Reporter exactly. And the president likes to be his own chief of staff and Communications Director and press secretary. Its a maddening job for whoever goes into any of these positions but mulvaney is seen as somebody who keeps the trains running on time. That might be what the president needs. Yes. Thank you to all of you for joining us. Anderson starts now. Good evening, thanks for joining us. The Breaking News tonight in america is once again heart breaking. At least five people dead. Multiple wounded in a shooting at a news room. The news room at the Capital Gazette in annapolis, maryland. A suspect is in custody. A white male. Over the next hour well have the latest on the investigation and what were learning as details emerge. The shooting did just happen about five hours ago. The investigation is in the very early stages. Police officials are expected to give an update, a Press Conference any moment. Well bring it to you live as it happens. Stay tuned for that. Tragically the shootings happen so often theres a dangerous of becoming numb. One person, a white male in his late 30s in custody. And our criminal investigation division, investigators are interviewing him now. He entered the building. This was a targeted attack on the Capital Gazette that is located at 888 Best Gate Road on the first floor. He entered the building with a shotgun, and he looked for his victims as he walked through the lower level. We have secured the building. We are in the process of notifying the next of kin. We have five confirmed fatales and two injuries. The injuries to my understanding are superficial, possibly from glass from the shotgun blast. We are working on now securing his residence. He does live in the state of maryland. We are in the process of securing that residence and preparing for Search Warrants. So this is the next phase of this scene, and that is the investigative phase. This is the part that takes the most time. As i would assume many of you have already heard from many other Police Agencies in the state of maryland and across the country, the investigative process is very difficult. We must be thorough. Thats why you will not get the information from social media or from us unless its been confirmed. We have allowed our investigators to do their job. They are there now, and we are going to continue to provide you with information. I want to to share something with you that i think is
important. We mentioned before about the improvised explosive device. That is not an ied. It was actually canisters of Smoke Grenades that he used inside of the building when he entered the establishment. This person was prepared today to come in. This person was prepared to shoot people. His intent was to cause harm, and as i stated before, the investigative part of this is going to be thorough, and its going to take some time. As you can see behind us, we opened up bestgate road. We thought that we may need to secure that roadway for a long period of time. And as we get further into the investigation, we realized that we dont need that roadway. But the building, 888 bestgate
will be secured for some time. I do not have a time frame on that yet. Well be inside there for quite a bit, until this investigation is complete. When i have more confirmed information, i will share that confirmed information with you. You said he targeted specifically this newspaper. What was his beef with the newspaper . Thats what were investigating now. But there are already reports he had a history with the newspaper a couple years ago. Thats what im hearing, but before we confirm that, i need our investigators to look into that and make sure thats correct. Does he live in annapolis . Was there difficulty identifying the man . I cant share that with you. Its the first time ive heard facial recognition. Is he being cooperative and answering questions . I cant answer that. He is at our criminal investigation division. Our detectors are down there with him. Ive not interrupted them to ask if hes beingcooperative. Is this somebody who was known to you . Can you confirm if the suspect had a connection . The only connection i can tell you about right now is possibly, possibly through social media. I have no other confirmation. As anybody in your department or other departments had issues with this guy. I cannot confirm if our department has come in contact with him. Well have that at a later time as well. Any comment from my Family Members . Is he a resident of maryland . Hes a resident of maryland. You said he was walking and looking for thats going to be part of the investigation. I cant confirm for you whether or not he knew employees or just targeted the business in
general. Can you tell us where in maryland hes a resident . No. When are you able to confirm his identity . Very soon. Very soon. Was this a sporting shotgun, a tactical shotgun, and can you provide information about the Smoke Grenades, if there were commercially available or i dont have that information. They were shot on the first floor. Deputy chief, theres talk about the gunman trying to hide his identity in certain ways, maybe with his fingerprints burned off and things. Can you confirm any of that . I cannot. Its the first i heard facial recognition and the first ive heard anything about fingerprints. We have no verification on either. Were there any threats on social media or directly sent to we know there were threats
sent to the Capital Gazette over social media. Were trying to confirm what account it was and who sent them. When were the threats sent . Im sorry, what . How long ago to my knowledge, the threats were as early as today. Were there broken windows on the fourth floor . I cant answer that. The broken windows on the fourth floor, as i mentioned before, we have a twophase approach. One is tactical. One is investigative. The fourth floor, im almost positive they came from our tactical guys. Were all the five fatalities employees of the Capital Gazette . I cant confirm that. Have you had a chance to see the videos yet . We have not. In fact were pulling them as we
speak. We have Property Managers here and everybody thats associated with that building. Heres the interesting part. Governor hogan and mr. Shoe, our County Executive mention third down numerous times. If you see this gentleman behind me from the red cross, weve had so much support from around this state not only Law Enforcement but both private and public sector, and this gentleman is one of them from the red cross that has come and just asked what they can do. And thats important for us. We have to take care of a lot of people in a scene like this, not only Police Officers but our victims, our victims families, and then we have to get everybody back to normal. Right . Thats our job. So thats why we have these people here. Chief, can you tell us anything about how i cant thats part of the investigation. And when im able to give that information to you, i will. Was there any security in place given the fact that they had threats . How about his age . Late 30s. Thats part of the investigation. Were looking into that as well. Based on the threats, not to my knowledge, no. Was there any kind of response to a threat . If they have, im not aware of that personally, but we will look into that, because of the threats an well get back to you on that information. Chief, were you able to take his fingerprints . Were we able to take his fingerprints . That will be part of the booking process, yes, eventually his fingerprints will be taken. There were reports of i want to be really clear about this, guys. We have no information about facial recognition or anything about his fingerprints. If i had that information, i would give it to you, but we dont have that. You guys are trying to verify the social media account. Can you talk about the
specificity of the threat . Can you talk about the threat . What kind of threats were made . What i can share with you know is they were general threats toward the capital as a media outlet. Was it saying i want to kill somebody . Was it harm they were threatening or just saying im never going to buy your paper again . Thats a good question. When i have a Information Available to you, ill be more specific on the threats. Can you say they were violent threats . Were they involving a specific story . No. Were they violent threats . They indicated violence. Was he targeting we do not have any we have no knowledge at all that he was targeting anyone specific at the capital. Was anyone at the capital talk about recently threats. Had they personally talked to you . No. Look, i want to be clear about
another point. The capital newspaper is our local newspaper. We interact with the capital newspaper daily. Lieutenant frazier is our Public Information officer. We have friends at the capital newspaper. We speak with these Men And Women on a daily basis to get stories out that are important to the citizens of this county. So were here. Were invested. Were going to get this investigation right. And were going to come back and were going to give you credible, confirmed information to answer all your questions. When will we have a name on the suspect . Soon. Was there a boosted Police Presence of any kind after the threats were issued . No. Last one. I cant answer that. We have two individuals and we have one at another place. One more. Thats it. Was there any tactical train . We dont know that yet. Will you release the name tonight . Just to update you guys, with the next briefing. We dont anticipate further information until tomorrow morning with releasing the suspects name. Theres a lot of investigation thats going on right now. We dont want to jeopardize any of that. Again, we just from the police department, we interact with these reporters every day like we do a lot of you guys that are local reporters. I think sometimes in the major events, that gets lost. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and the victims families and to friends. These are people that we knew personally. If youre just joining us, we heard the latest information from authorities. There were social media threats made. Thats the only kind of threats theyre confirms ing at this point. One of the threats was made as early as today, earlier today. The person who is accused of this, they say is in their late 30s. Theyve not given out a name. They say this was a targeted attack on the Capital Gazette. This person looked for his victims. Five fatalities. Two superficial injuries from broken glass or trying to escape from the shooter. They are in the process of getting Search Warrants. They have secure third down persons house. They havent entered the house. Theyre getting Search Warrants first. This person had Smoke Grenades which they used which showed a level of preparation according to Law Enforcement. In a moment were going to have my complete interview with two reporters who were there when all of this happened who hid under their desks. Their accounts are chilling. We go into a lot of detail with them. Were going to bring you that interview in a moment. I want to bring in our Law Enforcement analyst, our former fbi supervisory agent, and also
a former fbi agent, and a retired fbi supervisory specialist. Police are saying a targeted attack. This is early hours. What stands out to you based on what we just learned . That statement was a main take away for me. The question always starts with why did this person do this . What was the motive . Was there a connection or was it random . That was the question weve been looking to answer. Was it targeted . As my colleague evan perez and others have reported along with talking to some of our sources, there was a connection, and as weve Learned Police are on the verge of entering an residence while they continue to gather information. That answers that question. The one remaining factor for me is we look at some of the evidence that weve heard, the devices, and obviously the vng who was there walking on the first floor and seeking to take
life. It will be interesting to see whornt t whether or not the conclusion that this was targeted was based on that evidence alone or if the subject is cooperating with authorities. Weve talked to sources. Weve learned at within point he wasnt cooperative. That can change at any time if Law Enforcement convinced him its in his best interest to talk. A lot of unanswered questions. We have this issue of social media. Thats something the Law Enforcement officers will look at anyway in a situation trying to determine what are the means someone uses to communicate. The medium may also have been used as a threat will be of interest to Law Enforcement officials as this longterm investigation continues. James, the shooter was not carrying i. D. According to sources and based on sources that he reportedly wasnt cooperative. There was also a report he had somehow altered his fingerpri s fingerprints. The chief of police would not confirm that. For you, what is all of this saying about the level of preparation . The Smoke Canisters as well . First, in crisis incidence, inaccurate information is always a problem that we have to sift through. So the chief of clear there. He said were going to be careful. Anything we put out is going to be very accurate. We dont want to put out anything erroneous. We heard reports maybe fingerprints were altered. Earlier reports also said potential ieds. He corrected that saying it was smoke cannons. Exactly. I think sometimes for civilians they might think a Smoke Canister is an ied. It causes fire and smoke. What those things are used for from a military perspective, you use them to signal and to obscure. Now, using them in this kind of situation, did he use that as a distraction . Did he use it as something that was going to cause fear and pan sni ic . He used a shotgun. The chief didnt say whether it was buck shot or bird shot or a
slug. A slug round is a dangerous round. Theyre less accurate because its a scatter gun type device. Obviously a lot of people have shotguns for home defense. So probably didnt raise any suspicions that he purchased this. But not the kind of weapon weve seen generally speaking in these types of incidence. Motive is always important. Not yet determined. We dont know why this news room was perhaps targeted. Even if the shooter knew any of the victims or editors at the paper. The two people who lived through this who ill talk to, reporters, distinctly describe the path the gunman took through the news room and where people were and who it was that he seemed to, in their opinion, be looking for. But, again, we dont know yet motive. Some threats were made over social media. At this point what do investigators do to try to
determine motive . Obviously theres the interview process. Whether or not hes being cooperative is unknown at this point. Right. Well, obviously speaking directly with the shooter. Shes still alive. Hes still alive. Hell be able to give them the best information. I think theyll want to confirm this is what it sounds like, but theyre going to want to know was he doing this alone . Or was this in coordination with anybody or did anybody know about this . And a lot of clues about motive might come from the people around him. Friends and family. If he was doing this alone, you know, lone wolf shooters are very difficult to identify and prevent ahead of time, because usually the people who are seeing signs of it are the people closest to this person. And just to relate this back to kind of a bigger conversation that weve had this week about civility and rhetoric, lone wolf actors are often alienated individuals who are looking to displace their anger and frustration onto some kind of
outside entity or enemy, and i think its worth pointing out that weve had a constant rhetoric coming even from the president that the press is the enemy of the people, thats been repeated constantly, and i think its worth noting if there is a link, the publication was being targeted that kind of rhetoric can be very dangerous in these times. And again, we dont know the history. If this person does have some sort of history with this newspaper, how far back it goes. The police chief was talking about what happens it was years but there was a social media threat made today. Joining me is lieutenant frazier. At this stage can you stay whether or not the shooter is cooperating with authorities . At this point were not saying whether he is cooperative or not, but we do have him down at our criminal investigation division. Hes being interviewed by our detectives and theyre trying to find out as much information as
possible. Its still very early on in the investigation. As you know, unfortunately since weve seen these things happen across the nation, this is the invest ga investigative part. It takes a long time. We have several investigators assigned to this. Theyre interviewing him and witnesses. We had approximately 170 people inside that building that we were able to get out safely that are all central witnesses. Ov our detectives are interviewing them and collecting surveillance from the building and surrounding buildings. We have a lot of leg work to do. Its the tip of the iceberg. Were up to the task and will make sure we get justice for these people who have lost o their lives. Its interesting from a pio standpoint. This is our local newspaper. These are people i had personal Close Relationships with. Many of the people in our department have it hits close to home when its people you know. Its unfortunate, and our
thoughts and prayers go out to them. Pio is Public Information officer for our viewers. You talk about a Search Warrant. Youre getting a Search Warrant right now in order to be able to enter the property. How lon