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tv   News4 Midday  NBC  July 6, 2015 11:00am-12:01pm EDT

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coming to you with breaking news. this out of walter reid. montgomery county police reporting a single shot report on the walter reid campus. now, we are hearing from some of the folks who worked in that area. they're telling us that they're being told to sheltder in place. this coming from from the of the workers putting out on social media they're being told to stay in place. we have several crews headed to the area. we'll be working this to bring you the latest. >> and sun shine now breaking out around the metro area.it is humid,
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and warm. beginning to climb now into the low 80s. our radar not showing showers around the metro area but a few popping up in frederick county, maryland. parts of the central shenandoah valley and in the mountains. this is just beginning a rund of some showers and thundershowers that will begin to move in but not until later afternoon. between now and then, sun shine in and out. temperatures are mild and muggy. reagan national now is at 82 degrees. >> tom, thank you. right now the search on for a man who murdered someone on a metro train. it happened at the noma metro stop. we are at the scene. meghan, what are you hearing? >> it was a brazen murder. it happened in the middle of the day on the fourth of july on board a metro train. and now police are asking for your help in finding this man
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seen in the photo here. he's an 18-year-old man, jasper spires. the big fire works display down on the mall was just hours away. metro was filled with people making their way to holiday events. among them, a 24-year-old man who was on a red line train on his way to see friends when a violent encounter ended his life. police say this man, 18-year-old jasper spires, stabbed southerland to death in what may have been a random robbery attempt. it happened in broad daylight before 1:00 in the afternoon. as the train arrived at the station. jasper spires is still on the loose and wanted for first degree murder. we have learned he was arrested in an earlier brush with the law on july 2nd nd but released the day before the murder. according to court records in
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that space, spires assaulted a man on wisconsin avenue. documents say he was waving an empty wine bottle and said what do you have in your documents. according to the documents, the the victim was pushed against a wall and spires put his hands around the victim's neck and put his hands in his pockets before walking away. and the report says spires kicked the officers that arrested them. but he was released and went onto commit murder. people are asked not to approach him but contact police if you're aware of his wrashts. >> we're expecting to hear more about the abandoned baby. and we're learning more about the mother charged with child neglect. he has a criminal history. there are several charges against her.
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mccollarlaire ri is accused of leaving the child on the side of the road not far from lake water ford park. >> there was a bag in there with formula that looked like it was dropped out of the case. of course, when the police officers came and everything and they take care of everything. >> county police say crews took the baby to the hospital to get checked out. he was she was released to child protective services. >> investors around the world are on pins and needles as european leaders try to deal with greece's debt crisis. the greek prime minister has spoke within angela merkel. it's their first official talks in days after the world watch greeks rejected a strict bailout plan.
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european leaders are scrambling to put together an emergency session tomorrow. >> live pictures from south carolina's capital. we want to show these to you. they are debating whether or not to remove the confederate flak at the house. it would remove the flag and transfer it to an interior what they're calling relic room for appropriate display. they need a two-thirds vote within the state senate and then it goes to the governor's desk. the entire process should be completed by this thursday. >> right now, a former day care worker is on trial for child abuse. she worked at miniland economy in wood bridge. she and a co-worker -- we are in
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the courtroom for the trial. follow us on twitter on at jewelryjulie kerri at nbc. they are demonstrating high speed driving a simulation of an attack and work with the k 9s. we have reports at 4 4:00, 5:00, and 6:00. such an awesome game. team usa and the incredible players are celebrating with the rest of us. the u.s. women's national team won a record-setting third world cup. the 5-2 victory is in thanks to loid's lloyd's hat trick. >> let's get you to the breaking news out of the walter reid hospital. we have our chopper 4 on scene
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right now. we can show you a live view. the police are confirming there is a report of a single shot heard on that campus. again, this is walter reid medical center in bethesda. you're looking at the live picture. several officers gathered right now. some of the employees reporting on social media that they've been told to shelter in place. you can see officers locking up several of the entrances. it's not clear if that report has beenconfirmed. they have not confirmed the initial report. right now they're working with federal partners on this. we're closely following this. we'll revisit this throughout
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here at the lye desk, continuing our coverage of breaking news. we want to show you a chopper 4
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view from above the seen. you can see several police officers along with federal agents we're told, monitoring the situation very closely. here's what we know. they tell us they have a report of a single gunshot that was heard on the campus. they then followed that up with another tweet saying they have not been able to confirm that initial gunshot. they're working with federal partners on this very closely. those are the weetstweets. we've been monitoring this closely. we want to show you the scene from the chopper and we're working to get the connection back up. i can tell you what we saw a short time ago with some of the officers going in and we're told they weren't going in at a hurried pace. it's a situation, obviously, that's v
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picture from chopper 4 over walter reid in bethesda. we don't know much about what's happening. we understand a shot was heard. one shot is what we're hearing. we've been following this from the lyeive desk. >> we are hearing that staff and people there at walter reid are being told to shelter in place. police are not confirming whether this shot was heard at the campus but they are responding as if this was the real thing. let's check in with david cull ver. >> as we stay with this live picture, you can see several of the officers gathering. a short time ago we saw several of the officers going into building number one. they were going in rather casually but still you can see a heavy police presence at the presence. in the meantime, we can show you
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some of the tweets that montgomery county police have been putting up. they initially told us there were reports of a gunshot being heard on the campus. then they followed up with a tweet to say that they have not been able to confirm that initial report. they're working with federal partners on this. they're most recent tweet saying they've added additional officers to work with the federal partners and there is no incident confirmed. our chopper going in and out but this is breaking news. we have crews going to the scene as well. our assignment desk i can tell you very busy, working the phones to get you as much information on this as possible. we'll continue to monitor it from the live desk. >> have you heard -- i know they've said on the campus is where it was heard. do we know whether it was in one of the hospital buildings or the sound of a shot coming just from the outside area? >> i was just meeting with down of our assignment editors.
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she passed me a map saying it looks like they're focussed on building number one but it's not clear if the shot that was reportedly heard, if that was in or outside the building. but you can tell they're very much focussed on that building number one right now. several police officers on that scene. staff, we can tell you, being told to shelter in place. we're following a lot of employees who are reaching out to us here at the station to let us know they are being told to shelter in place as the investigation continues. >> and we're seeing pictures live from chopper 4 and it looks like the parking lot isn't that full right now. we do see police on the scene and it looks like there are some employees outside now. are people being evacuated? are you hearing anything about the staff besides the ones who are being told to shelter in place? >> we're being told about the shelter in place call. but to your point it's not a panic there. it seems to be very calm as
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they're walking folks out of the build gt. it looks like they're under police escort, some of the employees being walked out right now. you can see several of the roads just off wisconsin avenue being blocked as they are very focussed on that tower, building number one, right there on the walter reid medical campus. >> building number one. >> are you seeing very much police involvement? are there a lot of vehicles arriving there on the scene? >> we did a short time ago see several officers pulling up to the scene, and then several officers going into that building number one as they are continuing to investigate g investigate there but it's not clear if that's where that initial gunshot that was initially heard came from inside that bidding or outside. but as we saw, a very heavy police presence. the montgomery police tweeting they're sending additional officers to that area. >> do you have any idea what time this happened? was it within the hour? >> this came to us right before
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we came on hour, just before the 11:00 hour is when we got the initial report, and right now you can see chopper back up live for you. it looks like employees are gathering there in a front lawn of the campus. and you'll bear with us. the chopper going in and out. let's show you the most recent tweet from montgomery county. they're out there out of an abundance of caution. they're working with federal partners but they're telling us there is no incident confirmed. all they have are reports o single gunshot heard on the walter reid medical campus. >> thank you, and if you are just joining us, following breaking news at the walter reid medical center. here is a live picture. federal agents responding to the scene responding to reports of a shot heard on campus. they're focusing on tower building number one right now. police are saying they are sending additional officers to
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the area out of an abundance of caution. that's a quote from twitter. from montgomery county police. right now their saying to incident has been confirmed but the staff members there are being told to shelter in place but we've seen images of police escorting people out onto one of the lawns there on the campus. >> it looks like there is still calm among the people. nobody seems to be running or panicking. it looks like people in their white coats probably coming from the hospital walking. i don't see a police officer with them. request can you see that? >> we can see that there are police cruisers there on the scene, and montgomery county police have tweeted they're sending additional officers to assist federal partners but there is no incident confirmed. they're just saying right now that a shot was heard. they're responding to reports of a shot heard. have not confirmed what is happening there exactly, but
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obviously they're going to go through the buildings and check out what's happening. right now they're focusing on that tower building number one as david was reporting earlier from the live desk. >> and we'll repeat that they are saying out of an abundance of caution they are keeping people sheltering in place but we can see people moving around. there doesn't seem to be a panic situation right now at this point. only a shot reportedly reportedly a shot heard. >> and this is a look at a text that employees at walter reid have received. it says active shooter. wrnmmc, code white. active shooter shelter in place. to confirm reply with yes and send, but again, we want to reiterate that there is no confirmation about a active shooter. this is a text message the staff members have been sent to shelter in place. police responding to reports of
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a shot heard at walter reid. it looks like officers and other agents gathering to maybe talk or confirm or confer about what they have found so far. we know that emergency crews there and police responding and sending additional officers, quote, out of an abundance of caution. no confirmation as to what incident they're responding to. >> and we are following it from the live desk. are you hearing anything new? >> right now we have following up with the tweet you got with regards to the active shooter. that was a text message sent to employees. we are talking a little bit about last week's response to the navy yard and your comparison when it comes to as ur jept or did you think it was calm? >> i think the difference was it was in the district. it was on a military installation that is surrounded by a lot of other federal buildings so there were more agencies available to respond to the navy yard incident. we see largely a response that's
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obviously from montgomery county police on a campus that is probably as big if not larger as the navy yard. this is some 24 3 acres that make up the national med salical centers. it's a larger campus. the tower buildings building number one, the main building on the military medical center campus is right off wisconsin avenue. it's right as you come into the main part of the campus there. you would find this building there are some clinical operations but we don't believe you would find a lot of patients in that building as you would expect to find in other parts of a more traditional hospital setting at walter reid. >> and we're looking at some of the things located within that tower as aaron was mentioning building number one. they have 3 d medical operations naval post graduate dental school in there as well,
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and we saw officers probably about 10 minutes ago now going into that building number one but they weren't going in with any sort of panic or extreme urgency. they were casually walking in. kind of what you're seeing there. it looks like they are being escorted by police as they're doing that. >> so we're just getting a bit more information from montgomery county police saying they got a call at about 10:48 this morning for a report of a single shot heard. they are on the scene and investigating but they have still not yet been able to confirm the official report. meaning they have not confirmed that there was a shot fire department. just the call that came in seeing that there had been a shot fired on campus. i can't help but remember what happened last week. and we know that that ended up being a false alarm where someone thought they heard someone and called police.
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that was at the navy yard, and that's what we all are supposed to do. if we think we hear something suspicious or odd, we're supposed to notify some authority that we heard something and they're supposed to come and use their resources and investigate something like that happened. as you might imagine you have officers now who are going through this area probably going around the perimeter of the building and maybe even inside looking for any signs that may say yes, in fact there was a shot that was fired or no there was nothing. no signs no one else heard anything. there are no bullet holes or anything of that sort. i think if someone was hurt as a result of an incident happening we would have seen greater signs of that and heard more about that at this point. and as we look at the scene i have yet to see an ambulance or a fire truck show up to sort of indicate that there's some medical attention needed. >> that's right. let's go back to barra and anna. i think we're getting a live report coming up. >> i think it's important to
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emphasize at this point police have not confirmed anything about a gunshot or anything like that. at this point they're saying that they received a report of a single shot heard on walter reid and we're going live on the scene now with more information. derek. >> reporter: good morning. we are here outside of building one, gate one of the walter reid campus campus. there are some employees outside the gate. in a relatively calm state. we have heard reports that there are two navy teams inside the building and they are being assisted by at least one montgomery county team. they are staging a short distance from here and hearing reports of one gunshot and we've also heard reports of other gunshots. none of that confirmed. theyter drill. some of the employees are over here and we're hearing the whole campus is shut down and on lock down. we haven't seen much emergency equipment here.
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we see them staging also across the street, some at the subway station in a stand by mode. the gates are closed. as you can see, there's a traffic back up here. no one is moving in or out of the facility since we've been here. we've been here for 10 or 15 minutes or so. if you are headed this way on rockville pike, expect traffic backups. we've seen one fender bender just from the backup. you can see some montgomery units moving about the scene but this is a military facility as well as a hospital, so there are those sorts of resources there. those sorts of assets there and they've already been put into action and they're being assisted as we understand by montgomery county units as well. we don't know how many have been called for or what they are being used for but there is a search going on for building one. building one is probably the most familiar building on the
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campus. when ronald reagan was here, he waved from a tower at building one. that was where we are hearing this report of an active shooter came. now, of course, that term brings all kinds of connotations and i think that is what they go with first off just to be on the safe side, but we don't know if that has been confirmed. again, reports of at least one gunshot heard and i've heard reports of more than one shot heard. we know they're calling this an active shooter drill or an active shooter event. that is what they're doing right now. we'll bring you more as it becomes available. back to you. >> thank you very much. we're going to go to captain paul starks with montgomery county police. you're calling it an active shooter situation there? >> no. we're not confirming that. at about 10:48 this morning we
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responded for the call of a sound of a single gunshot that was reported on that campus. we haven't confirmed it's a gunshot but just that it was the sound. and given the times that we're living in and given this location, we have responded you know, with a number of folks in order to confirm this and do this search if necessary, and evacuation if necessary in a safe and organized manner. >> captain, what are your officers doing right now on the scene? >> well there are some things that i'm not going to give away but they've responded in order to set up a perimeter, and confirm, one, if this was a gunshot and two if someone is there, with intent to commit violence, and then stop that violence and safely get employees and people out of the
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building from the area where that might be occurring but, again the first job is to confirm just what the situation is. >> and it looks like we see a lot of movement on the campus outside the buildings. we also heard you've asked people to shelter in place. are your officers escorting people out of there out of their places where they have been or where they were when this all began? >> i'm not sure whether we have asked federal employees to shelter in place. we are there assisting our federal partners, but there have been some people that have been escorted away from buildings. it's been done so in a very organized and calm fashion. there's a process and procedure for this, and that's just what has begun, and what is beginning to be set up and established right now. >> and just to be clear captain, at this point, you have
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not confirmed that this is even a gunshot that was heard. >> no. we're not. and we have, of course the radios on. we're in communication with the people on the scene and the 9-1-1 center every minute, and that has not yet been reported from anyone, that i know of, on the scene. >> it was a single shot heard, though, just one? >> that's what was reported. again we can only go with what was phoned in and what was relayed to our 9-1-1 center. and police have to respond to those types of calls. again, out of an abundance of caution, we have to make sure that this is treated appropriately. >> and have you had the opportunity to talk to the pe called in the report of having heard this single shot? >> that's a great question. i'm not sure whether that person has been identified yet. but that would be one of the first things that are
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investigators and first responders would want to do talk with that person, and if that person can be identified, and get first-hand just exactly what that person heard or saw. >> and captain, you mentioned that in times like these, this is how police have to respond, even as in last week's situation at the navy yard, where it turned out to be a false alarm, this is standard procedure for you? >> correct. it's protocol, and, again whether it's a response to a resident or something larger like this where we're actually working with an allied law enforcement agency, we have our procedures and protocols in place and we are working step by step through that list trying to do it as quickly as possible but safely as well. >> and that's a huge campus,
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right? >> yes, it is. it's hundreds of age acres, i'm told. >> we're seeing a lot of police cars out there. how many units do you have out there at this point? >> that i don't know. it's squarely within the borders of our second district in the bethesda area, but in order to staff this appropriately, we've asked officers from the other five districts within the county to respond as well. not every officer but just a number of officers. also on duty tactical officers, also have responded, again, just in case there's a need. >> and you mentioned that one of the jobs is for officers to set the perimeter around the campus, to make sure that no one is getting in and out. what's happening? that's a very busy section of bethesda. >> i don't know how they're
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handling it. the traffic or access to that portion of wisconsin avenue, but if there is a break, it's a good cautionary note to publish is that commuters probably want to avoid that area of bethesda and that portion of wisconsin avenue right now because it could be used as an area of the park, additional vehicles and traffic flow could be restricted. >> what would take you to the point where you can call for an all clear in how long will you have to be out there? how many officers will be to search this entire campus before you'll be able to say that this is actually probably not a shooter? >> great question. but we're not able to put a timetable on it. we have to make sure that it's a
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thorough and accurate kind of search, and should they have to check every building that would be a pretty complex task. >> all right. the captain from the montgomery county police, you're watching news 4 midday. tell us the initial report and what police are doing on the scene. >> at about 10:48 montgomery county police received a call for the report of the sound of a single shot on that walter reid campus in the bethesda area on wisconsin area. we have numerous first respondered who have come to that area to try to determine in f that report is true, and then begin to address that. >> all right. captain paul stark with
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montgomery county police. thank you so much. >> you're welcome. thank you so much. >> let's check in to the news room. >> we just got the official word from the u.s. navy on how they are viewing and treating this situation. they put out a statement that says the u.s. navy the department of defense the national institutes of health and the county security personnel are responding to unconfirmed active shooter report at walter reid bethesda. employees sheltering in place right now. cannot confirm any incidents, or casualties. that is the official word coming in from the united states navy about what's happening at quality walter reid and they've told us they have folks who are now responding as well to the scene there at walter reid. >> and in the text message we hear active shooter. you heard the captain say he is
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not confirming that there is an active shooter. for those joining us there's a report of a single gunshot heard on the campus of walter reed medical center. fire engines moving in. in that is a live picture. we have several crews right there. we should stress how large of a campus this is. you can see a map of it right there. the pink building at the bottom of the screen is building number one. that is what's known as the tower. that's where the focus is on this investigation as of now. this is a 243-acre campus in all 7,000 staff members, and we saw through the live pictures from chopper 4 that the staff members most of them were being escorted out very casually and calmly. others we're hearing on social media, that they're being told to shelter in place. we're seeing it repeated several times over. >> and it's important to know. we hear the term active shooter. that is a term that law
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enforcement and first responders will describe a situation where someone has reported a shot fires and then they have to respond and look for someone who may have fired a shot. that is what i think we can't take active shooter necessarily to mean that there's somebody running around with acampus. it describes how law enforcement might look at this in terms of their response. that is why we see in this live picture here. you see military personnel. i can't tell if they're carrying rifles but they are wearing vests and they have their normal handguns they would carry. they're protecting the perimeter in a slightly more enhanced presence than you might typically see if you were going onto the walter reed presence. there's always military personnel in this but it looks like there's a little more activity on the ground. >> our news desk is working the
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sources. our digital team working on this as well. they're seeing several tweets coming out from employees who work there. they are confirming they're in a lock down mode and asking us if there's any updates. it seems the information they're getting will be coming from us via social media. they are closing the front gate. there seems to be a level of calm. there's one navy personnel drinking a bottle of water. it doesn't seem extreme panic when they're on site there as of now. >> a lot of folks who we would assume are getting off the metro there and heading toward work toward their workday maybe or returning from lunch or visiting patients something of that sort who were working their way toward the hospital facilities there and they have now been left outside. there's obviously the metro station, some bus stops close by as well and now these folks, it appears are in a holding pattern along with our crews on the
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ground at this point as well. >> all right. the latest as of now, report of a single gunshot on the campus of walter reed medical center. we have meghan fitzgerald live on the scene. what are you learned, meghan? >> reporter: well, at this point i think the consensus is to remain calm. we don't have all the facts at this point. no need to put fear into people. right now we're outside of gate 2. you can see it's being armed by some officials. we want to pan over here and show you several employees we've talked to. some of them received a text message about a possible shooter. others just arrived to work and were told they couldn't get in because of a possible situation that's playing out. i want to bring in this woman. this is angela. she's worked at the medical sen for for several years. tell us about how you feel? >> actually, i'm not an employee here. i was a patient.
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i came for an appointment. we're just waiting to see. we heard that -- i heard through social media that there's some reports of a possible active shooter but nothing confirmed yet. >> how do you feel about that? >> um i mean i think they're doing what they have to do. they're taking action on the report. so we're just here waiting outside the gate so see what happens. >> okay. angela, thank you very much for joining us. we appreciate it. >> reporter: a lot of people are concerned but at the same time, just waiting and wanting to learn more information, exactly about what is happening here. now behind us is the metro. we did speak with some armed officers over there letting us know they're setting up a perimeter and keeping their eyes peeled on any possible activity. in the meantime, folks out here waiting and hoping to hear more about what's happening. as we get more information, we'll bring it back to you.
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>> meghan fitzgerald live and talking to employees who are waiting outside the gate there to get more information. here's a live look now from chopper 4. that looks like some sort of law enforcement vehicle. >> it looks like an armored vehicle. >> it does. >> montgomery county police have been tells us they're responding with an abundance of caution out of an abundance of caution to the scene after they received a report for a single shot heard on campus. that was at 10:48 this morning. at this point officers have not confirmed those initial reports. we're hearing that staff received a text message that said it was an active shooter situation but police have not confirmed that either. they're being told to shelter in place and they're outside sheltering as well. >> we have to continue to repeat that what we are hearing is that someone reportedly heard what sounded like a shot. they call it apparently, an active shooter situation.
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whenever something like this happens because it brings in all the people that they need to actually go and find out if there is, indeed an active shooter on this or any other campus. >> and this is a large campus in bethesda. this is right off a busy section of wisconsin avenue, and this, as david cull ver from the live desk mentioned, over 200 acres of property. several buildings that police have to go through to give the all clear. right now officers are there helping federal agents try to number one, confirm that the sound was that they heard this morning that was reported this morning right before the midday show began. and at this rate, they say they are focusing on tower number one. that's building number one. and they're trying to figure out what was heard this morning, and whether or not they can give the all clear to the people who are working there and now can't go. >> and the captain of the montgomery county police said it would be very important to talk
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to the person who made the phone call to police or made the report. he did not say that they had been able to talk to the person. he thought it would be important to find out exactly what the person heard perhaps from what direction they heard it and that could make a big difference but he wasn't sure they'd identified the person who made the report. >> that's right. you're loorkking live right now from chopper 4 at walter reed medical center in bethesda. and a statement from the live desk that this is considered at least according to the statement from the navy, an active shooter scene and the folks at walter reed are being told to shemtlter in place but police have not confirmed this was eve an gunshot. they said they're responding to reports that a single shot was heard on the cam can pus shortly before 1:00 -- 11:00.
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>> we just saw what looked like officers running toward the entrance of the building number one there. and now we're hearing sirens. let's go to derek on the scene. what's happening right now? >> reporter: take a listen. you hear the siren in the background. and we just heard an announcement. a live announcement saying attention, attention, shelter in place. go to the nearest building until the all clear is announced. that was proceeded bay siren. we're hearing that repeated about three times. this is a pa system all over the campus. it's preceded by a siren and probably a recorded message saying all people are to shelter in place. to go to the nearest buildings. this is the first we've heard since we've been hear confirming and announcing that the shelter in place is in order. we've been hearing this from the beginning. it has reached another level. what this means, we don't know.
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this is a protocol that they have for situations like this and it's being called an active shooter situation. we don't know if it's con official firmted. >> we've also seen state police block traffic on rockville pike. it is now shut down completely. there are people queued up to get into the gates. they're not going anywhere. you might want to avoid rockville pikes. north and southbound traffic seems to have been stopped. >> you're outside the gate at walter reed that's right? >> yes. >> reporter: we're at gate two. >> any additional federal agents or officers going into the campus there? >> reporter: they didn't go into the campus. they went down to the end of the facility and blocked traffic. they blocked northbound traffic on rockville pike. i haven't seen any southbound traffic come for quite some time now. i can't see a backup beyond the
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campus looking north. it looks like traffic north and south has been shut down in front of the facility. those state police units two state police units went down and blocked the northbound traffic. >> are they rerouting that traffic just in that block of this facility? how far back does it go and how far north. >> i can see probably near the beltway exit and it is gridlocked. some traffic is turning down near cedar i think and on the other side of jones bridge but we don't see -- we see very little traffic. it's people coming out of line and trying to get away from the facility. they're given up on trying to get in there. as far as we can tell we don't know what the in the mientds of motorists but there hasn't been any through traffic for i'd say five or ten minutes. >> all right. live at walter reed medical center outside the gate showing us from the live view the
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rockville pike both directions blocked off as police respond to the scene. >> you're looking at a map of the facility of the whole campus of the walter reed national military medical center. nas bethesda. we're focussing on building number one, that's the one of the tower in the center of the campus and apparently that is where the person who reported the sound of a gunshot was at the time, at least that seems to be the center of things. but as we're seeing, they're blocking off track. we just heard in front of the building along rockville pike. we don't know how much of the facility and how much of the campus is actually being looked at at this point. >> it's a huge facility right now and montgomery county police told us they're going to have to go through these buildings and secure the campus before they can give the all clear. at this point they haven't even confirmed what that shot was that they -- that was reported
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this morning at 10:40 48. there is a helicopter over the scene as police respond to the situation. as derek said he heard the live announcement moments ago telling people to shelter in place. our other reporter on the ground inside walter reed showed us that there are employees and workers who are outside of the buildings who are being escorted by police and being told to stay outside where they are as well. right now we're waiting to hear confirmation. the people who are working at walter reed waiting to find out what's happening and what to do next. >> and we will repeat what we have been hearing. this is all being down out of an abundance of caution. in this day and age, you just don't know and police respond. we have federal state, and i think even now state police,
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montgomery county police all apparently there looking for the source of this gunshot or the sound of a shot that someone heard. >> and we've been going to david cull ver at the dive desk with more information about possibly getting an update about what police are trying to do on cam campus campus. we saw officers going into the building one to try to get some sort of confirmation about what the sound was. again, police mentioned they received this call at about 10:48 for a report of a single shot heard. let's dmek nowcheck in now at the live desk. >> i want to point something out on the map. we are briefing on the location of the campus. the tower is the tower the pinkish building, and then with
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reference to the child day care. that's farther from this building. that is toward the middle of your screen right there and it's not too far from the metro stop as well. also when it comes to traffic in that area you heard derek mention rockville pike is closed. we also have two updates on two other nearby roads in that area. jones bridge road along the right of your screen and cedar lane. you can see employees being escorted out in a calm fashion. >> obviously you see some of the white robes there. at least one or two doctors in the group and some other medical personnel as well as some uniformed people. it would appear at this point that at least some facilities in this -- on this campus and very likely, a part of that building number one, the main president's building, the tower, are being released from that building and you can imagine as we've learned together in the last couple of years, when law enforcement has to mount this sort of response
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and go through a building room by room they're going to find people and as they think the spaces in the building have been secured, and they were able to quote, unquote, clear those spaces they're going to try to move people out. if there is a threat, they'll try to get people out of the potential threat zone as quickly as they can but as safely as they can. the people you saw working there you go in the live picture walking toward, it looks like the main gates here these are likely folks that were in a space that has now been cleared and they're being allowed to leave under the watchful eye of law enforcement here. >> and among the other complicated factors, one of our assignment editors pointing out there is tunnels that connect several of these buildings. not only do they have to go room to room within the buildings but search the passageways to be sure they can give the all clear. you can see, maintaining a very
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heavy police presence. we saw an armored vehicle a short time ago. s.w.a.t. team members moving quickly. other officers mostly calm. we have meghan fitzgerald standing by again with another update. >> reporter: at this point just as my colleague mentioned, there was a loud broadcast going out letting all folks know all personnel need to shelter in place. but in the last couple of minutes, we've seen a group of doctors being escorted. a heavy police presence here. helicopters flying above not far from where we are here. rockville pike is the metro station. there are armed guards there. we've had an opportunity to speak with a lot of patients outside of the gate an also some employees. many of whom tell us they are concerned, but they don't want to get too concerned because they don't know exactly what's happening. we want to bring in an individual here who has worked at walter reed for about two
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years. tell us a little bit about what you heard. you were coming to work. >> yeah. i was coming in. i saw everything out here and i asked the cameramen and they said it was an active shooter response. i'm shocked honestly, because i hope this isn't a sick game someone is playing or if this happened, i don't understand why this would happen where there's a lot of people, our veterans, and a lot of people here who have families work, loved ones and it's not a -- i just hope everything gets settled out quickly. >> reporter: sure. what we do know at this point, it was just before 11:00. there was a call that came in that said someone possibly heard a shot fired and then this response. what do you make of it? >> i don't know what to make of it. i'm just shocked that everyone is out there. but these folks are the best and i hope if this person is here they get the guy and that's all i can say. you know? yeah. >> reporter: so obviously
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there's some concern there. >> there's concern there's a little nervousness, because you don't want to see this, honestly. come on, people someone did this. why would you want to harm other people? you have your own problems you have your own problems, but honestly you can't take whatever you have out on a whole bunch of innocent people in there. >> reporter: sure. thank you for your time. thank you for talking to us. frustration obviously, but again, we don't know exactly what happened. all we know at this point is there have been reports of someone possibly hearing a gunshot. what we saw just the oh day atther day at the navy yard how seriously they take these sorts of calls. they are coming here and letting folks know they need to shelter in place so they can assessments. some concern among employees here waiting to learn more about what's happening. >> meghan, you are seeing
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employees outside. we saw people in uniform and also officers escorting workers outside but we've also heard that shelter in place or are people being moved at all? are they staying put outside of the building. >> reporter: it was breaking up. would you repeat the question? >> i was saying we've seen officers escorting people outside outside of the building? >> well from what we're able to tell, which was sort of interesting because, again, it was just a couple of minutes ago that we heard the announcement, shelter in place, attention, attention, shelter in place, and then within a couple of minutes after this yarks we're seeing what appear to be some doctors being escorted from the building. we're not sure where they are going. we were told by some of the armed armed guards to back up.
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at this point people are still wondering what's happening. one woman said he received a text message saying there was a possible active shooter. she's a patient here. she's concerned. she's wanting answers but at this point, it looks like it's a very secure perimeter. we can spin you around and you can see an officer who's blocking rockville pike here. and just beyond that is when we were letting you know about the metro station. armed guards securing metro as well. i asked them what they were doing. they told us they're securing the perimeter. they want to make sure that everyone realizes what they're investigating right now and so sort of keep calm, keeping people calm but at the same time keeping them informed that this is a serious situation that they are responding to right now. and they're just waiting to hear more information. >> are they allowing people to leave when they bring them out of the buildings, those people we've been seeing are any of
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them actually leaving the campus? >> reporter: it's a good question. we've been out here for several minutes now. we've been monitoring the campus. the first sighting of people leaving was that escort -- the officers escorting what appeared to be doctors. other than that we've not seen anybody. in fact, i had a conversation with someone who works inside the building. she told us people are being told to stay in place. that's consistent with the broadcast, that loud announcement that we heard of telling folks to shelter in place telling all personnel to sort of stay where they are. at this point, there's not anybody walking around besides military personnel and officers as well but for the most part, it's pretty quiet on campus as officers sort of do their thing.
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>> interesting to fiernd out if things are going on there. are babies being born? are doctors being able to go about their regular duties at this time? have we been able to find out what's happening inside as far as the medical facility is concerned? >> reporter: at this point, there's still a lot of unanswered questions that we're trying to get the answers to. law enforcement, obviously, focusing on the task at hand which is trying to identify if there is a threat, attack that threat if in fact there is an active shooter in the building. we don't know that at this point. they're still investigating. it looks like they're opening up a gate. this is the first sort of activity we've seen here as far as a gate being opening. not sure what's happening. here we go. we see some more law enforcement officers coming into the gate here.
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here comes another car. but as you can see, from the campus itself, you don't really see much activity. you don't doctors. you don't see anyone else walking around the campus, so at this point, that's all we know at this point. but we'll continue to see if we can gather more information on what's happening inside the building and what's going on with those individuals who are here for treatment and how that's sort of playing houtout. >> from your vantage point besides the officers and directing traffic, can you see any other activity in terms of what officers are doing there? >> reporter: we talked to you a little bit earlier about the officers that had their guns in their hands and behind us you can see they're blocking off traffic here on rockville pike. that's what's going on outside of the gate. they set a clear perimeter for us. we tried to get as close as we
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could inside, or just as close as we could to the gate here but the officers are asking us to back away. asking us to back away so at this point we don't know what is happening inside, but what we can see is a couple of officers around the perimeter. you can see these ladies here opening up the gate for other law enforcement officials who look to be sort of coming in here. they're directing traffic as we can see here but still a very active scene. we can hear the helicopters flying above. we know officers are asking people to stay in place so they can search and try and find out where the alleged call came from of a possible shooter. and together to gather more information as we go forward. >> thank you so much and we will continue to follow your side of the story from your vantage. tom sherwood is also on the scene and can tell us what he's seeing at this point.
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tom? >> barbara we've here on rockville pike at west cedar lane and cedar lane. they are blocking all southbound traffic. there's no one coming yobd where we are right now. they're not even letting some people who wanted to walk up to the metro stop, they're not allowing them to go there and if you look to the left, it would seem down toward where the incident is occurring, we're some distance away from the gates. there's no one down there. just off to the left, nsh northbound, you can see very few cars here being allowed to leave the scene. i want to go back way over here and look at west cedar lane. you can see that -- i saw a bus driver get out of that bus right there and ask the police officers if he can get through and they made him wait like everyone else here is waiting at rockville pike. that's what's happening here. we're monitoring the scene. we'll be back when we have
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something. back to you. >> tom, thanks so much. if you are just joining us for news 4 police are responding to walter reed bethesda for reports of a shot that was heard at 10:40 this morning dmmt at this point officers have not confirmed the initial reports. police tell us that officers are responding out of an abundance of caution to help federal agents there at walter reed bethesda respond to the situation. the staff there have been told to shelter in place. they've blocked off traffic so they can't go in and out of the area. right now workers and the reporters there on the scene are trying to figure out exactly what happened. they're waiting for more information. >> we're continuing to follow the story and we'll bring you everything we hear as it happens. we'll certainly have more about 4:00 5:00 and 6:00 this evening. we've been watching this active shooter response.
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we should call it at walter reed national military center since early this morning. >> and david has been monitoring the situation from the live desk with any new developments. >> i want to read you the most recent statement coming from the united states navy through their public information office. it says naval support activity bethesda is currently in lock down and all base personnel are sheltering in place as a result of unconfirmed shots. they are searching the area. they hope to release more information. that is the latest official statement we've gotten on activity that's happening at walter reed and the lock down that's now been put in place by the military because it is one of their facilities. while we s

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