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Two Killed, Six Injured, Shooter Dead at Madison, Wisconsin K- 12 School; Officials Give Update on Deadly Wisconsin School Shooting. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired December 16, 2024 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Back now to our breaking news. Shock and sadness right now in Madison, Wisconsin after a deadly school shooting. And right now we are standing by for a police press conference that is set to begin at any moment. But here is what we know right now.

Police say a gunman killed two people at Abundant Life Christian School this morning. And a police source says that the victims were a student and a teacher. Several more were injured in this attack.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Investigators say the shooter, who is believed to be a student at the school, was found dead at the scene. And CNN has now learned from a law enforcement source that it was a 9mm pistol that was used in the attack. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz is back with us and has been on the phone with law enforcement all afternoon.

What more are you expecting to hear from this press conference, Shimon?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ: Well, most importantly, I think the breakdown of the victims, how many are students, how many are teachers, just to give us a sense, you know, always very important in these situations to remember the victims and to learn as much as possible about the victims. So I'm hoping we get some more information on that. But there's been a lot of confusion, but also just the fog of war, right?

This is in the middle of this, the victims are being treated at the hospital. So as you said, we do know that at least two of the two dead victims are a teacher and a student, both dying on scene at the school. And the shooter, police are not yet able to definitively identify the shooter, even whether it's a male or a female. They won't say at this point. They're waiting to identify, to make some more conclusive identification before releasing that information.

The other thing that I think is going to be very interesting here is that it's a handgun. We know the 9mm. That is going to raise some interesting questions for investigators as to how the shooter got their hands on this handgun while Wisconsin is an open carry state.

There's a lot of questions about a handgun and how someone could get their hands on it and whether or not it was legally obtained. Did they get it from someone? And, of course, those are going to be the questions that investigators are going to be asking. I don't know if they'll be able to release any of that. It's too soon, perhaps.

The other thing is maybe more of a timeline here about how things unfolded. This seems, based on information that I have and people I've talked to, that this was all pretty self-contained in one area where all of this happened.

And it all happened very quickly, and police arrived very quickly, even that some of the people were still alive but sadly died on scene. And the shooter was still alive and was transported to the hospital. So police were able to get on scene fairly quickly and establish exactly what happened.

And now the investigators have taken over from the Wisconsin -- the Madison, Wisconsin Police Department, the detectives, as they're trying to figure out exactly why this happened. The FBI is assisting. The ATF is assisting.

But there's going to be a lot of questions centered, I think, right now around that handgun and how this person, this shooter, was able to get their hands on the handgun. And I think that's something that investigators are going to want to be able to answer. You know, because a lot of times we think about this when we cover these shootings. We always hear about long guns and rifles being used and AR-style weapons.

That's not the case here. This is a handgun, a much different situation, which presents all sorts of different legal questions, which I think are going to be interesting to see how that develops.

[KEILAR: And I was going to ask you, Shimon, but we got the answer as we were watching here, if students had been reunified, and we've been seeing a lot of kids kind of lower elementary, it looks like. These are little kids. I'd say they're obviously blurred. The camera's there protecting their faces. It is blurred, but you can make out their outlines, and they are maybe third, fourth grade, maybe second even. So some little kids filing out there as they are going to be reunified with their families.

And the other thing that we are looking at, as you see there on the top left of your screen, is we're awaiting this press conference where we are going to be hearing from the police chief, we're going to be hearing from Madison's mayor, and we're also going to be hearing from the Madison County executive.

Gregg McCrary, you were with us, and as you heard Shimon talking there about this 9mm pistol that was used, I wonder what you are thinking about that. You had said before that in most cases, weapons are brought, when it's a juvenile, from their home.

We still obviously have some information to learn. We're awaiting that here for this press conference, but what are you thinking as you hear this news?

GREGG MCCRARY, FORMER FBI PROFILER: Well, statistically that's true. And if we just go with the stats, that's what we're going to find, is that the weapon came from the home or came from an area, some area that this child had access to, was able to access the weapon and bring it to school. So that's exactly what I think we're going to find.

You know, there are a couple of other things to think about when we get into this, and as you were pressing the politician there, to give some really specific answers.

[SANCHEZ: Gregg, we're going to have to interrupt you because we see the police chief in Madison headed to the podium. Let's listen in right now live to this news conference.

CHIEF SHON BARNES, MADISON, WISCONSIN POLICE: This is the part where, again, I would normally start by saying good afternoon and thanking you for being here, but under these circumstances, I'll just give you a minute to start your live streams or do whatever you need to do. And while you're doing that, my name is Chief Shon Barnes, S-H-O-N-B-A-R- N-E-S. I'm currently the chief of police for the Madison Police Department.

I'll be providing a brief update of the school shooting that we had today in Madison. There is some information that we're not going to release because it's still an ever-evolving situation. You'll hear from some of our representatives from our city and from our county, and behind me are a lot of people who came together today to make sure that the day ended well and that everyone else was safe. So with that being said, I'll go ahead and start my remarks.

Today truly is a sad day for Madison and for our country. It is a day that I believe will live in our collective minds for a very, very long time.

Here are the details. Today at 10:57 a.m., our team was called to the Abundant Life Christian School in reference to an active shooter. We know that three people are dead, including the suspect shooter.

We know that the suspect shooter was a teenage student who attended the school. At this time, we're not releasing the age or gender of the student or any other identifying remarks about the student. Two other people have died -- that died were a teacher and a teenage student.

Six other people were injured. Two students are now in critical condition in the hospital, and these injuries are considered life- threatening injuries. Four students are also at other area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.

But these are just the physical injuries that we know about. We know that this was the middle of the day of a school day, and so there will be other injuries that we'll have to face for a very, very long time. And we're going to do everything we can to heal those injuries as well.

[15:40:03]

Many of you have asked me about the why of this. Why did this happen? What do we know? What was the motivation? I do not know, but I will tell you this. Our detectives are working hard in the investigative process to find out as many answers as we can so that we can further prevent these things from happening not only in this community but in other communities around our country.

I think we can all agree that enough is enough, and we have to come together to do everything we can to support our students to prevent press conferences like these from happening again and again and again. The school building itself is clear. We have cleared the school. There's no other threats or danger to the community.

We're in the process now of what we call reunification, and what that simply means is making sure that every student that was in the school is present and accounted for and returned to their loved ones. This usually takes a while, but we have practiced, unfortunately, and practiced and practiced, and that's why we're able to reunify students with their parents within hours of a school shooting.

The reunification is taking place at the Dean Clinic on Stoughton Road, and I certainly thank them for their help.

Again, we need our public to find an alternate route. If that is your normal way home as we get closer to the end of the day, please be patient or find another route home.

We are currently processing the scene. We are interviewing those who may have been witnesses, and we are obtaining search warrants to get additional information.

And lastly, I want to just say thank you to everyone who is standing behind me, the organizations and agencies that they represent, the men and women of the Madison Police Department and Dane County Sheriff's Office who selflessly ran into a building not knowing what they were going to encounter.

Many of you know this about me, but I started my professional career, if you will, as a public school teacher back in 1997, and I taught public school for four years. It was one of the greatest joys of my life before becoming a police officer. And I can tell you what a special place our schools are.

With that being said, we owe it to our community to do everything possible to ensure that it's not only a special place but a safe place as well, and we're going to continue to do that. So we ask for your patience as information is coming in. We will do the best that we can to bring you accurate and timely information, but we want to make sure that our public knows that we're working extremely hard on this particular incident.

There are a lot of people involved, and certainly we're going to come together as a community. I'd like to bring up at this time Police Fire Chief Chris Carbon.

CHIEF CHRIS CARBON, MADISON, WISCONSIN FIRE DEPARTMENT: Thank you, Chief Barnes. Before I start, the only thing I can say is this is not a place that any fire chief or any one of us would ever want to be, and I can't believe I'm standing here today talking about this incident. The Fire Department is a part of this community, much like all the folks standing up here with me today. Our hearts are with and our arms are around everybody impacted today and everybody within our community. With that, I won't repeat the details shared by Chief Barnes, but I will share with you the Fire Department activity for today. Much like Chief Barnes mentioned, at 10:57 we were also dispatched with Engine 5 and Medic 5 to the same location.

Throughout the course of the incident, we responded with five engine companies, four ladder companies, 15 ambulances. I would like to take a moment and share our gratitude for our county partners throughout a multitude of EMS and fire agencies that joined us in the response today. We also had 11 off-duty chief officers that came in on this response. It was a tremendous response from the Fire Department.

We transported four patients to St. Mary's. We transported three patients to the University of Wisconsin hospitals.

On the arrival of our crews, I can say my gratitude to our membership for what they did and their selfless actions today. It's hard for me to place into words what they ran into as well. They did that immediately. They did that selflessly. And within a course of 15 minutes from the first transport to the last transport, all the patients were on their way to the hospital. So within the Madison Fire Department and within all the emergency services, my gratitude, my recognition of the work that goes into this, the training that went into this, that, again, we had hoped we would never have to put into practice.

[15:45:11]

One more time on behalf of the Madison Fire Department, our hearts are with you, our arms are around you, and we will be with you throughout the duration of this. At this point, I will step aside and turn it over to the mayor.

MAYOR SATYA RHODES-CONWAY, (D) MADISON, WISCONSIN: Thank you, chiefs, both of you. This is an incredibly sad day for our community. As you've heard, there is no danger to the community at this time, but our entire community has been impacted by this tragic incident.

On behalf of the Common Council and the city of Madison staff, I want to offer our heartfelt condolences to the victims and families and to the whole Abundant Life community.

Our focus now is on supporting them and supporting the victims and their families, and we will continue to do that through the coming days and weeks. I also want to thank our first responders, the police, fire, the medical staff, for their quick action and their life-saving efforts.

As you've heard already, this is a whole-of-government response. It is not just police and fire. It is not just city of Madison. And we have folks from all around the county. We have folks from multiple agencies engaged in both the initial, immediate response and the ongoing support and will be engaged for days and weeks to come. I also want to thank the White House and the governor and others in

the federal government and state government for reaching out to offer their support and help. And we will be drawing on resources as needed going forward.

But the most important thing right now is to make sure that we are centering the victims and their families and that we are doing whatever we can to support them and to help them heal and to lift our entire community up through this difficult incident.

I am on record that I think we need to do better in our country and our community to prevent gun violence, and I hoped that this day would never come in Madison. It is not something that any mayor, any fire chief, any police chief, any person in public office ever wants to have to deal with. And so I will ask our entire community and our entire country to do whatever we can to make sure that no public official ever has to stand in this position again. And now I'll invite the county executive to the podium.

MELISSA AGARD, DANE COUNTY, WISCONSIN EXECUTIVE: Good afternoon, everyone. Today our community is reeling from the heartbreaking and senseless tragedies at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison. As a mom who received a text from her son at a high school here in the city of Madison wondering if he was safe, I can tell you this hits you in the gut.

Our community is better than this. Our country is better than this. It cannot continue.

My heart goes out to the victims and their families and the students and the educators, and the list goes on and on. Every one of us is affected by this unimaginable and unacceptable violence that has hit our community today. Dane County stands united in grief with the Abundant Life Christian School community.

The Sheriff's Department, the Department of Emergency Management, Department of Human Services have all been on the front lines. My phone has been ringing from people across our state and our nation asking what it is that they can do to help our community. And right now it is our time to be committed to supporting this school, these students, and these families, and our first responders who went into that building during this devastating time.

We must work closely with our law enforcement officers and first responders, mental health professionals, community leaders, and policymakers to ensure that we are taking care of one another. No community should ever have to endure such a tragedy. And my administration is going to do everything that it can to provide assistance to those who have experienced this devastating loss and also do everything that we can to prevent such tragedy from occurring.

To all of those who are grieving in our community, please know that you're not alone. Dane County stands with you.

[15:50:02] We're here to support you in any way possible.

Please reach out and ask for help. The Governor's Office as well as the Mayor's Office and I will continue to update the public as we learn more. But please understand there are many things that we cannot share with you right now.

This is an active investigation. This is an active case. The SSM Health Clinic near the intersection of Buckeye Road and Stoughton Road is the reunification center. I know that that has been out, but we need to make sure that folks know where it is that they can go to be reunited with their children.

Again, in the coming days, we are going to make sure that we are supporting those that have been most impacted by this. But, folks, reach out. Ask for help. This does not need to be the reality of our community. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. Let's start over here with questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did this unfold? Can you give us a bit of a timeline on how your office got into the building?

BARNES: Sure. We received the call at approximately 10:57 a.m. Someone from the school called 911 to report that there was an active shooter. That means something different to us, obviously.

There's different protocols that go out, tone alerts even, so that even if officers are busy doing other things, they respond. One of the things that I do want to note is that our training center is about three miles from there. We have special event team medics, those that work with the fire department, responded to this particular scene from their training day.

So what began as a training day became an actual day, and so that's how this call originally came in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nicholas, did you have a question?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What can you tell us, if anything, more about this shooter and what their motivations were, or have you made contact with their family members, anything updated on that?

BARNES: Sure. There's nothing new that I can tell you about the shooter at this time. Again, as difficult as today is, that's still someone's child that's gone. That's still someone that has to deal with what happened today, and so we want to make sure that we can ensure as much cooperation as we can.

You asked me about why, as I stated before. I don't know why, and I felt like if we did know why, we could stop these things from happening.

But what I will tell you is, as soon as we are done with the investigation, any information that we uncover that will not compromise the safety of anyone involved or compromise the confidentiality of any of these children that are involved, we'll tell you. I just ask for your patience.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, over there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chief, what kind of gun was used today?

BARNES: We know it was a handgun. We know a handgun was recovered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was the shooting confined to one classroom, or did it spread out throughout?

BARNES: We know it was confined to one space. I do not know if it was a classroom or a hallway. One of the things that we've gotten very good at, certainly different from in my day, is that if you do not need to be in a crime scene, you do not need to go to a crime scene.

And so the crime scene and those persons who were involved, they have that crime scene locked down and I did not go or enter into that crime scene. But if you can imagine, most schools, the students go together, but they are segregated, so on each different floor in each different group. And so there's no evidence that anyone else was injured that was not in the age group.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Danielle?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What can you say at this time about how school staff responded?

BARNES: I cannot speak to how the school staff responded. You know, we did have injuries, but it could have always, of course, had additional injuries. I do not know what the school's protocols are.

Again, this is a private Christian school. I know that we have a very good rapport with MMSD, Madison Metropolitan Public Schools, so we have done trainings for them before, but I would assume that most of the teachers have the same or some similar type of training as a part of their certification.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's some conflicting reports online about how many students are enrolled at the school. Can you confirm approximately how many students attend the school?

BARNES: I do not know how many students attend the school, but their website says that they serve about 200 families.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right in the back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What kind of support systems are going to be made available to people who are affected by the incident?

BARNES: That's a good question. As you heard from our mayor and our county exec, we have services within our government that will be made available to them. I have a lot of confidence that they're going to follow through on that and we'll make sure that persons who need it.

Do you guys want to speak to that?

AGARD: Dane County Human Services as well as the Red Cross and other consolidated agencies are already on scene.

[15:55:02]

And we will continue to be on scene, and those resources will be bolstered. Again, please reach out. You are not alone.

We are going to navigate this together, and there are people who are affected by this trauma who are not in the reunification center or at the school. We need folks to be reaching out because we do have resources available.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you know if Abundant Christian Life School, did they have a school resource officer?

BARNES: It's not my knowledge that they had a school resource officer. If they did, it would be a police officer, and I know where they all are, and they're not in the schools right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the back there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So in terms of witnesses that you mentioned about investigation, what is that looking like and how many witnesses are you guys speaking with?

BARNES: Sure. So the detectives will talk to anyone who may have seen this particular event unfold, anyone that may have been unfortunate to hear something. They will be talking to them.

It's my understanding that that's in process now and everyone is cooperating fully. That will give us an idea of not only what unfolded, but it could answer the question to motivation because, again, the students who unfortunately had to witness this. But that's not something that we want to rush.

You know, we're not going to interrogate students. We're going to give them an opportunity to come in and speak to what they may have saw when they feel ready, which is why some of these questions can't be answered right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you reassure the community that it's still OK to go back to school? I mean, everybody's got kids, and I think, you know, maybe it happened in this school, but there's everybody that's got kids anywhere, right, within the county. It's going to be hard.

BARNES: Yes, I think you're asking me how can I say 100 percent that no child will ever be harmed in school. I can't. No police chief can.

But all I can tell you is that we have systems in place so that if something happens, we can respond like we did today. I can tell you that our mayor and our county exec has committed resources to not only public health but also mental health. I can tell you that every teacher that I've ever had contact with at MMSD cares deeply about their students, every staff member. I talk to staff members all the time who tell me things that are going on in the schools and want to do whatever they can, even if it's under anonymity, to let me know that they want to have a safe school.

So my reassurance to the public is that if you see something, say something. If you know someone who may be going through a difficult time, please reach out to someone.

And I think what I can do is make sure that our police department is transparent and open and honest and inviting for people to call and give information. I think MMSD does an excellent job of that. And the same thing can be said for any other private school.

If you want to give information or you need someone to talk to, I can promise you we'll have someone there to get that information.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chief, understanding that this is a private school you may not be as familiar with, what can you tell us about some of the physical measures that are in place in this school, whether it's metal detectors, secure entryway, cameras, et cetera?

BARNES: Yes, that's a good question. I've never been in this school, unfortunately. I'm not aware that there were metal detectors in the school.

That's something that we can certainly look at. Most schools have some form of surveillance or public space cameras, but that will be, of course, part of the investigation process.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Scott.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chief, can you clarify? You said seven were injured, but six were hospitalized. Does that mean one has been treated for these? And secondly, is the shooter's family cooperating with the investigation?

BARNES: Yes, so that's two questions, but let me try to handle the first one. So I'm trying to go back to my notes. So we do know that one person was pronounced at the scene, and so that may be the seventh person.

But we can get you all that information just when we're done. I'll have my PIO give that to you so you can report it accurately. And what was your second question?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is the shooter's family cooperating?

BARNES: At this time, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you have made contact with the shooter's family?

BARNES: We have.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what were the steps taken to do that?

BARNES: Through the investigative process, OK? Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is the shooter's home being searched? We heard you got some information about that is ongoing.

BARNES: Yes, obviously, once we have identified, we have initiated a search, but we think that search is either ongoing now or that search may be concluded. Of course, it's about safety. That's the first thing, making sure that people are safe, and then we'll go from there.

This has been -- I'm sorry -- this has been an amazing day for everyone. And so if you have someone ...

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