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tv   Good Morning America  ABC  May 26, 2021 7:00am-8:59am PDT

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>> like it was nothing. >> and that's that. now you good morning, america. as we start this new day together, that major vaccine milestone. half of all american adults now fully vaccinated as a number of cases across the country plummets. the growing data about so-called beakthrough infections and the new warning ahead of memorial day weekend. calling for change. one year after george floyd's death, his family meeting with president biden in the oval office as the police reform bill in floyd's name has yet to be passed. the president saying he wants the right bill, not a rushed bill, as so many around the country gather to remember george floyd. breaking new details. a special grand jury now convened by the manhattan d.a. to decide on whether to bring criminal charges against former president trump, his family and
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his company. inside the unprecedented hijacking of a plane to arrest a journalist on board. >> for security reasons we recommend you to land at umms. >> the new audio when the pilots were told there was a bomb on the plane, ordered to land immediately. the mother of a now jailed journalist pleading for her son's life. out of bounds. top gop leaders belatedly condemn the controversial comments of congresswoman marjorie taylor greene after her incendiary remarks comparing mask wearing to the holocaust. the new fallout this morning. blockbuster backlash. john cena's "fast & furious" apology after remarks he made while promoting the latest installment in the massive franchise. why his comments are raising eyebrows from washington to beijing. great white warning. with memorial day weekend just days away, why encounters like this could become more common. ♪ i feel alive ♪
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>> g. >> we're on the road as the u.s. begins to re-open, live from the windy city from the bean to the beef as the state emerges from the pandemic. we're helping this military couple get a big "gma" wedding do-over. >> as we say -- >> all: good morning, america! ♪ good morning, america. we hope you're doing well this wednesday morning. michael strahan is doing well in the city of chicago right now rising and shining. hey, michael. >> hey, george. hey, you guys. good morning to everybody from chi-town. and as you guys saw, i've been taking a tour of the windy city. there's so much fun stuff to do here now, especially that the pandemic restrictions are easing here in the city. it's getting back on its feet and to celebrate, we've got a huge event that we've planned. it's unlike anything "gma" has
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ever done before. i'm so happy to be here to be a part of it and that's a good tease to you. back to you. >> we're picking up what you're putting down, my man. we got it. >> very excited about that, michael. thank you. but first, here in new york, we have a lot of news to get to including that major vaccine milestone in the fight against the pandemic. the cdc is saying now 50% of adults are fully vaccinated. that is over 131 million americans in total. >> and this morning we're learning more about just how effective those shots have been. whit johnson is at the javits center, a mass vaccination site here in the city with more. good morning, whit. >> reporter: robin, good morning. the cdc director says tens of millions of americans can get back to something closer to normal for this memorial day weekend. but there is still concern for those who are unvaccinated and states are going all out offering more cash prizes to try to convince people to get the shots. this morning, a major milestone. half of all u.s. adults, more than 130 million americans, now
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fully vaccinated. 25 states vaccinating 50% or more of their adults with at least one dose. nine states crossing the 70% threshold. >> the progress we've made, we've reduced suffering across the country, is due to all of you who have gotten vaccinated. >> reporter: but the cdc issuing a warning from the upcoming memorial day weekend when people are likely to gather. >> if you are not vaccinated, our guidance has not changed for you. you remain at risk of infection. you still need to mask and take other precautions. >> reporter: and new data from the cdc showing only 0.01% of fully vaccinated americans experience so-called "breakthrough infections," just 1 out of 10,000 people. if they do happen, most are protected from severe illness. but vaccine hesitancy still remains a challenge. researchers at the kaiser family foundation found that working-class americans without
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a college degree are less likely to get vaccinated. >> with lower levels of education have more significant information needs in terms of understanding whether they're eligible to get the vaccine where they can get it and whether they can get it without having to pay a cost. >> reporter: more states are pulling out all the stops with vaccine lotteries hoping offering prizes will help get more shots in arms. >> that's right. you could win $1 million. >> reporter: colorado, the latest, announcing it will hand out five $1 million prizes. ohio will draw its first million-dollar winner later today. the state reporting a 94% jump in vaccination appointments among teens since announcing its lottery. >> we're offering not only a million dollars for adults, but for those under 18, they have a chance at a four-year scholarship at any of our great state universities in ohio. >> reporter: and in maryland, overnight, a baltimore county resident becoming the first person in the state to win $40,000 just for getting the shot. now, president biden says he
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wants 70% of all u.s. adults to receive at least one dose by july 4th. right now the country is on track, just about 10% away from achieving that goal. george? >> moving closer. all right, whit, thanks so much. let's bring in dr. ashish jha, dean of the brown university school of public health. all kinds of encouraging news out there, dr. jha. let's start with the major milestone, 50% of american adults now fully vaccinated. >> yeah, good morning, george. thanks for having me here. what a big milestone. we have never done this. in the history of america, no country has gotten this many people vaccinated this quickly so i think it's terrific. now we've got to keep working away at the other 50%. i think we're going to get a vast majority of them. we're just -- we've got work ahead of us. >> what's the key there? >> i think the key is making it easier for people. you know, we talk about hesitancy. i think that's the wrong way to think about it. for a lot of working class people it's not easy to take time off, to figure out where to go. we've got to make it as easy as possible and give people a chance to recover after they had
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the vaccine. if they need a day off, they should be able to get the day off. there are a lot of things we can do to make it easier. >> also break down this whole idea of breakthrough infections. exceedingly rare. >> exceedingly rare, these vaccines are way better than i would have predicted a year ago but they're not 100%. nothing in life is 100%. so we'll see some breakthrough infections. exceedingly rare and exceedingly rare to get sick if you get infected. these vaccines are remarkable in how safe and how effective they are. >> some concern over memorial day weekend. we have a lot of unvaccinated people and the guidelines, you have to act as if the virus is out there, you have to wear a mask. >> yeah, the virus is out there and those variants are out there and they're infecting unvaccinated people. so when the cdc director, dr. walensky, yesterday said she worries about that population, i do too. we've got to stay very careful and if you're unvaccinated you
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not to keep masked up, avid indoor gatherings. all the things we've been talking about because people reman vulnerable. >> dr. jha, thanks for your time and information. amy? >> george, thank you. now to george floyd, one year later. people gathering to remember him all across the country on tuesday and at the white house president biden and vice president harris meeting with the family of george floyd one year after his murder sparked a national conversation about police, race and accountability. but the police reform bill in george floyd's name has yet to be passed. senior white house correspondent mary bruce has more on all of that. good morning, mary. >> reporter: good morning, >> reporter: good morning, amy, the floyd family described this as a personal meeting with the president and said biden renewed his promise to push for real reforms. the president had hoped to get this done by yesterday's anniversary of floyd's murder. washington obviously missed that moment, but the president is sounding increasingly optimistic saying he's hopeful they can get this done sometime after memorial day. the family said the president
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told them that he wants the right bill, not a rushed bill, but the floyd family is eager to see meaningful reforms. floyd's brother saying if laws can be made to protect the bald eagle they certainly can be made to protect people of color. amy? >> so many looking for reform. there are encouraging signs, mary, that both parties might be moving closer to that agreement. >> well, bipartisan negotiators up on the hill say a framework is emerging. they told the family members that they think they're closer than they've ever been before. that this is a matter of weeks and not months. the bill on the table would ban police chokehold, eliminate the use of no-knock warrants, create a national registry of police misconduct but the sticking point, the question over legal protections for police officers. one thing both sides do agree on, amy, a bill will be named in george floyd's honor. >> all right, mary bruce there on capitol hill. thanks very much. george? >> amy, thanks. let's turn to the criminal vest vacation of former president trump. it's intensifying now as a manhattan district attorney
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has convened a special grand jury to examine the evidence. jon karl joins us now to break down this new development. good morning, jon. >> reporter: good morning, george. this is a clear escalation in a criminal investigation that has been going on for nearly two years and an indication that the manhattan district attorney may be moving closer to seeking criminal charges either against trump himself, members of his family, his employees or his company. we have also learned that prosecutors have already contacted witnesses about appearing before this grand jury, which will be reportedly meeting for three days a week for up to six months. the special grand jury will be hearing other cases, not just this case against the trump organization, but this is the special grand jury that will decide whether or not to seek criminal charges either against trump or anybody associated with his company. earlier this year, the manhattan d.a., the prosecutor in this case, was the prosecutor that obtained trump's tax returns and other financial records related to the trump organization after a legal battle, as you remember, that went all the way to the
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supreme court. trump is out with a statement, a familiar-sounding statement responding to this latest development saying, quote, this is purely political and an affront to the almost 75 million voters who supported me in the presidential election. and it's being driven by highly partisan democratic prosecutors. but, george, the facts are what's going to drive this and this is undoubtedly the most serious, or at least certainly appears to be, the most serious legal jeopardy that donald trump has yet faced. this is not a civil case. this is a criminal case. >> that's what i wanted to get to. grand juries are often convened just to collect evidence. but in this case it's a real sign that there's strong evidence, strong belief that the prosecutors have evidence at least of a crime. >> reporter: it's the kind of step that a prosecutor takes when they have evidence of a crime and are preparing to move forward with charges. of course, ultimately, it'll be up to that grand jury to decide
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whether or not those charges are pursued. >> jon karl, thanks very much. robin? now to that new audio of that state-sponsored hijacking of a passenger jet in belarus revealing the moment pilots got a call there was a supposed bomb on board. an alleged ploy to arrest a journalist. our chief global affairs anchor martha raddatz tracking this for us this morning. good morning, martha. >> reporter: good morning, robin. the authoritarian president of belarus is making wild claims this morning that the bomb threat that was used tos a ruse to force that ryanair flight to land in his country came from switzerland. but this morning, president biden says the u.s. is considering sanctions against belarus after what is widely seen as a state-sponsored hijacking. for the first time we hear their voices, the air traffic controllers in belarus telling the pilots of a ryanair flight to divert to minsk, the capital city. >> for security reasons we recommend you to land at umms. >> the air traffic controller
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are specific. we have information you have a bomb on board. >> the bomb, where did it come from? where did you find the information about it from? >> airport security staff informed they received email. >> did it come from the departure airport authorities or arrival airport authorities? >> this is our recommendation. >> reporter: as soon as the plane touched down, it was clear there was no bomb. but the opposition journalist roman protasevich and his girlfriend sofia sapega were taken from the plane by authorities. videos of both in detention now released by the government there. the two likely under duress and facing serious charges of inciting violence. his mother pleading for her son's life. they will kill him, she says. i ask with a mother's tears help me save him. the 26-year-old journalist was the co-founder of a channel that was crucial in organizing
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opposition to the authoritarian president of belarus. abc news documented stories of protesters being beaten and tortured after clashing with authorities. and that is the fear now, robin, both protasevich and his girlfriend could face the same. >> and martha, we know that president biden has now confirmed a summit with vladimir putin and said his incident will be on the agenda. >> reporter: exactly, the summit will take place in switzerland next month. belarus will be on the agenda because vladimir putin is supportive of the strongman in belarus. but the white house also says they will also discuss cybersecurity, covid and the stability of the u.s./russian relationship. >> martha, thanks for covering this for us. george? we go to the growing controversy sparked by gop congresswoman marjorie taylor greene doubling down on comments comparing mask mandates to nazi germany. after belated criticism from republican leaders and democratic calls for censure and
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removal from congress. our congressional correspondent rachel scott has the latest. good morning, rachel. >> reporter: george, good morning. after days of silence republican leaders are now speaking out against congresswoman marjorie taylor greene after she compared a mask and vaccine mandate to how jews were treated during the holocaust. we've now heard from the top republican in the house, kevin mccarthy. he calls this absolutely appalling. he says that the holocaust was the greatest atrocity in history and the fact that that needs to be said is deeply troubling. steve scalise's office tells me he condemns these words and senate minority leader mitch mcconnell calling her words absolutely outrageous. the question now is, what will republicans do about it? greene is not backing down and she is not apologizing. she has already been stripped of her committee assignments after promoting violence against democrats. some democrats do want her censured or expelled but republicans have stopped short of taking any action against her and all of this is playing out as we continue to see a rise in
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violence against the jewish community. george. >> rachel, she seems to revel in the criticism. >> reporter: she does, george. she says she is not apologizing for any of this. she says she is apologizing if some people are offended by her words but no clear apology for these clear outrageous and anti-semitic remarks, george. >> rachel scott, thank you very much. amy? now to the spike in violence against flight attendants after a southwest employee lost two teeth when a passenger assaulted them causing new concerns with more than 2.5 million people expected to take to the skies this memorial weekend. transportation correspondent gio benitez has more. >> reporter: this morning, with more than 37 million people expected to travel for memorial day, 2.5 million by air, all eyes are on those rising encounters. >> oh, lord. >> reporter: between passengers and airline workers. and one of the more serious incidents happening just this sunday on a southwest flight from sacramento to san diego.
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a passenger escorted off the plane after allegedly striking a flight attendant so hard she knocked out two of their teeth. >> i was like five rows in front of them -- i mean her. the next thing i know is don't touch me, i said, what happened? she stood up and -- just one quick punch and she was on the floor. >> reporter: lyn montgomery leads the union for southwest flight attendants. >> this was the final straw we've had a staggering amount of increase in the number of unruly passenger incidents. when this happens to one of our own, that is when we really kick into gear and say, enough is enough, we need to do more. >> reporter: southwest telling abc news, the passenger repeatedly ignored standard in-flight instructions and became verbally and physically abusive upon landing. the numbers are concerning. the faa receiving about 2,500 reports of unruly passengers since the start of the year. 1,900 of them refusing to wear
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masks. we should tell you homeland security officials say these cases are actually on the rise and the faa has already issued more than $250,000 in proposed fines. george? >> gio benitez, thanks very much. a lot more coming up here on "gma" including the doomsday couple lori vallow and chad daybell now charged with murder of her children and his wife. why john cena is apologizing this morning. but first, we say good morning to ginger. good morning, ginger. >> reporter: robin, big-time severe weather setup from the plain, nebraska, going to see damaging winds and look at the northeast, new england, yes, you get tornadoes and could later this afternoon and tonight. i'll tell you more in a bit. first the stormy cities sponsored by walmart.
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"rise & shine," we're live from chicago this morning. e liv from chicago this morning.
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building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions, this is abc7 news. good morning. we do have breaking news to share with you and we have very limited information. there is some sort of active shooter scene happening at a vta shop in san jose. the sheriff's office is asking us to inform you to from the guadalupe dan ryan because of the shooting. we don't know if anyone has been injured but this is coming from the santa claire pras so. they're putting information for
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twitter. now let's go to jobina. >> i have another update from the santa clara area. they are in west hunger avenue and they're asking people to stay away as they investigate an active shooter investigation. it appears to be at be at yard. in oakland the traffic is stopped. we do have a crash did appear that when you're born and raised in san francisco, you grow up wanting to make a difference. that's why, at recology, we're proud to be 100% employee owned
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wind. check this out. air quality good. it's green all the way through friday. temperatures are steady after a warming trend today. we cool off significantly. saturday 50s, 60s and 70s. 80s around the bay. reggie? >> mike, thank you. we continue to follow the breaking news in santa clara county. this is in san jose at a vta yard at 100 younger avenue. we got very little information at this point that there's an active shooter investigation going on. the sheriff's office is on scene locking at this. we don't know if anyone has been injured and we don't know in shots were fired. there are active shooter investigations which doesn't necessarily mean there's an active shooter. there may be a report or
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suspicious or someone heard a noise and they may be responding to that. we don't know what is happening but they are asking to us let folks know, to stay away from the guadalupe maintenance yard, which is owned by vta. obviously, there are folks commuting back and forth to work in san jose. so we want to let you know before you head out the door to avoid that area. jobina, do you have a better idea, so we can give people who don't live around the yard where this is? >> i can chime in. it's the vta light facility. 100 west younger in shopping. for people who are familiar this is where the light rail trains stop and park. if you're looking at the map
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for reference, this is where 880 and 87 meet in the hyde park neighborhood. again, this is not something where we expect there to be passengers or commuters but employees. while we don't know what's transpiring as reggie has continued to press, again, this is an active shooter investigation. we're unclear on injuries, if someone has been put into custody. primarily the location which is 100 west younger avenue in san jose, police are telling everyone to police avoid the area. it is the vta light rail facility where there are workers there this morning. >> has vta put out anything such as a slowdown in the system because of this? >> reporter: i'm on their website all they have is their
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covid-19 information center. as i pull it up on twitter, i see they have a tweet 44 minutes ago thats did not address this. we do know the santa clara sheriff's office came out with something around 7:00 a.m., so that appears to be the newest information we have. it does not look like they have updated anything on their social media. so i am continuing to follow that for you and i will keep you posted. we do have an update that just came in a minute ago. it says a meeting staging area has been placed at younger and first street in shopping. amy hollyfield was talking about that vta expansion. she was already in contact with the agency. >> she's on her way and we have sky 7 to show you what, if jig; happening in the area. you can see sky 7 is up as we
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head to that location. i want to also show you the tweet and very limited information coming from the sheriff's office this morning and here's what it says. deputies currently on the scene for an active shooter situation at younger and first. as jobina said, there's a media staging area that they have set up to give us more information. right now we don't know if any shots have been fired. we don't know if anyone has been hurt but we want to give you a heads up there could be a problem there this morning. again. sky 7 is in the air right now and we do have our crew on the ground headed to this direction. right now we're not getting a lot of information from vta, so
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we don't know if there are delays into this or if they can give us insight into what is happening. i'm trying to figure out what sky 7 is looking at right now but as get more information, i will certainly let you know. now i do have this note from vta public affairs. they said they do in the have an information. all they know is there's an active shooter event. they don't know the extent and that the sheriff's office is on scene trying to contain the event. again, that's coming from vtas public affair's avenue. this is 100 west younger avenue, an investigation into an active shooter report. you can lightsin
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the middle of the screen. this is the vta guadalupe site and this would not be a stop where people would be getting on and off of the light rail cars. this is a's where they store the vehicles and repair them. sorry, someone trying to tell me something? okay. a reporter is just a few minutes away from the scene. hopefully we'll get more info once amy hollyfield gets there. can someone tell me is this the yard we're looking at? i want it make sure i'm not misidentifying it. >> okay. so we're coming back to you live. you can see that is a vta light rail train that just passed. i'm trig to figure out what
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intersection we're looking at from sky 7. just want to reiterate what reggie has been breaking down all ng the santa clara sheriff's office released some information that deputies are responding to an active shooter situation at the vta light rail facility which is located at 100 west younger in shopping. they're asking people to please avoid the area. we do not have any information in there have been injures reported. i've been checking in with the website. ocial media and they do not have information on delays. we also have not been given information about who might have been at that facility at this time at 7:00 in the morning. this is not a location where we
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would expect to see a commuters but more so see people working there in that area. i know abc7 reporter amy hollyfield was working there this morning. the vta was expanding capacitien their light rail because of covid-19 restrictions relaxing. so she was in san jose in the area. we can see several vehicles and it looks like first responders as well but we do not have information as far as traffic in shopping. they're asking you to avoid the area. there have been no impacts as far as freeways. kumasi? >> we can see how much of a presence there s santa clara sheriff about 20 minutes ago letting everybody know they are
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they are on the scene. several dozens perhaps police vehicles surrounding this building here, an active shooter investigation. this is at 100 west younger avenue in san jose. they are asking people to stay away from this area as they surround it and try this get a handle on what's going on. they haven't released too much information about what happened or what is continuing to happen but you can see here there's a significant amount of sheriff's deputies surrounding this yard as they continue their investigation. reggie? >> they've flooded this area with officers but we haven't seen really members of the public in the area, which is a good thing given this investigation is ongoing. we don't know if there's someone they're looking for at this point. obviously, there's a lot of vehicles in the area and lot of
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buildings where people would be working. hopefully everyone is safe and staying there. this is happening at a the for vta. aand the specific language is this is an active shooter investigation. whenever we say that, that causes concern. i want to point out we've had active shooter investigations in the past, which is only that, an investigation only to find out there was no active shooter shooting going on. we are hopeful that is the case this morning. we are in contact with vta and the sheriff's office trying this get more information. vta said they are waiting to get word on what's going on. right now the word is to stay away from this hear for the time being so we can keep
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everybody safe this morning. 100 west younger avenue is the dress and the vta guadalupe site where this active shooter investigation has been going on for more than an hour. >> this isn't too far from the santa santa clara hall of jut, santa clara jail. there's still concern, as you can see large police presence just it make sure people are safe. we are watching, waiting to see what information we might get from vta as we get an update from the santa clara sheriff's office. they will be setting up a media staging area at younger and
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first. hopefully we'll get more next on what prompted this active shooter investigation that they have been on the scene of since about 7:00 this morning. sky 7 showing us how much of a police presence we see here. you can see those deputies walking right there and those officers, vehicles lining the street. i'm trying to see exactly what street this s you can see how many police vehicles are here surrounding this vehicle right now, reggie. >> and what we're not really seeing are people out and about and i'm -- there you can see from sky 7 we have this technology called sky map. you can see the intersection. so you want it avid this hear but we're not seeing a bunch of people out of their offices or milling about.
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you can see how close this is to i-880 and guadalupe parkway. as you can see, this is a pretty heavily populated area with businesses and homes and glad to see people aren't going to the area looking around. it is just a long line of police cars that have showed up here as a result of this report and i've -- i don't have anymore information about whether or not there is an active shooter there but knowing the possibility that could be the case or the report of a concerned citizen who thought they may have heard or scene something. so more next coming on exactly what happened this morning. >> we know the santa clara sheriff's office is not too far from here as well. that could be part of the
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reason why we seat officers so quickly, so many officers surrounding the location. this is on west younger avenue. officers stretching down there. they have such a wide area that they're surrounding as we wait to get more information as they continue to do this active shooter investigation. yes. most people have heard that warning and are staying inside. we see a lot of cars parked around the area. we know people are likely in the buildings in the area but hopefully people are remaining safe as officers continue to conduct this investigation. >> it's unclear. hopefully we'll get more clarity on what the buildings
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are that officers are surrounding. there are quite a few in this area and the san jose police department is not far away, which in this case is a very good thing. it appears they were able to get there quickly and in mass force. you can see the actual facility where the vta trains are being stored. what we're hoping is there weren't people who were necessarily outside of the area at this time. i don't know how many people report to work at 7:00 a.m. but there are quite a few cars in this parking lot that you can see underring into the solar panels. we're waiting to see if this happened inside or outside and if this is an event where they're still trying to track down people who are responsible. at this time it's too early to know. >> so much information and i'm sure a lot of people want to
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know. but those words active shooter, it's a frightening thing to hear but we are waiting to get more clarity on what prompted this massive response from santa clara sheriff and police officers as well but right new we are just seeing how many officers have responded to the san in such force, so many vehicles surrounding this vehicle as we wait to see what prompted this investigation. we do know there are a lot of buildings, in this area, hall of justice. we don't know how many were out when this started. we don't see a lot of people. hopefully we can say that means
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people are aware. they have heeded what the sheriff's office asked them to do and stay away from the area as they continue this investigation. >> sky map 7 giving you a better idea of exactly where this s you can see the streets labeled there. you can see how close it is to 880. so a lot of commuter track going by as police have closed off streets and have really flooded this couple blocks area where the vta has their facility and asking you to stay out of the area. >> i want to check in with photojournalist jonathan. are you able to hear me okay?
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>> jonathan? all right. we lost you for a moment but we'll check back in just to get your perspective but this few from sky 7 shows greater detail where this is happening. this is west younger avenue in san pedro. this is the quad law pay rail yard that san jose sheriff's deputies have surrounded since about 7:00 when they sent out that first alert to the public to stay away from the area because they're doing an active shooter investigation. pucks how many officers are there. they have blocked off the streets but such a heavy police presence as we wait to see what
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prompted the resuppose and where the investigation stands. >> the santa clara police department is down the street, the california army national guard has a building. the largest is the vta light rail and the santa clara sheriff is there. so it's literally surrounded by law enforcement. this had to take them seconds, i would imagine to arrive. >> it might explain that heavy police presence because they are right up the streets. we also want to check in with abc7 news reporter amy
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hollyfield. >> reporter: let me show you. we are at a police line. we are at younger and heading and this is surrounded by county buildings. i was ta t he would be able to get in there. it is surrounded by police officers. this is one of a knew clusters who we have seen respond together area. we have not been briefed. they will brief us soon but right now we are in a waiting and watching situation and really blown away by how many officers have responded to the scene. so we will stay here, of
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course. we'll keep gathering information and will get pack to you kumasi, when we get more details. >> is this for the vt amend are all the county offices. >> we have the police department, the courts. this is the center of the county seat right here. as you mentioned, it's early, so we don't see a lot of people arriving for work but beware, if you're headed this way it's very blocked off. you may want to talk to the supervisor before you start your day. it's definitely an unusual situation. we do see some cars being allowed in the parking lot but
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not many. i'm not sure how they're choosing who goes in and who does not. they are chatting with someone deciding who can come. some people are being allowed in. so check in with your office about what your day's going to look at before you head this way. >> you spoke to someone who worked in the area. they were concerned. were they aware before you got had chance to talk to them? do you think the word is getting out about what's going on? >> he mentioned he was on the phone. he heard some chatter on his phone. he was being a little vague about what he does. it does seem like he had heard chatter about a shooting hered nothing is confirmed at this point, so we're holding off on what we report as far as what we're hearing but we wanted to
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get it officially from those in power who are investigating this to make sure we are responsible on what we report but he did hear chatter on the shooting, so he is calling around to see what he can food out as well as keeping a safe distance. >> we saw tons of cars. you haven't seen any ambulances streaming in and out, have you? >> i saw an ambulance but not with lights and sirens. everyone, as you're seeing, looks calm. you don't see people running and responding, no guns drawn. that brings a little peace of mind. the ambulance i saw arriving did not look like it was rushing here. maybe as a precaution was standing by but we did see one
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pull up, yes into amy, we do appreciate that. we'll continue to check in. we do have additional information that we just got and we're told that this incident happened around 6:50 this morning. we're also told that, from a witness there, that he heard shots. so that's the first time we have actually heard from someone that there were gunshots. again, this is from one witness. i want to reiterate, this is not where people would get on and off a train. this is where the trains go overnight and it's very close to the 880 freeway as we've been telling you. again, a little bit before 7:00 the witness permanently heard shots. we don't know how many at this point. sometime after that police started communicating with the public to stay out of this area
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and as you can see in amy's live shot they flooded the area with police officers and the fire department there as he troy it figure out with ising if on. amy makes a pretty good point. she doesn't see police officers running. she does not see guns drawn. >> we just got another update from santa clara sheriff's office. they are moving the staging area. hopefully we're getting chester to a point where they are updating us. they are still saying this is an active scene and to use caution. so there's no sense from them that it's over or they're backing away. they're very much investigating this as an active scene, a very
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active situation and they are urging people to use caution if they have to be in the area. this is san pedro street and wet he dding street. you can see the response to this. this happened about 7:00 this morning. ever since then we heard that we need to stay away. as amy mentioned to us a short while ago, this is where so many offices and buildings are. people are likely heading into work. so they want people to be careful as they come into this area, whether this is at the hall of justice or the
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sheriff's department or the police department or any other county buildings in this area. they want people to be careful, especially in the morning as people head to work in this busy area of downtown. >> we're talking about many thousands of people who work here. you can tell by the parking lot, the sheriff's office, the police station is there. so there would be a lot of people coming to this area this morning. i would definitely, if i were you, wait to call a manager or supervisor of heading to the area just to make sure you are wanted to come there right now and it wouldn't be bad to take caution and stay away from it completely, even if this is your workplace every day. jobina is standing by and has
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been looking at updates from vta and other sources. >> i just hopped off the afternoon with brandy childress, the spokes person for vta. so many people rely on vta to got to work. she does not know. she plans to call mow back in five minutes. of course, that was not cop of moaned when talking about an active shooter investigation but now that we know that the emergency yous have blocked the area, they have the media staging area at younger and first street in shopping. so we do know that area is blocked off. if you're driving and again we're find more next in about five minutes on what this moons for people trying to get to work. >> we know it will be some type
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of impact or trying this navigate the situation with so much unknown at this point. we appreciate upchecking in hopefully we'll get more information in a few minutes. we want to go live to the ground. amy hollyfield has been trying to figure out what's going on here. as you can see, officers are here. they have their guns. this you're not drawn. we are seeing clusters in different areas of this scene that they have blocked off. it's a mastiff area. you see the sheriff vehicles blocking off streets. there's another cluster of officers who are on stand by as this investigation continues. now even though you see those
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officers here, they're not -- they don't have their guns drawn. we are getting word from san jose, santa clara that this is a very active investigation that is still going on. so we don't want you to look at these pictures and think that everything is okay because they are warning people to be careful to avoid this area, to not go nor this area. they're trying to figure out with is going on and they want to keep everyone safe. so as we take a live look, we can see the presence not only from santa clara deputies but san jose fire department. we saw an ambulance earlier. this is very much an active scene. >> we did see three ambulances
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by my count. they didn't have lights on or didn't seem to be in a hurry. we don't know what that means. this is the parking area for many of the civic buildings in san jose. it's where thousands report to work everyday including the v. it a. the vta is what they're working on. they're calling this an active shooter investigation. they said the scene is still active. we don't know what that moans for any potential shooter. still waiting to hear all that information. do know yet if anyone has been injured at this point. as you can see, this is where the light rail vehicles are kept and this is not a stop for the light rail. this is not where people are getting on and off but certainly a place where everyd
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ita lafacility. 880. it appears people are allowed in the parking lot. i would say to stay overly cautious about what may or may not be happening. there's one ambulance close to this building, which is the storage facility for the actual vta vehicles. >> just taking a live look at sky seven. this is what we heard from santa clara. here is that tweet. they said deputies are current le on the scene in the area of 100 west younger avenue in san jose. they ask that people please
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stay away from the area. they say that more information would be following. sense that time we have did then updates about the media staging area letting us know where amy hollyfield, who is on the scene there can moat up with them it get pan update on what's going on here. when they said there was pan -- they were currently on the scene, massive amounts of deputies and vehicles,s we can here from sky 7 are on the scene lock the streets surrounding this vta facility where we know the facilities have been stored. we heard from shopping police that this started around 6:30 this morning, so this has been going on now for an hour and a half. we got the first update from police and from the sheriff's department about this around 7:00 letting us know that they
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were on the scene of this active shooter investigation and that everyone needed to stay away. we want to check in for an update. >> thank you. i have the spokesperson. you were telling me about the impact this will have on the commuters this morning. what do we know? >> there won't be any impact to the commute. we were able to get most of the trains out into service. it buses are operating as usual. we are really focussed on containing the event this morning. evacuating employees and now the
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sheriff is out there investigating the scene. >> thank you. and from people not familiar with this area and the light rail yard, who comes to work here? are there any commuters here? what are we looking for people not familiar? woo have the maintenance tone. we have employees that come in early to get the trains out into service and prepared. i don't know how many people, per se, were there this morning when the incident happened. it's something we'll be looking into and getting more information about. >> we have been working to get more information from the sheriff's office on this. you said incident happened. what we've been able to confirm is this is an active shooter investigation. do you know something more? what do you know?
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>> yeah. at the yard this morning. >> yes. becan confirm that. >> thank you very much. and anything else you want people to know either commuters or people that are in this area right now as the investigation unfolds? >> yeah. we just wanted people to stay away until we can get ahold on this. we ask gr pay she wants as we learn more andi asking for prayers. >> before you go. do you know if anyone has been
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injured? >> and reggie wants to reiterate the question on any injuries. we don't know the answer to that, dran i did? >> correct. i don't have any numbers at the moment. >> but people have been injured? are we able to confirm that? >> i do believe there has been some people who have been injured. that's what the initial report is but we don't have number or i don't know the extent. >> got it. >> would those be employees? >> correct that's all at this point -- >> correct. that's the assumption. like i said, it's a closedoff area. it's where the employees report to. maintain and operate trains. >> as far as access to the building, is this something that is secure in terms of you need to scan in so, say, someone that is approaching the building would have to have some sort of access? >> yes. we do have a tight security
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system in the yard and it would have to have been someone who broke into this yard or someone who had access. >> okay. brandy child rich with bta. thank you so much for giving us your time this morning and, of course, our thoughts with you as this unfolds. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> thank you very much for that. really, brandy, it was a lot of new information and just to recap everything that she said. brandy, again, from bta is able to tell us that from the information she has received that the incident has been contained. what that means, we still don't know exactly. she confirms there was an active shooter at this facility this morning. that there have been people who have been injured. at this point, she's under the assumption that the injuries are employees. she just told us moments ago
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that you would need to get through some sort of security at this yard. so that would either be someone who broke in this morning or already has access to the yard. but now we know from bta that this is an active shooter who is there this morning. that there are people who are hurt. she is asking for our prayers this morning. that's, obviously, stunning and very sad information to hear. >> it is. she talked about, like, this is where people are there working. working to get the trains prepared because they're there overnigh. they get there to get these trains ready. she said they start early in the morning getting everything prepped for people in our community and to have something like this happen on this facility is just so hard to hear. not only for bta but all of us in the community.
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thinking about people at work, preparing to, you know, get the trains and vehicles ready for people who want to go about their day. so we did get a lot of information and kind of gave us some perspective on what could have potentially been going on in this building. who was in the building. she said it was tough -- as you mentioned, secure access needed to get inside the building unless someone is able to break in. she said there's a tight security system here. of course, not being able to confirm but just making the assumption that this is people who are employed here by bta, because it's a closed off area. her believing people have been injured and confirming there was an active shooter here on this yard. and even though she said this incident has been contained, we are waiting to get more clarity on what it means from santa clara county officials. but the sheriff is still on scene. this is still an active
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investigation as they work to gather more evidence. we see so many police and deputies here. we see ambulances here, too. it doesn't look like anyone is inside, from what we can tell. we don't know. we see at least one ambulance here with the lights on. still a lot of things we have to find out, reggie, about what happened here and how people are doing after what happened here. >> yeah. we're, obviously, very concerned and thinking about the people who work there and their family members and friends this morning. it's eight minutes after eight. the incident, according to san jose police, started just a little bit after six this morning. when they got the first call. the police department and the sheriff's department are there right now. they are looking at very close to this facility. we center to assume they got there quickly. we saw a number of police officers out of their vehicles gathering in a circle. appearing they're having some
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sort of meeting now. we'll wait to see what happens there. we know the sheriff's office is telling us we're supposed to be getting more information in about twenty minutes. they'll update us on the situation as they know it right now. we confirmed there was an active shooter there this morning in a bta building. it's unclear how many people were in the building at the time. as you heard from bta, when they were talking a few minutes ago, it's the time when there would be a number of employees there. they get there early in the morning. it's where their bta light rail vehicles are kept. and so they need to get them dispatched and they need to work on that early in the morning. again, we don't know how many people there were at the time of the active shooter. we know that there are at least some people injured. the extend of their injuries or how many people were injured, we don't know. >> and i don't know if you saw the update from santa clara county sheriffs but they said
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the shooter is down. we don't have clarity. we can make assumptions but the tweet says "update, shooter is down." that just came from santa clara county less than a minute ago. as we continue to get more updates and information. i think they did want to let the public know just some more details about what was going on as they surround this building. i'm sure a lot of people were wondering, as they said, stay away from the building. it's an active investigation what it meant. is there someone who is still in this building or in this area with a weapon? so we're getting this update from santa clara county now that says in a tweet, update, shooter is down. >> okay. that's the first confirmation we have received of that. and it would explain why we haven't been seeing a lot of police on foot running in and
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out or near that building. and that has been the case since we've been on the air. so we can only assume that the shooter has been down for awhile now. we don't know, at this point, what kind of damage was done as a result of that shooter. hearing from vta, it sounds like they have the security system in place to keep people who don't belong there out. so the question now is how the person was able to get in. does that person normally work at the facility? those are all things that we don't know at this point. what information are you gathering now? >> i'm on the phone with jonathan, who is a photo journalist and lives in san jose and actually right up the road from where it happened. jonathan, thank you for being willing to speak with us. tell me how it started for you this morning. what did you hear and see? >> caller: yeah, you know, i'm going to bed and i just, i mean, i don't live too far from the vta train yard. you know, i live on hitty, a couple of blocks away from the
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scene. i hear a large, you know, police response. i hear deputies, you know, going down the road on hetty street. it's a pretty large road. i'm curious what is going on and i looked at my phone, looked at a couple of resources, and i noticed there was a large fire response that was getting dispatched to younger where, you know, the vta train yard was at. so, you know, i just came out here and, you know, as i'm driving down the road, i can hear shots and stuff and just a lot of deputies just going towards that whole general area. it's been really intense, you know, the last hour. >> when you say you heard shots -- describe that for me. how many did you hear? how loud? elaborate on tt fome, ea caller:yeah, yeah.yoknowi gu men i tthe f mye. main street, i could just hear, like, a loud, like, like, two
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bangs. i don't know if it was maybe one shot that echoed, but it was really, really loud. where, you know, to hear from four blocks away, you know, it sounded pretty crazy, for sure. i mean, i've never heard, you know, active gunfire before and, you know, in my neighborhood before. >> take me to the scene, so i understand you're a photo journalist. you went down there to see for yourself. were people leaving the building? what did it look like? >> caller: it was pretty mellow. there's not a lot of people in the parking lot now. normally on a busy day, you know, you have all the employees here that just park in the general parking area for, you know, the jail and the sheriff's office. people were actually coming to work. i can see people going toward the jail not knowing what was happening. you know, because as people are walking toward my direction, i'm asking them, like, hey, you know what is going on? do you know what is going on? they're telling me "no." i'm going to work. it's crazy. no one knew what was happening. yeah, i feel like since it was early in the morning, i came out
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>> okay. you are saying that those shots were going off by at least 6:30? >> i mean, i got out of bed at 6:30. by the time i was out, it was just before 6:35, for sure. that is when fire was arriving to the scene as well. >> did you see anyone being taken from the building? >> i did not see anyone being brought out. i spoke to a couple of people who were telling me that they saw victims being brought out on top of sheriff's deputy's vehicles. that is all that i
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have been told here by workers in the area. there is a couple of buildings that are around this general area. i am not sure where they were working out but that is what some of the employees were telling me. >> for people who are watching right now, for a point of reference, at the light rail facility, it is a block away from the santa clara county jail . as jonathan was explaining, people were walking into the jail, that is why. a lot of people get to work at that time in the morning. also, the santa clara hall of justice. also, the santa clara juvenile hall, sgp all in that general area. jonathan, did you see anyone show to the scene? any loved ones? anyone concerned? >> no. not at all. it is really early in the morning. it just probably wasn't expected to happen, to be honest. people were just going to work.
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no one really knows what is going on. as we are speaking right now, people are walking around like nothing is happening. like i said, people who are just coming to work. >> we are getting a new tweet in from mayor sam accardo of san jose, saying a shooting at the facility on younger street has left several people being treated but the situation is -- the shooter is no longer a threat. i will update as more information becomes available. that is the latest from mayor sam accardo in san jose. anything else notable that you saw there at the scene? >> it has been an intense our. a lot of heavily armed police running toward the facility when i got here. you have paramedics and firefighters who were wearing bulletproof vests. they are wearing their bulletproof helmets. it seems like it is a very,
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very serious situation. >> jonathan, are you still there now? >> i am here. >> be careful out there and thank you for taking the time to talk with us this morning. >> of course. thank you. reggie? >> the mayor this morning confirming that this incident is over but also confirming that people have been injured and that is what vta told us a few minutes ago. vta also asking us to ask you to please pray for their employees. this is obviously a very difficult morning for the people at vta to hear that one of their facilities is the site of a shooting. that shooter, dead. we don't know exactly how. we do know that it appears multipleeo been w ntwe stl dot kn e mayor confirming that there are people being treated right now. we also know that in just a few
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minutes, a little more than 10 minutes, we expect to get more information from san jose police . they are going to be holding a news conference at 8:30 this morning where hopefully we will get some questions answered. the most important question and the most urgent one is, does this remain an active shooter and the answer is no. >> i am just thinking about, how are these people doing? these employees? we know they have been injured. to what extent is the question on a lot of people's minds right now as we wait for more information. hopefully they will be able to give us more information around 8:30. reggie, it was interesting to hear from jonathan, someone who was just a few blocks from where this happened when this was all unfolding. he walked us through as he talked with jobina fortson about his morning around 6:30. this fir arted ha line
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joth said he was leaving his house. he heard the deputies responding but what really stood out to me was how he heard those shots. he said he could not tell if it was two shots were one shot or an echo but he said it was so bad for him to hear four blocks away. that surprised him. the other thing that surprised him was that it happened in his neighborhood. he never heard anything like that in his neighborhood before. just hearing someone being shocked by gunshots in their neighborhood on a quiet wednesday morning and hearing him talk about how people were heading to work, thinking i am going into work like any other day. a lot of people will not aware of what was going on. i found it interesting that he did talk to some people who shared what they saw after that happs clear that some people were close enough to get a vantage point to potentially pa
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people you talked to were still going into work and really did not know exactly what was happening. >> right. >> still such a big shock for people who not only live in this area but work in this area because it is something that does not happen. >> right. again, we are expecting -- as you can see on your screen and a piece minutes, a news conference from the police department. i was surprised too, kumasi, when i heard jonathan say he could hear the gunshots from where he lives . i am assuming this happened indoors. the facility looks like it is totally enclosed. i am surprised that he was able to hear it. >> yeah. >> outside of the building, a distance away. that is obviously very concerning. >> even though we are hearing from mayor sam liccardo, we
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heard from vta, from the sheriff 's office, that shooter is down but you can see how active now looking from amy's camera that the scene still is. they still have this area surrounded. we still see all of these police vehicles, sheriff's deputies here surrounding this building. we have seen such a presence from the fire department here. so many officers and deputies and first responders still here at this scene even though we are getting that update that the shooter is down. i anticipate that they will be here for a while as they go through this investigation, this active shooter investigation here. even as we get this update we are expected to get in less than 10 minutes from the sheriff's office, you can see the presence that has been here for almost 2 hours now. this all started around 6:30 this morning.
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knowing that the police department in the sheriff's office just blocks away from where this happened. so many people still coming into work, wanting to do their job, not fully aware of what was going on. it has been quite a morning in this area and it is still ongoing as we wait to get more information from sheriff's deputies in a few minutes. >> really, a sad morning. as jobina was discussing with the vta spokesperson, they need to get the trains out by 4:00 a.m. in order to do that, there are a number of people who are working there very early in the morning. it appears as if this was the collection of people, victims of the shooting. you would have to assume that whoever this was who was the shooter, knew where
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these people were and knew what i would be gathering. either -- there are lots of questions about how that person was able to get in and who that person is at this point. we don't have answers. in any case, the shooter is dead. we don't know how many the rooms there are. we don't know to what extent they were hurt but we do know there are people who were hurt in this shooting this morning. we do know that the vta -- that was the hardest thing to hear this morning was the vta spokesperson asking for people 's prayers for her colleagues, for the employees of vta as they are trying to figure out who is in there. i can't even imagine the agony of the friends and family of people who have early-morning relatives working there as they wait to hear what happened this
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morning. >> reggie, the news today surrounding vta was that they would be increasing capacity on their transit vehicle. they were celebrating being able to serve more people in our communities and now, this is what vta is talking about here. another update i want to give you from amy hollifield who was right there on the scene, she just tweeted out that there have been multiple casualties according to police here as they are preparing to give them an update in about five minutes. there is just so much uncertainty right now as we await for more details about what exactly this means, how people are doing right now on a day that started as a day of celebration for vta that they would be able to get out into the community and serve people in a more effective way. now these people all who are really the first people who get into work and make sure they are able to fulfill that duty and serve our community have
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been hit by such a tragedy, reggie. >> you are reading that tweet, kumasi . it is so heartbreaking. we have been seeing unconfirmed reports that there were casualties at this incident in san jose but this is the first time that our reporter is able to say sadly, that according to police, there are multiple casualties at this location for vta. i hate hearing that . it is awful. >> it really is. we are just with this community and these people who have endured such a horrible thing this morning and are still waiting. there are so many people that have friends and family members who work there who are still waiting for information and hopefully we will get more information in just a few minutes about how people are doing, what exactly happened.
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we just need some kind of clarity and hopefully we will be able to get that in just a few minutes. >> a tough morning for the community in san jose, for the people who live and work near this facility this morning. there are thousands of them either who work at the justice center or who work for the police department and sheriff's office. of course, we are thinking about vta where people are trying to get these trains out every morning . this happened early this morning just after 6:30. you can see more police are getting closer to this area. they really flooded the scene with the officers. the sheriff's office is located right there. we presume that they were able to get there very quickly this morning but active shooter on the scene, the damage was done it appears. now, amy hollyfield, our reporter there is saying that the police are
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telling her that there are multiple casualties as a result of this shooting. we know that the shooter is dead at this point. we can confirm how that shooter died, nor do we know who the shooter is or what that person's relationship is with the vta . we are certainly thinking about the people who lost their lives this morning. there may be others who are injured. sam liccardo saying there are people being treated so that suggests to me that in addition to the people who appear to have died in this incident, that there are also people who got hurt. we are thinking about them as well. >> yes. we know several people have been treated. we know that facility has been evacuated. just getting more information as we continue this morning, just trying to get a handle on what happened here. we do have someone does a
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timeline as this started around 6:30 this morning. police and deputies have been here at this railyard for about two hours now since the incident happened but we know after talking with brandon that employees here have been here far earlier. they have to get those trains ready to go around 4:00 this morning. those employees have been at that facility for hours now before this incident happened. we don't know what was going on at a the building at that time. we do not have that information. brandy, the representative from vta, when we talked to her earlier this morning, she did give us a little bit of insight as to the facility itself. it is really tough to way. it is not a facility that people have access to. she said that the security here is very tight. while we don't know much information about the shooter, this would have to be someone who had access to the building or either broke into
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this building. hopefully that is something we can get some clarity on in a few minutes when we get the update from sheriff's deputies. this was people who were inside this building doing work, getting ready for the day, had been there preparing for the work that they were getting ready to do when this situation happened. we do know from santa clara county sheriff's deputies that the shooter is down. we don't know any information or details about how exactly that happened. that is what we are expecting to learn. we are waiting for them honestly any moment now to give us an update. that is set to start at 8:30. hopefully that can clear up questions we have. right now, following this active shooter investigation. while the shooter is down, still a very active scene. we can see this helicopter from sky 7 lying over the scene. hopefully we will be getting more information as we see this very heavy police presence, fire presence. we see ambulances there as well at the scene. hopefully we will
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get those details in a few minutes, reggie. >> i do want to let you know that the governor just tweeted one minute ago. he says we are in close contact with law enforcement and monitoring the situation closely. there, you can see his tweet. this was supposed to be the day -- it may still be -- this will cast a shadow on what was supposed to be a big announcement from the governor today regarding ways in which california is going to try to encourage people who have not been vaccinated to do so. that was what the governor's office was planning to talk about at a news conference at 2:00 p.m. today. we talked about that earlier this morning gma. now, it is a shooting that is top of mind for him and his administration. and, the rest of us as we wait
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to hear more details about what happened here this morning at this vta facility . >> reggie, we are getting more information from our sources telling us that there are no more than 10 victims. this is preliminary information and hopefully we will get confirmation once we hear the update we are expected to get but we do know that the atf and are responding to this. in addition to the local police and sheriff's office is that we see here, there is a response as well coming from the fbi and the atf. this is just the beginning of what we know will be a very long and thorough investigation into exactly what happened here, reggie. >> right. i always find that wording -- we are getting this wording directly from the law enforcement sources -- no more than 10 victims. i understand what they're
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trying to say. they are giving us an idea of how many people we are talking about here but of course, one person being shot, one person the victim of gun violence is way too many. when you hear about no more than 10 victims, that is a mass shooting. that counts as a mass shooting. that is an unbelievable impact that that has. that is the wording from law enforcement. i just don't want people to think we are somehow not valuing it because that is a lot of people. that was a lot of people hurt this morning. >> we are hopefully waiting to get more information as to more details about the people who have and hurt in this horrible, horrible incident right now. you can see that is where we are expected to hear from santa clara county as we wait for an update. you see our own abc 7 reporter amy hollyfield is there waiting to get more information.
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this is where we expected to get details about what unfolded here this morning. what we do know so far is this started around 6:30 this morning when an -- one employees at the vta railyard -- that is where they keep the vta vehicles overnight. that is where they go out to serve the community -- we are getting more information now. let's listen in. >> you got a couple of minutes. you are fine. >> it looks like he says we have a couple of more minutes. i will go through what we have been able to -- my name is deputy russell davis. i am the public information officer for the santa clara county sheriff's office. good morning, everyone. about 6:30 4 am this morning, santa clara county communication center received multiple 911 calls of shots
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fired, multiple shots fired calls in the area of 101 w. younger avenue in the city of san jose. this building is a vta control center . it is a hub that stores multiple vta trains and maintenance yard as well. multiple deputies, including surrounding law enforcement agencies arrived to the scene for an active shooter investigation. the information i can tell you right now is very preliminary. i can confirm with you right now that we do have multiple victims and we have multiple casualties at this point. i can confirm -- i can't confirm the exact number of injuries and fatalities but i will tell you that there are multiple injuries on multiple fatalities in this case. this still is an ongoing investigation. we do have multiple agencies here helping us out with law enforcement side is well as the county fireside, city fire department, and multiple
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agencies. i will tell you about the suspect right now. the suspect is confirmed deceased. i will not go into detail as what the cause of death is at this point but the suspect is deceased at this point so the public safety is safe at this point. this is still an ongoing investigation like i was saying earlier. we will have another press briefing in about one hour and i will be able to give you an update from their. >> [ inaudible question ] >> the victim -- right now they are vta employees that are victims. in regards to the suspect , i don't have that information at this time. >> [ inaudible question ] >> i don't know at this point what transpired with this incident but it is ongoing. give me a couple more hours and we can give you an update if we have that information. >> indoors or outdoors? the shooting? >> i don't know if this was indoors and/or outdoors at this point. >> [ inaudible question ]
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>> i do not have information on that point. >>can you tell us, were there at least five fatalities? >> there is a lot of speculation on injuries and fatalities. i don't have a number for you. give me one hour and i will give you an update. everything is still preliminary. it just occurred. we have investigators on the scene trying to figure out what happened. right now we are trying to set up a reunification to get victims out to where the need to go and get medical treatment at this point. >> where the victims going? >> [ indiscernible - overlapping speakers ] >> one second. >> i know kind of weapon at this point. >> where can -- we are staging our unification area at our stations office headquarters which is next door at 55 w. younger avenue in san jose. if anyone has any type of information regarding this incident, please give us a call. it can be anonymous in that case. we can get as much information as we can get in regards to what transpired, that would help us out. we do have investigators on scene gathering as much information as we can at this point to figure out exactly
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what happened. >> [ inaudible question ] >> i don't. i don't know how many employees work at this facility. once we do an update in a couple of hours, i will have a vta spokesperson come out . >> [ inaudible question ] >> again, i don't have a formation. give me about one hour and we will do another press conference to give you an update from there. thank you all. >> oh my goodness. that was russell davis, the spokesperson from santa clara county sheriff's office telling us that there have been multiple injuries and multiple fatalities at this active shooter incident here at this vta railyard. he said he got the call around 6:30. 911 calls started coming about shots fired at this vta control center and he was able to confirm that multiple people have been hurt and multiple people have died. he was not able to confirm the
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exact number of either of thoseo one ur t even hear. >>t it is further confirmation of what happened here, the reality really setting and that they shooter was able to get inside the building. we assume it is inside although the sheriff's office did not confirm that. they shot multiple people, killed multiple people and that shooter is now dead. the sheriff's office unable to say to us right now how that shooter died, or what the relationship is. who is the shooter? >> he was able to say that these people were vta employees but he would not give any details about the shooter in this instance. no information about that person. they had a lot of questions
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that thewod swer in abt e hour iid ifpp tsif thmeing meth were fired or what type of weapon was used. everything at this point was very preliminary. this happened roughly 2 hours ago. it is still unfolding. it is a very active investigation right now. they ask that if anybody knew anything about what happened, any type of information that can help them in this investigation, to please give them a call because they're still working on this. they said that you can remain anonymous if you have any information that can help them as they continue this investigation. just really heartbreaking especially when you think about family members of people who work at this building. he said right now, that is what they are focusing on. they are setting up for
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reunification. that is a big focus at this point. we want to check in with amy who was there on the scene and just heard from santa clara county. amy? >> reporter: good morning, kumasi. deputy russell davis says he does not want to go into the details of what happened to the shooter, the person suspected of doing this but he says this person is deceased. he also did not know what was happening at this scene. he is looking into those details but right now he has so many questions. the focus is on getting the victims where they need to be, reunifying them with their families or getting them medical treatment if they need it. it is difficult to hear the official word that they have multiple the dems and multiple casualties but he does nohave a number at this time.
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it does sound like they plan to brief us as often as they can as soon as they get information. within the hour he hopes to be able to give us more information so we will of course be here and push that information out as soon as we can. we know so many people are anxious for any detail from this tragic scene. they have set up an area where they will be reuniting family members with the victims. the sheriff's office was very focused on that right now. getting information out is important but right now the true focus is on the people who were impacted by this terrible tragedy. such a sad situation here in san jose. so difficult to watch this play out. there are so many officials here all huddled together, dealing with the tragedy and also trying to investigate what happened. >> thank you for that update. i know it was really tough. we
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could hear some of those questions that you and other reporters were asking. it sounds like this is still very much preliminary. they are still actively trying to keep it together. >> there are so many officers out here. we know when we arrived that he did not look like the emergency was still unfolding. the urgency was gone, it seems right away. the death of that suspect, it does appear happened pretty soon, pretty early in this situation but they are all still here. they are getting support from all different agencies as we -- we see ambulances. we see fire. police, sheriff, so many different agencies on the scene to help figure out what happened and help with the sadness of this and easing and consoling people while sticking to the
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situation. >> we know right now that focus is on the victims and the location where they are meeting up not too far from where you are now. it is interesting to think of how much is concentrated in this small area. the sheriff's office, the police department. so many people coming to work still. are you still seeing people coming into the office trying to make their way to work? >> reporter: yes. i have talked to people, asking them if they heard anything or saw anything. it appears many of the people are arriving, finding out that this happened. this is an entire block of county buildings. the heart of county government happening right here. pardon me. this is just a police officer trying to get through a barricade and trying to alert people. that was not any sign of an emergency happening and unfolding right now but still, investigators arriving. we are seeing detectives show up . more and more people coming
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to this area but it is a very blocked off area. just beware, if you do work around here. it is a very heavy police presence. a very blocked off situation. >> thank you so much, amy. as amy shared with us, reggie, right now the focus really is on people who have been impacted by this tragedy whether it is people who are victims, family members, friends of victims who are trying to reunite, wondering how their loved one is doing at this point especially when you hear the news of multiple people being hurt? right now, as we heard from the sheriff's office, that is their focus right now, working to support the big comes, reunite them with family and friends. we know that is happening not oi dentne not too far, right up the road we heard
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them say from where this all happened. just hearing from amy gives us a sense of how much of this is concentrated into this one area in san jose, reggie. >> the fact that this happened a little after 6:30 one multiple calls came in about the shooting, the fact that the sheriff's office and the police department are so close to this building and that we did not really start hearing about this until sometime after 7:00 -- that timeline would make sense as to why once we started getting our eyes on this why we did not see a lot of emergency vehicles coming out of the area, just emergency vehicles going into the area. my assumption right now and i am just working on assumption, is this all went down very quickly. as amy was reporting, it is not as if we saw ambulances streaming out of the area or police cars streaming
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out of the area or fire department vehicles. the fact that the shooter was down, there were already aslts very quickly. we did not see that kind of action happening anymore. >> even when we spoke with jonathan, a photojournalist who lives in the area -- we spoke with him a short while ago. he talked about how he was able to hear deputies responding and then hearing gunshots from where he lived about four blocks away but also at the same time saying that people were pretty mellow, still going to work. a lot of people did not understand that something was going on. i think that does speak to the window of time that there was this response to this incident.
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we are waiting to get more details. the sheriff's office was not able to give us timeline athis facility but we did get a lot of information, a lot of heartbreaking information, confirming that multiple people have been killed here. multiple people have been hurt. the shooter involved in this incident is dead no information given about who this shooter was but confirming that the peep hole who were hurt and who were killed were employees here at this vta railyard , preparing to do work for the day. a lot of this information that we were able to get now from the sheriff's office, still so much information that we are waiting yet to get that they could not provide at this time. in about one hour or so they would be checking back in with us to let us know if they have had any updates, that they would be able to share with us. >> right. the first concern is
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the emergency, make sure it is over, make sure everyone gets out of the building. then, of course, to treat the people who were injured. what we have not seen is a large group of people who are not officers standing around. i am not exactly sure how many people were in there or where they took them. him this time that we have been covering this on the air at least live for an hour and 10 minutes or so, we have not seen that. we have not seen the people that were evacuated out of the building. that was obviously one of the first concerns, to get people who were uninjured out of there so they weren't in harms way. when we talked to vta earlier this morning, she could confirm that there were a number of people working in there because they get a very early start at vta as you just heard . this is the control center for the light rail system but we don't know how many people would have been at work around
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6:30 this morning. you can see a long file of police officers and deputies now -- i am assuming -- we will see what happens -- going into these buildings. we are not exactly sure where the shooting took place. there was a question asked about whether it was all inside, whether it was partially outside. the sheriff spokesperson was not able to confirm that. that is something we might be able to get later. you can see there is at least one officer on top of the building as well. >> reggie, this is just heartbreaking to hear for these employees here at vta, thinking about today , our story about vta, how they were able to allow more people to ride and they were excited about that expanding and how many people they could serve in that capacity in these employees here, part of making sure that this system is ready to go. they get there early.
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this is where the trains are overnight. they are waiting to make sure the trains are ready to go to, and for this to be a milestone day for vta as community starting today, something you have not been able to do for so long because of this pandemic, for this to happen is heartbreaking. it is heartbreaking either way but this was just a day that we were sharing about new changes coming to vta with expanded capacity and now this community, this work community, this group of employees here dealing with such a tragedy and still so much is unknown. that is why they set up this reunification center for victims. it is not too far from here at the sheriff's office, at the headquarters here right up the road. the focus is now on supporting them, supporting people, getting them connected with their family and friends,
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getting victims connected and answering questions. it is heartbreaking right now. this just happened around 6:30. let's just give you a breakdown of what we know and a timeline of how all of this unfolded. we first learned from the sheriff's office that there is an active shooter at the vta light railyard around 6:45 this morning. just about two hours ago. it is at 100 w. younger avenue in san jose as you can see from sky 7. we know that there are multiple casualties. the extent of those injuries have not been determined. we are waiting for that information but unfortunately, we do know that several people have died. the suspect died. we don't know how. that information is still not being revealed to us by the sheriff's office but we do know that the employees were
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evacuated. of course, because this is vta, we wanted to know about service. the service will not be impacted going forward today but just such a heartbreaking, hard day for all of vta, asking us for prayer , for people who work there, their employees, their team members. this is a hard day for them. they have been asking for our prayers as we get confirmation that multiple people have died, multiple people have been hurt after a shooting at this vta yard. >> yes. it really is so hard to watch. i just keep thinking about these families that are going to a unification center, the sheriff's office. the people who work with these people who are hurt this
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morning, what is going through their minds? this is a time of the day in the morning where vta would be quite busy. they described it in the news conference as a command center for the vta light rail trains. as they get ready for the morning commute, that is something that they have to start hours before. people getting ready to go to work. for something to happen there after 6:30 in the morning, that seems to me to be one of their prime times when there would be people at work. the spokesperson from vta was not able to tell a 70 people would be there but she said they push the trains out around 4:00 . they are there very early. i can only assume someone would have to know that, would have to understand that is a busy time for them and that would be a time where there would be a number of employees gathered.
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that is also heartbreaking to hear. obviously, with so much law enforcement so close to this particular station or i should say facility for vta , we will have to look at this later and ask this to the sheriff's office. my bet is that they got there extremely fast and were able to respond to the area of the shooting really quickly. it also appears as if this may have gone down very quickly. the suspected shooter is dead at this point. we know there are multiple -- at least a few other people who have died as a result and other people who are still hurt because of the shooting. >> sam liccardo, the mayor of san jose, saying our hearts are in pain for the families of those who were lost in this horrific shooting, confirming again that the shooter is deceased. he is saying that more information will be provided at 9:30. hopefully we will be able
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to get more details at that time . even though we did get a lot of information from santa clara county sheriff's office, there was so many questions that they were not able to answer at that time. hopefully around 9:30 we will be able to get more details as this investigation unfolds, reggie. it seems like we have so much information but really this happened two hours ago. that is why we see such a presence at this scene. it did not happen that long ago. this is when people were already at work in the case of these employees at this vta railyard and people were heading to work . the hall of justice is here. the county jail is here. the sheriff's office is right up the street as well as san jose police department. this is why we see so many people, such a presence here
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from police officers, from fire , and all of the different agencies that santa clara county says came in to support them in this. this is still unfolding. this is still relatively -- it did not happen that long ago. again, i want to show you the tweet from sam liccardo i just told you about. he says, our hearts are pained for the families of those we have lost in this horrific shooting. the shooter is deceased, and more information will be provided at 9:30 this morning. we will wait for more information. reggie, i wonder if more of that information will include details about the shooter. although we got information about this victim, the sheriff's office did not share any details about the shooter except that this person is deceased. >> right. the mayor tweeting about that saying more information provided at 9:30.
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i am wondering if he will be there at this news conference. it was very early for him too when this happened. i just noted a second ago when we were showing the sky 7 footage on the other side of highway is one of the runways for the airport. again, you can see how close and how busy this area is. just so many things right there at this corner right next to the 880. you got the airport just across the street. you have this facility where all of the light rail trains are serviced and where they are dispatched every morning. a real busy time for them at 6:30 in the morning when this was all going down. you may have heard earlier, we talked to a man named jonathan who lives in the area and he heard the gunshots. so, for him to hear it was really surprising to me. again,
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we don't know what sort of weapon was used and we don't know how many shots were fired. the fact that that early in the morning, he was able to hear it -- he was a few blocks away he told us. >> he said he was four blocks away and he said it was loud. that really stood out to me. he said he was not only surprised by that, that he was able to hear it, but that it was even happening his community. he was very much in shock about that. it does give you some perspective live around that time of morning. people clearly at work at that vta yard . other than that, things are relatively quiet. other people working. other people getting ready to come to work. just so much for people to process in this community, especially this vta community, reggie. >> right. it's got to be such a hard morning for those folks. we do know that there is a reunification center for
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families who are looking to seek information about their loved ones who work in this facility or near this facility and that is going to be at 70 w. hedding . the santa clara sheriff's office is sending that out. 70 w. hedding is where to go to seek information and hopefully find your loved one who may have been working at the time of the shooting at this vta facility. there is the address on the screen in case you were not able to hear it. >> i just want to catch people up in case you are just joining us on what we were able to find out about what has happened this morning. we learned that around 6:45 this morning, the santa clara county sheriff's office started getting a lot of 911 calls about shots fired at this vta control center at the railyard that stores vta trains. it is also a maintenance yard. to do a lot of work at this vta yard. they were getting a lot of 911 calls about shots fired.
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they responded. the sheriff's office so they responded quickly there, and they said had other agencies supporting them in that, and that multiple people have died and multiple people have been injured because of an active shooter who was there at this facility. now, the shooter is dead. they confirmed that, but did not give any other details about the shooter. they just wanted to let the public know that they were -- that they were safe. that that person was no longer a threat. they told us that the victims were vta employees. they didn't say what they were doing at the time that this happened, if the shooting was inside or outside. but letting us know that these people who have been killed and hurt were working doing their jobs here. we want to check in with abc 7 news reporter amy hollyfield who is live on the scene. you've been there for a while, amy. what are you

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