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Idaho Firefighters Shot While Responding To Brush Fire. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired June 29, 2025 - 20:00   ET

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

[20:00:06]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM, everyone. I'm Omar Jimenez in New York. Jessica Dean has the day off.

We are following breaking news tonight. Multiple firefighters have been shot in Idaho and at least two people are dead.

This is happening in Coeur d'Alene at Canfield Mountain, a park with hiking and bike trail, so this is right on the border between Washington state and Idaho. Officials say firefighters were responding to a brush fire, and officials just had a press conference a little while ago where the sheriff said law enforcement officers are still actively taking rapid sniper fire.

I want to bring in CNN's senior law enforcement analyst and former Washington, D.C., police chief Charles Ramsey, and former Boston police commissioner chief, Ed Davis.

Chief Davis, I want to start with you because, look, still very much active scene. They're saying they're taking active sniper fire. They believe it is coming in rapid fire as well. Can you just talk to me about how you are assessing what we know so far from this situation?

CHIEF ED DAVIS, FORMER BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: Hi, Omar. Certainly. You know, this is sort of a police department's worst nightmare. You have someone in a heavily wooded area, and they're a distance away from any populated locations. So you have to move assets into the area to respond to the threat. And our SWAT teams are very well-trained. They can operate in any kind of territory. So they're not unused to operating in a wooded area.

We had a similar type incident in New Hampshire about 20 years ago where the police responded very quickly and effectively. But you really need to have air assets and the ability to move in what essentially are ground troops to go after something like this. This is more a military operation than the typical police SWAT response that that we're used to.

JIMENEZ: And Chief Ramsey, just on that point, trying to bring in additional resources, what are the conversations like right now if you are the local police chief, you're the local sheriff, and you are trying to get additional resources in? What are you calling in? What helps in a situation like this?

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, you know, jurisdictions train together and they have mutual aid agreements. This is close to the border near Washington, so I'm sure they probably have reached out that far to try to get some additional assets. You have federal agencies that are responding. So they're going to have a lot of assets available to them. Problem is, as Ed mentioned, it's very difficult. This is a heavily wooded area. You have at least one shooter. And again the sheriff didn't mention whether or not they were getting sniper fire simultaneously in different directions, or could this be one person changing positions and firing from different positions to give the appearance that there's more than one shooter?

There's a lot of unknown questions, and I imagine you have some wounded people there that cannot be evacuated because of the dangers. So this is a very dynamic scene. They'll be using air assets. They'll be using ground, they'll be using dogs. They'll be using everything at their disposal to try to zero in on this person or persons that are responsible for this. But this could go on for a while unfortunately. And as it gets dark, it becomes even more challenging.

JIMENEZ: And just to give our audience an idea of the urgency of the situation, we were listening to the local sheriff there earlier who said, quite literally, I'm hoping someone has a clear shot. That is the level of consideration where they are right now as they try to identify again, if it's one shooter, if that's changing locations, as Chief Ramsey just laid out, or if it's multiple shooters firing from different locations is really in an evaluation stage right now trying to figure out what the situation actually is.

And Chief Davis, look, a shelter in place order is in effect. But I can imagine some of the major considerations here when you're trying to secure a scene is also trying to make sure the scene doesn't spill over into civilian areas, into residential areas, trying to sort of contain, I guess, that level of danger.

What are those conversations typically like at this stage in an incident like this? And I guess, where do you start on that front?

DAVIS: Well, it's very similar to things that we've seen in the past. And one of the big issues, as Chuck said, bringing in air assets for command and control could be an extremely important part of this. I've seen a helicopter on scene already, but the big thing is trying to lock this place down.

[20:05:08]

You know, you don't want this guy to somehow escape from the area. And to your point, Omar, you know, going into places that haven't been affected yet. So one of the big issues is a perimeter. And the you know, that's clearly fundamental to what we do in a situation like this. But a perimeter takes a lot of staffing. So it's a matter of moving resources into the area. And unlike the military, which can move large numbers of people around, they have the air assets to move small units into combat, police helicopters don't have that kind of capacity. You might get two or three people, but you're not going to get

sufficient numbers to set up a strong perimeter. So a lot of it depends on the terrain. A lot of it depends on how many people they can get in there and the equipment that these people have. These are high powered rifles that are being used. Handguns don't do the trick in a situation like this. You need to have similar type of weaponry that's being used against you.

JIMENEZ: And you know, as we can clearly see that the local police and sheriff's department will be scaling up the resources they use to try and respond to this, given the gravity of the situation that we are looking at. Again, two people killed at this point, as we understand from the sheriff.

Chief Ramsey, we've also heard from the deputy director of the FBI saying FBI assets are headed to the scene in Coeur d'Alene to provide tactical and operational support, emphasizing it's an active scene, as we've also heard from some local officials there on the scene.

What exactly does tactical and operational support mean when you have the FBI coming in to assist what we've already seen happening at the local level?

RAMSEY: Well, I mean, they have their version of SWAT in the FBI. They have other assets that they can bring to bear to try to again locate this individual. That's the most important thing as Ed mentioned, trying to establish a perimeter is difficult under normal circumstances, let alone in an environment like you're talking about right now. And it doesn't sound like they really know exactly where this individual is.

So it's going to make it even more difficult. But certainly the FBI, the ATF, all those federal agencies are very, very skilled in trying to neutralize the situation, locate an individual. They have the skill, they have the expertise to do it.

And one thing I need to just make clear, because it's been mentioned a couple of times when the term neutralize has been used. This is not a de-escalation type of situation. This is an active shooter, a sniper. He's killed two people. Lord knows how many others have been wounded and perhaps even killed that they can't get to. If they get a clear shot, they're going to take it. And that's just the way it is.

But they've got to locate this individual. They have got to stop the killing, period. And whatever it takes to do that is what they're going to do.

JIMENEZ: And again, as we've heard from the sheriff, that seems to be the number one priority right now. Again, as he just laid out plainly as he was speaking to reporters, if someone has a clear shot in regards to his law enforcement folks, he wants them to take it.

Chief Davis, you know, there's another aspect to this, too, where, OK, you are working on trying to neutralize these shooters. You're working to try and make sure it doesn't spill out into residential areas. But just given this type of terrain and where it is, there are hiking routes there. There are people who could be caught or stuck in the crossfire of what -- of where this is happening.

Is there any sort of separate evaluation for how to help those people, people who again may be stuck in the crossfire as there are all these other priorities going on? Or is it really just a situation where you can't get to them until you neutralize the first part?

DAVIS: Well, once the perimeter is set and you can start to be comfortable that you've got the place secure. Each and every officer who is assigned out there will be cognizant of the possibility of innocent civilians being in the area. So the very first officers arriving will be noting and doing what they can to safely evacuate. But when there's active fire like this and automatic weapons fire from what I heard the sheriff say, they -- you just have to go to ground and take cover until the situation is safe to move.

So the officers will be trying to help as much as they can, but they're dealing with the reality of someone who has superior firepower and who has not shown any hesitance to kill.

[20:10:04]

So you're doing the best you can with a bad situation. You might be able to get verbal commands to civilians that you spot in the area, but it really is just a case of taking cover, hunkering down, and hoping to get a -- to get a real good location on where the suspect is so he can be taken out.

JIMENEZ: And Chief Ramsey, you know, we've talked about incorporating potentially, you know, aerial assets seems obviously like we're watching this. We're looking at this video here and it seems there's a helicopter in the shot there. But how long typically does it take to organize not just getting a helicopter in the air, assuming you can do so safely with visuals without taking fire yourself, but also other types of let's call it drones or anything with potential thermal sights?

I mean, I just wonder what the range of assets are that you can get up in the sky and the timeline of being able to do so.

RAMSEY: Well, they're getting more and more assistance now, how much of that in terms of the actual local department, how, you know, there in terms of the types of equipment they have, but they're going to have access to a lot of equipment coming in, and a lot of it is already being used. They're already showing shots of a helicopter. They'll have more air assets. They'll probably are reaching out to people from that area that know the terrain.

That would be -- that would volunteer to help them try to find a position where they can, you know, try to locate this individual where the person is likely to be. I would assume the person has got high ground. So if they're able to get behind him somehow and able to go down the mountainside to try to locate this individual. I mean, all these things are probably going on right now.

There's a command center that's been set up. This is a perfect example of where you have incident command, where you have multiple jurisdictions coming in together. Someone has to be in charge, not just in charge overall of the operation, but in charge of different aspects of the operation. So all these things are going on now. The coordination is something you train for over and over and over again, hoping you never have to use it.

But that's where the training kicks in because you've got a lot of moving pieces right now with a lot of different agencies responding and you've got a fire, you've got multiple people perhaps that have been shot at least two dead, maybe more than one shooter. So you've got a lot of things going on right now simultaneously. But through incident command, they can organize, come up with a strategy, come up with a plan and deal with this.

JIMENEZ: And as we are seeing and as you all have laid out a lot of different coordination across agencies at the local, state and federal level as well. We mentioned it. The FBI deputy director putting out that FBI assets -- here's a tweet here from Dan Bongino. "FBI assets are headed to the scene in Coeur d'Alene to provide tactical and operational support. It is an active scene."

And Chief Davis, I just want to ask about the nature of this shooting because as we understand, it's towards fire personnel that were actively trying to get a fire under control, a brush fire, as we understand. Have you ever dealt with the situation where firefighters are out doing one thing obviously at risk because of the fire, but then now face a completely separate risk of either being shot or something at the very least, that requires a police response? Is this something you've ever seen before?

DAVIS: Yes, it's relatively common in inner cities where you have a problem with firearm violence. There are oftentimes when we go to the scene and fire, and especially EMS, too, will be affected by an unsafe scene. So there are protocols set up. So that we can keep them safe until we -- until we secure the scene.

Now, the problem with that is everybody rushes in at first to save a life or to put out a fire. And you might not understand that it's a -- it's a dangerous scene until tragically, there are injuries or in this case two deaths from what they're reporting. Once that happens, we tend to pull those ancillary services back and let the police take the point on it to try to do what they have to do to stop it from happening.

But, you know, this is unique in that it's in a mountainous area and, you know, most of our firearm violence is in the inner cities. But when something like this breaks out, the same type of protocols attach, the SWAT teams will have EMTs attached to the unit to render aid to police officers, firefighters or other civilians, who might be in the area.

[20:15:06]

But the fire has to take a second seat unfortunately to making it safe. We don't want to see any anyone else hurt.

JIMENEZ: And just to review for our audience, as we've been going through, we've been talking a while, as you can see on the banner on your screen, two dead in the shooting of Idaho firefighters as they were responding to a brush fire right near the border of Washington state and Idaho in a city called Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The urgency of the situation was highlighted by the sheriff, who spoke

not too long ago, and essentially said he is hoping someone has a clear shot because they are currently taking sniper fire as law enforcement try to secure the scene, but also figure out if there's just one shooter, multiple shooters, also trying to figure out if there are people out hiking who may have been caught in the crossfire as well.

They believe these shots have come from modern-day sporting rifles or high-powered rifles as the sheriff put it, as well, and that they don't know who the suspects are right now. Even more critically, that there is an active threat to the public in the immediate area. So we're following all of these details. Still looking for more as we try to figure out new information about the progress of law enforcement and whether they have been able to make any progress on that front.

We're going to squeeze in a quick break. But more news on the other side. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:21:16]

JIMENEZ: All right. Welcome back, everyone. We are continuing to follow the breaking news out of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, right now. Two believed to be fire personnel killed while responding to a fire, shot and killed by a suspect that law enforcement currently does not know where they are. They don't even know if it's one suspect. They believe it could be multiple based on these direct sniper fire they are continuing to take, as we heard from the sheriff not too long ago. And it has come in the form of rapid fire, as we heard from that same sheriff.

I want to bring in Andy McCabe, former FBI deputy director and CNN senior law enforcement analyst.

So obviously, look, a lot of factors here as law enforcement are trying to, one, get a handle on this. We heard from the sheriff that, point blank, that if one of his officers or anyone in law enforcement there gets a clear shot at this person, that they should just take it. How are you beginning to assess what we know about this scene? And from a law enforcement perspective, a federal one, where do you begin to try and support?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, first, Omar, about the scene. So this is the -- we are in the middle of an active shooter situation. So as much as those comments might seem kind of bracing to some people, this is the situation you have to deal with. You have somebody, you have civilians, members of local government, firefighters taking incoming fire from an unknown gunman.

So it doesn't get any more intense and dangerous than this, right? So I think the comments are accurate. So if law enforcement, responding law enforcement, assisting law enforcement, other assets, sniper assets, tactical assets from state and local partners have an opportunity to identify who's actually conducting this shooting, then of course they're going to take any steps that are necessary to mitigate that threat.

But the key there is identifying who is actually conducting the shooting. You know, it's kind of, it's kind of rule of sniper tactics that each time a sniper takes a shot, they reveal a bit of themselves and their location. And so it's that kind of information that law enforcement will use to try to pin down exactly where this fire is coming from. Once they have that identified, then they'll be able to apply those tactical resources to eliminate this threat. But, you know, we can only hope that they'll -- they can do that quickly because as every minute ticks by, you know, additional people are in harm's way here.

As for the federal assistance, as with all of these mass shooting or active shooting scenes, the role of the federal government is to provide assistance, is to support the state and local officials who are really in the lead on this response, and to provide whatever tactical, technological, logistical resources that can possibly help. That might be something as kind of mundane as air assets, helicopters, rotary wing assets that can pick up people, law enforcement officials or tactical assets and bring them to the scene and deposit them in places where they need to be.

It might be providing tactical assets, resources like the FBI's hostage rescue team or SWAT teams from local field offices, or it could be technological resources, using FBI air assets to provide surveillance, overwatch, whether those are helicopters or fixed wing.

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So there's all kinds of different ways that the federal government can assist the locals. But to be clear, though, locals are in the lead of this situation. They are responsible for the response and ultimately for getting these people out of harm's way.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, one of the things that we talk -- that you were just mentioning is that obviously every minute and hour is crucial because every time that goes by, there's more people that could be at risk here, including law enforcement and fire personnel clearly, as we have seen. We're -- we've still got some time before the sun would set. Obviously, we're not at that point, but how much does that change the nature of a search for a suspect like this, if you start to have the sun begin to go down, given what we've seen so far to this point?

MCCABE: Sure. So the loss of visibility with the setting sun and the coming of night is obviously that's to the advantage of the shooter. And at that point, you know, you can certainly see this transitioning at some point into a manhunt situation. We've seen a number of those in the last couple of years. Obviously, we had one just a few -- a week or so ago in Minnesota with the individual who attacked the Minnesota state legislators, attacked and murdered Minnesota state legislators. So you can see this transitioning potentially into a situation like

that. Now, it doesn't mean that the search for that person stops when the sun goes down, because you still have resources that rely on things like heat signatures and other technological elements that can reveal someone's whereabouts, you know, in the middle of a forest, in low light situations. But it's, you know, making sure that you have those resources available and on site so that you can transition to those sort of operations immediately rather than waiting until the point when you know the light has gotten bad, you can no longer really see where the shots are coming from, and now you're starting to ask for what you need.

Another responsibility of the federal authorities is to say not just, hey, we're here to help. But here's what we can do for you. Here's the assets we have. We're already moving them in place. You let us know when you want them and they're right here for you.

JIMENEZ: Andy McCabe, former FBI deputy director, senior law enforcement analyst, thank you for the time and insight as always.

Everyone else, we are continuing to follow the latest out of this story again in Idaho. Suspect, may be suspects, in the woods shooting at law enforcement as we understand from the sheriff as they try to get the scene under control. As we understand, the sheriff believes two fire personnel have been shot and killed while responding to a brush fire out there.

We're following those details. We'll get them to you as we follow this story on the other side of the break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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JIMENEZ: All right. Welcome back, everyone. We are continuing to follow the latest on this story out of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, near the border of Washington and Idaho. Right now, as we understand, two people have been killed as firefighters were responding to a brush fire in the area. And as we understand from law enforcement, they are still taking active fire from a suspect or multiple suspects. We still don't know at this point.

I want to bring in Mark Lathrop, who actually lives in the area right now.

Mark, can you just tell me what the situation is near you? What are you hearing? What are you seeing?

MARK LATHROP, LIVES NEAR IDAHO SHOOTING SITE: Hi, Omar. Yes. So right now in our neighborhood, there's people outside. We're a block away from kind of the nature area, the trailhead. And we can -- we're here actually monitoring the fire. We're a ridge away from where the shooting is taking place even though we can't hear it. There's a police sheriff helicopter overhead. Multiple helicopters actually. And at this point they can't fight the fire. So that's kind of our main concern in our neighborhood. JIMENEZ: And, you know, can you just -- obviously I have not had the

opportunity to get out there to Coeur d'Alene, but can you just for our viewers describe, I mean, what is the terrain like? Is it is it hills? Is it mountains? Is it -- just paint a picture for us.

LATHROP: There is -- it's treed. It's mainly Ponderosa pines with a lot of underbrush. This being a recreation area of sorts, they have cleared the underbrush, but where they're going to be, it's going to be pretty thick. And it's very, very dry. We haven't had a lot of rain here, so that's why we're concerned about fire obviously. But there's going to be, you know, a lot of places to be hiding. And if you went away from town, these logging roads go 30 to 50 miles before you hit another town. So it's quite a big area for them to search.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, obviously there's a hiking trail nearby here. As I understand, this is a place that people frequent. Is that the case? I mean, where is this actually happening as far as you can tell?

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LATHROP: Well, we have in our neighborhood two sniper teams set up a block down and a block up since I'm a block away from the hill and they're monitoring the trail because there was other hikers up there when this happened, so we could still have people up there trying to get home.

JIMENEZ: Have you been on this trail before?

LATHROP: Yes. My wife does it three or four times a week. It's very, very well-used trail. They maintain it very nicely. And then Middleton Gulch, there's more of a ORV, you know, recreation scooters and all that kind of stuff. They are up there. So road accessible for the most part up in that area.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, a little bit earlier, I think you may have been talking to one of my colleagues. You said that there were, that there were choppers overhead, that they may have been rigging up, you know, I think your tweet was an army at Coeur d'Alene high school based on just kind of how you were looking at it.

Just how have things developed over the past 40 minutes or so?

LATHROP: Well, what's surprising is we haven't had anybody. We're so close and we haven't had any messages. We didn't even get a phone text. I didn't either to shelter in place, although I'm even watching an Amazon delivery guy next door. This guy -- and we were this close. I know that outside agencies are bringing in SWAT teams, and the guys I saw come up, they were in full, full military gear getting ready.

JIMENEZ: You mentioned that you saw, I think you said two snipers that were sort of setting up maybe a block away or on your street? Is that right? What are you -- what are you seeing on that front?

LATHROP: Yes. They're watching the hill. Yes, they're watching the hill. Because if they came our way, they would come down, down this trail system. And it's pretty wide open. And they're either watching the hill for the shooters or for, you know, just hikers that need to get out of harm's way.

JIMENEZ: I know you said you were -- you all were nervous or watching for the fire to see how it progressed and to see if it got closer. Obviously, you know, you know, those firefighting efforts have stopped at this point as they try to figure out what's going on.

LATHROP: Yes.

JIMENEZ: But are you concerned for your safety at all right now in regards to this shooting?

LATHROP: Not at this point just because of the ridge between us and obviously, if they're watching, they would have to come through, you know, a street to get to where I'm at. And that's being, I mean, there's a huge presence here. So I feel pretty safe at this point. I do have a swimming pool in the backyard, and I have 32,000 gallons of water at my disposal for if the fire gets out of hand, but luckily the wind is pretty light right now, so it doesn't appear to be spreading.

But it is blowing towards us, which is a little concerning. But yes, right now we, I mean, our neighbors are out talking and we feel safe at this point.

JIMENEZ: Yes. Well, Mark, stay in touch with us. Obviously, if the situation changes, let us know as soon as you safely can. I appreciate you taking the time, even with everything that's going on. Thanks for talking.

LATHROP: Yes, yes. Hopefully they get it taken care of before it gets dark. That will change the situation.

JIMENEZ: Yes, no doubt. Appreciate it, Mark.

LATHROP: Thanks, Omar.

JIMENEZ: And as we've been talking about this is a situation that is still very active as we just heard from Mark there. He has seen a visible presence even on his block, even though as he described he was a ridge away from where this is happening. We've seen helicopters overhead as he described as well, in what appears to be an area with a very popular hiking trails. But it sounds like even his wife goes on many times a day, as many others in this area tend to do as well.

So we are continuing to follow this breaking news as we've been talking about. Two killed as we understand and as law enforcement try to get the scene under control, they are actively taking sniper fire, trying to locate where they might be getting fire from.

Stay with us. We're going to have more details straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:44:23]

JIMENEZ: All right, everyone, we are following breaking news out of Idaho where multiple law enforcement agencies are responding to an active shooting situation. Officials say a group of firefighters were attacked while responding to a brush fire. At this point, they say at least two people are dead and law enforcement is still trying to determine if there is more than one shooter involved.

This is happening in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, just east of the border with Washington state, and we just got the emergency dispatch audio of the moment those shots were fired. You can hear a firefighter urgently calling for help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Send law enforcement right now. There's an active shooter zone. They're shot. BC three is down, BC one is down. Everybody shot up here. Law enforcement, code three now.

[20:45:08]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the upper parking lot. Upper parking lot. Up on the dirt parking lot. We need law enforcement up here immediately, law enforcement up here immediately. We've got two unresponsive battalion chiefs, gunshot wounds, multiple gunshot wounds. Two Coeur d'Alene firefighters are down. We need law enforcement. Get up here with the possibly get the two wounded out. I'm pinned down behind Battalion One's rig. It's clear to me that this fire was intentionally to draw us in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: So we hear -- we heard a lot in just that dispatch audio. Again officials still combing through the exact details here.

CNN's Rafael Romo is here.

So, Rafael, what more are we learning not just from this dispatch audio, but otherwise?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Omar, not too long ago, we heard a number of very chilling details from Kootenai County Sheriff Robert Norris, including that there's an unknown number of casualties and that law enforcement is taking sniper fire, calling what's happening an active situation.

Sheriff Norris also said that they don't know how many shooters there are, if it's only one or several. But he did say that it appears that the perpetrator or perpetrators are using high powered rifles, and the officers are taking rapid fire. Law enforcement have been told, in Sheriff Norris' words, that if they get the shot, they should go ahead and take that shot and neutralize the threat.

In the last hour, Idaho Governor Brad Little issued a statement confirming the news. He said that quote, "Multiple heroic firefighters were attacked today while responding to a fire in North Idaho." The governor called the shooting, "a heinous direct assault on our brave firefighters," while asking all people from Idaho to pray for them and their families as officials wait to learn more from law enforcement at the scene. And Omar, the Kootenai County Emergency Management Office issued a

brief statement in the last couple of hours asking people in the area to shelter in place, specifically, authorities are asking people to avoid, and this is very specific and very local. But it's important to mention Omar, the Canfield Mountain Trailhead and Nettleton Gulch Road, the shooting happened in Coeur d'Alene. If you have mentioned before, this is a town of less than 60,000 people in northwestern Idaho, near the border with Washington state. In fact, it's about 34 miles east of Spokane as we can see in the map -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: Rafael, stay with us as we're following this breaking story. You know, we just played some of that dispatch audio that we got in a few moments ago, giving a sense of how urgent this situation was in the initial moments with what I believe to be fire personnel, emergency responding personnel saying that they had been shot, that at least two people had been shot and unresponsive, as was described over that dispatch audio.

Two gunshot wounds, multiple gunshot wounds. And specifically saying two Coeur d'Alene firefighters over that audio and that they need law enforcement immediately and that they could possibly get the two wounded out. But obviously, that's an assessment for those that have been responding in these early moments. We've heard from the sheriff that sense of urgency echoed, talking about how, if any of their officers, have a chance to shoot or neutralize the suspect or suspects who may be shooting at this moment to take that shot, because, as that sheriff has described, they are actively taking gunfire as well.

We are continuing to follow all of these developments. Again, we are poring through the details as we get them, including accounts from those that live nearby in the area. This is an ongoing, active situation right now. We're going to bring you all the details as soon as we get them. We're going to squeeze a quick -- squeeze in a quick break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:53:46]

JIMENEZ: All right. Welcome back, everyone, to the breaking news we are continuing to follow.

At least two have been killed, believed to be fire personnel responding to a brush fire in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. And critically, law enforcement that are responding say they are taking active fire, active gunfire from either a suspect or multiple suspects. They are trying to figure that out in these moments, laid out plainly by a sheriff saying, if you have a shot, take it.

I want to bring in former Boston police commissioner Ed Davis, who's been following this story for us as well.

You know, we've gotten a little bit of -- a little bit of further insight from some dispatch audio that will go back through a little bit later. But we heard there in the dispatch audio that clearly the firefighters realized what was happening after two of their battalion chiefs, as they were described, went down due to gunshot wounds.

What is that initial law enforcement response like when you get a call like that urgent need, we need to get there right away, in a situation where you might not know where the threat is coming from?

DAVIS: Right. Well, as I said earlier, it's the worst case scenario. It's something like that is all hands on deck.

[20:55:01]

Everybody grabs rifles and runs out of the police department. The SWAT team members who are in the field usually have equipment with them. They'll respond from wherever they're at. And it's a matter of getting as many people there as quickly as possible, because in that chilling audio, you had people on the ground that needed to be rescued. We usually dispatch something called a bearcat, which is a heavily armored vehicle that can get into an area like that, and they have hatch doors so that they can pull a victim off the ground and inside to a safe location.

But, you know, you feel for the firefighters that were calling that in because they were literally people that were bleeding to death on the ground and they were pinned down behind their fire trucks. So very troubling situation, almost like a battlefield scene. And it's really up to the police now to -- they're pulling together a command post in close proximity to this incident where all of the police that are responding from all over, by the way/

You know, I was at 9/11, during the Boston marathon incident as well, people self-reported, police from all over came in. And it's not just police in a wooded area like this. You're going to have conservation game wardens, natural resource officers who know that area really well, who will be attached to the responding units to help them. So there's a lot going on right now, but I feel terrible for what these firefighters went through in the initial minutes of this.

JIMENEZ: And just quickly here, what is the priority right now for this -- for law enforcement?

DAVIS: The priority is to -- is to neutralize the suspect. The sheriff said it, right. There's really -- that's the first thing that you have to do is locate and remove him from the equation so that you can go in and rescue people. Clearly, if you have a chance to get medical help in and evacuate people who are in the field of fire, you'll do that as quickly as possible, you know, we have body bunkers and other equipment to keep the officers safe while they're doing that.

But these high powered rifles are extremely dangerous and can really penetrate a lot of the defenses that we have. So it's a very, very dangerous situation.

JIMENEZ: Yes. And Chief Davis, really appreciate the time and insight as we continue to follow this breaking news and quickly evolving situation. We're going to squeeze in a quick break, but we're going to have a full reset of everything we know in just a few minutes, including we're going to play this new -- newly, this dispatch audio that we just got in, giving some insight to what happened in the opening moments here. A lot to get to. Stay with us.

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