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Police: Two Killed, Six Injured, Shooter Dead At Wisconsin K-12 School; Trump Hosts First News Conference Since Election; German Chancellor Scholz Loses Confidence Vote: Now: Officials Update On Wisconsin School Shooting. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired December 16, 2024 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:37]
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: I'm Jim Sciutto in New York. Thanks so much for joining me today on CNN NEWSROOM.
And let's get right to the news.
We are coming on the air with breaking news -- all too familiar, a tragic a grim story in this country, another school shooting in America. At least two people killed, multiple people injured after a shooting at abundantly Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin. The shooter, who police believe to be a student at the school, was found dead.
CNN's Veronica Miracle joins me now.
Veronica, the latest death toll, as we have it is two. Earlier, police had mistakenly said four. Tell us what the latest is. You're learning about the circumstances here, the shooter and the number of casualties.
VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. There was some confusion during the press conference. They had originally -- the chief had originally had one number. And then during the press conference, he was given an update in real time. But it turns out that number was incorrect. It appears that there was some kind of confusion at the hospitals as they were bringing those casualties -- some of the injured, to the hospitals. There was confusion.
So what we understand now is that two victims were killed. A suspect was also killed. So that's three people dead and six others are injured. And their injuries range from -- anywhere from minor to life- threatening injuries. So, of course, these numbers could also change as the day progresses. But that is what the police chief has released at this hour.
They're not releasing further information about exactly who was killed, whether they were students or staff members. But we do understand that the shooter was a juvenile. So, under the age of 18, a student at the school. But anything beyond that, they're not releasing right now.
The chief was very adamant about the fact that they want to notify the next of kin of those who have been killed before they release anything to the media. Throughout the day, we have seen there's a unification center and young children being reunited with their parents. This is a small school, ages -- or grades, rather K through 12. The police chief, visibly emotional during the press conference.
Take a listen to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF SHON BARNES, MADISON, WISCONSIN POLICE: Today is a sad, sad day, not only for Madison, but for our entire country where yet another police chief is doing a press conference to speak about violence in our community, specifically in one of the places that's most sacred to me, as someone who loves education and to someone who has children that are in schools.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MIRACLE: The police chief also said that police did not fire any weapons when they arrived at the school, because they found the shooter had died from a self-inflicted gunshot injury. They also said that they do not believe that there is any further threat to the local community. Again, the Abundant Life Christian School, its a small school, about a few hundred students, about 55 staff members, and it sits on a very its a sprawling campus, about 28 acres, just about 200 families that they served.
And we have not yet heard from a parent of a student from Abundant Life Christian School at this hour. But there is a neighbor whose -- whose children once went to this school because its a very small community, obviously devastating tragedy right before the holidays. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDOE CLIP)
JOHN DIAZ DE LEON, NEIGHBOR AND FORMER PARENT AT SCHOOL: I mean, the tragedy of all what the other kids have seen, the kids saw this and heard this. I mean, right before Christmas. How tough is that to live? And the parents, the parents were my kids were my -- they, you know, they maybe they still don't know if their kid is survived. How tragic can that be?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MIRACLE: And, Jim, just to note, this is the second school shooting at a small Christian school in just a few weeks in northern California.
Just a few weeks ago, a five and a six year old were shot. So just really devastating news here. Back to you.
SCIUTTO: Listen, you can count them over the course of the year. More than 80 in this country over the course of this year so far.
Veronica Miracle, thanks so much. So for more about what one can reasonably call a national epidemic of
gun violence and a continuing one, CNN senior national security analyst Juliette Kayyem joins us, former assistant secretary for homeland security.
You know, good for the police chief there to say what is true that you and I and people watching this program have seen police chiefs from around the country give sadly familiar updates about an act of gun violence at a school in which we don't know the age or identity of those who were killed here, except the student who we understand the shooter rather to be a juvenile, but where members of the community die or are injured.
[15:05:25]
What can we say about it? We're clearly not doing enough to prevent them.
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I thought it was -- no. And I thought it was a very powerful press conference from the police chief, simply because he started with, you know, with an examination of America today and spoke of being a former educator, being someone who -- who had viewed schools as sort of safe places for children and then got into his day job, which was what how the day unfolded. And that is very important. People need to know it. Parents who had not been unified as a then with their kids needed to know the sort of, you know, how, how, how, how big the footprint was, so to speak.
And now the investigation begins, in particular, since they know who did it, what kind of hints did he leave? Who might have known were -- were teachers talking about him? And as you know, Jim, sort of in the last couple of years, a new sort of cause of action here in the United States, where prosecutors will examine, the parents were -- were grossly negligent in allowing a -- presumably, a minor access to a gun or possession of a gun, and that will be clearly part of this as we learn more about him.
SCIUTTO: Yeah. How did he -- how did the shooter get this gun? And we've seen, as you said, parents prosecuted, right, for not adequately preventing children from gaining access to a gun.
This is the 83rd, at least the 83rd school shooting of 2024 that surpasses 2023 for the most in a single year. And of those 83, 27 on college campuses, 54 on K-12 school grounds.
KAYYEM: Yeah.
SCIUTTO: Have you seen any evidence that the steps taken so far in the wake of these countless shootings, most recently, we saw the red flag laws, or at least federal money to incentivize, incentivize red flag laws in states. You've seen some slightly better background checks on guns, though not yet universal background checks.
Is there any evidence that any of those incremental steps taken have made a difference? I mean, the graphs only going in one direction. KAYYEM: Right. It's very hard to measure preventative efforts, right? So we do know, obviously, that, you know, guns are confiscated from schools. Lots of schools have put up preventative measures, including early intervention as well as the hardening of these places like metal detectors. My understanding is the school today did not have one as well as teacher interventions should they -- should they need it.
You also -- you know, Uvalde is sort of the worst of today. I think you saw the best of in many ways of police preparedness for school shootings. You don't wait, you don't -- you just go in.
And the police chief talked about that, talked ironically that today was, in fact, a, I think a mass casualty training for the paramedics. This is what they do to prepare.
But to be able to measure or did that stop anything? That's very hard. What we do know though is its not going down, and in fact, its sort of it -- sort of ticks up. And it's not just like the Uvalde. It's like these horrible situations where we just had the anniversary of Sandy Hook, you know, these -- these -- these -- these big ones that we remember, these school shootings are represent, you know, one student dead, two students dead. That's an -- that's enough, right?
And so we're not -- we're not absorbing them in the way that we might in sort of a greater mass casualty event. This today, if these numbers hold, will not qualify as a mass casualty event in the United States. Its I hate to say it, it's just a school shooting, right.
And so will not -- will not be picked up in the statistics about mass casualty, which generally is four or more, not including the assailant.
SCIUTTO: Well, listen, I mean, I get it because you have to set the bar somewhere yet again. You have parents at these kind of reunification zones, which I can only imagine is a -- is a special circle of hell for those parents getting those calls, wondering if their child is okay. This past Saturday, of course, marked 12 years since Sandy Hook, which was supposed to be an inflection point, right? Because of the age of those students, the number, a couple dozen, it didn't move the needle, right?
And now let's just state the facts as they are.
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You have Republican control of both houses of Congress and the White House, and it's -- by and large, been Republicans who have stood in the way of more significant gun safety legislation. So I imagine if you look at the political atmosphere, we can reasonably assess that there will be no major movement towards additional gun safety.
KAYYEM: Yeah. No, I think that's right. I mean, just given the politics and I -- it's worth, you know, we tend to view this as right and left and whatever.
But what was interesting today, so people should be reminded that some of the greatest proponents, political proponents of greater sun gun safety rules, as well as duties on the parents are, of course, police chiefs and the law enforcement community that's seen, one, what this does to their community, but also it puts police officers in danger. So you can get interesting political alliances.
I do take some comfort that even if you can't get the weaponry, a lot of research is now being done. Maybe in consequence of the fact that we can't get gun -- significant gun legislation passed in this country about early intervention. It's an area that that actually can be successful if parents and communities are willing to step forward, not simply, yellow flag or red flag laws, but also getting these students, getting these young people, uh, not defending anyone, but who cannot process stress, isolation, bullying in the way that perhaps adults can, the kind of help that they need.
I -- I don't believe in the -- in the -- is it mental health or is it the guns? I'm sort of in the all -- all of the above camp, and -- and I suspect we will likely learn that many people had concerns about this student well before what happened today.
SCIUTTO: Yeah. And listen, we do see and I can I cant cite them. But I remember in the last several weeks, there were cases of folks who did raise red flags and plots seemed to be foiled before they happened. The difficulty is that you put in the hands of school administrators, teachers, fellow students, right, a judgment about a future potential crime, which is a fundamentally difficult thing to do, right?
I mean, that's in effect where you're handing the almost the law enforcement responsibility here is for members of the community who are not in law enforcement to make what are extremely difficult judgments.
KAYYEM: Absolutely. And the pool of people that might fall into that sort of potential early intervention is large. You think of these large urban or suburban schools. The school was relatively small, you know, just the number of kids who we know that there's a crisis in these issues.
But you're exactly right that we -- because, you know, every crime has a means and a motive, right? And because we can't get to the means politically, even though the American public is there, the American publics polling is pretty consistent on this, tougher laws of access for -- for people, trying to ban certain guns. We don't know what gun was used in this in this case, we are sort of forced to turn to intervention on the motive, if you can, if you can step in, it's not ideal. You'd have a combination of both.
But I think that's what we'll be looking at, given the politics of where this country is headed, next year, that it is unlikely that the Senate and the House would align on anything, let alone the White House voting for it at this stage.
SCIUTTO: Yeah. I mean, you saw how difficult was even when Democrats controlled most or all of the -- all of the chambers and the White House. Juliette Kayyem, thanks so much, as always. Sorry, it's on a familiar topic.
KAYYEM: Thank you. Yeah, yeah.
SCIUTTO: And we will, of course, continue to monitor developments out of Wisconsin, bring you any updates as they happen.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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SCIUTTO: President-elect Donald Trump hosted his first news conference today since winning reelection, taking questions on a number of topics -- his cabinet picks, wars around the world, mysterious drone sightings in this country, the safety of life saving vaccines and more, really, a grab bag of presidential policies and his plans.
Here's just some of what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: And you know, Pete Hegseth gave up a lot because he was going big places in Fox -- big, big places, a lot of money.
I think the Middle East is -- will be in a good place.
I think actually more difficult is going to be the Russia-Ukraine situation.
I did have a dinner with Tim Cook. I had dinner with sort of almost all of them and the rest are coming.
One of the big differences between the first term and the first term, everybody was fighting me. In this term, everybody wants to be my friend.
And I think everything should be looked at, but I'm a big believer in the polio vaccine.
You're not going to lose the polio vaccine. That's not going to happen. But we're going to look into finding why is the autism rate so much higher than it was 20, 25, 30 years ago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Yeah, that's actually based on long ago debunked science, that connection.
Trump's support for the polio vaccine, however, is notable because his pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has long been a vaccine skeptic, with consequences. We should note. RFK's attorney actually petitioned the government to revoke approval of the polio vaccine.
Kennedy is on Capitol Hill today meeting with senators who will ultimately have to vote on whether to confirm him for that cabinet position or not to and defy President-elect Donald Trump.
Lets bring in CNN reporter Stephen Collinson.
Stephen, before we get to Trump's comments today, I do want to note something that you reminded me during the break, and that is that 12 years ago today, then-President Obama gave a heartfelt address to the nation about those sad events at Sandy Hook at a time when it just really seemed, of course, Congress couldn't fail to act this time in a decisive way. But of course they did. And multiple times since then, with only incremental changes.
How is that possible?
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: I think it is a failure of politics, and it's about the reality of how gun politics has become such an important galvanizing force for the Republican political base.
Twelve years ago today, President Obama traveled to Sandy Hook, the elementary school, for an absolutely wrenching memorial for the children and teachers killed in that attack, which horrified the nation. It came a few days after he said, if we can't reform after this, if we can't change gun laws, if we can't stop school shootings happen, when will we ever do it?
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That was supposed to be a push to try and get some reform to ban assault rifles and similar weapons, and it was very prescient because it turned out that Congress couldn't do it much to Obama's evident despair. And we've had years and years, more than a decade now of more school shootings.
I remember that trip, especially because, Obama spent time with the not just the parents of the children that were killed, but also played in this memorial service before it started with the siblings of those children who didn't really understand what was happening. I was in the White House pool and coming back on Air Force One that night. It was chilling. No one said a word on the plane all the way back from Connecticut to just outside Washington.
So it was something, something you don't forget. But politics has failed to change it, and there's no real reason to think, given the conditions, that in 12 years time things would be much different.
SCIUTTO: Yeah. And listen, I mean, the trauma continues for those parents, for those siblings. It's not just a point in time. The trauma is lasting. And we've created more victims of trauma with today's events in Wisconsin.
Trump said a lot of things. We mentioned the comments on vaccines. I want to ask you specifically about what he said about Ukraine, because there's a great deal of speculation and consternation about what he will do regarding Ukraine. Will he end aid? Will he force Ukraine into a deal that perhaps it doesn't want?
This line from him: What's happening there, he's describing Ukraine as far worse than people are reporting from both sides. So we're going to do our best and we've been doing our best, and well see what happens. I mean, the both sides line they're given, it is, of course, Russia that invaded the country and is responsible for this war, caught my attention, although it is true that both sides have been suffering enormous casualties of late.
Do we -- did we get a sense from those comments about where he is leaning on Ukraine?
COLLINSON: Well, that was so interesting when he said that he thinks the Middle East is going to be in a great place, but Ukraine is going to be much harder. This was a president elect who was predicting that he would solve the Ukraine crisis within 24 hours, even before he became president.
So, obviously, things have changed on the ground. I think the big question for a lot of people looking at this, not just in the United States, but Europe, is how do you bring President Putin to the table, given the fact that he appears to be at least on the battlefield right now, notwithstanding severe, you know, economic consequences in Russia, in the ascendancy? Putin isn't just going to come to the negotiating table because Trump wants to do a deal. And how do you how does Trump build some leverage to do that?
Some people have even been talking about him continuing arms, you know, exports to Ukraine, even though that doesn't seem very likely from what we know about Trump's temperament and desire to please -- Putin. So this is obviously going to be a lot more complicated than Trump believes.
We -- we understand that there were talks about this when he met Emmanuel Macron, the French president, a couple of weeks ago in Paris. The question is how much land does Putin get for what was an illegal invasion of a sovereign, democratic country? And how do you do a peace deal that doesn't lead to the war breaking out again in five years, when Putin has reconstituted his forces?
It doesn't seem to me that Trump has thought that through very carefully, although I would say people like his incoming national security adviser, Representative Waltz, Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, these are serious people, and they are thinking about this.
But a lot of it comes down to what Trump thinks at any one moment. And it doesn't seem clear that he's got any idea right now how he's going to end this war.
SCIUTTO: Well, another thing he said today is that, and I'm paraphrasing here, that the parts of the eastern Ukraine have been so burned to the ground by Russian attacks that, in effect, who wants that land back? Which begs the question, if you burn a country down, can you just take it? I mean, what are you incentivizing?
Stephen Collinson, thanks so much. COLLINSON: Thanks.
SCIUTTO: Also, at that news conference, a warning to media organizations to lawyer up.
On Saturday, ABC News announced that it had reached a $15 million settlement with Trump, who had sued the news network for defamation over on air statements by anchor George Stephanopoulos about a civil lawsuit with the woman who accused Trump of sexual assault, E. Jean Carroll. That defamation case, Trump says, is just the beginning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And that was "The Des Moines Register", and it was their parent. And in my opinion, it was fraud. And it was election interference.
And we'll probably be filing a major lawsuit against them today or tomorrow. We're filing one on "60 minutes", you know about that, where they took Kamala's answer, which was a crazy answer, a horrible answer. And they took the whole answer out and they replaced it with something else, she said later on in the interview.
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And, we have one very interestingly on Pulitzer because reporters at "The New York Times", "Washington Post" got Pulitzer Prizes for their wonderful, accurate and highly professional reporting on the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: We should note there is no evidence that "The Des Moines Register" manipulated polling numbers, nor evidence that CBS deceitfully, deceitfully edited that Harris interview.
Here with me now to discuss this and more is Ron Brownstein, senior political analyst.
Ron, I wonder how serious you think Trump is of suing to get back, right at media organizations or frankly, to cow them, right? Cow them into avoiding critical coverage to avoid that outcome? I mean, it strikes me, he's quite serious.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah. Look, whether he wins lawsuits or not, he's lost, I think, more than he's one of these cases. The process of going through it is, you know, its a root canal. No one wants to -- no one wants to go through this very difficult and often very expensive process.
So it is a means of him to try to intimidate and as you say, cow media organizations. But it fits in to me -- it fits into a broader pattern and a bigger question, which is what are going to be the guardrails on Trump as he comes back into office?
I mean, the circumstances really could not be more different, as I think he alluded to, in his news conference. I mean, when he came in the first time, you had Republican leaders in the House and the Senate, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, who were very skeptical of him. You had a Supreme Court that was 4 to 4 at that point with a, you know, very moderate and somewhat unpredictable Republican swing justice in Anthony Kennedy.
You had a business community that was much more keeping its distance not clear that any of those barriers are, you know, are really effective going into a second term. They are all clearly weakened, and they are weakened at a time when Trump has run on a more militant and explicit agenda that he himself called, you know, retribution.
So, you know, from both ends, more aggressive agenda, less formidable guardrails. You're looking at what could be a very combustible situation.
SCIUTTO: You know, Professor Timothy Snyder of Yale has written a book on tyranny, in fact, and I believe its his first chapter where he warns of the danger of, as he phrased it, obeying in advance.
And I wonder if your read of -- of a sort of preempted, kowtow to this kind of pressure is warranted, right? I mean, is it does it exaggerate actually, the power given that, yes, you could lose cases in court, but it wasn't clear that ABC was going to lose this particular case.
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.
SCIUTTO: And there are still -- there's this thing called the Constitution and freedom of the press. And, you know, there's deliberate malice, right? Where you deliberately say something that's not true. And then -- then, I mean, that's a legal distinction. I'm not a lawyer, but as its been explained to me.
I mean, is it possible that media organizations might exaggerate or overestimate the president's power to punish them in effect, or cow them?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, sure, in the legal sense, for all the reasons that you said in a -- in a court of law. But there's lots of other ways. Obviously, someone committed to shattering traditional limits on the arbitrary exercise of presidential power can punish people that he views as threats.
And I think, again, I think you have to see media organizations in the context of the broader movement we are watching. Since the election, Trump won the popular vote. That gives him reason to feel that he has, you know, kind of more wind at his back.
But there's no question that lots of institutions across the, you know, across the economy are moving more to conciliate than kind of -- conciliate Trump than to signal that they want to uphold standards. I mean, ABC isn't alone here from what we've seen from Amazon and Meta and others.
You know, again, I think there are a lot of institutions that are focused more on surviving the Trump presidency, perhaps, than defending, you know, traditional norms on limitations of presidential power or individual liberty. And we'll see how that holds up. If, in fact, you know, this goes in the direction that it could over the next over the over the coming months. But certainly at the outset, it is a very different tone, one about, as you know, to Snyder's point, where you make these preemptive concessions in the hope that it will spare you.
And I think if we've learned anything from Trump over his political career as he takes witness -- he takes weakness as license. Jim, you know, weakness is license to go further.
[15:30:04]
And I do not think any of these preemptive capitulations will satisfy him. And he takes -- what he takes what you give and then raises the ante. And I think that's what they will see.
SCIUTTO: Yeah. Well, let's hope for some fortitude in the coming years -- months and years.
Ron Brownstein, thanks so much, as always.
BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.
SCIUTTO: We are awaiting an update from authorities in Wisconsin on yet one more school shooting, a deadly one, a sad one that left two dead, multiple people injured. We will bring you that update live as soon as it begins. And we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCIUTTO: The German government has collapsed after the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, lost a confidence vote earlier today that triggered a snap election, a result he actually wanted. Germany's constitution makes it incredibly difficult to head to the polls early. This will be the fourth time in the last 75 years that's happened.
Scholz called for the confidence vote after his three-party coalition fell apart last month over a budget dispute. While addressing parliament, he framed the early election as an opportunity for a new beginning for Germany.
Here to discuss what happens next, Matthew Karnitschnig, chief Europe correspondent for "Politico".
And, Matthew, good to have you here. It strikes me -- it's interesting because the government in France fell apart, the coalition there, due to a debate over the budget. And here we have it here again.
So we're going to have elections. What happens next and who's likely to come out on top.
MATTHEW KARNITSCHNIG, CHIEF EUROPE CORRESPONDENT, POLITICO: Well, what happens next is that there's going to be an election on the 23rd of February.
[15:35:03]
And according to all the polls over the past months and even years, it looks like the conservatives here in Germany, the center right Christian Democrats will win that election with over 30 percent of the vote, with the current government led by the social Democrats, who are on the center left getting only about 15 percent according to the current polls.
So it would be a real shift from the center left back to Angela Merkel's old party, the Christian Democrats. The real outcome, though, will depend on what kind of coalition is formed after that election. And that's pretty much anybody's guess at the moment.
SCIUTTO: What will this mean for security issues, I wonder, because there's been great debate in Germany, some hesitation from Scholz about particular kinds of military support for Ukraine.
Does this move, potentially, Germany more into being supportive of Ukraine, stronger against Russia or away from that?
KARNITSCHNIG: I think if the center right wins here, which, as I say, all the polls are pointing to, Ukraine can expect to have even more support from Germany, including on the long range missile front, which Chancellor Scholz has been very reluctant to go forward on.
Friedrich Merz, who's the leader of the center right here, has made clear that he will continue to stand by Ukraine and take an even more robust approach on that front. The question is, how is Germany going to pay for more security for a higher budget?
(AUDIO GAP)
SCIUTTO: We did lose audio there with Matthew Karnitschnig.
We are going to go now, though, to Madison, Wisconsin, where officials are briefing again following the school shooting there earlier this morning. At least two killed so far.
Let's listen in.
CHIEF SHON BARNES, MADISON, WISCONSIN POLICE: The part where again, I would normally start by saying good afternoon and thanking you for being here, but under these circumstances, ill just give you a minute to start your live streams or do whatever you need to do.
And while you're doing that, my name is Chief Shon Barnes. S-H-O-N-B- A-R-N-E-S. I'm currently the chief of police for the Madison Police Department.
I'll be providing a brief update of the school shooting that we had today in Madison. There are some information that were not going to release because it's still an ever evolving situation. You'll hear from some of our representatives from our city and from our county. And behind me are a lot of people who came together today to make sure that the day ended well and that everyone else was safe. So with that being said, ill go ahead and start my remarks. Today truly is a sad day for Madison and for our country. It is a day
that I believe will live in our collective minds for a very, very long time. Here are the details.
Today at 10:57 a.m., our team was called to the Abundant Life Christian School in reference to an active shooter. We know that three people are dead, including the suspect shooter. We know that the suspect shooter was a teenage student who attended the school.
At this time, we are not releasing the age or gender of the student or any other identifying remarks about the student. Two other people have died, that died were a teacher and a teenage student. Six other people were injured. Two students are now in critical condition in the hospital. And these injuries are considered life threatening injuries.
Four students are also at other area hospitals with non-life threatening injuries but these are just the physical injuries that we know about. We know that this was the middle of the day of a school day, and so, there will be other injuries that will have to face for a very, very long time. And we're going to do everything we can as a community to heal those injuries as well.
Many of you have asked me about the why of this.
[15:40:01]
Why did this happen? What do we know? What was the motivation?
I do not know. But I will tell you this. Our detectives are working hard in the investigative process to find out as many answers as we can so that we can further prevent these things from happening, not only in this community, but in other communities around our country.
I think we can all agree that enough is enough, and we have to come together to do everything we can to support our students, to prevent press conferences like these from happening again and again and again.
The school building itself is clear. We have cleared the school. There is no other threats or danger to the community. We're in the process now of what we call reunification and what that simply means is making sure that every student that was in the school is present and accounted for and returned to their loved ones.
This usually takes a while, but we have practiced, unfortunately, and practice and practice, and that's why were able to reunify students with their parents within hours of a school shooting. The reunification is taking place at the dean clinic on Stoughton Road, and I certainly thank them for their help.
Again, we need our public to find an alternate route if that is your normal way home. As we get closer to the end of the day, please be patient or find another route home. We are currently processing the scene. We are interviewing those who may have been witnesses, and we are obtaining search warrants to get additional information.
And lastly, I want to just say thank you to everyone who is standing behind me. The organizations and agencies that they represent, the men and women of the Madison Police Department and Dane County Sheriff's Office who selflessly ran into a building not knowing what they were going to encounter.
Many of you know this about me, but I started my professional career, if you will, as a public school teacher back in 1997, and I taught public school for four years. It was one of the greatest joys of my life before becoming a police officer. And I can tell you what a special place our schools are.
With that being said, we owe it to our community to do everything possible to ensure that it's not only a special place, but a safe place as well. And we're going to continue to do that.
So we ask for your patience as information is coming in. We will do the best that we can to bring you accurate and timely information, but we want to make sure that our public knows that were working extremely hard on this particular incident, there are a lot of people involved, and certainly we're going to come together as a community.
I like to bring up at this time, Police Fire Chief Chris Carbon.
CHRIS CARBON, MADISON, WISCONSIN FIRE CHIEF: Thank you, Chief Barnes.
Before I start, I -- the only thing I can say is this is not a place that any fire chief or any one of us would ever want to be. And I can't believe I'm standing here today talking about this incident. The fire department is a part of this community, much like all the folks standing up here with me today.
Our hearts are with. And our arms are around everybody impacted today and everybody within our community. With that, I won't repeat the details shared by Chief Barnes, but I will share with you the fire department activity for today. Much like Chief Barnes mentioned at 10:57, we were also dispatched with engine five and medic five to the same location.
Throughout the course of the incident, we responded with five engine companies, four ladder companies, 15 ambulances. I would like to take a moment and share our gratitude for our county partners throughout a multitude of EMS and fire agencies that joined us in the response today.
We also had 11 off duty chief officers that came in on this response. It was a tremendous response from the fire department. We transported four patients to Saint Mary's. We transported three patients to the University of Wisconsin hospitals.
On the arrival of our crews, I can say my gratitude to our membership for what they did and their selfless actions today. It's hard for me to place into words what they ran into as well. They did that immediately. They did that selflessly and within a course of 15 minutes from the first transport to the last transport, all the patients were on their way to the hospital.
So to our membership within the Madison Fire Department and within all the emergency services, my gratitude, my recognition of the work that goes into this, the training that went into this, that, again, we had hoped we would never have to put into practice.
[15:45:07]
One more time on behalf of the Madison Fire Department, our hearts are with you. Our arms are around you, and we will be with you throughout the duration of this. So at this point, I will step aside, turn it over to the mayor.
MAYOR SATYA RHODES-CONWAY, MADISON, WISCONSIN: Thank you, Chief. Both of you.
This is an incredibly sad day for our community.
As you've heard, there is no danger to the community at this time. But our entire community has been impacted by this tragic incident.
On behalf of the common council and the city of Madison staff, I want to offer our heartfelt condolences to the victims and families and to the whole Abundant Life community. Our focus now is on supporting them and supporting the victims and their families, and we will continue to do that through the coming days and weeks.
I also want to thank our first responders and the police, fire the medical staff for their quick action and their life saving efforts. As you've heard already, this is a whole of government response. It is not just police and fire. It is not just city of Madison.
And we have folks from all around the county. We have folks from multiple agencies engaged in both the initial immediate response and the ongoing support, and will be engaged for days and weeks to come.
I also want to thank the White House and the governor and others in the federal government and state government for reaching out to offer their support and help, and we will be drawing on resources as needed going forward.
But the most important thing right now is to make sure that we are centering the victims and their families and that we are doing whatever we can to support them and to help them heal and to lift our entire community up through this difficult incident.
I am on record that I think we need to do better in our country and our community to prevent gun violence and I hope -- I hoped that this day would never come in Madison. It is not something that any mayor or any fire chief, any police chief, any person in public office ever wants to have to deal with.
And so I will ask our entire community and our entire country to do whatever we can to make sure that no public official ever has to stand in this position again.
And now I'll invite the county executive to the podium.
MELISSA AGARD, DANE COUNTY EXECUTIVE: Good afternoon everyone. Today, our community is reeling from the heartbreaking and senseless tragedies at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison. As a mom who received a text from her son at a high school here in the city of Madison wondering if he was safe, I can tell you this hits you in the gut.
Our community is better than this. Our country is better than this. Cannot continue. My heart goes out to the victims and their families, and the students and the educators. And the list goes on and on.
Every one of us is affected by this unimaginable and unacceptable violence that has hit our community today. Dane County stands united in grief with the Abundant Life Christian School community. The Sheriff's Department, the Department of Emergency Management, the Department of Human Services have all been on the front lines.
My phone has been ringing from people across our state and our nation asking what it is that they can do to help our community, and right now, it is our time to be committed to supporting this school. These students and these families and our first responders who went into that building during this devastating time.
We must work closely with our law enforcement officers and first responders, mental health professionals, community leaders and policy makers to ensure that we are taking care of one another. No community should ever have to ensure -- endure such a tragedy. And my administration is going to do everything that it can to provide assistance to those who have experienced this devastating loss, and also do everything that we can to prevent such tragedy from occurring.
To all of those who are grieving in our community, please know that you're not alone. Dane County stands with you. We're here to support you in any way possible. Please reach out and ask for help.
[15:50:04]
The governor's office, as well as the mayor's office, and I will continue to update the public as we learn more. But please understand, there are many things that we cannot share with you right now. This is an active investigation.
This is an active investigation. This is an active case. The SSM health clinic near the intersection of Buckeye Road and Stoughton Road is the reunification center. I know that that has been out, but we need to make sure that folks know where it is that they can go to be reunited with their children.
Again, in the coming days, we are going to make sure that we are supporting those that have been most impacted by this. But folks reach out, ask for help. This does not need to be the reality of our community. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, let's start over here with questions. Please raise your hand.
REPORTER: Tell us, how did this unfold? Can you give us a bit of a timeline? How your officers got into the building? BARNES: Sure. We received the call at approximately 10:57 a.m.
Someone from the from the school called 911 to report that there was an active shooter. That means something different to us. Obviously, there's different protocols that go out, tone alerts, even so that even if officers are busy doing other things, they respond.
One of the things that I do want to note is that our training center is about three miles from there. We have special event team medics, those that work with the fire department, responded to this particular scene from their training day. So what began as a training day became an actual day. And so that's how this call originally came in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nicholas, did you have a question?
REPORTER: What can you tell us, if anything, more about this shooter and what their motivations were, or have you made contact with their family members? Anything -- anything updated on that?
BARNES: Sure. That's nothing new that I can tell you about the shooter at this time. Again, as difficult as today is, that's still someone's child that's gone. That's still someone that has to deal with what happened today. And so we want to make sure that we can ensure as much cooperation as we can.
You asked me about why, as I stated before, I don't know why. And I felt like if we did know why, we could stop these things from happening. But what I will tell you is, as soon as we are done with the investigation, any information that we uncover that will not compromise the safety of anyone involved or compromise the confidentiality of any of these children that are involved, will tell you. I just ask for your patience.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Over there.
REPORTER: Chief, what kind of gun was used?
BARNES: We know it was a handgun. We know a handgun was recovered.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See that right there?
REPORTER: Confined to one classroom, or did it spread out?
BARNES: Well, we know it was confined to one space. I don't -- do not know if it was a classroom or a hallway. One of the things that we've gotten very good at, certainly different from in my day, is that if you do not need to be in a crime scene, you do not need to go to a crime scene.
And so, the crime scene and those persons who were involved, they have that crime scene locked down. I did not go or enter into that crime scene, but if you can imagine, most schools, the students go together, but they are segregated. So, on each different floor and each different group.
And so, there's no evidence that anyone else was injured that was not in that age group. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Danielle --
REPORTER: What can you say at this time about how school staff responded?
BARNES: I cannot speak to how the school staff responded. You know, we did have injuries, but it could have always, of course, had additional injuries. I do not know what the schools protocols are.
Again, this is a private Christian school. I know that we have a very good rapport with MMSD, Madison Metropolitan Schools, public schools. So we have done trainings for them before, but I would assume that most of the teachers have the same or some similar type of training as a part of their certification.
REPORTER: There's some conflicting reports online about how many students are involved at this school. Can you confirm approximately how many students?
BARNES: I do not know how many students attend the school, but their website says that they serve about 200 families.
REPORTER: What kind of support systems are being made available to people who are inside?
BARNES: That's a good question. As you heard from our mayor and our county exec, we have services within our government that will be made available to them. I have a lot of confidence that they're going to follow through on that, and we'll make sure that that persons who need to -- do you guys want to speak to that?
AGARD: So, Dane County human services, as well as the Red Cross and other consolidated agencies are already on scene. And we will continue to be on scene and those resources will be bolstered again.
[15:55:04]
Please reach out. You are not alone. We are going to navigate this together. And there are people who are affected by this trauma who are not in the reunification center or at the school.
We need folks to be reaching out because we do have resources available.
REPORTER: And so did you know if Abundant Christian Life School, did they have a school resource officer employed?
BARNES: It's not my knowledge that they had a school resource officer that if they did, it would have been a police officer. And I know where they all are and they're not in the schools right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been in the back there.
REPORTER: So in terms of witnesses that you mentioned about investigation, what does that look like how many witnesses are you guys -- BARNES: Sure. So the detectives will talk to anyone who may have seen
this particular event unfold, anyone that may have been unfortunate to hear something. They will be talking to them. It's my understanding that that's in process now, and everyone is cooperating fully.
That will give us an idea of not only what unfolded, but it could answer the question to motivation, because, again, the students who unfortunately had to witness this. But that's not something that we want to rush.
We -- you know, we're not going to interrogate students. We're going to give them an opportunity to come in and speak to what they may have saw when they feel ready, which is why some of these questions can't be answered right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. In second row.
REPORTER: How do you reassure the community that it's still okay to go back to school? I mean, everybody's got kids, and I think, you know, maybe it happened in this school, but there's everybody that's happening anywhere right now. It's going to be hard.
BARNES: Yeah. I think you're asking me, how can I say 100 percent that no child will ever be harmed in school? I can't. No police chief can. But all I can tell you is that we have systems in place so that if something happens, we can respond like we did today. I can tell you that our mayor and our county exec has committed resources to not only public health, but also mental health. I can tell you that every teacher that I've ever had contact with at MMSD cares deeply about their students. Every staff member I talked to staff members all the time who tell me things that are going on in the schools and want to do whatever they can, even if it's under anonymity, to let me know that they want to have a safe school.
So my reassurance to the public is that if you see something, say something. If you know someone who may be going through a difficult time, please reach out to someone. And I think what I can do is make sure that our police department is transparent and open and honest and inviting for people to call and give information.
I think MMSD does an excellent job of that, and the same thing can be said for any other private school. If you want to give information or you need someone to talk to, I can promise you well have someone there to get that information.
REPORTER: Understanding that this is a private school, you may not be as familiar with, what makes you responsible for (INAUDIBLE) school, whether its metal detectors, secure entryway cameras, et cetera?
BARNES: Yeah, that's a good question. I've never been in this school. Unfortunately, I'm not aware that there were metal detectors in the school. That's something that we can certainly look at. Most schools have some form of surveillance or public space cameras, but that will be, of course, part of the investigation process.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Scott? REPORTER: Can you clarify? You said seven were injured, six were hospitalized. Does that mean one has been treated and released? And secondly, is the shooter's family cooperating with the investigation?
BARNES: Yeah. So that's two questions. But let me try to -- try to handle -- handle the first one. So I'm trying to go back to my notes.
So we do know that one person was pronounced at the scene. And so that may be the seventh person, but we can get you all that information just when we're done, I'll have my PIO give that to you so you can report it accurately. And what was your second question?
REPORTER: Is the shooter's family cooperating?
BARNES: At this time, yes.
REPORTER: So you have made contact with the shooter's family?
BARNES: We have.
REPORTER: And what were the steps taken to do that?
BARNES: It's through the investigative process. Okay. Yeah.
REPORTER: Is the shooter's home being searched? We've heard -- we've got some information about that is ongoing.
BARNES: Yes, obviously, once we have identified, we have initiated a search, but we think that search is either ongoing now or that search may be concluded. Of course, it's about safety. That's the first thing, making sure that people are safe and then we'll go from there.
This has been -- I'm sorry, this has been an amazing day for everyone. And so if you have someone who is deceased who may have been a shooter, you want to make sure that their family is okay. You don't know.
And so that is what we're doing right now. It is about the safety of everyone. This is going to be a long day for the Madison police department. We just want a little -- some of your patience.
