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Two Students Hospitalized After Colorado School Shooting; Colorado High School Suspect Dead; Lawmakers Honor Charlie Kirk; Manhunt for Shooter Who Killed Charlie Kirk; Trump's Ukraine Envoy Arrives in Kyiv. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired September 11, 2025 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: He was a very, very special young man.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: It still feels so raw for so many of us, even 24 years later. I remember watching it in high school, and it left such an indelible mark on me. And I'm really sorry to hear about your family member having lost his life. So, many of us in America have been touched by this, and it's a reminder, you know, of what happened after 9/11 and the unity where Americans just came together, and we're in need of that moment right now.

BLITZER: Yes, it was really, really a horrible moment, indeed. And I remember I was anchoring a lot of our coverage that day, and it was just so riveting, so powerful, so emotional for me to be uttering those words on a horrible day like that.

BROWN: Yes, certainly. All right. We'll be right back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And there was comfort in having those first responders there. Thank you to all the first responders and to everybody who is currently battling --

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[10:35:00]

BLITZER: We have breaking news this morning. Officials in Colorado are now investigating a shooting. Another shooting in a Denver-area high school yesterday, where a gunman opened fire, injuring at least two students. It was just the third week of school. Officials say the suspect, a male at the school, later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. New doorbell footage from a home near the school shows a rather distressing scene.

Students are seen running up to the house and banging on the door, seeking safety after the shooting. This was the 47th shooting that took place at a school here in the United States just this year. CNN Law Enforcement Correspondent Whitney Wild is joining us right now. Whitney, so where does the investigation stand right now?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, our expectation is that law enforcement has obtained search warrants at this point. We don't yet know if they've been able to get into the home associated with the shooter, and what, if anything, of relevancy they've recovered.

But this investigation, you know, is nearly 24 hours now, but it's still very much in its early stages. It takes a long time to process the evidence, to figure out what motivation might have prompted this. So, law enforcement now doing what they always do in these situations, which is a pattern of life. What led up to this shooting?

What we know, as you had mentioned, is that two students are in the hospital. One of this -- one student, who, you know, law enforcement believes committed this atrocious crime, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. This, as you mentioned, was the third week of school. And this is a pretty big school, Wolf. This is 900 students. Law enforcement arriving about two minutes after that first 911 call came in, around 12:24 Mountain Time. Within two minutes, more than 100 law enforcement officers were on scene. Within five minutes, they were able to contact the alleged shooter here.

There is much more evidence to process in this case. Law enforcement insists they never fired their weapons, that the only weapons that were fired were that of the shooter. Here is some reaction from a student and -- a student's mother, rather, as this unfolded. It just plunged this community into chaos, into terror. Here's how one mother reacted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHANNON TAYLOR, MOM OF EVERGREEN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: We got to fix this. It's our turn. We got to fix it. It's got to change. These kids deserve safety. The staff deserves safety.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mom, when you see that line of parents back there, I mean, you have your little boy you are I'm assuming, going home, but when you see that line, what do you think?

TAYLOR: My heart is with them. They're devastated. This is not OK. And I feel for them. And I'm sending everybody love. And I'm so sorry. It's going to get better. I have -- hope we're going to fix this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: Wolf, sadly, you know, Colorado, as we all know, is no stranger to gun violence, certainly no stranger to shootings at schools. That county has dealt with this before. So, now, you know, just one more point along the timeline of broken hearts in Colorado.

You know, I worked there for three years. Every time we cover one of these, it's just absolutely devastating. The only, you know, thing to do now is try to figure out exactly what happened and find points along the timeline where intervention can stop a future shooting, Wolf. BLITZER: All right. Whitney Wild reporting for us. Whitney, thank you very, very much. And Pamela, once again, the 47th shooting at a school here in the United States just this year. This is so heartbreaking.

BROWN: It is. And schools just started, right, just in the last couple of weeks. And already we're seeing these shootings.

BLITZER: Now we know. At least here in the D.C., Maryland, Virginia area, why, in front of all of these schools, there are police cars now just on patrol, making sure that it doesn't happen here. But it's so heartbreaking to see that we have to have police cars in front of public schools because of fear of shootings.

BROWN: Magnetometers, all kinds of things. I mean, as a parent of little kids, it just -- it terrifies me. And I don't know what to do about it.

BLITZER: I agree.

BROWN: I had a long conversation with my husband yesterday about this. What do you do? Kids should be able to go to school safely and learn. That's pretty foundational for a civic society.

BLITZER: Like we did when we were kids. Yes.

BROWN: And yet, that is not the environment we are in. And other sad news, as we've been covering, Wolf, the killing of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk is reverberating throughout the Republican Party and beyond.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE KENNEDY (R-UT): Charlie Kirk, he spoke his mind. And under threats, he continued to speak his mind. And I find that to be admirable.

REP. MAJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): Charlie Kirk leaves a huge legacy. It's going to be hard for anybody to fill his shoes.

[10:40:00]

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), HOUSE SPEAKER: We celebrate and defend vigorously free speech. Charlie Kirk did that, as well as anybody that I know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And joining us now to discuss Republican strategist and CNN political commentator, Shermichael Singleton. Shermichael, thanks very much for joining us. I understand you actually knew Charlie Kirk. Speak a little bit about your relationship with him and what he was like.

BROWN: Unfortunately, we don't have Shermichael's audio.

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Hey, you guys.

BROWN: Oh, can you -- OK. We can hear you now. All right.

SINGLETON: Yes. I apologize, guys.

BROWN: Shermichael -- that's OK.

SINGLETON: I was muted. Thanks for having me, Wolf and Pamela. Wolf, to answer your question, I met Charlie seven years ago in 2018. At the time, I was really, really good friends with Candace Owens, Brandon Tatum. And they've now sort of built their own sort of large political followings in their own right. And I remember at the time meeting him, Candace said, hey, I want you to meet Charlie. And I said, OK, sure, of course. I knew who he was. And we had some wonderful conversations about politics and what the future of the Republican Party could look like.

And at the time, Candace was really trying to focus on her Blexit movement, which was her efforts to target younger African Americans and try to persuade them over to the Republican Party. And so, we were talking about what that could look like and what the realistic possibility of such a movement could be. And we stayed in touch for quite some time.

Slowly, as the years passed, we sort of lost touch. And every once in a while, I'd hear from him, he'd reach out if he saw a clip of mine that went viral on CNN. And he'd say, always eloquent, always smart. Give him hell, Shermichael. And that was just sort of his way of encouraging me.

But with all of that said, you know, I know a lot of people may dislike some of Charlie's positions. And I'm sure there are many people who dislike my positions. But one of the things that I think, Wolf and Pamela, that our system guarantees is the ability to free speech. And one of the things that Charlie was a big advocate of was going to college campuses where Republicans, really conservatives, didn't have much of a voice at all.

And speaking to younger people and challenging them and debating with them and whether they agreed or not, the idea behind the exercise was to showcase that even if you have ideological, philosophical worldview differences, that you should be able to engage with others in a concerted way to try to persuade them.

Now, maybe you're on the affirmative of an issue, the other person's on the negative side of the issue, but you hope to sort of move the needle forward with some level of common ground. That's what we do on CNN every single day. And as I think about this more and more as a commentator, the number of friends that I have who are Democrats on our network who, yes, we have visceral disagreements on a plethora of things, but during the commercial breaks, we're laughing and joking. How's your family? How's your wife? How's your husband? Where are you vacationing this summer? The general public never gets to see this stuff.

I think about my friends in Congress, my friends in the Senate, the House, Democrats and Republicans who get dinner together, they have lunch together, their children attend the same schools. You never see these things because unfortunately, we only sort of glamorize the sort of visceral aspects of politics. And my God, I really hope going forward that we showcase we actually do like each other. We do get along. We do have differences, but those differences shouldn't lead to this, which unfortunately happened to Charlie.

BROWN: Right, the marketplace of ideas. It was foundational for the founding of this country, having different ideas, talking about those ideas, sharing them, debating them in a peaceful way, right? And he was inviting people to ask him questions, no matter what their points of view were. And you really make an important point, Shermichael, about, look, we might have debates on air, for example, but then we talk about our lives outside of work during the commercial breaks because we're all human beings, regardless of our political views.

You are, of course, a long-time conservative like Charlie Kirk. You make all sorts of radio appearances, TV and podcast appearances, but you're also a young dad. We see this picture of Charlie Kirk here, his two young children who are now without a father, his wife, now a widow. How has this killing impacted you personally?

SINGLETON: Oh, my God, I mean, I talked about it with my wife last night. I mean, I have an eight-month-old, Charlie's youngest was one, I believe. One-year-old will never remember any of the experiences with their dad. You'll have photos, you'll have videos, and then you'll have a lot of your dad was like this. And one of the things my wife said to me, she was like, you know, I don't know if this political stuff is worth it. I mean, you got a business, you're making money, do you really have to do this?

And I heard from a lot of my other friends who are conservative, but also some of my friends who are also liberals, who are also wondering, where does this go? And people are thinking, you know, I could do many other things, but go on TV and talk about politics because the end result doesn't appear to be good.

[10:45:00]

And that's something that a lot of people, this marketplace of ideas, I would imagine, Pamela, are earnestly going to consider with their families and their loved ones, is this worth it or am I better off going and do some of my other business in the private sector to take care of my family? And in my opinion, it's something that's worth considering.

I mean, you have a wife who's now lost a husband. She'll never get -- able to grow older with him and make jokes about, do you remember what happened 40 years ago? She won't have those memories. The young kids won't get to say, oh, my God, do you remember how crazy dad was when I brought my -- for his daughter, brought the first boyfriend home and dad was freaking out. She will never get any of those memories.

And so, for other people in politics, they have to think, is this worth that? And I got to tell you, in my honest opinion, it just, it simply is not. BLITZER: Yes, there's two little kids. You have one --

SINGLETON: And now, I hear my eight-month-old crying now with my wife upstairs thinking about children. I mean, this is just as unfortunate. Again, Pamela and Wolf, it's OK to disagree. It's OK to differ. God knows we do it all the time, but it should never lead to violence.

I always tell my friends who are Democrats, anytime we go on air and after air, I'll say, man, that was a really good debate. You really made some solid points. I got to do better on that one. And we talk about those things and we engage on those things, but there's never been a moment where someone has debated me where my impulse was so negative that my immediate result was violence.

I mean, how have we come so late and lonely to this place in this country? And I would hope to God that more of our leaders speak out and I would hope people like myself who were on TV, let's showcase the better side of this. Let's showcase our friends who differ. Let's showcase, Pamela, those moments that most of the viewing public never gets to see during those commercial breaks when we're in the green room, we have to showcase that because my hope is then the general public will get to see, well, you know what, it's OK to have a friend who's a conservative. It's OK to have a friend who's a liberal. And there are really some things we will never ever agree on, but they're a human being first.

BROWN: Right, everyone's sort of in their political breakout groups now in society, right? And --

BLITZER: And those two little kids, those sweet little kids, one and three years old, and they now have to grow up without their dad.

BROWN: It's just unfathomable. And, you know, I think you make a really important point, Shermichael, if we just take a step back too and just try to understand why someone reaches the worldview that they have, why they have the opinions they have, you might better understand them. And often it traces back to the family they were born into, the culture they were raised in, the town. Just take a step back and show some sense of respect and a sense of humanity for one another. There is no excuse for political violence. There are no two sides.

SINGLETON: And it's fascinating, Pamela.

BROWN: Yes. You would learn a lot from each other and maybe open your mind to other points of view.

SINGLETON: It's so fascinating.

BROWN: Right.

SINGLETON: Absolutely. I mean, I have friends who have views that are way diametrically opposed to mine. And I'm just always curious, how did they get to this place? Why do they view the world so differently?

BROWN: We should have that curiosity. SINGLETON: And it's fascinating to me to just think you have a country of 300 million people. Maybe we work at the same place and yet, we view things so differently. There's something, in my opinion, almost beautiful about the uniqueness of that disparate perspective. And to me, that's something that's worth cherishing. And I'm just so afraid that that thing that we used to once cherish, it's really dividing us in ways that should be concerning to every single person in this country.

BLITZER: And our deepest, deepest condolences to Charlie Kirk's family. May he rest in peace and may his memory be a blessing. Shermichael Sigleton, thank you very, very much. And we'll be right back.

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[10:50:00]

BLITZER: There's other breaking news coming into the Situation Room right now. President Trump's special envoy for Ukraine, retired U.S. General Keith Kellogg, has just arrived in Kyiv. His visit comes as Poland is confirming NATO jets shot down multiple Russian drones that violated its airspace during an attack on Ukraine.

I want to discuss all this and more with the former U.S. ambassador to NATO, Kurt Volker. Ambassador, thanks very much for joining us. As you know, this is the first time shots were fired by NATO since the start of the war in Ukraine some three years ago. Just how significant is this?

KURT VOLKER, FORMER AMBASSADOR TO NATO, DISTINGUISHED FELLOW, CENTER FOR EUROPEAN POLICY ANALYSIS AND SENIOR ADVISER, ATLANTIC COUNCIL: Well, not only that, Wolf, this is the first time NATO has ever had to fire shots to defend its own territory. So, this is quite something that has happened.

I think this is a deliberate move by Russia to test NATO, to see how we respond, not only in the moment, shooting down these drones was the right call, but also how we respond after this. How do we send a signal to Russia that this kind of threat, this kind of putting NATO populations at risk is unacceptable? So, we really need to see a strong response there. And this is qualitatively different from anything we've seen until now.

BLITZER: What do you think was behind Russia's decision to fly these drones and these other missiles in Poland's airspace, knowing that Poland is a key NATO ally? And according to the NATO Charter, Article 5, an attack on one NATO ally is an attack on all NATO allies. What was Vladimir Putin's message here?

VOLKER: Right. There were two things, I think, Wolf. The first one is a test. Do we respond by shooting down these drones? Do we respond by some kind of tough measures to follow, or do we try to paper this over, say, oh, we need to de-escalate, we don't want a confrontation with Russia? If that's the way this goes, he will take encouragement from that. The second thing is he wanted to send a warning. He is weakening his economy, weakening his military, and still trying to fight in Ukraine to get control of all of these four provinces that he claims to have annexed, but doesn't actually control. So, he wants the West to put more pressure on Ukraine to give that up. And so, this is a warning to the West, if you don't pressure Ukraine, then you might risk getting drawn into this war as well.

BLITZER: Ambassador Volker, President Trump says he's ready to impose a second round of economic sanctions against Russia. Would those force Russia back to the negotiating table to create a peace deal with Ukraine, or does President Trump need to take a tougher line with Putin?

VOLKER: Absolutely, he must take a tougher line. President Trump has said so many times he's ready to do sanctions, secondary sanctions, get tough with Russia, and he's never done it. So, Putin doesn't believe him. And moreover, Putin only responds to force. He only responds when he really feels pressure. If he doesn't feel it, he keeps going to see where the limits really are.

So, it is long overdue to both, A, put those secondary sanctions in place to make it very difficult for the Kremlin to earn money from oil and gas, and B, to make it clear that the military support to Ukraine, arms and ammunition, on a paid-for basis by our European allies, will continue to flow to Ukraine uninterrupted without limitations. These two things are what's needed, I think, to convince Putin that, OK, he's not going to get anything more out of this. It's time to end the war.

BLITZER: What does it say that President Trump gave a red carpet welcome to Putin in Alaska, as you know, recently, and that Putin is now doing all these things, launching these massive attacks against Ukraine, and now moving these drone attacks into Poland, a key NATO ally?

[10:55:00]

VOLKER: Right. Well, the first thing is I think it is fair to give President Trump credit for making the effort. Not anyone would have said, OK, he's a war criminal. He's abducted children. He's responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths. But we're going to roll out the red carpet. We're going to invite him to the U.S. We're going to give this a chance to see if we'll make peace. I think President Trump gets some credit for at least making that effort.

But now, Vladimir Putin has really thumbed his nose at President Trump, ignored every overture that Trump has made, escalated attacks on Ukraine, 800 and some on Saturday night. I happened to be in Odessa, waking up to loud explosions in the middle of the night. And now, violating the airspace and threatening a NATO country, Warsaw, potentially hitting a population there with Russian armed drones. It didn't happen. They shot them down and they weren't armed. There's no way we would have known that. This is a serious escalation from Putin.

BLITZER: Do you have confidence President Trump will come to the defense of our NATO allies if we see more acts like this committed by Russia?

VOLKER: Well, I am confident that President Trump has come away from that NATO summit meeting this summer with a new belief that NATO countries are serious about protecting their own security and freedom, and they're worth supporting. He literally used the words, it's not a rip-off. So, I think he has a different view about NATO.

He does want European allies to take the lead themselves. They should be defending themselves. And that's exactly what Poland and the Netherlands did the other night by shooting down these drones. What NATO allies in Europe need to hear from President Trump though is that we have their backs. That if they do go ahead and defend their territories as they should, they can count on the United States to support them.

BLITZER: The former U.S. ambassador to NATO, Ambassador Kurt Volker, thanks so much for joining us.

VOLKER: Thank you, Wolf. OK.

BLITZER: And, Pamela.

BROWN: All right. Right now in the Situation Room, an urgent manhunt is underway as investigators search for the government who killed Charlie Kirk. What we're learning about was written -- what we're learning about what was written on the rifle officials recovered.

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