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Congressman, Aide & Capitol Officers Shot in Virginia. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired June 14, 2017 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00] REP. MO BROOKS (R), ALABAMA, (via telephone): With a baseball bat and that's not - that's not the kind of fight you want to engage in.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely. And you were saying that because of the repetitive fire, it seemed to you as though it were a semiautomatic, obviously making this even more dangerous.

And, again, congressman, we have you, Mo Brooks from Alabama, on the phone. You survived the shooting at the GOP baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia.

For those just joining us right now, the congressman is telling us how they were practicing early this morning at about 6:30. He heard something during their batting practice. He looked. He saw a rifle, a man, a white male, somewhat heavy-set, hidden behind a dugout, opened fire on this congressional baseball team.

Multiple people were hit. Congressman Brooks says at least five. One of them notably the majority whip for the GOP, Steve Scalise of Louisiana. We're not sure right now if that injury is life- threatening. The congressman says that he saw Scalise dragged himself into the outfield. Congressman Brooks and others not only scrambled and protected themselves with cover, but he put a tourniquet on the leg of one staffer and then went out with another congressman to help the whip, Steve Scalise.

They did have some limited security detail there because Scalise is the whip. He is in the chain of succession and he has that protective detail. They exchanged fire with the gunman. The police say the gunman is in custody and they say there is no continuing threat, but that's hard to know for sure.

Congressman, you say it took a while for the authorities to get there. They're keeping you there right now. They say you are safe. I don't want you to tell us too much about where they're keeping you, just in case there is a continuing threat. How are you feeling right now after a little bit of time?

BROOKS: Well, the adrenaline is starting to subside a little bit. The emotions, my voice is not cracking as much as it was. Of course, the most frustrating thing is when you see your friends, Steve Scalise in particular, lying on the ground and you're trying to figure out what you can do to help. And it's a very helpless situation. You can't - you can't get out - you can't get out to help. You have no way to defend yourself. So that's the emotional part other than, of course, the risk to yourself.

But to have someone next to you who's bleeding profusely from his leg, you don't know how bad the injury is. Again, I forget the gentleman's name. He was very brave. He was saying, hey, I'm OK. I'm OK. But you can see the bullet hole in his calf and you know that that's not OK. And that's where the tourniquet came into play. Now, to be clear, it was my belt and I assisted, but there was another gentlemen who was lying on the ground next to me, the two of us put it on and tightened it up and - to make sure that he had minimal blood loss and I saw him carted away -

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

BROOKS: Before you called and - and the belt was still there being used as a tourniquet. So I'm - I'm happy that it was made to good use.

CAMEROTA: Yes, congressman, listen, you - you did yeoman's duty there obviously in the heat of this moment and the terror of what was happening when you didn't know and you - and you were watching - I mean you were one of the first people, we believe, to see the gunman and to hear the - the shots and opening fire and trying to sort of figure out what was happening. You told us that there were you believe something like maybe 25 people, all of you there practicing. This is one of your routine early morning practices, along with your fellow congressmen and some senators and you get together and this is supposed to be, you know, a summer activity obviously of comradery and then all of this breaks out. Can you tell us, just for people who are just joining us, remind us, recall for us what happened when you first that first shot.

BROOKS: Well, I heard - I'm not sure if it was immediately after the first, second or third shot because they were pretty quick in succession, but I heard Steve Scalise scream. And I don't remember exactly what he said. But it was clear that something bad happened.

And at - you know, at the same time I hear the bangs. I look in that direction, and I hear the scream. I see the rifle behind the third base dugout, probably about 10 or 15 feet passed the third base dugout on the left field side but the third base dugout is obscuring the view of those of us who are - who are batting.

The man continues to fire. Steve Scalise by now is on the ground and he doesn't know how bad he's hit. Then I see the man himself with the gun and it's about that time that I figured that if I can see him, he can see me, and I'm one of the closest targets to him. And that's when I decided it really wasn't too smart to be standing right there and I ran around the - to the first base side of home plate. We had a batting cage. If you've ever been to a baseball field, you know what they look like. They've got plastic about four feet high and then a chain link top to catch foul balls. We hid behind the blue plastic and laid down there and the - and the gunfire just seemed to never stop.

[08:35:24] CUOMO: Congressman, just to remind people -

BROOKS: And (INAUDIBLE) and I figured out that the guy - the guy may decide to go around the third baseline, in which case he would have a direct shot at those of us who were lying next to home plate behind the blue plastic. And that's when I made the decision, I think along with the two or three folks who were with me thrown (ph) on the ground, to try to get to the first base dugout if we could. And, fortunately, while the gentleman was still shooting at people in the outfield or in the infield - gentleman, I shouldn't use that word. While the man, the shooter, was doing that, ran into the dugout and dove head first on to the concrete where there were some other (INAUDIBLE) players as we're trying to get out of - out of gunfire range.

CUOMO: Congressman, just to remind people, you've been giving us names of people who were there. I hope you take some consolation in the fact that people from all over the country are expressing not only their great regret about this, but they want to make sure that you're all OK. They care about their elected representatives and they want to know if their people are there from their own home state and district. I want to go through the names that you've given us. The president of the United -

BROOKS: Well, Roger Williams was there. He's one of our coaches. Coach Joe Barton. Both of them are from Texas. He was there. They were probably around home plate at the time. That's normally where they position themselves during batting practice.

CUOMO: All right. And you've said DeSantis. You've said DeSantis, Fleischmann, Paul, Flake, Wenstrup, Palmer -

BROOKS: Yes.

CUOMO: And, of course, you. Do any other names come to mind other than the two you just gave us, Williams and Barton?

BROOKS: There were - there were at least another dozen.

CUOMO: OK.

BROOKS: But, you know, I was so shook up and I was so focused on other things, I wasn't taking down names. I wasn't doing the roster there.

CUOMO: Understandable. Understandable. Just trying to get names out there for people who want to make sure their representatives are OK. The president of the United States just put out a statement. "The VP and I are aware of the shooting incident in Virginia and are monitoring developments closely. We're deeply saddened by this tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with the members of Congress, their staffs, Capitol Police, first responders and all others affected."

CAMEROTA: And, in fact, we know that Steve Scalise, who has been injured, he did meet with President Trump yesterday in the Roosevelt Room. We are waiting for an update on Steve Scalise's condition, as we are with all of the other people. The staffer, congressman, who you described putting your belt around as a tunicate, who was hit in the calf, that you describe to law enforcement officer, a Capitol Police or Secret Service officer. These are just the five that you saw injured and we don't have any numbers yet from authorities, congressman.

BROOKS: No. And Steve Scalise, he never lost consciousness in my presence. He was conscious the whole time. Of course he was in pain and he was prone (ph) and we were trying to get liquids into him. Some of us were, as Brad Wenstrup tried to tend to him. We were very fortunate to have Brad Wenstrup there.

CAMEROTA: Yes, a doctor. A practicing physician. And we are watching there. That is - we just saw a minute of the chop that landed there in the ball field to take the worst injured away.

Here's Senator Jeff Flake, I believe, that we're seeing be interviewed right now on Capitol Hill - I mean, sorry, at the baseball field. But we did watch somebody be air lifted in that chopper and you are not sure, nor are we, who was requiring that level of medical attention.

BROOKS: Well, the two people who seemed the worst injured, other than the shooter, were Steve Scalise and one of our security detail. So I would hope that whichever one of those had the most serious injury, that's the one that they would have take - taken. That's normally what you do in triage situations.

And I just - I'm sorry, I couldn't see which one it was. But the chopper landed in about 20 or 30 feet of where Steve Scalise was thrown (ph) on the ground. But as you can imagine, at that point in time, the law enforcement officers were trying to encircle us and put us in a safer position as opposed to being scattered around a baseball field, where they could - they felt they could better protect us if we collected in one spot and then they circled around us.

CUOMO: In terms of, you know, you guys acted on your own and you needed to. If it weren't for Scalise being there, because he's in the presidential chain of success as the House GOP whip, he gets - he gets security, right? So that was his security there.

Senator Flake is speaking right now. We're going to listen in, congressman. Hopefully you can hear as well.

BROOKS: All right.

QUESTION: Who was shot, senator?

[08:39:55] SEN. JEFF FLAKE (R), ARIZONA: Steve Scalise was shot. He was - he was playing out - he was playing second base fielding balls at the time. Steve's OK, we believe. So - but Steve dragged himself about 15 yards off of the - near, you know, second base on the field, laying motionless out there, but couldn't get to him until the shooting stopped. After a time, another staffer ran in with a leg wound. He was shot in the leg. I think it's that (ph) (INAUDIBLE) staffers who have been shot in the field and continued to run (INAUDIBLE) and into the dugout and we got a belt and put it around the wound and tried to keep it (INAUDIBLE). Joe Barton's boy, ten- year-old boy, was here and his dad and we got him in the dugout and put him under the bench.

I got a look at the shooter who was just behind the fast (ph) shot (ph) there. So - he had a blue shirt. (INAUDIBLE) firing into the dugout (INAUDIBLE). Then somebody - finally after about 10 minutes yelled, shooter's down. And so I (INAUDIBLE) Steve and put pressure on the - on the wound. He was shot in the left hip.

QUESTION: So the shooter was shot? Did you get another look at him? Did he -

QUESTION: Did he yell anything, senator?

FLAKE: The shooter - there was a lot of yelling going on, but I could not tell what was - if anything was the shooter.

QUESTION: The shooter was or wasn't shot?

FLAKE: The shooter was shot. I believe he - I believe he's still living.

QUESTION: So, senator, how - senator, how many members are shot?

FLAKE: One member shot.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).

QUESTION: We just saw him leave in a stretcher.

FLAKE: Yes, Roger Williams. Roger was the one shot. So a lot of people (INAUDIBLE) a few injuries diving into dugouts and around. So a lot of people scraped up.

QUESTION: And so the 50 shots -

FLAKE: I don't believe any - there are any deceased at this point. One person that works for Tyson Food I think comes out here and helps and was shot in the chest. He's probably the most critical at this point.

QUESTION: Senator, it's your sense that -

FLAKE: And two - two of the security - two of the security (INAUDIBLE) detail were shot.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) Capitol Hill Police officers.

FLAKE: Yes.

QUESTION: Was your sense that this shooter knew you guys were out here and targeted you guys purposely?

FLAKE: I - I would assume so. It's not clear whether Steve Scalise (INAUDIBLE) shot was targeted or not. There's no (INAUDIBLE) this point.

QUESTION: How many players -

FLAKE: He was - he was in a - certainly in a bad place.

QUESTION: So he was playing second base? FLAKE: Yes.

QUESTION: OK. How many players were on the field - I mean do you have -

FLAKE: A number, oh, yes.

QUESTION: How many members were there, senator?

FLAKE: Members here? Probably 25.

QUESTION: Senator, we're just joining us, for those who are just joining us, can you kind of start us from the beginning of exactly what happened from when you were playing and when you first realized there was a problem?

FLAKE: Well, a number of us - I just batted and then just fielded some balls in center field and came in and was standing there, Joe Barton, watching some of the batting practice and all of a sudden we heard a shot, a very loud shot, that everybody thought sounded like a gun. And then, boom, rapid succession after that. He had a rifle of some kind. And it was a - obviously a large gauge rifle. And there were people in the field. One staffer was shot out in the field. And he ran with a wound to the dugout on his foot (ph). He dove in to the dugout. Then at that point there was firing behind us from the security detail, the Capitol Police -

CAMEROTA: Flake there and we are - w are still joined by Congressman Mo Brooks, who witnessed all of this. He was on the baseball field on about third base when all of this brook out.

So, congressman, thank you for sticking with us.

I don't know if you could hear the audio there of your colleague, Senator Jeff Flake -

BROOKS: I could.

CAMEROTA: But he - he reinforced what you told us. He said that Scalise, he believed, was OK and that he too saw Congressman Scalise try to drag himself off of the field to try to get to safety. He said that there was another staffer, as you've told us, who was also wounded in the leg. He described having that belt that you put around his leg as a tourniquet to try to treat the wound. Jeff Flake has more information. We understand that he's still speaking. Let's check that for one second. Stand by.

FLAKE: From under the - under the bench.

QUESTION: Joe Barton (INAUDIBLE) -

FLAKE: Joe Barton is a congressman from Texas. He's the manager.

QUESTION: Did this appear to - did this appear to be a coordinated attack? FLAKE: Well, it look like only one shooter. So you've got assume he

knew what he was doing here. Whether he was targeting certain members, we don't know.

QUESTION: How long until he was down?

FLAKE: It was at least 10 - it seemed like a lot longer I can tell you, but it was at least ten minutes.

QUESTION: Senator, did you realize that there were Capitol Police Officers armed with you here?

FLAKE: Yes.

QUESTION: You knew ahead of time?

FLAKE: Yes. We did. We did. Steve Scalise is a member of the leadership team. He's the whip. And so he has a security detail. They're - two of his detail were shot. One African-American gentleman in the - shot in the leg and I believe he's the one that brought the shooter down. He ran around for quite a while with the leg wound returning fire. And then after I got out to - I was the first out to Steve and then Brad, another member from Ohio, who's a physician, came out and we applied pressure on the wound.

[08:45:21] QUESTION: And he seems OK to you?

FLAKE: Yes. He was coherent the whole time. But, boy, he - he laid out - he laid out there for at least ten minutes alone in the field. And we just - we couldn't get to him while there were shots -

QUESTION: Did the shooter (INAUDIBLE) before.

FLAKE: So right here, the field (INAUDIBLE).

QUESTION: Did the shooter say anything?

FLAKE: Not that - there was a lot of yelling going on. But I - to tell you the truth, some of the other members had different angles, so they may have heard him yell something, but - but I didn't. But two security detail, I think the woman was Crystal (ph) is her name was shot I think pretty early and she went down and so the other gentleman was - was returning fire.

QUESTION: What specific member do you remember -

QUESTION: So it was a female police officer?

FLAKE: A female, yes, Capitol Police officer. She's wounded. She was taken - air lifted.

QUESTION: We heard someone was maybe shot in the head. Is that right?

FLAKE: No. There was a gentleman by - Matt that was shot in the chest. And so he was - he was taken I think by ambulance.

QUESTION: I mean just - what do you make of this?

FLAKE: What do you make of it? I just have no idea. I have no idea. But I got Steve Scalise's phone and called his wife. And I just didn't want her to - to wake up and hear the news and not know what was going on. So I talked to her.

QUESTION: Senator, what specific members do you remember being in the dugout with you?

FLAKE: Chuck Fleischmann, Marty the photographer was there. I think Mo Brooks came in. During that time you'd see more and more pile in. I think there were about 12, some staff, some members. Maybe six, eight members in the dugout. And - but, like I said, there were people hiding behind trees. There's a dog park over there and I think there are always people over there. So I think they were running the other direction.

QUESTION: You said ten minutes to get the gunman down, but you had security details. What took so long?

FLAKE: He was - he had - he had a lot of - he had a lot of ammo and I think he - he must have been secured behind the third base dugout for a while. So it was tough to get him.

QUESTION: He took a tactical standpoint?

FLAKE: I - it seemed so. Initially he was right out in the open. Marty, our photographer, saw him raise the gun the first time, the rifle. But he said he thought, why in the world is somebody bird hunting out here at this time?

Just - I - it looked like 40s, maybe 50. White. Dark hair. White with a blue shirt on. I think jeans. My view of him was just quick behind the dugout. And then when I realized he had a line of sight into the dugout with all the members there, then we obviously went back down quickly.

QUESTION: And there were reports of 50 to 100 gunshots. Obviously that was because Capitol Police were returning fire.

FLAKE: Yes. Yes. Yes, that - fifty would be an understatement I'm quite sure.

QUESTION: Senator, we're now being joined by a national audience. Can you recap exactly what you saw?

FLAKE: Well, we were - there were - we were doing batting practice and there are a number of members and staff fielding. Steve Scalise was on second base - playing second base fielding balls and all of a sudden we heard a - heard a very loud shot. Everybody thought, that sounds like a gun, and the gunman was over by the third base dugout with a clear view of the field and everybody on it. And then all of a sudden a couple more shots, and we knew what it was.

And I just remember seeing some gravel, you know, bounce up as shots were coming near us. And so we climbed into the dugout and tried to get our own people engaged. Some people were calling 911. It was at least ten minutes because we were applying pressure to one of the staffers that was shot in the leg and we had - got a belt out and put that on.

And we could see Steve Scalise out in the field. He dragged himself, after he was shot, from near second base about 10 or 15 yards into the field just to be, I think, a little further away from the gunman. He was laying motionless out there. And so I wanted to get to him, but there were still shots going overhead from both sides. And, so, finally when we heard that the shooter was down, I just ran low out to Steve and started putting pressure on the wound. And then we, for about 10 or 15 minutes, did that until the medics arrived.

QUESTION: Senator, how many members of Congress were here? And we see at least some - a few young people?

FLAKE: Probably about 25.

[08:50:00] CAMEROTA: OK. We want to bring in now Senator Rand Paul. He is joining us on the phone. He also was at that early morning congressional baseball practice and witnessed all of this unfold.

Senator, can you tell us where you were and what you saw.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY (via telephone): I was in the right field batting cage outside of the fence line and the first shot rang out. And, you know, I grew up in the south. I'm used to hearing an occasional shotgun. And I wasn't sure - it didn't sound like a shotgun, but it did sound like a rifle. And then there were a couple of seconds. Everybody kind of looked up and heard the sound, but we were about ready to go back around our business. Nobody dropped to the ground. Nobody ducked. Nobody did anything that I could see. But then five or ten shots in a row, very quickly, rang out and that's when everybody was hitting the dirt.

I saw Scalise go down at second base. There were staffers running from the perimeter of the outfield, from the third base sign, where the shooter was, all the way to where I was. So I was in the far perimeter of right field. And I often give Senator Flake a ride home and just about a minute before I'd been at the batting - at home plate. And I walked by him at the dugout and I said, I'm going to go one more time for one more batting cage in the right field. And, as it turns out, that was at the farthest point.

So I'm in the right field. I'm at the farthest point on the field of anybody from the gunshots. But the gunshots are still hitting in the dirt in right field where there are two staffers lying on the ground. I think one of them may have been hit. But they were - between me and them is about a 15, 20 foot fence. So one of the staffers decides, the heck with this, I'm not staying here. The bullets were flying all around me. He decided to climb the fence and he climbed a 20 foot fence in about three seconds, flopped down behind me and there was a big oak tree behind the batting cage. He and I were behind the oak tree.

But the gunshots are still going in the dirt in right field in the warning track. So about five or ten feet from us. And at some point, I'd say 50 or 60 shots at least had been fired from - from the - from the shooter. And then we start to hear a - the Capitol Hill Police respond. And there's is a different weapon, so you hear pistol shots going back at the shooter.

I can tell you that I think with absolute certainty nobody would have survived without the Capitol Hill Police. They saved everybody's life. Incredibly brave and deserve everyone's praise because with this guy, who knows what his - what - how heavily armed he was. But nobody else had a weapon. So he was just killing everyone - or he would have. And I think the Capitol Hill Police apparently both were wounded. I hope they survive. And, you know, they deserve our gratitude for saving - it would have been a massacre without them.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, senator.

We understand - we just heard, I think, Jeff Flake said that he thinks it was that female Capitol Hill Police officer who was the one who was air lifted from the middle of the field there when we saw the chopper land. Do you have any sense of how many people were injured?

PAUL: My understanding is both Capitol Hill Police, Representative Scalise, at least two or three staffers. So there was probably maybe 15 to 20 congressmen and two senators out there. And, you know, we've been practicing out there for weeks. So we see people walking their dogs. Most people were friendly. You know, we live in this great, free and open country and it's just sad that, you know, it's come to this. And it's really one of the best things we do. It's a bipartisan thing. I've gotten to know many Democrats through this game. We joke around. It's collegial. It's for charity. We raise - we're set to raise $600,000 for the Literacy Project and the Boys and Girls Club of D.C. It's a good thing. Who would want to kill people trying to do something good. I mean it's just really sick and very sad.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Do you have any sense, senator, of how injured Steve Scalise is?

PAUL: No. I was so far away from him and the fire was - nobody could get to him until they brought the shooter down. And at some point I had to make a decision that if the gunman was advancing to stay or go and we were in the right field. We were as far as we could be, but we decided we'd - we'd just soon be a little farther from the shooter. We couldn't get to Scalise where I was because there was about a 20-foot fence between us and the field. So I couldn't get to any of them. And so - but I think the good news is he was moving. It's not a - it wasn't a wound to the trunk. It was a wound to the - either to the hip or to the leg. And that can still be incredibly serious. I mean you can - you can die from a wound like that, but he was moving. I like Steve. He's a great guy. And I - I - our prayers are with him.

CAMEROTA: Ours, too.

We just talked to Congressman Mo Brooks, who also was there. He's still on the phone. In fact, he's listening to all of us and he was describing, as we heard Senator Flake describing, the helplessness of just watching Steve Scalise there for what - mean they both described as something like ten minutes, just watching him there, not being able to get to him because you were under the barrage of gunfire. Was it your sense that it was just a sort of painfully long time until more reinforcements could show up?

[08:55:19] PAUL: Yes. And I think that - that's why I say, our lives were saved by the Capitol Hill Police. Had they not been there, I think it would have been a massacre. And you are completely helpless. And, you know, having no self-defense and no way to get to somebody, the field was basically a killing field. I mean if you were to run out there while the shooter was still shooting, he would have shot anybody. He was shooting people as far away as right field. So, I mean, he - I think that's probably, what, 75 yards or so, and that's about where we were. I was lucky to be that far away. But he's still shooting 75 yards away. And there's no stopping. And it appeared as if, after a while, that he might have been advancing. And had the Capitol Hill Police not been there, he could have walked around the field and just shot everybody. Your only chance would have been to run. And so at some point we decided escape was really the only option and we did have a route of escape.

The people in the dugout had no route, though, because they were in a dugout that goes down a foot or two. Their only chance of survival is to get down below the surface of the ground. And if they were to come and pop up, they were only 20 yards from the shooter. And so they really had no choice. Had the Capitol Hill Police not been there to prevent the advance of the gunman, I just - I - you know, as terrible as it is, it could have been a lot worse and, I mean, the Capitol Hill Police cannot get enough praise for - for really saving everyone's life out there.

CAMEROTA: You're so right. And, again, this is something that you all do routinely. I mean we've heard that this is something that the neighborhood knows that you do. You're a visible presence. And so is it your conclusion -

PAUL: We've been doing it for - I've been out there for six years. We've been at this ballpark for three or four years. We practice 20 or 30 times before the game. It's always early in the morning. We usually meet friendly people walking their dogs. I've never even had anybody say a cross word to us. And it's like, I don't know what it's come to. But, anyway -

CAMEROTA: But it's your feeling that he knew - he had to know you were lawmakers?

PAUL: Yes. And, in fact, I can't verify everything, but I think there is some saying they may have heard that it was politically motivated. I can't - I did not hear that, but I'm hearing secondhand that it might have been. But you don't know about these things. We'll find out more whether there was mental illness or whether there was -

CAMEROTA: Of course. Of course we will.

PAUL: We don't - I don't - we don't know who the shooter was.

CUOMO: Congressman - CAMEROTA: Senator.

CUOMO: I mean, senator, thank you very much.

The police chief is speaking right now, so let's go to him and hear what he has to say.

CHIEF MICHAEL BROWN, ALEXANDRIA, VA POLICE DEPARTMENT: We were there within three minutes. We do know that officers from the Office of Capitol Police - Capitol Police, as well as three officers that we had an scene arrived. Two of our officers engaged in gunfire, returned fire. Beyond that, we're not going to make any other statements until such time as we know exactly what's taken place here on this thing.

It's an active scene. We have a lot of witnesses that we're having to interview. We are collaborating with the Capitol Police, with the Alexandria Sheriff's Department, the medical - with the fire department here in Alexandria. We also are working with the Federal Bureau of Investigations in collecting evidence and doing statements and the things you normally do in these kinds of situations.

We will try to keep you posted as we get more information. Right now we're going to try and schedule a press conference probably about an hour and a half from now and we'll give you an update. But right now that's all we have.

We - I will add one other thing. We know that five people were transported medically from the scene. We do not - and will not give out their names or their locations at this point or know the condition of their injuries.

So I'm not going to take any questions at this point largely because you've got everything that I'm going to release at this - at this juncture. What I will do now is I would like to ask Chief Verderosa from the Capitol Police to come up and make a brief statement.

Chief.

CHIEF MATHEW VERDEROSA, U.S. CAPITOL POLICE: Good morning. I'm Matt Verderosa, chief of the United States Capitol Police.

QUESTION: Can you speak just a little louder, please.

VERDEROSA: This morning we received a call via our communications of shots fired at this location. Officers who were on scene responded and engaged a suspect in gunfire. Very shortly thereafter, the Alexandria City Police and other units responded to assist. And at that point we were able to calm the situation and two victims were transported to the hospital.

We're not going to get into any details in terms of the investigation. This is very early on.

We will - I want to thank the Alexandria Police, the sheriff's office and the Alexandria Fire Department for their rapid response to our - the request for assistance and the 911 calls. I appreciate their rapid response and certainly it saved lives.

QUESTION: Was there one shooter?

[09:00:08] VERDEROSA: At this point, we're going to gather the investigators together and look at what