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Washington Navy Yard Lockdown; D.C. Police: All Clear at Navy Yard; Restrictions Lifted at White House. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired July 2, 2015 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[09:30:00] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right, I'm Poppy Harlow, in today for Carol Costello.

Continuing to follow the breaking news for you out of our nation's capital, Washington, D.C. The Washington Navy Yard on lockdown. A shelter in place being ordered there because of a 911 call of a potential -- a potential active shooter there. However, I want to emphasize, no gunman has been spotted, no shots fired have been heard, no victims have been seen. Obviously they're being very cautious because of the heightened terror concern across this country and the fact that this is happening right in Washington, D.C., about a mile from the capitol and not far from the White House. But again, there is very little that we know at this point in time other than there has been this 911 call and they are scouring the area.

I want to read you this coming to us from -- from the White House. Pennsylvania Avenue outside of the White House does remain closed following the police response, that you're seeing on the side of your screen there, to the Navy Yard this morning. A law enforcement official telling our Jim Acosta, "this is standard security precaution in light of any potential incident." Again, not coming from the White House, I was wrong on that, coming from a law enforcement official to Jim Acosta saying Pennsylvania Avenue outside of the White House remains closed as they assess the situation.

Let's go to Rene Marsh. She is in our Washington bureau.

Rene, what are the Capitol Police saying?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION & GOVT. REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know, Poppy, that they're -- they're warning people, essentially letting people know that they are being very proactive here in regards to what's happening there. That has caused them to essentially step up their presence around the Capitol ground. They are saying that they're being proactive as a result of these reports coming out of this Navy Yard and the incident that -- that police are now on scene and trying to investigate. So they're telling people to realize that stepped up security measures will be visible. They say that they're also in communication with law enforcement on the scene there at the Navy Yard. But strategically, they say that they have additional units in the field, as well as around the Capitol ground.

So, of course, that's very significant because where this is happening is not very far from the Capitol, so they are taking precaution there. But as you know, and as our Evan Perez reported, both the ATF and the FBI, they're on the scene. But at this point, there has been no report of an actual shooter.

Poppy.

HARLOW: All right, Rene Marsh, thank you very much for that.

Tom Fuentes, I'd like to go to you, a former FBI assistant director, former police officer as well. What is your reaction to the -- to the reaction that we've seen from law enforcement showing up here? They've still got this shelter in place in policy. And, remember, Evan Perez reporting to us earlier that any time there is a 911 call with a threat to this base or any of the military bases across the country, they do take an active shooter stance as the protocol, right, even if no one's been spotted or no shots fired have been heard. That is the stance that they take.

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: No, that's true, Poppy. And the reason is because by the time they can verify whether it's true or not true, that's a long period of time to lapse, especially if people are lying on the ground bleeding and need medical attention immediately. So, you know, we're looking at over two hours now since the call went in and they still haven't been able to declare the entire yard secure.

Now, even though they believe now that it's probably a false alarm, they're not ready to actually declare that yet and they're not declaring it to be a hoax, which also means that someone could have mistakenly called in that they saw somebody with a gun or panicked, you know, sometimes you have plain clothed police officers walking around that may have a gun exposed or somebody may see it if their jacket comes open and think that might be a bad guy and call it in and start this whole thing.

Unfortunately, they go to the full response, as you've heard and as you've seen in this case, partly because of the heightened alert at military bases, but also because it is only about a mile from the Capitol or less and the proximity to, you know, the U.S. Capitol is important if there's an incident happening.

[09:35:11] HARLOW: Tom, walk us through what all of the teams responding there, as our Pamela Brown as said, there's been FBI, ATF, obviously local police officers there responding. Walk us through what they're doing at this point in time because we know that they have already looked at building 197, where this call was made about, obviously of heightened concern because that's where the shooting in 2013 happened. But they have not -- they have not seen any evidence of a shooting there on the second floor as that 911 call said and they didn't hear any shots fired. What are they doing with all of the other buildings right now?

FUENTES: Well, they're going through the very laborious process of searching those buildings just in case and they have to go room to room, closets, the boiler rooms, the ventilation ducts. They have to really check every building now to be sure that just in case someone -- someone was spotted with a gun in the first building and then ran off to another building before the phone call was made to the authorities. So now they end up in the situation of having to prove a negative, that there wasn't a shooting, that there wasn't a shooter or wasn't just a suspicious person running around and they have to go through this whole process because of that.

HARLOW: All right, Tom Fuentes, thank you very much.

I do want to get back to our Jeff Zeleny, CNN Washington correspondent, who is, Jeff, I understand now, a few blocks away from this building where you were before. Another building has been evacuated, is that right?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Poppy.

Just a few moments ago, a building was evacuated. About a six story office building. In fact, just about a half block from where I'm standing right here. Still a pretty active situation out here. Police are urging media now to go a block or so away. It does not appear that there is any immediate danger, but they are clearly going through this building here.

So, you know, this is a -- as you can see behind me here, the Navy Yard is -- is about three blocks or so behind me where they are still going room to room to room. They are asking people to come out of their hiding, come out of place now so they can search the building. They are saying that parts of it are clear, but we're not exactly sure why this building was evacuated just a couple seconds ago here. Now we are all being told that we need to move a little bit to the right here, Poppy.

So, again, just a sense of how jittery, I think, things are here in Washington. A sense of -- of how on edge. The police presence has not diminished at all since we arrived here now more than two hours ago. So still a very active situation here. And I would say a bit of a confusing situation here as these buildings continue to be evacuated.

Poppy.

HARLOW: Right. I mean you're talking about a complex that houses 16,000 employees, over 2 million square feet. So incredibly complex. Historic, you know, some of these very old buildings, that they're going through each and every one.

Now, Jeff, just to -- to ask you, you said that they -- that some of the people who have sheltered in place are being asked by the authorities to sort of come out of where they may have been hide so they can do a thorough sweep. Are they letting anyone out of the buildings that you see?

ZELENY: It's unclear. Not that we can see from inside the Navy Yard. Of course, so many of them came out initially and we've heard some of those witnesses actually being interviewed on our air.

HARLOW: Right. ZELENY: And they, of course, saying that they heard something in a cafeteria. But from now we cannot see anyone else coming out of there, of course. But, you know, it's -- it's a bit puzzling why this other building is being evacuated. It is some three or four blocks away from the Navy Yard. This is not part of the Navy Yard complex, but it is still, Poppy, as I'm looking around here, a lot of police presence. Reporters are all being moved to one side. You know, who knows if it's a hoax type of a situation, if another call would have come in.

HARLOW: Right. Right.

ZELENY: At this point, you know, we just simply don't know.

HARLOW: Well, that's an important thing to point out. You say that this second building that's being evacuated is not part of the Navy Yard complex?

ZELENY: Right.

HARLOW: Do you know what it is? Is it a government building? Is it a residential building? Is it a private office space?

ZELENY: It's an office building, Poppy. This is kind of a newly developed part of southeast Washington, D.C. A lot of office buildings are around here. A lot of government contractors work in some of these buildings here. And it is being evacuated.

But -- but clearly there's no -- we should make clear to our viewers, there's no immediate problems or dangers in this area. We're still standing about, you know, about 30 yards from this building, but it's clear that they did not want anyone to go inside the building. So we'll try and talk to police and get a little bit more information.

This is a very heavily populated area. A lot of government buildings. And the Navy Yard is part of this big complex here in southeast Washington here. But, you know, a lot of civilians work here as well.

HARLOW: Right.

ZELENY: A mix of government civilian workers, as well as naval yard workers.

Poppy.

HARLOW: All right, Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much for the reporting.

[09:40:00] I do want to talk it over with Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, because you have a unique perspective, sir, in terms of serving time on these bases and seeing what has been stepped up in terms of internal security since the 2013 shooting. What is your reaction to the response thus far given that this is all based on a 911 call, but they're still maintaining this shelter in place, even though no gunman has been spotted?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, it is the correct response inside the base, Poppy. And as the Navy lieutenant commander said earlier, he had seen some things over the last several months, over the last two years since 2013, where they've improved their reaction to active shooter. That's a critical element of any garrison commanders' responsibility is to be able to respond to these kinds of things quickly, calmly and with great efficiency and with coordination between not only the post -- or the garrison, the base's security personnel, but also local law enforcement. As it appears that inside the base that is happening.

But as Jeff Zeleny just pointed out, there are other buildings, other governmental buildings around the Navy Yard. And that -- those house probably a lot of contractors, people that work in coordination with the base but don't work on the base. So we don't know. I mean it's conjecture right now. Was there a name associated with this potential shooter or was there an organization where the person may have been on the base but, in fact, worked outside the base. And that might be the reason they're checking other bases.

And I'll reinforce what Tom says. Once they -- they -- Tom Fuentes. Once they check the building out, went room to room, which is a very tedious process, cleared those rooms one by one, then they start expanding their zone of clearance to other buildings.

Now, one of the things to point out, the Washington naval yard also has a -- it's a very historic yard. It goes back to the 1700s.

HARLOW: Right.

HERTLING: It was one of the first in Washington. But they also have a ship on base, the USS Barry. It's an old destroyer. It's a historical place. It takes visitors on board. So it's one thing to clear a building and room by room. It's another thing to clear a destroyer. And they might have to do that as well. So that might be contributing to this taking a long time.

Plus, you have a variety of organizations. As we said before, you have the Navy JAG core, the Judge Advocate General. You have the navy band. You have all the support and admin infrastructure for all of the Navy in Washington, D.C. So the coordination between these various agencies as they search different buildings and different headquarters is going to be pretty challenging and it will take a long time.

But you ask a very important question, is this appropriate response? And, again, I go back to what I said earlier. On the base, probably, yes, as the lieutenant commander pointed out. But as you're seeing the film from outside the base, that traffic needs to be cleared. That -- those elements of people who are just wandering around looking need to be pushed out of there. They need to expand that space to clear that area from both police elements, ATF and all the other jackets you see out there, as well as reporters. They just need to continue to push that back to clear the area, Poppy.

HARLOW: Who would take lead in this immediate response? Because we heard from our Pamela Brown, you've got the FBI, you've got the ATF, you've got the local police. Who takes the lead?

HERTLING: Well, I don't know because I don't know the plan. But I will tell you is the first person who will report and be on the scene and establish an operations center is the garrison commander. I don't know who that is. It's probably a Navy lieutenant commander or a Navy captain who actually controlled all the workings of the base.

HARLOW: Right.

HERTLING: At certain times, given the circumstances, he may task that to others. If a crime has been committed, he may pass it to local law enforcement. If it's a federal crime, he may pass it to the FBI. They've probably put all of those individuals in an operations center where they're coordinating the actions of the various agencies that are working this and how they're clearing and they're -- they're literally making a checklist of the rooms in the buildings they're cleared. But they're also looking how an individual who may have had a gun, might have ditched the gun and blended in with the crowd. So that's all part of this. But on the base, it's probably calm and cool. From what I see outside the base, it's a little bit confusing, as Jeff Zeleny just reported.

HARLOW: All right, Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, thank you very much for the analysis.

We're going to get a quick break in here. We also have just learned that there will be a press conference held a little bit later this morning to bring us all the details. We will, of course, carry that live for you here on CNN. Back in a moment.

[09:44:32]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

HARLOW: All right. We're continuing to follow the breaking news out of Washington, D.C., this hour. A little bit earlier this morning, a 911 call was made. We are told it was a call about a potential active shooter on the second floor of Building 197 at the Washington Navy Yard. I want to emphasize to you here, all of our reporters working their law enforcement sources and we can tell you at this point that no one has said they heard shots fired. There has been no sighting of a gunman whatsoever, and no victims have been seen. Again, this is in response to a 911 call. They are taking it very seriously, especially given the fact that this is happening in a heightened, an environment of heightened concern around potential terrorist attacks ahead of the Fourth of July holiday and it is happening in our nation's capital, just about one mile from the Capitol and not too far from the White House.

On the phone with me, I believe we have Todd Parker on camera with us, a member of the U.S. Navy. Todd, thank you for being here.

TODD PARKER, US NAVY: Thank you.

HARLOW: So you were in this morning Building 197. That is, for context for our viewers here, that is the same building where the 2013 shooting happened, that shooting that took 12 lives and injured 14 other people.

[09:50:04] So obviously a lot of concern about that building given the history there. Tell us, walk us through what happened this morning.

PARKER: Well, I'm on the fifth floor. I showed up for work about 7:30. About a quarter to 8:00, a fire alarm went off and then immediately changed to active shooter, shelter in place. There was a lot of confusion initially what should we be doing. Finally, someone made a suggestion, everyone just go into the offices, lock the door. So that's what we did.

I had access to a computer so they were sending out messages telling everyone there was potentially an active shooter. And about a half hour later, we heard that police, law enforcement, coming through, banged on the door. Police, open up. Guns drawn, hands up. A lot of law enforcement in the building escorting us out. So we got off the base, ended up at Harris Teeter, about two blocks away.

HARLOW: How long was it that you had to stay sheltered in place before you were allowed to leave the building?

PARKER: It's about -- probably about 40 minutes. Certainly the response time -- I was in the building with the last one, much more organized. They were in the building, I would say, probably within minutes of the fire alarm going off. We heard that they -- I think they started down on the lower floors and then worked their way up.

HARLOW: All right. Todd Parker, thank you very much for your perspective. Again, someone who was on the fifth floor of that building where there was concern. I appreciate you being with me.

For all of you watching, a very important update to bring you right now as we've been following this. Washington, D.C., police reporting the activity around the Navy Yard is, quote, clear. This comes from the District of Columbia Alert D.C. system, these alerts that go out saying that the MPD there reporting that the police activity is clear and all associated streets have been reopened. Again, police activity clear at the Navy Yard; all associated streets have been reopened. We're awaiting a press conference. It's going to be held there a little bit later this morning.

I want to go to Jim Acosta at the White House. Jim?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi Poppy, yes, just adjusting our shot here because we're going to show you here, over on Pennsylvania Avenue, which is essentially is pedestrian plaza in front of the north lawn of the White House in Lafayette Park, that area had been closed earlier this morning to tourists due to the situation over at the Navy Yard. It was a precautionary measure, we're told, by Secret Service officials. This area has now been reopened to tourists, which is a very good sign. I think that's probably a good indication as to what's happening across town over at the Navy Yard. If this area is sort of all clear, then I would assume perhaps they're moving in that direction over there at the Navy Yard and getting back to normal over there. You know, occasionally this area is closed down to tourists when the

vice president or president have movements around the White House grounds. Vice President arrived earlier this morning. Typically this area would be shut down to tourists when that sort of thing is happening here, but we're told by the Secret Service that earlier this morning, because of what was happening over at the Navy Yard, as a precautionary measure they did shut this area down. But good news, Poppy, this area has been reopened, so things getting back to normal here, and just in the nick of time as tourists are really heading into Washington now for the Fourth of July weekend. Poppy.

HARLOW: Absolutely. Jim Acosta, so glad to hear things are back to normal there at the White House. Thank you, Jim.

And for all of you, if you're just joining us, you might have been hearing about this breaking news, just want it to be very clear for you -- there was a 911 call about a potential active shooter at the Washington Navy Yard. A lot of concern because, of course, this is where that deadly shooting happened back in September 2016 (sic). What I can tell you now, and I'm happy to tell you, is that Washington, D.C., police are saying it is all clear. The situation is all clear. We will still monitor because they're going to have a press conference. Everyone wants to know what could have been behind this call.

Press conference later this morning. Quick break, back in a moment.

[09:54:16]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

HARLOW: All right, I'm Poppy Harlow in New York in today for Carol Costello. Back with more breaking news. I want to update you on the situation in Washington, D.C.

Just moments ago, Washington police giving the all-clear, the all- clear for the situation around the U.S. Navy Yard. For the last couple hours, hundreds of police officers have swarmed the site, responding to a 911 call of a potential gunman. But no evidence of that has been found. Both military and civilian staffers are now returning to their buildings.

The Navy Yard, as you may remember, was the scene of that horrific shooting rampage back in 2013 when 12 people were killed. However, very good news to report this morning, an all-clear just being issued. It was a false alarm and it ratcheted up security at the White House, at the Capitol, and right there of course at the Navy Yard. The response coming amid heightened concern and government warnings of a potential terror strike this holiday weekend, but I do want to emphasize no potential threat has been noted around the holiday weekend. They are just heightening alert and concern because of the environment.

Let's go straight to Jeff Zeleny. He is on the ground there. Jeff, you were saying to me, look, this feels so different than 2013, and you were right. All clear, false alarm.

ZELENY: No question, Poppy. It feels so much different than 2013 and thank god it is. I mean, you can see right now I'm standing in front of M Sstreet here, Southeast Washington. It has been reopened. Slowly things are getting back to somewhat of a sense of normalcy around here, but certainly a couple hours of very tense, scary moments.

[10:00:00] The witnesses we talked to were simply terrified with those memories of that 2013 shooting. Of course, all the news about the country being on heightened alert going into the July 4th weekend.