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Georgia School Shooting. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired September 04, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:40]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Welcome to CNN NEWS CENTRAL. I'm Brianna Keilar, alongside Boris Sanchez.

And we do begin this hour with breaking news. A law enforcement source says at least two people are dead and one person is in custody following a school shooting in Georgia. Multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, are responding.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The shooting happened around 10:00 a.m. this morning at Apalachee High School in Winder. That's about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta.

Let's go straight to CNN's Isabel Rosales, who is live for us at the scene.

Isabel, what are you seeing where you are?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brianna and Boris.

We just got told by a public information officer here for the Barrow County Sheriff's Office that, in about 15 minutes here, the sheriff, Jud Smith, will be giving statements. He will host a press conference here to hopefully get more details into what happened here.

We do know from the sheriff's office that casualties have been reported -- you mentioned at least two -- and that one suspect is in custody, clearly a very scary situation for these students and their parents. Blocks away, we saw vehicles just abandoned by the sides of the road.

It was parents getting out of their cars and hiking all the way here to the school, hoping to get more answers, hoping to see their children again. And what we're seeing is a very active scene around me, just tons of police vehicles, fire and rescue. We have seen a helicopter up ahead.

We know that the students were gathered at a football field. We saw at one point from a helicopter camera students appearing to be praying, a scary, scary scenario. We have been told also by the school district that the students have been allowed to leave the building and that their parents are notifying them on how to pick them up. The school buses will be up and running. But, as of this moment, we

have not personally seen any of the students here leaving the area. We have seen parents crowding around the police vehicles, because, Boris and Brianna, it's not just the high school that's here.

There's also a pre-K school over there. There's a middle school and an elementary school just down the road too. So you have here very, very worried parents hoping to reunite with their children as soon as possible.

KEILAR: All right, Isabel, thank you so much. We know that you are monitoring all the latest developments, and we are certainly awaiting that press conference here in about 10 minutes or so.

Let's bring in CNN security correspondent Josh Campbell.

Josh, the suspect in this case is alive. I wonder what you can tell us law enforcement is doing at this point in time, as we're certainly awaiting more information here in the coming minutes.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, sadly, back to school in this country means back-to-school shootings, and we now see law enforcement having to spring into action following yet another incident of gun violence.

Behind the scenes right now -- and we could see some of this on our screen -- there's essentially two aspects. You have the ground team, the law enforcement officers who responded. We're talking about multiple different agencies. We know in this day and age, when anyone with a badge and a gun gets an indication of some type of mass shooting or any shooting at all, they will self-deploy in order to provide those resources.

And we see this very large high school complex surrounded by several different law enforcement officers. Even though the suspect is now in custody, they still have to methodically go through this very large campus, A, to rule out whether there were any type of associates of the shooter, which is often not the case.

But, B, sometimes, you have during the midst of an emergency situation, as people are fleeing. There could be other people who are injured, secreting themselves in closets, trying to hide. And so we still haven't yet gotten the all-clear from law enforcement that they have done that methodical search.

Now, the part that we can't see for ourselves is what's happening behind the scenes with the investigation. We know from authorities, both state police, as well as the local sheriff, the suspect now in custody. What we don't know is if the suspect is in a communicative stage, whether he's alive, whether he was killed during an encounter with law enforcement.

If he is alive, if he is able to communicate and is willing to communicate, that can help authorities try to potentially get to that motive, if this individual, he or she is, willing to provide that information. But what we have seen, sadly, so standard in these shootings is that you have law enforcement that will have to start interviewing associates of the shooter.

[13:05:13]

We don't know if this individual had a particular connection to the school, whether this was a member of the faculty, whether it was a student, whether it was someone who had no association at all. And so that will be key to try to run that down in order to get to the motive.

And then, finally, we live in the day and age where so many people are online. Online information provides important clues often for law enforcement. So we can imagine that, as we speak right now, if they're able to identify any type of social media or other footprint that the shooter has, the search warrants are certainly being drafted right now to try to get authorities access to that, again, just to try to find out as much as they can about the person responsible for this tragedy, guys.

SANCHEZ: And as you were speaking, Josh, we got an update on the extent of the damage there at Apalachee High School.

We have learned that two people have been killed. And, according to sources confirming to CNN moments ago, four people, at least four people are injured.

Josh, please stand by.

We also have another voice with us. Former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis joins us.

Ed, based on what you heard so far, what do you make of the response time between the initial report that there was a shooting around 10:20 a.m. and how quickly officers were mobilized and now have someone in custody?

ED DAVIS, FORMER BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: That's a great point, Boris.

I was struck at the fact that, within an hour, they had declared that the scene was under control. That's extremely quick. I don't know how long it took to actually get on scene, but to get a shooter into custody and to get to the point where you can declare that there's no ongoing shooting danger is a huge benefit and a huge accomplishment on the part of the local authorities.

They didn't have time to get outside resources in there. It seems as though the local authorities got there, took care of things immediately. And then the chaos is gone a little bit, and you can start to seal things down, lock them down, do things methodically, as opposed to the chaos that exists when there is a shooter on scene.

KEILAR: Ed, what are you expecting that we may be hearing here in the coming minutes? We should mention again that the Barrow County sheriff is expected to hold a press conference here in just a matter of minutes.

DAVIS: Right.

I would expect that the county sheriff, along with the Georgia Bureau Investigation and the FBI, will be on scene, joining forces to effectively deal with the investigation. But they will be drilling down into the suspect right now.

The key thing is to find out what motivated that person, how he got the guns and the ammunition, whether or not there were any accomplices and also whether or not there's an ongoing threat, from someone else, so a lot of very important work going on right now processing the crime scene.

It does appear as though all the victims have been taken care of and removed from the scene, which is the first job. But, after that, you will lock it down and make sure where everything is and it's ready for court presentation.

SANCHEZ: On your point about the victims, Ed, again, two killed, four injured, does that give you any insight into the weapon that may have been used?

We obviously don't know much yet, but, in other cases like this, we have seen a range of casualties. Can you infer anything from those numbers?

DAVIS: Really difficult at this juncture, Boris.

Frankly, any weapon could result in those -- in those injuries. It could be a handgun. It could be a rifle. It could be a high-capacity shotgun or rifle. But a lot depends on the circumstances. Did someone intervene when the shooting started? Was the suspect taken out by a bystander? Did the police get there and tackle him to the ground?

It's hard to infer just based upon the fact there are two dead and four injured. That's six. That's six rounds. It could be a handgun, something as simple as that.

KEILAR: All right. Ed, stay with us if you would. We are expecting this press conference coming from police just moments from now.

We're going to bring that to you live as soon as it begins, but we are watching this story now, at least two dead in this high school shooting in Georgia, not far from Atlanta, four injured, according to sources at this point.

This is a developing story. We will bring you the latest. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:12:55]

JUD SMITH, BARROW COUNTY, GEORGIA, SHERIFF: First and foremost, I want to lift up our community. I want to give our sympathies to our community, our school system, our kids, our parents that had to witness this today. Obviously, what you see behind us is a evil thing today. At about 9:30

this morning, we received the first call that there was an active shooter in this -- on this campus. We're not releasing any information as far as injuries, but we have multiple injuries.

This is a very, very fluid investigation. It's very early. And I have asked the assistance of the GBI and the agencies here behind me today, and there are multiple agencies that responded this morning, to help us and help the sheriff's office.

We do have a suspect in custody, and we are asking for your patience as the media to please let us get the facts that we need to make sure we get this right.

Again, I have asked the GBI to help us, the sheriff's office to help us along with this. I know this is not what you want to hear, but I'm not going to answer questions after this is over with, but I wanted to give you the respect and our community respect to let them know what was going on initially.

We're in the process of reunifying our students with their parents. Obviously, that's chaotic, but we want to be respectful of them and their privacy as well.

I want to thank the state, the federal agencies, the local agencies that showed up today, as you can see, the multiple EMS and fire from other agencies that responded today.

Again, I ask that you lift up Barrow County schools, lift up Apalachee, lift up our agencies. This is going to take multiple days for us to get answers as to what happened and why this happened, but I wanted to give you a statement.

It is our hope, in conjunction with these people behind us, that we can give you another statement around 4:00, because I know you have to go back on the air. That is my hope.

[13:15:08]

But I wanted to be fluid with you all, understanding that it's fluid as well, this investigation. I appreciate you being patient with us.

Again, it's very active and is ever-developing. Every minute is developing on what we're finding. So we're going to have releases from other schools. Again, we ask that you be patient with us. Please be patient with us. And, hopefully, I can give you more information or more better information as you -- if you will, this afternoon.

Thank you all for coming out here. We will be back shortly, OK?

QUESTION: There's been widely reported that people are dead. Is that true?

SMITH: I'm not releasing any information. We have multiple injuries.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIC) SMITH: I'm not releasing information. Guys, I'm not going to answer

any more questions this time, OK? Thank you.

SANCHEZ: We have been listening to Sheriff Jud Smith of Barrow County, Georgia, where a shooting took place earlier today at a high school, at Apalachee High School.

Sheriff Smith keeping it brief, saying that an evil thing happened this morning. Roughly at 9:30 a.m. is when police got a call of a shooter at the school. The sheriff there repeatedly asking for patience, saying that the situation is fluid.

However, he did confirm that a suspect is in custody and that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is now helping in the investigation, as officials say they are attempting to reunify students with their parents.

KEILAR: Yes, he's urging patience and he's not giving out much information. As he said, there are multiple injuries.

But we have learned from a law enforcement source who's been briefed on the latest from the scene that at least two people were killed in this shooting at Apalachee High School. He said there are multiple injuries. They are in the early stages here, and he made this clear.

And, unfortunately, we have seen the process of this in so many of these school shootings. He said they are in the process of reuniting students with parents. And that means the very real possibility that you have parents learning the worst imaginable news.

At this point in time, it seems that they do not have all students reunited with parents. And so they are very much in the thick of this, what happens immediately after these shootings?

SANCHEZ: Yes, the sheriff also noted that they are working to get more information and are hoping to get another update to the press at some point around 4:00 p.m.

We have a number of experts with us to discuss.

I want to get to CNN's John Miller on this.

John, what do you make of what you just heard from the sheriff?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: You know, I think Sheriff Jud Smith is at that inflection point where they have some information. It's going to be disturbing information.

But they also have a lot of leads that are literally up in the air. What did he say? Suspect is in custody, very active, ever-developing. That means they have got a suspect. I am told from law enforcement sources there -- based on my question, was it a student at the school, said, all we can tell you is it is a student-aged person. They couldn't confirm whether they went to the school.

But that means getting that person's pedigree, name, address, background. Are they a student there? That also means rolling back on where does that person live and the search warrant that has to be done there, the weapon recovered, tracing that weapon to the owner, a lot of the things that Josh Campbell has been walking us through earlier today.

What I have been told from law enforcement sources who are being briefed at the scene is that they have four deceased. Now, that number is preliminary. It goes up from the two that we have been reporting. I say preliminary because, as the sheriff said, these things are fluid.

They have had to clear the building looking for any other people who may have been injured or hid. Beyond the four deceased, which is a preliminary number, we're also told that there are 30 injured. Now, careful with that number, because we were given the caveat that the 30 people who were injured were not all necessarily injured by gunfire.

So that would include the potential of additional gunshot victims, but also those who were injured fleeing and trying to get away from the shooting. We know that critically injured were removed by helicopters that landed at the scene.

We know that other helicopters in the last half-hour have arrived there and are standing by, if needed. We know that the people in the hospital, including critically injured, are being assessed. So, again, these numbers -- and we have been through this far too many times.

You know this. You have covered these, both of you, to say that these are the early numbers and they can shift.

[13:20:04]

KEILAR: They can shift.

And I think it's fair to say that what we're seeing here, John, is the scope of this broadening, and we're getting a better picture that this is a bigger scene, obviously, than we initially knew.

MILLER: One of the things that we're seeing also is a very forward- leaning response today.

Everybody that was available and could respond responded right to the Appalachia school, but other units were sent to all the other high schools in Barrow County too. They were placed in lockdown immediately, but police units were sent there, even in the absence of any report, to make sure that not just they were in lockdown, but if something was spinning up there, that police would be there, if something was on the way there, that police would already be present.

So the Barrow County people and their local law enforcement partners move very quickly and spread a wide dragnet in terms of protection in this case from the very beginning.

SANCHEZ: Let's get Ed Davis in on the conversation, because, Ed, we got a limited amount of information from law enforcement. As John said, they were trying to be forward and transparent with the press, but no mention there from the sheriff of casualties. He just said there were multiple injuries. Does that say that they're

still working to figure out the extent of the carnage here, of the violence that took place?

DAVIS: I think it does, Boris.

The issue -- my heart goes out to Sheriff Smith, having been in that situation, lots of things happening, literally developments every single second. As you walk up to the camera, there's three things occurring behind you that you're not aware of.

So his hesitance to get into a lot of details is certainly understandable. There's also the process of sort of vetting things through the other partners there. There's a prosecutor, there's the governor's office, the mayor's office, and the federal and state partners.

You have to come up with a plan on what is acceptable to put out, and it takes some time to make that happen. But, frankly, as John said, this response has all the hallmarks of a well-prepared, well-organized group of local officials who moved on this very quickly and were able to mitigate the threat before too many people -- I mean, it is sort of expanding the number of people hurt.

But, clearly, getting somebody in custody within the hour is really a good indicator.

KEILAR: To find out certainly some information they will want to know.

Ed Davis, thank you. If you could stand by for us, we also have our correspondent on the ground there, Isabel Rosales, working her sources and trying to get more information.

At this point in time, this has expanded a little bit. We know that at least four people are believed to have been killed in the school shooting at Apalachee High School, not far from Atlanta, Georgia, 30 more injured in the school shooting there in the city of Winder. Unclear how many of those injuries are from gunshots. It's important to note that, but this is information that is preliminary and subject to change, we are told.

We're going to continue looking at the story and getting the latest. We will be right back with more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:28:02]

SANCHEZ: We're tracking breaking news into CNN this afternoon out of Winder, Georgia, officials there confirming to CNN that at least four people have been killed at Apalachee High School, approximately 30 injured in a school shooting.

We want to take you straight to the scene now with CNN's Isabel Rosales. Isabel, what exactly are you seeing that's going on right now with the

process of reunifying some of these students with their parents, what the sheriff there described as a chaotic process?

ROSALES: Hey, Boris.

These kids have only been back to school for about a month now. And they are now being forced to deal with a school shooting right here in their own backyard. And what we saw here just a couple of minutes ago was a somber sheriff, Jud Smith, saying that what happened here was a -- quote -- "evil thing."

He's saying that there's been multiple people injured. He wouldn't give any sort of numbers. He wouldn't answer questions from the press, and instead asking for patience from us, the media, from the community, as they work to piece this thing together to get those answers.

As far as student reunification, we know that the students have been put in the football field there, gathered there. They have been cleared to leave. The school has notified their parents for a pickup, but so far we have not seen any student exiting. The sheriff said that they are actively working on that reunification process right now.

What I am seeing around me are concerned parents, of course, state police telling them to keep away, give them the space that they need here to do this investigation. But, nonetheless, three blocks out, I saw abandoned vehicles, parents rushing out, making phone calls, you would think probably to their children trying to figure out what happened, very worried.

And that's because you're not just seeing this high school here, Apalachee High School, but around this strip, there's also a pre-K school, an elementary school, a middle school.

And, Boris, here is a live look right now at what we're seeing. This is as far up as we can go, because, obviously, this is a very active scene happening right here.