:29]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Welcome back everyone.
Police is now holding a news conference with the latest information following the mass shooting at the Michigan University State campus. Let's listen.
(LIVE EVENT)
TERESA K. WOODRUFF, PRESIDENT, MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY: It has been imagined in other places and other times, but we just cannot imagine that it is here. We are devastated at the loss of life and we want to wrap our warm arms around every family that is touched by this tragedy and give the peace that passes understanding in moments like this.
Our campus grieves, we will all grieve. And we will change over time. We cannot allow this to continue to happen again.
I want to thank the ASMSU president and the ASMSU faculty senate and their leadership -- for their leadership throughout this event today, to our police, to all those in the East Lansing -- Lansing area to the governor, to our senators and all the folks who have reached out to make sure that we at MSU know that they are standing by our side.
To our students, we will take two days where we will move to emergency operation to give ourselves time to think and to grieve and to be together.
To our faculty and staff, we will similarly provide to all of you the next two days to think and grieve and come together.
In this spartan community, this family will come back together. Tomorrow morning at the Hanna Center, beginning at 9:00 a.m., resources will be available for members of our family who want to reach out there. We have caps and EAP that will be available for our students and faculty as well.
There is little else that can be said other than we are a community that is nip to gather by each other and we will hold each other up in moments of grief, as well as celebration. But today we come together as a family and we grieve together.
I want to thank Mayor Andy Schor and the other members of our community for standing with us. Mayor Schor has a few words that he would like to bring.
MAYOR ANDY SCHOR, LANSING, MICHIGAN: Tonight has been horrific. It has been horrific for all of the students here and around the region. Schools have been closed, this has affected our whole region, our whole community. It has affected families, everyone across our community.
And I say community because tonight our entire region came together. We have law enforcement. We have firefighters and EMS. We have health care and first responders from all over mid-Michigan, from all over Michigan who answered the call and rushed to campus to help.
I've been in constant contact with Mayor Ron Bacon of East Lansing, who is at the police station. He wants to be here but he has been in the police station coordinating along with my chief, along with state police, along with the county and several others.
[01:40:00] SCHOR: We know that now we have to come together to heal. Lansing will provide resources in conjunction with Michigan State University, in East Lansing and others. It's time for us provide the resources that our families need, our residents need.
I've heard from residents and families all throughout the city of Lansing in addition to East Lansing and from all over Michigan. We will come together and we will heal and we will move forward together as a community.
I'm going to pass it back to deputy chief and he will share more information from law enforcement.
CHRIS ROZMAN, INTERIM DEPUTY CHIEF, MSU DEPARTMENT OF POLICE AND PUBLIC SAFETY: Thank you everybody. My name is Chris Rozman from the deputy chief at Michigan State University Police and Public Safety. Over my right shoulder is our vice president for public safety and chief of police Marlon Lynch.
And I want to start by saying that we have been committed to being as transparent as possible and sharing as much information as we can since the start of this horrific incident. I stand before you with a few minor updates that will provide and then we will open it up for a couple of questions.
Please keep in mind that there is not much new information that we have since we last had a briefing about an hour ago.
I will start by sharing an update that the five victims that were transported to the hospital transported to Sparrow Hospital in Lansing. All five of those victims remain in critical condition.
I will also share that the incident that occurred off campus with the suspect occurred in the city of Lansing, off campus. That suspect is, we now know, is a 43-year-old male. That 43 year old male is not affiliated in any way with Michigan State University. He's not a student, faculty, staff.
And we have no idea why he came to campus to do this tonight. That is part of our ongoing investigation. As the president said, we know this news is so difficult for those in our campus community and beyond. It is important to remember that the grief some individuals may be experiencing is normal and there are a number of ways that individuals can seek support, including talking with friends, families, and colleagues.
After this briefing we will be sharing supportive resources through our police and public safety social media pages that we have been asking people to follow, as well as the university communications, highlighting other resources that are available in addition to the event tomorrow at the Hanna Community Center. Chief.
MARLON LYNCH, CHIEF, MSU DEPARTMENT OF POLICE AND PUBLIC SAFETY: Yes.
Just a reminder that this is an ongoing investigation that will involve multiple agencies that are currently here on campus and maybe some based on expertise that will also assist in the future.
This is a process. It will take time. I know that we all want answers and as soon as we have them, we will share them. That is something that will occur over the next few days immediately.
We will continue to have these updates with our community as well as with media moving forward. It is the process, the answers will come, hopefully what has been shared to this point is enough to assist in what we are all trying to do, which is to recover at this point.
The next couple of days, as you've heard from President Woodruff and also Deputy Chief Rozman, in regards to resources that will be available by those that are impacted.
If you witnessed people that need assistance, please speak up. Encourage them to seek help. Sometimes they are just unable to do it alone, and sometimes they just need to have a little assistance to get them going with that. Those resources will be available.
We will now take questions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Other than the eight who were shot, three dead and five who are in the hospital, are there any other victims?
[01:44:51]
ROZMAN: To our knowledge there are only eight total victims in this case, three that are deceased and five at the hospital.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any updates on the surgical status of these victims. Are they in surgery now, if there's an announcement (ph)?
ROZMAN: We do not have the specific updates. What we were told by Sparrow Hospital is that they remain in critical condition. We may have future update, more specific updates in the morning as we coordinate that information with the Sparrow Health System.
(INAUDIBLE)
ROZMAN: We are still working to fully identify all of the victims that are involved in this case and if they have affiliation to our university. We will continue to -- we will continue to pursue that. And we will share that information as soon as we are able to.
Please understand that behind every victim is a family and loved ones and we need to be respectful to that. And so we will share information as soon as possible regarding the identity of the victims, especially the deceased and any affiliation that they may have had with Michigan State University.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Without identifying them, can you just characterize what their age range is?
ROZMAN: I don't currently have that information. Our investigators have that information. We are still processing and working through it. Hopefully tomorrow we will be able to put that information together and share more details.
(INAUDIBLE)
LYNCH: So it would be a collaborative process with that. We do have the ability to partner and we will do that. In a circumstance like this the preferences is to build agencies that have the resources and expertise at this level. They will take the lead on that particular step in the investigation.
We are -- this happened here -- we are the primary law enforcement agency. We will be involved every step of the way. But when you have resources like we do locally, at the state level and at the federal level, we are going to take advantage of those resources and utilize them.
Yes sir?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did the suspect (INAUDIBLE) that or was there some sort of contact with the police?
ROZMAN: Again, we are still working through the investigation. Our understanding is that the suspect was confronted by law enforcement.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) -- the home of the suspect?
ROZMAN: I cannot confirm or share any information about that right now. There are several parts of the investigation, including the suspect's residence, where he lived that are Part of that investigation. I'm not able to share that at this time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was the suspect a Lansing resident?
ROZMAN: I cannot confirm residency status of the suspect at this time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there any update on the weapon that was used?
ROZMAN: No. We do not have a current update in terms of the weapon type that was used. That'll be a part of our investigation, obviously. And we work through that. We will share information when we are able to.
Please understand that we might have initial information. Before we share that, we want to make sure it is accurate. And so that's part of that process that we are working through with the investigation is confirming the accuracy of information, which is why we want to be mindful of that as we share information.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you confirm what the suspect had on him at the time? And backpack, more ammunition, another weapon?
ROZMAN: I cannot. I cannot confirm what the suspect had on him at the time of the incident off campus. All I can confirm is what he was wearing and had on him on campus in the photograph that we released.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Could you tell me more about how the suspect was contacted by police as mentioned in the previous question? ROZMAN: I can't offer additional information in terms of why law
enforcement contacted that suspect. What I can say is that with the overwhelming response of law enforcement officers that we had from across the state, we began to deploy those resources out in different parameters zones, in different waves and all of those officers were looking for this particular suspect that we identified very quickly with the photograph that we share with all of the officers in the field.
So there were hundreds of officers that were looking for this individual. What led the officers to come across and may contact him.
We will determine that. And that will be a part of our investigation, but I'm not able to share show that at this point.
In the back.
[01:49:56]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you describe the residents hall? (INAUDIBLE)
(CROSSTALK)
ROZMAN: Sure. I will take the first part of the access, then I'll turn it over to the chief for the monumental task ahead.
The two buildings in question, (INAUDIBLE) Hall is an academic building, it's a purely academic building. There's no residents -- it's not a residence hall facility. That building is unlocked and open to the public during business hours, if you will.
This incident did occur before the building was secured overnight. And to my knowledge, there were activities occurring in that building as part of the academic function of the university.
The second building, the MSU Union is similarly open to the general public that's not requiring special access. That's a building that is open not only to students, faculty, staff but to the general public. And that building was open at the time.
It does have hours where it closes. This occurred during the hours that the building was open.
And I will turn it over to the chief for the second part.
LYNCH: And that is part of the monumental task, right. We do have areas that are accessible to the public. With that, the task in itself is that we have 400 buildings on campus and over 5,300 acres with that.
And part of the process of the response that we have is that we were able to divide and organize to be methodical in the search process with that to obtain evidence and to share it as it comes to.
But with a university of our size and the areas that we are responsible for that becomes a task with that. And it's also -- it's part of what we try to establish here as a culture is that we are all in some ways are accountable to each other for safety and things of that nature.
The questions that you were starting to get to with the access control and things of that nature, those are resident halls and components like that that are not open to the general public.
But the facilities where this actually occurred, at the time, it was open to the public.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know how long the suspect was (INAUDIBLE) from the first shooting (INAUDIBLE) and if they've been on campus in previous?
ROZMAN: I do not have that information currently. How long with suspect was on campus before he entered Berkey Hall, the location of the first incident is not known at this time but that is something that our investigators will interested in and will be following up on.
But I don't have that right now.
In the back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These public buildings, are you aware if any kind of safety mechanisms were inside and we do have that?
ROZMAN: We do have a robust and comprehensive safety plan on campus. Like the chief said, we have a lot of buildings and every building was built differently, constructed differently but we have assessed and we continue to assess our security features within those buildings.
In this instance today, we relied very heavily on our notification systems. We know that during an incident involving an active shooter that providing clear instructions to the community and in terms of actions sway is very important. And that is why we've pushed the information out very quickly that there was a incident occurring, to shelter in place; to run, hide and fight.
And we implemented training we've had in place. the emergency plans that we have had in place. And we institute the training that not only the officers had but that we've trained our community how to respond to an incident like this as well.
So it's hard to talk about specific, physical security features of a particular building. Down the road after this incident, that obviously is something that we will look at. And if there's ways to improve, we will look to improve. But right now, we are really focused on the immediate response and the immediate aftermath of this tragedy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you first found out that there was a shooting on campus, what went through your mind?
WOODRUFF: I first tried to get the information. It was critical to me that I have accurate information. And then my thoughts immediately went to the individuals who had been shot. Their families, the students around them. And I think one of the things I'm most proud of is on campus of this size, how quickly every student, staff, faculty member immediately took action.
They sheltered in place and they did so for hours in order to allow our law enforcement to come together and quickly be able to survey the campus and set up the parameters that were described.
[01:54:59]
WOODRUFF: So my thoughts immediately went to those individuals who were in that room, in the classroom. And my prayers went to heaven.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think you had said before, when you guys were responding, (INAUDIBLE) there were other calls for other calls that turned out to be false. Do you believe those were intentionally false or just part of the chaos?
ROZMAN: Yes. So just be clear, the initial calls were only Berkey Hall and the Union. After the suspect left the Union, we did receive multiple erroneous reports of several either shooting incidents or incidents across campus at different locations.
Obviously that's going to be a part of the investigation in terms of where those phone calls came from and who placed them. At this point, I can't offer any specifics but that is something that we are very interested to determine. And will be one of the focal points of the investigation to see if that is related in any way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many reports were there that were false?
ROZMAN: I don't have a specific number. But we did have numerous. I'll say more than five. Reports of either individuals hearing shots on campus that never occurred or reporting a shooting that occurred at a different location.
We immediately, due to the resources that we had at hand that were being deployed under a unified incident command structure, we dispatched teams to each of those calls. And they quickly arrived and quickly determined that the incident as reported did not occur at that location.
But I can't emphasize enough that even though we were dealing with two different scenes, we continued to utilize our resources, our law enforcement partners to actively ensure the safety of the rest of the campus at that point.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- shooting incident and will that footage be released at some point in the investigation.
ROZMAN: So we obviously do have surveillance footage because we quickly released one of the images. That image that we were able to quickly capture and quickly disseminate to the public.
We can't thank the community enough for receiving that information and helping us to locate that suspect is. So yes, we do have cameras and a lot of buildings on campus. Each building has a separate system in place.
But yes, there are surveillance cameras that are going to be useful and helpful in this investigation that will aid our investigators in putting the pieces together. And trying to understand a little bit more about what happened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will take one more question.
ROZMAN: Go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In the next 24 to 48 hours, what can we expect the university to look like for students and staff that are going to be here -- what kind of presence.
LYNCH: You will still see a continued presence. Due to the fact that we do have crime scenes that will still be processed with that. There will be the ongoing investigation of communicating with witnesses as well on campus. There will be a lot of activity in regard to support for our community.
As was mentioned earlier with our counseling services, our health services. There will be notifications that were made for where those will actually gather or take place along those lines.
We made the announcement that the operations of the university will change. It does not mean that our campus will become vacated. We have approximately 19,000 students that resigning on campus. We will still have things available to meet their needs as well.
I can't say it will be business as usual because it's not, it's not going to be business as usual healing will begin as soon as possible with it. There will be a continued police presence during that time frame as well.
But we'll have ongoing communications into what we are doing and why we are doing it. So we will definitely be here. and this is our campus, it's for our community. It's for specific purposes and we'll overcome it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
[01:59:51]
ROZMAN: Thank you. I'll close by saying that we will hold another news conference in the morning. We will announce that time once we confirm the time. It will be right here. We'll continue to use this location and we'll announced that time together back here in the morning to share additional information.
