show," god damn, they're funny. >> there's never been a better sketch ever. >> she was great in bed, too, dicky. remember? >> top -- you never went to bed with -- >> well -- >> i'm not supposed to cachet. i'm supposed to bow, but i get dizzy when i bend over. >> when tim conway came on, his goal in life was to destroy harvey. >> all right. watch or set your tvdvr for "th 60s." debuts thursday, at 9:00 p.m. all right. for those just joining us, welcome to the "cnn newsroom." i'm fredricka whitfield. terror rips through a small college town in california after a gunman opens fire. the sheriff's office says the suspect drove through isla vista, west of santa barbara

last night, and sprayed the streets with bullets. six people were killed and seven others wounded. the gunman was found dead in his car after a firefight with police. our correspondents are covering this breaking story. kyung lah is live in isla vista, and kyung, right in front of one of those crime scenes. what else is happening today? >> reporter: well, they're trying to piece together the exact events and how they happened. we are hearing from witnesses that this is the second crime scene, the very first one happened right up the street outside a sorority house. some people either hurt or killed outside that sorority house, and then over here, the bmw involved, racing, hitting people. the gunman opening fire. the street, busy, as friday night was just beginning in this sleepy college town. the eve of the memorial day holiday weekend turns deadly. this, after multiple driveby

shootings. >> he shot and i felt like -- i just felt the wind like pass right by my face. so i started running the opposite way and then i heard it again, like, two times, and i was just sprinting. >> reporter: in all, authorities say seven people were killed, including the gunman. seven others injured. those hurt sent to a local hospital for gunshot or traumatic injuries. >> we've identified nine separate crime scenes within the area. and multiple victims. >> reporter: 19-year-old summer young says she was almost run over by the black bmw, and witnessed the shooting. >> i saw the car run down here and he was just firing off shots and then -- we just ran inside the nearest restaurant and waited until some stuff calmed down. it was really hectic. >> reporter: federal and local authorities continued to dig on the gunman's past. he was found dead with an apparent gunshot wound. investigators are now trying to trace the handgun used and where

the suspect obtained it. authorities say they are now analyzing both written and video evidence that suggests this was a premeditated mass murder. >> the problem with an incident like this is, it's obviously the work of a madman, and you are -- you know, it's just unfortunate that these kinds of circumstances occur, but there are very, very limited ways in which they can be prevented. >> reporter: shock and disbelief today in the small college town, but many questions. including the big one -- why? what you're looking at here, live, back in this college area, is the window of the first floor of this apartment building. there are a lot of college students who live in this apartment building. you can see that it has been shot out. a lot of the people who we're talking to be here can't get into their own apartments, because there's so many different roped off areas, fredricka.

from what we aundunderstand, th are nine different crime scenes they're still trying to gather evidence from. fredricka? >> okay. among the items of evidence, we understand police have a written note, perhaps even some video that was on the web. what more are they learning, or are they willing to share anything about that yet? >> reporter: there's going to be a news conference later this afternoon. 4:00 local. 7:00 p.m. eastern time, and we hope to learn those details at that point. what we know so far is that they have called a lot of that information, and anything that was written. a lot of information posted on the web, including a lot of videos on youtube. they give the authorities a picture to lead them to that statement, that this may have ban premeditated mass murder. that's what they're looking at to understand exactly why this happened, fredricka. >> kyung lah, thanks so much. now let's turn to justice correspondent evan perez in washington. you're learning new information? >> reporter: fred, we know that the atf is on the scene right now. they are -- they've sent up some

of their technicians, their experts who can help trace this handgun recovered at the scene. they'll try to figure when it was bought, where it was bought, because that helps sort of explain whether -- how much planning went into this rampage, that the gunman went on. as kyung mentioned, there was some video evidence that the santa barbara sheriff's mentioned that they'll take a look at and perhaps that's also where they'll get help from federal law enforcement and we know they're relying on the help of the california department of justice crime lab. a community that doesn't deal with this kind of thing often. that's where federal law enforcement can lend assistance. obviously, there have been a number of these types of incidents around the country, sad to say, and they have a lot of expertise with this, fred. >> evan perez.

appreciate it as well. our coverage of this tragedy continues. this incident appearing to be a mass murder situation. up next, the santa barbara county sheriff reveals what happened when deputies exchanged gunfire with the suspect. (music) defiance is in our bones. defiance never grows old. citracal maximum. calcium citrate plus d. highly soluble, easily absorbed.

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all right. we're expecting to hear new information from the sheriff's office in an upcoming news conference about last night's deadly shooting near the university of california santa barbara. as we wait to go back live to santa barbara county, let's listen to what sheriff bill brown revealed earlier in this statements. >> this incident appears to about mass murder situation. the timeline, as we've been able to put it together thus far is as follows -- at 9:27 p.m., the sheriff's dispatch center received calls of multiple gunshots being fired in the isla vista area. we had deputies in the area on

foot who also heard a number of shots being fired. the deputies began responding in the direction of the gunshots, and immediately found several victims who were suffering from gunshot wounds. as they were performing first aid on those victims, they were also receiving suspect information and a vehicle description. as this was occurring, additional shots were fired, and calls were received by the sheriff's dispatch from several areas in isla vista. during this initial stage, both the suspect and suspect vehicle descriptions were broadcast to those law enforcement personnel who were in the area. at 9:33 p.m., six minutes after the initial call was received, the suspect engaged a group of responding deputies with gunfire.

the deputies returned fire and the suspect fled in his vehicle. seconds later, the suspect was again spotted by another deputy. another exchange of gunfire occurred at that time. the suspect fled down del playa, and eventually crashed into a parked vehicle. the deputies approached the crashed vehicle and determined that the suspect within that vehicle was dead from an apparent gunshot wound to the head, a handgun was recovered from within that vehicle. although we have preliminarily identified the suspect, we are not releasing the suspect's name until a positive identification can be made. currently the sheriff's office is not looking for any additional suspects. we believe this suspect acted alone.

this is still a very active investigation, and as you can imagine, a very chaotic series of crime scenes. it is still in the very early phases of the investigation. we've identified nine separate crime scenes within the area, and multiple victims who were either shot or injured as a result of -- apparently as a result of the suspect's actions. seven victims are in area hospitals being treated for gunshot wounds or for traumatic injuries. at least one of those victims has undergone surgery for life-threatening injuries. we currently have seven confirmed dead. that includes the suspect and six victims. we are in the process of identifying those victims and

notifying their next of kin. we have obtained and we are currently analyzing both written and videotaped evidence that suggests that this atrocity was a premeditated mass murder. the sheriff's office is currently interviewing multiple witnesses to these crimes, and we are asking for the public's assistance. if there's anyone who has not yet been spoken to by law enforcement authorities, we would ask if you have information about this crime, or series of crimes, if you would contact the santa barbara county sheriff's office tip line at 805-681-4171. and i would like to acknowledge and thank those allied agencies who are currently assisting us in this investigation in

addition to patrol and investigative personnel from the santa barbara county sheriff's office, we are being assisted by the uc santa barbara police department, by the california highway patrol, by the santa barbara police department, by the district attorney investigators, by the california state parks law enforcement personnel and by criminalists from the department of justice crime lab. i know that this information that i'm giving you at this point is somewhat preliminary. we are going to work diligently to get you more information in detail, including the identity of the suspect and the victims. the next press conference is going to be scheduled for 4:00 p.m. today at a location to be determined. we will notify you through our regular processes of where that press conference will be held.

two things that i just want to say in closing. the first is -- i want to commend the deputy sheriffs who engaged very resolutely this suspect very shortly after we were notified of this incident. there's no question in my mind at this point that their resolute actions and valor in doing so very well may have prevented further loss of life and injury. i also want to let the families of the victims know that our hearts go out to them at this tragic time, and we will be doing all that we can in the -- in the near future to try to identify the actual circumstances, the complete background information as so forth, about this horrific series of events that occurred this evening. again, another press conference at 4:00 pacific

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examining nine different crime scenes. i spoke earlier with rich mariano, retired assistant director with the atf about where investigators go from here. wom >> well, right now daylight tell as whole new story. and in the several hours that have taken place, it gives investigators the opportunity to slow down the pace. to examine the ballistic evidence, and to also conduct a thorough, very comprehensive investigation to everything this offender was involved in. specifically looking at, like i said, the ballistic evidence, where the shots were fired from. how many magazines did he carry? with the semiautomatic weapon. to discuss and have conversations with his friends, relatives, interview the witnesses, they all tell a story. looking at the social network. the search of the car. all his personal belongings. the local video from atm machines, convenience store, restaurants and bars.

it's almost a story within itself that each one of these pieces contains a different frame to tell the story from the perspective of what actually happened. >> and in large part -- sorry. in large part is it to figure out the motive, primarily, or is it also trying to, to try and confirm or make sure there aren't other people that may have been complicit and involved with him? >> yeah. absolutely. they want to look at the social media aspect and they want to look at the video to see if there's anybody with him on the street, anybody in the car? some witnesses said there were two people in there. others can't confirm if it was one or two, but also to corroborate whatever they have. you know, there's some mention by the sheriff's office that they have some admissions from this individual. this is going to corroborate all that, and put together a good investigation, and i think they're on the right path bringing in the government and

bringing in subject matter experts to the table. >> thanks, rich. >> we're not looking to get anywhere but to the truth of what happened and tell the story. whether it's to the jury or to the american public. >> and then you mentioned reaching out to friends, family members, et cetera, returning to the place of residence. what would investigators be looking for when returning to the place of residence? >> well, specifically, in columbine, we looked at a manifesto written by the two offenders. what tells the bigger picture is where i'm going with this. who else knew about this individual? who else was part of this planning? who else may have assisted in getting him the gun? getting him the an mission? who else took part in this terrible deadly act? it's going to give us more information to how long this plot has been brewing, rather than in the last 12 to 14 hours. >> because there's still -- >> a week and a half?

or still a longer time? >> there still could potentially be prosecution if there were people or persons who knew something? right? >> absolutely. if someone purchased this gun for him with the knowledge and intent he was going to use it in a shooting, they will be prosecuted. any individual that knew this was going to take place, that aided and abetted and assisted should be prosecuted and charged. there may be several people that, you know, took part in this thing. oh, well, he was kidding. wasn't joking. didn't bring it to the attention of authorities, they can go to jail for a long, long time. >> and the we'll have more on the shooting rampage, including a harrowing description of the final moments of the shooting from a witness who saw it all happen.

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slow-moving car shooting at people on the sidewalk. seven people ended up dead, including the gunman and seven others were hurt. we have crews covering every angle of this story. kyung lah is live in isla vista and evan perez in washington. begin with you, kyung. apparently you've spoken with some new witnesses? >> reporter: and there are witnesses all up and through all of the various scenes. we have nine active crime scenes. this began outside a sorority house. witnesses say that there were at least two victims there, and then the bmw driving to this location. you can see that those men outside are sweeping up some glass. more bullets fired here. we've seen at least 12 to 15 bullet remnants that have been picked up by the authorities, and then over here witnesses also tell us that the bmw driving at a high rate of speed, about 70 miles per hour, estimated one witness, started

running into people. still shooting. going in and out of this community area until it finally crashed at the end, and we spoke to a man who saw this all come to an end. here's what he says. >> we heard a loud crash, and about, you know, close to 30 rounds of gunfire, and i looked outside, and i saw the bmw had crashed into the parked cars on the street. i saw one cop rush to the car. he -- the policeman cleared out the car, and then, like, very soon after, more squad cars showed up. policemen showed up with their rifles. they cleared the scene. i saw the driver get pulled out. >> reporter: did you see the driver? i mean, how did he look? >> from what i remember, when i saw the driver get pulled out of the car, he looked very hurt. i mean -- to me, he was -- either unconscious, or already dead.

>> reporter: what we know now is that the driver did die at the scene. what we do not know, though is if he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound or in that shoot-out with authorities. the people there at the very end call it absolutely frightening, but they're also extraordinarily saddened, fredricka, that they believe that this was someone who was their age, perhaps even someone who attended school with them. fredricka? >> and then kyung, there at the active crime scene, you pointed out the apartments are right behind you. have a lot of people been coming out and, you know, watching, or, you know, volunteering themselves, or people in large part staying away from that crime scene? >> reporter: there are a lot of students walking back and forth, and actually i'm going to have you do a 180. you can see there are students walking all the way through this park. there are some reporters here, but they're walking back and forth, and a lot of them are just trying to get back to their apartments. we're just outside one apartment building. there are a number of apartments

that appear to be filled with students all through this area. several blocks just packed with young people. they all look like rental apartments. a lot of students all appearing to be about 19 to 21 years old. so this is -- you know, a mini city here, and they're all trying to come to grips with what happened last night. >> all right, kyung lah, thanks so much. check in with evan par reerez dg into details there. what are you learning? >> reporter: fred, the atf sent some of its experts to the scene there in isla vista trying to lend assistance, because obviously there's a lot of stuff they can help with that perhaps the santa barbara sheriff's office doesn't have much experience with. the atf will help trace the handgun recovered from the scene. we're told that is something that is ongoing right now. they're going to want to know when the firearm was purchased, from whom, because that could

help explain perhaps how much planning went into this and whether or not there was anybody who may have known anything about this before this went down. we also know that the police there are looking at some written and video evidence that they made reference to at a press conference overnight, and that's also something that perhaps federal law enforcement can help the local police go through, because, again that could help explain exactly what happened here and how long this has been in planning, fred. >> uh-huh. all right. still lots of questions to be answered. thanks so much, kevin and kyung, appreciate that. you've heard over and over from so many witnesses, it sounded like fireworks. that's how they described the deadly gun fooifire last night. we'll talk to a man in the middle of that chaos, next.

welcome back. we're following breaking news out of southern california where police say a gunman went on a shooting spray near the campus of uc santa barbara. nicholas becker was eating dinner outside at a restaurant right there in isla vista when the first set of shots was fired not far from where he was sitting. nicholas joining us now by phone. so nicholas, i understand you were, you know, just having a burger at one of the places there. you're going back to get a second one, and then things took place. what happened?

>> so at first we heard sounds, that sounded like firecrackers and were actually joking around about it. we saw some police, started walking down the street, and that's where the second set of shots took place outside of the deli. about that time the police had started running, and as we went down pardol, the shots fired down, at the deli, we saw the car turn towards del playa and do a little slide around the corner outside of the habit, and that's when the third set of shots went off. >> and the habit is the place where you were eating. so when you saw this black vehicle, we're now looking at the video right now of that black vehicle which was a bmw. you describe that it was going at a pretty high rate of speed at the time that you saw it and then what else did you see about that vehicle? >> the vehicle -- i mean, i

couldn't recognize it as a bmw. it was black, and it was obviously a nice sports car. it was going -- well, i'd say, like, 50, 50 miles an hour. did a little screech around the corner. and i couldn't -- i could identify only one person in the car, although i couldn't make out the person's face. >> yeah. that's interesting with what police are saying. they do believe only one person was in that vehicle. that gunman. and then i understand that you had to stay put for a while, and when you and others emerged, that's when you saw body bags on the street. is that right? >> yes. so we were inside the habit for about 15 to 30 minutes. it was kind of weird vibes inside. nobody really knew what was going on and everyone was kind of scared to go outside, but after a little bit, everyone kind of slowly started to leave. that's when we headed up

embarcadero, and as we were turning left on cordoba, there was caution tape and there was a couple body bags on the street. i couldn't make out how many, but they were recording all the aftermath. >> so when you were inside that restaurant, you and many of the other patrons for that 20 to 30-minute period, did you realize, you know, that -- there was, you know, a lot of shooting taking place? i know you described earlier, you heard some firecrackers, but did you realize in all of this shooting taking place that continued that in the end, you know, people were hit? >> absolutely not. it actually -- we heard three bursts, at three different locations, and we were -- we maybe recalled like 12 shots, but we had no idea that anybody was hit. actually, we found out one at a time. so one girl came in. said she saw one guy. then another person came in from

a different direction, saw another guy, and then just until this morning i found out that the death rate had gone up. >> so -- >> i mean -- inside of the habit, people -- people were kind of messing around. it wasn't very serious. nobody really understood what was going on. i mean, someone was doing their homework. we'll riding their bikes around outside and parties were still going on. >> so nicholas, are you a student? >> oh, yeah. i'm a student right now at the high school, i actually graduate next week and headed off to smu in the fall. >> goodness. so, describe for me, you know, this area, where, you know, students, not just college students but obviously high school students, graduating high school students like yourself, converge on the weekends, you know, paint a picture for me as to, you know, how typical this evening seemed to be at the very beginning? >> so santa barbara is kind of a

cool little place. a i mean, isla vista is -- a college little town. i'd never been there before. this was my first time, and, i mean, i got a bad impression, but earlier in the day, you know, we were just on the beach, and skating around. it was pretty mellow. it didn't seem like a very busy day. i know people see, like, the riots and all that, but it's portrayed bad in the media but it's not a bad place. i had a great time and i'm not scared to visit again. this freak accident happened. can't avoid that. >> nicholas, thanks so much for your time. glad you're okay and sound like you're trying to process this just fine and, of course, all the best to you as you head off now for klemp. college. >> all right. thank you very much. straight ahead, much more on tat deadly mass shooting in southern california, and we'll economic some of the other day's top stories, inud clcluding pop

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authorities are trying to find out the motive behind a deadly shooting rampage in southern california. they say a gunman opened fire as he drove through isla vista, west of santa barbara last night. people were shot in several different locations. six of them were killed, and seven wounded. authorities say deputies exchanged fire with the suspect after arriving on the scene. he then fled in his vehicle, but then police caught up with him and got into another gun ex- -- exchange of gun fooirp wifire w. the suspect drove off and crashed into a parked car and was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head. still unclear if he killed himself or was shot by deputies. it's a whirlwind tour we want to share with you, in other news, for pope francis, on a

historic three-day tour through the holy land. over the course of the next few days the pope will shake hands with political leaders in three cities, celebrate two masses and deliver at least 13 speeches and homilies. earlier today he visited the jordan river where many christians believe jesus was baptized. the pope described this trip as a pilgrimage of prayer. >> reporter: the first of two full-on masses completed here at the sports stadium, 25,000 christians here in the audience, 1,400 kids getting their first commune yirn. this has been one of the highlights of this, the first day of this whirlwind trip. now, the pope billed this tour as a pilgrimage of prayer and said it was strictly religious, not political, but in his first speech just before this mass at the palace with the king of jordan, king abdullah, he

acknowledged with dip regret deep regret the continued tensions in the middle east and called for a peaceful solution to the crisis in syria and for a just solution to the israeli/palestinian crisis. you are hearing the people cheering at the pope leaving the stage. he is traveling with two old friends, a rabbi who co-wrote a book with the pope and a sheikh who leads argentina's muslim community. this is an interfaith dialogue. peace between israelis and palestinians has been one of his main foreign policy proclaimants, as it were, in his first year as pontiff. he's on record as saying he supports a two-state solution. so this is a religious event, but believe me it will have a political edge. fred? >> becky anderson, thank you so

much. and now in ukraine. tomorrow people go to the polls to elect a new president. poll areas are already being set up. ballots are being distributed, the election comes in the midst of separatist violence, and maybe a hopeful sign as russian forces appear to be moving back from the ukraine border. ukraine's prime minister says tomorrow we will prove to the world and first of all to ourselves that it is not possible to intimidate us. our jim shuuto joins us live with two breakaway regions of ukraine already calling themselves republic. what are the prospects for tomorrow's election? >> reporter: well, fred, it really depends on which part of the country you're in, in the western part of ukraine, closer to europened a the capital kiev, people are going to be able to vote, but here in the eastern part of the country, you have these pro-russian militants shutting down polling stayses and intimidating voters. we went just outside the city of

dan y don yes don esk and ran into one of the members of he showed us this. only emerged a couple of weeks ago. it wants independence from the rest of ukraine. and they're not asking these polling stations to close. they're doing it at gunpoint. when we try to talk to eyewitnesss, election commissioners, and other election workers who were kicked out, they were too scared to tell us their stories because those gunmen are still around. in this part of the country, it's a very fearful situation now. >> wow. so with that kind of intimidation, it would seem unlikely that people would venture out to some of these polling stations. >> reporter: absolutely. at least in this part of the country. and we talked to people like that today who just told us not only would they not tell us the stories of how these gunmen took

over the polling station, at least not on camera because they didn't want to be identified, but also they said tomorrow they didn't want to face up against these militants. they want to have the right to vote, but they don't want to pay for that right to vote with their safety, possibly with their lives. as you know in the last couple of days, dozens of people have been killed, most of those militants and separatists as well as ukrainian soldiers, but the threats to civilians as well. the intimidation by these armed militants is working on some of those voters. so i think you can expect tomorrow in this part of the country that you're not going to have very good turnout. >> jim sciutto, thanks so much for that. some of the other big stories crossing the cnn news desk right now. the veterans affairs department has ordered a system-wide review of processes at all v.a. hospitals in an effort to speed up care to veterans. in a statement from the department, it says "the v.a. has developed a coordinated system-wide initiative to accelerate care to veterans and

promptly communicated this to leadership in the field on may 22nd, with implementation occurring the morning of may 23rd." and this, a bad wildfire crisis in arizona could get even worse this holiday weekend. with 10,000 acres between flagstaff and sedona already scorched, fire officials the weather isn't going to let up. an army of fire crews is trying to get a handle on situation. it is only 5% contained right now. but first, a teenager diagnosed with lime disease finds a unique way to cope with it. dr. sanjay gupta has today's "human factor." >> for skylar, high school started pretty normally, but his luck quickly took a turn for the worse. >> i'd have severe dizziness so i couldn't really walk or see

straight, for days at a time. >> at first, he just chocked it up to stress. but ebersol quickly realized something was wrong. >> no one knew what was wrong with me and there were all sorts of hypotheses. >> home from school for months at a time, ebersol desperately needed an escape. and he found it in writing. >> i just started writing and i got lost in this world and identified with this character and it was just a way to keep me going. >> and then after several months, doctors finally discovered the cause of his symptoms. a rare form of lyme disease. at the same time, his scattered pages started to gel into a book. >> the book is called "the hidden world." it's about a main character who has a heart attack, slips into a coma and when he wakes up, he turns into a wolf in the hospital room. >> "the hidden world" was published last december with more in the works. ebersol says through it all, writing saved his life. >> you really just have to find something that can sustain you

and keep you mentally strong. >> dr. sanjay gupta, cnn, reporting. >> "the human factor" is brought to you by cancer treatment centers of america. care that never quits.

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for big bucks at auction. a joy stick from the moon land went for more than $600,000. and a device to actually help astronauts see. i wish i could tell you more specifically what that means. it sold for $100,000. apollo 15 became the fourth mission to land on the moon more than 30 years ago. so, next week we're taking you back into time with a new series from executive producers tom hanks and gary getzman. "the 60s." it's the decade that changed the world. the cold war, free love, civil rights. it reshaped american' lives in ways it still affects us today. remember the smothers brothers? >> our government is asking us as citizens to refrain from traveling to foreign lands. >> okay, all you guys in vietnam, come on home. >> the times were changing so

quickly in the '60s and we didn't change them. we just reflected them. >> what are you doing? >> i'm getting ready to go to college. >> cbs gave the smothers brothers that show because they were clean-cut folk satirists. they wore blazers, they could sing well, they were funny. >> you lower your voice. >> watch or set your dvr for "the sixties" premiere on cnn. that's going to do it for me. thanks so much for hanging out with me so much of today. the next hour of "newsroom" begins right now with deborah feyerick in new york. this is cnn breaking news. >> thanks so much. you are in the cnn "newsroom." i'm deborah feyerick in for don lemon. the news this weekend dominated again by senseless acts of violence. a man with a gun and sadly a number of people have died.

west coast near santa barbara, california. police still trying to pin down the timeline and details of last night's mass shooting. witnesses say a man opened fire from behind the wheel of a moving car. six people are dead. the gunman also dead. at least seven other people are hurt. two students in isla vista right now. what have you found since we saw you last? you've been at the crime scene, piecing everything together. >> you're seeing the second of multiple crime scenes. police officers still gathering all the ballistics evidence. trying to figure out exactly how all of this went down. the timeline as well as who the suspect is. the eve of the memorial day holiday weekend turns deadly after multiple drive-by shootings in the small college town of isla vista, just minutes from the university of california santa barbara campus. >> he shot and i just felt the

wind like pass right by my face. so i started running the opposite way, and then i heard it again, like two times. and i was just sprinting. >> reporter: in all, authorities say seven people were killed, including the gunman. seven others injured. those hurt sent to a local hospital for gunshot or traumatic injuries. >> we've identified nine separate crime scenes within the area. and multiple victims. >> reporter: 19-year-old summer young says she was almost run over by the black bmw and witnessed the shooting. >> i saw the car run down here and he was just firing off shots. we just ran inside the nearest restaurant and waited until some stuff calmed down. it was really hectic. >> reporter: federal and local authorities continued to dig on the gunman's past, who was found dead with an apparent gunshot wound. investigators are now trying to trace the handgun used and where the suspect obtained it. authorities say they are now analyzing both written and video evidence that suggests this was

a premeditated mass murder. >> the problem with an incident like this is it's obviously the work of a madman, and you are -- you know, it's just unfortunate that these kinds of circumstances occur, but there are very, very limited ways in which they can be prevented. >> reporter: shock and disbelief today in this small college town, with many questions including the big one, why. we are standing at the beginning part of where all of this happened. the bmw is actually just several blocks away, and you can see that it has a shattered window. but you also found a really compelling element of how all of this went down. you spoke with someone who saw a shooting victim. >> yeah. this young man is a first-year student at santa barbara city college. he's 19 years old, came from hawaii. said he was in his room. he could hear shots going off,

and suddenly he went down, heard one barrage of shots and then he heard another. then he went down to the scene, and could not believe his eyes. can you tell me, what did you see? >> well, i was leaving the fraternity right there, and i heard the gunshots and i recognized the sound of a gun. i've shot a gun before. so i waited and then i heard more gunshots and then after about like 30 seconds, i came around the corner right here. >> reporter: so you're there at the fraternity. you're just down the street. >> uh-huh. >> reporter: and you come around the corner after seeing gunshots, what did you see? >> okay, so i came up and basically, there was a young girl laying right here. and she was -- i could just tell immediately that she was gone. i saw a gunshot wound to her abdomen and like on her side, and also one to her head. so you could tell that she

wasn't bleeding anymore, that she was gone. there was another girl right here. >> reporter: my god, there were more than one? >> there was three girls, yeah. there was a girl right here. she was really, really struggling. you could tell she was just barely able to move her eyes. and just moving her arms slightly. and then there was another girl right here. and she was kind of laying down crouched. she was still conscious. she was talking. she immediately got on the phone with her mother. and was telling her mother about how much she loved her and she wasn't sure that she was going to make it. and then it probably took about a minute or two and the one right here passed away. >> reporter: what were you doing right here this whole time as you were looking at this terribly grisly scene? >> complete shock. i walked up and about three other people came from this angle. i didn't realize that this was real life at all. >> reporter: were you trying to talk to them? did they say anything to you?

>> yeah, i was talking to the one on the phone because i could tell she said that she got shot in the kidney. and i could see that she had shots to her arm. so i could tell that she was probably going to make it. so i was telling her that she was going to be okay. i spoke to her mother real quick. i told her mother that she was probably going to make it. we saw a police officer right there by free birds, so we brought him over here immediately and he held her and was holding her wounds to stop the bleeding. and then i asked the police officer if we were safe staying here. just because of, you know -- that there was a person driving around shooting people, and he said that we should -- yeah, that we were okay, and literally like 20 seconds after that, we heard the next shots at the market over there. and that's when he basically yelled at everyone and told them to run indoors and i ran back to the fraternity, and i, like, ran down the street and told

everyone to go indoors, and people were just locking themselves in. >> i noticed that your voice is still shaking. you're still trying to process all this. >> yeah, it was a huge shock last night. i really wasn't able to sleep at all. it was heartbreaking. that something would happen in our community like this. >> reporter: that 19-year-old city college student, i mean, he was completely shaken up. he said he stayed up all night long trying to get more details as to what happened, but imagine, he's there and he did what he could. he tried to help. the one victim that he said was still alive. but he also witnessed two victims die. >> reporter: a question here. authorities seemed to know who may be responsible for this. like they have the person who was driving the car. the alleged gunman. he is dead. why have they been slow in

identifying the person responsible for these shootings? >> reporter: well, they want to make sure -- what we've heard from authorities is they want to make sure that everyone who's involved gets in touch with their families. remember who we're talking about here. the victims who are in the hospital, even the perpetrator, these are younger people. this is a college town. what we're hearing again and again from the number of students who keep coming up to us is that they're still trying to reach their parents. they've gone through an intense amount of trauma. so the authorities are being very cautious in naming anyone who's connected to this, deb. >> reporter: i want to quickly add that they're being cautious, but already it's all over the internet. people are making assumptions as to who this was, and this gentleman actually told us that he stayed up all night watching videos, looking at twitter, trying to figure out who this person was and that is what has made him so shaky in looking through some of what some people

are saying is the suspect's words. >> absolutely. we're not going to name the suspect until we do get that official confirmation, although there's an idea out there and a lot of these young people who are there have been following this on social media and putting the pieces together. kyung lah, sara sidner, thank you so much. we'll be checking back in with you in just a little while. appreciate it. and now officials in washington are also keeping a closing eye on what's going on in southern california. evan perez standing by. i asked kyung and sara why officials are hesitating to release the name, because clearly there's some video, they're looking at various tapes that are giving them insights into the possible gunman. what are you hearing from your sources about the individual who may have done this? >> right, deb. i think one of the things that happens, especially in these types of situations, is they want to be absolutely sure. now, we do know that they've

identified the bmw, the black bmw that was at the scene there and where the gunman was pulled out of. we also know that obviously they've retrieved his driver's license and that is just part of the process that they're going through. now, u.s. law enforcement, federal law enforcement is now on the scene. the atf is there to help the santa barbara sheriff's office do the gun trace. we know that they're heading to the gun shop perhaps where they believe he bought this firearm, so these are things that they're going to have to work through over the next few hours before they can make any public announcement. we know in the next few hours, the santa barbara sheriff's office is going to do another press conference, and from the part of federal law enforcement, they want to give the local police the chance to be able to do this. they're in charge of the scene. they're the ones that are going to be leading the investigation. and the federal law enforcement is just there to help. obviously there's been a number of these types of shootings all

over the country in the last few months, and so unfortunately they have a lot of experience with these things, and so they're just trying to help out with the santa barbara sheriffs as much as they can, deb. >> and clearly, when we find out exactly how this person got the gun and clearly from what he -- what was done was not in a right state of mind. that's going to lead to a whole other host of questions. evan perez, any word on how the justice department -- are they going to look into this, or right now is this really just a local matter with federal supporting them and whatever way possible? it seems like that's what you said effectively. >> right, right, that's exactly right. i think right now the suspect is believed to be dead. they believe that there was nobody else who was involved. obviously in the next few days, they're going to double check to make sure that there was nobody involved and perhaps knew about this or had any inkling about

what might have been going down. but at this point, if the suspect is indeed dead and everything is finished, then there's really nothing more for the federal government to help on here. we do know that the sheriff's office is relying on the california department of justice crime lab to help them do some of the analysis work that they're going to be doing over the next few days. >> okay. we're going to be getting a lot more information and there is going to be a press conference coming up later today. that's going to be at 7:00 p.m. eastern time. much more on this story. after a very quick break, we will talk live with another witness to last night's tragedy, and later this hour, saluting our veterans on memorial day. we're joined live by actor and huge military supporter gary sinise to talk about how he's helping remember our men and women in uniform. stay with us. (mother vo) when i was pregnant... i got more advice than i knew what to do with. what i needed was information i could trust on how to take care of me and my baby. luckily, unitedhealthcare has a simple program

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we are told that police say the shooter also hit a person riding a skateboard with his car. that man tells cnn he's got two broken legs and that he is going to need surgery. he says officers told him that the impact of that vehicle hitting him sent him flying 50 feet into a very busy intersection. earlier i talked with one of nick's friends about how he's doing and what she heard last night, and she is joining us live right now. she's rejoining us and we're very grateful for that. marisa, you and i spoke a little earlier ago. you were in your home with your friends when you heard this gunfire. tell me specifically what you experienced. >> i was with my friends in my house. we were watching a movie. there were about five of us. all my housemates. we heard -- i think it was six gunshots. and at first we didn't realize it was gunshots. we just heard really loud

noises. we thought maybe it was our neighbors, like, playing a prank on us, banging on our door or something. but we kept hearing more gunshots and realized that it was gunshots, and so we called our next door neighbors and they happened to have one of the victims that was being shot at, who had run away from the bullets and ran into their house. and so they were keeping us updated on everything that was happening. so that's where we got most of our information, was our next door neighbors. and we live pretty close to 7-eleven where some of the shootings happened, so that's why the shootings were so loud for us, and so our first response was to lock all of our doors and we all stayed in one room, turned the lights off and just sort of hid in there in case there was somebody with a gun on the loose or whatnot, because we didn't know exactly what was going on. and then as time went on, we heard more distant gunshots, and we texted our friends that were in our places in isla vista to

figure out what they were hearing, what was happening for them. so that's where we got most of our information from. >> you began to hear the gunman apparently moving away from your location and going down the street, if i understand you correctly. so he was moving? >> yes. >> okay. this area of isla vista, is it generally a safe area? >> i'd say with the exception of some recent events, it is a generally safe area. but the town is definitely getting more dangerous, and that's very scary being a uc student here. because i really love my school here, and i think we have a great community. but it's such a shame that so much violence has happened lately. >> now, we are not -- we at cnn are not yet naming the gunman, though i know that a lot of students have been on social media looking and following who they believe that this person might be. without mentioning his name, though, is this somebody who you were familiar with, who you saw

in that area, ever ran into at the 7-eleven? somebody who was known in that area of isla vista, especially since this is really a college town? >> no, i had never seen him or heard of him. from what i know, he didn't even go to school here. he was from near the montecito area. i think he went to santa barbara city college. but i had never seen him. none of my friends had ever seen him before. >> all right. in terms of the sounds that you heard, how long would you say this whole thing lasted for, best guess? >> about 20 minutes, i'd say, from the first gunshots. >> okay. you know the young man who we introduced, nick pasecec. he's in the hospital waiting for surgery. what do you know of him, just sort of a regular california kid? >> yeah. he went to my high school. we were really good friends. we were on the same swim team back in high school.

it was definitely a shock to hear that he was involved in it. >> the people who were there, you guys have been speaking about it a lot. you've been talking about what's going on. is there anything else that jumps out to you about the shooting itself? the things that you may have heard and now that you've been able to process all the information, does anything strike you as to what was happening last night? >> at first, it was really difficult to know who was the shooter, what were their motives and whatnot, but as we heard more through social media, my thoughts were just that this is absolutely insane and it's really scary that there could be a shooter that's just sort of an everyday person that you wouldn't really notice most of the time. i think based on what i've heard, the motives are pretty scary, that he was aiming for sorority girls or whatnot. >> that's another thing we're

looking into as well. how are you and your friends handling this? because you were really very close to all the action that was going on. >> yeah. we're very shaken up from it all. i mean, the shootings happened, thaw started at around 9:30, and we were just up all night worried about it and we couldn't get to sleep until around 4:00 in the morning. it's definitely really disru disruptive and really tragic. >> and, you know, obviously at issue here, there are six people who were out last night just sort of enjoying the memorial day weekend, and they are now dead. has there been talk about who these young people are? without mentioning names, are you aware of who they are? were they students at uc santa barbara or even at the community college? >> honestly, i'm not sure. i haven't heard anything about the specific people that were killed. but the very scary part of it is that my friends and i had just been at 7-eleven ten minutes

earlier, so it's really scary to think if we had gone ten minutes later, we would have been at the scene of the shootings and on the streets and not safe in our homes. so that's definitely making us count our blessings. >> yeah. there's no question about it. all right, marissa neel, we are so grateful that you and your friends are safe. clearly, just a tragedy for this college community and everyone else. our coverage of this breaking news story will continue right after a quick break. we're going to talk to the congresswoman who represents this district to find out what she's hearing from law enforcement sources. stay with us. we're all set to bundle your home and auto insurance together. i'll just press this, and you'll save on both. ding! ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, llllet's get ready to bundlllllle... [ holding final syllable ] oh, yeah, sorry! let's get ready to bundle and save. now, that's progressive. oh, i think i broke my spleen!

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what police have told his family, the family does believe that the gunman was their son, 22-year-old elliot rodger. before the shooting, he left a youtube message. take a look. >> tomorrow is the day of retribution. the day in which i will have my revenge against humanity. >> and he left a much longer video. in it he rambles about being treated unfairly, about how the girls were not paying attention to him, how he was a gentleman, but in fact, they were only interested in others. he complains about not having a girlfriend, not finding love. right now, we want to go to evan perez, who's also been following this. evan, now that we know the identity, what can we say? >> well, deb, this video and my understanding is the authorities are still looking at some blogs, some blog postings he made. there are a number of videos that he left behind.

this is going to be something that's going to keep some of the investigators busy for several days, for months perhaps. the fbi has a team of behavioral scientists who have been looking at some of these suspects behind the series of shootings that we've had in this country in the last few months. and, you know, they're trying to understand a little bit more about what makes these things happen. it's impossible, really, to prevent them. i mean, this kid apparently drove his bmw and this all was done in like ten minutes. he managed to kill a number of people, according to the authorities, so it's not something that authorities believe they can really prevent, but it does -- it is something that they're beginning to be studying in order to try to understand this better and see if there's anything at all that can be done. perhaps we can see some early indications, some early signs to try to do anything to prevent these types of events. now, we know that the atf is on the scene. they're going to be looking

through their records, the ballistics records to try to trace the handgun to see if there's anything else that they can learn perhaps that explains the motivation, when this was done, and so on. but really, the trove here that this suspect apparently left behind, the suspected shooter, is really what is going to occupy the attention of law enforcement, both in santa barbara and over here in washington and the fbi, that are going to be looking at this, to try to see what they can understand more about this shooter, deb. >> and evan, there is some suggestion that the family knew that this young man, elliot rodger, had some mental illness, and they may have even reached out to authorities at one point. that's how significant their concern was. are any of your investigators telling you anything to that effect? >> no. i have not heard that yet from our law enforcement investigators here. we do know -- i've seen those reports. it is one of those things that every time after one of these

shootings, you hear from family members where there was some indication -- you know, it is one of the more difficult parts of these types of situations, because even if someone has signs of mental illness, it's really difficult to do anything about it per se. you can't really just pluck someone off the streets if you don't know that they have any intent to do something. and there's a lot of people who have mental illness and never do anything like this. so it's really not fair to sort of just point the finger at that. but it is something obviously that they're going to take a look at, is there anything that was -- that came to the attention of law enforcement perhaps that maybe could have been done. we don't know. we're expecting to hear more from the santa barbara sheriff's office when they have their press conference in a couple of hours, deb. >> okay, evan perez. thank you so much. and from what we understand based on a records search, the father, peter rodger, apparently is -- worked in commercials and may have had some ties to

developing "the hunger games" as well. we're looking into all of that. right now, again, a spokesperson for the family of elliot rodger saying that the parents do believe the gunman is their son, elliot rodger, 22 years old. he went to a local community college in santa barbara. we're now joined by retired law enforcement agent lou palumbo. lou, i don't know whether you've had a chance to look at this video, but he talks about annihilation, he talks about destruction, he talks about humanity being disgusting. listen to it, to me it just sounded as if his tone was filled with self-pity and jealousy. here's this sort of wealthy kid driving a bmw, and yet for some reason, he can't get a girl. what is your assessment? >> well, i think we spoke just briefly again, there's a consistent denominator in these shootings that has to do with mental illness.

until we take a different approach on how we're going to address this particular phenomenon in our culture, we should anticipate more of these incidents. i've spoken to you before, deborah, regarding the acquisition of these firearms. we need to put some type of mechanism in place that tries to stem the flow of firearms to people who are not mentally stable. we first have to address this mental health issue, but i think simultaneously, we need to start to figure out what we're going to do to prevent people who are not mentally stable from having access to weapons in general. >> let's talk about that, first of all, lou. in terms of that. the mental health. when somebody goes to buy a gun, are there mental health checks that they have to undergo so that they can acquire that weapon? we don't know what background checks he had, as evan