fox news alert, at least three people are dead after a shooting inside a maryland shopping mall. >> the shooter is among those believed to have died today. he opened fire 11:15 a.m. east

coast time. many people inside that mall on a cold winter weekend morning. it is believed the shooter acted alone. we don't know why he did this or whether there was a target or random or what. we do know the shooting happened at the mall in columbia and the suburbs of baltimore across the line from washington. molly hennenburg is live there with more. bring us up to speed. >> police did what they are supposed to do in these significants and found a place where they could shelter in place and protect themselves and families. police are going throughout this large mall store to store. as far as the one active shooter

this morning, this is why police believe there was only one shooter and that that shooter is dead. when they came upon the scene they found one of the three bodies near a gun and ammunition. they believe that person was the shooter who had come into the mall, shot two people and shot himself or herself. there were no other reports of shots fired after they came upon that scene and found the person they believe to be the shooter. the police believe the situation was contained. they did more investigating. we heard from one politician ken ulman who thanked the brave law enforcement officers who rush into these situations not knowing what's happening. certainly everybody in this area thanked the brave police officers for running into that situation and securing it.

we are continuing to talk to people who have been in the mall and have come out. we talked to one person there with his daughter. he got out. another person who was an employee at the store who heard shots fired and was able to shelter in place, then make her way out, as well. we'll continue to work things here on the ground. >> molly, i see sears behind you. you are obviously very close in and you are talking about seeing people come out. i am following the howard county police on twitter and they are bringing out groups of people. what is the demeanor of these people? they have been in there for hours. >> we have seen groups come out. we've been very close to them. police are keeping them away to question them. we are watching them and they are subdued and calm. we haven't seen a lot of crying or anxiety or that kind of thing. they are very appropriate for the situation. they are willing to share what they know with police. quite frankly, a lot of people

didn't see a whole lot. they may have heard shots or something that sounded like shots. we haven't met a lot of people who actually saw specifically what happened in this incident. >> that's a blessing, no doubt. quickly before i let you go, anybody talking about announcements going on inside that mall? would they have been told this thing is over, you can come out? >> very good question. what we've been told is -- we have not heard they made an announcement. doesn't mean there has not been there. police are saying their officers are going place to place. one officer said there has not been a stampede of people exiting. i think they are trying to keep it controlled and have the officers go store to core, room to room and let people know that it is okay to come out. >> everything we are hearing reflects what we know about that mall, that it's a popular place to be and potential l i was crowded. molly hennen berg, thank you very much. >> on a saturday afternoon where a lot of people come to the mall. this is a place where people

were going on a cold january saturday. there are other top news stories this hour. two sides in syria's bloody conflict are finally talking, but not with one another. they are going through a mediator at the united nations headquarters in geneva, switzerland trying to bridge a gap between the syrian government and western opposition. they are focusing on humanitarian aid and will look to end the civil war. it has been violent. fighting has not eased up any with the syrian air force striking rebel areas around damascus and other cities. with millions running away to neighboring countries. a group of catholic nuns have their prayers answered. the u.s. supreme court saying the little sisters of the poor will not have to comply with the obamacare mandate that it

provide birth control coverage for its employees, at least not while their case plays out in the nation's highest court. elizabeth fran has more on this story of church versus state. >> reporter: the injunction ordered by the supreme court justices says the colorado organization little sisters of the poor, for the time being, does not have to provide coverage which includes contraceptives as preventive care for women. the group can draft its own notice proving its own religious objections. experts say this could have a sweeping impact on other groups across the nation. >> this position the supreme court made today applied to little sisters and also applies to 400 other catholic organizations that are insured through the same insurer. i think that this is going to have repercussions on all of the cases associated with the hss mandate. >> reporter: the solicitor

general says the group doesn't meet the standard for such exemption. we are seeing reaction from planned parenthood. the president writing in part, this case raises a narrow and specific question about the administrative mechanism that religious groups use to claim their exemption. this is a case about paperwork, not religious liberty. the same day we learned 3 million americans signed up for health coverage. a post on the medicare and medicaid services website did not list specific age breakdowns or how many folks paid their first month's premium. back to you. >> elizabeth, thanks very much. this is one of about 20 such lawsuits around the country, religious groups say the form is the first step to authorizing birth control coverage. >> and we are getting ready to talk politics. midterm election season is heating up.

and details on a new poll voters say they care about. our political panel. stay close. [ female announcer ] season after season,

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i never have experienced something like this in my life. i was standing there talking to a customer and i started hearing all this banging coming from the food court. i thought maybe they were doing construction or something. we do that a lot of that here. people started running and they said somebody is down there and he's got a gun. i heard at least eight to ten gun shots. >> as you can imagine, chaos, fear, panic, running throughout the mall early this morning, well about 11:15 actually, in the late morning. three people are dead including a suspected gunman, according to police. no known motive as yet. we'll continue to update you on

what happened there. >> while deep in our coverage, other headlines, a retirement home fire in quebec has left behind heartache. now confirmed at least eight people dead. friends and flame of some of the 30 missing people are awaiting news about their loved ones. a suspect arrested in the fatal shooting of a student outside a dormitory in south carolina state university. 19-year-old justin burner singleton is charged with the murder of 20-year-old brandon robinson. an investigation ongoing to determine why he did it. also, pope francis reportedly visiting the united states next year for the eighth world meeting of families. a meeting held every three years since pope john paul ii had the first one in 1994. the vatican announced the meeting will be held next september in philadelphia. how do you want our elected

leaders spending their time? a new fox news poll showing most persons by wide margin want congress and president obama to focus on the economy and jobs. i think we have that poll if we can get it up this week the mainstream media was actually all over comments made by former arkansas governor and fox news host mike huckabee at the rnc winter meeting. take a listen. >> not that long ago at the rnc winter meeting here in washington, mike huckabee said that the democrats' helpsage to women is they are helpless without uncle sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or reproductive system without the help of government. >> i haven't seen that report. whoever said it, sounds offensive to me and to women. >> what was said just in advance

of that was that we as republicans don't have a war on women, we have a war for women because we believe women are equal. >> let's bring in our political panel. ellen ratner joined us with guy benson. both are fox news contributors. guy, let me start with you. to huckabee's point, whether it was overshadowed by rhetoric or not, he is insisting that the government, democrats and the government are funding birth control for all women or mandated under obama care whether women want it or not. democrats and the president are conjuring up this government dependency message to women. is that legitimate? >> i think if you have even a rudimentary comprehension of the evening establish language, you cannot read or listen to what governor huckabee said and construe it as anything other than the message he was intending. i think there are legitimate

debates about the birth control mandate. polls show that vastmajorities, 90% of democrats and republicans are fine with birth control. the question is should the federal government force you to pay for my birth control, especially if you happen to be like the little sisters of the poor, a group of nuns that are in a legal battle with the obama administration. that is a legitimate debate. i don't think it's helpful, even though his comments were clearly aimed at democrats, i'm not sure it's helpful for male conservatives to ever be talking about the female libido in any context in a political discussion. >> i watched in full governor huckabee's political remarks. the media coverage did take it way out of context. several had to correct their commentary and statements about it afterwards. perhaps the use of the word "libido" and "uncle sugar" confused the point he was trying

to genuinely make. democrats portray women as victims of their gender. is there something to that? >> no. i don't think there is something to that. i also saw the whole remarks. i may not have reacted quite as strongly, but i have to say, as you know being in radio and television, even one little line can get you in a heap of big trouble and that's what happened to governor huckabee. >> you may be right. i want to turn to the subject of women and abortion. wendy davis running for governor in texas. she made a name for herself fill busti filibustering. this heroic tale of poverty to success while raising her children was proven mostly false by the dallas "morning news." what is your reaction to that? >> i can't say i'm particularly surprised. wendy davis is or was previously famous for one thing, which was

being a champion of six-month abortion and beyond, which is wildly out of step with the american people, wildly out of step with the views of american women, especially in texas, of all places. now at least it seems and "dallas morning news" reported fairly conclusively, that she admitted elements of her biography were embellished. there are others things in that report that go to her character. her second husband cashed in his 401(k) to pay for her law degree and she left him literally the day after he made the final payment on law school for her. i cannot imagine the people of texas see her as someone, of a person of integrity they want to be their governor. >> let me play a sound byte. this was a tea party activist. >> we saw wendy davis champion the murder of unborn babies and

runs for governor, claims she is pro-life. she didn't want the kids she had to begin with. i think it's tragic, especially when there are so many women out there she could have inspired being a single mother to find out it's all a hoax. >> she gave up her kids and handed them over to her husband. one of the children wasn't his biological child. this is going to hurt her big time, isn't it? >> maybe. maybe. people tend to overlook a lot of the personal foibles of politicians. they tend to go with ideology and how somebody votes. i don't pretend to predict how the texas voters are going to vote on her because you don't know who else is running. which is a big issue. you also don't know where the sort of mood of the people is and are the republicans going to overreach on some of these issues? if they do, it doesn't matter what her personal life is.

people might vote for her. >> greg abbott, his personal narrative is stunning. we'll wait and see. guy benson, ellen ratner, good to see you both. >> thank you, greg. i told you i was following the howard county police chief on twitter today. their public information officer is someone we've been talking to. what they are saying is they have a feeling they know where the shooting may have started at that mall in maryland. in a skate shop called zoomes. you remember with our guests we were trying to determine, did it start in the upper level or downstairs area? that would make a difference how many people you might have trapped, depending on what they think they heard and are still taking cover not knowing the whole thing played out and police are trying to find the people and tell them everything is safe. according to howard county police department and their public information officer online here on twitter, it may have started in a skate shop called zoomes. more on this as our journalists

are working at the scene on the ground, when we continue here on fox.

fox news alert, we are continuing to monitor that deadly shooting at a maryland shopping mall. this information now is coming in from the howard county police department. now in to fox news, we're learning that the skate shop on the upper level in the mall, we believe it's pronounced zumez is where the shooting occurred and began. they are not yet with the police department ready to confirm the victim information they have gotten. they say the weapon was a shotgun that was used in this, found near the suspected shooter, his body, because they believe that he was among the three people who have been confirmed killed in all of this.

now for the people inside that mall, can you imagine what it was like to either hear, not hear, but see other people reacting. what do you do? joining me now on the telephone is elizabeth braun, she was locked down inside the mall during the shooting. elizabeth, you're with us? >> yes, ma'am. >> what did you see, what did you hear? >> i was right at the register about to make my purchase and i noticed chaos, people running into the mall. my first thought was, oh, is there a sale, did i miss it? and i was like oh, no, there was a fight. and i noticed the gates coming down. and i looked at the cashier, she's like let's go to the back, i was like, okay, and just from her calm and presence, maybe it's okay. maybe it's all the things i'm thinking of, maybe it's just a plan and they're just trying to see if everybody knows what to

do in case of an emergency. once we got to the back, i contacted a few of my friends in the police department, however they're not in howard county, just to ask people, what's going on, please let me know. i even contacted my parents, saying, hey, i'm okay. it was more scary and not knowing more than hanging now in the hall. >> what did you think when you learned what was going on? and there you are, locked inside victoria secret. >> i was really worried because i didn't know. one of the women that was there, she got in contact with her fiance who was at the food court when it happened and we all thought that being in the store that it happened, she said my fiance saw it and he ran right out. at least you know you're safe, everybody's here safe, i'm sad that's happening, but, you know, i just wanted to know what was

going on. but attendants at the store made their best to make sure we were calm and in control and that we were updated with all the information they had. >> did you make it out on your own or did they have to come and get you? >> the s.w.a.t. team escorted us out of the building. >> thank you for joining us for joining us by phone, giving us an inside view of what might have been going on inside that mall. >> you're welcome. >> the situation appears to be under control now. police are still on the scene, obviously it's an active crime scene, they're talking to people, they're collecting evidence. and they're trying as much as we know, to search through the 215 stores there, for anybody that's still hiding. so we'll have the latest on the mall shooting coming up. ♪ don't miss a step...

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a fox news alert, a deadly shooting rocking yet another american mall. at least three people are now dead, including the suspected shooter who police say was found near a gun and ammunition. welcome to america's news headquarters. >> the shooting happened at the mall in columbia, between washington, d.c. and maryland. officers were called to the scene at 11:15 a.m. eastern. molly, we have learned some details about where they think this whole thing started. >> reporter: that's right, harris. good afternoon to you, the

working assumption is that the shooter came to the mall, went to an upstair skate shop and killed two people and then shot himself or herself we don't know the identities yet of the three victims. when police arrived, they were all dead. the person they believe was the shooter was found by a shotgun and ammunition. that's why they believe he's the shooter and also there were no reports of gun fire after police came on that scene and found those people dead. do we have a domestic situation? police don't know the motive yet. we have learned that four people have been taken to the hospital with injuries, one is a shooting victim, according to the howard county general hospital. three other people had injuries sustained when they were trying to flee the scene. now police are continuing to investigate and continuing to help people get out of the mall

when they have sheltered in place. here's more. >> think about this, on a saturday afternoon at the mall, how many people may be in there? when something like this happens, people run in many directions and they also do what actually we have trained people to do and that's to shelter in place. so right now, we have many, many people still in the mall that have secured themselves inside stores. our s.w.a.t. teams with a lot of support from agencies throughout the state, at the local, state and federal level, frankly, are going through -- >> reporter: we expect another press conference in about an hour. some of the witnesses are being taken to a nearby movie theater for questioning on what they saw and what they heard. back to you in new york. >> molly, you gave an update there on the injured, people injured while trying to get out of there. the gates came down on the victoria secret mall,

and ---were there people running through the mall? >> reporter: we had heard about people when they first heard the shots, people were running to shelter in place. there was some confusion and fa fear, obviously, when you hear shots ring out in the mall, they all took shelter and hid, from whating from police is that it's been controlled getting people out of the mall, especially after no more gunshots were heart. also we heard from police officer harris that police have work with the this mall, the mall has done training exercises for these types of situations and it seems like that the public handled the situation well, sheltered in place and now police are going and helping them get out. >> the impression that was left on all of us is just how calm the employees were especially at victoria secret. it sounds like that training really gave them an advantage in

staying calm in all of this. it makes you wonder how many people might have been in the zumby skate shot. >> as 10,000 athletes get ready to travel to russia for next month's winter olympics. the state has -- terror threats, russian president vladimir putin described accomplishing a security perimeter, a so-called ring of steel, to protect everybody involved in the olympic games to alay fears of violence. >> you've got an artillery system that can take out multiple targets, you're going to have special forces that are peppered all over the area. you've got security checkpoints, a whole plethora of security checkpoints on railway lines of communication coming. he's actually banned all unofficial cars from the area. and you've also got this intelligence network that has

access to over 1,400 cctv cameras, which i think is hugely important. >> the state department is also warning american athletes to avoid wearing team colors outside of that so-called ring of steel security center established by the russian security forces. fox extreme weather alert now. winter, well, is here. another arctic blast and more snow is on the way from the midwest to the northeast. in fact, meteorologist janice dean is going to join us from the fox eastern weather center. i went by your area and i could see out the windows it was already snowing. >> really incredible, we're stuck in this weather pattern where we have a dip in the jet stream across the upper midwest, the great lakes and the northeast, and we have high pressure entrenched across the northwest, bringing those drought conditions for southern california. as long as we remain in this pattern, we're going to see

frigid air moving southward and these fast moving clipper systems that will bring in some cases higher totals across the great lakes over the next several days. this is going to be ongoing, again, like groundhog day. not a whole lot of snow, but because we have these blustery conditions, watches and warnings are up in the northeast. again, not huge amounts of snow, it's just going to re-enforce all of that arctic air yet again this week. your average temperature in minneapolis is 24. on monday, minus 11. that's the air temperature. wednesday will bump up a little bit, but then another arctic air blast is coming late next week. you can see chicago average 31 there, minus 4 on monday, new york your average is 38 and we're looking at 17 on tuesday. so again, it's going to continue to be this way, dipping as far south as the gulf coast again, we had a winter storm in parts of louisiana and texas, and that

could happen again as we head into tuesday. so, again, same situation, different day, harris. it is winter time. back to you. >> #winter. janice, thank you very much. millions of homeowners being left out in the cold because of a propane gas shortage in this country, the bitter cold we have been having lately, fueling demand for energy. >> according to the national propane gas association, 5.5 million homes rely on propane for heating and demand won't let any time soon, the frigid temperatures are expected to continue well into next week. the retail price for propane gas in the midwest hit around $4.30 a gallon. for some perspective, the average price last winter is

$1.74. some propane gas distributors think the price could reach $5 next week. the gas is especially important in rural areas, the midwest and the south, where propane is also used to heat chicken houses and to fuel manufacturing and agricultural equipment. quite simply, these high prices have real consequences. >> if we had it any higher than that, we couldn't afford propane. we couldn't afford to live. it takes me 4.44 gallons a day to keep our thermostat at 62 degrees. >> now the high prices are being blamed on a combination of things. farmers used a massive amount of propane gas to dry a larger than normal crop this year. a major pipeline was shut down for repairs, reducing the ablt of gas that was poured into the northwest. plus you add on the brutally

cold winter. >> we have got all hands on deck to find out a way to do this, it's not about funding at the state or federal level, it's about a viable way to get more propane into the state and other states here in the midwest. >> the u.s. department of transportation has suspended the limits on the amount of time truck drivers can spend on the road to speed up the delivery of propane. >> brian, thanks very much. we're getting our first look at president obama's state of the union address on tuesday, the white house sending out a preview of the speech. and in it they say the president will speak about how to month america forward whatever that means and his speech can be summed up into three words, opportunity, action and optimism. for more on tuesday's speech, of course tune in to fox news sunday tomorrow morning for an exclusive interview with the senate minority leader mitch mcconnell, check your local

listings for time. >> the republican party has announced a major overhaul in the way it will choose it's nominees who run for the white house. the committee national chairman says the changes are to -- grueling and drawn kbrout primary process that took place during the 20 -- >> reforms that put republican voters not the liberal media in the driver's seat. this is -- this is about getting better debates. but it's also a way to put a check on the media. and in sports, i believe they call it tightening your game, i believe. good to see you, john. >> thank you. >> all right, we're listening to the rnc chairman there, and i'm thinking from what he's saying, lessons were learned last time around, what were they? >> that a primary fight that

goes on way too long and a convention that happens as late as early september, leaves your nominee, especially if you're running against an incumbent without money and without much time to make the case against the incumbent and during the summer months, when your nominee doesn't have access to a lot of money, you're subject to barrages of negative advertising from your opponent that you can't always respond to. >> so that takes care of the negative advertising from your opponent. but he was specifically talking about the media and reining in the sort of run away train, if you will, with how many people in the race. specifically what do you think he meant? >> he does not like the idea of having 35 media debates, which is about what we had last time, often through media outlets that have commentators who don't particularly understand republican issues who ask questions out of left field. the most infamous one, was

george stephanopoulus asking about whether or not candidates would ban contraception when that had never been discussed, it wasn't an issue and no one had proposed it. what he's trying to do with the dpe baits, have more debates, u fewer sponsored by republican entities. but the real changes are not the debates, they're the structure of the primaries and how the time frame is compressed. >> talk to me about how things will change, for those of us who are voters, what will we see in the primaries across the country. >> there will be no caucuses held around christmas and new year's. at the earliest, they'll be in early february. the south carolina, nevada, new hampshire and iowa will be held before march, and then of course you move quickly to a whole bunch of campaigns and primaries that will be bunched into the last two weeks of march.

all of the primaries will be finished by may 15th or so. >> wow. >> and then you'll have a convention in late june or early july, so the whole thing will be compressed from september to december. >> how does that compare with how democrat dos it? >> well, democrats have never had quite that long, drawn out process. democrats have had incumbents or incumbent front-runners running the last couple times so it ha hasn't affected them that much. i think democrats conceivably could make some changings between now and 2015 because it's a more wide open race. >> serving the voter, serving the american people. if you extrapolate all of the politics out of this, this does give people more of a chance to hone in on people and maybe learn more about what's happening, with the topics, with the issues, with the candidates? >> some conservatives think that

if you have fewer candidates it's not necessarily a good thing because you're likely to have more established candidates who already have money and there's less chance of an outsider breaking through and making a big impact. i'm not sure if that's true, but it's not so much how many candidates, it's whether or not if you're starting out from scratch, like ron paul did last time or rick santorum in 2012, whether or not you'll have time to get momentum to actually have a chance at the nomination. >> john fund, national review magazine, always good to have you, thank you. >> pleasure. the latest ruling from a judge on the brain dead pregnancy case out of texas, sparking great emotion and reaction from both sides about what constitutes life and death. we have got a full report coming up. and the dow, down, baby, down. we have an expert with some unique insight about what it means for you and your money, that little nest egg you've put

in for you're retirement. we're going to give you coverage on the tragic maryland mall shooting that happened just hours ago, we'll have details coming up. ♪ [ male announcer ] wt kind of energy is so abundant, it can help provide the power for all th natural gas. ♪ more than ever before, america's electricity is generated by it. exnmobil uses advanced visualization and drilling technologies to produce natural gas... powering our lives... while reducing emissions by up to 60%. energy lives here ♪

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a fox news alert now. we're getting dramatic police scanner audio recordings capturing the moment of a deadly shooting that began to unfold. >> we have an active shooter at the clamma mall, last seen in the food court. last heard ten shots. nothing heard at this time. god word that we need one flown out. do we have anybody a that needs to be flown yet? >> i have four including the suspect. >> three people are now dead including the suspected shooter who police say was found near a gun and ammunition. much more to come on this rapidly developing story. a judge is siding with the husband in a life support case playing out in texas, we've been following this. a pregnant woman brain dead is at the center of it all. we have now learned a judge has

ordered a ft. worth hospital to make marlise munos off life support by 5:00 p.m. on monday. herb case has reignited questions about what constitutions life and dead and how far doctors should go to save the live of an unborn child. >> yesterday was a very emotional day for marlise munos' family and they have been pushing to take her off life support because they said that's exactly what she would have wanted. yesterday a judge ruled that because she is brain dead, that she can be taken off life support even though she's pregnant. now there is a legal distinction between being brain dead and being in a coma or a vegetative state. this all started at the end of november when munos's husband eric found her unconscious, at that time she was 14 weeks pregnant, she was declared brain dead. the hospital kept her on life

support to protect the life of the unborn child per texas law. right now munos is about 22 weeks pregnant, but earlier this week her family stated that the fetus is, quote, distinctly not normal. they are not celebrating but they did get the ruling they had hoped for, but some members of the religious community strongly disagree. >> this is a sad situation all the way around. we are relieved that eric munos can now move forward with the process of burying his wife. >> we will continue to hope that the hospital will make a decision to appeal this decision by the court so that the child will have a chance to live. >> small group of people came together yesterday to pray for munos while the hospital continues to weigh its options. it can possibly appeal, but if it doesn't, she will be taken off life support at 5:00 central time monday.

one of america's key allies in the middle east exploding in violence, marking three years since a bloody uprising and a change in power. the chaos erupting in egypt, in a deadly shooting at a mall in maryland, the brand-new information we are just learning, we're live on the scene next. >> i never have experienced anything like this in my life. i was standing there talking to a customer, and i started hearinging all this banging coming from the food court. i thought maybe they were doing construction or something, because we do a lot of that here. and people started running and they said that somebody down there has got a gun. and i heard at least eight to ten gunshots. first, i want a way to help minimize my blood sugar spikes. then, a way to support heart health. ♪ and let's not forget immune support. ♪ but now i have new glucerna advance with three benefits in one. including carbsteady ultra

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the last hour, howard county police, fire and emergency services holding a news conference about that shooting

at colombia mall in maryland. >> we have given you information as soon as we received it because we know how much concern there is when something like this happens in such a public place as the mall. so about 11:15 this morning, our 911 center received a number of calls about the shots fired at colombia mall. we had officers quickly get into the area and enter the -- one of those victims appears to be the shooter and at this point, again, please bear with me, this is two hours, two hours and 15 minutes into the incident, there's still a lot of details we need to confirm, but right now, we think that one of the deceased is in fact the shooter. we do not think there's any at this point that there's any more shooters in or around the mall. we are going through a process right now, please, think about this, on a saturday afternoon at

the mall, how many people may be in there? when something like this happens, people run in many directions and they also do what actually we have trained people to do and that's to shelter in place. right now we have many, many people still in the mall that have secured themselves inside stores. our s.w.a.t. teams with a lot of support from agencies throughout the state, at the local, state and federal level, frankly, are going through as we are holding this press conference, they are inside continuing to clear that mall, to make sure there are no more victims, we do not think there are, but we want to make sure there are not, and to get those people that have self sheltered in place out and make sure none of them have any injuries either from the shooting, again, we don't think there are any, but also any injuries that may have occurred in that process, that panic when people do shelter. so that's what is going on behind me in the mall as we are out here. we do not have the identity of the victims yet.

we do not have a motive for the shooting. again, this is two hours and 15 minute into the scene. we are still trying to secure the mall to make sure, again, that there's nobody else squlirsqulir injured and then we are getting our investigators into the crime scene to answer their questions, so they can answer the many questions that you have, that frankly i can't answer because i don't have the information. i'll take a few questions, but before i do, let me again thank the colombia mall, that has been nothing but a fantastic partner, we have a great relationship with them and actually have drilled on this in the past and that experience has been very beneficial to us. we would like to thank, again, our public for their patience. we have disrupted a lot of peop people. i know there's a lot of people at home who are concerned about the well-being of their family who might be at the mall, we understand that, and that's why we're working as quickly as we

can to identify the victims. we understand that. we would like to thank all the support we have had from emergency management, and fire accidents, again, local, state and federal level. i'll take a few questions. >> can you provide the genders? >> i cannot provide the genders or the ages. >> can you say where this happened in the food court? >> i didn't say it was the food court, i said it was in the upper level of the mall, at a store. i'm not going to identify that store right now. >> what type of weapons were recovered? >> we have not gotten our investigators in there to identify all that at this point. as i said earlier, we don't know a motive yet. i appreciate the question, and i preeshlg the interest in it. please understand what we're dealing with. our guys haven't gotten in there to identify people yet.

to even go to a motive. >> officers have been speaking to witnesses, have they given an indication that it was an argument, they somehow knew each other, or a random event where somebody just started shooting. >> we don't have that information yet. we are confident that it was a single shooter. there's no other shooters inside the mall or anything like that. >> let's go live to the scene to our own molly heninberg. molly, what's the latest? >> reporter: we have just seen a large group of police officers and s.w.a.t. teams come out of the building, they're going to their cars now, i'll step out of the way. they're going to their cars, we see them taking off a lot of their equipment, a lot of their guns, a lot of their backpacks. this may mean they have finished evacuating everybody from the

malls. they seem to be coming out and going to their cars and getting ready to go home or at least to leave the mall. perhaps this means that they have finished evacuated all the people who were in the mall today. the people who were in the mall at the time of the shooting, did as they had heard they should do in these situations, that is they sheltered in place as best as they could. shoppers described what they were hearing and seeing inside the mall, here's more on that. >> i was working at the time, heard some loud noises, sounded like a transformer blown to me. you know, that noise. and then a bunch of people ran by my store and we realized that obviously there was a shooter in the mall. and that was gun fire. so we pulled the gates, got the gates locked, got all the customers in the back room and we all just hid together until the s.w.a.t. team came. >> they had pulled down the front gate on the store, they told us we would stay.

>> they were saying, get back, go to the back, the gates are down, you're safe. that's one thing that the store manager kept saying, is you're safe, you're safe. just to hear that is the best thing. >> reporter: here's what police believe happened today. one shooter came to the mall with a shotgun and ammunition. went to the upper level a skate shop there, zoomies, shot two people and then shot and killed himself or herself. as you just heard before i started talking. police said they don't have a motive yet, but we're expecting to get an update in about 30 minutes on what's happening and what happened earlier. >> molly on the scene there, we'll check back with you for further details. joinings us by phone is ken aldman, he is a howard county executive. ken, are you with us? >> yes, i am. >> this is the first time we have talked to someone inside the lines, actually in a command

week with police as they first got there. tell me what was happening when police first got there. >> this is the kind of thing men and women in law enforcement have to train for. since columbine we have seen these kind of shooter incidents, so we train all the time with our tactical team, state police, our neighboring jurisdictions. in fact we had trained here in the colombia mall before, trained with mall security. so our folks got here very, very quickly, both patrol officers and our s.w.a.t. team which happened to be very close by, on another assignment, so we're very proud of the work that they have done. obviously our deepest condolences go out to the family members and loved ones of the victims. we will be doing a press conference, the chief and i in just a few minutes at 4:00 to give people an update. i did hear your coverage about

people coming out of the mall. >> right. >> the mall has now been cleared. so the tactical teams from multiple agencies has been slowly, methodically going through every store, every nook and cranny in the mall. if you can picture a very, very large mall, every back room of every store, every restroom, every dressing room, there's a lot of areas to cover that we wanted to make sure that everyone was safe. a lot of people were still sheltering in place. this was a very crowded, busy mall on a saturday morning. >> this is our first time and i want to draw our viewers' eyes to the screen now. these pictures are fresh in to fox news. this is our first time with ken aldman, howard county executive on the phone now, getting a real feel for what was going on behind the lines if you will that have been drawn, keeping everybody else out while they work the scene, you're there in that command vehicle, what were

people saying as they were coming out, ken? >> incredibly scary moment. i mean i have two daughters, 12 and 8, and we're at the columbia mall all the time. this is a terribly scary incident. but we are an incredibly safe community. unfortunately, we're not immune to the kind of gun violence that we see throughout this country. but this was a very chaotic scene. i mean you reported there was one shop where the shooting took place. this store is on the second level of the mall and it's very close to the food court. so if you can picture your local mall, wherever you are in the country, your food court, a very open bustling space, and now imagine hearing gunshots very close by, reverberating throughout the area. it was a very scary scene. so that's what we're hearing from people as they come out. certainly our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims' families. i am very proud of our men and

women in law enforcement who did exactly what they have been trained to do. >> all right, and ken aldman, giving usthe breaking news at this time, that mall in maryland is cleared. >> thank you very much. regulation nation getting bigger and bigger. america's 50 states passing a whopping 40,000 new bills and resolutions last year, the long list affecting businesses of all sizes and the job market as well. during this week's republican address, missouri senator roy blunt slamming the new regulars is a huge step in the wrong direction. >> americans are hurting, too many of the poorest americans continue to suffer from stalled job creation, skyrocketing federal debt, burdensome regulations and broken promises on health care reform. >> alex little is a defense attorney, former federal prosecutor. good to see you both. alex, let me start with you, i

have looked through a bunch of these laws, obviously you can't go through who,000 of them, littering, camera usage, sex ed, drones, cell phones, one on tanning beds, voter rules. this one was amazing, gender identity bathrooms, there actually a law on that. even on placentas and i don't want to go there. but have we become regulation nation? and is that a good or a bad thing? >> it is, but i don't know that it's a bad thing. you've got 50 state legislators, they're all doing what they think is best for their constituenci constituencies. and you're kblg go to get a lot of crazy stuff. the colorado national legalization of marijuana is a great example. it's going to be an experiment to see how it works and that's what the founders wanted. >> in allowing an increase in

that, is that an insidious thing or not? >> i think it's an insidious thing, greg. i have worked in the criminal justice system for 35 years now as a defense attorney, i can't begin to tell you the lives i have seen torn apart by drug use, the families torned apart. an educated by, regular marijuana use led to his son being removed from his custody. the judge said you've got to stop it and stop it now. six months later he was all clean. when you legalize marijuana, you encourage it's use and that's one of the things that i'm really in fear of spreading. you're thinking about the bathrooms, too, the transgender bathrooms in california. there's going to be a peat in the next ballot to overrule that law. but that's just extraordinary. bullies who identify more with girls can use the girl's restroom.

that's insanity and it overrules the free economy. >> 14 states are considering raising the minimum wage, but a higher wage tends to reduce employment. employers who are forced to pay a higher wage than the market bears, they've got to fichbtd the money somewhere, and invariably they -- you can raise the minimum wage all you want but it doesn't change basic economic conditions, and it actually causes more unemployment. >> i think some economists will agree with you, i think there's a good deal of economic study that will tell you that because we're increasing the monetary supply you're going to put in workers hands, that money supply is going to increase. >> you don't just hand it out to people on 2 street. >> no, it doesn't work that way, greg. it doesn't work that wachlt what you're doing is you're artificially increasing wages and what it leads to is employers saying we're not going to hire more people, we're going

to go out of business, or instead of having two fry cooks, we'll have one fry cook. it's the iron fist of government taking over the free market and that never works. >> let's talk about unemployment benefits when we're talking about joblessness. some states may do that as well, either cut them or increase them, extend them, but recent evidence suggests it's a disincentive to work and it helps neither the economy nor the employed, alex. example, north carolina they cut the maximum jobless benefits and for the next couple of months, their unemployment rate fell significantly. what about that? >> all these things can work in certain circumstances. but i don't think it's fair to draw necessarily a big conclusion off north carolina's experience. some of these things are going to work, some aren't. that's what we should be trying, we should look at the states, let them try these things and see what happens. >> they have been trying it and we still have an under employment rate of roughly 13%.

that's the real unemployment rate in america if you consider the people who are under employed. >> 2.5 million people given up all together. >> good too see you guys, thanks so much. we work so hard for the money that we put away for our golden years so this really hurt some people when they were seeing it happen this week, the dow shedding quite a bit of percentage points this week. we'll bring in an expert to reveal what this could mean for your investments, next. and we were showing you brand-new pictures coming in, a very active scene still, where that tragic shooting has happened at a maryland shopping mall. we know the mall has been cleared of people hiding in nooks and crabkra crannies from shooter, but now the investigation and of course interviewing all those people and look how busy that parking lot is, stay with us.

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well the dow kind of hit the floor yesterday. 318 points it fell. making it the worst drop since last june. the trading session, capping a brutal week, in fact we saw the dow shed nearly 500 points. that's about 3.5 percentage points. investors are pulling out stocks to put their money in safer place

place,s. so what does that mean for americans retirement plans and their hopes for a better job. he's shaking his head, that means i got the quiz right today. and i only say that because this comes really on the heels of those jobs numbers two thursdays ago that were pretty anemic. >> it was a little bit of a surprise two weeks ago, you could almost feel as the year unfolded in january, with the stock market, you could almost feel people holding their breaths to see if december would continue, which was a very friendly month, if 2013 would continue, which was a very friendly year and for the first three weeks of the year in january, the market was just doing a whole lot of nothing. then all of a sudden we had the jobs report and the market says, let's wait and see what happens, and then we had the news last week that maybe china was slowing down a little bit. so now all of a sudden we're in a little different world, a little wakeup call, the market

can go down. >> if wall street now is reacting what the rest of us already knew, that the jobs market is really, really hurting w what does that mean for people then creating more jobs? because if people are looking at companies and saying you guys are in trouble, that isn't an incentive for them to create more jobs. >> the global economies are very related. we might wonder if china's slowing down, what does that mean for the local hardware store, with hiring people, but it's all a lot of things are emotional. a lot of things are perception, a lot of things are optimism, you know, for people, when you come out of a period of fear like the recession of 2008 and 2009, people don't always forget that. pendulums always swing too far in one direction. so when you swing all the way over to fear, you know, you swing too far, so it takes you a while to get back and you need to see a lot before you start hiring again. and i think that's where we're

at on jobs right now. >> wow, that is very clear. great explanation, we appreciate that. so do we jump into bonds really quickly, or what do we do. >> you never want to jump quickly, if only you and i had tomorrow's paper today, you know, look, i have done this almost 20 years, markets go up and markets go down, in the fire term. last week, yes, it got a little ugly on friday, i'll give you that. and no, i or anybody else does not know what monday morn's going to bring. but at the end of the day, let's try to get some emotion out of this and try to get back to basics here. if you're retiring in a year, you can't have all your money in the stock market for most people. know what your risk tolerance is, it's a good time, it's the beginning of the year, to take a look at what you own. >> michael, i don't mean to cut in, but i only have to. and it's hard not to be emotional about your money, but we'll try. it's good advice, good to see

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thousands of american athletes and fans head to the winter games in sochi, russia, there are growing security concerns following a string of deadly attacks in the region. captain bob wells is a retired u.s. navy captain and former

national security adviser for vice president dick cheney. captain, always good to see you. are we doing the right things? we have warships in the black sea, contingency plans for extracting americans. is that prudent? >> i think it's smart and prudent to do. the united states also has other capabilities that we're thinking about and planning to support any particular contingency. but i think it's important to remember, greg, that it's really a russian responsibility to secure those games. >> and how capable are they? >> in my view, they're very capable. however, regardless of in i particular political pronouncement or bluster that may come forth, with regard to an iron ring of steel around the area, look at the geography around sochi, look at the international waters in the black sea. this isn't a new development here. they've been at war in many respects, within russia, for the last 20 years. so it's prudent for the united states, it's a smart move for us

to be ready and have our communication ready, most importantly with the russians. >> captain bob wells, we had a lot more time planned for you, but the breaking news got in the way. thank you so much for your insight. we'll have you back soon. >> great. thanks again, greg. i mentioned our breaking news. that has been the shooting at the shopping mall in maryland. three dead, including the suspected shooter. we don't have a motive yet. but it would appear that this is a murder/suicide. >> in just the last hour we've been learning so much more about the situation. it is fluid. they are planning to update everybody with a news conference coming up in about six minutes. we'll go to doug mcelway, out of washington, d.c., who will anchor our coverage from that. maryland shaken by the situation. a popular mall. a cold winter saturday. a lot of people were there. three dead we're told, including the suspected gunman. stay with fox news for continuing coverage.

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over the pizza place on chestnut street the modest first floor bedroom in tallinn, estonia and the southbound bus barreli down i-95. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had thpower to do more.

dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪ you might call it one of the most normal american activities, going out and shopping at the mall. but today it takes a tragic and deadly turn in columbia, maryland. a few hours ago a gunman opened fire sending panicked shoppers running for cover. hi, everybody. >> thank you very much for joining us. according to police, the shooting started on the upper level of the mall. the columbia mall, which is halfway between baltimore and washington. when it was over, three people were dead, including the suspected gunman who apparently shot himself. at least four people were taken to the hospital, and a