whether people say something or not. >> he was expelled but then bragging to some other students as we just heard showing off weapons, making outrageous statements, then we see what happens. truly heartbreaking day, 17 people, mostly students dead. our live coverage of the deadly shooting in florida continues right now with jim sciutto. this is cnn breaking news. good evening i'm jim sciutto in for erin burnett. outfront you can sake heartbreaking news in florida and all too familiar one. 17 people are now confirmed dead. we know at least three people still in critical condition. after police say that a shooter believed to be just 19 years old opened fire at his former high school. over and over again, this year we have seen reported on sad and harrowing scenes like this one. how many depends on how you define a school shooting.

this is the third in school this year in 2018. you see chaos. terrified students hands on heads running to safety. twriet enned parents rushing to the school waiting for word on their children, are they dead oral live. and watching, as you see here, heavily armed s.w.a.t. teams, armored vehicles surrounding douglas high school in parkland, florida. just before the end of the school day when the fire alarm went off and that is when they say the shooting started. >> i heard screaming. i heard about five, six gunshots. we thought they were firecrackers because they sounded like them. we weren't sure what was used. and we heard the police yelling. heard banking on the doors. >> it's in sane. it's unnecessary. there is no words to describe how i feel right now. i was shaking.

i was panicking. it was all out panic at the school. >> panic. school quickly put on lock down. this picture from student huddled on the floor after hearing shot after shot. police say the shots fired from both inside and outside the school. the victims both students and adults. many students hiding in their classrooms, in closets for more than an hour until authorities were table to track the gunman down. law enforcement sources tell cnn the man that you see here is the suspected shooter. handcuffed in police custody. his name nicolas cruz. we are told he was taken without incident at the high school. president trump tweeting shortly after, quote, my prayers and condolences to the families and vic ems of the terrible florida shooting. no child teacher or anyone else should feel unsafe in american school. it is the kind of official response we've heard after each of these deadly shootings. rosa flores is outfront. what are you learning in the

last hour about what authorities know about the shooter and the shooting tonight? >> reporter: you know, at this hour, jim, we are learning a bomb squad is going through the school. the school is a very big building. portable buildings as well. so they are doing this as precautionary measure. this is after four to five s.w.a.t. teams swept the entire building to make sure that the building was safe, the bomb squad now inside. and we are told once that happens, then the medical examiner will get access and law enforcement will begin to process the scene. but we are learning a few more details about the shooting from the sheriff from broward county. he says the shooting actually started outside the building. that the shooter moved inside, leaving behind a deadly trail. we know that 17 people are dead. 12 people dead inside. and as you mentioned earlier,

the intense moments where students were trying to communicate with their parents and parents were trying to do the same. and add min straight ors and teachers were trying to keep calm and peace inside that building so that students could be safe. the dramatic moments, of course, were exchanged through text messages with parents as parents didn't want to call students because they were afraid and they wanted to make sure they could communicate with them in ha safely manner. again, at this hour, investigators here telling us that this scene will be processed, it will take time, jim, as you know. it's pain staking. and of course extremely graphic and painful for those investigators that will have to go through that school room by room as the deadly trail from the sus secretary was left behind. >> and for the parents certainly parents tonight getting word their children did not survive. that was rosa flores live at the

shooting. alleged gunman described as nicolas cruz in police custody. working law enforcement sources. symone, what do we know about the suspect? there were warnings prior to the shooting. >> that's right. there were warnings, certainly from students who have talked to reporters at the scene who have said that they warned, that they knew that this would happen, they all talked about that he liked guns, this shooter, so well-known to the students. other thing here, we learned a lot, jim, when you think about it. in the press conference sheriff held a short time ago, we learned that the shooter here, nicolas cruz had extensive social media presence. the sheriff didn't really go into a lot of detail about that social media preference, but we learned that there were things on his social media that concerned them. and he sort of talked about that. we also have learned obviously his age. we learned he was expelled from

the school about a year ago or so for disciplinary problems. we don't know exactly what those issues are. obviously there is still a lot of things we don't know. but these little things that we do now know from the police, from the sheriff are going to be key in this investigation. and it's going to play an important part. and also giving us a kind of window into perhaps what was going on with this young man who seemingly by all accounts was known to students at the school. so the question really now becomes is what people knew, when did they know it, and why didn't they report it. because it certainly seems when his name was thrown around, that he was possibly the shooter. people were not surprised. >> also learning about the weapon, and sadly the kind of weapon we see used so often in mass shootings like that. >> yeah, we are learning and i want to be careful here. because these ar-15 told it's an ar-15 style weapon used here. large capacity, can fire a lot

of rounds. we know that this type of weapon has been used in other shootings. we have talked about this weapon. we have talked about how shooters can access this weapon. and it's been used in several mass shootings. the police, the atf now are tracing the weapon. serial number perhaps on it they can now trace to try to find out exactly how he came into contact with this weapon, whether purchased by him, whether someone purchased it for him. and that's all going to factor into this investigation. but like i said, jim, by all accounts it seems that students at the school were aware. this is a high school. that students there were very much aware that he was into guns. >> thanks very much. outfront now we'll go to one of the young students who experienced this shooting today. 17-year-old student at the high school. ma sill, first let me ask you how are you doing tonight? >> i'm doing okay.

still shaken up. >> i'm sure you are. i can only imagine. tell us if you can, and i know this will be difficult to the recount, but tell us what you saw, what you experienced there as this happened this afternoon. >> well, it was a second fire alarm that went off today around 2:22 and we were suspicious because we already had a fire alarm drill going off, so we weren't sure if this was real or not. so apparently the shooter pulled the alarm so he could have kids in the hallway to shoot. i was on the top floor, right below me on the first floor i heard shooting and saw two guys running, i wasn't sure what it was, then i heard it again, that's when me and a grou of people ran downstairs, and i could tell he was on my left side because that's where i heard the gunshots from, and it was very loud. then i went to make a right and i just ran, and i had my back bag on my back, just in case i got shot, it would go through my books, i ran to where there was

students and teachers, and -- and we went out, then from there i knew it was a real shooting and i saw three helicopters that's when everyone was all for themselves and i jumped the fence and ran with my book bag on and everything. and i was in front of westerly for about 20 minutes, then after that we got escorted to walmart which is right next to the westerly middle school. then as i was walking literally a few feet from me i see cops, and i see a kid in handcuffs, i guess that that's one of the suspects. is needless to say i was in danger two different times. and my mom was across the street trying to get me, but the cops had us on the floor for about 20

minutes, and my mom was waiting for me. and i was with a group of kids. and i didn't know. i didn't know if any one of them were shooters or not. so i felt very uncomfortable because anybody could be a shooter. >> oh, god, of course you would. and i have to tell you this is difficult and painful to recount again so if you want to stop at any time just tell me there is no need. i would ask, though, if you can, what was it like when you saw your mom? >> well, i was just -- well, another thing that happened was on my way out of west, my phone had died, so i couldn't really contact her. but i found a friend and used her friend and contacting my mom back and forth with her. and i knew she was right across the street. and i saw her walking and i saw her there for about five minutes as cops were taking down my name and stuff. and then after that, she just

came to me and she just hugged me and stuff. and it was just like i knew i was safe but like i still didn't feel safe because there was a whole bunch of other kids around me, which easily could have been shooters. so i was just paranoid, but happy at the same time. >> how in god's name would you know. how are you doing? are you okay to keep going? you just tell me. >> yeah, i'm fine. i'm fine. >> as you were there, confusion, i would imagine, because i know a the lo of students were saying earliner the day you had a fire drill, right? >> yes. >> then the fire alarm goes off again, so like you said you don't know if this is another fire drill. how did you figure that out? were there folks there telling you what to do as this was happening? >> basically a month hag we ht faculty and like teachers, they had a paper code red, black, saying if this happened what to do. so basically we went over a code

red, which is gun on campus, we went over that about a month ago, and there were rumors going around the school there would be a fake shooting to see how the students would prepare for it and stuff like that. so when we first heard the two gunshots nobody did anything because we thought that was a drill, you know. >> yeah. >> and then i just saw people running, then i heard it again. and got louder and louder. and that's when i just ran downstairs. and i could tell he was like right around the corner because it was very loud and i heard shooting and ran opposite. >> i know it has to be confusing in that situation to distinguish what it was. a lot of people haven't heard gunshots. you must not have heard when you first heard the shounds. >> at first i heard it i didn't know what it was. i was still puzzled. and i heard four more shots. i was like okay i don't care if this is fake or not, i'm going, i'm leaving, you know. >> you did the right thing.

i'll tell you, you did the right thing. i'm so glad you are safe. i'm sure your glad is as well. i'm sure you are reaching out to classmates to make sure everybody is safe. >> yeah. there is still people texting me right now if i'm okay. i'm a new student at that school. i transferred my senior year. and i had all my old school seeing if i was okay. and, you no he, i'm texting all my friends from the school seeing if they are okay. and so far everyone who i know is okay. except for one of my favorite security guards got shot. i'm not sure if he is living or not. >> oh, goodness, we are sorry to hear that. i just want to say we are thinking about you tonight. please take care of yourself. i'm sure your mom is going to be hugging you tonight. but thanks so much for taking the time to tell the story. >> yes, thank you. >> just a harrowing account. outfront now, we have a lot of folks who dealt with this kind of thing report. we have chris former fbi director for the criminal

investigative direction. we have julia chyme depth of homeland security. also jason campbell was with the fbi until recently. darren porch erie tired lieutenant with the new york police department. and former secret service agent for president obama. darren, if i could begin with you, you were on the nypd, i imagine you dealt with shootings in this city before, and helping deal school for this kind of thing. >> shooting in schools is more aberration than the norm in place like new york city. i did my doctor rawl at the university. and even as young lady mentioned rural

rural colorado in the theater, they thought it was a drill. but going back to this particular story, what happens here with schools, schools are a place of peace, they are not ha police of war. so how do we properly fortify our schools but at the same token not line the perimeter with tanks? one of the things we have to take into consideration, this was a person that had a known problem, a known history with that school. therefore, this should have addressed a harbinger for violence with this particular person. generally speaking, when i look at school security, it should be internal and external. internal you have people at the doors, inside the facility. external, just to make sure that the place is the way it should be. now, why a lock down didn't occur to me is really surprising? because shooting started externally. the people at the door should have immediately locked those doors and prevented him from coming in. because school doors traditionally are very thick. and this somebody that was in possession of an ar-15 assault

weapon. it's a civilian equivalent to weapons soldiers use in iraq and afghanistan. this was something on the streets that entered our school system. so what could they have put in play. and the mean thing, key focus i have is they should have locked those doors down and prevented him from coming inside. >> well, chris, if i could talk to you. you heard just from the poor girl we were just speaking to then she had heard that one of the security guards was shot, perhaps that was in the initial exchange of fire, we don't know. i do know we've spoken to witnesses who said teachers did lock the doors to rooms, hid kids in closets, i've often heard, you often hear that rules about run, hide, fight, when you are in a situation like this. but based on what we've heard again, just piecing together incomplete details at this point, but have you heard something that's worried you about preparations or prevention or reaction to a shooting like this? >> well, not enough information at this point, jim. i mean, that school, like every school in the country, has a

lockdown policy, and you know that's evolved over the years. it is run, hide, fight. i this i we put not enough emphasis. i think we are a trade to talk about going in the offense in these situations, because when you get 17 casualties that's a turkey shoot, it's in discriminate firing at his leisure. but what jumps out at me really, jim, is the pointed statement that sheriff israel made about lt early warning system. the people that are closest to this active shooter and we see this time and time again, they are flashing red, they are showing signs, they are posting. i've seen this person's posts on social media, and that should have at least resulted in a restraining order by the school against this kid and extra precushions just to keep him off the campus. this guy had no business having an ar-15. >> i want to get to that. we just have coming in now, a

reaction from florida senator marco rubio just tweeted the following, quote, just finished update from fed authorities on florida school shooting it is clear design was designed and executed to maximize the loss of life. josh campbell, if i could go to you, you hear about that, for instance this account that he pulled the fire alarm to get people out into the hall ways coming out of exists. carried a gun. police say he had multiple magazines. sounds like he was prepared to kill as many as possible. >> sure does. and speaks to the chaos of the situation. let me start, jim, by commending you for the way you conducted interview there with maisal, a victim, type of interview was the way fbi would treat someone to gather information, what happened. and you have to do it delicately. i think her story shows us two things. first thing being chaos. in a situation like this where we heard earlier rortsds covering this story now for

quite a while, the initial reports were that there was a fire alarm that was going off so students thought maybe we are supposed to eggs it. then there was a lockdown order so maybe they stay where we are. complete chaos. then second thing just as important, her story shows the numbers we are seeing, and i hope they don't continue to rise, the numbers of victims, that's just one number. there are also countless emotional victims out there also going to require support from law enforcement and community. just shows us how tragic these swangss are. >> we heard on the phone 17-year-old girl thinking about all that she witnessed today go to sleep tonight. julia, if i could go to you, after violent insurance dernts like this, you do hear of some warning signs. in this case we hear of troubling disturbing posts on social media. we understand this student was disciplined from the school, possibly kicked out before. there was some warnings about him. so you might say well then why wasn't he stopped?

but i imagine there are a lot of kids who might have warning along those lines who don't go this far. how do you make judgments? you are with the department of homeland security how do you recommend schools make judgments like this? >> well, i think what you have to do, because there was more than just warnings in this case, at least what we are finding out so far, and i'm sure we'll find out more, this was a sire wren going off both publicly and obviously probably within his family and community. so part of it is empowering community and family members to feel confident in speaking out about the potential of violence of this person. there is a lot of shame, concern, or maybe they have been ostracized from the family. it's the family's problem. i hate to admit that. because if the family does not take care of it and does not understand what's going on and propensity for violence, look at what happens, it extends past the family. we saw this in columbine. it was a case of a man with a lot of issues with his mother. that's what it was. and so part of this is just

people feeling empowered to say something is terribly wrong here. and then on the school side, we are going to learn a lot, and i'm absolutely losing it tonight, jim, i mean, i'm so sick of this. i cannot tell you. and i have kids in high school in urban public high school. so the school had sufficient sort of knowledge and for whatever reason they didn't feel empowered. the law enforcement wasn't giving them enough resources. so there was two sort of data points here, right. you sort of have the potential victims sort of wanted the school to, needed the school to pay more attention, and then the family. >> i'm with you. you are a parent. but it's difficult to watch. >> sick of it. >> seguin and again. >> jonathan, the weapon ar-15, as it was happening, first question that popped into my

mind, is it going to be ar-15. run through the other shootings. church shooting, las vegas shooting ar-15 r deadliest shooting in u.s. history, pulse, the list goes on. does that weapon have any business being on u.s. streets? >> it's a legal weapon in the united states right now, jim. so if you had the ability to purchase the weapon and own it, that's one thing. i just want to jump back to juliet point for one second. because her and i have been on this show and other shows time and time again, and she, you no he, knocked it out of the park there. this is an individual, tragedy that literally could have been prevented. clear signs of behavioral issues. the school, the parents, somebody should have interjected. yet time and time again, after these mass shooting insurancide

we sit here and talk about this. >> you couldn't put the kid in jail? social media, kicked him out of school. i don't know what watch they had. what steps do you take? >> you are removing the problem in one environment and putting him in another. you have to identify what is the root cause. what is giving this child, this 18-year-old kid the motivation to go into a school? i mean, think about the dynamics of this attack for one second. he was a student there. so he knows the top ography and knows everything in that school. so he had years to think about retribution. this is tragedy. yes, one, there is a gun issue. >> i'm saying who is paying for the guns, right? >> exactly. we can trace back to what the gun is, juliet. but again there is indicator, did this individual have the

propensity to cause harm regardless of the weapon system. >> listen, these are all fair questions. we are going to keep talking about them. but outfront we have the senior senator from florida, bill nelson joining us now. senator nelson thanks for taking the time on what i know is difficult day and evening for your state. >> jim, let me give you some new information. the shooter wore a gas mask and he had a smoke grenades. he went and set off the fire alarm so the kids would come pouring out of the classrooms into the hall. and there the carnage began. >> so we know that he used any of those smoke grenades to make a diversion to make it so he can move through the hall ways? >> i was not told that specifically by the fbi but i

assume that's why he had the gas mask on. >> goodness, that speaks to just enormous preparation. >> enormous preparation, that's correct. and with an ar-15, now, you know, how many more of these do we have to go through? earlier in the day i discussed this with wolf, and this pulse nightclub 49, las vegas 59, sandy hook, go back as you said to columbine, it goes on and on. when is enough enough? and it's not going to change until the american people say we have enough. and, you know, as simple as common sense a measure we tried with senator feinstein's bill that said if you are on the terrorist watch list you can't

buy a gun. we couldn't even get that passed. >> well, it's happening at a time now whereas you well know there is actually legislation moving through congress to extend concealed carry, concealed carry reciprocity, you can carry in some states that are outlawed. is that the kind of measure going to get through congress even in the wake of shooting like this. >> and they had a legislation doctors could not report gunshot wounds. fortunately that was defeated. this is the kind of thing going on. obviously here there has to be some mental health problem as well. and so when are we going to wake up and start addressing mental health? >> you know, often times in the wake of this, beyond the question about missed warning signs or warning signs not acted upon, is the question of what

the school measures and security were. it sounds like we have an eye witness who says there was a security guard. we have heard in school officials who said this school like many schools have limited number of entries so they can wake folks coming in and out. but as you describe, if you describe someone with multiple magazines and ar-15, gas mask and smoke grenades, can schools defend against that kind of thing? >> you canned make an armed camp in a school. there has to be some open availability in a free society. but you can be reasonable in your approach to security. you know, it used to be those of us in elected public office, we never even concerned ourselves about security. now, that's one of the first questions we have to talk about when we are going to an advertised public meeting, is

there security there. >> you nknow, i spoke to a survive or, young 17-year-old jusz a f just a few minutes ago, she was broken up as i would, as you would, but 17-year-old describing this. i'm curious what resources is the state offering the sivictim and all the survivors as well? >> well, all the resources of the local government will come to bear. the whole event now is being led by the fbi. all local law enforcement are participating. the investigation will be led by the fbi. and in south florida, i know specifically broward county, they have an excellent working relationship with the fbi. so the families will be provided for.

but when you just lost your 16 or 17-year-old or maybe 14-year-old, all the comfort in the world ain't going to help very much. >> no, no, i can't imagine. and i feel of course for the parents who got the worst news tonight. senator nelson, i wonder if i could ask you. the president has tweeted his condolences to the victims of the shooting. have you had an opportunity to speak to mr. trump about this? >> no i haven't. >> well, senator, we wish you luck tonight. we know you have busy day and night ahead of you and wish you the best of luck. >> thanks, jim. >> i want to update viewers with the breaking news, this is the latest. 17 people now dead. we know at least three people still in critical condition. after police say suspected gunman opened fire at former high school this in parkland florida, shooting taking place before school was left out. students say a fierm alarm went

off. later the gunshots began now learning it was the shooter who set off that fire alarm to draw students out of class rooms, to maximize the carnage. police say the rampage took place both inside and outside the school beginning outside the school, in fact. the victims according to police, among them both students and adults. the alleged gunman here's what we know 19d-year-old former student. his name is nicolas cruz, 19 years old. senator nelson telling us the latest detail, as he entered the school he was wearing a gas mask and had smoke grenades to perhaps create a greater diversion there. again, maximize the carnage from this horrible shooting. i want to go back now to our justice responsibility shimon. i understand you have new information. >> yeah, a couple of details we are learning that we are being told the suspect alleged shooter is cooperating with the police.

he's talking with investigators. and what they are learning, based 0en what the information he's providing along with some of the witnesses accounts, is that he, the shooter, pulled the fire alarm, the alleged shooter pulled the fire alarm to draw out more victims. hoping for a higher victim count. that is why he pulled the fire alarm. we have been talking about this for a couple of hours. fire alarm, some of the students had said they heard a fire alarm. we are now learning that this shooter, the alleged shooter pulled this in hopes of drawing out more victims for a higher victim count. we are also learning that some of the students there have told police that they may not remember him. some saying they do remember him. there are some questions about who knows him. who doesn't know him t . so police are working through that to try to figure out exactly when maybe he was motivated. when did this motivation to

start this shooting to go on this shooting spree begin. so now it's really seems that police are learning a lot through his own words through witnesses. so the investigation here just keeps going, keeps continuing, as police continue to learn more about perhaps what happened here. >> shimon, thank you, as police learn more, let's call it what it is, it's a premeditated mass murder. it was not an accident. he came there with multiple magazines, with what amounts to an automatic weapon with gas mask and smoke grenades set off the fire alarm looking to maximize casualties. shocking crime. i want to go live to someone witnessed it firsthand. jim guard math teacher at the high school where deadly shooting took place. jim, thanks for joining us tonight's. can you hear me okay? jim guard, you are hearing jim sciutto okay? looks like we are going to have

to check that and call back so we can get his account. but let me go with our panel here, darren, what you heard from shimon and senator nelson in fact about the preparations for this attack. >> the preparations were optimal importance. they should have had -- they went through a lockdown drill recently. and i believe s.w.a.t. team in close proximity. they were doing a drill. that's why you had the quick response. >> fire drill in the morning, not a lockdown drill. >> but you did have special operations officers that were in the immediate area. that's why they were able to respond so quickly. but one other things is you have to take into consideration is egregious, 2:40 in the afternoon. close to dismissal. you know the pandemonium that exists when you have those people in the hallway, makes it difficult for law enforcement to

come annie rad kate this threat. and he understood this and that's why he conducted the assault at this particular time. so when we go back to preparation, all schools are required by law to have these lockdown drills and preparation. but the truth of the matter is how serious are you about fortifying your school. we have to take into consideration, believe it or not this is not a crime ridden neighborhood, this is hab bear ration than the norm. and oftentimes we reflect on when has happened in the past. >> fortifying skoochools, that' where we are today. we now have jim guard back on the phone. math teacher at the high school where the shooting took place. can you hear me now? >> i can hear you now. >> thanks for coming on. we know what you are experience today is harrowing. we are glad you are safe. can you walk us through what you saw today?

>> yes, at 2:20 or so i finished up reviewing for a test for my advanced algebra class that i have. and fire alarm went off. i thought was strange considering we just had a fire drill at 9:30 this morning. i said don't go anywhere. let's see what happens. maybe it's a false alarm, what have you. and then we all wound up at the door. getting ready to go out. maybe 30 seconds later admin came on and said evacuate the building. so we all evacuated. i always wait to go last and make sure all the kids are out of the class. and as i'm about ready to leave, we hear all the popping sound, all of a you had is enwe heard code red which means it's a lockdown active shooter. soy said get back in the room. six kids came back in. i closed the door behind me. and that's pretty much where we stood. once i put the lights out, everybody gets quiet, after about ten minutes we realized it

was no longer a drill. and things were getting serious. at 2:40 we knew it was real serious. >> so how long were you holed up in the classroom then there fearing for your lives, i imagine? >> well, you know, the kids are great. six kids i had were really good. we were extremely calm. basically put out an email what kids i had. which kids are missing. we figured out where they all were through text messages so i knew all the kids i had in class and they were safe which is a drill that we have gone through to make sure of that. so we were i guess correct that way. we were there i want to say 4:40 is when we heard the police coming down the hall way bank g

bang ing on doors. and when they banged on ours, i said get back, and i have my window covered up with paper, i said who are you. and it's the police. i said prove it. they showed me their badge and i opened the door. i'm not going to open the door for anybody unless they have prove. and we all got out. >> you did the right thing checking the id. were you able to lock the door to feel okay if the shooter was on the other side? >> oh, yeah, my door is always locked. that's standard operating procedure. >> let me ask you this, because i understand you knew the suspect last year. you knew of this student. what did you know about? what did the school know about him? >> i think i had nick in the first semester like in 2016. so he wasn't in my class for that long. i have information, but it's on

my laptop in my classroom which of course i can't get in right now. he was real quiet. basic math class. he was quiet kid in class. never had any problems with nick. but it's just shocking. >> was the school concerned about him before? some of the students said he had been disciplined. >> well, some of the girls in my class said that, i guess, he had some problems with other girls. but again that's girls in class saying all that. as far as my class goes, i remember an email or two from admin, but i can't remember exactly what it said. like i said if i was on my laptop i could probably go back and find it and know for sure. of course admin would know a whole lot better than i. >> listen, i know the judgments are very difficult to make with students, jim. so thanks very much. i just want to share some new

details cnn is learning. mixed in with crowd of students to get away. this was after the shooting. but that attempt did not end up working. so this shooter there attempting to get away with other people fleeing the scene of the crime. again, it speaks to what we've talked about, jonathan, the premeditated nature that perhaps this was part of his plan. >> absolutely. this was not a crime of opportunity. these are advanced tactics. from weapon selection to the utilization of pyrotechnics nothing the topography of the school, going in, and pulling the fire alarm, what he want today do there is created a fatal funnel. those kids came out of the classroom, doing the right thing on alarm, and walked right into the danger. this was absolutely premeditated. so how do you prevent that? again, it is, we see a very well coordinated well orchestrated attack, all the way to his escape, trying to blend in with the students to escape.

this wasn't a suicide mission. he obviously wanted to live. >> and that's an interesting point. i want to ask you, chris, about that, because often in these shootings, they are really suicide murders, right, because often times it appears the plan of the shooter is to die by cop. you'll hear sometimes here's a case he tried to get away. and he's captured alive. how unusual is that with shootings like this? >> well, i mean, we've had 25 school shootings since columbine. and most of those instances shooter ended up dead either by the hands of the police or their own hand. so the best that a school can do is take certain measures. there are certain things you have to have. you have to have a triage system, early warning system, a team that assesses threats and acts on them if there is a threat out there. every school should have a lockdown system and drill it well and they should have magnetic locks on exterior doors so there is an instant lockdown

f you leave it to human error, and murphy's law will rear their ugly head every time. so certain things that schools every school should have in place. and i'm not second guessing what happened here. i'm just suggesting you can never be 100% safe. you can put as many things as you can in place and hope the system works when it happens. >> yeah, someone shows up at a school with a weapon like that, howdy fend against it. josh, i want to ask you, so the suspect is in custody. that is a rarity now. and i understand that he's cooperating with authorities so far. i assume he's going to answer some questions. how much of a difference can that make, how much more can they learn, how much difference does it make to investigators? >> wolf, it can make a huge difference. in some of these instances in the past shooter either killed by law enforcement or took his or her own life, obviously that's a situation you won't be able to interview someone and

get the motivation, what went into this. everything we would want to learn not only about this instance but maybe prevention of future instances. just to piggy back on something my colleague said about sophistication of this plot. details as we continue to learn, they show a sinister level of sophistication that's difficult to comprehend. but to tie it to what we were talking about earlier, if i fundamentally believe with every new layer of sophistication, that's another opportunity to stop a plot from happening. what i mean by that is everything the shooter would do to gather supplies, to maybe get the target, gather a gun, it's going to be someone else may possibly see and be able to say. and last thing i'll say on that topic is we have to get to a point where folks that see something that is maybe a little bit off can pick up the phone and call police, can call the fbi. the reason the fbi conducts its investigations in secret is because you want to be able to

gather as much information as you can, and potentially build a case, without incriminating someone who may be innocent. so if you are out there and you have someone maybe a loved one maybe someone that you know and think there is something a little bit off, you can rest assured that simply picking up the phone ta call the fbi is not necessarily going to ruin their life. it's something that will allow law enforcement to look into the situation. if there is nothing there, there is nothing there, no harm, no foul. if there something you can phone sthally save multiple lives. >> juliet we heard the sheriff say that immediately in his first comments. he said the old familiar phrase, if you see something, say something. which i think most of us associate with terrorism. right. but this is a real, this kind of shooting and gun violence is real and present danger in the u.s., is it not? >> it's certainly a greater danger just in terms of casualty rate than isis is at this stage. and we have toed a mitt that to ourselves as a nation. we are focused on look at these school shootings and look at who

is dying. i want to pick up on these points my colleagues from the fbi and secret service. so first of all what was sort of devastating about that teacher, i believe his name was jim, jim had some sense of nicolas cruz that he was a little off but had that sense from girls in the classroom. meanwhile, the school knows that this kid is not right. so why isn't that information being shared with the frontline defenders of our kids who are essentially the teachers? if you go to nicolas and everything he did to do this heinous crime, there are so many data points that people had to have been aware of. and i'm focused on guns, every time after these mass shootings because we tend to dismiss it too soon. who paid for this? he's 19 years old. he's high school dropout. how is he getting this stuff? how is he getting the materials to do all this sort of stuff that he did today? i want those questions answered.

and i want people to learn from it. because as i said we are sick of this. we are absolutely sick of this at this stage. >> darren, are we learning? as these shootings happen are communities learning and federal authorities learning? >> i think we are on a national state and municipal level. one of the things when we look at how you address these situations, one of two things comes to my mind, we are going to evacuate or shelter in place. and that's the decision that the incident commander on the scene will make. in addition as we look at how the officers entered the building, you have a hot zone, we have a warm zone, and a cold zone. the hot zone, the officers have i want to say body resistant armor, that's equivalent to the threat in play. they are right in the thick of things. warm zone is distance outwards. but they still have propensity for getting shot. cold zone is that area where you have uniform personnel that are

focused on pedestrian control, things of that effect. speaking of conjecture, i think this was a lower max, so we don't have general schematic how effective the response was to the situation. but going back to are we learning from this? absolutely. we look at sandy hook. columbine. kentucky recently. law enforcement is gaining, is extracting that amalgamation of resources from what happened and applying it moving forward. >> interesting, jonathan, law enforcement is learning, but sounds like the attackers are learning too. here's a guy who went in with a simple plan but plan to defeat you might say the shelter in place, right, because he pulled that fire alarm to get people out in the hall ways? >> exactly. what we are seeing there is no set pattern for these mass shootings. no -- who is hamas shooter? here we have a 18-year-old. las vegas was somebody else. pulse nightclub somebody else.

there is no -- that's the chal epg for law enforcement how do you pull together these strings. i think to your point we are learning, but we are learning about tactics. but as a society are we learning? jewel et was saying this earlier, and this is her point, but i don't want to speak for her. we see data points out there. the problem is there a gap in this information. no one is synthesizing these data points together to actually then understand that we have a threat that walks among us. >> is that not clear though? we report them. we see the numbers. the numbers are clear. the school shootings happen with greater and greater frequency and with it seems greater and great greater lethality. there is a lot that follows. >> jim, we are sitting here, again, for years i've been sitting at this exact desk having the same conversation. >> absolutely. >> as a society, we need to

start doing more. we need to start doing more. whether it's with the guns, with mental health care, getting pathways for people to get help. a lot of different things we need to start acting on. yes, we learn, we learn tactics. but unfortunately we forget very quickly. we are not focused on this because tomorrow is a tweet and everyone forgets this. we need to build foundational development for a culture of security awareness. >> sounds fair. you know, i want to go to the experts. chris, you were with the fbi. criminal division. what change would you like to see tomorrow to make something like this less likely? >> well, i mean, jim, i'll answer that question, but i want to address your earlier question, are we learning, and maybe it is the same learning. you see tactics have changed. columbine there would have been 30 minute wait before any officer got in, got their information together and entered

slowly and deliberately. you don't see that anymore. you see dynamic entry and go straight to the threat. you see armed security officers. i'm in favor of these armed officers being outside the schools so they can deter would be shooters. you see different elements of school security coming into play. the teacher talking about shutting off his window, locking his door from the inside. the actual lockdown had been drilled in the past. so you see elements of good security macoming into play eac time, that doesn't mean you can prevent all the bad things from happening. i'll throw out one thing, and i don't want to get into ha political skugsz, but if you go into icp website, largest police organization in the world they are focused on a saultd weapons and keeping them out of the hands of people like this young man. and the ubiquitous ar-15 is out there every time we have one of these incidents. so, you know, i know it's not

something that our legislature has been able to get to or pass legislation on, but frankly i would listen to the iacp. they are the professionals get people away from 19 yeerd like this. >> all you have to do is listen to the soldiers, this is weapon of war. they don't see how it can belong on the sheets. we'll have more chance to talk about this. stay with us. outfront next details still coming in about this deadly shooting. we'll talk to a student inside the school. her stetale of survival will be next. the whisperer? why do they call him the whisperer? he talks to planes. he talks to planes. watch this. hey watson, what's avionics telling you? maintenance records and performance data suggest replacing capacitor c4. not bad. what's with the coffee maker? sorry. we are not on speaking terms.

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breaking news, we are just getting new video from inside the school as that deadly shooting was underway. it was recorded by a student. i want to warn you this is some of the most graphic frightening video really i have seen of something like this. take that warning and have a listen to what students experienced inside. >> holy [ bleep ]. [ gun fire ] >> holy. >> that scene there played out in an american high school classroom today. those are teenagers on the floor under their desks screaming as

gun shots fired. just sickening. i have the opportunity now to speak to one of the students who lived through this. she is sara chadwick. a student in the eleventh grade. you just tell me as much as you can and as much as you want to. i will ask you what you saw and heard today. >> i woke up this morning and never thought this is something that would happen. basically what happened was i was in my last period which was fourth period. and that is in the portable area. and at around 2:30, we heard the fire alarm go off which we

thought was really strange because we already had a fire drill earlier that day, second period. but we went along with it anyway like we were supposed to. my whole class and all of the portable classes, and some classes next to the portable evacuated in the field. somewhere around 200 of us and we were all standing there waiting for direction on what to do and all of a sudden, we see tons of cop cars go to the front of our school with the sirens on and paramedics and we see cop cars coming towards up and security guards on their golf carts coming towards us that is when teachers and security guards and cops were telling us to run and evacuate to the back of walmart. >> did you hear the gun shots as

they were happening? >> we didn't hear them that far away. but some friends were texting me as they were in classrooms where the gunshots were fired. >> how soon did you figure out this was not a drill, this was very real. >> as soon as we saw the cop cars. dur a dri during a drill we don't see cops. >> do you have a sense of how quickly the cops were there from when the fire drills went off? >> i would say about three minutes i saw and heard cop cars. >> that is tremendously fast. i have to imagine even though you weren't hearing the gunshots, you knew this was

dangerous. did you have a sense of you knew who to do to get to safety? >> we didn't know it was a school shooting. we thought it was a drill or somebody fired blanks which was the resuumor. so a herd of us were running towards walmart not knowing what went on, honestly. >> sarah, i know you must be getting in touch with friends and family. >> thank you. >> my guests are back with me tonight and we are going to show this video one more time. just be aware, it is shocking but it gives you a sense of how serious and how harrowing a situation this was earlier today for these young students, have a listen. >> holy --

[ gunshot ] [ screaming ] >> god help us. i don't know what to say. >> it must have felt like an eternity for those kids. >> hear bullets go over my head, three seconds feels like 30 seconds. and these are teenagers. it sends chills down my spine just watching the video. i can't imagine the level of fear these kids were enduring. >> the only time i heard gunfire like that was in iraq or afghanistan. >> absolutely. think about the video. again, builds the profile. this wasn't a spray and pray where he walked into the area and fired an entire magazine. this was a single trigger pull.

this was methodical. >> that means he is thinking. >> he is looking. >> sounds like he is picking his targets. than thanks for joining us tonight. our live coverage continues right now with my colleague anderson cooper. >> good evening, thanks for joining us on this valentine's day. we begin our program with broken hearts. a high school in parkland, florida became the scene of chaos and panic. broward county sheriff says at least 17 people are dead. the suspect is in custody. we will not share his name or his picture. we will keep our focus on the victims, their loved