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Shooting Outside of Canadian Parliament; Malls Schools on Lockdown Continues; Parliament Hill Attack Concerns Canada, U.S.; M.P. Kevin Lamoureux Talks Shooting, Lockdown; Islamic Terrorism Suspected in Canada Shooting; Canadian Authorities Share Name of Shooting Suspect with FBI
Aired October 22, 2014 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I have to tell you, Wolf, from the security situation on Capitol Hill. And there will be lots of questions as to how this happened. The initial gunman, when they had the shooting in front of the war memorial, they charged at those front doors. There is no security at those front doors in terms of there being a barrier. There's a lot of personnel there. Some of them are armed. That's how he was able to get into the building. And that is why there are two levels of security.
And while this was going on in Parliament Hill, simultaneously, it seems, a five-minute walk down the hill towards the mall and the entire mall was under lockdown, and I can tell you, within a very large radius, the lockdown continues. My children's school is in a security lockdown. These are still intense moments. And they do not know if there is still a gunman on the loose. There has been no all- clear given in that downtown core -- Wolf?
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, it's a very scary situation. The video and the images that we've been seeing underscore that.
Paula, I want you to stay with us.
We'll take a quick break. Much more of the developing story out of Canada when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
BLITZER: I'm Wolf Blitzer, in Washington.
The breaking news, a terrible incident in Canada today, in Ottawa. A shooting incident, one Canadian soldier guarding parliament meant, the national war memorial, shot and killed. There are at least -- one of the suspects, one of the shooters shot, arrested and shot and killed himself, but, but there is a suspicion that another shooter may still be at large in the Ottawa area.
Here's what happened in the Canadian parliament meant just a little while ago.
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BLITZER: All right. So there you have it. Dramatic moments a while ago.
The Canadian government says one of the shooters shot and killed by Canadian law enforcement, another shooter may, though, be at large right now. U.S. officials say there is at least, so far, no indication of violent Islamic extremism, any connection, but they say this is very, very early in the investigation.
Paula Newton, who knows the story well, is joining us once again.
You're getting new information. Paula, what are you learning?
NEWTON: Well, I just got off the phone with the police chief of Ottawa. He is still saying there is no all clear. There could be a gunman on the loose. They are going office-to-office in the parliament buildings. If no one is answering the door, they are going into those offices, knocking doors down, doing what they have to do to make sure they search every corner and crevice of the parliament buildings. They are supposed to have a briefing within the half hour and will give us many more details.
Clear right now, bottom line, this downtown area still remains under threat as far as the police are concerned.
BLITZER: Paula, the Canadian government is now saying one Canadian soldier was shot and killed.
We're getting these tweets from various members of parliament. Jason Kenny tweets, "Condolences to the family of the soldier killed and prayers for the parliamentary guard wounded. Canada will not be terrorized or intimidated." And another M.P., John Williamson, tweets, "Government caucus received confirmation shortly ago that one Canadian soldier was killed. A moment of silence followed." Very sad news.
Ottawa is not a huge city. They must be very, very nervous if there's a shooter at large. These kinds of incidents don't happen often in Canada, do they, Paula?
NEWTON: Wolf, this is an incredible game changer in Canada. The amount of security that there should be here in Parliament Hill and the downtown area has been debated. People were inclined to keep it as open as they could for the pubic will. My children have played soccer in the front on the grass. It's that kind of open place. It's supposed to remain open to adhere to the values a lot of Canadians have. The problem is right now, Wolf, and as we've been saying, and as I've been following for years, this chatter about a lone-wolf type of attack or something organized, Mumbai-style, in Ottawa has happened before, twice before in aspirational terms. The investigators in Canada have actually looked into and charged people with these kinds of plots either against the prime minister or against those parliament buildings in Canada. Everyone knew that there was a risk that this could happen. Again, it was a very difficult balancing act. A bad day.
Wolf, I'm getting emails that my children's activity has been canceled and traffic is a nightmare. This is just something that doesn't happen in this kind of a city.
And also in terms of the very character of the way the politicians and even our own prime minister was spirited away in underground tunnels, his residence is about a five-minute drive from the parliament buildings. The opposition leaders are all away from parliament right now. They were pretty much put into a safe place almost immediately. The problem is this is not the way anyone wanted it to be in Ottawa. They wanted to try to keep it safe and secure without having to go to a lot of overt security in that area. Wolf, after this, that may change.
BLITZER: Yeah. And you say there's going to be a briefing coming up shortly from --
(CROSSTALK)
NEWTON: At the -- absolutely. I believe either from Ottawa, a joint press conference with Ottawa police and the RCMP at the top of the hour. We should have more information in about 20 to 25 minutes. We'll have live coverage of that.
BLITZER: We'll have live coverage of that.
Paula, stand by.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police commissioner has been meeting with Stephen Harper, the Canadian prime minister. There's a picture that has just been released. Obviously, a huge concern for Canada and a huge concern for officials here in the United States as well. Very close cooperation in terms of intelligence cooperation, law enforcement and military cooperation between the U.S. and Canada.
Our law enforcement analyst, former FBI assistant director, Tom Fuentes, is joining us by phone right now. I
I don't know if the U.S. has a closer ally than Canada. I assume that the U.S. is working really close with Canada to try to figure out what happened, Tom.
TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: That's right, Wolf. The U.S. has a very close relationship with the Canadians. The FBI in particular has three offices in Canada, the main office in the U.S. embassy in Ottawa, has worked closely on many cases. And a self- radicalized individual was going to, you know, have bombs set off in downtown Toronto and would have killed hundreds of people and the RCMP, the Canadian intelligence service, the Toronto police as well as the FBI worked closely in that case with the U.S. connections, also, with some of the individuals.
So in their parliament building, it is a first, and we'll have to wait and see. Is it a copycat because of the person who ran through the White House front door a couple of weeks ago? Is it a copycat because somebody killed a Canadian soldier driving his car over a soldier two days ago? That will all remain to be seen.
The key to this is the identification of the one shooter and find out who is he and starting looking at his phone calls, friends, college classmates. That will give an idea of if he's just a deranged individual or part of a group or a wannabe jihadist and what his motivation might have been.
BLITZER: Stand by for a moment, Tom.
Kevin Lamoureux is joining us. He's a member of the parliament.
Mr. Lamoureux, tell us what you heard, tell us about the lockdown. Where are you now?
KEVIN LAMOUREUX, MEMBER OF CANADIAN PARLIAMENT: Yeah, hi, Wolf. In short, what I can tell you is that, every Wednesday, members of parliament meet on Parliament Hill in the precinct or the block known as Center Block. I was just going into our caucus room when security had asked us to leave and, at the time, just thought that it was a fire alarm request. So I slowly got out of the caucus. And before five seconds after leaving the caucus room, I heard rapid fire of what appeared to be 20 shots or more, very loud, appeared to be very close and that motivated a lot of people to move quicker and following the security who did a phenomenal job at getting us out of the building, which wasn't too far for me, because I was right at the back. And, as it turns out, it happened just above us. And that's why it sounded so loud. And then a few minutes later, we had the prime minister's motorcade to leave the back. And then we had heavily armed law enforcement officers come to the back and escort us off the hill because they believed there might have been another shooter in the back. And since then, it's been in lockdown. We're expected to stay away from the windows until we're given further information.
BLITZER: Is the suspicion though there is at least one other shooter at large someplace in Ottawa right now?
LAMOUREUX: I just don't know. I know as much as you do in terms of just listening to media reports at this stage. All I know for a fact was there was a lot of gunfire inside the House of Commons, which is the Canada's, you know, place for freedom and democracy and so forth. That's where all of our debates take place.
BLITZER: Is there also a concern that this could be connected to Monday's vehicle killing of a soldier by someone described by law enforcement authorities as someone who was radicalized? Is there a connection here? Is that what is going on or is it just a copycat or two isolated incidents?
LAMOUREUX: Wolf, at this point in time, no one, from what I understand, has any sense of what the motivation was. So it would be purely speculation. At least I have no sense of it at all. All I heard is prayers go out to some of the individuals that have been hurt by this, in particular, an individual at the war memorial that was shot. You know, just hope things turn out well for him, and if anyone else has been hurt throughout this process.
BLITZER: The soldier who was shot, at least, the Canadian government has now confirmed he's dead.
LAMOUREUX: I hope he survives. You know, I don't know any details whatsoever.
BLITZER: I think one soldier was hurt. But I think one soldier, the Canadian government has now confirmed, was shot and killed by this individual.
LAMOUREUX: Yeah.
BLITZER: And we know one of the shooters was shot and killed as well. But there is suspicion a second shooter remains at large. I know this is very early information and it's sketchy.
I want to thank you, Kevin Lamoureaux, deputy house leader of the Canadian parliament.
LAMOUREUX: Thank you.
BLITZER: We'll stay in close touch with you. Good luck.
LAMOUREUX: Thank you, Wolf.
BLITZER: We'll stay on top of the breaking news. We'll have more information coming in to CNN. We'll have it for you when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
BLITZER: Welcome back. We're watching what's going on in Canada right now. Right at the top of the hour, by the way, police in Ottawa will have a news conference with details on what happened. They are setting up the cameras, setting up the microphones at that desk in Ottawa. That will be a police briefing. We'll have live coverage here on CNN.
We're watching this news because it's very, very disturbing. A shooting incident on Canada's Parliament Hill, the Canadian parliament building, the national war memorial. Two shooting incidents there. One Canadian soldier was shot and killed. There is fear now that one shooter may still be at large. One shooter was shot by law enforcement. It's a very, very worrisome development because it follows what happened on Monday when another Canadian soldier was killed as a result of a vehicle just gunning him down, if you will, the vehicle going over and killing that Canadian soldier. We have no idea that there was any connection, no idea if these were isolated incidents, copycat incidents. But at the top of the hour, presumably we'll be hearing more from the Canadian law enforcement authorities. This is what happened in the Canadian parliament just a little while ago.
Jim Sciutto, our chief national security correspondent, is with me here in Washington.
You're picking up information from your sources. What are you hearing?
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Of course, they say it's too early to say whether this shooting is tied to Islamic extremism but it's something they are checking out. I can tell you this, Wolf, there is great concern in the U.S. intelligence community about this kind of attack.
I spoke with the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Matt Olsen, yesterday, and he said the most likely attack to happen on U.S. soil is a lone-wolf attack where you have someone inspired by, if not directed by, terrorist groups in the Middle East to carry out attacks like this. Opportunistic attacks, which frankly are easy to carry out. They don't have to be very ambitious things. That's why it's a great concern for U.S. law enforcement in addition to that the fact that it's hard to track folks like this who might be inspired to do this sort of thing. I say that they do not know and have not concluded this attack falls into that category. This level of concern, doing things like this that are easy to carry out, are a focus of the intelligence community right now.
BLITZER: And in your interview yesterday with Matt Olsen, former head, just recently left the U.S. Counterterrorism Center, he underscored that was what kept him up at night.
SCIUTTO: No question, that was the one. He said there are very severe threats from the Khorasan group in Syria, from ISIS, from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, but he said the most likely attack that they expect to see in the U.S. is lone-wolf attacks. That's a real concern.
Another point I would make is this, you look at a plot in Australia that was disrupted a couple weeks ago with attempts to behead people in public. There were arrests in the U.K. just recently. This is Canada. You had the attack two days ago, and now this one, which we don't know is connected to Islamic extremism, but those are countries involved in the coalition against ISIS taking military action now in Syria or Iraq, and that's a real concern. You will have that kind of backlash attacks, revenge attacks because of that involvement.
BLITZER: And this suspicion is because Canada is working with the U.S. on this war against ISIS. That's elevated that concern.
Hold on for a moment.
I want to bring in Julia Kayyem, a CNN national security analyst.
Julie, you used to work at the Department of Homeland Security. Take us inside the U.S. government right now. Give us a flavor of what is likely happening.
JULIA KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: First, the most important thing is coming out of the White House at this stage because so many different departments will have a piece of this. You look at the Department of Defense elevating the fly bys with NORAD. That is important to protect our airspace. DHS will be involved with increased border controls. We have to assume that's happening between Canada and the United States. And then you'll have the State Department. Our embassy is under lockdown. All of those different agencies that are involved are going to be feeding information into the White House. And then, of course, as everyone has been saying, we don't know what this is, but if you're Canadian police and if you're the national security staff, you don't treat this as a coincidence. Friday, Canada raised the alert level. Monday there's this weird car attack. And then Wednesday, this very violent attack on the government center. You have to assume, although we don't have the details yet, at least from an investigation side, that somehow that these are linked. Whether they are just -- people are just using this as an opportunity, and where the investigation leads may lead to. Fortunately, one of the men, one of the assailants is dead, so we can identify him. And then you start the investigation on him and who he might be.
But this is unfolding in real time. And so we'll see all those pieces will be fitting into to get a better picture over time.
BLITZER: We're standing by at the top of the hour. There'll be a news conference in Ottawa. We'll have live coverage.
Susan Candiotti is joining us on the phone.
You're getting more information. What are you picking up, Susan?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN HOST, (voice-over): Hi, Wolf. I've learned that Canadian authorities shared the name of the suspect, the suspected gunman, and has asked help from federal law enforcement authorities in the United States, asking for FBI assistance in trying to trace this person's activities, according to this official. The official said that, at this point, it's not clear whether they are trying to verify whether this name is genuine or an alias. And at this point, not officially releasing the person's nationality, ethnicity or age or any other details at this time. To recap, they do have names. They're checking out this person to make sure that it is, in fact, the name of the person they think it is and to look into that person's activities leading up to this event.
BLITZER: Is there some suspicion that they asked the FBI for help because this individual could be American? Is that the implication here, Susan?
CANDIOTTI: I think more has to do with the fact that, of course, they would accept help worldwide. It's what's happening here. The FBI has a presence in Canada so it's an easy thing to do, an expected thing that would have happened so they can draw upon the U.S. government to go back and trace this person and find out everything they can about them and what might have led up to this.
BLITZER: Clearly, they have a name. They don't know if it's the real name. They are checking that out. They certainly have not yet publicly released the name of this individual but we'll presumably be hearing more at the top of the hour in about four or five minutes. We expect a news conference in Ottawa. We'll hear from the law enforcement authorities in Canada and what they know about this deadly shooting incident at the Canadian parliament today and the national war memorial.
Much more of the breaking news. I'll be back right at the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Hello. I'm Wolf Blitzer, in Washington. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world.
We're expecting a news conference any moment now to update us on the breaking news in downtown Ottawa. We can now confirm one gunman has been killed. One or more may still be on the loose. We also just learned that a Canadian soldier has been killed. Right now, Parliament Hill in Ottawa on lockdown, as are other major areas, including a major nearby shopping mall. Ottawa University, people are told to lock doors and turn out lights and draw blinds. An emergency situation on the steps of the war memorial in Ottawa as well after a Canadian soldier was shot by what a witness describes as a high- powered rifle. We now know that soldier, unfortunately, has died.
Listen to what this witness saw.
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PETER HENDERSON, WITNESS & BUSINESS JOURNALIST: We have a ceremonial honor guard of Canadian forces troops who stand guard at the memorial. And I was locking my bike up when I heard four shots I heard from that direction. I turn around and ran and I saw one of those soldiers laying on the ground.
AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: How do you know this person was a soldier?
HENDERSON: There is a ceremonial uniform they wear.
WALKER: Got it.
HENDERSON: It stuck me as I ran up. I just saw the white gloves on his hands and I knew who he was.
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BLITZER: Incredible pictures coming into CNN, shot from inside the halls of the Canadian parliament building where another witness described seeing at least one body. CNN has not been able to confirm that. We do know that dozens of gun shots rang out in the halls. Watch this.
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GUNFIRE)
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