last resort. six k-12 administrators have been killed so far from trying to do that. so they sound on their face good but they're thrown out there without testing and validation. these things are really not a good idea. >> let me ask you this because one of the strategies that we sometimes see mentioned after an event of this sort is the idea that someone on campus needs to be armed and not just law enforcement authorities but to keep a gun in the principal's office and even allowing certain instructors to have access to weapons. what's your take on that?

having worked ten k-12 active shooter situations in the u.s. and canada, you go in and see when things are settling and have the facts, things that seem to be working the best, actually preventing loss of life is multidisciplinary threat assessment which many campuses don't use has been used to stop hundreds of planned bombings and shootings. teaching people to recognize potentially dangerous people before they commit acts of violence. and then evidence-based approaches for preparedness so we can speed the reaction of people to secure people and protect them. a good example of that is the information released by the sheriff's department in littleton, colorado.

from the time the first shot was fired to the third shot fired at the point of attack, in just seven seconds, the security camera footage, we've been told, demonstrates that over 80 people who were in the line of fire in those two main hallways because of the training at the school and the drills, those people were sheltered and behind a lockable door or out of the building in had just seven seconds. so their reaction time was reduced to take away additional victims from the aggressor. and of course in that case having a deputy sheriff who was armed on site who rushed to the scene and arrived i think in one anyone, 12 seconds prompted the aggressor to take his own life by all available information. so there's a combination of things and arming people is one of them. a number of these events have been stopped by an armed citizen, armed school administrator, security officer or police officer. >> we also want to point out and maybe we can get your take on this when we come back to you

that oregon is one of seven states that allows people with concealed weapons permits to carry those weapons onto campuses. but let's check in right now with our correspondent who is still en route to roseburg. alan, are you there? >> yes, i'm here. still heading south. >> what are you hearing? i assume you're picking up some information from locale radio stations -- local radio stations that may have reached eyewitnesses we're still waiting to hear from? >> i'm just not hearing any eyewitness reports yet. i can tell you we just talked with a gentleman at the douglas county sheriff's department who confirmed there's no longer a threat on campus. they won't say how or in what manner that shooter was neutralize but that shooter was either in custody or dead at this point. so that's -- that threat is no longer imminent. we have that confirmed.

mercy medical center has about 20 patients we understand, people who have been take from the hospital to the nearest medical facility and we're waiting on a statement from them possibly a press appearance from somebody at the hospital. but that has not come through yet. also hearing from the sheriff's office that there are going to be people at the fairgrounds where students, faculty, and staff are being bussed or have been bussed. there will be people there for counseling, psychological or pastoral down counselling. about 3300 students at this community college, roseburg, not a big city, about 22,000 people. so this is going to be something that will shake that community right to the core. >> thank you very much for that, alan, as you travel to the location or as close to it as law enforcement authorities will

allow reporters to come. repeating your report that the sheriff's office tells you that there is no longer a threat. that the local medical center has admitted about 20 people from the shooting at umpqua community college. and that people are being evacuated or have been evacuated to the fairgrounds where there will be crisis counsellors available. j.j. green joins us live by phone in washington. >> randall, the situation that we were talking about earlier is one that re dhs has been concerned about for a while. they've been involved in communities with very specific programming designed to prepare building community colleges full time colleges all sorts of organizations for this type of thing. and basically what they do is they go and meet with the

principals from those organizations and talk about security vulnerabilities and each one is different. and this is a situation today that speaks specifically to how difficult it is to put in place a security plan because this particular place is out in the middle of -- as you mentioned earlier -- a logging community. which is very different from most communities that dhs and others are dealing with. this is a unique situation speaking to how difficult it is

to secure places across the country for this type of shooting, this type of event. >> we should note according to reports we've received that police units from multiple jurisdictions responded to that shooting at umpqua community college. another one of our security consultants on the line with us pointed out that the fact that they were able to get buses onto the campus and then to take people off right away, in other words, to evacuate the scene quickly, is an indication that perhaps this particular school did have a plan in place and that local authorities had received some sort of training on how to respond to this sort of issue. we just saw in this pictures as we are looking at the images recorded by our local affiliate, i noticed a mobile crime lab heading towards the campus and then a school bus removing people from the campus to the fairgrounds where they will be

meeting with crisis counselors. alan is on the way to the scene right now. he's been on the phone with the douglas county sheriff's office and since he's from the area, he can tell us more about the roseburg community and what it's like there. alan? >> randall, a quick update before we get into that. we've also heard from officials at the scene there that atf agents are either on their way from portland or are already on scene. so it does appear that there will be some federal investigation going on. roseburg, again, fairly small city. just a little less than 22,000 residents. it's in a very rural part of the southern valley of oregon. 50 miles or so south of eugene. smaller towns around it, southerland and others.

so roseburg would be a main population center. an area basically built on logging. lots of tremendous wild land around that area. a lot of out door recreation. hunting, fishing, camping, hiking. it's a big draw for that kind of thing. the umpqua river which runs nearby is world renowned as a trout fishing stream and also a stream for boating, white water rafting, that kind of thing. we have not had it confirmed that other communities are responding to the scene but that would make sense. again, roseburg, the main population center in that area in a fairly sparsely populated area in oregon. west part of the cascades, southern part of the valley.

>> thank you, alan. stand by. we have some more information we want to provide for you about this community college, umpqua. it offers programs in automotive technology, aviation, wine making, hospitality, and other areas. the oregonen newspaper reports that on wednesday, the school was put on notice that its high rate of students defaulting on federal loans could cause it to lose eligibility for financial aid. it also reports that students with the proper paperwork are allowed to carry guns on campus. oregon is one of seven states with concealed weapons permits that are lou people to bring done -- that allow people to bring guns onto campus. the school is near eugene with about 5,000 students. most of them part timers. the school founded in the 60s to prepare people for jobs or move on to four-year colleges. alan, just update for us -- i'm

sorry. okay. we'll go to j.j. green now, al jazeera's national security contributor joining us by phone from washington. j.j.? >> yes, randall. what can i tell you? this is a difficult situation. lots of things are happening. but there's so many questions out there today. there's this scenario here where authorities are trying to get their mind around what took place, figure out what is known about the campus, figure out how to deal with the injured, the dead. it's a very difficult situation and it is certainly not something anyone expected but it's certainly something they have had some training for. i did hear you mention a few minutes ago that there are some signs that there was some type of preparedness for this kind of thing and absolutely. everybody across the country and any kind of situation of college or a business or religious

organization has been getting training in some way, you know, police and fire and rescue across the country have been getting it. but the issue is getting prepared for a specific event. and this is a mass casualty event. so getting prepared for these kinds of things requires a lot of specifics and that's what federal authorities are trying to work on with these communities and these organizations now, getting down, drilling down into the specifics and it's really about prevention in many ways. making sure that people can actually prevent some of this type of activity from happening. >> thank you very much, j.j. green. repeating now, we've been reporting on a tragedy in oregon. shooting on the umpqua community

college campus. oregon state police reporting at least seven dead, 20 wounded in afternoon in umpqua, oregon. we'll have more after this.

back now updating another shooting tragedy in america at

the campus of umpqua community college in roseburg, oregon. oregon state police reporting at least nine people dead. at least 20 wounded. we have on the phone with us sergeant aaron donebar with the roseburg police department. his officers are on the scene of the shooting. sergeant, thank you so much for joining us. i know that your time is limited. would you just start out with telling us anything you can about the shooter? >> i don't have any information at this point other than the fact that the shooter is a male and that he is no longer a threat. >> can you tell us because we've heard reports, unconfirmed, that the shooter is dead? >> i don't have that direct information. i know that from radio traffic that officers on the scene said that he was in custody and that there was no ongoing threat. >> okay. and at this juncture,

how many do you have confirmed as fatalities? >> we don't have a firm number at this point. there are fatalities at the scene. there are people injured. there are no law enforcement personnel injured. but we just don't have numbers for anybody yet. >> do you know approximately how long it took from the point that you got that 911 call until your officers were able to get to the campus? i imagine just looking at if map it does not appear to be close to the downtown area. it appears that the campus is sort of in a remote area of the town. is that right? >> it is. it's a couple of milesout side the city limits but we had officers and deputies from six different agencies on scene probably within four minutes of the initial call. >> wow, that was really fast. >> it was. and we, you know, because basically this type of call you send every asset you have. my best estimate is we had 40

officers there in the first ten minutes. >> and we've also heard that it was a science building, snyder hall, that was the scene of the shootings? can you confirm that for us? >> yes, that is correct. we're a rural community and the campus of the community college is kind of spread out. there's a dozen or 15 buildings that typically have four to six classrooms apiece and so we had all those buildings. but snyder hall was the prime location. after that building was secured, we sent teams into the rest of the buildings and searched and secured the rest of the buildings and we're in the process of transporting all the students and staff to the local fairgrounds by bus where they can be reunited with family. >> just to interject, we have now from the state attorney general of oregon the report of 13 fatalities, 13 fatalities.

sergeant, can you tell us if the fatalities as best you know all occurred at snyder hall or were others possibly killed at other locations on the campus? >> the best information i have is that it was limited to that one building. >> now, we know that there is in oregon a law that permits people with a concealed weapons permit to carry their weapons onto campus. is there any indication that the person who was on campus was possibly a student with a concealed weapon? >> to the best of my knowledge, the suspect has not been identified. we don't have a name yet so i would not be able to give you that information. >> we also have a report from social media that there may have been a warning as recently that there was some kind of possibly warning from the shooter earlier? do you know anything about that? >> i know nothing about that. >> so at this juncture, tell us

what's the next step? we know that people have been evacuated. we assume that you're processing the crime scene. bodies still being removed or? >> yeah, it is going to be kind of a lengthy process. the crime lab will have to go in and basically photograph anything before anything is moved and diagram it. then the collection of evidence, the removal of deceased persons. that could take, you know, 12 to 24 hours before that process is complete. >> and we did see your mobile crime lab. i don't know if it was your mobile crime lab or the sheriff's but one of the pieces of video that have been crossing through that you have a mobile crime lab that has been set up there; correct? >> yes. actually, yeah, the state police has multiple mobile crime labs and so they will respond to, you know, larger scenes and process

the scenes there rather than removing the evidence and taking it to a lab facility. >> and just to confirm again, at this juncture, authorities say only one shooter and that person is no longer a threat. >> that's correct. >> thank you very much, sergeant, for joining us. sergeant aaron donebar with the roseburg police department still investigating the multiple shooting on the campus of umpqua community college today in roseburg, oregon. thank you for joining us on al jazeera america. j.j. green is al jazeera's national security contributor joining us by phone from washington. what would be the next step for homeland security? what role would they will playing in the investigation of the shooting? >> this is going to be a situation where the police and local authorities and federal authorities are going to be involved in the investigation part of it.

that's their job as law enforcement agencies. what dhs is going do is collect as much information as it can about what took place to try to figure if it's beyond a random shooting or something of that nature. this is a matter where dhs coordinates and of course funds all the resources like the fbi and like other organizations in law enforcement to go in and look at it. but what they're going to want to do is take a look at this particular college, at the community, at the vulnerables that they knew existed and look at the threat plan for this school and that community and sort of overlay that over the current situations in the country. >> you just mentioned threat plan. is that something that is standard for all educational institutions now? how does one develop a threat plan?

>> basically, it is not the same with every university. this is a small school but there are some schools that are even smaller than this. but it is as i mentioned to you before part of a new process, fairly new, that dhs has been engaged in for a few years now where they have reached out to the communities and said to them, listen, you need to figure out a plan to secure your premises and the people that ma trick late on your premises because there are matriculate o because there are threats. so basically saying what you need to do from a liability and safety point of view to lock down your organization and your facility. they've offered them material that they can read. they've offered them training.

there's grants out there for organizations that actually want to get involved in this and go beyond just the basic hiring of security guards and studying basically what the local crime situation is. they've actually made available to some of these organizations that have gotten involved with them computer resources that help them track and help them to determine what it is that the thre -- that is threatened and how to deal with it. >> we just learned that the white house has just reported that president obama has been briefed on the shooting at umpqua community college and of course he'll be receiving updates as the investigation there continues. we know that atf agents are en route possibly they have already arrived on the scene of the community college there where the crime scene is being processed. alan, our correspondent is also

en route to the scene and he's on the phone with us. alan, what have you learned? >> just some quick updates on the injured. we understand that mercy hospital, mercy medical center in roseburg now confirming that they have nine people that they're treating. don't have the severitity of the injuries being worked on. and they believe they have another three coming to them en route. also to the north in springfield, sacred heart's trauma team is activated immediately when they heard about this shooting and understood the extent of it. we understand that three patients have been helicoptered by life flight, that's the company in this area, to springfield. so we'll assume that springfield and eugene hospitals are ready to accept more patients at this time. just have not heard anything more in terms of how many people were killed in the shooting, continuing to hear that of course there is no longer any kind of a threat. >> and, alan, we don't know for

sure whether the individuals that you referenced are or are not included in the number of 20 wounded which has been the consistent number we've been receiving throughout the day from law enforcement authorities and we just got off the phone with a police sergeant from the roseburg, oregon police department telling us that the shooting was confined to the snyder hall science building. he did not have any information on the shooter but did say that the person is no longer a threat, could not confirm whether or not the person is alive. but did say that his officers had said that he was in custody and no longer a threat. that it will take at least 24 to 48 hours to process the crime scene. presumably that means that no one would be allowed back onto the campus to retrieve their cars, personal belongings, or anything else. we see there one of the school buses that have been taking the students and faculty and staff

from the campus to the fairgrounds where they can ron -- ron day video with family and endezvous with family and friends. j.j. green, we want to thank you for joining us and thanking our other contributors to our newscast as well. we'll have much more coming up on al jazeera america later in the day. thank you for joining us. i'm randall pinkston with al jazeera america in new york. good afternoon.