but there are some things that are very important that hostages should always know. when you're in a situation like that, the first 10 to 30 minutes of any hostage incident, we call that fight or flight. the hostage-taker is looking for a place where he or she can be safe. police are looking for cover and containment when they get there. and hostages are looking for a place to be safe. people are in an excited mode, it's the fight or flight situation. the other thing that's important, if you are a hostage inside a location like that, you've got to remember, number one, speak when you're spoken to. don't become the person to start talking to the hostage-taker. secondly, hostage-takers do not want sick individuals. if you have a medical attention, be sure to tell the hostage-taker that you have a serious medical condition. those are usually the first

people that are let out. also, remember, one of the most important things, if a negotiation starts with the hostage-taker in there right now and a conversation starts with the negotiator and the hostage, they may want to talk to one of the hostages inside the location to get some credibility. always remember to always give yes and no answers. another thing that's so important is that if the police decide to make what they call a dynamic entry, that is, they go in to make an apprehension of the hostage-taker, the most important thing is that all hostages in there should hit the ground, stay on the ground low. police will always look for the largest mass of that individual. let's get down to the other part of this. what's very important is, have they started a negotiation with the hostage-taker. most hostage incidents, you want to get a dialogue going. you want to be able to get credibility between you and the hostage-taker.

you want to start to get a dialogue. there are different ways, and police have a lot of techniques in the hostage negotiation program where they can find out if he has a cellphone. they know there was a family dispute, and i'm sure they have a cellphone number. they'll start communications with him. another thing that's important, you have to have an inner perimeter. you said earlier they were moving the crowds back. that's important, because the only people that will be allowed inside the inner perimeter will be the s.w.a.t. team, the emergency service personnel, and they'll also have the negotiators. the negotiators work in a three-person team. they work with a negotiator, they work with a coach who sits next to the negotiator and gets information, intelligence from the flow of who goes out and deals with the law enforcement personnel who are out there

gathering intelligence. if a negotiation starts, they'll start to talk to him and find out what his condition is, what his needs are. keep in consideration that he's in trader joe's where you have all emergency, you have a pharmaceutical area there, you have food there. so this could be a very long event. so you've got to be able to also realize that it's going to be a long event on your side. that's why you have to have your reserve of other negotiators available should this be an ongoing thing. remember, the longer it takes to negotiate, the better chances you have of having a successful outcome. >> this incident started around 4 1/2 hours ago. stay with us. i just want to welcome our viewers in the u.s. and around the world. we are continuing to watch breaking news out of los angeles. there is a hostage situation

under way at a trader joe's grocery store in the silverlake area of los angeles. a strong police presence has surrounded this store. we understand from lapd that a gunman has barricaded himself inside. there are people who are inside with him. that makes it, as our experts have been telling us, a hostage situation. there have been no reports of any deaths. there has been a report of one injury, according to law enforcement there, a young woman who was taken to the hospital in fair condition. as i mentioned, this started around 4 1/2 hours ago, so 1:30 p.m. local time in los angeles, when the suspect, who is a young african-american male in his late teens, shot his grandmother and another woman. the lapd then says he fled in his grandmother's car with the young woman. the police then followed him. the car crashed into a pole.

at that point the suspect exited the vehicle with his gun, started firing at officers, and fled here into this trader joe's. and that is where we are now. i want to go to cnn law enforcement analyst, former assistant director of the u.s. marshals office, art roderick. art, good to have you with us. we've been using the word "barricaded," we've been using the words "hostage situation." we've just learned also, this is a young man in his teens who was willing to shoot his grandmother. >> yes. >> so in your mind, does that make it even more dangerous for the people inside? you know, this young man is clearly trying to, you know -- probably freaking out and trying to decide what to do. what's going on inside his head in terms of him and the interaction with the law enforcement outside? >> this is broken down in terms of what happens on the negotiation side.

i can tell you that the tactical teams there are looking at the interior layout of the facility. the one key part that they have is they know the motive here. they know this individual was involved earlier in a domestic situation. so that's a big key as to why -- what's occurring here. usually what s.w.a.t. teams are always worried about is, okay, what's the motive here, what's going on. if you think back to a lot of other hostage or barricade situations, it's always about the motive. that's exactly what they know right up front, what the motive is. the tag teams are getting ready. they're coordinating with the hostage negotiators as to when it comes time, if it's going to come to that time, to make a hard entry into that trader joe's. now, it sounds like individuals are coming out, which is a good thing. it looks like a lot of people might have sheltered in place.

we know he had taken a hostage from the original incident with his grandmother. so he does have somebody he's got in his custody right now. negotiators are working through that process, while the tac team is getting ready, okay, how do we make this hard entry into this trader joe's. >> i want to go back to national correspondent miguel marquez. miquel, what are you learning? >> reporter: a security guard who was on the scene said they were chasing him down that side street. it was in there he got stuck, he crashed, he ran into the parking lot. two shots, says the security guard, were fired by the suspect at police, and then police fired back. at least four shots.

that's when the suspect went inside the store. the security guard saying -- unarmed security guard, saying he was about three feet away from him. he just looked at him and went right into the store. people began to pour out of the store, both through the front and the back doors. it's not clear to them how many people may have been trapped in there with the suspect. he said that police were literally there within seconds, because they were chasing him to the door of the trader joe's. clearly this is somebody who is not planning this, and this is all on the fly right now, and a very, obviously, dangerous situation, because it is not clear how many, if any, people are trapped in there, alex. >> right, the number of people still inside is unknown. hopefully a good sign, that the gunman just looked at this security guard and went right past and didn't stop anybody else from leaving. we heard moments ago from a los

angeles police officer sergeant, barry montgomery. take a listen. >> i'll do my best to get someone. right now we'll get someone out, so work with me here, i promise i'll get someone out here. sergeant barry montgomery. i'm assigned to lapd relations. are you hearing okay? earlier this afternoon, about 1:30 p.m., in the newton area of los angeles, we had a male suspect in his late teens become involved in a family dispute which resulted in him shooting his grandmother and a female at the scene. the suspect fled the location in his grandmother's vehicle, taking that female victim with him. hollywood area officers picked up that vehicle and they pursued in suit. that pursuit went into the

northeast area of los angeles where it terminated in a collision, and an officer-involved shooting occurred. that officer fled that vehicle into the trader joe's behind me in the 2700 block of hyperion where we currently have a barricaded suspect. lapd c&t team is here, communicating with the suspect, trying to bring it to a peaceful conclusion. this is an ongoing incident so i don't have a lot more. i would like to turn it over to fire right now. >> the los angeles fire department, first of all, it's david ortiz, public information officer, los angeles fire department. los angeles fire department was dispatched to assist lapd at 3:30 this afternoon, to the 2700 block of hyperion avenue in the silverlake community. thus far the l.a. fire department has transported one female patient in stable

condition. at this moment we have 18 ambulances assigned to this incident with over 100 firefighters. that is all the information i have to release at this time. thank you. >> reporter: how many people [ inaudible ]? >> right now we know we have people inside. we simply don't know how many. again, very early. this is preliminary information. we're trying to bring this to an end. [ inaudible question ] at this time we simply don't know. again, we have our resources here to provide assistance. once we can get in there and clear the place. right now we have a barricaded suspect. he is armed and we can't get in there right now. [ inaudible question ] again, trying to get the suspect to surrender and bring this to a peaceful conclusion. [ inaudible question ] yes, an unknown number of people have been removed. their status as far as injury, i don't know. i have to leave that to fire. i can tell you now no firefighters and no police officers were injured in this incident.

[ inaudible question ] again, those are details i simply don't have right now. again, we're simply trying to bring this to a conclusion. this is preliminary information. we're going to provide many updates. right now this is something to get out so the people can know. we do want family and relatives to know there is a family reunification center at northeast police station, 3353 north san fernando road. 3353 north san fernando road. okay? thank you guys. >> all right. we've been listen there to sergeant barry montgomery of the lapd, talking to reporters about the latest at this trader joe's hostage situation. he says there's a suspect barricaded inside. we know also that this is a young man in his teens who shot his grandmother and another young woman around 1:30 p.m. local time. the police, sergeant montgomery there, did not know how many

people were inside still and does not know how many people have been removed. we have thankfully seen people coming out of that store over the past two hours, but lapd doesn't know how many or in what condition they are in. right now they're saying that they cannot get inside. they're trying to get this young suspect to surrender without further incident. i want to go to charles ramsey who is with us, one of a number of law enforcement analysts who are here with us watching this unfold. charles, what did you make of what sergeant montgomery said right there? >> well, i mean, there's still some unanswered questions. obviously you don't know how many people are inside, either being actually held hostage or just hiding from the gunman. this is a domestic-related incident. >> charles, i'm sorry to

interrupt. we're going to go quickly, we'll get right back to you but we'll go to an eyewitness who is right there. let's listen. >> i decided i didn't want to wait there any longer and went to the ladder, finished putting it out the window, got a s.w.a.t. officer's attention, indicated i wanted to go down the ladder. he gave me a thumbs up. i went down the ladder and three of my co-workers followed after and got them out. >> reporter: you're talking about the layout of the store. give us a little more detail, from the time -- another co-worker was telling me he saw at least two men come inside, one was armed, and he started firing out toward police. can you share with us where you were in relation to that? upstairs? >> i was on the ground floor but all the way in the back, in our back storage area. >> reporter: were other customers there as well? >> in our back storage area, no, only employees are allowed. >> reporter: do you know if some of those employees are still there or if all of them were able to get out? >> i have no idea at this time.

>> reporter: we're live right now. for our live broadcast right now, you talked about the window. is that a window that opens on its own or did you have to break through the window with the hammer you had with you? >> no, just raised the window up. >> reporter: and when you made contact with the s.w.a.t. members down below, was it eye contact? were there verbal -- >> eye contact. i waved my hand. once i saw him look at me, i pointed out the window and down the ladder. he gave me a thumbs up and i proceeded from there. >> reporter: was it a chain ladder? and you were able to help a few more employees get out? >> yes, sir. >> reporter: we had heard that some employees also locked themselves in the freezer for safety. do you know anything about that? >> i do not, sir. >> reporter: thank you for being so gracious to talk to us. i'm thankful that you and your co-workers are okay.

>> all right. a very calm and level-headed store employee there, saying that he and several of his co-workers were able to make it out of the trader joe's store via a chain ladder. they were able to climb down and make contact with lapd on the ground. i want to go back to charles ramsey. charles, we were just talking about what sergeant montgomery from the lapd said in that brief statement to the press, that they're still -- the young suspect is barricaded inside with an unknown number of hostages, and they're trying to figure out how to get him to surrender. so now we are several hours into this. what is going through the lapd's mind there on the ground, what are they specifically saying to this suspect to get him to come out without harming himself or others? >> i mean, these are very

skilled negotiators. lapd has some of the best negotiators anywhere. so i'm very confident that they're doing everything they can to try to talk this person down, to get him to surrender peacefully, to not harm anyone else. they may have told him that the people that he shot have not died, so that he certainly doesn't think he's committed a double murder. this seems like a domestic. i don't know if he has access to a tv, he could be listening to coverage. he could be watching what's going on. that's why it's important that media not show any police movements if they do decide to come in, in case this guy is paying attention. but they're trying to calm him down and do everything they possibly can to talk him out so that no one else gets hurt, so that everybody gets out of there alive, everybody, including him. >> back to art roderick, art, how do you make the decision that enough is enough, it's gone on too long, we need to go in with the s.w.a.t. teams, knowing

that there are people inside and you could be risking their lives? clearly you can't always wait until everybody has come out. >> no, there is a specific point where you have to make that decision. i think in this particular case, because this was a target of opportunity for this particular individual, in other words, he didn't decide all of a sudden today to take hostages at trader joe's. this was a car chase and a targeted of opportunity that was in front of him, and he went ahead and took advantage of going into the store with his hostages and possibly has other hostages with him. now, there will come a point, with the negotiation, the whole part of this is as long as he's talking to the negotiators, they will take as much time as needed to go ahead and try to peacefully talk him out. he has to make some overt act,

violent act towards the hostages before the s.w.a.t. team will go in. or the negotiator recognizes he's done and he's reached a point where in a very short period of time this individual could do a violent act against the hostages. there's a lot in play here. i agree with chief ramsey that, you know, lapd is absolutely one of the best in the country at this. they have very experienced hostage negotiators and they have excellent s.w.a.t. teams in los angeles. >> when you have federal law enforcement officers, who is making the call? is lapd leading the charge on this one? >> it would be lapd. this is a local jurisdiction issue. federal law enforcement when they show up, they'll provide whatever support is needed. there's no violation of any federal crime at this point in time that we know of. so this is an lapd operation. >> bob baer, if i can ask you to get inside this young man's head for a second, and i know that's difficult, as we heard from our correspondent miguel marquez, the shooter went in, did not

shoot -- was really only shooting at other police officers, did not shoot the security guard, did not shoot other people coming out, was clearly trying to hold up inside the store, and now has a sense, although not as well as we do -- tell you what, gentlemen, stay with me. we are going to take a quick break, and then we'll talk a lot more about this on the other side. stay with cnn. i'm ray and i quit smoking with chantix.

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>> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. he grabbed us and pulled us over to the sev7-eleven for saf. you can't help but think of the victims in a hostage situation. the police were very quick to respond, very fast, immediately coming out of the store, they moved us to safety within minutes. >> certainly some very stuff going on here. what was the feeling that you got from the people who were in the trader joe's and from the people you've met out here who have been coming out and gathering in the parking lots here? >> very somber. you know, people are praying. people are very sad. and everybody is coming together, complete strangers asking what's happening, are your loved ones in there.

really our hearts going out to the people in there. you're talking to people you've never even seen together and just kind of bonding together in prayer, hoping that everyone is okay inside. it's just very scary coming out of the grocery store and being pulled like that into a quick situation of immediate fire trucks and police cars and helicopters and guns and everything within minutes. your life just changes like that. >> reporter: kimberly, thank you so much. we want to take you back live to the picture of those hostages or former hostages who are gathering. we're following breaking news from los angeles where a gunman is barricaded in a trader joe's grocery store, possibly with hostages, an unknown number according to the lapd. the suspect, in his late teens, shot his grandmother according to police, and another female in what they call a domestic dispute. he then fled in his

grandmother's car with the second female who was injured in the car. there was a police pursuit that ended with the suspect crashing into a pole. a witness says the suspect exchanged gunfire with the police. we've been watching a heavy police presence growing on that scene for a number of hours for you. we've seen several people climbing through a side window and down on a chain ladder. we've also learned that at least one woman had been taken to the hospital. the authorities say she is in stable condition. but police say that she was removed from a vehicle, not the store. i want to go back to our national correspondent miguel marquez who is on the scene with an eyewitness. we understand, miguel, you have just spoken with someone who actually lowered that ladder out of the window that people have been using to escape. >> reporter: we have an employee here, i spoke to another employee earlier who said the police were in hot pursuit,

literally right on this individual. there was a crash in the parking lot. the individual fired two shots at police. police returned fire. nobody hit in that. he went right by a security guard in the front door and into the store, and people started pouring out. sean, you were in the back of the store. what did you hear and see? >> i was in the back storage room. i heard screaming and a number of gunshots. i looked out the bat wing doors to the store and saw employees running up the aisles and knew there was an active shooter situation. >> reporter: quick thinking on your part. do you train for this, is it something you keep in the back of your mind? >> it's just an unfortunate state of today, i'm always trying to be cognizant of exits and emergency situations. >> reporter: 6, 7,000 square feet or so. how many employees would have

been in the store? >> i'm not sure offhand. our evening closing shift would have been on staff. as far as how many people there were, i don't know. i can't even estimate how many customers there were in the store. >> reporter: how many employees, though, would be in the evening staff? dozens? >> easily dozens, yes, sir. >> reporter: and then what happened? people running, what did you do then? >> i wasn't sure if i had a viable exit on the ground floor. i proceeded upstairs, we have an upstairs storage space. i moved through the storage space to a back kind of a break room that we have, where we have an emergency ladder. i grabbed the emergency ladder, proceeded even further back to a back storage area. i grabbed a couple of my co-workers, brought them back as well. i barricaded the hallway as best i could, grabbed a weapon, and put the ladder out the window, and after getting the attention of a s.w.a.t. officer, i was able to indicate i wanted to go out the ladder. he gave me the thumbs up.

i went down the ladder. three of my co-workers followed me out. >> reporter: you were getting people out, were you bringing people up with you as well as trying to barricade wherever you guys were? >> there was one person coming down the stairs as i was coming up, i grabbed her. there was another person in the break room, i grabbed her. there were additional people upstairs already. we just tried to figure out a way out. >> reporter: do you know if all employees are accounted for? >> i do not, sir. i do not. >> reporter: do you know how many are missing right now? >> i do not. >> reporter: is this store procedure, that in a situation like this, this is the place you would gather? >> we do have in the event of a fire or earthquake, we do have places that we go, in particular -- i don't want to say where exactly, but obviously this situation compromised that plan, and we had to go to different spots. >> reporter: you seem remarkably cool and calm and with it.

what is going through your head, though, right now? >> i'm just concerned about my other co-workers who are not accounted for right now. i'm grateful i was able to find a way out. there are some of my other co-workers who were responsible for getting far more people out, and they should be commented der that. >> reporter: did you ever see the gunman? >> i did not, sir. >> reporter: how long have you worked for trader joe's? >> about three years. >> reporter: i shop at this store, this is a place that i know well. it's a very friendly environment. it must be very difficult. you've stayed at this store the entire three years? what is this store like, the atmosphere like here? >> it's a very busy store, without question the busiest store i've worked at. we have a very large crew. a lot of customers. i'm grateful that it took place -- sunday is our busiest day of the week.

if it had occurred on a sunday, it might have been -- >> reporter: even worse? >> even worse, yes, sir. >> reporter: sean, thank you very much, good luck to you. that was the unbelievably calm, cool, and collected sean granercy, who was in the store when all this happened and helped people escape. incredible stores. not happen has changed here, the police seem to be in the same position that they were, with the same amount of cars on what would otherwise be a very busy street in los angeles, trying to resolve this hostage or this barricade and possibly hostage situation as well, alex. >> thank you, miguel marquez right there on the screen. it's going on 6:30 there in l.a. as miguel noted, a very calm and collected store employee. we've been watching aerial video from the last few hours of people coming out of that side window, down that ladder, to a man who i've been assuming was a police officer but it was that

store employee who was helping his fellow staffers get out of that store as the gunman went inside. the big question that we've been trying to answer is how many people are still inside the store with that barricaded gunman. by definition, i was being told a short time ago, that makes them hostages. we don't know where they're hiding. if they are hiding, we don't know whether they are with the gunman. i want to go back to charles ramsey, a former police chief. charles, is there any way to figure out how many people are inside that store beyond just asking the gunman? is there any other way to get a sense of numbers so that they can then make the calculus as to when to go in if they have to? >> no. i mean, the only thing the gunman can tell you is who he actually has in his sights right

now. i would imagine that you very well could have some people that are hiding at varies locations within the store. so you're not going to get an exact number at this point in time. but one thing is certain, you have other people that are still in the store. the question is -- [ inaudibl ] [ inaudible ]. >> all right. we just lost charles there. art roderick, i was trying to ask you earlier, should we take away anything from the fact that the gunman went inside, as he fled inside after crashing his car, he didn't shoot anybody. all right. one second. we're getting new video from the scene. more aerial pictures from our affiliate. you can see a heavily armed vehicle right outside. this is the closest that we have seen the police to this trader joe's. so they have moved that armored vehicle up to the front entrance of the trader joe's. you can see the heavily armed

officers with their ballistics gear standing outside. it's tough to tell whether their guns are drawn but they're standing in what looks like a somewhat relaxed pose. art roderick, if you're still there -- >> i am. >> -- can we learn anything from the fact that he didn't shoot people on the way in? this is not someone on a rampage, someone who premeditated this or precalculated this. this is someone, i would imagine, especially since we know he's in his teens, is really freaking out right now, given what he knows about the police presence, which is probably much bigger. >> that is a big point, because he's not on a rampage and just, you know, killing people randomly. so what we know, and this is a big advantage with the hostage negotiators, they can use this actual motive for their purposes of trying to talk him out of this situation. now, when you're talking about the s.w.a.t. team, the s.w.a.t. team is going to contain the

inner perimeter. and while the negotiators are talking, the s.w.a.t. team is going to try to shrink that perimeter as close as they can to the actual location of where that individual is held up with one or two or three hostages. we don't really know how many he's got. now, they also might have the capability of actually getting to some of the video that's inside the store. i'm assuming, you know, all stores now, especially trader joe's, they generally have video cameras around. and there -- >> art, i've got to interrupt you again, i'm sorry. what we're looking at here is aerial images of police officers who have surrounded someone. it looks like they've taken someone into custody. we've seen other people coming out, they've not been held like this, they've been taken away not in handcuffs. this looks like someone who has his face up against the wall, his back to the police officers, in handcuffs, wearing a black tank top, it looks like. as i had noted moments

earlier -- we're going to head to miguel marquez who is standing right there at the police perimeter. miguel, what can you see? >> reporter: it sounds like what you are seeing from the air. i can't see it from here on the ground, but i'm hearing from at least some officials that it appears that he has surrendered. it is not clear that anyone else has been injured or who else is in there with him. it does appear at this point that whoever has been holed up in that trader joe's has surrendered and is either in the custody or shortly will be in the custody of the los angeles police department. just a very, very tense saturday afternoon here in los angeles, alex. >> miguel, actually what we can see, again, these are from aerial pictures, is someone who is very clearly in custody, who is being led away by the police officers. now, what we know about the suspect is that he is a young african-american man in his late teens, so a boy, who carried out a shooting. he shot his grandmother and

another young woman in hollywood, which is about five miles from this trader joe's, before fleeing in his grandmother's car, and then running into a post outside the trader joe's, jumping out of the car, firing at officers in pursu pursuit, then he went inside and barricaded himself in that trader joe's. we first started getting reports of this just over two hours ago, almost 2 1/2 hours ago. this may be the end of this standoff of this hostage situation between this young man and the lapd. the last we had heard from the lapd was that he had barricaded himself inside. there were an unknown number of people inside with him. of course the primary focus of law enforcement, and keep in mind, as far as we know, they didn't go in and do any sort of tactical incursion. they were trying to, we assume, talk this young man into coming

out, without harming others. and it appears that that's what may have happened. art roderick, your thoughts on what we're looking at. >> this possibly could be the end of this situation. and i think what we were talking about before, because this is a domestic situation that just kind of exploded here, and we have a police chase and we have a target of opportunity for this particular individual, it looks like there's a very good possibility here at this point in time that negotiators were able to talk this individual out. they put him in handcuffs and you see law enforcement officers in a standdown situation. i'm sure they're going into trader joe's to find people that have sheltered in place, find out if there's anybody else injured in there. it looks like very possibly this might have come to an end at this point in time. >> charles ramsey, if you can see these pictures, and i don't

know if you can, we're looking at around, say, 15 heavily armed police officers right outside the entrance to this trader joe's, but they certainly don't look like folks who are about to go in and take down a suspect. can we learn anything from that sort of more relaxed stance? >> well, i mean, it's kind of hard to determine just from some of these images, but i'm sure, if that is the gunman, then they're in the process, they have to go in, clear the building, they have to find anybody in there who may still be hiding. people may not know that he's in custody if they've been hiding all this time. so there's still a little bit more that has to be done at the scene. hopefully this is the gunman, hopefully this thing is over and hopefully no one else was hurt. >> a law enforcement source is telling cnn that the suspect is in custody. so it appears that this hostage situation is over.

we had been told that there was only one suspect in his late teens who had fled that domestic dispute before barricading himself inside this trader joe's. but as we were just hearing from art, they will be going inside, the police, to clear it out, to see if there's anybody else inside. again, we don't know if the people who were inside were being held by this gunman or if they were simply hiding. this does appear to have ended relatively peacefully. but we don't know that for sure just yet. the only thing we've been told in terms of injuries and wounded is that one young woman had been at the start of this standoff, had been lightly wounded, and she had been taken off to a hospital. i want to go back to miguel marquez. are you learning anything more from the police there?

miguel, are you there? >> reporter: alex, i am indeed. what we're looking at are a number of people. it looks over a dozen, perhaps as many as 20 that were just brought out of the trader joe's by police. the entire posture of the police has changed in the last few minutes. all the people have been taken to a parking lot just across the street from that trader joe's. it was a hell of a lot of people who were still in that trader joe's, if that is the amount of people that police are now bringing out to talk to them and to make sure that, one, that they're okay, and that they also don't have anything to do with this and clear them, certainly. we have seen this far too many times. but it was a very large number of people that were seemingly still in that trader joe's when this thing came to an end. jordan, if you look up the streets, you can see a lot of the police officers have taken a much more relaxed position.

the number of officers who are moving into that area has also gone down. but seemingly, incredibly good news here, that the suspect is under arrest. and everyone that was in that trader joe's just walked across the street into a parking lot on the other side, alex. >> yeah, miguel, that's the first thing in those situations you're looking for, is the posture, as you're mentioning, of law enforcement officers. as soon as they get relaxed, you know something has ended without incident. we have gotten confirmation from the lapd, "we have successfully taken the suspect into custody without incident. the situation remains fluid as officers move forward clearing the location." i want to go to james galiano, former special agent with the fbi who dealt with hostage negotiations. james, this seems to have ended as well as it possibly could have. >> absolutely, no doubt. let's just hope and pray that the folks that were shot at the

onset of this thing recover as well. alex, i've got to tell you, as i was going through a checklist here before the subject was brought out and handcuffed and everything was stood down, of things that i was concerned with, and the biggest issue was, you know, the folks inside of a retail venue like this. because if you're in an office building, you have a reasonable knowledge of who's there, who should be there, how many people on a particular floor. but in a venue outlet like a retail space like this, where you've got customers and clients that come and go, it's so difficult. that's why i think the lapd was, to their credit, so super careful in not saying that everybody had been extricated from the building while the subject was still inside, and why they couldn't say it was a hostage situation. once i understood this was apparently a domestic situation involving the subject's grandmother and a younger woman

shot prior to the crashed vehicle and him hiding outside inside the trader joe's, it gave me a second to kind of step back and say, how would you handle this? and with a 19-year-old. you correctly researchers ifere he's a kid. art roderick mentioned it, this wasn't something where he staked out a location and wanted to take hostages. he acted out. one of the things we do in hostage negotiations is we want to get folks to talk. we want to make a perimeter and contain the subject. and as long as people aren't being hurt, we want the situation to go on as long as possible, because the longer it goes, the less likely that people are going to be hurt or injured. and that's clearly what happened here. it looks like they maintained some kind of contact. we want to use active listening

skills where you're showing empathy to the person involved, but not sympathy, understanding but not agreement. you want to talk them out of the situation without making a bad situation a perilously worse situation. to the lapd's credit, it looks like they did a fine job. you asked earlier who would be in charge of the scene. art roderick correctly mentioned it would be the lapd, unless there was some determination made early on that there was a terror component, meaning the violence was precipitated by an ideological cause or religious fervor or some type of social justice exercise. as long as you can't determine it to be terrorism when the federal government would take over, this is a local matter. two people were shot. police were shot at. it becomes a barricaded subject situation. the lapd, and they're an outstanding police department, would have the lead on this. and it looks like this thing

hopefully is going to have resolved itself with hopefully everybody being safe and secure and recovering from their injuries. and now the subject can face the legal system, which is the appropriate way for something like this to end. >> that's right, the suspect in custody. lapd saying that the young man, the teenager, was taken into custody without incident, and this standoff does appear to be over, although we are now looking at what looks like a young boy on a stretcher, coming out and being taken to presumably an ambulance. i want to go back to wallace. wallace, your specialty was hostage negotiations. as james was just talking about, and from what we've seen, do you think that this was something that's simply -- and i don't mean to say that this was a simple matter, but what is it simply extremely good hostage negotiators doing their job extremely well and convincing

this young man to come out? >> it was excellent. as mentioned earlier, the longer it takes, the better opportunity you have for a successful negotiation with both the hostage taker and the hostages. and also the police come out of it without incident. it was textbook in the sense that they followed the protocol. they made an inner perimeter. they circled the 360 degrees of the location. they evacuated other buildings across the street. they also developed a rapport, the hostage negotiators, and they worked in tandem together. and it was an extremely successful operation. now, they will go in there and they will look, as mentioned earlier, for other workers and other hostages that might have been inside. all in all, it was an excellent operation. you've got to keep in mind one thing. you know, there are only four

types of hostage-takers. there's the terrorist, which if you end up neutral identifiizin becomes a martyr. you have the prison inmate, which you want to be able to end that fast so other inmates don't get involved. then you have the professional criminal, who goes into a supermarket and holds it up. those are usually the shortest ones. and then you have the emotional person that's involved in a situation like a domestic incident, which takes the longest, because they have a statement to make. and this was a typical type of domestic incident that landed up into a hostage incident. and the other thing that's very important, and lapd did a great job on this, when you see the longer it takes, the reasoning for that is, is because, one, a successful ending, but also, the

highest ranking person in lapd has to answer to the community the next day. and if it went bad, they would have a lot of explaining to do. this went totally well. and they did an excellent job, as always. >> hats off to them. we continue to watch people coming out of this trader joe's in these upright stretchers, being wheeled away by what appear to be the fire department and presumably paramedics. charles ramsey, to you, they're not doing this with any sort of urgency, it seems. can we hopefully assume that this is a precaution, that paramedics will look at everyone who was inside the store and make sure they're okay? >> can you imagine how stressful it is to be in a situation like that during the chaos when this was taking place? people are falling down, getting injured. i mean, you've got a lot of things that go on when you have

something like this. yeah, the medical personnel will check everybody out to make sure they're they'll need counseling for the psychological impact. if you're the one in there being held like that, and i just saw a reunion, the young man being carted out, that was probably his parents, that was probably a mother who had to be going through god knows what about her child being inside there. you have all these things being inside there. i knew for a fact you had people hiding there, i didn't want to say anything before because you never know if these people are watching tv, but i hlapd had contact with even some of the people that were hiding at the

time during the course of this particular event. so you've got a lot of things going on. it's going to take time for them to be able to get over it, because that's quite an emotional trauma. >> of course, the physical injuries are one thing, psychological another. thank you, charles. we're going to take a quick break. we'll be right back with more from los angeles. they work togetherf doing important stuff. the hitch? like you, your cells get hungry. feed them... with centrum micronutrients. restoring your awesome, daily. centrum. feed your cells. this is not a screensaver.game.

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>> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. welcome back to our breaking news coverage of a hostage situation in los angeles that has just ended, according to the lapd, without incident. there was a young man, just a short time ago, taken into custody. i want to go back to our miguel marquez on the scene. miguel, that neighborhood, your neighborhood, must be breathing a huge sigh of relief right now. >> reporter: you can almost feel the sense of relief, it is palpable in the air here. the police still very much on scene here after this hours-long standoff. the hostages, we weren't sure if there were hostages in there, but just as this individual went into custody, 20, perhaps more people from inside that store were taken across the street by lapd and are being carried for and talked to. but it is an incredible testament to lapd, the calmness, the coolness, that they were able to keep this from being

worse. that individual crashing in hot pursuit, lapd was in hot pursuit of him, crashing in front of that trader joe's, trading gun fire with the lapd just outside of it, running into the store, right past the security guard. people scrambled out of that store, but not all of them could get out. he took several as hostages. and after hours of careful discussion with lapd, this thing has finally ended. and it seems that everybody in that store at least is fine, alex. >> everybody in that store is fine. we've been seeing them taken to a staging area, checked by paramedics for any sort of injuries. of course many of them will require some psychological treatment, some therapy later on to deal with this. again, the lapd says that they have successfully ended -- oh, there is a news conference now that looks like the mayor of l.a. let's listen in.

>> -- also sustained some wound either then or gunfire wound or later on, as he pulled her into his grandmother's car. lapd was able to follow that car using technology with low jack. that car came through hollywood division. he fired at police officers through the back of his car windo window, as i understand, the borderline of hollywood and northeast division. the officers in pursuit were able to follow him to here. then he crashed right next to the trader joe's. it was there where there was exchange of gunfire. the suspect was wounded in his left arm. and he went inside. i regret to inform you there is one fatality that occurred inside, of a woman. we will have details

forthcoming. of course family notification and trying to figure out more details, we don't have anything more than that. but she was pulled out by the police department from the store. the fire department was able to take her and treat her onsite but she was pronounced here onsite. throughout this, lapd has done an extraordinary job. i want to thank them and our fire department. the heroism shown today was second to none. the teams that were able to respond, secure the perimeter, and engage in conversation with the suspect, no doubt saved lives today. he did answer his phone. he was in regular communication with los angeles police department. i won't go into great details, but there were hostages both released and saved by lapd throughout the last couple of hours. we believe there was about 40 to 50 people that were left there initially. and there was a slow but steady

extreme of th stream of them, either those who had hit inside the trader joe's and were helped out by lapd getting in there and saving them, or whether it was the suspect himself releasing some of the individuals who were in there as well. most importantly for families right now that are wondering about their loved ones, we have set up the family reunification center at the northeast police department on san fernando road. there are folks there able to answer this phone number so you can be reunified with your loved ones. there are no other fatalities to announce. the number you can call is 323-561-3211. the suspect at the end asked for handcuffs. he handcuffed himself and then

released himself into the custody of lapd. as i mentioned, lafd, our fire department, is under lapd's careful eye treating the suspect's wounds. we also have the mayor's crisis response team onsite and we're calling in backup to that to help folks who have been traumatized by the experience. we know there were children in there, employees, and others. so that is onsite. and they are at northeast, being transported over to northeast division where family reunification can occur and they will get the counseling they need. one last note, this is an ongoing investigation. this area will probably -- that investigation will take 12 to 14 hours as a guesstimate right now, which means in area will be closed down while investigations in the multiple matters run their course. obviously the store will remain closed as well for tonight and we'll let trader joe's announce its plans moving fod.