i think market is taking a breath, realizing the economy is strong. gdp is growing. people are paying less taxes. [closing bell ring] the dow should still be strong. liz: much more on the shooting right now on "after the bell." david: it is a very busy hour. we're keeping a very close eye on the developments surrounding the florida high school shooting. at least one person has died. we are hearing from one florida senator, there may be, i'm quoting him now, many deaths. the shooter, looks like he may have been apprehended. some reports are saying he is still at large the we saw video moments ago what looked to be a student being put in handcuffs and led away by police. at least 20 people have been injured. the president just responding on twitter to everything that is going on in florida. meanwhile a crazy day for the markets. they began in terrible shape when we got those inflation

figures. then they began to climb, they climbed into a close of 255 points to the positive, shrugging off the breaking news, and a government report showing inflation rising higher than expected. very busy hour. we're glad you could join us. i'm david asman. melissa: i'm melissa francis. let's go to deirdre bolton in the newsroom with the latest details on the shoot and what appears to be a possible apprehension. deirdre. >> i'm hoping that is true. 3200 students are in the building. it's a high school three floors in parkland, florida. this is 20 minutes west from boca raton. it is north and west of for fort lauderdale, stoneman douglas high school. we think one of the suspects, assuming there is one, is in custody but there are reports according to police of at least one death and between 20 and 50

injuries. we do know that the president has responded to this. i want to call attention to his tweet. we're going to put it up on the screens now. my prayers and condolences to the families. of course essentially just hinting at fact that no parent should ever have to send his or her child, there it is. my prayers and condolences to the families and victims of florida shooting. no child, teacher, anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an american school. from the point of view from three of us, melissa and david, who are all parents, no one can imagine a worst-case scenario. we continue to look for updates, of course, confirmation that the suspected shooter has been apprehended. the sadness at least 20 to 50 people are injured. some of those we may learn in the next few minutes they are in fact fatalities. for the moment, back to you.

melissa: deirdre, we'll continue to monitor the situation. we'll give you updates as they come in. david: let's bring in pat brosnan, on the phone, a former nypd detective. pat, it appears to be the perpetrator has been apprehended. we can't be sure of that. this is huge sprawling complex of buildings that comprise this high school. there are about 3,000 students go to this high school. so tell us what police are trying to do right now? >> well the first is actually they're going to try to ascertain whether it is a sole actor or whether there is other individuals working in collusion. whether one gunman or several. that will be the first. they will operate under the premise that there is more than one until such time they definitely ascertained fact-based there is just one or others. up until that time they will try to compartmentalize the building. that is a massive, sprawling campus. lots and lots of students, 3,000. what they will do put perimeters

east, west, north, south around the building. lock it down as they have and methodically and factually arrive at facts the first fact to be developed whether it is a sole actor involved. david: pat, a race against for some of those who have been injured. you have to make sure there is not more than one shooter f there is somebody still at large, that is a great concern. but at the same time you have to get to the injured as quickly as possible. >> actually, actually there are three overarching, there are three overarching missions with law enforcement on these type of shootings and incidents at school with this fact pattern. correct, the safety and security of the students at the school and teachers, getting injured out. safety and security of broader society, so he doesn't get outside of the parameters of the school area, hurt somebody else, take a hostage, break into a

home. the third as i mentioned earlier, to identify the the assailant or assailants. compartmentalize the area an provide a area of safety and security. david: i believe the lead investigator is the broward county sheriff's office. at what point does the fbi step in as the lead investigator? >> tough to say. very difficult to say. the fbi's role, you know, post-9/11 is not as clearly defined as it relates other than terrorism and bank robberies. as you know it was a different deal a few years back. not sure. not sure. there is not, there is not enough facts known or any type of fact the known right now to paint an accurate portrait of what happened here. is this a student who got ahold after weapon? is there a broader mission? what the totality of the circumstances amounts to. so i concur it would certainly be local right now but could

transition into a federal case quite quickly. david: pat, i have seen a lot of parents, not surprisingly running to see how their kid are doing there. in a school of 3,000, you could have 3,000 plus parents trying to find their kid. that could be chaotic. any advice you would give any parents. >> oh, it is absolute horror show. i've been, i've been on these scenes both publicly and privately, you know much we provide security at a number of schools in different states. it's, it is unbelievable. it is human nature. you can't speak to the parents there. they're out of their mind with fear that it is their loved one either injured or possibly fatality. they can only contain. they can try to isolate. again, it companies down to come part mentallization, in terms of geography of the school. blocking off areas. this is, all we have here is

basically unknowns. never mind who is possibly injured. never mind what other situation might be developing outside of the line of vision or the knowledge of the local authorities but, there is no way of knowing if any, who the children are or individuals who have been shot or injured. so it is a massive nightmare for parents. it is the ultimate nightmare probably. david: of course the police have several different duties. one is assessing the situation, if there are any extra shooters. two is locking down those places that haven't been locked down. trying to find injured students that need help immediately. of course be crowd control because of all parents worried about their kid. >> exactly. exactly right. there is safety and security. there is the investigative element of it. there is this the only shooter? there is you know, dealing with the crowd. dealing with absolutely frantic, frantic out of their mind parents who have no knowledge, nor do the police as far as we understand have any data to

convey to them that is fact-based. so they're wearing a lot of hats out there as they always do but, that is why they call them the finest and the best. this is what they do. you know? david: just to alert our viewers we have seen video, we were watching before we came live here, just at about 4:00 eastern time, which is the same time down in florida, of a, what looked to be a suspect being handcuffed by police. there you see it, actually play it back, there it is. melissa: there it is. david: on the video. it is someone in a red shirt. you can see surrounded by police officers. only color inside of the blue police officers shirts there. he has been handcuffed clearly. i'm guessing, it is a guess but he appears to be in the young age range, late teens, early 20s. we heard some of the students talk about someone they suspected about that age. this may be the person. pat, thank you very much. >> you're very welcome. melissa: let's bring in bill

daly, former fbi investigator. if you stay on the video we are looking at here, we had heard local reporters talking about they had brought some of the kids in the school by and identify this person. that is pretty quick work. in these sort of situations generally tend to end on site. for them to have scrambled out, identify ad person, found them at their home, bill, what do you make of that? >> well, certainly, melissa, that is excellent police work and certainly i think in some ways probably quite fortunate that it worked out this way. as you said, they sometimes take different paths. takes a while to fully identify the person or persons involved. actually to find them and the story. in this case is at least on the initial word that it has come together pretty quickly. however, i mean, i think, just echoing some comments made a few minutes ago, this is still an

active crime scene. it is still a place where police are going in, trying to clear rooms, making sure that it is safe for those first-responders to go in and give, you know, give comfort and give medical aid to those people injured and get them out of that location. but in this case it sounds likes they have also been at same time ascertain through witnesses this person was involved and has now brought him into custody. melissa: yeah. we heard from some witnesses on the scene, there was a parent who said she received a text from her daughter saying, first, don't come. don't come nearby. then also saying, mom, i don't want to go to school tomorrow. i think for all of us in the audience that are parents, that it terrifies you and breaks your heart because you feel like, you send your kid off to school, it seems like this is happening, you know around us often. but what do you tell parents, who are at home watching and

wondering, are my kid safe? should i, you know, what can i do? is there anything i can do? >> well i think the things we can do, as parents, and generally concerned citizens is to make sure when we speak with our children, that we give them some tools. one the tools that is provided is what to do when you are faced with these situations. whether it is in school, whether in a mall, whether it is in a public place. there have been some, the fbi has released some guidance in this. there are training courses that deal with it, schools are enacting it, which is run, hide and fight. which kind of tells people, listen at the end of the day these things may occur, you may not be able to predict when or where they occur, you can take some things in your own hand. you can get out of harm's way in thoughtful process. you can hide and bunker yourself down until the situation passes where you are.

in the worst kiss, ultimately faced with final throes of it would be to fight against it. and i think those are some of the things that unfortunately we're left with in today's society where, the type of training is taking place in the court world, to students, to people across the country just because of where these situations, these unfortunate shooter situations occur. melissa: what do you say people who manage work places or have schools? you know the responsibility of, you know the person that is running the building, so to speak? you know, what can they do to empower their students, to empower their employees to prepare? it seems like this is happening more often? >> you know, melissa, and you're right. some of the things that are empowering both have plans to deal with a, how to prevent these incidents if you can. and try to look for anomalies in the behavior especially when places where you can control it,

whether it is work place or school and encourage people to come forward people to give their impressions what someone may be perhaps doing, their behaviors, which may indicate there's a problem. melissa: yes. >> have a process to escalate that and manage it. as i mentioned before. one of the things people are putting into training is, what to do if you're faced with, involved in these situations, what is your personal conduct? how can you get yourself out of harm's way. how can you wait until police arrive. and basically how you can fight for your life if you need to. melissa: bill daly, thank you for your time. david: by the way, fox is now confirming that the suspect is in custody. again there is no telling whether he is the only suspect but a suspect, what we were told, he is the prime suspect in this school shooting down in southern florida is now in custody. there is a video of earlier as he was surrounded by police. you could see he has got

handcuffs on. his hand are behind his back. we do believe this is the prime suspect. we have not confirmed he is the only suspect, but assumed so at the moment. he is in custody. we'll keep very close on this story through the hour. you need not go anywhere else. we got it covered. we want to bring in details of the markets which despite the shooting in florida, and despite higher than expected inflation report, markets did end up much higher today. the dow closing up 253 points. nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. nicole, when the market wants to go up, no matter what the bad news, it goes up. >> this morning, david, we saw cpi come in really an inflationary measure, we saw come in higher than expected that spooked futures. we were down 300 points. the market sold off dramatically, rapidly early this morning. but guess what, if you can't

break them you make them. they started to buy the dips and moved higher. on the low point we were down 179 points. but we finished up 253 points. four days of gains ultimately. that is a big picture of over 1000 do you points. also taking a look for the year, we saw stock market moving in, from the major averages moving into positive territory for the dow and s&p. nasdaq had already been there. you can see the dow, s&p higher. here is look at 10-year treasury on inflationary number. we saw that at four-year highs. everybody expecting with inflation interest rates move higher that is what spooked the market. we saw gold. that was a safe haven. gold gained 23 bucks. back to you. david: nicole petallides. thank you very much. melissa. melissa: we'll bring in today's market panel. jonathan hoenig from capitalist

pig hedge fund and fox news contributor. carol roth, from fault ture file planning system. brian wesbury chief economist at first trough advisors. brian, i will start with you, what do you think of the inflation report today? what do you think of it going forward and the market's reaction? >> numbers we saw on inflation today were a little high for the month. inflation is heading higher. so will interest rates. the fed will continue to lift rates this year. but one thing investor have to remember is that these rates are still super low. so the market can take higher interest rates. so this, this idea that the market is going up right now in the face of inflation, we already knew inflation was going up. we already knew interest rates are going up. we lived through a correction. no one knows why they happen. everyone, everyone tries to assign all this blame and find an exact reason. it was just an emotional correction.

fundamentally the market is still sound and i expect it to end this year a lot higher than it is right now. melissa: carol, do you agree with that assessment? >> yeah. i think in terms of inflation and interest rates going higher, that has been priced in large part into the market. seems like markets are starting to get the ability to out that information as we saw today very rapid turn around. i do think this is something we know is going to happen. we saw a little bit of an overreaction. i started hearing words like stagflation based on one or two data points. i think that is a big overreaction. the fundamentals as brian said are still very strong. i expect that to continue at least for the next six to 12 months. melissa: jonathan, go ahead. >> people are not frightened enough about this inflation data. in 1974 inflation was the public's number one concern. it was a big concern they had since world war ii. so i think what we kind of write off, oh, just a mild uptick in

inflation. the market is underrepresenting it, even though melissa, the stocks go up, the averages were up, the average stock was not up. we saw more 52-week lows than 52-week highs. i'm on the bear fence here. i don't think the market is taking this inflation threat seriously as it should. melissa: brian, how do you respond to jonathan? >> you know what? yeah, we've had inflation in the past but remember, just like four or five weeks ago people were looking for an inversion in the yield curve. an some kind of recession. now all of a sudden we switched to overheating and too much inflation. there is all these macro traders out there. they don't look, in my opinion and underlying corporate data. corporate profits are booming. when you look at corporate profits, compared to the level of the stock market today. the stock market is undervalued. so, we can have all these macro discussions about whether 1970s

inflation is coming back. whether the fed is too tight or whether quantitative easing is created a sugar high. i think that just misses the picture. melissa: okay. >> because these are producing profits. >> i have to break in. hang on one second, we have breaking news. this is the school superintendent. let's break in. >> i believe there is an administrator or teacher that is involved. there may be more. i can't confirm if that has been one of the fatalities at the moment. >> superintendent, this is a day i'm sure every superintendent fears and to happen here in broward. >> it's a day that you pray every day i get up that we will never have to see. it is in front of us. i ask the community for their prays, their support, for these children and their families. we'll do whatever we can to come

together as a community to pull through this and we will and again we're doing everything we possibly can. the students are being evacuated and released at the moment. so we're working through that process right now. reporter: are you aware of any indication, any warning, any hint that this student could have been planning? >> we received no warning, no indication but again there is going to be a thorough investigation. typically you see in these situations that there potentially could have been signs out there. it we would be speculating if there were. we didn't have any warnings. there were not any phone calls or threats that we know of that were made. >> reporter: superintendent so many currents a afraid, afraid to send their kids to school. what would you tell them out there? >> well what i would say we can not live in a world that is built on fear.

we have to do what we can to make sure that we provide the greatest safety measures we can for our kids. but what i will tell you is that mental health issues in this country are growing and they're a big challenge and it is something that will certainly need to be addressed within our school systems as well as in the broader society, to insure that these kind of tragedies don't continue. we've got to be able to recognize individuals that are in distress, that have challenges and be able to find ways to support them but, our schools, we do what we can to make sure they're as safe as they possibly can be for our children. and, again this is a day that we pray would never be here in broward county but we're dealing with it. and we're going to deal with it as a community. we'll pull through it and, you

know, my prayers and heartfelt sorrow goes out to the families and this entire community. >> reporter: those comments about mental health and stress, are they speculation on your part or do you have some information on who is responsible and -- >> all i would say is that -- >> reporter: other than the obvious? >> other than the obvious is correct. no sane person is going to go and commit such an atrocity. so i would say that it is something that we have to deal with. >> reporter: not based on your knowledge? >> not based on my knowledge of anything regarding the individual who committed this. i know it's a challenge and something we've been certainly trying to deal with throughout broward county and throughout this nation but you know we'll have to step up our efforts. >> reporter: with someone in custody. so the rest of the students, hundreds are being evacuated right now, right? >> that's correct. they're clearing buildings out. they're doing it in an orderly

manner to make sure it is safe. there is enormous presence of law enforcement here. and they're assisting in the evacuation process. >> reporter: west glades next store, the students in the middle school are they still inside or let out? >> they're probably going through the evacuation process as well. we have students that we know are coming from some of our middle schools like nova where typically may get dropped off here. we have them being dropped off at another school site. we're notifying their parents. >> reporter: typical afternoon what police presence and security presence is on campus? >> every high school has police presence at the high school. there were officers on the school site at all times. >> reporter: do you know for certain how many or where? >> typically at least two cars of law enforcement individuals on our campuses, on daily basis. >> reporter: resource officers they're called? >> they're called school resource officers, that is

correct. >> reporter: superintendent, was the shooter contained to that one building? do you know if he went into another building? >> i don't know the path or exactly how the shootings occurred. >> reporter: where were you when you got the phone call and your heart had to have dropped? >> so today has been a day of emom must mountain ans and valleys. i was leaving monarch high school where we were giving teacher of the year brand new keys to a toyota camry she won being teacher of the year in broward county. we were celebrating our teachers and our schools. i got in the car, i was driving back into the office, i start seeing communication and hear from staff we may have a tragedy. i literally have come from giving the teacher of the year a car and celebrating our teachers

and our district to where i am right now. >> reporter: deadliest school shooting in broward county, ever? >> that is what it appears to be. >> reporter: so sorry. thank you so much for updating us. you just heard it from superintendent -- david: that is one of the most poignant comments i think we'll hear all day about the shootings. that was robert runsy, the superintendent of broward county public schools. this shooting took place in parkland, florida, which is in broward county, but the superintendent there saying that in fact earlier today he was giving out a car as an award for the best teacher of the year and then he has to deal with this. multivictim shooting in southern florida. we are hearing at least one death although, u.s. senator speaking inside of the beltway told one of our reporters that there were many deaths. we are quoting him. we haven't seen press accounts about that.

we can not confirm that but that is what we are hearing. we're also hearing according to the broward county sheriff's office that the shooter has been detained. he has been taken away in handcuffs. let's go back to deirdre in the newsroom with more details on this awful florida school shooting. >> it is in fact, david. so the multiple fatality, excuse me, multiple injuries. there are 14 victims that have been and continue to be transported to the broward health medical center in broward north health hospital. that is coming in from the local sheriff's office. i know you mentioned, david, that the shooter is in custody. this is, what i am about to tell you is unsubstantiated report. according to a student interviewed by local news, so not confirmed by local police or any other official source but the young student who was interviewed says he thinks he knows the shooter. someone he had been in classes

with in previous years. he guessed that he was about 20 or 21 years old, because the student being interviewed is about 19 years old. he knew the person he thinks was the shooter is few years ahead of him in school. he said he stayed clear of him because he was an angry guy who got in a lot of trouble. he said he would be showing off pictures of guns, just had a very rough manner. now again i have to underline, we don't want to confuse any identification process. this sun substantiated what i just told you was as a result of a local interview with local news and unsubstantiated by police or any other source. some of the students saying there was extra confusion this afternoon because this morning in that school in parkland, florida, there was an official fire drill. there were a lot of kids in the afternoon who just didn't respond very quickly who didn't

move quickly because they thought it was follow-up from the fire drill. a lot of parents, getting texts from their kids, thought the kids were joking, but quickly realized it was not a joke. one thing i mentioned as well a parent station has been set up. they're doing best to control the situation. the scene is very live even though the shooter is in custody that the scene is very much live. the authorities are helping set up a parent station at nearby marriott. so parents who are either just receiving this. there is a way they for law enforcement. that scene is still considered active scene. 14 victims are being taken right

now to medical centers. hopefully we should have an update shortly. david. david: deirdre, keep us informed. she will be watching the whole hour for any breaking details. meanwhile we told you about senator bill nelson from florida commenting on the shooting here is tape from what he said earlier inside the beltway. take a listen. >> there are many deaths. >> many deaths? >> deaths, fatalities unfortunately. david: here now is republican congressman dave brat from virginia. congressman, that's the only confirmation, if you can call it a confirmation that we have heard about fatalities in this shooting from senator nelson. now of course he has best contacts inside florida. no doubt he has spoken to the governor and to law enforcement officials and so forth. have you heard anything about fatalities? >> no. just what the senator said. then following the news, it is just a terrible tragedy. as parents you just mentioned

parents. i'm a parent. we have kid in school. i taught for 20 years. i mean it just strikes fear into the parent and teacher in me. then our thoughts and prayers and our efforts to help will go out in every possible way to florida and the parents in that school and the nation has them in our prayers right now. we wish them all the best. david: congressman, about the only thing that democrats and republicans can agree on the first role of government is to protect the citizens, to provide safety for free abiding citizens in the united states. clearly our children are the most pressure resource we have. we want to start there. is there anything we can do, anything additional we can do with regard to budgeting issues to protect kids in schools? >> well, as these incidents grow, we have to, right? i mean the, one is too many. so that's, we'll look at the evidence as it comes in here.

backgrounds, school preparation training. what's got to be in place so this can not happen, you can't have one. david: this is a huge school. there are three -- 3,000 students there. not every school is that big obviously. this school was receiving supplies from local police department. there are two cars of police been assigned to that high school every day. clearly in this case it was not enough. i mean you reach a point where you wonder what is enough, right? >> right. i mean that is what is going to be troubling as a parent or a teacher. that fluke event that sets someone off, so something has got to have gone terribly wrong. we need to figure that out, do what we can to assess that kind of a risk environment, do what we can to solve that. david: you know broward county is not the blocks, new york. it is not known as toughest

place. this is one of the best rated schools in all of florida, of the high school level. so it's sort of thing if it can happen here, it can happen anywhere. >> yep,. david: but also in addition to that, perhaps the kind of metal detectors and things we need to have here in the tougher areas of new york and in major inner cities is what is needed everywhere? >> yeah. well that is what is going to come into play here. the folks in charge at that school know the background, the environment, the atmosphere as well as anyone. so they will be able to target. i don't want to get too out there on speculating because we don't know what the facts are yet. david: right. >> you're right. you're leading down a common sense trail on what policies to make sure this can not happen. david: your state virginia, tragically known school shootings as well.

how did things change as a result of shootings in your state. virginia tech, there has been immense scrutiny. former victims, former legislators have played just crucial roles, putting together panels, doing research, providing best practices at the university level that will spread down to the high schools. so we have got good mind working on it. and so it's hard to stopgap that one freak incident but that's the goal. we have to do it. david: congressman, i don't mean to interrupt but on the right hand of the screen, ladies and gentlemen, you will see a yellow vehicle. we are led to believe, in fact we've been told, confirmed that is the suspect inside of that vehicle. it is an emergency vehicle. we're not sure whether he has been injured or the extent of his injury, if it is the same person we saw being handcuffed a while back. he didn't appear to be injured. melissa: they did say they might bring him by for identification of victims in the hospital to confirm that is the person that

they saw. that is why they were bringing him to the hospital, just to interject there for a second. david: congressman, what about the extra security we talked about local police? without be necessary to have some federal intervention in the schools, whether it is an fbi examination of schools or whatever? >> that, first of all you have to do analysis of what just happened. analyze what is the problem. the experts, we have experts, law enforcement in virginia at the state level that are phenomenal. at the local level, in my counties up at the federal level. so they will put the best mind together and see what level of government makes sense to attack the problem. i'm sure it will be combination, all using best practices at all levels. but it has to end up down in that school where it matters, congressman, very quickly, an issue not related to this shooting is about the gas tax. i just have to ask you, because the president announced he favored a gas tax of 25 cents. it is unclear whether that would

be 25 cents on top of the 18 cents we already pay or if that would total out at 25 cents, what are you hearing quickly? >> i haven't heard that yet but we'll have to do something on infrastructure. we just broke the bank on the budget last week. we all want to do infrastructure. the roads and bridges are crumbling. we know we have to do it. there are issues of rural broadband we want to hit, what is infrastructure. there are tons we have to do. you have to have revenues. as an economist you have to get closer to the issue. what is the true cost of doing about, using roads. folks using it ought to be cost as sent ma who is using it and what is the cost, pay cost of doing business, what that ends up being a move in that direction. david: congressman dave brat, we're so sorry we had to turn you to the live story in florida. i wish we didn't have to report on horrible news like this. but we do and it is breaking. thank you for taking the turn for us. >> terrible news. glad to be with you and our

thoughts and prays go out to the folks in florida. i'm her the reps up here will be in prayers as well. david: congressman, thank you very much. melissa. melissa: we were expecting a press briefing during this hour. it was canceled in light of the shooting. blake, how is the white house responding now? reporter: this is taking up a lot of the attention as you might imagine of president trump and folks in and around this white house. the president's first reaction came on twitter a little while ago. here is what he said, president trump saying quote, my prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible florida shooting no child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an american school. the press secretary sarah sanders put out a lengthy statement which she detailed who the president is speaking with. sanders said quote, president spoke with governor scott of florida and offered federal assistance if needed. department of homeland security secretary nielsen spoke with governor scott as well as state and local officials. she briefed the president on

those conversations. the governor, the secretary, other administration officials will continue to keep the president updated. in light of this tragedy there will not be a regularly scheduled briefing as previously announced. we will inform you as more information is available of the we continue to keep the victims and their friend and family in our thoughts and prayers. a pause here at the white house for this terrible tragedy in broward county, florida, as this now has reached the attention for a while now, actually of the president. melissa. melissa: blake, thank you. joining us on the phone is joseph jack a loan. a former nypd detective sergeant. i want to give you the latest from the broward public school superintendent said there are numerous fatalities. a horrific situation. just a horrible day for us. they have no he have at this point that there was more than one shooter. looks like they do have the situation under control at this point but what is your take?

>> yes it looks like they have their individual they want. you can see from the live video feed the police officers, some of them standing around talking to one other as the kids are being released now to their families. so it seems to be under control but now the real work begins, with the investigation not only on the shooter but the firearm. of course you have an active crime scene where we don't know how many bodies are still inside of the school right now. law enforcement has a lot to deal with. melissa: we're watching a transport take the suspect to the hospital as we're told. there was conjecture earlier from local officials that the reason why this was happening was so that they could get some of the victims at the hospital to immediately identify this as in fact the person who had shot them. does that make sense to you? is that normal procedure? >> well it is not normal in the sense of the word of a show of up. when you do it in the hospital, that means at least one person there who is seriously injured

and like i to die. when you show up that it is not too suggestive. bringing somebody in custody or showing back seat of a police car, bringing them to hospital surrounded by police gives thaw suggestiveness. that moans to me unfortunately there is strong possibility this total of victims is going to increase. this is generally not done unless it is last resort. melissa: and the indication that we're getting, we have no confirmed numbers at all. i don't think anyone has any confirmed numbers but we heard multiple fatalities from the school superintendent we heard multiple deaths from congress people in area. how do you prevent a situation from getting this big and out of control if this is one shooter to inflict so much damage on a school. >> yes other unfortunate part of the thing they have school resource officers there.

the idea of putting cops in every school didn't help us out in the situation. now they need to go back to the drawing board, to figure out exactly what is happening. melissa, i think this kid's social media will play a big role in the investigation. just listening to some of the interviews, some of the kids in the school, they had a lot of he have ahead -- evidence ahead of time this kid was not right. showing pictures of his guns on the phone. what have you. this will be a long-term investigation. we will have answers relatively soon on this one. unfortunately, you know, i know the superintendent mentioned, you know, mental health. that is a big issue. what kind of issues did this kid have and did family's seek any help. where did they get the firearm from? did he steal it, take it from a family member? that is whole another case we have to look into. melissa: absolutely. all the questions need to be answered. it is distressing that they did seem like they had taken a lot

of precautions in the school the fact they had law enforcement on campus already. is that, i don't know, it was two officers, it's a school with 3200 children. you know, what extremes do you have to go to? >> well, yeah, that is the problem. i mean you can't put a cop in every classroom. i'm sure there is going to be talk about arming teachers in a situation like this because apparently having a presence of uniformed police officers, that every kid in the school knows there is one there. it didn't stop them. it shows you insight on somebody who is determined to create this kind of havoc, to be able to do it and he didn't care who is there. melissa: joseph, thank you for joining us. we appreciate it. >> thanks, melissa. >> let us tune in for the moment to our fox affiliate down in southern florida. that is wsvn. let's listen in. >> this is live picture of course outside of the school. marjorie stoneman douglas high

school in parkland. there are numerous police and fire trucks on the scene. fbi is there. swat is still there. coral springs pd is there. everyone with the school system is there, including robert runzie, the superintendent is there. how to release the each room, clearing each floor, evacuating each child and pairing each child up with their parent or whoever is in charge of the child. to the right we follow pompano beach fire rescue transporting shooting suspect broward health north. >> the superintendent referenced west glade across from douglas high would be affected. you see pro from the pictures outside but it is an orderly process of the as i mentioned there is procedure they go through by which they check everybody out one by one. that could take a while.

for moms, dads, guardians, anyone picking up kids, keep that in mind, it will be a few minutes before you physically leave the area with them once you make that connection. >> we're getting word governor rick scott is traveling to broward county to be briefed by emergency management officials and law enforcement much there is word that he learned about the shooting at marjorie stoneman douglas high school he spoke with president trump, spoke with law enforcement school officials at the department and homeland security and live picture, aerial picture of still very active scene. again the takeaway right now, it has to be one of the saddest days in south florida. sad for those of us who have children. sad for those of us who live here and don't have children. superintendent robert runcie said numerous fatalities. called it the deadliest shooting in the history of broward county. an absolutely horrible day. >> he said we'll pull through this as a community.

we've seen these images. seen these stories. whether columbine, newtown, schools coast to coast in the united states where communities had to pull together to get through something like this. we're still trying to get a handle on what exactly we're going to be dealing with, but echoing superintendent's statement there is south florida will get through this too. broward county will get through this, certainly with help of loved ones and neighbors. as we heard from folks there in parkland, you see it but don't think it will happen in your community but sadly now it has here in broward county. melissa: of course in the coming days as the investigation continues -- melissa: that is the local affiliate down in south florida. we'll break away to talk to congresswoman diane black, what are your thoughts on this? >> my thoughts and prayers go

out to the families and children that were injured. it is too early to really estimate what happened here. until you learn and get more information about what we can do to keep these schools safe. i have two grandsons that are teenagers that live near that area. they don't to to that school but when you hear something like this, you hear it happens in south florida, my stomach starts turning over. i can imagine the pain of each of those parents waiting to hear about each of their children. we have to find a way to keep these schools safe. melissa: yeah. i mean you can already feel people going to the political corners, taking up the hashtags. you know how this conversation foes after something like that. is there anything we can do to make the conversation more productive and you know, less divisive? >> yeah. we have to. i mean we have to come together on this. this can not be just every time something like this happens to go to the issue of oh, we should just take every gun away,

because there will be a way if someone is mentally ill and they mean ill to someone, they will take action on that. it may be with some other weapon, whether it's a knife or a bat or whatever. until i really believe, having looked at this all the way from the tile we saw this happen in sandy hook, we have to look at mental illness because if you look back at these mass shootings you will see that the common denominator in all this the fact of some form of mental illness. >> i want to let people know we're seeing, apparently we're seeing the shooter now going inside the hospital. he has been taken out of the transport vehicle that he was in. i didn't mean to interrupt you. i wanted to tell people what we're seeing. as we asked the superintendent, had there been any signs of mental illness and you know responded with something akin to well, you know, you're not all right if you do something like this.

it is sort of when you talk about the most basic common denominator, no normal person does something like this. >> i have been a very big proponent of educating teachers on suicide prevention. as a matter of fact when i was in the statehouse back in tennessee i wrote some of the first legislation that would require that teachers in our state and in the high school setting to start with, we took it down to the lower grades, would have at least one course work on acknowledging or being able it see when a child may be having some of those signs and symptoms. i'm really proud to say, it is called the jason flak act. it is now i think it is in 30 different states. so we're trying to get this nationwide. but can we do something like that, where we help counselors and principals and teachers to be at least recognize these signs and be able to take action on it, to prevent something like this happening? i think it is worth of conversation. we all should be willing to sit down and talk about something

productive and constructive. melissa: we're looking at video right now in parkland, florida. what appears to be kids and parents reuniting with their kids in the aftermath. a lot of hugs and tears. you imagine your family in that situation. it is terrifying. >> it is terrifying what the students who witnessed this. even students in the school will come it shock of what happened in their own school and their own community. so there is going to have to be support services that surround them too. these are places that we can come together, we can actually talk about what we can do in these circumstances, do that in a bipartisan way. melissa: a lot has to do with assessment and training. you worry, you don't want teachers and flagging kid that are okay, the stigma goes along with mental illness. a lot has to do with education and removing that stigma with more knowledge.

>> we were able to do that helping teachers identify students who may be having some signs and symptoms that would say to them, we need to just bring them in and talk to them. we need to have other students who embrace them and be aware of what is going on as well. that again is not to say that you want to identify a student as having mental illness or suicide ideation but we should be aware. you know, what is really interesting in many of these cases where suicide does occur, a number of students around them, their friend would have said, you know what? i knew something wasn't right. i didn't know who to tell. having a safe environment to prevent that very important thing in my opinion. i don't know that we should look at patterning some of this as well, some sort of ideation dealing with guns and violence, yes, yes. melissa: congressman diane

black, thanks for joining us. >> thank you for having me. david: let's go to deirdre bolton reporting events, reporting what happens with very latest. deirdre? >> david, there are estimates coming in from various sources about anywhere between specifically 14 and 20 victims. now treated at broward health medical center and broward north hospital. seemed like most news sources were 14. that number is unfortunately moving higher. a few have it at 20. we know the broward sheriff actually asked parents to wait actually, to go to the parents staging area until everything is clear. as your guests have been telling you, on the scene right now, you have county police. you have fbi, you have bureau of alcohol tobacco and firearms and explosives. all there on the scene. and we know that this scene is still considered live. so it seems as if the broward sheriff is just encouraging

family members as upset as they are and as much as they want to be there, it try to wait to go to the parents staging area which has been set up. i understand it is five miles away at a mariott hotel. that is there for parents and loved ones. we also know, as i mentioned these victims have been taken for treatment to local hospitals. we are waiting of course for an update on their condition. and we heard the superintendent say that they believes that there are multiple fatalities we do not have that confirmed. there is confusion, extra confusion in any scene like this but for children that are involved since there was a fire drill this morning and a lost kid thought that this was perhaps a follow-up on the exercise that they had gone through this morning. i also mentioned an unsubstantiated report, i hear a lot of guests talk about mental

health issue, unsubstantiated report of a student who was there, interviewed by a local reporter saying he thinks he knows who the shooter is. he estimates the shooter is between 20 and 21 years old, saying he had been in classes with him in previous years, saying that he steered clear of him because he was aggressive and angry and was, kind of showing pictures of guns from his phone. but again, i just want to confirm that we are not getting that information from police or local news source. rather we are getting that from a local news source, not from a official source the basically details still coming in. and we will of course keep you posted. david. neil: of course there were comments by senator bill nelson from inside the beltway suggesting that there were numerous fatalities. we haven't had those comments confirmed by anybody yet on the ground but as u.s. senator he does have privileged information and access to people that we don't have access to right now. so presumably he was talking to

some of those people and had that report. deirdre, thank you very much. deirdre will stay on call with all of the latest breaking information. joining us now on the phone, manny gomez, former fbi special agent. manny, you know you hear about we need extra class, extra help for those mentally disturbed, perhaps extra medication, i think the most basic thing we need is to protect the students. i think of things like metal detectors. i don't know if this school had any. clearly somebody walking the halls with a gun he got it in there somehow. what is, what are your thoughts about preventative measures that could be used particularly in the future? >> there will be an investigation and discussion about what security protocols this particular school had, and what failed if anything did fail.

clearly something did fail because we had this tragedy. this is yet another wake-up call for every school in america to know that it could happen at their school anywhere anytime. that they have to have preventative measures in place, whether the budget permit or armed security personnel, to be on the school campus, whether it is metal detectors like you suggested. or whether it is just simply having more drills. and again, these are budgetary questions in every county and every school in our country has different budgets but we definitely need to be aware this is certainly not the first time. it has been happening almost a decade. it will continue to happen unfortunately. david: manny, when we first at airports started with metal detectors everybody was up in

arms, this is not america. we'll not get used to it. we did get used to it. we see videos on twitter and other websites showing injured students in a class. somehow this student got into a classroom with a loaded gun and shot people. is it, is it inconceivable we will reach a point when every classroom needs a metal detector? >> well, again, this is something that is going to be discussed by law enforcement, by security professionals and we need to find out how this assailant got into the school to begin with. schools by definition are not open areas. the school faculty and whatever security protocols the school had is there to protect the students ultimately. so, we need to find out in this case how this assailant got in there, how he got in there with a firearm, and how this entire

case happened. we'll know that within hours, once we look at videotape, and we interview this assailant, this criminal, this murderer. but ultimately you're right, do we have to put just like in airports, obviously a lot more schools than there are airports. but it will matter the budget. it will matter what community these schools are at. but what we do know is that this is going to unfortunately not be the last episode of this happening. we have to proactive to protect our kids. david: manny, you worked for a federal law enforcement agency. most of the security at schools around the country are local for a good reason. that is where a country works. on the other hand will we have to federalize security at local schools? >> well after 9/11 we federalized it in the airports like you mentioned. we incorporated tsa.

every airport in the country used to have its own protocol and use private security contractors at most airports. after 9/11 it fell under homeland security, tsa was formed and it was federalized. we may have to considering doing something like this for our schools. again, these are our children. this is the future of the country. we need to protect these most important assets. melissa: david: excuse me i'm sorry to interrupt but there is in broward county let's listen. >> that's where we want parents to go. i want to thank the mayor bean and commissioner for being here to support the broward sheriff's office and to be with me at this terrible time, and last thing is it's a pairable day for parklan, broward county, the state of

florida. my very own triplets went to school and graduated and they played football and lacrosse at that school, so it's just catastrophic and there are no words and we'll keep you updated i talked to governor scott. he's out of state and on his way here and i have spoken to president trump and he's offered the full power of the united states of america to help us get through this. any questions? i can't hear you. reporter: could you elaborate on the shooter? he was found off campus. i don't know exactly where. i believe he was found in the city by coconut police officer that's unconfirmed right now. there's not much information. from what i understand, there was a time where he did attend this school. i don't know why he left and i don't know when he left.

reporter: [inaudible] >> that is correct he's not a current student. reporter: [inaudible] >> i wasn't there but i was told there was no conversation. can you hear me? he was taken without incident. reporter: do you have anyone else? >> no. i believe he's approximately 18 years old. reporter: at least one dead? >> multiple. reporter: more than one? reporter: and you said the schools not safe right now there's still children inside? >> well i don't know. we believe at this point that all children that we know about are cleared and are outside the building; however, we don't know if there are injured people we don't know if there are people hiding. we don't know, so we will not begin to release information origin to open up the crime scene until the swat components say the school is safe and clear when i hear all clear we'll begin the next phase of this

investigation. reporter: are teachers hurt or only students? >> i have no idea. reporter: injuries approximately how many? >> i don't know how many injuries there are but we know 14 people were transported to area hospitals with varying degrees of wounds . what we'll do is wait for the school to be cleared and go on to the next phase and this is critically important to release information to broward county and keep you up-to-date but for right now there's no more information. reporter: could you talk about where the shooter was? >> he was outside and inside at varying times. he certainly was inside. thank you. reporter: has their families been notified? have all of the families been notified? liz: now broward county sheriff on the school shooting that took place at a high school in south florida, is that marjorie stow man douglas