Transcripts For CNNW The Lead With Jake Tapper 20180628

Newspaper Capital Gazette. Police, Law Enforcement saying one individual in custody but theyre still saying it is an active shooter situation. Theyre making sure that there is no other shooter before they give the all clear. Way tonight bring back Josh Campbell, former fbi supervisory special agent. Josh, we have vivid descriptions from the Capital Gazette Crime Reporter phil davis talking about what it was like being in the newsroom hiding under his desk after his colleagues had been shot hearing the shooter reload. Thats right, jake. We hear from witnesses in these types of incidents. Heard from them before and never easy to hear. The panic, the chaos that ensued. Although workplaces prepare for these types of incidents, we have seen the uptick in number of active Shooter Training programs put on, nothing prepares you for the moment where something happens an now you have a flight or fight reaction. We talk about the fight or hide methodology thats being used and having to go through. Well hear a lot of those stories and we dont know what took place and the fact its a News Business means you have people collecting that information and hear about it an well continue to hear the details. One thing also interesting is looking at the response thats taking place right now, both from witnesses and obviously the police is theres a lot that goes into this type of training that we dont see and they work together, train together. We heard you mentioned earlier that one of the medical facilities indicated that they were receiving at least one patient. When these types of incidents go out, medical facilities are part of the response plan. They get the initial word we have a crisis situation. Be prepared to take casualties, take patients and, you know, appears as though we have a person transported. Well probably see more of that as the injuries or we hear about them and the resolved and one thing is when the police get to the point ready to brief the press and brief the public, hearing those additional details. But the focus is clearing the building. I want to bring in supervising producer eric joining us by phone. Tell us what youre seeing. Jake, the Media Presence here is quite impressive. I just drove here. Theres probably 60, 70, 80 Law Enforcement vehicles in the area. There are helicopters. This is a very, very popular area. This is where the annapolis mall is. Very popular. I just talked to Anne Arundel Police and say theyre still securing the building. They wont say anything more than that. They still have several buildings on lockdown. And they do not expect this to be casualty incident which tells us maybe only a few injured but thats all the details to give me, jake. And tell us about what else youre seeing in terms of individuals from the Capital Gazette, individuals who worked in the building, the building is not small. It houses other businesses besides Capital Gazette. If police are still securing the area as you note, this shooting i believe took place within the last hour, hour and a half. At least based on the tweets that i saw from the Capital Gazette intern who was the first one to alert the world of what was going on. What are individuals telling you about what happened . As i said, i just arrived on scene. This area is like a parking garage area to the mall and been totally cordoned off by Law Enforcement and very little activity here besides Law Enforcement. So, the police say around 2 30ish they got the initial call of an active shooter. They quickly got to the building. Theyre in the process of still securing it. Like i said, theyre not telling us much more than that. They have several buildings on lockdown. Theyre using the mall as a meeting location for families but other than that its a total cordoned off area with massive Law Enforcement presence. Thank you so much. I know youll talk to other individuals and try to bring us back more information as you can. I want to bring in cnns media reporter Brian Stelter on the phone. Brian, tell us about the newspaper, Capital Gazette. I saw a reporter earlier tweeting that he had grown up in the area and one time when he was a little boy drew a picture of his father and sent it in for fathers day and they ran it. Its that kind of Community Newspaper. Lets bring back Josh Campbell. Josh, obviously, theyre kor doaning off as many reporters as possible. Annapolis is an hour away from washington, d. C. So one assumes a lot of reporters from washington, d. C. And baltimore, two major areas in the country, are going to be there. The Capital Gazette owned by the Baltimore Sun newspaper and multiple wounded and fatalities. The shooter is alive according to what police seem to be suggesting. We have only heard of one individual taken to the hospital, though. Thats right. Well continue to wait for the details as far as what the casualties look like. Theres a difference of casualties and fatalities. We have careful there determining the extent of what took place there. Well get the details in short order. Jake, you know, we have talked about this far too often as we sat together covering the incidents is that Law Enforcement officers now have two audiences, two constituencies if you will to get information to. The first is the public. This is in the public interest. But also, to the family members of those who worked in this facility, who were there on that day. We have talked about this before. I remember from incidents like orlando and San Bernardino talking to family members of those impacted and this is that tough period of time where they do not know whats going on. Was their loved one unfortunately part of this incident . Were they able to get out . This is the most crushing for them trying to determine and its incumbent on officers to determine what theyre dealing with, have the process that goes on. Obviously, the company will be key in determining who should have been inside the building and making accountable everyone there and ensure that their safety is paramount. This is period of time where they have to do that and quickly because you have a lot of people out there that are simply wondering are their loved ones impacted . Lets listen in to the police officer. Get them to safety so were in evacuation mode right now so were trying to secure the building the best we can. Once its secure, once were 100 that that building is secure thats when we will be able to provide more information with the extent of injuries and suspect. We have injuries. We did have an active shooter situation inside that building. 888 bestgate road in annapolis. Again, we have injuries. I cant give the extent of those injuries at this point. We dont expect this even though its very early on to be a very or have major casualties or several hundred casualties so but we have injuries. I can confirm that. Ill get you as much information as possible. I dont want to give you inAccurate Information at this point. Thats the only reason i cant provide more. So yeah. Once the building is secure well give more information whether the suspect is in fact in custody, that building is secure and make sure we give everybody a quick briefing on the extent and how many injuries. At this point, a main message to get out to the public is avoid the area. We have a lot of Police Officers here. From our jurisdiction. We are thankful for other jurisdictions, anal lis city Police Department, maryland, everyone has come here to make sure we get as many people safe as quickly as possible and asking family and friends to meet at the annapolis mall. If you need to meet up with a friend or loved one inside that building, Reunification Center is set up inside the lord taylor in the mall. Respond there. We have officers there that will assist you. Meeting up with friends and family. So thats the biggest message to put out right now. Were doing our very best to get the building secure and we should have information for you very shortly. And as soon as that building is secure well be able to provide more information. We appreciate everybodys patience and doing everything that we can to get everybody out safe. Thank you. Lieutenant, can you tell us so that was from Anne Arundel County police, lieutenant Ryan Frashure talking about the status. Right now, at the shooting. As the Capital Gazette newspaper in annapolis, maryland. Evan perez, hes answering questions. Lets listen back in. Make sure theres no other people that are suspects or helped the individual and no type of bombs or anything inside that building so all those things we have to think about to make sure that people are safe inside that building. So again, number one priority is getting people from that building outside safely and reuniting them with their families. Once that building is secure, we can provide more information and the investigation will begin and well be able to get a lot more details. Lieutenant, you said you have injuries. How many . I cant confirm exactly how many. I know that we have injuries. That was first called in. So again, we dont anticipate this being some type of a mass major casualty with hundreds of injuries. But we have injuries. And so while were doing our best to make sure they receive care that need care and, you know, we are doing our very best to make sure everybody else is evacuated out of there. Were prioritizing. Capital gazette. In the newsroom or one of the doctors offices or what . I cant confirm an exact location inside that building but it was inside 888 bestgate which houses several types of businesses. I hope to have more information on that soon. I want to make sure that all the information we pass along is accurate with a serious incident and make sure that that information is accurate out to the public. Thank you, everybody. Hes released everything that he can right now. Well give you an update as soon as we can. Thank you guys. Just to recap. Thats lieutenant Ryan Frashure with Anne Arundel County police. The Capital Gazette, the Community Newspaper there, pardon me, just suffered a shooting. Lieutenant frashure said they believe theres one suspect and right now they are just as a precautionary measure searching the entire building. Lets bring in evan perez, the justice correspondent, reporter. The lieutenant said a number of times they dont expect it will be a major casualty situation. And he defined major in terms of there being several hundred injuries or casualties and not to say that there arent several dozen or even fatalities. Right, exactly. He was careful not to put any numbers on what exactly hes dealing with there, jake. But we are told multiple injuries and fatalities. At this point, obviously, not going to be i think what he is talking about is in a lot of shootings we have seen recently and dealt with a lot of these incidents around the country, we have seen dozens of people being taken out, mass casualty is what that is. In this case, appears to be a much smaller, much more contained situation as jessica reporting earlier. One of the reporters in that newsroom, the Crime Reporter in that newsroom is out on twitter saying that someone shot through the front door of the newsroom, of the newspaper. And there were people who were shot. So he doesnt know according to his twitter feed, he doesnt know whether anybody died but he knows that people were shot as a result of the attack there. We do know and i think the Public Information officer with the police did confirm theres somebody, at least somebody in custody. What theyre trying to make sure and this is something we underscore is theyre trying to make sure nobody else involved in this, whether theres a second person, any bombs he left behind in that newsroom or somewhere else in that building as a booby trap. At this point, i think we are going to have probably a little while before we have an all clear in the building that they know they have gotten every single corner searched and they know every Single Person there accounted for and then they can come out and tell us how many people were injured, whether or not these were fatalities that were suffered as a result of gunshots or perhaps somebody might have had a heart attack or Something Else that occurred but at this point, there are multiple people wounded who were casualties as a result of this. And there have been fatalities as a result of this. Fatalities plural your sources are saying. Correct. Not including the shooter in custody. It appears that person is in custody and is being interviewed by the investigators. Solute Ryan Frashure for the Anne Arundel County police with that information. I want to bring Josh Campbell back in. I would like to ask our producers if we could get Jessica Schneider prepared to read the phil davis tweets again in a second for people tuning in. Theyre descriptive and haunting and worth sharing. Josh campbell, after hearing the lieutenant it sounds like they want to take these last few minutes to make sure that there are no other suspects and fatalities and then have another press briefing to give all the information they can. Thats right. The role of the a Public Information officer is challenging. On one end, provide realtime information and ensure 100 accurate. I stood in his shoes. Public asking for information. You have to make sure that its accurate. One thing that was telling, he said the building isnt 100 cleared yet and guarantee that police arent going to say anything until they ensure no additional victims and threats so that is going to take time. Obviously, you have a number of people out there to know what happened. The public, but also. The victim family members, those that worked at the facility. We can expect Law Enforcement to be very conservative with the information that theyre providing at the outset. Next phase we move to is that investigation. Now that we have heard that the person is taken into custody, thiss a wealth of information and part of that longterm information. All right. We have senator Chris Van Hollen of maryland standing by on the phone. Senator, as you listen in, take a listen to Jessica Schneider to read some tweets from the courts and Crime Reporter phil davis who works for the Capital Gazette whos thankfully okay. He tweeted a couple things to describe the scene and i want to get your reaction. Jessica, if you could read those tweets for us. Absolutely, jake. These are especially chilling tweets. Two tweets from this court and Crime Reporter at Capital Gazette, phil davis. He describes what was happening. First tweet says, gunman shot through the glass door to the office. And opened fire on multiple employees. Cant say much more and dont want to declare anyone dead but its bad. The next tweet, he reflects a little bit more saying theres nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while youre under your desk and then hear the gunman reload. We havent seen anymore tweets but obviously a chilling and terrifying scene as described by this reporter for the Capital Gazette while he was in the newsroom as this gunman opened fire. We are monitoring it to see if anymore tweets come out for more information and awaiting more information of Law Enforcement. Very few words and yet very chilling, as well. Jake . Haunting. Thank you, jessica. I want to bring senator Chris Van Hollen democrat of maryland in. What can you tell us . Have you been briefed . Do you know anything more about the status of the victims . How are people doing . Jake, we have reached out to the Law Enforcement folks. Understandably on the scene and very rapidly developing situation. We dont have more information. Anymore information than you already been reporting. I do know the reporter, phil davis, whos been tweeting. You just cited his tweets. He is a great reporter. He does have the sort of crime beat and many other beats and so i think thats the most timely information we of course have out of this awful, awful situation. This is part of an Office Building, the Capital Gazette offices are on the first floor. I have been there. They have the same kind of layout. Many news offices do. Very sort of open setting. So our hearts and prayers go out to everybody. Weve got to find a way to end the violence. Another hopeful tweet from phil davis was that the editor of the gazette, rick hudsel is fine. I only know thats what phil davis reported. And or another reporter at the gazette sent out. We are getting our information at this point. From the tweets as we try to confirm the details with Law Enforcement. Do you know anything about what manner of firearm was used, senator . I do not. All those kind of details are things we are still waiting on. You know, we had this earlier terrible shooting at a maryland high school, not in Anne Arundel County, st. Marys, great mills high school. And so, you know, maryland has been really working hard at the state legislative level and in partnership with all elected officials and Community Leaders to try to address the issue of gun violence. Lets get the facts here. And see exactly what happened. But as we follow this situation, were going to be reaching out obviously to Law Enforcement for the authoritative report. I can understand why they dont want to put anything out there until theyre confident of the details. No, obviously that makes sense. Senator, in the last few years, a lot of news organizations and a lot of journalists have had to get extra security as the environment against journalists and journalism has grown hostile. We dont know anything about the motivations for this individual, for this shooter. But do you happen to know anything about the Capital Gazette security . Was it you described it as an open office setting. Was there security that you that you might encounter at if you went to a major metropolitan daily or was it pretty open . I havent been there in the last year or so so i dont know what the most up to date security situation is but look. It was a suburban Office Building. It is not a place thats been on high alert. And, you know, my recollection is, you know, it doesnt have a high level of security at the building. And, you know, once you get into the into the offices, of course, it is a very open setting. My understanding from the tweets of phil davis is the shots came from outside and again my only information, only source there is the reporting that phil davis who is a very good reporter. Senator van hollen, thank you for calling in. If you get more information we would love to hear it. Were concerned about brothers and sisters at the Capital Gazette today. Yes, indeed. As you said, jake, its an incredibly polarizing environment. We dont know the details here but it is really important that everybody take Safety Measures into account. Thank you, senator. Appreciate it. I want to bring in Brian Stelter on the phone for us. Brian, earlier i read a tweet from a reporter who grew up in the annapolis area saying the Capital Gazette is the kind of newspaper he drew a picture of his dad when he was a child and sent it in to Capital Gazette and printed it on fathers day. That kind of Community Newspaper. What can you tell us about the paper . Yeah. I was thinking back to the days of the state house in annapolis. Sometimes the only reporter covering an event at the staios house is going to be a reporter of this newspaper. This is the kind of newspaper, the local community and the state of maryland, depends on. There are multiple papers that are printed under the capital and gazette names and then qult Baltimore Sun parent opens the whole thing. Very wellknown to the public. And to your point about security and whether anyone would expect security in the office, this was a location, an address, right by the mall wellknown to readers and the public. People would and could stop by. Its not like a giant paper where you have to go through security and escorted upstairs. No matter what happened here, this is the kind of tragedy that so many journalists have been fearing. Whether or not this was a targeted thing, the emergency drills about, and in this case, since the shots rang out in the early afternoon, this was a busy time of day. We dont know how many people were inside but seeing them walk outside and a busy time of day in the newsroom and absolutely a disturbing scene unfolding. I want bring in jonathan, cnn Law Enforcement analyst, former secret Service Agent. Jonathan, you lived and worked in annapolis and prepared active shooter response efforts. Actually, jake, i have been to this building on numerous occasions. I have as a secret Service Agent worked with the annapolis police, and Arundel Police on different protective measures at the Naval Academy not too far away from here. I can tell you that the coordinated response of an active shooter or hostile sbrouder situation by the Law Enforcement agencies is very well coordinated. They practice it a lot. Just because of the locality, the high threat environment that some of the buildings in the area are, Naval Academy, theres its a high threat location so all of these, you know, agencies, you know, work together. They have a unified response. To active shooter and hostile shooter situations. From the medical standpoint, where you are looking at the building right now, theres considerations here. In the immediacy of the incident, you have people following the principles which is run, hide, fight. Run, get away from the threat as fast as possible. Hide, we saw the reporter hiding under the desk. Thankfully hasnt reported that anybody had to confront the shooter at all. You know, people who have been in the situations, it was reported that the individual shot through glass so you didnt have a lot of different types of injuries. That may present themselves. Which also presents the walking wounded. Now, in this case youre literally right across from the street from the Anne Arundel Medical Center. For the people that suffered gunshot wounds, you have one of the best in the country in baltimore shock trauma. Very Quick Response. You can get victims right away to baltimore shock trauma. One of the best in the country. All right. I want to bring back Jessica Schneider. Jessica, the Crime Reporter for the Capital Gazette phil davis, you have been reading his tweets, providing very vivid descriptions. He was in the newsroom when the shooter came in. And started shooting. His colleagues. Tell us more about his tweets. Has he been tweeting anything additional . He is tweeting every few minutes and why were looking at this is its the only first person perspective we are getting is from this particular reporter. A court and crimes reporter for this Small Community paper. And hes been tweeting several times so the latest tweets is basically him saying hes okay. And hes talking to police right now so lets read them for you. He just tweeted just a few minutes ago. He said im currently waiting to be interviewed by police so im safe and no longer at the office. And then he clarified one of the tweets of previously saying, okay, i was not tweeting from under my desk. I was already safe when i started tweeting. So that tweet just referring to some of the descriptions he had given in previous tweets when he said that he heard multiple people get shot while he was under his desk. He was describing the terrifying moments when he was hearing that gunman reload. So really, some of these latest tweets clarifying. He wasnt under his desk. He was in fact safe. But he is not giving anymore indication as to what else he saw. He did say that he saw multiple employees that were this gunman opened fire on. He said he couldnt say much more than that and predict whether or not people had been killed. But this reporter really jake, the only person that were really seeing giving us any first person perspective from inside that newsroom and what must have been a terrifying scene. You gate glimpse of it from the tweets when the reporter talks about the gunman loading. Opening fire on multiple employees and then saying that that gunman initially started firing at the glass entryway to this Capital Gazette office. So little by little we are hearing more of the stories coming out over social media as the people are really just overcome with some of the trauma and the horrific nature of what happened to them. This particular reporter saying that hes now talking to police. Jake, no doubt, giving them more information as to what exactly he saw so they can begin piecing together the pieces of all of this and then maybe giving out more information about what is transpired here to us in the media and then obviously to those concerned residents in the area. A lot of them directed to go to the nearby mall where police say they should be gathering and saying stay away from the area. Jake, this all unfolding and these tweets from this reporter giving us a bit of a glimpse how terrifying, chilling it was as this gunman entered this newsroom, opened fire on multiple employees and by this account from this reporter hiding under their desks until some semblance of help came for them. Jake . Phil davis providing detail at least from his witness point of view that there was only one shooter. One shooter he saw. Thanks so much. I want to bring back cnns evan perez. Lets just reset for a second what we know. We know there are fatalities plural according to your Law Enforcement sources. Several casualties. We are told not hundreds but that doesnt mean it couldnt be 20 or so or any other number. What do we know about the weapon used . At this point, again, it is early in the investigation. Jake, but we are told that authorities there believe that he used a shotgun. Now, that may be because they have recovered a shotgun at the scene and they have it in their hands and they believe that this is the weapon that the shooter used. We dont know exactly if he may have put it somewhere else and used Something Else. And hid that weapon somewhere else. This is early in the investigation. We are told at this point they believe that he used a shotgun and if you see phil davis the reporter for this newspaper he describes that a gunman shot through the glass door and opened fire on multiple employees. Thats the scenario he paints and it is sort of lines up with what were hearing from our sources who said that that is the scenario that unfolded. And then they got these frantic calls from people in the building inside that newsroom reporting that there was an aboutive shooting taking place. At this point, again, they believe the shooter in custody, who is now isolated there was using used a shotgun to carry out this shooting again. Early in the investigation. We dont know if that is exactly the weapon. That is what they believe is the case. And so, now the work begins for the investigators to figure out where he got it, how long has he been plotting this shooting . Im not sure if were about to hear from the lieutenant there, the Public Information officer for the Anne Arundel County Police Department but, you know, theres a lot of details now theyre beginning their investigative work to try to g figure out what was the motive . We dont know if this person, shooter had any connection to this newsroom, the newspaper. At this point, these are all questions that we have that the police hopefully will be able to answer in a little while when they do a briefing. We are expecting a briefing any minute now. I want to bring in susan obrien, the Communications Officer for the city of annapolis. Thank you for joining us. Im so sorry its under these circumstances. What can you tell us about how the city of annapolis is responding to this situation . Its important that the city of annapolis is supporting Anne Arundel County. It is in annapolis outside the city limits but the mayor Gavin Buckley on the scene with the governor larry hogan. This is a newspaper we deal with every day in the city of annapolis and older newspaper in the country and our hearts and thoughts are with the families. And you said that the mayor of annapolis is on location with the governor. Are they expecting to brief reporters . Are they just gathering information . They are. Yeah. Theyre going to be briefing reporters soon. Theyll be together and having a Media Briefing i think shortly. Is there anything you can tell us about the number of casualties in this event . We have heard that from Law Enforcement sources that there were fatalities. Is there anything that you can tell us . I cant confirm any numbers. I can confirm that i have heard from several reporters that i deal with that they are okay. There were a few on vacation. So thats good news. But i cant confirm any numbers for you. All right. Thank you so much, susan obrien and our thoughts are with the people of annapolis city and county today, especially those in the Office Building 888 bestgate. I want to bring back Josh Campbell. Josh, in a moment like this, Law Enforcement officials in other cities, other counties, other states, usually try to make sure that they are prepared in case there are any copycat type events. Thats right. Officials will be focused locally on that incident and across the country Law Enforcement officers will be looking at this incident. I just talked to Law Enforcement source who tells me that the nypd new york city Police Department sending resources to Media Outlets in and around new york city. Both as a precaution for to against any copcats and to allay any fears in the public. They know theyre out there protecting them and the copycat angle is important. There are deranged people that look at this and look and say, okay, maybe this is something i can get attention on and something Law Enforcement officers will be focused on. Thank you, josh. I want to bring in cnns brian todd joining us live from annapolis. Brian, what yo are you learning . Massive Police Presence here. Well pan in there and show you the Police Presence. Dozens of Police Vehicles here. Large Police Presence over there. What we can tell you according to Law Enforcement sources, multiple people shot. Several injured. Possibly multiple fatalities and the fatalities unclear right now. According to one Law Enforcement source the shooter prerp traited the shooting inside the newsroom. We have seen tweets of a reporter of Capital Gazette named phil davis saying that the shooter shot through the glass do get into the newsroom and then shot multiple people in the newsroom while others hid under the desk and cowered. He described it as terrifying. We are showing emergency vehicles over here. We can get possibly a slight view of the complex here. Im not sure if we can. Its behind the trees to my left, your right, jake. Thats where the shooting took place. I spoke with a Law Enforcement officer saying that is not the actual building but the same complex. Police said a short time ago theyre evacuating the bidding, searching the building making sure there are no bombs and safe. Theyre telling people the avoid the area. Theyre also telling people if they need to find loved ones to meet them at the lord taylor in the Westgate Mall to my right. A staging area for people to connect with loved ones and colleagues, jake. Brian, we are told that theres going to be a briefing in the next minute or two. We have been told by the spokesperson for the city of annapolis that the mayor, the governor of maryland and Law Enforcement will brief at that meeting. We hear helicopters behind you. Are those news helicopters . Law enforcement helicopters . Seem to be both. There are officials walking toward the staging area now. I dont recognize the governor. We can see officials walking toward a staging area here. And conferring with Law Enforcement. They may be giving us a twominute warning or something coming up. Heres the Police Spokesperson for the Anne Arundel Police, Ryan Frashure. He may be just getting ready to give us some information. Theres the gopher nor hogan in the blue blazer. Theres the lieutenant Ryan Frashure, the spokesperson. Lets listen in. Good afternoon. Im lieutenant Ryan Frashure. We have a brief update for you guys. Just do give some details. Please bear with us. We cant answer a lot of questions. This is still a very active and ongoing investigation. We are trying to make sure that everyone is safe. And then once the building is secure we have a crime scene obviously so we anticipate this being a very long investigation and very detailed investigation by the detectives. Id like to introduce first our county executive steven r. Shoe to answer questions and give you updates. We limit questions just for investigative purposes because we have a lot of work to do. Thank you. Thank you, officer. Im county executive steve shoe of Anne Arundel County. We have had a terrible shooting incident here this afternoon. There are several people who have died from this incident. And several others are injured. Those who are injured have been transported for medical care to Anne Arundel Medical Center and Johns Hopkins shock trauma. Those fatalities are so sad and i dont know what to say except our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families and we take comfort knowing theyre in gods embrace. The shooter is in custody. I want to commend the Public Safety professionals who were very quick to the scene here within about 60 seconds and weve had a tremendous response not only from Anne Arundel County police and fire and state police, howard county, prince georges, several federal agencies including fbi and atf. I want to thank all those agencies for their Quick Response and being our partners in this very unfortunate incident. Like to ask Governor Hogan to say a few words. I want to say first of all our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families and i went to thank the Law Enforcement professionals who responded, our Emergency Response team was did an incredible job. Theyre still doing the job right now and responded within 60 seconds, i want do give serious praise to Anne Arundel County and the city of annapolis for their response and we were here with the state agencies to back them up. Its a tragic situation. We cant we dont have all the information yet an we cant give all the information yet. Its an investigation but we have had several fatalities and several people that are in the hospital and well just leave it to the professionals to continue their investigation. Lieutenant, i know you said its early but can you talk is it more than two . Can you tell us at least the kind of numbers you know of . Ill introduce or acting chief whos answer some questions. But again, please, itll be brief. We want to make sure the information is accurate. Theres a lot of people involved here and make sure that information is accurate and dont want to say anything to ruin the investigation. The suspect is interviewed by detectives. But again, ill introduce our acting chief william crampf. Good afternoon. You can see this is a fluid scene. You can see that we have over ten plus allied agencies assisting. The investigation has just started so as ryan has said well be quite a while determining what occurred, why it occurred and how it occurred. But as the governor mentioned, we were here quickly. We came in to the building very quickly. We received a call as an active shooter. We do have fatalities and we do have serious injuries. Welso have many, many witnesses that are being interviewed. And we have an area over by lord taylor that the witnesses can reunite with their families. We are asking them to contact their families to come and assist them with getting home safely. As ryan mentioned before, the criminal Investigation Division as a person in custody. Has one person in custody. That person is at our Criminal Division and well be speaking with that information quite frequently and well, shortly, i should say. And get the information. The building is secure. From a tactical standpoint. That means that right now we believe that there are no other shooters in the building. But it is not its not been cleared from an investigative standpoint. So once the qrt and the members of the s. W. A. T. Team, the investigators will go in and then process putting the investigation together. Did the shooter appear to be known to the police or Capital Gazette employees . Anything to tell us about right now we cant confirm exactly where the shooting occurred throughout that building. The Capital Gazette building is inside that building along with many other businesses and doctors offices. Do you have any numbers on casualties . Not at this point. Where did you apprehend the suspect . The officers were on the scene very quickly, 60 seconds or a minute and a half. They did engage the suspect and taken into custody. Occurred very quickly. Just for everybody, thats the acting chief william cramph and this is mayor Gavin Buckley. How are you doing . So the city sends its love and thoughtings for all the families affected by this, this horrible event. I want to commend our First Responders for getting on to the scene as quickly as they did and if they were not there as quickly it could have been a lot worse so i have to say it was a great joint effort by everybody. This is what we train for. A week ago we practiced an active Shooter Training thing. We didnt expect this to happen in our community but we are readily and i dont think we could have put more resources if you look at whens done here. Tremendous response. How many people have been killed . We cant confirm that yet so i have to sort of leave that with the county on this. Ill hand it back to you. Im sorry. You have a question . Just concerned. Is it you cant give us a number because you dont know or whats going on . No. At this point, while were still, you know reuniting people with the still reuniting people with families and interviewing this suspect, we dont want to put that information out right now. That information will come out very shortly. The person acted alone . One suspect . At this point, hes the only suspect. We have one suspect and like to introduce the states attorney mr. Wes adams. Good afternoon, everybody. My office is on scene to assist with the fantastic response by the Law Enforcement officials. As everybody knows, this is an active investigation. Well work with in conjunction with the detectives and Police Officers handling this scene to ensure we have everything collected correctly to sift through and process the evidence as necessary. Unfortunately, thiss the only comment my office can make at this point and on scene assisting with Law Enforcement agencies. Thank you. You have any type of motive right now . The investigation is active and ongoing. My office in particular cannot comment on the nature of the evidence. What type of weapon was used . Turn it back over to lieutenant frashure . At this point, while we cant identify the weapon that was used, we anticipate having an another briefing. Very shortly to try to get that information out so at this point with it being a very active investigation we need to reconnect with the detectives interviewing the suspect, make sure we have the Accurate Information to give out to everybody and anticipate another update here shortly. Were trying to find out a motive. You know, all those things that comes with the investigations. So it takes a long time. Takes a long time. Thank you. Governor hogan, we gathered similarly in southern maryland. This happened again. A shooting. Like this. What are your thoughts . As the leader of the state to be dealing with this . Your heart goes out to the people that lost their lives and their family and those hurt here. In both cases, in southern maryland, a School Resource officer that acted immediately and saved lives and here in 60 seconds we had the police response. So while the situations are tragic, our response to it is incredible. I want to praise the local officials who responded so well and perhaps saved other peoples lives by getting there and while the thing was taking place. And apprehending the suspect and he is in custody. It is frustrating because its not that they dont have information but cant share it. I think we know about the number of fatalities, the weapon. The thing is still actively going on and it can hinder the investigation releasing the information too soon so i believe when they have the next briefing hopefully they can provide you with more information. Do you think its anything veterans. No. Nothing to do with this. Was the shooter injured . I dont have that information and i dont have that information but thats two things to check on and make sure that we have it for the next briefing. Gun fire with the police trying to determine the suspect. Im sorry . An exchange of gun fire with the police . Between the suspect and police . That will be another more information in the next briefing. Can you confirm im sorry . I cannot confirm the weapon used in the shooting. Again, we have several questions that we know we need answers. For the next briefing. We anticipate having a briefing within another hour. Well make sure we get that information. We appreciate your cooperation. One more bit of information and this is the last bit of information. I anticipate another briefing very, very shortly. But there are five fatality that is we know of. There are several other persons that are gravely injured. We will have more information for you in the next briefing. Thank you. Thank you guys. Well be with you shortly. We were just briefed from officials of Anne Arundel County standing outside the 888 bestgate road location of the Capital Gazette shooting in annapolis, maryland. We were just told by the acting chief of Police William cramph five fatalities and several others gravely injured. It is still an active crime scene. The acting chief said that the qtr, the Quick Response time and the s. W. A. T. Team still in the building and searching to make sure theres no other shooters. Shocking news. Five individuals shot apparently in this newsroom. We were also told by Law Enforcement that police im not sure i assume its county police. On the scene within a minute, minute and a half of the shooting being called in. Cnns brian todd was at the press conference and joins us now live from annapolis. Brian, five fatalities may not be hundreds and hundreds of fatalities but it is a shocking number of innocent People Killed by this individual apparently all of them at the Capital Gazette newsroom. Thats right, jake. As we heard from tweets from a local reporter who was in the newsroom, phil davis, he said that the shooter shot through glass to get in there and shot at people in the newsroom. Officials wouldnt confirm or address it. The crucial pieces of information, five fatalities so far we know of. Multiple people wounded. And really a key piece of information here, jake, the shooting seems to have been interrupted by police. Both the mayor and police have said and along with Governor Hogan said that Police Responded here within about 60 seconds and the mayor saying if they had this could have been a lot worse. Thats a key piece of information. That the police got there, interrupted the shooting somehow and they would not confirm theres an exchange of gun fire or not. Thats the information to get later. All right. Brian todd on the scene for us in maryland, thank you so much. I want to bring back justice correspondent evan perez. Evan, were told the shooter is in custody and it seems as though police, although they havent said this yet, they seem fairly confident of one shooter and not said that 100 but they seem to be leaning very strongly in that direction. Saying at this point we believe only one suspect although theyre not 100 . What else can you tell us about that . We were told hes interrogated. Right. The police chief there or the spokesman for the police said they were engaging with him. I think one reason to hear frustration of the reporters getting information but i think the reason why this is happening, why theres a little bit of lack of information from the police is that theyre dealing with an individual whens not being cooperative. Not cooperating. Not cooperating. At least initially to the investigators. Trying to figure out who he is. He wasnt carrying identification. So they are having to figure out who he is. Based on other means. They have to check fingerprints. Not clear whether or not hes been arrested before, whether theres any record of him in any other way that the police would have his fingerprints in the database. Perhaps thats the way to figure out who he is. He was refusing to cooperate, refusing to provide information. They have no idea whether or not he has a connection to this newsroom. To this building. Theres it appears theres two newspapers there, the capital and the gazette. Thats why its called Capital Gazette. Theyre based in that same newsroom. Jake, but at this point, theyre having some trouble just trying to even get to the first base there which is to figure out who he is, whether he has a connection to the newsroom or the building prompting him to go there today to open fire on the people. As far as the fatalities, you heard the acting chief there say that there were five fatalities. Were told theres additional injuries, some of these range from simple trauma, people there and ran out. And some of the people treated for that. There are people who had injuries from the glass, the flying gloo flying glass and perhaps even shrapnel. At least within of the people appears to be fairly serious injury. At this point, appears to be contained to just those people. Five fatalities and additional people being treated at a local hospital there because of a range of injuries, again. Ranging from trauma to actual injuries from perhaps the incident, flying glass and shrapnel and so on. The suspect we only know of one, the Police Believe theres only one but that the point hes not cooperating with the investigation. They dont know his name. I want to bring back Jessica Schneider. Phil davis from Capital Gazette who is tweeting and providing insight also gave an interview to his own newspaper about the scene. And what he went through. Tell us what he said. He did, jake. He gave the interview to the Baltimore Sun who own Capital Gazette and said it was a war zone. He said its a situation that would be, quote, hard to describe for a while. This is a reporter who covers the courts, he covers crimes. And the way he described it being in the middle of the shooting scene, he said im a police reporter. I write about this stuff. Shootings and death all the time. But as much as im going to try to articulate how traumatizing to hide under your desk, you dont know until youre there and you feel helpless. Of course, we have seen some of the tweets talking about the fact that this gunman shot through the glass window or the glass opening to the newsroom and then opened fire on multiple employees. We now know that five people were killed, at least five people. We know that other people have also been wounded and waiting, of course, for the latest numbers of Law Enforcement. But this reporter was there. He tweeted after he was safe and he talked about the fact that he was hiding under the desk. Talking about hearing the gunman reload and i want to continue with this interview that he gave because he described up until the moments when police arrived. He said that all of them hid under their desk until he says the shooter stopped firing. He said they werent sure why he stopped. He said i dont know why. I dont know why he stopped but he said after the shooter stopped firing, perhaps he heard the Law Enforcement on the scene. We heard there from the county executive as well as Anne Arundel County police that it took them 60 seconds to respond and phil davis continued saying that police then arrived once the shooting stopped and then they surrounded the shooter and we know that the shooter is in custody, interrogated by police. But really, very chilling first person accounts that continue to come out from this one particular reporter, the courts and crimes reporter for Capital Gazette. He initially tweeted and then he gave this interview to the Baltimore Sun talking about describing it as a war zone and we know five people at least have been killed. People hiding under their desks until this gunman for some reason stopped and then was surrounded by police and now interrogated. Jake . Then to hear police tell the story he stopped because police came on the scene within a minute or so. Minute and a half. Of the call being made. Former assistant director for the u. S. Marshal service art roderick joins me now. I want to ask you about a shotgun. Thats what our sources telling us was the suspects weapon of choice. A lot of our viewers, a lot of firearms owners in this country, but a lot of people who have no idea what a something is. Tell us the significance. Well, im hearing the same thing, jake. Put out on Law Enforcement networks across the country that the individual did use a shotgun. A standard shotgun usually a 12gauge or a 16gauge or a 20gauge shotgun, those are usually fed individually from underneath into a tube magazine that holds approximately four or five or possibly even six rounds based on the length of that tube magazine. You have to sit there and load each one individually up in there when you run out of ammunition. So based on the number of injuries here, with the five deaths and other people wounded, he had to reload at least once and possibly twice so that also could account for the break in the firing is that he just ran out of ammunition and, of course, with the sketchy information we have out here right now we dont know how many rounds he had with him and its not 100 confirmed yet that it was a shotgun. Right. Of course. Art, what kind of ammunition does a shotgun take . Are there probably individuals out there who imagine its bullet by bullet and it is not. Its not. You can have bird shot which are very tiny pellets. Standard kind of round that Law Enforcement uses is double ought buck and fairly large pellets and also a slug round which is very deadly that a lot of people use in deer hunting and its basically like an ounce of lead coming out of that barrel so, you know, you can also use a combination of those different rounds but Law Enforcement generally uses the gauge rounds, the 12gauge shotgun rounds and its usually double ougt buck. I want to bring back jonathan. Evan perez said that his sources are telling him that the suspect is not cooperating. Law enforcement said that he was being interrogated. But evans sources say he is not cooperating. He didnt have an i. D. On him. I was wondering how common is that . Well, you know, again, motives key here. The fact that the suspect is alive, you know, after the end of this situation is unique. Doesnt seem to be a suicide by cop situation. But the fact that he had no identifiable, you know, paperwork on him, license, passport, whatever, is a little bit disturbing. Law enforcement does have their ways to trace fingerprints. Hopefully hell Start Talking or the attorney will be able to provide some information. Jonathan, you said it was disturbing he didnt have any identification on him. Why . Well, its just, again, you know, if im on a suicide mission, i may not want to identify who i am so im going to go in without any type of identification, no wedding ring, no identifiable markings, no license or wallet or anything like that. You know . To try to just focus on that incident itself. It is a clue. It is not the clue. But its something that investigators are going to look at. Why . Why does this individual show up with a shotgun, no identification, go to seemingly a very specific area of the building and then launch this devastating attack with the shotgun . If youre just joining us, police in Anne Arundel County outside or of annapolis county, annapolis, maryland, where the Capital Gazette newspaper is located, reporting that five people have been killed. Many more injured. And the newspaper shooting. Shooter in custody. Although our sources, cnn sources saying he is not cooperating. Its horrible news. From annapolis, maryland. I turn it over to wolf blitzer now on this breaking news. Im wolf blitzer in the situation room. A shooting in an ap unapolis, maryland. Five People Killed and that the shooter is in custody. Cnns brian todd on the scene for us there in annapolis. Brian, first of all, update the viewers on the