One Dead, One Injured After Texas Church Shooting; Five People Stabbed at Hanukkah Celebration in New York
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN HOST: We want to go straight now to CNN correspondent Paul Vercammen. He is following this story for us. And, Paul, I understand that there was some confusion about the initial death toll. What can you tell us?</s>PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're calling it nothing short of a miracle, Martin. That's because there were three patients being transported to the hospital and all three were in critical condition. And from what we understand, one of those patients died, a second who they believe was the shooter, also dead and then this third patient in what seems to be just an unbelievable incident here. In a good way, they say the paramedics were furiously working on restoring a pulse, administering CPR to a patient who was described as dead. Well, it worked and this patient, said to be a male, was revived, this according to Medstar. That's the ambulance company that was transporting the patient and they called it nothing short of a miracle, something very, very rare in their experience when they are able to restore life to someone who they have called dead. That person transported to a local hospital. And more details now emerging about the shooting itself. We spoke with the wife of the minister. She talked to her husband via the phone. She said that this happened during communion, that quite often they have about 280 parishioners during these services. They're not sure that that was the case today and a video has emerged of someone who has a long gun who is in the back of that church who opens fire and then it is seen that someone pulls out a handgun and shoots this shooter. We'll learn more shortly, but the count would be this, one parishioner dead, one parishioner brought back to life, and the shooter also dead according to the ambulance company -- Martin.</s>SAVIDGE: Yes. Stunning to believe that all of this plays out in a house of worship, but as you said, the good news that life appears to have been preserved out of this. All right, Paul Vercammen, thank you very much. And we want to alert the public. We're standing by for a news conference that will come from law enforcement down in the scene there in Texas. We'll bring to you as soon as it happens. You can see the microphones are set for that. Now to the developing news on that attack on members of a Jewish holiday celebration. A 38-year-old New York man has made his first court appearance. He is now being held on $5 million bond. He's charged with five counts of attempted murder after a mass stabbing at a Hanukkah party last night outside of New York City. Witnesses say the suspect walked into the home of an orthodox rabbi in the town -- in a town north of New York. Pulled out a long knife and stabbed five people. The house was full of more than 100 worshippers who had gathered together to light the Hanukkah candle. CNN has obtained these exclusive images of the aftermath and of course I'll warn you that they are graphic images. All of the victims are Hasidic Jews, two are in critical condition. A witness describes the moment the suspect arrived at the home and began the rampage.</s>ARON KOHN, WITNESS: Started walking in by the door. I asked who was coming in in the middle of the night with an umbrella. While I was saying that, he pulled it out from the</s>SAVIDGE: CNN's Alison Kosik is live at the scene for us. And Alison, what more are you learning about this attack?</s>ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Martin, we are learning just how the suspect, 38-year-old Grafton Thomas, got in into the rabbi's house behind me. He walked in through the front door. It was unlocked but it wasn't unusual for Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg to leave his door unlocked and had this open-door policy, especially on a night like last night, the seventh night of Hanukkah. He was having a big celebration at his home. Almost 100 people inside the house celebrating. And in fact he was lighting the menorah when Thomas walked in with that large machete-style knife and started that stabbing spree, injuring five people including the rabbi's son. As you said, two of them seriously injured. All of them recovering at the hospital. One of the guests, Josef Gluck, is being hailed, though, as a hero. He threw a coffee table at Thomas and wrote down his license plate number before he fled. That's how police were able to spot him on the George Washington Bridge heading back to New York City. They arrested him in Harlem. They found Thomas with blood all over him and he smelled like bleach. Prosecutors believe that was a way for Thomas to try to conceal what he had allegedly done. This is a tight knit Jewish Hasidic, Orthodox Jewish community. Ninety thousand people live in Rockland County and a third of them are Jewish. And tonight was a special night because there was a dedication of a new Torah to a synagogue down the street. We want to show you some video because there was a parade that sort of came out of nowhere. It made a special stop here at the rabbi's house to show strength and resilience during this time of violence. And when one Orthodox Jewish leader spoke to me earlier today, this is a time unfortunately where he said if you're a Jewish person, you have to be looking over your shoulder. Martin, back to you.</s>SAVIDGE: Alison Kosik, with the update there from New York. To Texas now and the update we're getting from law enforcement. Let's listen.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jeff Williams, regional director of Texas Department of Safety. Chief Edwin Kraus, Fort Worth PD. Sheriff Bill Waybourn, Tarrant County, and Eric Cast (PH) for the Texas Rangers. This will be the first press conference. We anticipate having another one around 4:30 to 5:00 in that area. We should be able to answer more questions. But in this first one, the chief is going to give you a statement and there will be no questions in this first press conference. So, Chief Bevering.</s>CHIEF J. P. BEVERING, WHITE SETTLEMENT, TEXAS POLICE: Good afternoon. I'm Chief Bevering, White Settlement Police Department. First of all, I want to give my condolences out for all the parishioners and -- the parishioners at the church and our community. We're all hurting right now. And I just want your prayers for everybody at this time. Today it will be just a brief statement about what is going on so far. At this time we just want to tell the community that there is no ongoing threat to this incident. So today at approximately 11:50 a.m., a gunman entered the West Freeway Church of Christ, White Settlement, Texas, during the church service. The preliminary reports indicated that the man entered the church and fired a weapon. A couple of members at the church returned fire striking the suspect who died at the scene. Tragically the person shot by the suspect died at a local hospital and a second parishioner has life-threatening injuries. As we stated, the suspect is deceased and the threat has stopped thanks to the heroic actions of those two parishioners at the church. While the resources -- with the resources available, with the Texas Rangers and DPS, they will be leading this investigation. If we have additional information, we'll release it to the media and the public. In the meantime, like I said, we just ask for your thoughts and prayers for our community and the parishioners of the West Freeway Church of Christ. This is Agent DeSarno with the FBI and he'll make a couple of statements.</s>MATTHEW DESARNO, FBI SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, DALLAS FIELD OFFICE: Good afternoon, and thank you, Chief. I would like to echo the chief's comments for the entire community, the West Freeway Church of Christ. We're very sorry about this incident. The FBI is dedicated significant resources to aid in these investigations, those are investigative resources and technical resources. We are working very hard to find motive to get to the bottom of what happened. We're working very closely with the victims of this incident. And we will continue to provide partnership and resource support throughout this. As you see from the group assembled behind me, an incident like this doesn't get -- does not get solved and we don't get to the bottom of it without significant partnership with the Fort Worth Police Department, White Settlement Police Department, obviously the Texas DPS and the FBI working together in concert to find justice for these victims. So I'd like to introduce Jeff Williams, the regional director of Texas DPS for North Texas.</s>JEFF WILLIAMS, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, TEXAS DPS: Good afternoon. My name is Jeff Williams. I'm the regional director at Texas DPS. Like the chief and special agent in charge DeSarno said, I'd like to echo those same sentiments that our hearts go out to the victims and their families. I'd ask everyone to take a moment today just to lift them up in prayer. We have an enormous response here today to get to the bottom of what occurred. The resources that are represented behind me and the men and women who are inside the church working this crime scene. Unfortunately, this country has seen so many of these that we've actually gotten used to up to this point. And it's tragic and it's just terrible situation especially during the holiday season. I would like to point out that we have a couple of heroic parishioners who stopped short of just anything that you could even imagine and saved countless lives. And our hearts are going out to them and their families as well. This is an ongoing investigation. We don't have all the answers. I'm sure there are a bunch of them out there right now. We will continue to turn over every rock so we can get to the bottom of what have occurred. I want to thank you for your support in getting the message out that there is no threat to the public. We want everyone to know that we're doing our best to get to the bottom of this and as soon as we have some more information, we'll pass that along. At this point, I'd like introduce the Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn.</s>SHERIFF BILL WAYBOURN, TARRANT COUNTY, TEXAS: Just reiterating what you already heard, this is a horrific day in Tarrant County, and our prayers and thoughts are with the folks over here at the church and the people that are lost. But today evil walked boldly among us. But let me remind you, good people raised up and stopped it before it got worse. I know we're not taking any questions. There will be a further brief later. But we've got a lot of resources to bear. Everybody is involved. We will get to the bottom of it. Thank you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, folks, thanks. Again no questions now. But we'll be back around 4:30 to 5:00 for a follow-up.</s>SAVIDGE: All right. And there you have the latest update from law enforcement there. The primary message is that this could have been worse had it not been for what they described as heroic parishioners who returned fire against the gunman. We'll take a break and be back after this.