at 8:00 eastern. monday i'll sit down with a woman who interviewed everyone from fidel castro to jennifer lewinsky and jennifer lawrence. barbara walters. geerngs thanks for joining us. a 15-year-old girl was critically wounded fighting for her life tonight after a fellow student opened fire at arapahoe high school in centennial, colorado. the gunman apparently targeting a teacher according to earlier reports is dead. police say he took his own life. they say they found two molotov cock tails. the ingredients and images so familiar by now. the outcome fortunately a great deal less deadly than columbine or sandy hook. >> reporter: at 12:33 p.m., police say a lone gunman entered centennial colorado armed with a shotgun. a gunman believed to be a student asked for the school janitor. a janitor saw a student running

around dressed in fact cal gear. >> i was turning the corner when i saw a kid run into the building on the north side of the building. he was kind of running side to side, kind of military kind of style. when i saw that, i double looked to see if there was a gun. it was a shotgun. so right away i got on the radio to alert everyone and the staff to hey -- when he went, in that's when i just heard the shots. i heard the loud shots. >> reporter: a student was shot while in the vicinity of the shooter. that student who's not being identified is in serious condition. two other students sustained injuries. whitney riley was with other students inside her ninth grade classroom. >> we were having fun and laughing. then all of a sudden we heard a really loud bang. and my teacher asked what it was. then we heard two more, and we all just got up and screamed and ran into a sprinkler system

room. >> our teacher was trying to calm us down. a couple of people were crying. they were just all in the moment. we couldn't really think at all. we didn't really know it was a gunshot. but we heard the repetitions. so we just thought might as well take procedure. and we turned off the lights and locked the door so they can't get in. >> reporter: within 14 minutes of the shooting, law enforcement entered the school looking for the shooter. >> while we were securing the school and ensuring that the safety of the students and staff in that school, we located the individual that we believed to be the suspect and the active shooter. that individual is currently deceased, and he apparently killed himself. >> reporter: law enforcement say they slowly and methodically searched the school before allowing students to leave the safety of their classrooms. >> we wanted to ensure that all of our students number one were safe. and secondly, we wanted to ensure that we had no other suspects or individuals that were collaborators with our

shooter. >> reporter:m.,t students began exiting the school, single file, arms raised in the air, gathering at the school's running track and into the arms of parents who rushed to the school after hearing reports of the shooting. >> frantic. it's horrible. you're super nervous. you're driving down here and trying to get through as fast as you can. so i mean he's okay. >> reporter: anika cabrere, cnn, colorado. >> i spoke just a short time ago with a student frank warnoff. he saw the teacher in question after his narrow escape and knew the gunman as well. >> so frank, when you got back to the school, you realized something was going wrong. what did you see and hear? >> i just saw a bunch of cops swarm into the school, the parking lot, the side streets, everything. and they blocked off the intersection leading to the school and they forced me off the road into the local grocery store, where i met up with the librarian and the janitor at the

school. >> so they had already left the school. it was the librarian, was that the teacher who was allegedly being targeted by this gunman or requested by the gunman? >> he was the one who was shot at, yes. >> what did the librarian tell you? >> all he could really tell me were the same two or three statements over and over. he just kept telling me that the gunman asked where is he where is he and kept searching for him. all he could tell me was his name and about the speech and debate team. >> obviously don't use his name. what about the speech and debate team, though? that has something to do with his motive? >> we believe the gunner was on the speech and debate team. he is on the speech and debate team. but he was demoted a certain position. and i was told that's what led him to sort of snap. >> did you know the alleged gunman? and if so, what was he like? >> i did know him.

i've known him since my freshman year of high school. he was the last person i expect to ever shoot up a high school. he was honestly incredibly humble and down to earth. he was a little geeky, but in a charming way. so i don't know anyone who hates him really. so it came as a surprise to me at least. >> did you have any indication in the last couple of days that there was anything going on with him, anything wrong with him? >> i heard from a few friends that -- and i believe it was the spanish class on wednesday -- that he showed a few outbursts that were fairly violent. >> do you know any more details on that? >> he went out to get water, i believe, or something from his locker. when he came back the door was locked so he started pounding on it and screaming and cursing at the teacher apparently. >> that was something which was unusual for him. >> right. >> how are you and the other students doing? it's one thing to see this kind

of thing on tv and have it happen somewhere else. but to have it happen in your schoo school. >> it's one of those things you see all over the news and that will never happen to us. but it happened four hours ago, i think. and i'm just now texting my friends and they're telling me it just now hit them that they just realized that this is a real thing. so still kind of trying to get over it, you know. >> yeah. listen, frank, i appreciate you talking to us. i'm glad you're okay and your friends are as well. thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. appreciate it. >> you can follow me on twitter tonight @andersoncooper. we'll have more late developments throughout the hour and speak with another student who was inside as the gun shots rang out. also the parallels with columbine and frankly the differences. four cell phones, seven socks, and six weeks of sleep. but one thing you don't want to lose is any more teeth. if you wear a partial, you are almost twice as likely to lose your supporting teeth.

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the student who shot her is dead apparently by his own hand. the images as always searing, tough to watch. some like parents this afternoon hugging kids or at least relieved to see. so is hearing from survives. i spoke with courtney leopold before air time. >> courtney, how are yu holding up? i know you got real shook up with what happened. >> i'm okay. i've definitely been better. but it's just something you got to stick out, got to stay strong for everybody else around you. >> explain when you realized something was happening. >> we were just -- i was sitting in yoga class. and we were working on a school project that was actually our final for the class. and i just heard this bang bang! and i thought somebody was just upstairs messing around like with the vending machines, because a lot of kids like the vending machines get stuck and a lot of kids kick them and stuff

like that. and the next thing we know, one of the girls that was actually upstairs comes running down screaming help help, there's a shooter, there's a shooter, and she had blood on her shirt. and our teacher, miss bradley, she brought kind of freaked out for a second, she calmed down and counted everything as we walked in the room just to make sure everybody was in there safe and took this young lady with us. and we went into like a couple of back rooms they have down there in the basement. we just all kind of sat down there. and our teacher checked out the young lady that came down screaming. and nothing appeared to be physically wrong with her, but you can definitely tell she was really shaken up by the whole thing. >> this may be a dumb question but you said she had blood on her. where did the blood come from? >> her friend that she was standing next to was actually one that had been shot. and her friend -- i didn't really get the full story, but i

guess her friend had fallen on her. and i guess her friend kind of just fell. and that's where the blood came from. because she was standing right there when it happened, when her friend was shot. >> you must have been incredibly scared at this point. >> yeah. i was more angry, i guess at first, to like sit there and think how could somebody possibly do this? it's the holidays, it's christmastime. this doesn't happen to people -- this just doesn't happen. it hit way too close to home. this doesn't happen to arapahoe high school. it just doesn't happen. and i guess i wasn't really scared until s.w.a.t. came down and they were like, it's s.w.a.t. it's s.w.a.t. it's the police. stay calm. they were just really yelling. i guess that's when it kind of became a reality for me. that's when i started to just freak out and i just lost it. >> how long were you with the other students waiting for the

police to come? >> i was one of the three girls -- there's two other girls that sat and were comforting the young lady that had came down the stairs screaming for help. we sat there and comforted her. and the rest of the students were in a separate room. we probably were there for about 15, 20 minutes. our teacher actually has a brother in s.w.a.t. and she had texted him and let him know where we were. so that's when they came down and got us and they had to make sure everything was secure and stuff like that. >> without obviously using any names, did you know the alleged gunman? and if so, what was he like? >> i knew of him. i maybe talked to him, two three times. he was a really sweet kid. like no one ever really expects that from anybody. he ran track, he was on speech and debate. he was a really smart,

intelligent kid, really had a good life ahead of him. and that's really all i can say about him at this moment. >> courtney, i'm so glad you're okay and you were able to comfort this other student at that time is a really wonderful thing you were able to do. and i appreciate you talking with us tonight. >> yes. thank you for having me. i appreciate it. >> coming when it did and where it did, today's shooting inevitably spurred comparisons to sandy hook a year ago tomorrow and columbine 14 years ago only a few miles separate columbine and arapahoe. the images some uncannily similar. thankfully the outcomes very different for a whole variety of reasons including how authorities responded this time. here to talk about it is dave cullen who has written the definitive book on columbine. i highly recommend it. one of the things i got from your book which took you ten years to write how much of the initial reporting and collective memory was flat out wrong.

it makes me think about we've just gotten this report about molotov cock tails. and previously people were saying he was targeting one teacher so maybe that's not correct. >> exactly. with columbine, we had it so figured out complete lit first week. it was two loner outcasts, goths from the trench coat mafia on a tirade targeting jocks and killed them. everybody knew that. most people still believe that. every single bit of that is wrong. i still do a lot of events at high schools and colleges. the first thing i do is ask people, okay, what happened at columbine? first i ask how many people know and they all do. and what klaus did, and i take answers from the audience and everyone still this all those things but all wrong. and today was like a minute ago we just heard the news about the molotov cocktails. the first thought in my head was like, okay. that may or may not be true. although with things like that that probably is. because the cops find a physical device, they're probably not going to mistake that.

>> the story up until a minute ago people were saying he was targeting a specific teacher perhaps because he was demoted off the debate team. but if you bring molotov cocktails to a school that means a potential wider destruction. >> exactly. plus more planning. it takes you some time to do those. and usually you don't target a single person. i was skeptical about the targeting. you never know. >> up follow you on twitter. you and i have discussed on twitter the idea of not naming the shooters, which is something i believe it very strongly and have tried to do in all the reporting not just obviously tonight but in all these instances. why do you think that's important? and what role does extensive media coverage particularly you were saying local media coverage, play in encouraging other young people to do this? >> i think it has a huge impact. and sometimes when i talk to people they don't understand that because they say like obviously a person doesn't just think oh, a school shooting and i'll do that. that's not really getting it.

so to understand how most of these people do it, most deeply depressed, someone at the end of their rope. they're trying to lash out and have some sort of impact. they usually don't know what. they don't necessarily have it clearly defined. they're not sort of clearly defined with goals. it's not trying to become famous like being on "the tonight show" or "jimmy fallon" or something. they're trying to be heard and have some impact on the world, and they don't know how to do that. then they see the coverage of these things happening. and they're like oh, it's sort of like a model. that's kind of working that. guy's being heard. everyone's hearing his name. and i think we give power to that individual. and we make it seem like wow, that sort of does fulfill this need i'm in search of. and if we take that away we've sort of silenced the person. we've really sort of denuded them and made them sort of like this voiceless person. i think we take a lot of the power away. >> i believe it reporting these things, you can report on motive and you can try to learn things that will help the next time without using the person's name and in any way -- i just don't think -- >> the perpetrator, the

gunman -- >> we should remember the names of the victimses whose lives were forever changed. and the other point you make which is that these schools are really kind of centers on community life. so the impact of a shooting in a school like this goes far beyond the immediate students who were involved, it has ripples throughout the entire community. >> it really is. every area usually there's private and local high schools. in this area it's great because of the suburban flight when these suburbs came together. most of those like columbine, there is no -- they're unincorporated jefferson county. this wasn't unincorporated arapahoe county and they created centennial like five years ago or something like that. so they have no main street. there's no like county courthouse. not even like symbols of where like the center of town is. there's no town. so the high school becomes the town. and people when you ask them where they're from, they'll say they're from like columbine or

dakota ridge or whatever the high school is is how they think of their identity of their group. so you're sort of shattering the symbol of what the community is. >> well again book is "columbine" the correct title. >> yes. >> it's truly -- i've i've read it. it is such a good book. if you think you know what happened in columbine, really you have no idea. i had no idea until i read your book. i appreciate having you on tonight. >> thanks for having me. up next the details on the texas teenager who drove drunk and got no jail time. the judge claimed he suffered from affluenza. what is that? we'll hear from the family of another teenager who survived the crash but his life is changed forever. [ male announcer ] at humana, understanding what makes you different

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at kaiser permanente, we want you to choose the doctor that's right for you. find your perfect match at kp.org and thrive. welcome back. tonight new perspective on the case of the 16-year-old drunk driver who caused a crash who killed four people and got no jail time in a moment you'll hear from the family of a teenager who was hurt in the crash. first the details of the case in case you don't know. a judge in texas sentenced that young man, 16-year-old ethan couch, to ten years of probation for the july crash that killed four people. the defense that was used was something called affluenza, the theory that couch isn't really to blame for his actions because his rich parents never set limits for him and he never learned about consequences. maybe hard for a lot of people to wroop their brains around that one. i spoke with dick miller, the

clinical psychologist who testified for the defense and used the term affluenza. miller took issue even with the fact that couch killed four people that night. take a look. >> if you commit a crime, if you kill four people, you can't use that as an excuse, can you? >> no. and the term -- when you use the word "killed" and people out in america hear that, it implies that there was motive, that the motive was not good. >> are you saying he didn't kill four people? >> yes, he did not murder four people. it's a legal term. >> okay. but he slammed his truck -- into four people. first degree homicide and involuntary manslaughter are different things, anderson. >> he killed four people, yes? >> four people died. >> four people didn't just magically die. four people were killed by this young man. ethan couch crashed his vehicle while driving drunk into these people. the lives of those victims'

families are of course changed forever. it's not just them. sergio molina was riding in the back of that young man's vehicle, in the back of his truck, in the back of couch's truck. he survived the accident. his life will never be the same. not for him, not for his family. gary tuchman now reports. >> reporter: this is the way sergio molina used to be, a happy son and brother who loved playing soccer. this is the way he is today. 16-year-old sergio with his mother. he can't talk, he can't move. he's considered minimally responsive. it's what happened to him after he flew out of the back of ethan couch's pickup truck this past june. on the night that couch ran into and killed four other people just outside ft. worth, texas. alex limos is sergio's older brother. >> they told us that basically that's as much as he's going to rehabilitate, that that's all we can hope for is how he is right now for the rest of his life. >> reporter: the family hopes and prays that is not true. but meantime, they deal with

realities. >> in the six months since the accident, what have your medical bills totalled so far? >> since the accident, over $1 million. >> $1 million. >> over $1 million. >> reporter: sergio's family has filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit against ethan couch, his family, and his father's company because it was the company-owned truck ethan was driving. an attorney for the driver's family has told cnn the judge made the appropriate disposition in this case. but sergio molina's family says testimony in the trial revealed the teens in couch's truck pleaded with him to slow down and drive safer before the horrifying accident occurred. >> and how many people need e.m.s.? >> ma'am, i'm telling you it's dark. there's four or five kids -- there's kids laying in ditches and streets. >> sergio was one of those in the ditch. his brother was in court during the trial. and says when he heard the affluenza defense being used he thought it was nonsense and

upsetting. >> when the verdict came and you found out he was not going to ever spend time in jail, what went through your mind? >> just anger, disappointed, so outrageous anger i can't say anything. >> reporter: the family is currently retrofitting their home with money they say they really don't have to accommodate sergio. his mother maria said it was emotionally hard for her to talk on camera, but she wanted to give it a try. >> tell me about sergio. what kind of boy he is. >> he was the best. he wassed that kind of boy with a lot of dreams. he was -- well, his first dream was to be a soccer player. he was sweet.

i mean, he was -- >> he's lucky he has you. you need to hear that from people like me, outsiders. do you realize that? >> yeah. >> he's lucky he has you and his siblings to take care of him, right? >> yeah. >> reporter: memories of sergio before the accident sustain this family. the picture of him on the left with two of his other brothers, his soccer uniforms and his relationship with his dog pinky which continues today. his brother says he has quit his job to stay with sergio all the time. >> it's my life. if i have to become a scientist to go up in there and fix him, that's my life, man. that's how much i love him. >> it is so sad. that was our gary tuchman reporting. we're going to continue to follow the story. that's all for us. "unguarded" with rachel nichols starts right now. good evening i'm susan hendricks. rachel nichols" unguarded" will

begin in a moment. first we're following breaking news tonight out of centennial, colorado where we have just learned the name of the gunman who opened fire at a high school there earlier today. arapahoe high school. the gunman who took his own life has been identified as 18-year-old carl h. pierson. he was a student at the school. three students, i understand, were wounded in the attack. that's what they initially thought. he then turned the gun on himself, we know, and also another girl is in critical condition. she was 15 years old. she's in the hospital. we're waiting to go hear an update on her. according to the sheriff, the shooter was also a student who was targeting a specific teacher who was not harmed. again, we do know the identity of that shooter, carl hall ver sohn pierson. he turned the gun on himself, committed suicide earlier today. that was at arapahoe high school. now rachel nichols "unguarded" begins right now.