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Interview With State Sen. Ben Watson (R-GA); Five Soldiers Shot at Fort Stewart. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired August 06, 2025 - 13:00   ET

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

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We're tracking breaking news into CNN at this hour.

Military officials confirmed five soldiers were shot during an active shooter situation at Fort Stewart, a U.S. Army base in South Georgia. Police say the gunman is no longer a threat, but parts of the base remain on lockdown, as we look at live images from Fort Stewart.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Fort Stewart is just Southwest of Savannah. It is home to the Army's 3rd Infantry Division. More than 10,000 soldiers and their families live there, along with Army civilian employees.

We do have a team of reporters monitoring the latest developments here.

Let's go first to CNN's Isabel Rosales.

Isabel, tell us the very latest.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we just got a plethora of information from a press release that was posted on the verified Facebook page of Fort Stewart.

And the latest information that we're getting is, in terms of injuries, that five soldiers have been shot due to this active shooter incident. Although the extent of their injuries is unknown at this time, we are told there again by Fort Stewart that all soldiers -- all soldiers -- excuse me -- were treated on site and then they were moved over to the Winn Army Community Hospital for further treatment.

But the big piece of information here is that there is no longer an active threat to the community. That is because the shooter was apprehended. That is the word that they're using, apprehended.

Let me give you a bit of the timeline here that we're learning from this new press release. We know that at 10:56 in the morning law enforcement was dispatched because of calls about a possible shooting. That was happening at the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team area complex. Again, that was at 10:56 in the morning.

Just eight minutes later, the installation was fully on lockdown. And then by 11:35 a.m., so 40 minutes since the shooting started, that shooter was apprehended, is the word that they're using. Now, this would seem to point to the fact that the shooter is in custody. Typically, the verbiage that we're seeing is neutralized when the shooter is taken down by police.

But the word that they're using here is apprehended 40 minutes since the shooting started. We also know that the installation has lifted the lockdown of the main areas. That happened at 12:10 p.m. just here in the last hour. But the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team area complex, where the shooting originated from, that is still under lockdown.

We're also keeping a very close eye on our affiliate cameras, the live cameras there by the front gate that you're seeing right now. You're seeing military police there in front of the gate. It also appears that the gates may be back open because we have seen cars driving there in the background.

And a WJCL, that's one of our affiliates, reporter indicated that they are letting some folks in through the front gates of Fort Stewart. Now, this is a huge area. You're talking about over 200,000 acres. This is the largest Army installation east of the Mississippi between Fort Stewart and the Hunter Army Airfield property.

These are affiliated installations, the latter of which is located in Savannah. They have over 10,000 soldiers, Army civilians, family members that reside there in the combined posts. They also employ over 25,000 people. So you're talking about a huge area geographically and also in terms of the number of people that live on site, including military retirees as well.

We do have also new information from the Associated Press that the fort's three elementary schools are also on lockdown, according to the AP, citing the superintendent, Brian Perry. So you're talking about over 1,400 students in those schools that are currently on lockdown still.

But the main takeaway here is that there is no threat. That shooter has been apprehended 40 minutes since the shooting started. Five soldiers have been hospitalized -- guys.

SANCHEZ: Isabel Rosales, keep us posted with what you are hearing from officials. Thank you for that update.

Let's actually go live now to CNN's Natasha Bertrand.

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Natasha, take us through what you have learned about this base and the soldiers who live and work there. NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT:

Yes, so this base, this is Fort Stewart. It is the largest U.S. Army installation in the Eastern United States. It's home to thousands of active-duty military and their families.

And it is home to the 3rd Infantry Division, which is one of the most decorated divisions in the U.S. Army and in the military writ large. And so this is a division that is highly elite. And it is worth noting also that this shooting appears to have taken place in the complex of the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, which is a unit that focuses primarily on training with heavy armored vehicles like M1A1 Abrams tanks and other heavy equipment such as that.

Now, the big question, of course, is how a gun was able to be brought onto this base, because typically people are barred from bringing private firearms onto these military installations. And while they do train in some instances with real loaded weapons, they're typically required to return them, of course, and they're meticulously accounted for.

And so the question is, was this a civilian that was able to bring this weapon onto the base? Was this a soldier who shot fellow soldiers using a weapon that was either not accounted for or was not properly returned? These are all questions that are going to be swirling in the coming days.

And we should note that the U.S. Army, they did post from their official X account as well kind of echoing the statement that was put out by Fort Stewart, which was that these five Army soldiers were shot and are receiving medical attention, but it's unclear at this point, of course, who the perpetrator was. The suspect is apparently now in custody, and just exactly what happened here.

And we should also note that the White House is monitoring the situation as well.

KEILAR: All right, Natasha, we know that you will stay on this as more developments become available.

Let's bring in Dan Brunner, retired FBI special agent and president of the Brunner Sierra Group, and also Donell Harvin, who's the former D.C. chief of homeland security and intelligence. We also have Cedric Leighton, retired Air Force colonel and CNN military analyst, with us.

Donell, to you first.

We don't know at this point who the shooter is. They're saying the shooter has been apprehended. If we look at mass shootings that we have seen on military installations here in recent decades, it is almost always a service member or a civilian contractor, because these are very secure places ordinarily.

DONELL HARVIN, FORMER D.C. CHIEF OF HOMELAND SECURITY AND INTELLIGENCE: Certainly.

And, obviously the Fort Hood shooting in 2009 claimed 13 lives and many more people were injured. And the Navy Yard shooting, which I have intimate knowledge of, I worked on the after-action report for that. That was a contractor, and it took them a while to find, locate, and interdict that assailant.

So to hear that this was wrapped up relatively quicker than that is heartening, but it still speaks to the potential that someone who had access and knowledge of that base perhaps perpetrated this attack.

SANCHEZ: Dan, given what we know right now, what stands out to you?

DANIEL BRUNNER, FORMER FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: Well, that's the thing is, Boris, is, we don't know very much. What we don't know is what we don't know, and we're going to find out information.

We will know. What has been told right now that the rest of the base and the community at large, it is no longer a threat. The fact that they're able to put that out there shows that they know that the individual is in custody, that they have already been able to determine that he doesn't have -- he or she doesn't have secondary individuals that they're working for, with another person, that they're -- the vehicle that they carried.

And that the fact that -- the thing that strikes me is that there were 40 minutes from the first response, the incident was being reported to the individual in custody. That's 40 minutes where a shooter can do a lot of damage. And that there were only five individuals that were shot, those five -- it's a horrible incident for those five families.

But an individual who has 40 minutes and wants to do as much damage as possible, to me, it's striking that this may be more of a targeted situation, in my opinion, than it would be a mass shooting like Fort Hood, where he took it in a cafeteria.

KEILAR: Yes.

And, Colonel, I wonder what stands out to you. We're looking here at the timeline. It was 40 minutes for the shooter to be apprehended, but it was a matter of less than 10 minutes between law enforcement being dispatched and the military base going on lockdown.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, lockdown is one of the key elements, Brianna, when it comes to a situation like this on both Army and Air Force bases, as well as Navy installations.

When there is an incident like, the very first thing that the installation commander will do is, they will put the installation on lockdown, because that then keeps the traffic to a minimum. It prevents other people from getting in. And it also prevents people from being endangered more than would be the case otherwise.

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So, this becomes the critical tool basically that an installation commander has when they're confronted with a situation like this. We have had situations before where banks, for example, have been robbed on base, and they would basically lock the base down, and that would make it very easy to apprehend the bank robber.

In those cases, it's a bit different, of course, than this, because this being an active shooter situation or previously an active shooter situation., There's basically a bit more danger to it than you would otherwise see.

But the fact that the base was put on lockdown so quickly shows that the installation had practiced this kind of an event, and they knew what procedures they needed to implement in order to minimize the impact of this active shooter incident.

SANCHEZ: That is a really good point.

And, notably, in Isabel's reporting, she pointed out that some of those lockdowns in most areas had been lifted.

Donell, I wonder what that tells you about the investigation and what it's like to process a scene at a place like a military installation?

HARVIN: Well, these military installations, if you have ever been on any of these joint bases, they're massive, and this is one of the largest ones we have in the country.

Think of your small town. That base has everything that a small town would have, a movie theater, a bowling alley. And so they were clearly able to isolate the threat to a certain building or a certain section of the base and then lift that lockdown in a more methodical approach.

But the areas that individual came through, that area that individual did that shooting is going to be on total lockdown while the forensics happen. And the press conference -- the press release that's gone out so far is very specific. It said casualties. It didn't say anything about fatalities.

If there are fatalities, whether they're on the base or they occur in the hospital, someone expires from their wounds, then that's going to take that investigation to a whole 'nother level. Medical examiner will have to come in. There will be more deeper forensics that have to occur.

And so right now they're processing that crime scene. Regardless of how big the crime scene is, they're going to make sure that it's locked down, that people aren't going to accidentally go in there. And it's going to take some time. It's going to take some time to get some answers. And it's going to take some time to get identifications on those victims.

KEILAR: All right, Donell.

And we are learning -- this is from -- this is audio that was coming out of the public safety channel there in Liberty County that there had possibly been five patients. They had EMS trucks on scene. Everything is secured, multiple people injured. So, obviously, we're looking for some details on that.

But, Donell, it's interesting. I do want to ask you, since you did the after-action report on the Navy Yard shooting, which claimed the lives of a dozen people here in Washington, D.C.

As these things happen, Fort Hood, Navy Yard, there have been others since that weren't as fatal as Navy Yard, but Fort Hood, again, Hawaii, you saw Pensacola as well in 2019, that after-action report, what kinds of things did you learn there that other bases like Fort Stewart have taken into consideration as they have looked for ways to respond to these kinds of things?

HARVIN: Certainly.

And, to be clear, there's a lot of after-action reports that happened after the Navy Yard shooting. Specifically, I was looking at the civilian side and law enforcement and forensics response, which was completely bungled in terms of law enforcement being able to access that base, civilian law enforcement, to support their military colleagues.

What we look at is how long the response takes, how long it takes to identify where that individual is within these complexes, within the base, and those are some of the things that will probably be asked today. I clearly mentioned that 40 minutes is a long time. Most after- shooter events unfold within minutes and they're done.

And so did the individual have knowledge of where they go? Were they able to track them in real time? Were they able to relay that information to law enforcement, to SWAT teams, or special units to come and stop? Were they able to save people? A lot of these things are what we looked at.

Particularly in the Navy Yard shooting, it's interesting to note that some of the individuals that were shot didn't die immediately. They died because of the slow response. They basically bled out. And so that prompted a lot of changes nationwide in bringing tactical medics and tactical assets into the scene as the shooter is active to be able to treat those patients, those victims, and extricate them while they're still looking for the perpetrator.

So, those are the things that we will be looking at after this incident as well.

SANCHEZ: Well, Donell, Colonel, Dan, please stand by. We're going to continue tracking this breaking news and come back to you. A lot of news to get to this afternoon.

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KEILAR: That's right.

And ahead: Pass the potatoes and an Epstein strategy, please? There is going to be a big meeting at the vice president's house later.

We will continue to follow our breaking news as well. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SANCHEZ: We're following breaking news this afternoon. We have learned there was an active shooter situation at Fort Stewart in Georgia. That's not far from Savannah. We understand that five soldiers were shot today. They were treated on scene and then transferred to an area hospital.

According to officials who have put out statements, the shooter has been apprehended and there's currently no threat to the community.

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KEILAR: Yes, that's right.

Let's go to our Josh Campbell, our CNN security correspondent who's with us to talk a little bit about this.

We're still in that point, Josh, where we're looking to get more details. We know five soldiers have been shot. We don't know their condition. We don't know the shooter, sort of the category of the person the shooter is, what condition they're in.

But tell us what you're observing from what we do know.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, you're absolutely right to point that out.

We're still in that early phase where we don't yet know if this was an external threat that came onto the base or what we refer to as the insider threat, someone who had a purpose to be there, but, for whatever reason, determined that they were going to act with violence today.

When we look at the security of this base and any military installation around the U.S., indeed, around the world, you have the external security that is there. People coming up to the base, depending on the force protection condition at the time, will have to show their identification, to show that they are authorized to actually be on the base.

But then there are a lot of visitors as well that come on, delivery drivers and the like. And so that's the first question now for investigators now that they have this individual in custody. We don't know that person's status, whether they were indeed injured. But the first thing is to try to positively identify who this person is.

And it's also worth pointing out, as we learn about, thankfully, the victims now, we have five people, no reports of fatalities yet. So that's thankful. Again, we don't know the actual medical condition. But assuming those victims are also able to speak with investigators, they could potentially be an important source of information as well.

Was this someone that you knew? What did you see? Again, trying to help determine who this person might be. And then what happens behind the scenes with law enforcement, we know that the FBI is now on the scene. The FBI has a satellite office just about 45 minutes away in Savannah. We know their agents are now there as well, not only responding initially in the emergent phase, but we're talking about a federal facility.

So it's likely the FBI would assume jurisdiction here, again, trying to determine who this person was. And they're digging into that person's background right now, assuming that they have been able to identify him, guys.

SANCHEZ: Josh Campbell, please stand by.

Joining us now on the phone is a state lawmaker. Georgia State Senator Dr. Ben Watson joins us. He represents the area.

Dr. Watson, thanks so much for being with us.

First, just your reaction to hearing that five soldiers at Fort Stewart have been shot.

STATE SEN. BEN WATSON (R-GA): Right. It's very heartbreaking to hear that. And, certainly, our thoughts and prayers are with the soldiers there who have been injured and certainly with their families.

Our community is heavily based in the military. I represent Liberty County, which is where Fort Stewart is, and of course.It's also in Bryan County also. So it is a very heavily military presence in our community. We have patients here where I work here at SouthCoast Health that are in that area all the time.

And it's just really heartbreaking for that particular aspect. Still very preliminary, as you said. Looks like it's been very efficient, locked down at 11:00. They lifted about 11:30. The person has been apprehended. It's just a real sad situation, and it is still very early.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And, Senator Watson, this has been, of course, an incredibly scary day for so many people who live on base, right?

You have thousands of soldiers and family members. I think there's a few elementary schools that are operating on base that went into lockdown, as well as schools nearby the base. Can you talk to us a little bit about that?

WATSON: Well, they do have schools on base. Not aware that that was anywhere near that. I think it was in another section, but certainly they were on lockdown also.

And you're right. It is a large presence here in the -- in Southeast Georgia with active-duty military and certainly their families, of which I think about 60 percent live off base. So it's -- it is, again, still very preliminary, and it is very heartbreaking and certainly drives the anxiety in the community.

But we're very glad that they have had the shooter and that they have opened things back up.

SANCHEZ: And, Doctor, as a physician, I wonder what your impression is, given, as you noted, the preliminary information that we have, that there have not yet been any fatalities reported and that these soldiers were quickly transferred after receiving immediate care at the base to local area hospitals in what seems like a relatively short span of time.

WATSON: It is -- you're correct. They said they rendered aid right there on the scene and they took it to Winn Army Community Hospital. It is not a Level I trauma center. We do have one here about -- it's about 45 minutes away here in Savannah.

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I'm not aware of any transfers. Again, the information is very preliminary right now. But the schools, it's certainly a tough situation for everyone. It affects the whole community.

KEILAR: Are you cautiously encouraged by what you have heard there, if you're not aware of transfers, the hospital that they have gone to at this point in time, that they were treated on scene?

WATSON: It is reassuring that they're in the community hospital. But, again, if -- I would not be privy to the information. I certainly am monitoring and I have my sources. I'm not aware of any transfers, but that doesn't mean that has not happened.

Would be cautiously optimistic. But, again, this is still all very preliminary. And, as you know, I mean, I mean, CNN is for breaking news. And then you -- the story is still very early.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

And, Senator, given the speed at which officials were able to respond to this incident with, I imagine that there must have been protocols in place to manage a situation like this. Are you familiar with anything that might have happened previously in that area that may have put these protocols in place and perhaps what they entail?

WATSON: Well, I mean, from a state perspective, we certainly had the Apalachee shooting that we had here in North Georgia, and we did legislation this year to help address that with alerts and so forth in schools.

I think that everyone works on active shooter training in any facility, any business that you're doing now. I'm sure that they are well-trained for this, and sounds like they have been very efficient in handling this. It's still very sad, very heartbreaking, and it certainly drives the anxiety in the community.

But it sounds as if they have handled it very appropriately. Of course, as being a health care person, you always think about mental health and mental health illness and addressing that prospectively so that this doesn't happen.

And then you have to worry about the aftermath of things like this. So you need to be very supportive of persons who've been involved in situations like this.

KEILAR: All right, Senator Watson, thank you so much for joining us on the phone.

We, of course, are awaiting more details about the condition of these five soldiers, as are you, and we're certainly hoping for the best.

WATSON: Thank you very much.

KEILAR: And as we do head to break, just a tweet that is coming in from the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem.

She says she's been briefed on the shooting at Fort Stewart. "DHS is actively monitoring the situation on the ground. We are praying for the victims and their families."

We will be right back.

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