that is when they would make emergency harming his popular. they will not go in. they will weigh that. officer shaffer, we appreciate all the work you're putting in today. >> viewers, we don't want to release anything that police are doing right now, or you can vgo to our website and find out any information. we want to share a voice message that is now a hoss teenage

situation. >> one of our suspects are in one of the buildings. gunfire was exchanged. it's not clear how many rounds have been exchanged, but i am happy to report at this moment, there have been no in. >> hostage negotiators from at least three different agencies on-site so when we make contact with the suspect, we can begin negotiations. i'm happy to say there is no safety threat other than those three hostages that he has with them. for those of you who don't owned. as such the chp has primary jurisdiction over it, and we have several assets not only in the air but on the ground.

we have. spend a special allow to our partners here with us and sonoma county sheriff's department and the federal bureau of investigation. i'd like to ask and remind the public that access to this location is restricted, and as you can see by the cars and vehicles and helicopters behind you, it's a very active and dynamic situation. we would ask that the public stay away. for those who are concerned about family members who work at the cal vet home, here is a hotline that you can call to see and determine if your loved ones are safe. the number is 707-948-3331. it is the hope of all law enforcement agencies who are on-site assisting with this that we can come up with a safe conclusion to this event.

thank you. i'll take a few questions. [ inaudibl question ] >> we have not been able to make contact with the gunman. [ inaudible question ] >> that information is preliminary and would be inappropriate to put out at this time. i can it will you they are pathway home employees, which is not veterans home employees, but they are employees who help our veterans. [ inaudible question ] >> we do not know their condition at this time. [ inaudible question ] >> the initial call came as these shots were fired. we do not. [ inaudible question ] >> it's not confirmed at this point. [ inaudible question ]

>> i do not know that information as well. he's in one of the rooms of the building structure. i don't know that information yet. >> what kind of gun? >> we're told it's a rifle. which size and caliber, we're not sure. [ inaudible question ] >> sheriff john robertson, napa county sheriff's office. i'm here to answer any tactical questions you have or that i can answer. we are approaching this as an active shooter situation. there have been shots fired, exchanged with our deputies, and we haven't received any report of injury at this time. of any of our deputies. >> the justin sienna kids will be removed by justin sienna

buses. >> how many children? >> my understanding is there were approximately 80 children at the jtheater, but they were safe distance from the shooting, they were always safe, and they were put in a lockdown position just for their own safety. [ inaudible question ] >> i can't answer that. [ inaudible question ] >> we've tried numerous times and have been trying since 10:30 this morning to contact him by his own cell phone and also the phones in the dorm area. [ inaudible question ] >> we do know who he is. [ inaudible question ] >> i cannot at this time. i can't tell you that information right now. [ inaudible question ] >> not that i'm aware of. [ inaudible question ] >> i don't have that information. we have quite ate few hostage

negotia -- quite a few hostage negotiators working on this, and we have not reached out to family to ask to negotiate with us at this time. who are the law enforcement teams? the napa county sheriff's office, napa county police department and the federal bureau of investigation. i don't believe there are any employees of the veterans home as hostages. [ inaudible question ] >> i know the deputies are not injured. i don't know at this time who are the hostages. [ inaudible question ] >> i don't know at this time. we are currently doing an investigation. but there was an exchange of gunfire fired by both our deputy and the suspect. [ inaudible question ] >> there were bullets, many bullets fired.

[ inaudible question ] >> i don't have any idea what his motivation is. [ inaudible question ] >> i don't even understand your question. [ inaudible question ] >> he did release hostages and kept the three people that we have -- that he has as hostages now. [ inaudible question ] >> i don't know. >> as information becomes available, we will call another press conference. we want to get information out to the public. we would like to say thank you to the public for your support of law enforcement in general, especially as we work on this tenuous situation to bring about a safe conclusion. thank you. >> and you continue to watch our coverage at the yountville veteran home shooting followed the many shots the sheriff described as being fired this morning. we understand there are three hostages. again, they're saying no injuries that they know of right

now. but they haven't been able to reach the person who has these hostages right now. they've tried cell phones, they've critried phones inside center, to no avail. >> chp actually heads up this scene because the veterans home is state run. being state property, state law enforcement takes precedence there. but napa county is on scene, napa city as well as the fbi. there is a s.w.a.t. team on the way, helicopters in the air. so there's a lot going on there right now, which is one of the reasons law enforcement is asking people to stay away from there because you can't move around without possibly being in a line of something or other. no word of injuries so far. we do know there has been an exchange of gunfire. there are a lot of unanswered questions about what's going on. >> it all started about 10:20 this morning. someone who has been at the scene is cecilia aguilar-curry.

thank you for joining us right now. >> reporter: hi. thank you very much. >> what is the information you've been able to gather? >> so far the press conference is what everybody pretty much knows at this point. we'll be kubti iconducting anot press conference at 4:00. we want to stress that the residents in the yountville home are safe, as well as the employees are safe. we have three people that are hostages right now, but i know many families are wondering when their people are coming home from work, and right now they're pretty much saying they're going to be staying here until this is completed. so for all the families out there, we just want to extend our word that your families are safe. >> this is one portion of this sprawling complex. >> that's correct. >> what's being done for the people around that area with all of this going on? >> well, right now we have

things coming up that you don't think of in these kinds of situations. we have a lot of residents using the cafeteria, so we have manpower putting together meals for them for this afternoon and tomorrow, and we'll do what we have to later on today. >> can i also ask, while this drama plays out, hopefully to a safe conclusion, what is the impact on yountville businesses? this is a start of a weekend when many people would normally be coming up to join the wine country, and i know this location, this yountville veterans home, is only about a mile away from the french laundry and some top diamond destinations, so what is the impact on those businesses right now? >> there's not any impact. it's far enough away. all the police and responders are up on the hill.

there is an area that they have blocked off, so it doesn't appear they are having any business today. quite frankly, i drove up here and i invited the people here to enjoy the charisma and the wine. everything else is beautiful up here. they've done a really good job to secure this area for the tourists. we do not want to deter anyone from coming up here. >> thank you for sharing that information with us. i'm sure we'll be in contact with you again. there's so much going on this afternoon. you have seen live pictures from sky 7, some of the armored personnel carriers that some of the s.w.a.t. team members are on as they move around and change position. you may see quite a bit of that as this drags on this afternoon, as they reposition themselves, as they get more information about where the person is. they believe they know who the

gunman is. they have tried to contact him by cell phone, they have tried to contact him on phones within the facility. apparently he has not picked up yet. they're pretty sure they know who he is and what's going on. >> they are associated with employees of pathway homes, however, they're not going to identify the suspected gunman at the moment. they tried to contact him, as eric mentioned. we want to get to leslie brinkley at the scene. leslie? >> reporter: a couple new updates. we understand the fbi is the agency that is trying to communicate with the gunman inside the campus here. we also understand that -- i've said for two hours i see tactical vehicles, i see law enforcement driving in an hour ago, more. half hour ago, more.

they've got quite a force of tactical teams here on-site. more keep coming in, undercover vehicles or unmarked vehicles and a lot of tactical teams. we have a lot of law enforcement amassed here. again, many people leaving the property, people who live or work here who have been allowed to leave. i did talk earlier to someone who is very worried. her name is brenda espinoza. she was very worried about a good friend of hers, her friend's mother, her friend's boyfriend who she is close to who were stuck inside during the hostage situation and were able to get a phone call. here's what she had to say. >> i had finally a chance to talk to some of the people out here. most of them are worried and very is worried about folks they know inside. one man from napa came down here because his dad is a resident. this woman, brenda espinoza, has one of her best friends, her friend's mom, her friend's

boyfriend who are maintenance workers in the facility trapped inside, but you've been in communication with them. >> yeah. >> tell me who you talked to and what they were able to tell you about what's happening in there? >> i talked to my friend andrina and her mother laura, and they were able to talk to me and tell me that they're safe but they're not being let out at all until they get the suspect, and they're worried. they just want to come out and be safe. and that's all pretty much that we talked about. >> what did they say about what's happening in there? what they heard or -- >> they can hear a lot of action as far as, like, people just trying to get through and see what they can do to get the suspect. i don't know if she heard any of the shots that i heard from the people that were around me before getting here. i parked my car and they said they heard that there was about 30 shots.

>> where is yo >> what does your friend and her mother say about a suspect that might be doing something in the building as far as shooting? >> the suspect is not being caught yet, and so he's just on the run, and they probably know where he's at, but because they have someone with the suspect, they don't want the suspect to hurt that person. >> reporter: now, you were able to text or phone call? >> phone call. >> reporter: you actually talked. >> yes. it's safer because the reception right now is not too well. >> reporter: you must be very worried. >> yes, i am. >> reporter: what is your worry standing here? >> just anybody getting hurt. we're all human beings and we should just care for each other. >> reporter: and they're on l k lockdown? >> yes. >> reporter: you're going to stay here until you hear what's happened with all of this? >> yes. >> reporter: i'm getting an update from outside the gate.

these are cars, employees who are trying to get back into the veterans home here. we're told that the holderman building, those who work in the holderman building, those employees, are being allowed back in right now. they're screening them here at the front. chp is talking to the cars as they pull up, and some employees are actually being allowed back in. they've got a grip on things here. it's all isolated to building g where the three hostages are being held. so people on their shift are being allowed into the holderman building, and others standing by are awaiting word that they, too, can go in to work. quite a crowd gathering here. as you heard from that woman, a lot of trepidation, a lot of worries and fears earlier today about family, about other fellow employees and workers, about how they were doing. some of that fear is being alleviated now, but all focuses,

of course, on those hostages that the fbi is working on getting free as they try to communicate with the gunman who entered that meeting, that staff meeting this morning. reporting live at the veterans hospital. back to you. >> leslie, before you get away, i know there are a lot of details to crekeep corralled he but do we know how much of the campus was evacuated and how much was told to shelter in place? >> reporter: i don't have any numbers for you, but i know that initially when we got here, everyone was told to shelter in place from what i understand. and that as the situation evolved, as you heard, four women hostages in that staff meeting were told to leave. three were continued to be held as hostages. they kind of got a grip on things and got it all isolated down to that one building and that one conference room where the staff meeting was and the gunman confronted the women. they got it all contained there. so gradually, as the day has

gone on, it sounds as though they have let people leave and the lockdown has been alleviated in much of the veterans home campus. here you see cars trying to come in, workers trying to come in. they're reporting for work. and in the holderman building, they are being allowed back in. if you work in other buildings, i think they're keeping people held out here outside the veterans home. so it's step by step getting some parts of this back to normal here, whereas an extreme situation, still, with that gunman inside with those three hostages. >> you mentioned the holderman building going back to work. what particular services are provided in that particular building? >> i can try to find that out from the gentleman across the way who was helping me out with some of this information. i have to hold on for a moment because he's in the road and i

want to get him back over. you said the holderman building. what's in the holderman building and who are these workers? >> i'm not exactly sure. >> the eisenhower building is also open. >> the eisenhower building is also open. he's directing traffic and has gotten word that it's okay for the eisenhower building and the holderman building to go inside now. >> that's useful information for people who are family and if they're wanting to know that what's happening in those particular buildings. >> leslie told us a few minutes ago she spoke with a man whose wife was one of those original hostages but she was released by the gunman. here's that man. >> so pathways is a non-profit that works with vets on

reintegrar reintegration issues. we rent a building as part of veterans affairs on the campus here, and it's a residential program. so guys live in the building, staff work in that building. there was a going-away party for a couple of the staff who were leaving today. today was the last day. they were having cake and toasting and all that, and apparently he just walked in with this rifle. >> what did the gunman do when he walked into the party? >> i'm not quite clear. >> you talked to yo-- he talked wife, though? >> i think he talked to all of them but i don't know that he said much. >> they were calm, though? >> they were calm. >> he let others some go, inclu your wife? >> yes.

>> was she familiar with this individual? >> i think i would rather let that information come from the sheriff. >> so that's larry cramer. his wife is one of the four that the gunman let go. >> the original. >> yes. >> we also spoke to a former fbi agent to get some perspective of a situation on the ground there in yountville. >> here's what greg shaffer told natasha earlier this afternoon by phone. >> again, i did 20 years in the fbi. my first four years in the fbi i was in san francisco assigned to the fbi san francisco s.w.a.t. team. then after that i spent seven years on the fbi hostage rescue team. so i have been on multiple operations similar to this, and what's happening right now is they're trying to tighten the ring around the person right now who is holding the hostages. they want to give him as little room as possible to escape if he wants to escape, and get as close as possible to affect an

immediate response if he all of a sudden starts deciding to shoot the hostages. so that ring is getting tighter and tighter around him right now. negotiators will be talking to him, trying to get him to release the hostages and give himself up peaceably. but at the same time the s.w.a.t. teams are certainly divising a plan of how they will enter the dining room where he's holed up and to eliminate the threat if he becomes a threat to those hostages. >> we've been hearing over and over again that they've been trying to establish contact with him, they've been trying to initiate negotiations, and they have been failing so far. what does one do in a situation like this where the hostage will not pick up the phone -- i'm sorry, the suspect will not pick up the phone and he will not talk? >> well, that gives you a look into his mindset. if he's not willing to negotiate, that definitely adds to the complexity of the situation.

i can assure you the fbi is listening to what's happening inside that room. they have listening devices and even cameras. they have good eyes in that room as to what he's actually doing. that gives them a lot of information and intelligence as they divise their plan to enter that room should he decide to get violent. >> with your professional experience, what does it tell you that this man entered and was incredibly calm that he perhaps had the opportunity to inflict as much damage as possible, but did not do so, went into a staff meeting, and as i said, eerily calm, let four women go and chose three women specifically to stay in that room with him? what does that tell you about his mindset? >> again, i'm not going to try to get into the mind of a person that does this type of thing because you never really know what they are thinking. it could be he has a relationship of some kind with one of those women he has held

hostage. if he selected those individuals, he may, again, know one, two or all of them and that's why he chose them. but that's just speculation on my part. at this point in time i have no further information on what is being said on the media. >> how does it affect the way that one negotiates or deals with a suspect when you know that they are very calm and very self-contained versus someone who is acting erratically and is very unpredictable? >> it works actually in our favor. if he's calm and his demeanor, that he's not overly excitable and prone to violence right now, that works in our favor. that means there is time for that negotiation to occur should he decide to pick up the phone and talk to negotiators. it's the ones that are erratic, that are volatile, that are chaotic, those are the ones you can't predict what they're actually going to be. this type of person is actually

better for law enforcement to deal with versus somebody who is much more chaotic. >> all right. if you do want to check in on residents or staff who have been evacuated from the yountville home because of this, the highway patrol has set up a number for you to call to see if they're okay. 948, area today 707, of course, 948-3331. >> rick smith, retired fbi agent now on his own in private investigations joins us on the phone now with a look at what's going on now. always good to talk to you, rick. i guess job one if you're in a situation like this is to isolate the gunman and try to keep everything calm, right? >> i think the best possible situation is that he hasn't harmed anybody yet, and obviously that's why the s.w.a.t. team, the fbi and the police haven't conducted a raid at this point.

nobody has been injured. we also heard the other gentleman talk about establishing some sort of line of communication. he's right, that's probably been attempted and it hasn't been successful. that doesn't mean you can't get a family member or a friend of this individual in contact with him somehow to see if they can engage him in a conversation. it would be a very important ingredient in dissolving this crisis. >> now, the sheriff was indicating that might be a step they would take in trying to get family members to talk to him. but i do want to ask about this one other layer of complexity in that pathways, that is a facility that has a treatment program for people with ptsd, veterans who have gone through a lot of trauma. how does knowing that the gunman may be grappling with that affect the way they approach him in dealing with him? >> yeah, well, you have psychologists involved, not just negotiators, not just fbi and police negotiators but also

psychologists that would be able to provide their input as to whether you're making a mistake by doing something proactive now, or should they wait this thing out? the inclination is going to be to wait because he hasn't hurt anybody. but there is a lot of conversation that takes place about what to do. the last thing you want is to have somebody get hurt, but you don't want to provoke something, either, so it's a fine line. very much a fine line there. >> and you have to get the guy's trust, right, as a negotiator? >> the ideal situation is to begin a dialogue with him to where he is able to vent, discuss it, and then the people that are on the other end are obviously able to nullify the situation and then calm him down in terms -- first of all, what is he trying to accomplish? i'm not sure they know that right now. and then in the first instance he becomes violent, believe me, they have a plan ready to

implement if that does happen. >> how does it, rick, factor into their plans that if we are talking about a veteran, this is someone who could be an expert in terms of his training with firearms? >> that's a problem. if he has the training, i understand he has an automatic weapon or similar type weapon. if he has the training, he's able to cause widespread injuries and death by using that weapon like he knows how. and i don't know the situation with the hostages, i don't know what he's telling them, what they've conveyed to other people. you know, the police aren't sharing everything that's happening in that building, that's for sure. but they've got ways, they got means to access that type of information, and it's a situation that you have to re-evaluate every few minutes as to what you're going to do. >> i suppose for the

uninitiated, that's probably the most important for intelligence going on in there. >> they have intelligence they're not sharing. you have a situaton with hostages that are in danger, and then you've got the police and the the fbi, the s.w.a.t. teams, that will be am danger if they try to get in there. they'll do it if they have to do it to save someone's life, but, you know, it's scary. >> indeed, it sure is. rick smith, former fbi agent rick smith in private investigations now. thank you so much for joining us as always. >> we'll stay on top of this. we'll be back with abc 7 news at 4:00 p.m. on this breaking story. there is a live news conference scheduled at that time as well. >> until then, we're always on 24/7 with our app and on line at abc7.com. we'll spend time on the very latest with what continues to unfold. >> thank you for joining us. we'll see you back here at 4:00

with the very latest. >> "world news tonight" is next. see see see see see see see see see tonight, as we come on the air, the hostage standoff right now. it's happening in one of the largest veterans homes in america. a gunman armed with a rifle, opening fire, taking hostages. images coming in from the scene. president trump's big gamble. 24 hours after the president agrees to meet face-to-face with kim jong-un, what the white house is now saying tonight. the horrific chain reaction crash on an icy interstate. the pictures coming in, and tonight, we're now tracking yet another possible nor'eastenor'e. the forecast models have shifted and rob marciano is standing by. the travel warning tonight after this explosion and the discovery on another ferry. why americans are now being warned and what's behind the warning with so many planning vacation. you have to see this tonight. a scammer out