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Erin Burnett Outfront

Oregon Police: 11 Dead Including Shooter at College; FBI, ATF Agents Investigating Mass Shooting; Source: Four Guns Recovered From Scene of Massacre. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired October 01, 2015 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:12] ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. I'm Erin Burnett. We are following breaking news out of Oregon tonight. A horrific mass shooting. At this moment at least ten people are dead, more than 20 wounded. Some of those victims right now fighting for their lives. The governor of Oregon Kate Brown says, a 20-year-old man opened fire on the campus of Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. The shooter entering multiple classrooms. Witnesses describing panic and chaos as students ran for their lives. When police arrived they exchanged fire with the gunman, he was killed.

A source now says four guns were recovered from the scene and we'll be telling you a lot more about those. Investigators now believe the gunman discussed his plans for mass murder online last night with a group of people. Some of them egging him on, others calling him a hero. Moments ago, an angry President Obama addressed the nation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. BARACK OBAMA (D), UNITED STATES: Earlier this year I answered a question in an interview by saying the United States of America is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common sense gun safety laws even in the face of repeated mass killings. And later that day there was a mass shooting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Jason Carroll begins our coverage tonight. And Jason, what are police saying about this horrific attack?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, I can tell you, one student at the school saying when it happened, he first heard a shot he didn't believe what he was hearing until he heard more then he said everyone started running, leaving everything behind. When it was over, at least 10 were dead.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: 10:38 a.m. Local Time, a 911 dispatcher receives a report of a shooting at Umpqua Community College just outside Roseburg, Oregon.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have a report of one person shot. An active shooter.

CARROLL: That initial report is terribly wrong. Soon police say ten people are killed with more wounded, though in statements later they give no hard numbers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody is outside one of the doors shooting through the doors.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roseburg 17, unconfirmed report that he has a long gun.

CARROLL: There are 17 buildings on campus. The shooter was confronted by police in building number 12, Snyder Hall, a building where Science classes are normally held.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are exchanging shots with him. He's in a classroom on the, it's got to be the southeast side of Snyder Hall.

CARROLL: The dead and wounded are found in at least two classrooms.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The suspect is down. We have multiple gunshot wounds.

CARROLL: The shooter is among the dead, identified as a 20-year-old male. Investigators say, it appears he discussed his deadly intentions online just last night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please have (INAUDIBLE) dispatch as many ambulances as possible to this incident.

CARROLL: Oregon's Governor Kate Brown appeared visibly shaken.

GOV. KATE BROWN (D), OREGON: To our first responders, thank you for your work as this community reels from grief.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: And Erin, sadly as you heard the President say, earlier this evening, these shootings have become too common so again there are people tonight mourning their loved ones while investigators search for a motive -- Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Jason, thank you very much. There are so many questions tonight. As you know, we are identifying this person as a 20-year-old male, the shooter. We don't yet know the name.

CNN Justice Correspondent Pamela Brown is with me. And Pam, there are a lot of questions that we have tonight.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: We do have a lot of questions, especially, Erin, about the identity of this gunman and whether or not he was a student at this community college. Law enforcement has yet to come out with that information but we know that the response was quick, that the FBI, ATF, and other law enforcement immediately got the call after there was a shooting there on campus but because it was in a remote area it took a while for some of the federal officials to get there. We know that ATF agents have arrived on the scene with the canine unit, of course to search for any explosives, ammunition, anything else that could help in this investigation and FBI officials are there as well. Presumably with evidence response teams, helping the locals with this

investigation. Right now because we know the threat is mitigated, that this gunman is now dead, this 20-year-old male, investigators are going to pore through his social media, pore through anything he has on his cell phones, on his laptops, to see if there were any warning signs, if anything was missed, any pre-event indicators were missed along the way. And that is what we've seen in so many of these other cases, Erin, where that the gunman posted something online prior to the event and someone either didn't call law enforcement or didn't see it in time before something tragic happens like this.

BURNETT: All right. Pamela, thank you very much. And Pamela continuing to work her sources. We have many reporters working this story right now trying to understand more who this was, what this motive was, what exactly happened, this horrific attack.

I want to go straight to Luke Rogers now, he was there when the shooting happened. And Luke, I'm glad you're okay tonight. An absolutely horrible day for you. Something no doubt before today you could never have imagined. I know you're a student at Umpqua. Are all of your friends accounted for tonight?

[19:05:26] LUKE ROGERS, STUDENT AND WITNESS TO SCENE (on the phone): Yes, they are. We were in class and all of us were -- when it happened we were all in class doing our projects. We actually didn't know that something was going down. Of course, we thought it was just a drill maybe because we didn't hear any alarms or anything at first.

BURNETT: And I'm glad that your friends are all right. You know where they all are. I know that in the midst of this tragedy that's something good. You were in the building next door when this happened. Because you mentioned at first you weren't sure what was happening. When did you realize?

ROGERS: At first we saw there was a drill so our instructors called us inside and I think when I first realized something was happening it was an automatic shop is right next to us and they came into our building and we had a lockdown. They locked us in there for -- I've been hearing -- 10:30 so we were in there until maybe 11:30, 12:00. And that's when I realized something was going on because, I mean, we could hear people had on their phones police scanners and I could hear that going on and we were getting text message from other students and so that's when it started sobered us up and we realized something really was happening. And we heard like numbers of how many people were injured and how many were killed but we didn't really know -- because we were locked in.

BURNETT: And Luke when you were finally able to leave the building when police escorted you, you saw blood. What did you see?

ROGERS: So when we exited the building, officers made us put our hands on our head and go in a single-file line. They took us out past the Science building in front of -- and then over to Snyder Hall. As we passed Snyder Hall we could see the doors open and on the ground where the detectives had them marks, there were little drops of blood. We didn't see any bodies, we didn't see anything. There was just little markers and we saw the technicians doing what they were working on. We saw like books on the ground but that's not what we saw.

BURNETT: And, Luke, did you -- do you know whether the shooter was a student? Do you know anything about him?

ROGERS: I do not know about him personally. I mean, I, this is my first year at Umpqua College and all we heard is about the guns shooting and that's when we walked down. I don't know anything about him personally. We just -- I don't even know his name or anything like that. I think officers just had us over there and they busted us off the fairgrounds.

BURNETT: All right. Luke, thank you very much for taking the time to talk to us on such a horrible day. Luke Rogers as we said, a student at Umpqua Community College who was there this morning.

I want to bring in our retired U.S. Marshal Arthur Roderick. Art, let me just start with this. Authorities finding four guns at the scene. Four guns and we're going to learn a lot more about this as we go through this hour. But the 20-year-old man who did this shooting was to too young to buy a gun in Oregon. You have to be 21. So, these guns were not legal. He massacred at least 10 people, two buildings, multiple classrooms. How could he have gotten so far and had so much time?

ARTHUR RODERICK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I mean, obviously, we look at this individual and he first into the same profile that we've seen in Columbine, in the Newtown shootings in the Colorado Theater shootings, so it's, you know, it's sad even that we have to sit here and talk this again but this is the nature of the reality we live in at this point in time. Obviously, he wasn't supposed to have any of those firearms at the age 20. And also, an AR-15, that is a deadly, deadly weapon. I mean, it fires a 223 caliber round which is made to do one thing, to inflict heavy tissue damage to the human body. So, I can imagine to that those are very bloody scenes there and that those first responders had to look at some horrific things.

BURNETT: And, I can only imagine what they would have had to see, and you just heard the witness say, you know what, even in the aftermath just the blood and the books on the floor. There is so much we don't know. We don't yet know the name of the shooter. Why haven't they released that?

RODERICK: You know, some of the press releases that have been coming out from the sheriff's office have been kind of sketchy. And I think, you know, when you look at this community it's a very small community so they're obviously not used to handling large incidents like this. So, I think what they're trying to do right now is just hold back the name of the individual to try and get as much evidence as they can either from his vehicle, from his apartment and to make sure that there's no explosive devices that are set up. So, I think they're just waiting a little while longer before they actually release the name.

[19:10:04] BURNETT: Interesting. And interesting reasoning there because of course it's been much longer. I mean, ordinarily we would have known the name hours before this. RODERICK: Yes. Yes.

BURNETT: All right. Art, thank you very much.

RODERICK: Thanks, Erin.

BURNETT: And next, moments after the shots first started breaking out this morning, Umpqua College was swarmed by police, more than 100 detectives now on the scene. We have new details about what investigators are learning. As I said, our reporters fanning out at every angle of the story. You'll going to be seeing them throughout this hour, as we get more information, learn more about this shooter, who he is, what happened. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:13:38] BURNETT: We are back now with the breaking news tonight, a mass shooting at a college in Oregon. At least ten dead, others fighting for their lives tonight. We have more breaking details about the gunman at this moment.

Deborah Feyerick is with me. I know Deborah you literally just got off the phone and stepped on to our set. What have you learned?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, what we know, this is what we do know -- we know that investigators are looking at an individual based on the license that they found at the scene and based on -- sorry, based on a cell phone that was there at the scene, based on a car that matched the cell phone, the owner of the cell phone matched the owner of the car. So, that's how they identified him. It's not clear whether they found the license. They're tracking it back through a cell phone, essentially, the identity of the gunman. Based on the identity of that cell phone number, they have basically located a man who had a very prolific online profile. This is somebody who was filing YouTube videos, who was on snapchat, who was on o.k. cupid.

And to characterize this individual, he was somebody who was very frustrated with women, he was being rejected by women. Again this is the person they believe is the gunman and he was getting angrier and angrier. He was on chat rooms and even people in the chat rooms were rejecting him. So they're looking at a series of conversations in which the individual is talking about doing a shooting and even from those online, some of them are criticizing him as a pathetic loser, others are giving him guidance as to how he should do it, how he should carry it out, what kind of weapons he should use. So, it's very early in the investigation but based on a cell phone found near the gunman they have put together a profile of who they believe the man was. So, that's what they're looking at now.

BURNETT: Okay. So this seems to be -- I mean, an incredible amount of information here. But you have frustration with women on the one hand but then these conversations online if this is indeed the gunman. The question is there were people, other people then out there who were -- calling him a hero? Who were thought that this -- helping him do this? And no one was aware? FEYERICK: And this is what's so incredible about this sort of online

community, especially when they go on these chat boards. Totally anonymous. Nobody knows who's talking to who. And yet these are people you who think are sort of your friends because you're chatting with them and so someone didn't think oh well, you know, let me help you with this, others are criticizing him saying, you know, don't do this, this will give white men a bad name. So it's one of those things where the online life becomes -- materializes in an individual's mind and it plays with them.

So, you know, if it's this individual he's seen on YouTube basically saying, you know, "I hate these people. I hate these people. You know, they just keep criticizing me, why am I on these chat boards?" So, you can see him begin to unravel, you can see him begin to spiral but again nobody has released an official name. But whether this is the person or not, if it's not the person, then this is somebody the law enforcement should definitely question because the things that he's saying and the rants and the tangents he's on are exceptionally disturbing and this is exactly the kind of incident where as the police say, if you see something, say something.

BURNETT: All right. Deb, thank you very money. And Deb, obviously, literally as I said got off the phone, stepped on to our set, she'll be back on her phone as we get more information. As we said, we're trying to get the formal release of who this individual is.

OUTFRONT now, our law enforcement analyst and retired NYPD Detective Harry Houck along with CNN contributor and criminologist Casey Jordan. Harry, this online conversation that Deb is talking about, if this does, indeed, involve the shooter, other people then were involved, were aware. I mean, I guess is the right word involved? Could other people have been involved? What's the culpability?

HARRY HOUCK, RETIRED NYPD DETECTIVE: Yes, what's the culpability? Well, it depends. If he went on, let's say, went on this chat room with a different name like ABC123? I mean, how would they have known --

BURNETT: Because of anonymity.

HOUCK: -- who the guy was in the first place? Right. Because he's anonymous. Did he state, listen, "I'm going over to this specific school and I'm going to attack tomorrow at 10:30 in the morning." If that happened, okay --

BURNETT: Yes.

HOUCK: Somebody who was on there could have notified the police, and said, listen, there's a possible attacks, somebody is talking about it online. So, that could have been done. And why that wasn't done? The hope is, we don't know exactly what the conversation was and exactly how detailed he got in the conversation.

[19:18:10] BURNETT: Now Casey, we do know some, you know, Deb talked that some of the people in the conversation calling him a pathetic loser, others calling him a twisted hero, there were supporters, there were detractors but others even at one point apparently suggested what weapons to use. How common are conversations like this out there?

CASEY JORDAN, CRIMINOLOGIST: In the deep web they're more common than you think because there are places that normal people don't usually go.

BURNETT: But doesn't the FBI go there?

JORDAN: It's an ocean, Erin. They can't possibly navigate all the conversations that are going in the deep web. And people know how to keep diving, if you will, into chat rooms until they find other like- winded twisted people. It really takes a lot for someone to sit up and go, "you know, I think I might call the FBI." These are not the kind of people who are going to call the FBI tips line. They're the kind of people who are going to sarcastically say, o.k., bro, I'll be watching, you know, in the morning, the news. You know, where in the northwest? Can you give us a clue? You know, he goes there because he gets the reinforcement, the validation and is made to feel less twisted and less abnormal than he is.

BURNETT: And Harry, on that point, obviously Deb is reporting that he could have had significant issues with women, there was a lot of issues with women, and rejection, one report has said -- one of the conversations was, this was the only time I'll ever be in the news, I'm so insignificant.

HOUCK: There you go.

BURNETT: That seems to fit a profile --

HOUCK: Right.

BURNETT: -- that we have seen in way too many of these cases.

HOUCK: Exactly. You know, and because what happens is when they commit these shootings or other people commit the shootings they see the press, the way we go out there. We'll going to be talking about this for days, okay, and that might in a way drive them do something like that because they know now I'll become infamous. Here, I was rejected by one woman but now I'm a hero, everybody is talking about me every day now, even though he's dead. And I think that's an issue.

BURNETT: And Casey, what about this rejection by women angle to it?

JORDAN: If he is indeed the author of some of these postings, he references the Santa Barbara shooting by Elliott Roger.

(CROSSTALK)

BURNETT: People remember recently was a young man posted a manifesto.

JORDAN: His YouTube postings which were -- they were so exaggerated you thought they were a joke but they were very sincere. He felt like the women were to blame for all of his failures and when people start scapegoating and have an exaggerated sense of blaming everyone else for their problems and failures it can actually just -- decompensation is too soft a word. It just gets blown out of proportion and when they get reinforcement because they're online with other people who go "yes, you should do something about all that," that's where they get inspired as Harry says to go after --

BURNETT: And then Deb, as we try to find out more on motive in terms of, do we have any sense, I mean, I don't know how far this goes to the reporting here but whether he was an actual student, why he chose this location, why he chose those classrooms, do we know any of that information at this point?

FEYERICK: You know, and that's a very interesting point because it does not even appear that he has a connection right now to Oregon and so he comes from a different state and, again, we're being a little -- we're hedging it a little bit because it is so new.

BURNETT: Right. I know you're working on all the reporting. But in other words he may not have been from Oregon, he may not have been a student --

FEYERICK: We can't identify anybody but it appears something was going on. The person that investigators are telling me they believe it is was in Seattle, Washington and he made his way down to Oregon but he's actually from the Midwest. So how this trip happened is something that they're looking at very, very closely. But investigators are sure this is the person that they're looking at. While I was on set with you just now I took a call and I said, "Is there any question?" And they said no, this is the person that investigators are looking at. This is the person that they're looking at his profiles and his YouTube and his texts and all of that.

And so, you also have to remember because of these chat boards, there's a huge anonymous community and they're all talking to each other and they're all claiming to be different people. And so, that's what investigators are also looking at. They have to peel back the onion. They have to figure out who is at the center of this. And, you know, people are -- there's -- it was so cruel some of the things that I was reading about the criticisms they had of this individual was so cruel, I don't even know why somebody would want to be on these chat boards because they're clearly not friends, they're clearly not supporters and they're simply egging him on to commit a criminal act even though one person did put up an FBI tips hotline which it's unclear --

(CROSSTALK)

BURNETT: One person actually did.

FEYERICK: They tried to do that, yes.

BURNETT: Harry, what would you make of what she just said, which I actually find very, very significant. You're saying not a student at this community college, not from the state of Oregon, from the Midwest.

HOUCK: Where's the connection here? I mean, you know, of course we'll going to find out, but the fact is that's -- I'm flummoxed over that. The fact that he came from the Midwest. He has to have some kind of connection to that school somehow. It appears to me it has to be some kind of connection somewhere. We just don't see it yet, it's still early in the investigation. To come that far and then come to Seattle and make his way down to the specific school for a specific reason, there's got to be some kind of connection somehow.

[19:23:08] FEYERICK: Well, one of the leads investigators are looking at is whether he intended to meet somebody in Washington, and whether in Seattle, whether that fell through and whether there was supposed to be another meeting. So, it's really is unclear because we don't know what women he was talking to online. But if it's this individual, as investigators are telling me it is, then he was clearly looking for love and there may have been, this is overwhelming sense of rejection and as Casey mentioned in this chat room they do reference the UC Santa Barbara shooter and I read through that manifesto. That manifesto was more than 100 pages long and it's a narcissistic rant about how he's superior to everyone and nobody really knows, nobody sees him for how superior he is and there's a hint of that also in this guy's postings.

BURNETT: All right. Well, thank you very much, Deb. Deb continuing to work her sources, our panel with us as this story is developing so quickly. The latest is Deb talking about these online rants and that the individual she is told that they are looking at is from the Midwest, went to Seattle and then made his way down to this Community College, was not a student, at least at this point not linked to that school in any way that they are aware of. A significant development in the case at this moment. Next, more of the disturbing audio as police responded to the news of this horrific shooting and we'll talk to one of the students who was there as the shooting happened.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:28:26] BURNETT: We're continuing to follow the breaking news, at least 10 people dead after a massacre at a college campus in Oregon. The mass shooting taking place this morning at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg. The gunman heavily armed. An official saying four weapons were recovered from the scene. A chilling attack as you can hear from this police dispatch audio.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have a report of one person shot, an active shooter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody is outside one of the doors shooting through the doors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: The gunman targeting people in two buildings, multiple classrooms before he was met by police and killed.

Evan Perez is OUTFRONT. And Evan, you have been learning a lot more about the weapons in this massacre.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Erin. We know that there were three pistols and one long gun recovered from the scene believed to belong to the shooter. And so now the work begins on trying to figure out when the shooter obtained these firearms because that could perhaps give you an indication of how long he's been planning to carry out this attack. Now, the interesting thing here is that we're told the gunman is 20-years-old and to buy a handgun legally you would have to be 21-years-old. So the question now remains, how did he obtain these handguns?

If these three pistols were his, in fact, where he -- was he given these pistols by family member, friends, perhaps? Is that the way he obtained them? Did he go to a gun show, perhaps, or did he obtain them illegally? Those are the questions that law enforcement is now asking at this hour because they know that at his age he wouldn't have been able to legally obtain these three pistols from a licensed gun dealer -- Erin.

[19:30:06] BURNETT: And, Evan, obviously a lot of questions, I know, as we're trying to ascertain certain things. We don't know the name of the shooter, the age that we have may be slightly different than what may have been reported.

What's your understanding as to why so much confusion out there about very core points to what happened?

PEREZ: Right, the law enforcement there, the local law enforcement there has been very tight-lipped about details of this investigation. We know the federal officials are on their way there but because of the location of this place, there's no FBI office right nearby. There's no ATF nearby. So they're trying to fly in some of those people who can help do some of this investigation, help the local authorities do this investigation, Erin.

That's one reason why I think perhaps we're getting -- we're seeing such a delay in getting additional information. I have think we know the fact that he is dead that also helps them trying to figure out more about him. They're going to do search warrants to figure out if he had anything on his computer, anything from family members that indicated that something was coming, perhaps from friends. All of those questions are things that they're going to work on. But, again, at this hour, you know, they're trying to put together a profile of this shooter.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Evan.

Evan, Deborah Feyerick, Pamela Brown, our reporters all working their sources on the phone, as we get more information, we're going to be bringing them back.

I want to go back now to Harry Houck, Casey Jordan and Arthur Roderick all back.

All right. Let me ask you the question from the reporting we just have from Evan that there were four weapons used. Deborah Feyerick reporting from her sources that the person they are looking at this time that they believe may be the gunman was actually from the Midwest, 20 something in age, a bit vague there at this time. In online chat room and had been facing rejection from a love interest and to come somewhere there the Midwest up to Washington state and down to this community college.

When you hear all those details, what do you think?

ARTHUR RODERICK, : Well, I mean, obviously, he could have picked those weapons up from anywhere along from the Midwest up to Washington state down to Oregon. So, you know, he might not have got those weapons in Oregon.

I also agree with Harry that there's got to be some connection to this school because it's out in the middle of nowhere, a very small county, very small town of about 25,000 population and a very small community college.

So, for him to even know this place exist there had has to be some connection there for him to get to that location and then obviously commit this heinous crime.

BURNETT: Casey, obviously there could be a connection, they expect there that there will be. Obviously, we're hearing -- Deb is reporting rejection from women or a woman.

CASEY JORDAN, CRIMINOLOGIST: Sure. Right. And, you know, you have to understand that it would be very unusual he's not a student there, but we're seeing these shootings happen for a variety of reasons and this one he really talked about Elliot Roger and rejection by women.

So, Harry and I were talking during the break. It would be very foreseeable or possible that perhaps he had an online relationship or chat going with a young female who was a student at this community college and he went there to find her or see her and believed she was in the building at the time. It could be a targeted shooting.

BURNETT: And, Harry, why do you think the delay here? That is again the key question. Why has it been almost 12 hours and they're not yet reporting the name?

HARRY HOUCK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Name. Right, yes, that's -- I've been trying to go through my head. I had another idea why this occurred, might have occurred but I've thrown that out recently as a result we're finding out right now.

But the fact is I can't see why at all they're not releasing this guy's name. I know in other incidents that we've had, they've pretty much come out in the first press release that they had and they gave the name of the shooter.

Now law enforcement -- I know when I was a detective I never told the press nothing. Nothing. I said, "Call DCPI, you're not getting nothing from me", when I was a lead detective.

So, it might be possible this police department doesn't want to release any information at all and wait until they -- and also they weren't even 100 percent sure they had the right guy yet. So, they're tracking this guy's information through his cell phone to find out it's him. So, that's probably why it's taking so long.

So, I think right now they're probably just being very quiet and we'll probably see in the next press release, we may get a name.

BURNETT: We might get a name.

And, Art, you heard Deborah's reporting that they found a cell phone on the location that they were using to backtrack. It wasn't even clear they had a license and, again, the reporting is at this point he was not a student, right? So they wouldn't have been able to find the name that way.

RODERICK: Yes, and I think that's obviously a very good point. I mean, he didn't have a license, they're using the phone, they're not 100 percent sure or weren't 100 percent sure a few hours ago who the individual was and I think that if they release the name now, obviously everybody is going to be on these chat rooms and on these different web sites looking up this individual's name.

[19:35:05] So I think they want to wrap this up in a nice little bow and hopefully at the next press conference, they'll come out with who this individual is and what he's been saying in these chat rooms.

BURNETT: And also, of course, Harry, as a quick follow up to that, what are they going to do to find other people in the chat rooms? The ones who were egging him on and telling him what sorts of weapons to use and encouraging him to commit such a horrific crime.

HOUCK: They might not ever find these people. I know the FBI has got a great unit there that can track that information, so I'm sure they'll track that information down and find out who was egging him on to do that and see if they can follow the tracks to the location where this person was communicating from.

BURNETT: All right. Thanks very much to all of you, our panel standing by.

Next, we're going to be talking to a young woman, a student who was there in the science building where that shooting happened when it happened this morning. She'll be my guest next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: We're back with our breaking news tonight. At least ten killed, more than 20 injured, some fighting for their lives today after a gunman opened fire in Oregon.

[19:40:02] The gunman is dead tonight, the campus clear tonight, witnesses and students starting to tell their stories.

Kristen Brady is a student at Umpqua Community College. She joins me on the phone. She was there when the shooting started by the science building which, of course, was one of the buildings where the gunman shot and killed so many in this heinous crime.

Kristen, thank God that you're OK tonight and thank you for talking to us, but thank God you are OK.

What happened? What did you see?

KRISTEN BRADY, STUDENT AND SHOOTING WITNESS (via telephone): Well, there wasn't a whole lot to see, it was mostly what I heard and, you know, directions given by an administrator I wasn't sure where the shooter was, I just knew that we were being told to get into our cars, for any students that were out and I had just left my anatomy and physiology lab to go put my books away.

My friend that was with me, she was walking with me and we started hearing these popping sounds. It could have been mistaken for an engine backfiring on a car and I -- my friend, she ended up driving away and getting to safety, I on the other hand I panicked and got down in my car as best as I could.

BURNETT: And so, you were -- literally it sounds like you were describing Kristen that you were terrified, of course. You were crouching in your car. How long were you there?

BRADY: I wasn't there for very long. I started to worry about, of all things, I -- I started worrying about the other people in my classroom and I started worrying about the other students that were possibly in class. I worried that they may not know.

And then I saw this young woman leaving the science building with ear buds in her ears and looking down at her cell phone texting and that was when I decided to go ahead and get out of my car and I yelled that the poor lady to get into the science building and at that moment I realized I should not run back to my car because I may be the one getting shot now as well.

So then as I was running to the science building, I found myself looking around for gunman in fear of being shot myself -- I mean, thank the Lord I was not shot.

BURNETT: Are your friends stock? I mean, you said the first thing that went through your head was thinking about the people in the classroom and wanting to go back as opposed to leaving. Is everyone that you know OK? That was the -- there were some of the classrooms in that building is where so many were killed.

BRADY: Yes. Everyone that I know in the science building they were fine. I did end up eventually getting a chance to contact my friends and other classmates to see if they were fine. And no one that I know personally has been injured, thank goodness.

I mean, on our way in, I saw the director of the science department coming out of the teachers' offices and unfortunately she -- the look on her face said she wasn't quite sure what was going on. And so, I yelled at her that there's a shooting, there's a shooting, and Dr. Champion, my anatomy and physiology teacher, he opened the lab door to my class I had just exited earlier so we could all get into the building.

BURNETT: Well, thank goodness you're okay and your class is OK. Thank you, Kristen, in the science building was where so many were shot as the shooter went into multiple buildings and multiple classrooms.

OUTFRONT now, Chris Boice, the Douglas County commissioner.

Chris, you know, Kristen talking about going and checking on her friends, others in her classroom, we heard that earlier in the hour from one student, Luke, talking about his friends.

This is a really small community. I would imagine that everybody will be impacted, everybody will know somebody.

CHRIS BOICE, DOUGLAS COUNTY COMMISSIONER (via telephone): Yes, I think you're probably right. We have a very small and tight knit community and I think that as we get this sorted out, each one of us will have a friend or family member or a relative that has been affected by this directly I'm sure.

BURNETT: And there are so many questions tonight, Chris, about what happened and why it happened.

[19:45:00] Do you know at this point any more than you can tell us in the community that you're hearing about? The people right now, the injured, those fighting to survive?

BOICE: I really don't know. We here in a situation right now where we're trying to get this sorted out. We have families who are still waiting to hear if their loved ones have been injured or not or killed or not, and I know that we've got law enforcement officers at the scene still trying to identify who went where and how, and it's just one of those tragic events that we have to be careful about and work through and get it sorted out.

BURNETT: All right. Well, Chris, thank you very much. As we said, County Commissioner Chris Boice.

And next, the president, President Obama, giving an impassioned speech, he's angry calling for Americans to demand action on gun violence. With whatever side you are on, this is something you'll want to hear. That's next.

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[19:50:09] BURNETT: And we are starting by right now momentarily. We expect a press conference led by John Hanlin, the Douglas County sheriff. He's going to be addressing reporters. Listening to see if he's going to get started. We're literally standing by for this to start.

As we pointed out, there are many, many questions the motive, how this happened that we do not yet have answers to. Let's listen in.

SHERIFF JOHN HANLIN, DOUGLAS COUNTY SHERIFF OFFICE: Well, ladies and gentlemen, first I want to say that we are deeply saddened by the tragic events that unfolded today at Umpqua Community College. These sort of tragedies aren't supposed to happen here. Yet they did. And it leaves tons of questions in our minds.

And so, as this is a very active investigation and the investigation continues, there are a few questions I can answer for you but there will be more to come. It's very early in this event. And we are still trying to confirm a great amount of information that is floating around and a great amount of information that we need to confirm.

I want to say first and foremost that our victims and families of our victims are our priority. Everything that we do from here on will be for them. At this time, we are reporting and can confirm ten fatalities in the shooting. Seven of those -- seven additional injuries. Those that were injured were initially transported to our local hospital. And three of those that were critically injured were transferred to another hospital up in the Eugene area.

We know there are conflicting reports of the numbers of casualties. And I can tell you that this number is the best, most accurate information we have at this time. The FBI has established a toll-free number for tips and families. That number is 1-800-225-5324, also can be remembered as 1-800-CALL-FBI. When you do this, you choose option 7. Again, this number is to help reunite and provide information to the families of the victims.

This event has been deemed a mass casualty event, which brings with it hundreds of resources to this small community. Along with those resources and the fact this is a mass casualty incident, brings specific protocols that we must follow. That includes specific processes by which the state medical examiner's office may manage identification. And because of these protocols and the need to notify each family, we don't anticipate releasing the names of the fatalities for 24 to 48 hours.

The law enforcement investigation into the shooter and into his motivation is ongoing. We are not ready at this time to make any comments about him.

Reunification continues at the Douglas County fairgrounds. Family and students should gather there. There are counselors at the fairgrounds providing assistance to all the folks that are down there. At this time, I'd like to have my public information officer, Corporal Dwes Hutson address some other issues. Thank you.

COL. DWES HUTSON, DOUGLAS COUNTY SHERIFF OFFICE: So, we're going to continue to use the #UCCshooting on our Twitter account, which is DouglasCOSO.

Further written updates will be posted to our social media accounts, our Web site, and to flashalerteugene.net.

We have a number of agencies that have provided a lot of resources to this incident and at a future briefing we'll walk through what those are and what that looks like.

We also anticipate having another briefing later this evening, and we'll notify you via our social media account. [19:55:08] BURNETT: And you heard, there will be another press

conference later tonight. The Douglas County sheriff saying it will take 24 to 48 hours to release all the names of the victims, ten fatalities and seven more people in hospitals fighting tonight for their lives to be better. We're going to be right back with more.

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BURNETT: All right. Thanks so much for joining us. Our breaking news coverage of the deadly college shooting in Oregon continues right now, anticipating another press conference at some point later tonight with "AC360" tonight with John Berman.