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Former South Carolina Governor and U.S. Ambassador to U.N. Nikki Haley Announce 2024 Presidential Run; Press Conference Held in Michigan regarding Recent Shootings on Michigan State University Campus. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired February 14, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: We've got to get to the top of the hour. That's something we'd love to have you back on to discuss. Thank you, Scott Kelly.

CAPT. SCOTT KELLY, (RET) FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Thanks, Don.

LEMON: Thank you.

CNN THIS MORNING continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS ROZMAN, INTERIM DEPUTY CHIEF, MSU DEPARTMENT OF POLICE AND PUBLIC SAFETY: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Good morning, everyone. A very busy news day. Poppy Harlow is on assignment. And we're going to talk about a gunman opening fire on Michigan State University's campus. At least three people are dead. The news conference set to begin in just moments. We're going to take you there.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And new this morning, Nikki Haley is running for president. The former governor and United Nations ambassador has just announced her plan. She is the first to challenge Trump for the Republican nomination in 2024.

As we are waiting for the news conference at Michigan State University that Don just mentioned to get underway, we want to talk about this big new development in the to 2024 race this morning as Nikki Haley is now running for the White House. Obviously, you know her as she served as the United Nations ambassador for Trump. She announced in a video this morning that she will be running for president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO U.N.: You should know this about me. I don't put up with bullies. And when you kick back, it hurts them more if you are wearing heels.

I'm Nikki Haley, and I'm running for president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right, we're going to begin now with Kylie Atwood this morning to talk about this. Kylie, here we go. The election season is beginning right now.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, it is. Nikki Haley coming out with this video previewing her announcement tomorrow in South Carolina saying definitely for the first time that she is running for president. And what this video does is sort of tell her story, talk about growing up in South Carolina to Indian immigrants, saying she wasn't black, she wasn't white, she was different. Talking about growing up then and becoming governor of South Carolina and standing up to fear, of course, when there was that awful shooting at the church in South Carolina.

And one of the things that Nikki Haley really does in this video is talk about how great America was. And she said even growing up, when she faced challenges, her parents reminded her every day how lucky she was to have the opportunities here in America. They moved to the United States from India. It wasn't always easy for them. She makes that very clear in the video. But this video for her is really introducing herself to the American people. She talks about the Republican Party, their values. But she says that they have lost the popular vote in many of the recent presidential races, and that is something that needs to change.

So it's clear that she is positioning herself as the new generation here, talks about not wanting to look back to the old leaders of the party, but --

LEMON: Kylie, we'll have to get back to you. We want to get now to Michigan to that press conference. Sorry to cut you off. We want to get now to that press conference. The governor of Michigan standing by, now speaking. Gretchen Whitmer, here she is.

GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER, (D) MICHIGAN: -- beautiful souls today. And pray for those who are continuing to fight for their lives. Every Spartan student, parent, and staff member should know that Michiganders and Americans everywhere are thinking of you today. President Biden and I spoke last night. He pledged his support and the thoughts of an entire nation, and we will work together to do what is necessary to help the MSU community heal.

We're all broken by an all too familiar feeling, another place that is supposed to be about community and togetherness shattered by bullets and bloodshed. We know this is a uniquely American problem. Today is the fifth anniversary of the Parkland shooting, where mere weeks past the lunar new year shooting at a dance hall, and a few months past the shooting of an elementary school in Uvalde. We're looking back at a year marked by shootings at grocery stores, parades, and so many other ordinary, everyday situations. We cannot keep living like this. Our children are scared to go to

school. People feel unsafe in their houses of worship or local stores. Too many of us scan rooms for exits when we enter them, and many of us have gone through the grim exercise of figuring out who our last call would be to. Last night a lot of kids on this campus made those calls. They worried for their lives and for their friends, their fellow Spartans. Parents across Michigan were on pins and needles calling their kids to tell them that they loved them.

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As parents, we tell our kids it's going to be OK. We say that all the time. But the truth is words are not good enough. We must act, and we will. But today let's hold the MSU and East Lansing communities close, and let's think of the families and friends of those who have lost, those fighting for their lives, and the countless Michiganders whose lives are forever changed by yesterday's shooting. We will do through this together, and we will do it with the full support of the state of Michigan and the U.S. federal government.

And with that I would like to hand it over to our Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin.

REP. ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-MI): Thanks, Governor. I want to echo what the governor said about the response of law enforcement. Those of you who might have been listening on the scanner, you heard how deeply complex this operation was yesterday, with young people calling in tips, constantly with just an unbelievably difficult area of environment to navigate. Law enforcement did an incredible job. We had hundreds respond from across the state. And I just -- I think it's a testament to those who hold the thin blue line for us, the ones that hesitate -- or do not hesitate when we need them. And I think we should recognize how desperately they were needed last night and in our society in general.

I want to thank the doctors and nurses and staff at Sparrow hospital. They were on it. No one wants to live through a mass shooting like this, but they were prepared, and they handled it with grace and humanity.

As a representative of Oxford, Michigan, I cannot believe that I am here again doing this 15 months later. And I am filled with rage that we have to have another press conference to talk about our children being killed in their schools. And I would say that you either care about protecting kids or you don't. You either care about having an open, honest conversation about what is going on in our society, or you don't. But please don't tell me you care about the safety of children if you are not willing to have a conversation about keeping them safe in a place that should be a sanctuary.

Now, the Spartan community is incredibly connected and proud. We have already seen people come together. But for me, the most haunting picture of last night was watching the cameras pan through the crowds and seeing a young person wearing an "Oxford Strong" sweatshirt, the sweatshirts that were handed out after those kids lived through a school shooting 15 months ago. And we have children in Michigan living through their second school shooting in under a year-and-a-half. If this is not a wake-up call to do something, I don't know what is.

In the meantime, I feel confident that our law enforcement is doing everything that they can to understand the situation. I am thrilled that federal law enforcement is on scene bringing their resources to the fight. We are not going to rest until we understand. But I think the fact that we are having this conference so quickly after another mass shooting in our state should be a statement in and of itself.

Thanks very much.

MAYOR ANDY SCHOR, LANSING, MICHIGAN: On behalf of the community, I'm Mayor Andy Schor.

MAYOR RON BACON, EAST LANSING, MICHIGAN: Mayor Ron Bacon, East Lansing.

SCHOR: The city of Lansing. This is the morning that nobody ever wants to have. This is the day that nobody ever wants to be standing up at a lectern. When you get elected, you want to talk about the great things in your community and not this. But here we are.

I do want to thank the Lansing residents who stood up. These many, many tips you heard about came in from many of our residents, and as a result the shooter was identified, and the threat was neutralized. So we are very proud of our citizens in Lansing. There is going to be so much fear. It's not just the students. It's the community. I've heard from parents and citizens who didn't know what was going on. So I want to share, we have a community mental health resource that is open 24/7. It's a crisis services, 517-346-8200. And I also want to share in the incredible job that was done by our law enforcement, LPD, ELPD, state police, Ingham County, and, of course, MSU. This is what they train for. And today and yesterday they were able to show that they are prepared. It's not something you ever want to do when you train, but they were prepared, and they were excellent.

BACON: As of today, East Lansing Hannah Center will be available to students in need of resources, and counseling will be available all day. We'll be working with the Department of Health Services today as well to extend other additional things to the community.

[08:10:08]

I just want to say as mayor of East Lansing, when I introduce myself, I am the mayor of East Lansing, home of Michigan State University. We are indivisible. This Spartan will thing is real. I send out my deepest regrets and remorse to the families that lost children. The fear stricken in the children at Michigan State. For my children, I am dad here in this community, it's like a playground for them. It's where you go and have your first experiences and taste of college life and fun and all those types of things. And I'm just shattered today. My heart aches for our community, and it will be present, we will be here in support. President Woodruff, the entire community of Michigan State University will stand hand in hand. And this is just the beginning. We will find the way forward. I don't want to stand up here and try to communicate that we have the answers at that point, but as Congressperson Slotkin said, we are going to find the answers and we're going to figure some stuff out here. This has gone far enough. Thank you.

DR. DENNY MARTIN, SPARROW HOSPITAL, LANSING: Good morning, everyone. I am Dr. Denny Martin. I'm the interim president and chief medical officer at Sparrow Hospital, Lansing. I think a lot of very dry mouths up here this morning, so bear with bear with us. We appreciate your patience.

I can confirm that last evening we cared for five individuals who were brought to Sparrow Hospital from East Lansing campus. The team at our level one trauma center with our emergency medicine physicians and trauma surgeons were waiting for them upon their arrival. I will give a lot of thanks to the individuals, the first responders on the scene. Our ability to care for these individuals starts in the field. And they did a fantastic job.

Four of those individuals required surgical intervention to treat their injuries. One individual did not and was taken to the critical care unit after being triaged in the emergency department. All five individuals remained in critical condition this morning. I want to thank the overwhelming response from our team. Everyone in our level one trauma center, this is something we talked about this morning that we practice for very often, but never want to have to do. And we did it amazingly well. I'm very proud of everyone.

The team was led by our emergency department physicians again with our trauma surgeons. But can't forget we had general surgeons, cardiothoracic surgeons, neurosurgeons. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night, sorry. So many people that just came in. We received a lot of texts that were just, you know, I'm on my way, just people showing up, where do you need me? It was a sad but very proud moment for all of us here.

So I can't speak to anything about the identity of the individuals, but I'm sure we will have some time for questions afterwards. But again, everyone is in critical condition at this time but actively being cared for by our team at Sparrow. So thank you all.

TERESA WOODRUFF, MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY INTERIM PRESIDENT: Good morning. My name is Teresa Woodruff, and I serve as the interim president here. Our Spartan hearts are broken. We are grieving, and as a community we are grieving together. We struggle to comprehend. We lost families, friends, classmates, and our hearts go out to the victims and families of this senseless tragedy, and we offer to each of them the peace that passeth understanding.

We continue to thank for our medical professionals at Sparrow, and we know that they are taking the best care possible of our students.

To our students, we have available to you the support that you need at the Hannah Community Center as was mentioned by Mayor Bacon.

[08:15:00]

This includes counseling and Psychological Services as well as employee assistance programs for our faculty and staff. And we're deeply appreciative to the Governor for reaching out directly to President Biden, and for the offer of additional mental health services for our community. As a university, we also thank our law enforcement, colleagues, both here and in multiple jurisdictions. Who responded immediately, and continue to protect our community today, and each day. I want to thank the staff who are on campus today.

MSU is on modified operations, which means we're an essential personnel, only for today and for tomorrow. And those staff we're here to support our 17,000 students who are on campus, and our 50,000 students across this great university. We thank you. I also think directly our student's faculty and staff, who complied with the request to shelter in place for hours at end, without knowing exactly what was happening. We thank you for your courage to maintain that shelter which allowed our law enforcement to take the actions that they did. We asked each of you to honor your feelings, and to take care of yourself, and each other. And together, we will come back more resilient than ever. And more ready to face what is needed in this society, which is the courage of all of us to ensure that this never happens again.

MARLON LYNCH, VICE PRESIDENT FOR PUBLIC SAFETY AND CHIEF OF POLICE AT MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY: Good morning. I'm Marlon Lynch, Vice President for Public Safety and chief of police here at Michigan State University. You've heard by several people in regards to the response, of first responders, last night. Their work continued through the night, processing crime scenes, training additional statements, additional evidence, tireless work hours. We're not only bound by our duty, but a large percentage of us, are invested in our community. We went to school here, we have children here, we have family. This is us, this is part of us. These partnerships are great.

Our processes will continue with this. We will continuously be joined by our partners as we are here today with the FBI, the State Police, as well as Lansing Police Department in East Lansing. And I hate to even go down the list because there's so many agencies that responded last night, continuously responding and asking how can they help. And it was all in a timely manner, very timely, with that. You will hear a recap of the incident, and as well as some updates based on the events that have occurred overnight in regards to our students that were involved, and also the suspect.

CHRIS ROZMAN, INTERIM DEPUTY CHIEF, MSU DEPT. OF POLICE & PUBLIC SAFELY: Good morning. I'm Deputy Chief Chris Rozman with the Michigan State University Police and Public Safety. As you can tell, this has been a long night for a lot of us. We have been committed from the beginning to being as transparent, and getting as much information out as possible. And we're going to continue to do that throughout the day. And as this investigation moves forward. I'm going to start with a brief recap of the incident yesterday. This tragic situation unfolded shortly before 8:30 p.m. The first call that we received was from Berkey Hall. Berky Hall is an academic building on our northern campus. At borders downtown East Lansing.

Initial calls reported shots fired in that building. And there was a, absolutely overwhelming police response to that initial call. We had officers in that building within minutes. And in that building, they encountered several students who were injured. We can confirm that two of the deceased were in Berkey Hall, along with several of the victims. While the officers were managing that scene at Berkey Hall. We began receiving additional reports of another shooting at the MSU Union Building, just to the west of Berkey Hall, right on the corner of Abbot and Grand River. Officers redeployed to that location where we did locate one additional victim.

[08:20:18]

We do have three total deceased, and five victims at the hospital. We can confirm that all three deceased were MSU students. We can also confirm at this time that all five of the injured victims at the hospital were also MSU students. We will release the names of those students later today. Once we work through some notifications and make sure that the family is aware that we're going to release those names. The suspect in this case was located at approximately 11:35 p.m. in the City of Lansing. The suspect was located by units that were assisting in looking for that suspect after the shootings. The suspect is deceased due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. And we are prepared to release the name of the person who committed these homicides at this time.

We have previously confirmed that he was 43 years old, he's a male, his name is Anthony, last name is McRae, M-C-R-A-E. Anthony Dwayne McRae is a 43-year-old male. We would like to sincerely thank our community for their help. Because of our quick release of the photo -- the photograph from the campus security cameras, and the help from our community. It was a caller's tip that led law enforcement to that suspect in the City of Lansing. We cannot thank the public in the community, and the person who called in that report enough for being observant, for following our messaging, and for being vigilant, and contacting us immediately.

We will continue to share resources for the MSU community, through our institutional website and our MSU Police and Public Safety social media pages. We know that this news may be difficult for those within our campus community and beyond. And it's important to remember that some -- it's important to remember that the grief, that some individuals may be experiencing is normal. And there are a number of ways in which individuals can seek support, including talking with friends, family, and colleagues to process this. And taking advantage of many of the resources that we have provided. We are prepared at this point to take some questions. Sure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Special Agent Jim Tarasca.

ROZMAN: Sure. We're going to turn it over to Special Agent in Charge, Jim Tarasca. Tarasca?

JIM TARASCA, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Good morning. I'm Jim Tarasca. A special agent charge of the FBI, Michigan. First of all, our hearts go out to all the victims, the families, the students, and the community. This happens much too often. I'd like to thank all our partners and law enforcement, chief once again, thanks for your, your leadership. Just great examples of leadership last night from all the agencies that showed up, short notice, and showed selfless sacrifice to attempt to identify find the subject and eliminate the threat. Last night when this occurred, many agencies arrived on the scene. The FBI deployed, agents, analysts, and especially teams to help an effort to help the victims, and to also find the individual responsible. Which occurred thanks to law enforcement. Law enforcement here in Michigan, It's the best I've seen in my 30 years in law enforcement. And I was very proud of our community in law enforcement, the community at large to come together to resolve this issue, this matter. And will continue working in the future hand in hand to mitigate these threats, and try to make Michigan safer places we can for our families. Thank you.

[08:25:12]

ROZMAN: So, I think we are prepared to take some questions now. Again, I do have to reiterate, this is still fluid, it's still ongoing. There are still crime scenes that are being processed. And we still are in the process of putting together the pieces to try to solve, to try to understand, what happened and why it may have happened. So, we're still working through that. So, we will go ahead and take some questions at this time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, what (INAUDIBLE)

ROZMAN: Hold on. Hold on. Go ahead with you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. There was a large police presence on a common Creston Avenue and East Hill Avenue in Lansing, was that the suspect's home?

ROZMAN: So, I can't confirm the actual location or address.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

ROZMAN: I'd -- we are aware that there was a search warrant executed on a residence that was connected to the suspect in this case. We're not prepared to share that specific location at this point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any information on the firearm and whether it was registered and (INAUDIBLE) suspect using it?

ROZMAN: So, at this point, we have no additional information on the actual weapon that was used in the incident. Those are things that we will continue to process and look at today, as part of our investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you recover the weapon?

ROZMAN: We did recover -- we did recover a weapon. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, seven of the eight victims are Berkey Hall, the eight is that the union? And the union victim also went to pass it away. Is that correct?

ROZMAN: There were two. Two of the victims from Berkey Hall are deceased. One victim from the union is deceased. There are five additional victims that are at Sparrow hospital. I cannot confirm where all five of those victims which building they were in. I believe most of them were from Berkey Hall, but I can't confirm that. Going to go right there. Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I understand that first -- you said officers arrived shortly after a Berkey call? And the second building? What would you describe the timetable (INAUDIBLE) because officers was working already (INAUDIBLE)

ROZMAN: Yes, the MSU union is within very close proximity to Berkey Hall, it's within walking distance, I would describe it as less than a block to the west of Berkey Hall. All indications at this point, point to the fact that the suspect exited Berkey Hall and walked over to the MSU union. When those calls initially started coming in from the Union, we were able to quickly redeploy resources to the Union. And the suspect actually quickly fled that building, he was not in the building for that long.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, when you said redeploy, how much of the time (INAUDIBLE) between them?

ROZMAN: I can't get into specifics on the timeframe right now. But that will be part of the investigation that we'll look at is the time between those two incidents. Right there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is the suspect having a previous interaction with law enforcement?

ROZMAN: So, that's part of our investigation today is to look at the suspect, his background, his history. Those are things that are occurring with our state and federal partners right now, who have really taken the lead on helping us with the -- identify the suspect, especially since that incident did occur of campus. But those are things that we're looking at today. And those will be integral to the investigation. In the back row.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Deputy, can you shed any light as to why? Why this happened, what his motive was? Why did he choose Michigan State?

ROZMAN: You know, we had the same question last night, and we have the same answer this morning. We have absolutely no idea what the motive was at this point, we can confirm that the 43-year-old suspect had no affiliation to the university. He was not a student, faculty, staff, current or previous. So, that's an unknown right now. And that's what we're trying to understand is why this incident occurred. I know everybody wants to know what the motive is. We don't have an answer right now. And that's the honest truth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, is there anything find inside his home that you might help with that?

ROZMAN: I can't comment on what was located in the residence as part of that search warrant, but that is part of the ongoing investigation. Right there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last week, several schools and openness and other schools across the state were shut down for an aptitude, which was determined to be a hoax. Have do you determine if there's any connection to that, at this is one?

ROZMAN: So, I will get into that in detail. Obviously, we're looking at the possibility of any connection. There doesn't what I will say is there doesn't appear to be initially, but those are the type of things that our state and federal partners are really going to look at. But initially, it does not appear that there's any connection. In the back right there. Blue Kelson (PH).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I understand that police make contract with the suspect before (INAUDIBLE).

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