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Shooting at UCLA Campus. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired June 1, 2016 - 13:30   ET

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


[13:30:01] KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Telling students to shelter in place. Now you can see in these aerials that we're looking at, it looks like they're beginning to move some of these students out of that building. There's a man in a suit jacket there. Does not look like a student, but it looks like they're beginning to evacuate that building, to clear that building. But we did get that first report just before 10:00 a.m. and what we've seen since then, as you can see for yourself, a flurry of activity. Ambulances, officers with long guns.

Just to give you a little perspective on this campus, Wolf, there are 43,000 students who attend the campus. This building, the Engineering Building, is smack dab in the middle of a very dense area. You can see, there are tall buildings. The streets are very narrow. This entire west side of Los Angeles is extremely populated. It is very tight. It's almost difficult to get parking or walk around there. This is going to be a challenge for law enforcement.

What we've heard from the LAPD, two victims are down in or near the engineering building. The campus is on lockdown. Students are told to shelter in place. What we can see via Twitter is that people are hearing, students are hearing officers telling them to stay in place. But we haven't seen much more Twitter activity beyond that. So right now police still investigating this shooting.

We have no confirmation of shots being fired other than the LAPD telling us that there are currently two victims down in or near the Engineering Building and a lot of students talking on Twitter to be careful -- Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Campus-wide lockdown continuing. We're looking at these pictures coming in. Obviously, local police, campus police, they are on the scene.

This is a -- UCLA, for viewers, Kyung, who don't know, it's in a relatively pretty affluent part of the west side of Los Angeles and a very peaceful, normally wonderful part of L.A.

LAH: The worst part about UCLA is the traffic. I mean, this is the west side of Los Angeles. Trying to park, trying to get around, trying to move around the west side, especially around the campus, is extraordinarily difficult. So it is an affluent area. It's near Brentwood. It's near Sta. Monica. These are very rich areas. This is a campus that is surrounded by, you know, a lot of high incomes. But this is still a city. This is a packed city atmosphere. This is unlike, you know, a big 10 college where you have a lot of

space, you have a ton of people that live all around, the houses are close together. You can see the buildings are close together, and, you know, students are used to this. They're used to living in an area that is a city within a very large city which is the very dense part of western Los Angeles.

The beach is not that far away. You have a lot of people around it. So this is in the center of all of that density. The Engineering Building in the center of the campus. So a lot of concerns certainly for -- for trying to get people through this area, trying to keep people out of this area. You can see the number of black and white vehicles that are surrounding it.

And something we should point out, Wolf, that we did see a short time ago is that we did see an empty gurney being loaded on to an ambulance. We don't know what that suggests, but we did see one going into a building and then one return to an ambulance empty -- Wolf.

BLITZER: We -- and from the UCLA Web site, about 30,000 undergraduates, as you point out. Another 12,000 or 13,000 graduate students. Some 43,000 students altogether. It's a huge campus. It's a campus that is well known. 419 acres as described to the base of the Santa Monica Mountains. Five miles from the Pacific Ocean.

This is -- you've got 40,000 plus students on campus and you've got a lot of people around the campus, Kyung. It's got to be very disturbing when you hear of a campus-wide lockdown. Two people down, we're told, and a shooter presumably still at large. Maybe in that Engineering Building.

LAH: Yes, 43,000 students but you're not even counting the instructors, the visiting instructors, the adjuncts, the people who might be going there just to visit. And as soon as we heard that there was some sort of possible shooting on the campus, immediately, people are connected to it here in our newsroom, on my Facebook. People were immediately talking about it because a lot of people have friends. This is their alma mater. They have children that attend this university.

This is a university that is deeply connected to every part of Los Angeles. You have researchers. You have the hospital that is there. So this is -- yes, 43,000 students. That is only a small portion of the population involving this particular part of the university and the part of Los Angeles.

BLITZER: Let me -- hold on for a moment. Tom Fuentes is still with us as well.

[13:35:02] It looks like they've sealed off areas because there's no traffic at all around this one building we're watching, Tom. That would be a normal procedure, right?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, they may have reason to believe that whoever is responsible for the incident may still be in the building and maybe they can reduce the area that they're trying to secure.

As Kyung mentioned, you know, if you had 60,000, 70,000 students, faculty, and employees on that campus, it's just a monstrous task to try to lock down all those buildings, all those city blocks in an urban area like that. So if they have some reason to believe they have a narrower search area or a narrower area of possible location suspect, and that would make it somewhat easier.

It's not going to be easy no matter what. They're still going to have a huge building with many challenges to try to search it. But, you know, we don't know right now what the police are being told or what witnesses may be calling into them. So they're going to receive information before we do that will give them a better idea of whether they can have one or two particular buildings there and maybe not have the entire campus and the entire west side of Los Angeles under -- you know, trying to secure it.

BLITZER: Hold on for a moment, Tom. I'm going to get back to you.

Kyung Lah still with us. She's in Los Angeles, watching what's going on. I just want to update our viewers in case they're just tuning in here in the United States or around the world. There's a campus wide lockdown on the campus of the -- UCLA, University of California-Los Angeles, where there about 43,000 students. They have been told it's finals week. Final examinations week. The classes end June 10th. Today, June 1st. So it's clearly a very tense period on the campus with all the students having their final exams right now.

We're told that there's one shooter, two people down. We don't know what down means right now. We're showing these pictures of the campus. Local authorities, local police, campus police, they are in the area clearly trying to find out -- find this one shooter who presumably may be in that Engineering Building, we're told. Some of the tweets from campus authorities. One says LAPD is responding to reports of two victims down and an active shooter in or near the Engineering Building. That according to an LAPD police officer.

The shooting, another tweet from UCLA says was at Engineering Four. That's one of the buildings there. Go to a secure location. Deny entry, lockdown now. That's the warning. These are Bruin alerts. The UCLA -- these are the Bruins activity Engineering Building number 4. Avoid area until further notice.

Kyung, that lockdown for the entire campus, that's still ongoing, right?

LAH: That is ongoing. We have not gotten any report of that lockdown being lifted. The entire campus, all the students via Twitter, they were notified by the university via Bruin News Alert. Told to stay down, to shelter in place.

I am seeing some activity on Twitter where students are talking back and forth about police telling them to move. We don't know what that means. But, you know, it certainly looks like police had entered at least a couple of different buildings. We have seen them through this aerial shot. Officers in tactical gear going in and out of at least a couple of buildings.

What you're seeing to the north of this shot, that looks like the Engineering Building and just to the south part of this picture that is a parking structure. So what officers are looking at is a densely populated building right there in the center, just below that, just to the bottom of your screen is the parking structure. So they're trying to move between these two buildings that looks like just from what we've seen on video.

Trying to, you know, get a hold of -- wrap their arms around exactly what this is. Again, the only confirmation that we're getting is via the LAPD. Two victims are down in or near the Engineering Building. The campus is on lockdown. Students are being told to shelter in place.

We know, Wolf, from the number of incidents like this we have seen across the country is that shelter in place, you know, people know what that means. You stay inside your building. You turn off the lights. You try to stay quiet until the police can get to you to tell you what is happening.

This is a tremendous presence. This is something we do not see every day in Los Angeles. You're seeing officers in tactical gear with their long guns drawn walking up and down the street. This is a street that is drivable. You can get through the campus on this roadway. It's difficult. It's winding but that is a roadway that police are certainly going to have to try to stop pedestrian traffic, vehicle traffic from entering as they try to work through this Engineering Building.

BLITZER: It looks like the only vehicle, though, Kyung, we're seeing are early police vehicles right now.

[13:40:02] I assume they blocked off the roads, going through the campus. And as we pointed out, this is a huge, huge campus. What, more than 419 acres on this campus, right in the middle of the west side of Los Angeles.

I assume, Tom Fuentes, that SWAT teams have been deployed, the best that the LAPD has.

FUENTES: Well, I'm sure they're going to be at least staged nearby. I think they're probably not going to have them running around on the street. You know, that tactical gear not knowing where they might be needed. So they usually pick a staging area, have them prepare in case they end up with a barricaded subject or some type of a difficult tactical problem and they'll just be nearby.

You probably won't see them until they get some kind of report of an individual or group of individuals that they may need to deal with in one of those buildings or one of the locations.

BLITZER: We're told the police are investigating this shooting at Engineering Four, that's one of the buildings. Police are on the scene. They report that there are now two victims. We don't know the condition of the victims. The campus wide lockdown continues. People are being asked to shelter in place. This is the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, right up in the campus -- the main campus of the University of California, Los Angeles.

This is a huge campus and we can see movement on the campus.

Once again, Kyung, we're not showing our viewers live pictures. These are pictures, video that was taken just a little while ago because very sensitive right now what's going on. So we want to be -- we don't want to do anything that's going to further complicate what is clearly an extremely dangerous situation and apparently one shooter at large. Two victims are already -- this is the kind of development, Kyung, when you're in Los Angeles for us, that could really scare a big city like L.A.

LAH: Certainly. And just looking at a tweet from the LAPD, putting the city on tactical alert, it's basically just letting the police know to -- you know, to be on alert for what is happening on the west side here. The report of those two victims, that is now being confirmed by UCLA. UCLA confirming that there are two people down. We're not getting much more clarity on what down means. We're still trying to get that.

So we know now that two victims have been hurt via UCLA. That's being confirmed by the university. I'm trying to get more clarity on the status of those confirmed two shooting victims. You know, and certainly, this is going to shake this campus. This is a campus that you don't hear about getting into a whole lot of trouble. Sure, you have -- anytime you put that number of students together, that kind of youth, there are always issues. But this is not a campus known for a tremendous amount of violence.

This is an affluent area. A lot of people know -- have friends who attend this university, have attended this university in the area. And this certainly is cause for alarm here in Los Angeles. When something like this happens in the center of the university that is so beloved here on -- in this city, but also known nationally for all that it does with research, the hospital, and the number of students there.

BLITZER: It's one of the most important universities in the United States. UCLA, clearly has a huge, huge impact on California and Los Angeles area, specifically, but people come to UCLA from all over the world. We just got some information undergraduates of the 20,000 or 30,000 undergraduates. Almost 4,000 are students who come from around the world, international students. So similarly high percentage of graduate students at UCLA are international students as well.

So people are being impacted, not only on the campus but I'm sure viewers in the United States and around the world are watching this very closely.

I just want to be precise with you, Tom Fuentes, when there are choppers overhead showing video of what's going on, does that dramatically complicate a rescue operation or some sort of police action? FUENTES: Wolf, I've been involved in operations like this in the past

and the authorities have the ability to contact air traffic control in Los Angeles and have any media or other helicopters ordered out of the area if they need to bring in helicopters for tactical purposes. On the other hand, the media, the photographs that you're showing, the video that you're showing all over the campus does assist the police. So they are actually going to be watching this reporting and knowing that the media has the ability to quickly respond by air if they end up in a high speed pursuit, let's say, or some other situation. But normally if you're getting ready for a tactical operation, they can have the media helicopters back off.

[13:45:08] You know, they don't have to completely get them out of there but at least back off out of the area if they need the airspace.

BLITZER: Tom, we have confirmed two victims. We don't know the condition of the victims. Two victims have been shot. There is a shooter is apparently still at large. We've also just learned, Tom, the FBI and your former assistant director, the FBI -- the FBI is now on the scene.

What would the role of the FBI be in a shooting incident like this on a college campus?

FUENTES: So far we don't know the nature of the shooting. If it's a personal thing between a couple students, you know, then it's going to be a local police matter. If by chance it turned into a terrorist situation, then the FBI would have primary jurisdiction over that. So in the beginning of these type of operations, what happens is that all of the police work very closely together. They train together. The leadership all know each other very well. They're very used to working together in situations like this and it's not immediately important to them whether it is a federal case or a local case. It's just a case that needs to be resolved. They work together very closely in order to resolve the situation.

BLITZER: Once again, we have just confirmed that FBI agents are now on the scene, on the campus of UCLA where the shooting incident has occurred. Two victims we're told, we don't know the condition of the victims, have been shot. The shooter apparently still at large.

We're also told, Tom, that agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, federal agents, they are now en route to the scene of this shooting on the campus of UCLA. What will their responsibility be?

FUENTES: Well, often in cases like this, the ATF's responsibility will be to look at the background of any weapons. So they get involved in searching for the firearms and the firearms are located or bullets recovered from the victims then try to determine what kind of gun was used and if possible, to get the gun to try to trace the background of it. Where was it made? When was it made? Who sold it? Who sold it to whom if they know? So they usually get involved in that. And again they work together. The ATF, the FBI, the Marshals.

BLITZER: We just lost Tom but we'll reconnect with him. Kyung Lah is with us. Kyung Lah is with us in Los Angeles.

Kyung, how long ago did the first word of the shooting incident on the campus of UCLA come about? When did we learn that there was this incident? Because it's now, what, 1:47 p.m. here on the East Coast. 10:47 a.m. over there in Los Angeles.

LAH: Just about 50 minutes ago. It was just before 10:00 a.m. local time that we started to get our first reports that there was some sort of possible shooting on the campus, then it was shortly followed by an alert from the campus telling students to steer clear of the Engineering Building. That anyone near the Engineering Building should avoid it. That they should shelter in place. That the campus would be on lockdown.

That -- then the LAPD confirmed that there was some sort of a shooting that two victims were down. We saw an intense police response. You can see it from these aerials. Officers arriving. A large number of black and whites and the vehicles we've seen have not just been campus police. It is also been the LAPD. A tremendous response. We've seen officers wearing tactical gear. They had their long guns drawn starting to enter the buildings. Starting to clear a couple of these buildings, and it was almost immediate. The response was very, very quick.

We did see ambulances arrive. There were a couple of gurneys that were removed but we didn't see anyone on these gurneys. We simply saw a lot of police activity. We have not seen anyone injured who appears to have any sort of injuries coming out of any buildings. We have gotten confirmation from UCLA that two victims were indeed shot on the UCLA campus. We're not getting too much clarity on exactly what the conditions were. Whether these are two people who knew each other. If they were acquaintances, if it was on a particular floor, if it was indeed inside any particular building.

But we have heard early on now and again, this is just about 50 minutes unfolding, is that two people have been shot on the UCLA campus. A tremendous police response. Officers now doing and working through the very unwieldy process of trying to keep everyone safe. You can see from these aerial pictures that this is a tremendous campus. This is a very large campus. There are 43,000 students that attend this university that is known around the world for its research, for what it offers educationally to these students.

[13:50:04] This is a very busy week for students as they work towards final exams. You know, winding down the school year, but there are still students -- all those students are still on campus, so a tremendous student population. Researchers, employees, topping that as well, Wolf, so certainly a lot of concern about how officers are going to try to control the population, try to keep everyone safe.

We have not heard any reports about exactly where this shooter is, so, again, just about 50, 55 minutes into this shooting. Police still responding, still trying to figure out exactly what's happening here -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes. But as you say, 43,000 students. This is finals week, final examinations week right now. Classes are supposed to end June 10th, in 10 days or so.

We have a producer, our CNN producer Jason Kravarik, is now on the campus of UCLA.

Jason, first of all, tell us where you are, what you're seeing, what you're learning?

JASON KRAVARIK, CNN PRODUCER: Wolf, I am on the north part of campus and this is where we believe that police were targeting their investigation looking for a shooter, and, indeed, just told us to go run. There are a few skraglers, people right in this area that did not get in the building when it was on lockdown. And there's just a few people walking around and police in SWAT gear went into this building that by my calculation is bunchy hall in the northeast part of the campus, and they are going floor to floor in full SWAT gear.

Pardon me, I'm out of breath, and they are clearing this building. I just talked to someone who was cleared out of that building. He said the police told him to leave, that something is going on here, whether it's just clearing the building or, you know, there's some engagement here, I can't say, but he was told that he need to get out of the building right away. And as I was asking him what he saw in there, that's when SWAT team actually shouted from the building and said go, go, so there's a sense of urgency here in that they are clearing these buildings.

No indication right now, you know, as to whether there is actually some engagement going on in this building, but again it's the northeast part of campus next to -- it appears to be around a building called Bunchy Hall, and there's an LAPD helicopter now flying over that building and really zeroing in on it as we speak, but, again, I see another person walking out of that building rather casually so they may just be clearing these buildings here in the north part of campus.

One other interesting thing to note there were some people who are just still walking around the buildings here. One of them was a mother and a daughter who told me that they were here just doing normal admissions and checking out the campus and going to meetings and actually trying to get into one of the buildings when they heard of the lockdown, and because they were too late, they were forced to just carry on and try to walk out of the campus on their own, Wolf. But --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Jason, have -- have police authorities or campus officials given you any word on the condition of the two people who were shot, the two victims?

KRAVARIK: No. I am actually, Wolf, sort of sequestered from the area where the -- where we believe the initial shooting happened. I am on the north part of campus which appears to be where they are centralizing the search for the shooter so I've been in an area that is much too active to get that information, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Jason, stand by for a minute.

Kyung, are you getting any more information now from authorities, campus officials, police officials, about the condition of these two victims?

LAH: Not yet, and I'm checking the UCLA Medical Center Web site, that is clearly because it's right next to the campus, the closest medical center to the university, to the shooting, and so far there has not been anything released from the medical center. We're still on hold. We're still trying to figure out, you know, where -- where these victims may have been taken, their condition. Still waiting, Wolf.

BLITZER: And Tom Fuentes, he's back with us, our CNN senior law enforcement analyst, a former assistant director of the FBI.

Tom, the fact that this has now been going on for at least an hour, that's when we first got word about a possible shooting on the campus. We have now confirmed that there has been a shooting on the campus. Two people are down. Two victims, the shooter apparently still at large in one of those engineering buildings on the campus of UCLA. The fact that this is an hour, how extraordinary, unusual is that that it's still ongoing?

[13:55:08] FUENTES: Oh, Wolf, this could be ongoing a long time. What's different in this case than some of the previous shootings, whether it's on campus or at the Navy Yard, other locations, was that oftentimes we've had reports of shots fired and a shooter at large that turned out to be unfounded, someone heard a noise, thought it was a gunshot. Turned out not to be.

In this case very quickly they were able to learn that they did have two victims apparently of gunshot wounds, to verify that the reports of a shooting on campus were true, that there had been a shooting on campus at that point. And again, you're right. It's one hour ago, but that is still a pretty short period of time to get the police on scene, to get the buildings locked down, to lock down the campus if they can, to interview witnesses and try to get out enough information about what they might be dealing with, how many shooters there might be and whether they left the area or possibly are still in one of those nearby buildings.

BLITZER: And the fact that local officials, local police, campus officials, they have asked the FBI, federal and ATF agents, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents, federal agents to now get involved in this. It's been ongoing as I say for at least an hour. What did that say to you?

FUENTES: Says to me that they have a huge challenge not only locking down that campus but again trying to initiate searches of buildings. So what police departments at the state, local, federal level do is much like fire departments. If they have a big challenging incident to deal with, then they offer mutual aid to each other, regardless of who may be in charge, so in this case, I think as of now, LAPD is probably still in charge of this situation, until something else comes up, and they may stay in charge of it throughout. That does not prevent them from asking from help from various federal

agencies, the California state agencies, county agencies. It's going to take all the manpower they can muster if they have to continue a search on that campus for a long period of time for the shooter or shooters.

BLITZER: LAPD, Tom, is now formally officially describing this as, quote, "an active shooter situation." They are telling folks avoid the area. This is the tweet that LAPD headquarters just put out. "News update. UCLA incident. Info on the active shooter in the Engineering Building number 4. Avoid the area."

That's an official statement from LAPD just tweeted out right now. Avoid the area. So when they say an active shooting in the Engineering Building, I assume that means someone who is there and still potentially has his or her weapon, represents a significant threat given the fact that two individuals already have been shot.

FUENTES: Well, it means that they don't know for sure so they have to be very cautious, and if you have somebody at large running around that's already shot people and presumably still able to shoot more people, then yes, they would declare it a continuing active shooter. It's not resolved. They are not telling people that they can go back to normal business. They are still looking for someone that's considered armed and dangerous.

BLITZER: And we have no idea what kind of weapon was used, no idea what the motive might have been. All of these questions are presumably being reviewed right now by local police, campus police, FBI, ATF, others who are involved, and we see significant, huge numbers of police in the area right now.

Tom Fuentes, this is -- this would be a natural reaction on the -- on the part of the LAPD.

FUENTES: Yes, it would be, Wolf, and I think that, you know, the medical examinations of the people that he been shot would give them a clue whether they were shot with long guns, assault rifles or maybe handguns, also whether or not the shootings were at close range so if you have someone fire a pistol very close you would have powder residue and possibly gunpowder burns on the victim or on their clothing, so, yes, the investigation at the scene forensically, which would begin immediately, along with treating the victims and trying to save their lives, would also be to try to indicate what kind of weaponry, and if either of the shooting victims were able to describe the police, they'll have a better idea.

They might have been ambushed from across the street and have no idea how they were shot or how they received the wounds or it could have been in close quarter with somebody that they knew. All of that will affect the investigation and hopefully the police are getting enough information that they need.

BLITZER: And we know that the shooter according to the LAPD campus police may be in what's called Engineering Building number 4. This is the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Sciences -- Science on the campus of UCLA. Shooter apparently still at large in that building. Two victims, we are told, are down.

Brooke Baldwin picks up our special coverage of the shooting on the campus of UCLA right now.