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CNN Live Event/Special

Sheriff's Department Responding to Shooting at High School in California; Former Rep. Katie Hill Discusses the Saugus High School Shooting; L.A. Sheriff's Department Sgt. Bob Boese Tells CNN 5 Shot at High School, Suspect Remains At Large. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired November 14, 2019 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: -- which adds to the difficulty in terms of searching.

But it looked like the police were also at a location sort of farther away where some officers had cars parked, guns drawn, looking toward a field. Couldn't see anything from the helicopter vantage point.

I assume that is based on the idea that this person may have run away or at least the early report on that?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. That's what we have heard, that someone saw someone fitting this description, running away. Listen, it's probably going to happen that they're going to get this person before we see it and apprehend them. We just don't know it at this point.

Just trying to find -- as you can see, it's sprawling out there. There's a lot of room, a lot of terrain to get around and trying to make sure people shut down their garages, lock their doors, make it difficult for anyone to try to hide inside their homes so they can find this person and get them.

If everyone is staying off the roads and doing that, they're really looking to try to get people out of the way so first responders can get in there, find this person and stop them.

COOPER: We should also remind our viewers that early reports on shootings are often incorrect or incomplete, or confusing. Many times, witnesses will say there were two shooters and usually that just ends up being people seeing the same person from different vantage points or even seeing law enforcement and getting confused.

Obviously, it's an incredibly chaotic situation. So you're saying there's this report that this person may have been seen escaping. Again, we should take that with a grain of salt, as authorities do. It's a very fluid situation. This has just been going on within the last hour.

I want to bring in James Gagliano, a CNN law enforcement analyst, joining me on the phone. James, you and I have talked about this far too often. What we've

seen so far, clearly, is police responding, as we've talked about the latest tactics for police is first officers on the scene immediately move into the building to try to neutralize the shooter or shooters. But if a situation where the shooter has left, what then happens?

JAMES GAGLIANO, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST (via telephone): Yes. Anderson, you and I have had far too many conversations like this. Just going back this past summer, it feels like we had a brief respite from Gilroy, California, followed by El Paso, Texas, and then Dayton, Ohio.

Immediate response from police, number one, as your correspondent just pointed out, make sure that people are not coming into this area. Avoid the area at all costs. Stay away from it.

Number two, responding law enforcement. As we've learned since Columbine, which is, hard to believe, just over 20 years ago, law enforcement has to go to the sound of the guns.

In this instance, we have a report of one potentially Asian male that might have been the shooter. As you correctly pointed out, Anderson, initial reports, early reports are often inaccurate and incorrect. That's what we know right now.

It's ironic. The FBI just published a report on lone shooters from 1972 to 2015 with exhaustive data on this.

Police respond to somebody and, I'm guessing at the end of this, after it's all sorted out, it's somebody with a lot of red flags that should have been noticed.

But the number-one thing for law enforcement, get to the shooter or shooters as quickly as possible, neutralize that. Worry about the evidence and collecting the evidence and, obviously, putting together --

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: James, we're seeing somebody being loaded into an ambulance from the school. Earlier, there had been reports that three people had been taken out on gurneys.

And, James, if you will, just hold on with us.

I want to bring in former Congresswoman Katie Hill. She's on the phone.

Congresswoman Hill, I understand you actually went to high school here, is that correct?

KATIE HILL, (D), FORMER CONGRESSWOMAN (via telephone): I went to Saugus. I live in Saugus now. You can hear the helicopters and you can hear the sirens from my backyard right now.

(CROSSTALK) COOPER: I'm sorry, the active shooter was headed where, last you heard?

HILL: It was several minutes ago but last I heard that the active shooter was headed in the direction of the elementary school nearby, which is where I live as well. Hopefully, the police have cornered him a little more before he got there but all schools are on lockdown.

COOPER: We're told specifically the two elementary schools are clearly on lockdown.

Talk about this high school. It looks like a pretty sprawling campus.

HILL: Yes. I mean, it is. It's a very large high school. I think over 3,000 students go there. It's the people who volunteered (INAUDIBLE). My stepsister has students there. Everybody is trying to get in contact with people who are there and we're just extremely concerned.

[11:35:15]

And, you know, our community has been deeply affected by these shootings. So many people from our community that were at borderline shootings. People who were at the Vegas shooting.

To have it come to a school, it's almost like students that I worked with over the course of the campaign knew that it was going to be coming, that it was a matter of time.

Our March for Our Lives activists out here are extremely engaged. You can tell this is exactly what they feared and the reason they've been putting so much pressure on lawmakers to try to get something done. And I hate that this is what has happened. (INAUDIBLE).

COOPER: Yes.

Congresswoman, how far are the other schools? How far is the elementary school from this high school?

HILL: Probably half a mile, if that.

COOPER: Half a mile.

It looks like, what we're seeing, at least from one of the shots from KCBS/KCAL, from their helicopter, it looks like students, in groups, are being escorted out. It looks like they have already been searched because they don't have their hands up. They seem to be walking with an armed escort.

I'm not sure at this stage how much of the actual physical structure of the school has already been gone through and cleared if authorities are still in that process and also what is the process -- it doesn't look like there are large numbers of students streaming out of the school. It looks like it's being done in a very orderly way.

HILL: Yes. I mean, unfortunately, it doesn't surprise me that they're doing this in an orderly way because they've been practicing. It's horrifying that this is what our society has come to.

But the students know that this is something they should expect. I think it's completely unacceptable. I guess in these situations -- (INAUDIBLE).

COOPER: When you were going to school, about how many students are at the school?

HILL: There's over 3,000.

COOPER: Wow.

HILL: And I will also say, this was -- I was there, what, 15 years ago, and there was no conception of a school shooting. You didn't have active-shooter drills. This has all changed within the last decade.

COOPER: We're seeing a picture now of what looks like a young woman being put into an ambulance on a gurney. She seems conscious, at least.

I mean, when you were in the middle of this -- obviously, you've seen this from Washington. You've seen this -- we've all seen this on television. To be in the middle of it and to hear the helicopters and know what your neighbors, friends and family members are going through, what --

HILL: It's the worst nightmare. Every single member of Congress it's constantly in the back of their head as to whether something like that is going to happen in your home district because it's the worst thing that can happen.

And I think one of the hardest parts about it is that, you know, what are we supposed to say at this point? We passed the background check. We passed four different pieces of legislation that would make an immediate impact on reducing gun violence and it's just sitting on McConnell's desk.

You feel, as a freshman especially coming in, you just feel this sense of powerlessness. Like we've done our part. What else can we do right now?

To me, it just says with complete and utter clarity, we don't have a choice but to flip the Senate and to get somebody in the White House who is going to make this a priority.

Regardless of your other political beliefs, if you think that the safety of our kids matter, then, to me, that's what needs to get you to the polls.

COOPER: And, again, we're seeing some video of paramedics and firefighters working on somebody, then loading them onto a gurney.

Congresswoman Hill, sorry we're talking under these circumstances. I appreciate the information.

HILL: Thank you.

COOPER: Thank you.

I want to go back with our Stephanie Elam.

Stephanie, from your vantage point, where you've been monitoring this, anything new to bring?

ELAM: Well, what I can tell you, Anderson, is that we do know that one hospital in Valencia, California, up there in the Santa Clarita area, they're saying they have two patients in critical condition and have three on the way. This is the Henry Mayo Hospital in Valencia.

So that would imply that maybe perhaps five people have been shot. But we're not exactly sure on that, if those wounds are directly related to shootings. That, we're not sure of at this point. We do know at least one hospital giving an update on patients.

[11:40:12]

I can let you know, too, as far as the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department is concerned, the Santa Clarita Valley sheriff's station has opinion tweeting out saying, "If you live in this area, anywhere near Saugus High, please lock your doors, and if you see a male in dark clothing in backyards, et cetera, call 911."

That was about eight minutes ago. That would imply they're still looking to find this person right now who did do this shooting.

The other thing, Anderson, that you were talking about there with Representative Hill about the fact that the students do seem to be coming out of the campus in an orderly fashion. The Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Department also reporting that Central Park is becoming a reunification point for parents. So they're already starting to work to bring parents and children back together in a very stressful time.

You're looking at a video of a young person who looks like she has a leg injury, that she already had, in getting her out of the building there. These are all of the concerns that they have to worry about, making sure that people are removed safely but also making sure that the shooter is not blending back in with the students and, therefore, being missed as being identified.

COOPER: Yes.

ELAM: They have a lot to go through as they're processing such a large campus --

COOPER: Yes.

ELAM: -- to make sure that the students, the teachers, the staff, everyone that was there on campus this morning, that they are as safe as they can make them at this point.

COOPER: Yes. And, Stephanie, I want to point out you are not -- these are not live pictures on the left-hand side of your screen. These are images we have seen before. Again, neither of these are live images as far as I know.

We're going to take a short break. We'll have more information when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:46:51]

COOPER: We are following breaking news out of southern California. Police responding to a shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, just north of Los Angeles. At least two people in critical condition and three others, we're told, being transported to the hospital right now.

All schools in the area are on lockdown as police try to find the suspect.

I want to bring in a police officer in a moment.

I want to point out we are not showing you live pictures from the scene. The suspect is still not, as far as we know, accounted for, may be on the loose, on the run or hiding.

We don't want to show any live images that would give any suspect a sense of where police are exactly. We're just doing that out of an abundance of caution.

Let's bring in Sergeant Bob Boese, from the L.A. County Sheriff's Department.

Sergeant, thank you for being with us.

What can you tell us, first of all, about the latest on what is happening?

SGT. BOB BOESE, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT (via telephone): Well, sir, I can tell you that what the latest is that we have approximately five victims being treated at local hospitals. Unfortunately, I can't give you the nature of their injuries because we're still assessing everything that's happening.

We also have multiple deputy sheriff's from our 28 sheriff's stations responding to the scene. A lot of them are already at Saugus High School. And we are conducting a systematic search of the high school to ensure that it is safe at the moment.

We are also utilizing these deputy sheriff's, our helicopters and our K-9 teams to start searching the surrounding areas to ensure that the general area is safe as well.

So, in a process like this, whenever we have a shooter, we conduct this search and go throughout the entire surrounding areas and start looking for the guy, looking for leads.

And, unfortunately, because of the nature of these incidents, we have to place other schools on lockdown.

Current schools on lockdown are Highlands Elementary School, Rosa Elementary School and Santa Clarita Elementary School. We don't believe they are in danger. However, out of an abundance of caution, we are locking those down and we have deputies at those schools to ensure that they are safe.

So we want to let parents know in these areas that we're doing everything we possibly can to bring this person to justice as well as ensuring that the neighboring communities and neighboring schools are safe while we conduct our search.

We understand it's very traumatic for everybody and we're doing the best we can to bring this to a peaceful resolution.

COOPER: Do you know anything about the suspect? There was a description early on of a male Asian suspect wearing black clothing.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: And do you believe that the suspect is still on the campus or elsewhere?

BOESE: I can't -- just for the sake of our officers, I can't tell you where we believe the suspect is.

And you are correct, the information we have about the suspect, he is a male Asian wearing all black clothing, seen with a weapon. Right now, we're just doing the search for that suspect.

COOPER: Can you say what kind of weapon? A long gun, a handgun?

BOESE: I can't reveal the type of weapon that he was carrying. I can tell you a weapon was recovered. But that's still preliminary information and we're still conducting our investigation into this incident.

COOPER: And you're still assuming he is potentially armed?

[11:50:07]

BOESE: Well, we always assume our suspects are armed, even if a weapon is recovered on scene. We don't know if people are bringing in multiple weapons. We don't know what other type of resources they have. So any time an incident like this occurs, we treat them as they're armed all the way until we can confirm that they're not, and that's usually after the arrest.

COOPER: We know that police tactics have changed and you try to go in as quickly as you can once the officers are on the scene to try to stop the shooter.

Do you have a sense of how long the shooter was inside the school or how long has this been going on? How long did it take for officers to start going inside? Because it looks like a very big school. It looks very confusing to search. BOESE: It is a really big campus and it's actually a really safe

campus. As far as the amount of time it took our deputies to get there, within minutes, if not seconds, because we have multiple deputies in that area.

I can't tell you how much time the suspect was there when the shooting actually took place.

But, sir, you are correct when it comes to our tactics. The tactics of the sheriff's department are, as soon as an active shooter is on scene, the first few deputies that go in there are directed to go towards the gunfire and stop the threat, because our main goal is the safety of the children and the safety of everyone involved in these kinds of scenarios.

Once our deputies run toward the threat and try to identify that person and engage with that suspect, then once that suspect is stopped or it's deemed safe enough, other teams start rolling in.

And as other teams start rolling in, they assemble contact teams, which, in turn, go in to either assist with apprehending the active shooter, if he's still there, or identifying the people that are injured, establishing triage points, and making it safe for our partners at the fire department and our paramedic partners to come in and start bringing those victims safely out.

COOPER: And we've seen video. And again, we're not showing live pictures. Just to inform our audience, if you're just joining us, we are not showing live pictures because the shooter may still be on the loose. We don't want to give any information to this shooter about law enforcement's locations or efforts.

The video we have seen from a helicopter shows a very orderly exiting of students being escorted by law enforcement.

Do you know if all these students have been, you know, screened and are out of the buildings, or is that process still underway? It's a large school. Last I heard, it's about 3,000 students there.

BOESE: What I can tell you is the school has pretty much been evacuated. We have reunification points already in place for our parents of that high school. So they are being informed through the school district.

You can also follow the social media account of our Santa Clarita Valley sheriff's station, and also the sheriff's department updated information as we parse it out to make sure people are aware of this information.

COOPER: All right.

BOESE: It's a very orderly process. I mean, the sheriff's department trains with the school district, trains with the students. We run drills so we can ensure that we can get people out to safe locations as fast as possible. So what you see is everybody working together to make sure that people

are safe. And it provides the sheriff's department, you know, the opportunity to clear people out and then go in to stop the threat or locate the suspect.

COOPER: Sergeant Boese, I appreciate all the work you and the officers are doing. It's extremely brave and risky. And unfortunately, incredibly necessary.

Thank you very much. And we'll check back in with you later. Appreciate it.

BOESE: Thank you. Thank you.

COOPER: We're going to take a quick break. We'll have more about this shooting. Again, the headline, five people being treated right now, according to Sergeant Boese, from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's. The suspect still not accounted for, still not apprehended. Police are -- a very active search is underway.

[11:54:07]

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COOPER: I'm Anderson Cooper. We are following breaking news out of southern California. Police responding to a shooting at Saugus High School, in Santa Clarita, just east of Los Angeles.

At least two people in critical condition, we're told. Three other patients being transported to the hospital right now. They may be already at the hospital. All schools in the area are on lockdown as police are still trying to find the suspect.

The sheriff's department telling CNN the suspect is believed to be a student at the high school. The description was male Asian suspect wearing black clothing.

I want to get to CNN's Stephanie Elam in Los Angeles -- Stephanie?

ELAM: Right, Anderson. What we can confirm at this point is there's been five people shot. We're learning that from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. We do know those five people that have been transported to the hospital have been shot. I believe all of them should have made it to the hospital at this point.

We also know, like you said, that there's belief that the person who perpetrated the shooting is a student that is still outstanding. They're still looking for the person that did this.

[11:59:59]

What -- the other information here that we have is the L.A. County sheriff has also tweeted this is still very much an active scene. And they're asking people who live in the area to Shelter in Place, lock everything down in their homes --