good evening. thanks for joining us. we begin with broken hearts in another american town. the site of the yet another deadly school shooting. a high school in parkland, florida became the scene of chaos and pan irk. broward county sheriff says 17 people are dead. 17 people. a suspect is alive in custody. as is our policy on this program we will not say his name or show his picture. we'll update you on the investigation and as information

comes in over the next two hours. as always we'll keep our focus on the victims, loved ones and the survivors. high school kids, teachers, parents. brothers and sisters. people whose lives were lost or forever changed this afternoon. people who tonight have joined a terrible and senseless club. one that grows by the week in the country. we'll show you a short video taken inside a classroom during the shooting. difficult to watch and listen to. we blurred the faces of the students. >> randi kaye joins us. talk about the latest we know

about what happened. >> i can tell you that for sure it was an afternoon filled with terror for so many. any other day this community outside fort lauder dale would be considered the safest in florida. today as you know a shooter changed that. a sheriff this evening told us that the shooting began outside the building. sdp entered inside the high school building. that is what we're told the shooter actually followed the students inside and tonight investigators have the gruesome task of going through the high school building, and identifying the victims. >> reporter: around 2:30 p.m. the broward county sheriff office responds to reports of a shooting with multiple injuries. the student population close to 3,000. at first those inside the school didn't realize what was happening. >> kids were flereaking out. a lot were on their phones

trying to snap chat everything. they thought it was a joke. >> reporter: at this point the shooter where abouts are unknown. swat teams go tr room to room. securing areas before allowing students and teachers to evacuate. >> it's insane. it's unnecessary. it's there's no word to describe how i feel right now. i was shaking. i was panicking. it was panic throughout the school. >> reporter: students run to safety after they are escorted out of the school building. some with hands still in the hair. others clutching each other for support. outside the school, first responders tend to the wounded. and parents anxiously wait to see their children outside of the lock down zone. >> do you know is your daughter safe? >> absolutely. thank god. just ten minutes ago she was able to call me. i hasn't heard from her since 2:48. she was texting me and said that she was hiding.

she was fine. but for me to please call 911. there was somebody hurt on the third floor in the 1,200 building. she was very nervous. she said she could hear the person who was shot. crying out for help. and just was a nervous wreck. >> reporter: fbi and atf join law enforcement on site. police know the identity of the suspect and confirm he's left the school grounds. just before 4:00 p.m., the broward county sheriff office announces they found the shooter. and arrested him without incident. >> we understand you have been speaking to families there as well. >> as you know all too well days like these are heartbreaking on the scene. when arrived this afternoon on the scene. there were parents waiting outside waiting and wondering if their children survived. i met a woman who was still

waiting for word of her daughter. she got a tex from her earlier. she locked herself in a closet and texted her mom, i love you mom. if i don't make it. that's a feeling from family and parents here. on this heartbreaking day. a snapshot of what they have gone through. >> new information. the shooter not only in custody is actually talking to investigators. one thing they learned is that the shooter arrived at the school with a gas mask. and some sort of smoke grenade. and the shooter pulled the fire alarm. the idea of getting students to come out and have this be a big mass casualty incident. i spoke with a teacher at the high school. >> first of all i'm glad you are safe. how are you holding up?

>> i'm not really sure. it doesn't seem like what happened today doesn't seem real. i'm not really sure how to process it. like the emotions from today have been extreme from just being totally terrified and trying to keep the students calm. and then trying to make sure they reunit with families and trying to get myself home. and losing it. i'm not really sure. like where yo u go from here and how you deal with it. >> if you can, can you explain what you saw and heard. you were teaching this afternoon the fire alarm went off around 2:30. i understand. >> right. it was fourth period. that's my newspaper class. i was working with the kids making the school newspaper. and the fire alarm went off. there had been times in the past where the fire alarm wasn't working properly.

we had to evacuate a couple times. we followed the protocol. which is we were supposed to -- we have to evacuate. >> i'm sorry, you had a fire alarm drill this morning? >> this morning. at 9:00. the fire alarm went off this morning. we did the drill. and so it's unusual for a second one to go off in the same di. >> we understand it was the shooter who according to to the latest reporting pulled it. >> right. right. so that's what we suspected. as the situation sort of unfolded. we make it out of my room and out of the hall way. and we're going down the stairs. and the security guard who is posted in the area said no, it's a code red. go back. so the teachers who were there called out to the kid and we went back to the classroom. and taking in kids. and yelling to kids in the hall way to get inside.

then after about. >> code red. did that mean active shooter? >> active shooter. yeah. >> you had drills for that? >> we have drills for this flt we had a training recently. we couldn't have been more prepared for the situation. when makes it so frustrating. we have trained for this. we have trained the kids for what to do. we did everything that we were supposed to do. the schools prepared us for the situation. and still, to have so many casualties. it's very -- at least for me it's emotional. i feel today like our government our country has failed us. and failed our kids. and didn't keep us safe. >> the you heard code red. you got your students back into the classroom? >> yes. i turned around, we were very close to my room. turned around opened the door. pull d in my kids who some of them ended up in another

classroom. they were too far to make it back to me. i pulled in kids who weren't mine. and their classroom was across the school. pulled them in. and stood in the hall way for 60 to 90 seconds i would say. calling to kids in the hall way to get into a classroom. didn't matter who the teacher was just get inside. and after about 60, 90 second ts i closed the door. and we huddled in the corner for a few minutes. and we i made the decision to move everyone to the closet. >> were you hearing anything at this point? i assume the alarm was going off. do you hear any shots? anybody yelling instructions anywhere? >> no. i work on the opposite side of the school as where the shooting occurred. i used to the work in the building but moved. we were on the opposite side. within three minutes i would say we heard helicopters and sirens.

and but we didn't hear any shooting. >> you said you put kids in the closet. how many can you fit in a closet? >> today i fit 19 kids in the closet. plus myself. so we managed to get in there and sort of huddled in there for about 30 minutes. it was hot. >> does everybody try to stay quiet? >> yeah. everybody is on their phone. and trying to get in touch with family. and staying quiet. and had some girls crying and trying to keep them calm and tell them they're okay. and everything will be okay. and then trying to hold yourself together. like in that situation you're trying to hold them together. my family is calling me. and so you just kind of do the best you can. and sort of muddle through. but do the best you can for the kids that you're supposed to keep safe. >> i understand it was a swat

team that came to get you out? >> yeah. the swat team came and got us out. we heard them in the room. and they called out to see if anyone else was in the room. we were hiding in the closet. and we kind of sort of slowly opened the door and said we were there. and they had us come out single file. and they went through the rest of the building. checking it. at that point all the text and messages were telling us in the news reports they were looking for the shooter. they were going through the building and clearing it. >> are all the kids that you know accounted for? >> i mean all the students that i teach are accounted for. i have heard rumors about other students that aren't mine. but i don't know if those reports are true. or not. so it's hard to say.

until the names come out i won't know if any are current students or former students. i have heard some colleagues may have been killed. and i won't know until the names come out. who they are. >> i'm so glad you're safe. and you were able to protect your students. the kids are lucky it have you as their teacher. thank you for talking to us. thank you. >> thank you. >> let's get all latest now. james gagliano is joining us. you used to lead the fbi swat team. in terms of what we know so far. what stand out to you? >> this takes me back to april of 1999. i was a member of the fbi hostage rescue team. one of the biggest thing that law enforcement does after an incident like this is they conduct an exhaustive after action review. it's like a best practice sharing. and some of the lessons learned after columbine. were stark and important. i believe saved a number of

lives. >> columbine changed everything in terms of police response. >> it changed everything. prior to columbine nobody understood what the term active shooter meant. >> prior to columbine, police set up a perimeter to secure this. they didn't move in immediately. >> tactical teams wouldn't take a piece from a local department and a police officer and a federal agent. you continue do that. now days what we do is go to the sound of give up. you get four people together, we're trained we use particular formation. different things we say. >> it's the initial officers who are on the scene. if it's a bike cop or traffic cop. whoever it is. you go in and try to get the shooter. >> you are putting a group together. go to the sound of gun. in the old days it was you took land. you went in and cleared a room. and slowly moved to clear the next room. in this instance we learned post

columbine. get to the shooter as quickly as possible. they what they did here. >> the reason of that, my understanding the fbi has done kpausive reviews of every active shooter situation since columbine. and learned that most of the fatalities take place in the first six minutes. they are usually very short. if you're waiting to set up a perimeter and going room to room, the deaths are all going to be done by the time you find that person. >> we go back further than 1999. august 1 of 1966 the university of texas clock tower shooting. most shootings app right away. two folks there was a campus police officer and a local deputy went up and confronted the gunman. that was the birth of the special weapons and tactic team. >> it's interesting. i have been in schools and watched their active shooter training. the teachers bring the students into the classroom and lock the door. and pull down a blind over the door, they huddle in a closet or

corner. the interesting thing about this shooting pulling the fire alarm, clearly that was meant to -- not only to get people out and group together and maybe kill as many people as possible. it is a way to over come the active shooter training if everybody is supposed to hide in a classroom if they hear a fire alarm. they will be tempted to go out. >> that's right. james is right. you look at this one of the first questions is what happened in this particular instance, how to you put it in context and sort of try to find lessons learned. so can you get inside somebody's head to determine who's going to conduct an act like this? if you can't do that can you determine how to secure the perimeter of tens of thousands of grade schools and high schools across america to prevent this from happening. if you can't secure that perimeter, what happens when someone breeches and gets inside and starts shooting. you have somebody who says i'm

going break down the incident response by pulling the fire alarm and forcing people to come out. i think one of the difficult questions we'll see in the next day or two is if a young teenager decides he wantings to kill a lot of people in and acquires a weapon that is legally acquired and gets into a high school, how will you prevent him from accessing tens or hundreds of students? what's the preventive measure? people want answers and i'm not sure the answer is that we'll find any answer. i don't think so. >> actually, the fbi and broward county are asking people who have video and you heard one of the teachers talk about snap chat. we showed one video. asking, saying they tweeted out this. the fbi set up a web site where you can up load image and video of the shooting. visit fbi.gov/parkland shooting. to submit information you have on the shooting that occurred.

interesting way. i don't think we have seen that before. or immediately putting out an appeal for students or teachers who were taking videos or any kind of instagram video to send it to police. so they can piece together a video documentation of what went on. >> that's not the only reason. the first question i think we're already almost to the end of are solving this. when you see the video do you see anything he suggests he came in with another accomplice. my question is not the tragedy of 17 people killed. but let's ensure there wasn't anything else going on. coordination with another student that suggests there's a follow on incident. you have the question of evidence. if this person goes to trial. do you have evidence as you suggest iphone video for example. that will help. lessons learned. do you have video that suggests to us ways we could have handled this better. i think the bigger question is in the age of digital media,

crowd sourcing crime is getting bigger and bigger. everything from atm video to video from an iphone. at a high school. is going to become critical. not only in determining who did it but determining did something happen that we can prevent in the future. it's huge. >> we talk about a terrorist being a learning enemy. they adapt the tactics. the idea a kid an 18 year-old or 19 year-old can look at other school shootings. maybe gone through training as a student in the school. and then try to figure out a way to over come and get more students out of the classroom when they're supposed to be inside. >> you're right. all you need is an imagination. if you take an 18 year-old kid such as this suspect we have in custody now, that's in custody now in broward county. he probably has been through that training. probably ever since elementary school.

he's 18 years old. and in fact he wasn't even born when columbine happened. so let's take into account. we can talk about what happens when the alarm goes off. and police respond. and they do a terrific job. unfortunately when that alarm goes off, a body count is already being added up. in this particular case 17 young lives were lost today. police got there rapidly. they did a great job. the teachers did a great job. everybody did the best they could do under the circumstances. so we can go back and analyze what occurred. but the important piece in this, and i think your guest just before me mention it. the whole prevention piece. we have to go back and we have to look at how do we protect our second amendment right but at the same time as you heard the teacher say in the last segment that she doesn't feel the government protected her 6789 we have to do some things in this country that's legislatively is

going to give us an opportunity to prevent these types of events. because once someone penetrates into the building, and it doesn't take much quite frankly. no matter how much you secure it. someone can pig back or break a window. it's a variety of ways. we have to get into the prevention piece. congress and white house and states have to do a better jb of trying to protect the people. so we don't continue to have the conversation month after month and year after year. >> if you have a large school with multiple spraentrances and exits. and the fatalities take place in the first six minutes or so. when most of the killings take place. if you have an ar 15 or anything that can fire off a lot of round, no matter how quickly police get there, or even whatever police security guards are already on scene as school

security guards, if you have a large facility and you have a large capacity magazine, there's not much you can do to stop that. >> that's exactly right. and we can talk about training and fortifying schools. that's great. we begin we have to also talk about the weapons. and to think about our responses in light of the weapons that are out there. in other words the columbine lesson was run, hide, and only engage if you must. that's always what we're trained. just the way the weapons are able to kill so many people so quickly. we are going to have to think about whether engagement actually will protect more lives in the long run. i don't know the answer to that. these are not handguns anymore. these are not thing that is have six or seven bullets and go out. that's a first part to rethink the planning. and the second is i refuse to believe and you can call me delusional or a mother, i refuse to believe that there aren't

moments in nicholas cruises last three or four months where people aren't beginning to recognize something very bad is about to happen. how does someone like this get the money to buy weapons like that. who is paying for his car. how does he get the materials for today? who is he talking about to? his social media post. all of that seems obvious to us now. but it was obvious to other people before. and that's where we have to begin to empower people to say something is terribly wrong. and we can't just, you know, anyway. take responsibility for the people around us. >> we're getting more and more details. we'll bring them to you throughout the evening. let's get the latest on the investigation. you have learned a lot over the last hour. bring us up to speed. >> a loft new details coming in the last hour. we're told the suspect this is important is talking with

investigators. it appears he is providing information. sdp we're getting sense of what they learned. this here is what some of the what they're learning. that the shooter here pulled the fire alarm to draw people out. he wanted to get a higher death toll. it appears this is based on conversation perhaps they had with him. indicating there's been some level of planning the officials say. we're told he escaped from the school by blending in with some of the students as they were leaving. and perhaps running out of the building. he tried to blend in with some of the students and was briefly able to escape. this is what law enforcement officials are telling us. we're learning as you know from the sheriff when he held his press conference they're learning a lot from social media postings. the sheriff calling it disturbing. he wouldn't specify why. but certainly he raised issues on social media kind of wondering why no one had seen

these posts. and we have the gun. the gun we're learning is this ar 15 rifle. the sheriff talked about it. and multiple magazines. now what we have learned is if the atf is tracing ta weapon. in hopes of trying to find out did he buy it on his own, did someone buy it for him. to learn the history of the weapon. to answer questions here about where he got the gun. >> i think i heard you report earlier about an hour ago he had actually arrived and pulled the thing he had a gas mask, is that correct? >> that's coming from the senator. saying he was wearing a gas mask. there was smoke bombs as well. he's been on our air today and said it several times. we have not been able to confirm that with law enforcement. again we have no reason to believe he doesn't know what he's talking about. again it goes to the level of planning. there are indications from law enforcement that this was a well planned. >> how well known was this

former student who is 19 years old known to other students? how well known was he? >> law enforcement talked to both students who knew him well. and some say they have never seen him. keep in mind he was expelled from the school a year ago. also students who talked to reporters outside the school they say they knew him. he hears he liked guns. everyone knew who he was. this one particular student was telling a local reporter that he liked guns. and that even more important they were not surprised to learn who was behind this when police announced who the shooter frs. they suspected it is him. it's not clear why they thought that. this is one of the situations it appears based on what some students are saying and perhaps what law enforcement is learning. the question is there were signs here. just why no one came forward to report it. >> the fbi is working with local authorities on the investigation? right? >> yeah, they are.

in this capacity there's nothing to indicate shooter will face federal charges. this will be handled on the local level. the fbi as well as the atf come in to assist and process the crime scene. some of the video. they're asked for, process the video. process the crime scene. help question witnesses. and the families. they come in and try to help the families who we obviously can't forget about. and what they're going through. and the fbi today also put out a tip line asking people if they have any information to call them. they want to know what else was missed here. were there signs here that were missed and what they'll do is build out a time line. go back in time. perhaps a year or longer and see exactly what was missed and what was going on in this guys life. certainly in the last year. >> appreciate that. we'll check in again.

17 people killed. most found inside the school. three found outside. a dozen others hospitalized at this hour. every second is critical in a tragedy like this. police train for it and hope they never use the training. today they did. in parkland, florida. i want to listen to the first responders as they work quickly to help the victims. >> i have the gunshot victim. on the west side of the school. >> building 13. 17 killed. >> does anybody have i can -- he's stuck. i need bolt cutters.

>> update on the people injured. joining us from one of the hospitals. what do we know about the status of the injured tonight? >> it was a total of 17 patients that were taken from the school shooting. to various hospitals or two main hospitals the patients were taken to. i'm standing at the closest hospital to the school. eight patients were brought here. eight patients. we don't know ages if they were students or teachers. they were brought here. three in critical condition. three still in surgery this evening. we are told by the hospital that they are in stable condition. two patients did not make it out of the hospital. they died here at the hospital. and in an unusual turn in part because of the close proximity of this hospital to the school, one of the patients brought here and we're not including him in the eight is the suspect. he did arrive here and was

treated. >> can you describe the scene outside the hospital? obviously it's got to be at least throughout the day it must have been chaotic. >> it really remind you that what we're dealing with here is families. when we arrived here, there were there's some chaos. there's some control chaos here. at an emergency center. where we are is where the hospital asked us to park. a bit of a distance away from the emergency room door. you can see it in some distance behind the right shoulder. the people in the parking lot closest to the emergency room you could almost experience the horror with them. they were pulling up in vans. and suvs. these are the vehicles of families. mothers and fathers running out of the vehicles heading to the emergency room. you could clearly see them

talking to the police outside the door. then being directed to another part of the hospital. there is so much fear and chaos. some parents just simply can't get enough information. they they don't believe the information and check hospitals on their own. that's what we saw unfold. panic, concern, trying to find answers and some just being whisked away in the hospital. it's a reminder what we're dealing with are children. and parents seeking answers. >> the impossible wait. parents often have to wait for hours until they find out the fate of their child. we want to show you -- we mentioned a short time ago the broward county sheriff department had tweeted out a request from the fbi to send in video to a a site the fbi set up. fbi.gov/parkland shooting. to submit information people have on the shooting.

anything that they shot on the phone. we want to show you a short video taken inside a classroom. during the shooting. it really just gives you sense of the terror of the situation. better than words could. it's tough to watch. tough to hear. we have blurred out the students faces. just one classroom. again. we won't say the shooting suspects name or show photographs of him. we don't want to give him publicity that he's desperate to have. investigators are learning about him. we want to give you as much as information as we can. a former student at the school. he was expelled for disciplinary reasons. what do we know? >> as we waited for absolute confirmation that the suspect matches the online profile. we have been gathering that information. it paints a dark picture. the sheriff eluded to that.

what we have been finding is the postings some of the comments posted under the same name as the suspect. written under videos posted on you tube and other sites. i won't show them. nine months ago it was this. i'm going to kill law enforcement one day. they go after good people. six months ago i'm going to watch them sheep fall. i wish to kill as many as i can. and from just months ago this was october 19. of last year. there was this comment attached to an internet video. i want to shoot people with my ar 15. cnn talked with a former fellow student who satd this a violent kid. i saw him in class. he was one of the kids if you did wrong he would get you get. he could threaten to kill people. he wore dark clothes and he was shy. he left the high school the last

year or the year before. that was confirmed by the sheriff. who said the suspect had been expelled for disciplinary reasons. there's poetsings by the person we think is the suspect. if they're all him, what happened today was completely telegraphed by the shooter himself. >> do we know anything about the persons family? didn't anybody who was close to him any family member weren't they aware of the postings? >> we are unclear of the family situation. that may have been a big problem in his life. we don't have that nailed down. we're trying to germ if in fact he had parents at the time of the shooting. we are looking into that, trying to track it down. it's all influx. again the postings as eluded to by the sheriff show a very dark individual. forecasting exactly what happened. >> specifically with the weapon.

saying what he wants to do with the weapon. thank you. the congressman for the district where the shooting took place is representative ted deutsche. i spoke with him by phone. >> i'm so sorry for what the community is going through. what's the latest you're hearing from law enforcement? >> well, the latest from law enforcement is that the number of fatalities is up to 17. they're learning more information about the shooter. about the kind of weapon he used. and that's the update on the numbers. the difficulty is the 17 fatalities all have family members and the community is really going to struggle over the coming days and weeks. just the horrific. >> the amount of preparation which went into this, senator was on the phone and just learning from law enforcement

that apparently shooter is cooperating. he came in a gas mask with smoke grenades to the school and was the person who set off the fire alarm. the idea of being drawing students out and creating as many casualties as possible. >> right. the details of what happened today are important. the investigation will continue. we need to know much more about who this person is. and to try to understand everything vourndisurrounding t shooting. ultimately this is a worst day for that wonderful community of parkland. because at this point i believe 17 lives were taken. this is one of the finest schools in the state. i was there just a couple weeks

ago talking to the kids about what they can do to be involved in the community. and every one of the kids in the families now need in the community to be with them, to help console and help stand up and help them over come their horrific activity of today. >> will something change because of this? as you know, time and time again people in whether it's aurora, colorado or after columbine or sandy hook have said something now clearly must change. do you think it will? >> well, anderson, i learned something that was heartwarming and a little obscene today. which is a colleague of mine who stopped me on the floor offered and handed me the protocol of the a way to dole with the mass

shooting because there have been so many. does this mean there will be an immediate rush to do something? history would say no. but it doesn't matter, these kids who went to school who never went home they weren't partisan. they weren't shot because of how they feel about the second amendment. or who they voted for for president or how they feel about the nra. that's not what this is about. this is about preventing mass shootings like the one that happened today. and everybody wants to do that. it doesn't matter what your politics are. now we have to redouble the efforts. and not throw up our hands and say this is something we have to live with. we don't. nobody should feel the way me community feels now. >> to those watching tonight.

i wonder what message you have for them. >> i'm going to be honest with you. i have said before when there's a mass shooting that thoughts and prayers aren't enough. i standby that. but, you know what, they really mean a lot. and to all of the people in south florida and around the country who have offered their support, it's appreciated. it's really important. this is a great community that will need to be with them to help them over the coming days and weeks. and i'm grateful for the out pouring of support. there will be times we'll have to double down our efforts to try to prevent this from happening in the future. for right now, i just so grateful for the support being

offered. and i want people to know how much it's appreciated. >> i appreciate you talking to us. sorry under these circumstances. >> thanks. i appreciate it. trying to talk to as many people who were there. and see it from many different angles. joining me on the phone. a student from the high school and her mom. first of all, i'm so glad you are okay and safe. how are you doing right now? >> i'm okay. for all those who are lost during this, i want to say to the families we stand with you, and we're sorry. because these administrators and students are humans too. and they didn't deserve to go out like this. >> if you can, tell me what you heard, what you saw. what happened today. i understand there was a fire drill that went off. we believe it was the shooter himself who set off the drill. what happened then? >> well, i was in class. we heard the fire drill. i didn't really budge because we

already had a fire drill that day. and there would be no reason for a second one. and my teacher said this was not scheduled. then i hear on the announcement, to evacuate. we all get out. i'm going down the route and i'm half way down the stairs from the room. to those in the 700 building. and the administrator is blocking my way and saying go back, go back. it's a shut down. and after he said that, i heard four or five gunshots. and we all started booking it to a classroom that was open. at the time most teachers already locked their doors and not opening it. >> did you know they were gunshots right away? >> we heard a bunch of pops. if it was not gunshots it was a drill. but i took it seriously. >> how long were you finally got into a classroom, how long were

you in the classroom? >> i was in the classroom for two hours. because when it came to the evacuate process they go class by class. one at a time. to make sure. so i'm sure there were students in there for way longer. >> it must have been so scary. >> yes. but i kept calm. because if you're freaking out other people around you are going to freak out. that's never okay flt you have to stay quiet during stuff like that. and i'm not going to lie i was praying with my friend in the corner of the room. making sure everybody felt okay. >> when did you know something terrible had happened? >> she text me immediately. they told me the shooting was at started at 2:35. and i received a text at 2:36. >> wow. >> yeah. and so i put on the news because i'm like okay let me see if it's

for real. and it was all over the news. i just immediately stayed on the news. i immediately posted on social media. so that way other people are made aware. and she continued to text me throughout the entire time. because of course i want to make sure my daughter is safe. >> sure. >> we were just texting constantly back and forth. she actually was keeping me calm. you know she's like mom everything is okay. she just texting back i'm okay. every so often. and once i saw they apprehended the shooter. now i know okay, it's safe now. so now they're taking their time going into each classroom. to slowly get the students out. >> when were you able to reunite with your mom? >> it took a couple hours. everything is locked up. they want to make sure -- i was going to walk home originally. that's towards the direction of

the school. they don't want anybody out there just walking. because the area is somewhat dangerous. i had to get a ride with a friend. and, yeah. i'm with my mom now. >> what was that like to see your mom? >> my mom has lost a lot this week. and i know she would have been worried to think that she might have lost me too. if i wasn't constantly talking to her. and you have to think about your family during this situation. because -- it's all you have to hold onto. >> especially in a time like this. you realize how important that is. >> i lost my mother last week. >> i'm so sorry. >> so to experience this, that's why for her to constantly keep in contact with me it really

helped. my heart goes out to those 17 that lost their lives. i'm glad my daughter is safe, but she lost friends. she lost possibly a teacher. we don't know yet. we're just waiting. my heart goes out and every and every one of the family members. and i'm just ready to do -- yes i pray and i tell people to pray. i tell people you need to move on the prayers as well. and so i'm just preparing whatever needs to be done. i'm there for them. >> yeah. i appreciate your time. again i'm glad you're both safe and together tonight. >> thank you. >> thank you. we'll take a short break now. we'll have more on the events in florida when we continue. we'll be right back.

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want to show you a text message that's indicative of a lot of the heartbreaking text messages that were going back and forth in parkland, florida. a young woman texted her mom. if i don't make it, i love you and thank you for everything you did for me. other students did not make it. 17 died. not long after the news broke, chris murphy put the blame squarery on the institution where he works. >> this happens nowhere else, than the united states of america. this epidemic of mass slaughter.

this scourge of school shooting after school shooting. it only happens here, not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction. we are responsible. for a level of mass atrocity that happens in this country with zero parallel anywhere else. as a parent, it scares me to death that this body doesn't take seriously the safety of my children. and it seems like a lot of parents in south florida are going to be asking that same question later today. >> senator murphy's home state, of course, was the scene of a shooting where 26 victims were first graders, teachers, and a principal at an elementary school in newtown. it's also reminiscent of an event even earlier at colorado's columbine high school. with me now is author dave cullen, who wrote the book "columbine."

if you have not read it, i urge you to read it. i've read it two or three times. it's an incredible read. it changed my whole perspective on this. nothing ever changes. i mean we talked about this. you've been on countless times, and it just -- nothing ever changes. >> it doesn't. that's what i can't -- i couldn't agree more with what he said. we don't do anything, and the gun thing is -- we've got to do something. but at least there i understand the politics of it. some of the other things like screening for teen depression, that's easy. it's not political. it's really cheap. there's a one page form. it takes 30 seconds. it's highly effective. why don't we start there. >> you said studies show a lot of these shooters have depression. >> exactly. exactly. that's the greatest number of them. so the definitive report the secret service did where they

studied all the school shooters for more than a 25-year period, and 78% had either suicidal attempts or had talked about attempting suicide. that's an astounding number. and this is in a situation where looking for profiles, they weren't all loners, they weren't outcasts. they weren't all white. they were all over the map from almost every single situation except almost all being male. nearly all of them had some kind of sense or failure or loss and depression. those were the only common factors. >> how much is the desire for publicity or infamy part of this? it's one of the reasons we don't name them because that is part of it. but when you looked at the columbine shooters and that was an unusual one that you had two working together. they wanted that to be a mass casualty incident, even bigger. they had explosive devices. >> exactly. that's runs throughout almost all of these. but i think we get in trouble when we call it fame or infamy because people have difficulty

understanding are they really out for that. when you really look at the profile of these people and they're desperate, they're people who feel unheard, who feel like failures. they feel small and insignificant. they're looking for some sort of success, for the world to hear them. so it's this kind of lashing out and feeling powerful and being heard and feeling like they're making an impact. so that's not exactly fame. >> right. >> but that's what we're talking about, someone who feels like they really did something and who feels powerless in this moment. it's a moment of awe and power, and then we in the media provide the coverage. they're not really powerful unless they're heard and have that impact. >> also in your research, how much is known by other people in their orbit, their family members or friends? this guy, some of the social media posts that shimon prokupecz has seen are laying out, i've got an ar-15 and i want to kill people.

>> that's kind of astounding that still happens. after columbine, the same secret service report found an astonishing number, i believe in the 70% or 80% had told people they were going to do it. several people had told multiple people. i was under the impression, i mean nobody has studied as closely since then, but that that number was dropping because it used to be kids always assumed it was a joke because nobody did this. but after columbine and virginia tech and newtown and all these, the perception was more of these kids who did hear those things thought it might be realistic and did report it. it's really kind of astonishing to be hearing now that it was right out there on social media and nobody was turning them in because we have a huge number of foiled plots. a lot of those we don't hear about, but there's more plots that are foiled or whatever you want to call it, where authorities close in and arrest them before it happens than do happen. why that didn't happen here, i don't know. nobody sort of came forward. >> the other commonality in the

aftermath of these, of course, is those who say, well, if this is not the time to talk about any kind of gun legislation or gun control -- i mean we hear that time after time, and then the moment passes, and of course nothing then is ever talked about. >> right. excuse me for rolling my eyes there. i mean that is the most cynical tactic and so obvious, and it also falls apart where there are youtube videos now of famous victims and survivors of many of these people. i think connie sanders, you might have had on, who is dave sanders daughter from columbine. >> dave sanders who pled out in columbine. >> who is a heroic teacher. his daughter, people have virginia tech, a whole lot of high-profile survivors have, you know, made videos saying, yes, we want this talked about immediately after. we are the victims, and we're not buying your argument. of course we want this.

you know, we have fire drills in america right now because of a disaster, i believe it was in the 1950s, i think it was in a girls high school. but a lot of people got killed, so we had to do something. we started fire drills. now we take that for granted. most of the kinds of things we do now are because of reaction to something that happened. it's putting our head in the sand to say, oh, we can't do anything because that would be, quote, politicizing it. no, that's sensible. >> the book is "columbine." i urge people to read it. back now with our panel, the fact that the shooter was known to the school, that he'd already been expelled, and yet he was still able to get inside, take all these lives, we don't yet know how he was able to get this ar-15. >> sure. again, kind of what you guys were just speaking about, we've got to look at this on the continuum. you want civil liberties in this country, or you want to be safe. we want a little bit of both. unfortunately the way we can make people safe is a police state. we've got over 300 million

weapons in this country. we have about 1 million sworn law enforcement officers, and if they work 365 days a year and work three shifts a day for 24 hours seven days a week, we can't possibly be there on-scene to protect everybody. think about it from this perspective. the shooter was expelled from school. schools are gun-free zones, but the shooter elected to come back to that school. we know there was a school resource officer there, but one resource officer for 3,000 students in a fairly large area. it's the same thing as an order of protection. you can go to the police department and get an order of protection, require somebody who is harassing you to stay at least 100 yards away from you, 300 feet. but if that person shows up and doesn't want to honor that, how do you stop it unless you put a uniformed cop or fbi agent -- >> or armed teachers. >> or armed teachers, which some has made a strong case for because it's just difficult. what bad guys do, what evil people do, and what in this instance the mentally unstable that fall into that evil category do is take the path of

least resistance just like water. so if they show up at a place and we want our school zones to not look like a prison compound, that's where they're going to go. >> we're expecting a press conference from law enforcement sometime in the next few minutes. we're obviously going to bring that to you live. very close to the top of the hour already. phil, how significant is it that, first of all, the shooter did not take his own life, was not killed by law enforcement, and seems to be talking to authorities? >> that is significant to me. you look at a couple of issues and i'll add one to that. the fact that he shot a bunch of people -- and i'm going to presume some of those people are individuals he didn't know. he clearly, in my mind, didn't intend to die in the incident. my first reaction to that as a former counterterrorism guy, is this someone who had a jihadist, a suicidal tendency? looking at what he did, going in, surviving the incident, shooting this many people at a high school he attended, when he posted those kinds of things on social media, my initial reaction is he had some kind of

grievance that does not relate to the world i used to live in, the counterterrorism world. it's a grievance his family will know about, his friends on social media will know about. to pick up on james' point, it's a grievance you're going to look at and say how do you prevent somebody like that from a grievance that might affect a million kids from entering into a school zone? i don't think you can do it, anderson. >> julia, reporting the weapon was an ar-15 rifle. any reason for those weapons to be available to citizens? obviously it's an incredibly popular weapon. >> no. it's not just me. it's international association of chiefs of police. it's people who are actually in law enforcement and think about ways to protect their communities. i don't know personally everyone on your panel. i would suspect that our

political beliefs are a range of your four national security or law enforcement guests, and i think all of us are on the same page about the gun issue. so i now think that it's political not to talk about it and to not discuss ways in which we can minimize the risk to our communities when you get sort of broad bipartisan support to get a little bit smarter. no one's pretending that a law is going to solve everything s. but our job is to minimize risk to the communities we live in. >> yeah. >> and as that teacher said earlier on your show, her government has failed her. >> i want to thank everybody on the panel. we're going to talk to you a little bit later. it's just about the top of the hour, 9:00 p.m. here on the east coast of the united states. 9:00 p.m. in florida. thanks for joining us. the breaking news tonight isn't new or novel unfortunately. it's a senseless tragedy we have seen time and time and time again. another deadly school shooting in another american town, another high school, another community shaken to its core by a shooter with a semiautomatic

weapon. we're going to show you a cell phone video taken inside a classroom. we aren't going to play it over and over again, but it does show in a visceral way the unreality of this imaginable situation. >> holy -- [ gunfire ] >> oh, my god! [ gunfire ] [ screaming ] >> randi kaye is in parkland, florida, for us tonight. what have you been able to learn about how things played out? i should point out we're anticipating a press conference any moment and we may have to break in and bring that to our viewers live. >> reporter: absolutely, anderson. that's just down the road here where the governor is expected. it was a very long and painful afternoon outside the school and in this community of parkland. just before 3:00 p.m., the fire alarm was pulled at that school, and later investigators did tell us they do believe the shooter actually pulled that fire alarm in order to draw the students outside of that school. that's when he started firing on them. the shooting actually started outside the school, and then the shooter followed