Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live With Ali Velshi 20180214

Theyve come into here live at the msnbc newsroom, i personally have not seen anybody taken away in an ambulance. Ali velshi, it is all yours. Thanks. Ill pick it up from here. Might need help. So we are looking at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School. This is in parkland, florida. This is in broward count for county and it is north of miamidade county. This is west of boca. North of Coral Springs. If you know the area around there, it is northwest of pompano beach. What we are looking at are there is Police Activity at this high school. We know of reporting that there was an active shooter nearby and then other reporting of an active shooter on the property. Now what were hearing from the Broward County Sheriffs Office is to avoid the area of Stoneman Douglas high school while police try and figure out what is going on. Now there is a weve unfortunately covered too many of these active shootings. You are looking at a combination of live footage and footage that we bring back. But what were looking at here is a number of tactical officers around an armored vehicle. Could you see that they are staying to one side of the armors vehicle. We do not see other activity. We dont see anybody being taken out. We dont see anybody who has been arrested. We dont even see students. So were trying to get information from the Broward County Sheriffs Office. You will see you have images coming from a Television Helicopter. We were seeing people earlier there are reports of people who were being taken on gurneys into rescue ambulances but again, we dont see that right now. So were not quite sure where this is. For people where the situation stands. We do know where it is. In fact, there you see a fire rescue vehicle and some more Police Officers around here. This is a local Television Helicopter pulling back a little bit taking a look at the situation. Theyre approaching a car. You could see that. And well just keep an eye on what is going on. By passing that car. This is in parkland, florida. This is the Marjorie Stoneman high school and weve got there are a bunch of reports that have been coming in and theyve been a little bit different. Weve been hearing about reports of a gunman near the area and then reports of a active shooter in the area. Some of these reports are coming from twitter, there are people reporters on the scene who are putting out word of what they understand. But again, it is remarkably vague. We are seeing for instance some some of what were seeing on twitter is that there are reports of an active shooter in in the school, the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School. I would judge from the activity and the movement that they do seem to have a handle on things. You see the school buses stopped there. And you see people who have been moved out in vehicles. You see those people passing by that fire vehicle. But the urgency does not seem to indicate that of a current active shooter. But we dont know there isnt one. All we know is that there were reports of an active shooter at this margory Stoneman Douglas high school in parkland, florida. Were going to try and get some we are trying hard to get information about what is happening there. We do not have reports at the moment of injuries but there were reports of people having been taken away. The Broward County Sheriffs Department, which is investigating this, has asked people to stay away from the area. The spokesperson from there said the s. W. A. T. Team was called to the school, for those of you that know the area, it is pine island road. That is the tweet, avoid the area, and bso, that is Broward County Sheriffs Office is working a developing incident regarding a report of a active shooter. So we dont have confirmation of an active shooter, however Broward County spokesperson kayla conception said there are reports of victims. So this is the first were getting of reports of victims. There has been one image that we have seen go by that is it on your left of a person being placed on to a stretcher. They appear to be moving that over to a fire rescue vehicle, an ambulance that is set up for that. So that is the one person that weve seen. They are asking teachers and students to remain inside of the school until officers can reach them. So that may be why were not seeing activity outside of the school. It is likely on shutdown. These are now live pictures again that you are seeing. That is the high school campus. Nobody there. The school is i dont have this information officially. But im going to surmise it is on shutdown because you are not seeing anybody Walking Around the school. We have marco rubio tweeted he is monitoring the horrible unfolding situation in Broward County, florida, with reports of a shooting at a local high school. Ill tell you what we are getting information that marg ate fire rescue Coconut Creek in the area is confirming they are responding to an active shooter at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School and the chief there is saying they are assisting Coral Springs Police Department with several rescues and staff crews. So i did look on the map and this did seem to be the closest to Coral Springs. It is just north of Coral Springs. There is the highlighted area of the high school. So Coral Springs Police Department as well as Broward County Sheriffs Office are responding. Coral springs said they have several rescue and staff crews on the scene. And they have a level three a level three incident. It doesnt mean we know the number of victims, it means they are preparing for a level three incident. That means possibly more than 21 victims. Now we have no information on whether there are any victims. We know weve seen one person come out on a stretcher. But they are preparing and i suppose that is Jim Cavanaugh is joining me on the phone. Jim, i would suppose that means hes on camera. We may put you on and keep these shots up. The idea that they are preaching for more than 21 victims is a category. Mci three and that largely means because it is a cool, theyre going to prepare for a bad outcome. Yeah. Exactly. I dont think that necessarily tells us there is that many injured. It is preparation of the Emergency Rooms and the paramedics to be able to deal with that level. So theyve got initial reports from responding first patrol officers an maybe a little deeper in that because as you were showing on the feed, it looks like s. W. A. T. Had arrived. So they have a pakt a picture and do they have a shooter. They looked like they had someone wounded loaded into the Fire Department ambulance. So do they have a shooter located . Right there you see them searching the perimeter with the dog and some officers with long guns. You are looking at the same feed i am. Let me ask you this. We are there is a local news station that is reporting at least 20 injured. Now i want to say, i just wonder whether and i hope that is not the case, and we dont have those reports, i just wonder whether someone misenterprets the release from Coconut Creek margate fire rescue to say possibility of more than 21 victims, i think you are right. I think youve been a reporter a long time and know how the emergencies are. There is initial confusion. And also injuries can occur from running and tripping and falling and so forth. So i think it is preliminary there. We dont see a lot of wounded from the feed as you pointed out. And so i think there is good news here. We dont see any large trauma tents or we dont see massive people being treated for wounds. So right now we dont know. We see all of the patrol cars and we see the evacuation. We know s. W. A. T. Is on the scene. And the on scene commander from s. W. A. T. Will have a handle. This is Coral Springs, Broward County, Broward County, s. O. , i was a Florida Deputy and 3000 deputies. They have a top s. W. A. T. Team, theyre going to be able to deal with it but theyve got to get in there and locate one or more people if theyre shooting inside of the school. We are going back and forth between live images and things that have just happened to give you as complete of a picture as we can get. But as you see the movement of either the s. W. A. T. Team or some of the teams that were on the field with dogs, what at what point in the in this incident does this look like . There is slow movement. Now obviously in many cases there could be a danger and there will be slow movement of Police Officers. Because they like to do this in a controlled fashion. It doesnt look like mayhem. Right. Well you have to remember now, the job of the commanders on the scene is to make order out of chaos. You see somebody else in a gurney going to i think that might be the same the same one that were showing again. So we dont know that we have more than one person who weve seen go into a gurney. That doesnt mean that others havent gone in. Right. And that may be the same person that was shown earlier. But the commander will make organization out of chaos. So they seem to make it look easy. But what they have is you saw that bear cat parked next to the building with the tactical officers next to it. A lot of activity now is happening inside. They sweep those buildings and try to locate someone. Now if they get a shooter or multiple shooters barricaded in a building, it can look pretty static for a while. Because what theyre doing is organizing, theyll get theyre negotiating team, called noc, a joc, a joint Operations Center and set up in a classroom next to the truck or in a tent like the paramedics do. That is a paramedic tent. But you could see they are setting up. There is a triage blanket set up to treat wounded if they have to. So a lot of this is going on inside. It doesnt mean it is really more serious, it just means there is tactical activity going on inside. Some Perimeter Security searching as well. And again i want to repeat, we dont know and while there is always a temptation to surmise, jim and i have done this a few times, we dont want to because there will be facts and well know those facts. I will tell you something that may be true and leading to confusion and that is that Coconut Creek margate is helping Coral Springs p. D. And broward Sheriffs Office are on the scene. But they have said that this is a level three mci, which is the possibility of multiple victims, more than 21 victims. That means that they are preparing for an incident that may have more than 21 victims. Which is probably prudent to do if you hear of an active shooter at the school. Some reporters are interpreting that to mean that there are more than 20 people injured. We do not have that information yet. Stand by, jim. Tammy leitner is headed from miami up to parkland, florida. Tammy, i guess that is if you were starting in miami, that is about a 30 minute drive four . Actually it is a a little bit longer. Were about 30 minutes out right now. You guys, i can tell you that we did speak with a mother whose daughter is inside of the school right now. She is actually trapped inside of the school. According to her, there are still at least about 20 kids and teachers inside of the school. Theyve barricaded themselves inside there. We know that they are on not on the first floor and im not going to say where they are just in case the shooter is listening. We do know that some of the students have gotten out, but there are still at least about 20 people in there hiding and we do know that some people are injured as you mentioned. The s. W. A. T. Is surrounding the school right now but obviously this is still a very tenuous situation. Patients right now a parents trying to get ahold of kids an the mother that we spoke with was texting her daughter inside of the school and she hasnt heard from her in a few minutes and shes very concerned. And i just asked my director, are these live pictures . There are students leaving and arms raised above their heads. That may have been an instruction by police to come out with your heads above your heads and we do see what appear to be about a dozen students leaving the school. And now more. These students do not have their arms raised. But they are coming out in large numbers. What do you make of this . This is a typical evacuation. When these things are done by the tactical teams, they they do in a system what we call live and locate and evacuate, eliminate the threat. They are trying to get everybody away. They locate, they isolate, they eliminate the threat, and they evacuate. So let me tell you what we are getting here. Broward county sheriff tweeted shooter is still at large. Shooter is still at large. They do not have somebody either neutralized or in custody. As of now. But they are letting students out. And i want to ask jim for your interpretation but i want to give everybody more news and for those of you joining us, this is parkland, florida. North of Coral Springs florida. West southwest of boca. It is in Broward County. There has been an active shooter at this school. This is the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School. Marco rubio tweeted we are monitoring the unfolding situation in broward with reports of a shooting at a local high school. We have a tweet from Debbie Wasserman schultz who said im monitoring the Development Situation in Broward County. The victims are weighing heavy in my heart as is the courage of the First Responders on the scene. This senseless violence must end. And we have information that fbi agents from miami are on route to the school. They do not have details. They are being evacuated by the tactical units. They are raising arms as being asked to do so. And the president has been briefed on this. That is right. Were just hearing from president secretary Sarah Sanders that the president has been told about this. Hes been made aware of what is unfolding right now in florida. That the white house is monitoring it. As youve been reporting here live on our air, this is still unfolding, details are still sketchy. But we know that the white house has eyes on this and that the president as hes been in the meetings today talking policy and infrastructure, has been told about what is unfolding in front of our eyes and this is now become an all too common occurrence. The president being made aware of another shooting. This year, in 2018 let as listen in nbc 6 in miami for their coverage. We have several friends with kids at that school and one text and said her son is hiding inside of the closet at the school with other friends. So hes still on campus hiding in the closet. And the teachers have told them not to leave the school. It is not safe. And the suspected shooter is a white male wearing a burgundy shirt or sweater and he was headed in the vicinity west glades. That is another school. And so im not exactly sure what that means. Were seeing movement of students coming out of the school and so that is a good thing to see that so to see that kids are actually coming out of the school so maybe some is of the buildings there are getting the allclear and it is safe enough that police think that they could come out with their hands up. They do that so that one of the students does not have a weapon. Just putting their hands in the airshow shows the police they are not the gunman and because the gunman might try to mingle in and get make an escape. Again we dont have a location of the shooter. Perhaps they do but this is not information they are passing along. It is believed he is still on the school grounds, possibly still inside of the building. So weve been with this for probably about almost an hour now that we got the first reports. And actually before we even got reports i started getting phone calls from parents saying that there was some kind of situation at Marjorie Stoneman high school. My girlfriend called and she was running to the school to get her son. She was turned away and he is still in that building. And in addition to that, as i said, i got calls from another a text from a parent that her son is hiding inside of the closet with other students in that school. They are looking for a white male in a burgundy shirt and they believe that hes somewhere in the vicinity of the school. This is a very residential area. It is very spread out. Across the street is haron bay, the country club and golf club and a Marriott Hotel connected to it. We have christine the mayor of parkland. Are you with us . Yes, i am. Could you give us the latest youve been made aware of. Im right here at the corner of homeberg and Coral Springs drive. This is still a very active situation. We have First Responders from all over the area here. Last i heard they are still working on securing the building. And so, mayor, of course you are my mayor so it is good to talk to you but not under these circumstances. What do we know about injuries . Because we did see one, maybe two people leaving the school on stretchers. Yes. Well, as you can imagine, our First Responders are extremely busy doing their jobs now. So we have received very little firsthand information and weve tried to stay back and allow them to do their job. Maybe, do we know how many kids are still inside of the building . No. But it is its probably quite an amount because they went on immediate lockdown. Right. And i saw tweets from Police Departments from bso telling the kids to stay in their rooms, stay in lockdown. Do not leave their classrooms. Everybody has been told to stay indoors. Do not open any doors. And the public here has been told to stay back. They have set up a perimeter to allow the First Responders to do the job. So mayor, what is your feeling about this . Parkland is such a quiet and Beautiful Community and very little crime. And we dont know the extent of this, does it give you pause today . I think it just shows us that a tragedy can happen anywhere at any time. And i have to say, to see the parents, my heart goes out to them but to see the First Responders come out in such force and run towards danger and work towards saving lives and making sure everybody is okay has been amazing to watch. Just the irony today of a day of love, valentines day when i see some of the kids coming out with their little balloons and hearts and everything and cards in their hand and Something Like this to happen even though again we do not know the extent of what is happened. Correct. We dont know the extent. It is very sad that it happened on today. Today for those who are catholic is ash wednesday. And it is sad on all accounts that Something Like this would happen on any day in any community. Mayor, about the gunman, we have a just a Short Description of a white male wearing a maroon shirt. Do we know, was he a student . Was he somebody off the street . Like i said, ive been here on the perimeter following the direction of our First Responders and staying back so i have no firsthand information on that. So mayor, what is your feeling as you are standing outside watching all of this happening . Um, its sad. Its sad that these tragedies happen in our country. Well, mayor, the interesting thing, im hoping that most of the kids are safe because i was at the school two weeks ago to give a speech and when i was there, there was a drill for this kind of thing. So thank goodness they do practice this. Yes. And many of the students have been in touch with their parents, we have many, many parents out here. Siblings out here are communicating via text. That is good. So they know their child is safe. That is good news. That is good to hear. We know that governor has been following this and tweeted out and so has the congresswoman from this area. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the president is aware of this. Has the Congress Woman reached out to you or the government . I have been very busy with the residents here and the parents here. I honestly this is probably one of the few phone calls ive received. Or at least have had a moment to take. And mayor, we wont keep you much longer because im sure you want to get back to your constituents, but how are parents doing out there with so many kids still inside of the school and they dont know the condition of their child . When i first got here, they were very upset. The parents that i have here are around me, they have all heard from their children. So theyre calmer than they first were when i got here. Thank goodness for technology. Parents able to communicate with their child inside of that school. Mayor, thanks very much. We know you have a lot to do and some more information to probably gather out there. Hopefully we could check back in with you later this afternoon. Thank you very much. That was mayor christine orbski and shes following what is going on. Not able to get too much information other than gleaning from the parents. Because they are keeping so many people, including the mayor outside of the perimeter. But another text that i got from another friend whose son is at the school and she said that he heard shots ring out and they started running and his idea was to run out of the school but he couldnt get out so he ran into a classroom and got into the closet with friends and apparently he is still in that closet. But has made contact with mom saying, hey, im okay, im in here, im in here with friends and were hiding until we get the allclear. We talked to joel lefler and she was in texas but he has two kids at the school. His son was able to run out of the school. Jump over the fence and get out. His daughter was still in the school. So he was just beside himself being so far away on a business trip. And his kids being in danger. He said his daughter did he did get to talk to her only telephone. He called her but then the line dropped. Another girlfriend, the first girlfriend who called me and alerted me to the situation, she was running to the school with her phone in her hand to try and get her son out and that is when she was stopped and turned back, were going to keep the kids safe inside. So okay. So we have another parent that were going to talk to right now. Her name is michelle. And michelle, are you at the school and tell us exactly what you know . Yes. Im at the school. Im in front of the middle school next to douglas. They have all of the streets blocked off, they wont let us go closer. Is west glades also on lockdown or just douglas. They are both on lookdown. That is the middle school. Correct. How many kids do you have at the high school . I have one daughter that is a junior. Have you been able to speak with her or at least text with her . She was texting me up until about four minutes ago and now im sending her texts and shes not responding so im getting nervous. Last text was she was in the building across where the shooter was at. And so michelle, it is through your daughter the way you found out something was happening or had you just gone to pick her up. My daughter and a friend. Okay. And what exactly did they say to you when you talked to them . My tripledigit called my daughter text me there was a shooting in school. Okay. There has been a shooting at school and it is for real. Oh, that must be chilling. How are you doing right now. Im on pins and needles since she hasnt been responding to me now. Okay. Now you are outside with other parents . Yes. Okay. And now since youve been at r perimeter, we saw one person live in an ambulance. Have you seen anybody leave that was injured. There hasnt been anybody come this way. And have the police said anything to you as far as an active shooter on the scene . Because apparently they were still looking for the person that they believe fired the shots. Correct. That is why im very nervous because my daughter is still in the school and they havent from what i understand, they havent caught anybody yet. What weve been seeing, so hopefully this will give you some confident, what weve been seeing is a lot of students streaming out of the school with their hands up. That tells the bso, the officers on scene, that they dont have weapons in their hands. That could be why your daughter is not responding. She may have been we just saw a huge group of kids coming out so that could be why youre not hearing from her. Thank you. You live in parkland, correct. Coral springs. In Coral Springs. These kind of things generally dont happen particularly in that ves vicinity. This is the reason you move out there. Correct. Great School System and the community is wonderful. Have you ever had anything like this happen before . Any scares at the school . Never. Never. I have a daughter in middle school and in high school and ive been out in Coral Springs but i never dealt with this. We lost michelles shot there the shot from chopper 6. But we have been following this whole situation at Stoneman Douglas high school in parkland, 5901 pine island road. There is an apparent shooting at the school. Weve seen one person wheeled out, now here is a closeup shot and you could see parents and students outside but a number of students are still being held in the school because there is apparently an active shooter inside or in the vicinity of the school. And you are looking at live pictures. We have the photographer correct me if im wrong, this is pine island road just outside of the school , you see parents standing around and police filing in because this is an active shooter situation. Parents are wondering around. They cant get to their kids. This has to be chaos for them. Worried sick, but we just heard from a parent who said she hasnt heard from her child for about four minutes. This is after she was updated by her child that there has was a shooting in the school. What you saw right there, that is from one of the kids in the classroom on lockdown. So they are hiding and taken a picture and theyve gotten this picture out to their parents. So they are in side of the classroom at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School and ive had a flurry of text and phone calls from parents at the school saying we cant get in or ive talked to my child and theyre hiding in a closet, theyre hiding in a classroom, but they cannot leave the school as of yet. And again, we were told that officers in the area are looking for a white male, we dont have an age or a further description, but a white male in a burg andy shirt in the vicinity and they believe that person is the active shooter. And if we could pull up the chopper shot. You see police at one of the entrances. There it is. There doesnt seem to be a great sense of urgency, but the shots that weve seen, they are about between two buildings here. The door to the building is open. They are all kind of staged there but again, there is no sense of urgency. Guns are out but not necessarily drawn and ready to fire or ready to seek out this gunman. It doesnt seem like a huge sense of urgency but they did have an officer at the door propped open and looking at that building. And also because possibly we have reports that the gunman may have left Stoneman Douglas and now West Glades Middle School up the street is also on lockdown. So that may be why theyre trying to get some of the kids out if they think the gunman is no longer on campus the Marjorie Stoneman douglas. We dont know for sure but the Second School is on lockdown. So were just watching the situation with you all and it looks like the canine dogs guns draw and checking cars to see if the person is hiding in the car. But again, this kicked off probably about 2 30 or so that we got reports of an active shooter at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in parkland florida on pine island road and ever since then we have been watching the situation unfold. We did see at least one person leave in an ambulance and that was early on in this situation. But since then, weve just seen basically s. W. A. T. , Coral Springs police and the Sheriffs Department which has jurisdiction in parkland just combing the area going around the building and the campus looking for that active shooter and when they can they are getting kids out of the school. The kids who have been on lockdown hiding in their closed and locked classrooms for safety. An this is the scene i was describing a few minutes ago that the officers there you see the doors kicked off and propped open by a s. W. A. T. Officer. And they are all just standing there. Doesnt seem like a huge sense of urgency but they could not go into the building just yet until they come up with a plan. This is a major situation. The atf has been called in. They are headed to the scene or on the scene. The producer is telling me. They are on the scene . They are being called in. They are probably called in. But right now what we do know is that they are still looking for a possible active shooter who possibly shot someone at Stoneman Douglas high school in parkland florida. This is a community where almost nothing happens. I describe it like disney or like universal. It is everything is happy up there. It is a it is a great schools, a great community. It is really kid focused and we are told that there is a possible active shooter on that campus right now. We could take a breath to switch gears here. Were streaming online and also on nbc 6. Again, if you are just joining us here, this is an active shooter situation. At Stoneman Douglas high school. Shots were fired. One person a student or faculty member was taken to the hospital. We have reports of several people injured. A huge crime scene. Weve seen kids an students streaming out with hands up showing police they do not have a weapon. A couple of hundred stream out of the school. And it is a school of 2900 kids and 129 teachers. I spoke there two weeks ago and ironically it was during one of these drills where they practice and now you see why they have these practices. So kids know what to do when it does happen. My phone is blowing up with people from parkland, parents who are trying to find out what is going on and also voice mail from people who were running to the school trying to get their kids out but backed up and said no, you cant come in. Well let you know when you could retrieve your children. But again, weve got some kids hiding in closets, calling out to their parents. We had the one poor dad in texas who his son, when he heard the gunshots, he said he ran, jumped over the fence and got away. But didnt go too far because he knew his sister was still in the school. But couldnt go back to try and get her out. The father is in texas, the daughter and he talked but then the line dropped. So it is a very tense situation for parents. As a parents, i cannot imagine this. We did speak with a parent saying she was communicating via text with her daughter in lockdown in a classroom and at one point the text stopped and she kept texting her daughter and she was not responding. Were hoping that she wasnt able to respond because she was on her way out of the building. Weve seen tweets from students who were under chairs and under desks in the classroom. Scary situation. You have hundreds of parents there wondering where their kids are and if they are okay. Perhaps not being able to communicate with them. And i hope my friend doesnt mind me sharing this on air. I have a good friend who recently moved to the area. And her little girl who has been homeschooled for years, dallas her first day at west glades. And the first day at school shes on lockdown there. She again is in a closet with friends texting to her mom. So this just has to be a very harrowing situation for these children. Not knowing and again we started with this about 2 30 or so. About 2 30 kevin and i rushed into the studio here for us to go on air live and weve been on ever since. Still waiting to for police to hopefully apprehend this active shooter, only seeing one person come out in a stretcher and lots of commandos and s. W. A. T. And police and Sheriff Deputies all over that school and all over the area there. Which is a pretty small area in itself. Sure. They are trying to secure the scene. What you are looking at is officer s. W. A. T. Officers, bso, also from Coral Springs, they are all i guess they are devising a plan. It seems they are focused on this one building to the right. You see the bottom righthand corner of your screen. Officers are standing just outside of an open door to that building and theyve not gone in but standing there and waiting. The guns are out but not necessarily raised in a manner in which they were about to go in. So again, were watching and waiting with you all as to what is happening at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School at 1501 pine island road in parkland. This is at exit 14 on saw grass and down coral ridge drive and might a right on homeberg and you are right there and and then about three miles away with the Middle School West glades. Now it looks like more kids are running out of the school once again. Yeah. Hands up and this is got to be terrifying. Weve not seen kids moving this fast in the hundreds that we saw coming out so far. But this is a great scene, the fact that were seeing more kids get out of the school and hopefully it is the building in which the gunman is holed up right now. Theyre still searching the gunman is still on the loose. A white male with a gun, a maroon shirt and police have not been able to locate him. Perhaps they have located him. They are just not able to get to him. And render this scene safe. And so we dont know because one of the other things that we have been told is that they put West Glades Middle School on lockdown, which i said is only about two miles away. Because they thought he was moving in that vicinity. So then those parents went on alert as well. But at least some solace for the parents waiting in cars that they will get to see kids and their kids are okay. But can you imagine having a day like this at school . No. For a parent, it is terrifying. For the students it is. And i would say the scene that were seeing right now play out would perhaps lend itself to the fact that maybe this is not a secure scene. That they dont know where this guy is and whether hes on the grounds or in the building. We saw the dogs sniffing the cars to see if he was hiding in one of those. But i would suggest perhaps this is not a secure scene. It definitely it is not. Why you see so many commanders on scene and looking through the sky. Lets bring in anchor jawan strader. Hes been watching this as we have for last hour or so. Trina and keith, as you said, this is a parents worst nightmare. This is something you never want to hear or see. An active shooter in your childs school. And what we can tell you right now is that weve received a notification this is from the atf and it says Miami Field Division agents and im quoting are responding to a report of a shooting at Marjorie Stoneman douglas in florida and the investigation is on going and active. As you mentioned, the gunman is still basically on the run. And as of right now, this is what we know. And this is what ive been told, is that he is 58, a white male last seen wearing a burgundy shirt, black pants or shorts and a black hat. So a little bit more information on the suspected gunman in this shooting at Stoneman Douglas high school. And trina, you know it well. But as you said, 2900 students and about 129 teachers. An active scene as they search for the gunman. Chopper 6 over the scene of the high school. And you just saw moments ago students running out of the school, running for safety. And as keith mentioned, it is a good sight to see kids getting out of the school. Because some are still locked up, holed up inside, again for the safety trying to protect themselves until this shooter is caught. Now well take some closer images here. Take a look at some closer images. You see Law Enforcement on the scene right now getting inside of a pickup truck. We do understand that there is possibly one if not more injuries inside of this school. We understand that one person was transported by ambulance and a little bit earlier. But no word as of right now as to possible fatalities and injuries. No word on an exact number. Here is another look at the scene. You see the students running. They are doing what theyve been told to do with their hands up trying to get away from the high school and from the scene as they continue to search for the shooter there at Stoneman Douglas high school. Again this playing out roughly at about 2 30, between 2 20 and 2 30 this afternoon. And again, they are still searching for that shooter. Last seen about 58 wearing burgundy shirt and a white male. Wearing black pants or shorts and a black hat. And to give you an idea of the location of this area, so you could stay away, as they continue their investigation, this is 5901 pine island road in parkland. In parkland. And you heard from trina earlier, she knows this area very well. This is something you just dont see every day in parkland. A School Schools are great in that community. And everything else. Just something a lot of people would not expect. And now were getting information from the producer that multiple injuries are confirmed from this School Shooting inside of the building. Multiple injuries are confirmed from the shooting inside of the building here. It is at Stoneman Douglas high school. As you see more staff this looks like staff and teachers walking out of the school as of right now. As they continue to try to look and search for that gunman and this has been playing out now for more than an hour as they continue their search for the gunman. So were continuing to stay on top of this and im going to try and gather more information for you. But chopper 6 over the scene, well stay locked on this. And also if you are listening or you cant get to a television or someone else wants to tune in, maybe a family frent friend or a parent concerned about the safety go online to nbc6. Com or our app and tune in because we are live online. If you want to learn more information. But take a look. It looks like they are dropping off book bags here in this pile. That is what you are looking at now as they are trying to secure the area at the location there. We do know as again once again atf is headed to the scene. Theyre responding to the scene right now. Which is again very active. Okay. Right now were going to go out to laura rodriguez. She is live on the scene right now. Shes going to give us the latest on what is happen tlg. Laura . Reporter well, jawan, the best way to describe the scene is chaotic. Im surrounded by parents, siblings, many people just standing here just by the overpass. It is very difficult to get to the school but an officer Just Announced the staging area for the parents is north Community Park. I am just steps aaway from north Community Park and you could see dozens of concerned parents obviously. Many tears, many hugs, people just trying to get in contact with their children who are inside of the school. Right now i want to speak to the brother of somebody who is in that school. You have been able to talk to your sister. I was able to get in contact with my sister, bellatorez and she answered the phone trembling in shock and people being shot at and able to make it out. But right now, the kid is still out there and barricaded himself. And what did she witnessed . What building was she in. In the freshman building where i think it all transpired. Is that the threestory building. Yeah. That is the threestory building. Closet to on homeberg and Coral Springs. Yeah. Right now it is just chaos out here. And how was her tone . Was she whispering. She was just in complete denial and shock. She couldnt even she was numb. The way to describe it, the messages of her voice and what she gave off, this is a reality. There is no way shes seeing people and is your sister okay. Shes all right. She said that shes at the parking lot right now and theyre releasing people but in groups. They are being brought over. Im still just im shaken because that is my baby sister. Could you hear it in your voice. And just describe the scene here pulling up. I know that when i arrived here just flooded in cops. Just coming here was a hassle. I saw like nine cops just flying bay me and it made my by me and it made my heart race even more. Seeing the helicopters in the sky exacerbated the matter. I cant believe everything going on. And the police are telling parents north Community Park is the staging area. Many parents are outside of the park because they are concerned and want to be but they are seeing that is the staging area. They are going to do you have a sibling . Do you go to the school. I used to. I just graduated. They are taking the kids from douglas that are there and driving them to betty charlene park. In buses. And theyre doing it right now. And have you been able to communicate with people inside of the school. Ive been talking with my friends and one of my friends said their friend is dead. Im waiting for my other friends to respond that they are okay. That is terrible. And what else do you know . What scene right now they are sailing it as a white male and maroon shirt. We know that. What are they saying inside of the school. Just a lot of blood. A lot of blood. And what do you know . One of my friendss mom was over there and explaining they heard banging outside of the freshman building and then they locked the door and then that was it. It was just banging and then they came out and there was a lot of blood and some people are dead [ inaudible ]. It is the freshman building the threestory building. Yes. The one on the right [ inaudible ]. Okay. Right now youre listening to laura rodriguez. We apologize for that because were slowly starting to lose our shot. But listen, there is a lot of information coming into the newsroom right now. I have with me investigator willard shepherd. He joins me now at the breaking news desk and you are getting pretty Important Information on exactly how this all went down. That is right. Two things. First of all, this first piece of information coming to us from the Broward County school board, our contacts that are there, just arriving on the scene. They are confirming that there are multiple people who have been injured here in this situation. Unfortunately taking place at this high school here in south florida. So that is official confirmation of some injuries there at the scene. Secondly, i just got off the phone with an individual who is in contact with a student there at the facility and you see the kids running right now to safety, presumably with their hands up. You see them with their hands up there. As they are going out to an area that the police will have set up. That is a secure location for them. And ultimately a rendezvous points with their parents. The latest information i have from inside of the school was that this student and the person described them matching what you and have already been talking about on the air, with keenl and trina, a person in a burgundy shirt, i was told that that individual in the burgundy shirt actually pulled and trig erd the fire alarm. And when the fire alarm was triggered, that obviously brought students out into the hallway, faculty out into the hallway and that is when the gunfire started. This individual conveyed to me that it seemed the intentional act. That is what they were doing with the fire alarm. To create are the havoc of people coming out into the hallway and then the gun fire started. Im tolding that building by building and this is a large campus there, you talked about 2900 students there, that they are doing this evacuation in a systematic order and not all at once time and they are going building by building to get as many of these students out as they can safely and also locate and find the individual who has caused this chaos here today in our community. Wow, pretty incredible information. Were also understanding and you did mention that there are injuries inside the building as well. We did get a report here that was just handed to me, this is from the margate fire chief dan booker who said that over 20 injured in the shooting inside of the high school and at least one dead. We did hear from a witness there on the scene who was talking about she understands that her friend may have been killed in that shooting. But of course were still trying to confirm all of this information coming into us right now as chopper 6 continues to look over the scene. Jawan, when we have these situations, especially in our line of work in our duty to our community here, we try to make sure that there are multiple people telling us the same thing. And unfortunately at this particular point, this afternoon, were getting similar and identical information from different places, not only the authorities with the school board as you mentioned with the Fire Department, but also now from at least one individual of people inside of the building and this unfortunately is all matching in terms of the injuries, in terms of this person that they are looking for and obviously that is not a good situation to have these kind of things confirmed from multiple sources. And right now you are getting a look at the suspect description. That is to the right of your screen. Again, a white male last seen wearing burgundy shirt and apparently left campus and was last seen heading west. First reports were that maybe he was still inside of the building. As investigators continue to comb continue to comb over the scene there. Theyve been in the parking lot looking with canine units as well. If you are just joining us right now, again, a shooting at marjorie stow man Douglas High School. This is pine island road. A very busy scene, we are getting reports of possibly one dead. You are getting more information coming in to you. Jawan, im receiving a text message now, basically describing, and i will quote this directly to say that the individuals hiding inside a closet when the shooter came out and that individual that is in hiding saying that there are kids laying all over the ground hurt. That is a direct quote from the text messaging im receiving here right now. In the bigger picture, obviously bso, the other Law Enforcement officers, we see them there outside, those in the command structure, this is something that is obviously a worst Case Scenario which something they train for, a tremendous amount of time. The Broward County school board and all of our schools in south florida have had information that they give out to students about how to handle this kind of situation. You never want to have to do this in real life. But unfortunately it is playing out here today. That looks like obviously a distraught parent trying to get some information i have to interrupt you right now. Were looking at these images the first time. Forgive us. You can see an upset mother trying to get more information on maybe her child inside the high school shes trying to get in touch with. We understand how upset she is. The governor is on his way, Governor Scott is on his way to the scene. We expect him to arrive soon relatively. Willard, going back to the scene, we heard from trina earlier. You were talking about how they train for this and what weve been seeing, weve been seeing, of course, students running with their hands up, running and dropping off their back packs. Can you talk a little more about how they train for this . Sure. In terms of the students on their end, there are certain drills and information that is presented at the very beginning of the school year so that the students can be prepared, have some idea for this situation. From a Law Enforcement perspective, when you saw those kids running with their hands up, obviously they want to be able to show the Law Enforcement officers there on the scene they are not carrying any weapons, there is no threat to them. You dont want anybody carrying anything like a book bag that can hide an explosive, anything along those lines. This is the most difficult situation there is for Law Enforcement officers in the sense of you are going into a situation where you are looking for someone who is obviously very, very dangerous and has already taken the acts to show you what their level of danger is. But you certainly dont want to harm someone else, all the innocent bystanders and students. There we see now someone being brought out on a stretcher there. Let me jump in here real quick. Weve all covered these stories unfortunately too much times. You have people sitting at home wondering if there are 20 people injured inside, why havent s. W. A. T. Gone in, and more ambulances and people being brought out. Really whats happening is they have to do it in a systematic fashion. And the information i got from the School Board Just a short time ago was that they were trying to evacuate the students in a manner that was basically building by building. When they go in there, keith, again, safety is paramount. They dont want to obviously the police fire on someone who is an innocent student in this particular case, and the firefighters and the paramedics and the par a rescue teams, they in essence need the Police Department to tell them first that its safe for them to go into an area and there you see the officers well armed going inside the building there this afternoon, to go inside this school and hopefully find this individual that is creating all this chaos today. But that kind of team right there, theyll go in first, keith, secure an area so that the paramedics can then go in and do their work. Because obviously its almost impossible to evacuate someone out there, give immediate emergency medical assistance while theyre undertaking fire themselves. You risk endangering the lives of students. You just rushed them out in an emergency. I want to go to senator bill nelson in the russell rotunda in washington, d. C. He has spoken with Broward County sheriffs. He has an update. Senator, we are hearing tragic news about fatalities. What are you hearing, sir . Unfortunately, im afraid thats true, that there are a number of fatalities. That information came to me when i spoke to the superintendent of schools. And so, indeed, this is a very, very tragic day. The shooter, they dont have him in custody, but they think and ive spoken to all the Law Enforcement. They think they know who he is, but they dont have him in custody yet. So, this is a really bad day, ali. Senator, tell me what you know is going on there. We know the president has heard about this. He just tweeted about it. So have a lot of the local politicians from the area. But there appear to still be parents there who dont know whats going on. We still have students coming out of that school. It does not look like a secure scene. A lot of people are picking up from your live feed as to whats happening on the evacuation of the students. The fbi, ive spoken to them up here in washington. They are on the scene, of course. And they will need this entire reaction as well as the investigation later on. But it is quite alarming that it appears that there are a number of fatalities in this terrible tragedy. This really is tragic. Senator, thank you very much. Well stay in close touch with you as you get more information. I want to go to the representative in the house of representatives from floridas 22nd congressional district, ted deutsche joining me now. Congressman, what do you know about this . Well, i had conversations with the sheriff, the superintendent and the mayor of parkland, and i think the senator got this exactly right. This is a really horrible, a really horrible day. Law enforcement, First Responders from local, state and the federal level are all on the ground, but the situation inside the school is very difficult. I dont have confirmation of the number of fatalities, but this is a really terrible day in a school that i visited just a couple of weeks ago. Its a great school, great, great students, amazing teachers, and we mourn for the loss of life and we pray that everyone who is still inside can get out safely. Were looking at pictures, sir, of somebody who seems to have a lot of police around him being put in the back of a car. The only reason this got my attention, and were looking really carefully. I want to ask my crew to watch there. There are flex cuffs have been put on this person. It is a white male with a burgundy shirt which is what police said they were looking for. We know no other details. A white male wearing a burgundy shirt, 58, we are watching a white male with cuffs being put on him police car 9407. He has a number of Police Officers around him. We do not have more information. Obviously, congressman, this is a difficulty in a situation like this. Were working off of pictures taken from helicopters. We dont know what anything actually means. Do you have some sense of the number of fatalities . I dont, none that i can confirm. I just i know from speaking both with superintendent runcy and sheriff israel this is indeed a tragic situation. I have also just heard that the gunman that that, in fact, they believe that is the gunman they have in custody. That will be wonderful news if thats the case. I think i may have confirmation on this. I want to go to retired executive assistant director of the fbi. Do we have an arrest here . It looks like that, ali. We have multiple Police Officers. Certainly this person matches the description. Hes in cuffs so he is certainly under arrest. Youve got the Law Enforcement officers, the tactical officers are going to continue their search here, going through that building to ensure theres no other shooter in there. And weve heard from multiple witnesses, Text Messages that have come out of the building, that there are a lot of people that are injured inside, so its really imperative this person is in custody here, there is some relative degree of security inside, they have to get in to those victims immediately to start treating them. They will also start to interview this guy, asking him questions to find out if, in fact, there were others there, what was the motivation, if there is any type of incendiary devices or anything that could pose a danger to the responding officers inside the building. So, theres a lot of information theyre going to want to get from him right here right now that will make it safer for the officers and allow for this to be a more effective recovery, ali. Sean, thank you for that. February 14th, 2018, valentines day, ash wednesday, and a mass shooting at a school in florida. The White House Briefing has been canceled. Ill hand over now to my friend and colleague nicolle wallace. Hi, everyone, its 4 00 in new york, but we are continuing to follow an active shooter situation at a south Florida High School where police are on the scene. Officials telling us there are multiple injuries. Joining us on set here is michael balboni, former new york state Homeland Security advisor and you are getting some confirmation of what ali velshi just reported with senator bill nelson that it does appear from the images on our screen right now that a suspect we dont know if its the only suspect has been apprehended . Ha