Arapahoe County Sherrif's Briefing; Remarks by Gov. Hickenlooper; Suspect Was Armed with Shotgun
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Ana, I'm going to interrupt you right now, just because we're going to go live to the press conference.</s>SHERIFF GRAYSON ROBINSON, ARAPAHOE COUNTY, COLORADO: (In progress) - regarding this particular situation. Today, at 12:33 p.m., a lone gunman entered the school on the west side. The gunman came into the school and immediately asked for the location of a very specific teacher, and he named that teacher by name. When the teacher heard that he - that this individual was asking for him, the teacher exited the school immediately - in my opinion was the most important tactical decision that could have been made, that he knew he was a - he was the target. And he left that school in an effort to try to encourage the shooter to also leave the school, with the focus of safety and security and well-being of our students in his mind. When that happened, one student was shot by the shooter. That student was transported immediately by Littleton Fire Rescue, and that student is currently in serious condition at a local hospital, undergoing surgery. A second victim was shot. That individual suffered a very minor gunshot wound, and is being treated at a local hospital. We believe that that individual will be released before the end of the evening. Our active shooter protocol was immediately initiated by our school resource officer. The officer went immediately to the threat as he is trained and all of the responding deputies and police officers also activated our regional active shooter protocol. And that is to go to the threat and try to eliminate the threat while keeping students and staff safe. Within 20 minutes of the time of the report of the shooting, our deputies found the suspect dead inside the school. Currently, right now, it appears to us that that shooter is dead as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. However, that determination remains under investigation and we will continue to look at those details. At this point in time, we have victims' advocates with the families and the victims at the hospital, and we have investigators with the family of the shooter. We are beginning our investigation now as a crime scene. We have evacuated the entire school. The school was evacuated very slowly, deliberately, and meticulously. We wanted to ensure that all of our students number one were safe, and secondly, we wanted to ensure that we had no other suspects or individuals that were collaborators with our shooter. Although, it will remain under investigation, we -- at this point in time, we believe the shooter that is deceased is the only individual that was armed in the school today and came here to cause harm to the students and/or faculty of this facility. However, that remains under investigation. We also have assets coming from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to assist us with our responsibilities to process this crime scene, collect evidence and do the work that we need to do so that we can come to a final conclusion of why this happened and how it happened. At this point in time, we have assets across the south metro area talking with people who either know the suspect or have some association with him and we are trying to collect that information. As I indicated, the school was evacuated methodically and very deliberately. We initially evacuated students to the Shepherd of the Hills Church, which is located about a block south of our current location. Very quickly, that facility became overwhelmed with the numbers of students and parents that were trying to reunite and we had to select a second reunification site which is the Euclid middle school located at 777 West Euclid Avenue in Littleton, Colorado. Very frankly, that is a distance from here, but it is the most convenient and it's the largest facility that we could come up with quickly in order to do the work that we need to do quickly and efficiently. We are in the process now of reunifying our students and our families. We are in the process now of putting together a crisis intervention team that will be available for staff and students of Arapahoe High School as long as that group of crisis intervention professionals are needed. We will work in collaboration with the school district and we will work in collaboration with our colleagues across the state that provide crisis intervention and mental health assistance to anyone that needs it as a result of this tragic shooting. With that, that is the information I currently have to share. I will be back with you in a few moments with questions, but before I answer any questions, I would like superintendent of schools, Scott Murphy, to join me and make some comments, please.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sheriff, can he stand next to you so he can take advantage of your microphone. Can you just step up a little closer? Thank you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our thoughts, our prayers are with all the families, students affected. We are doing everything we can to work with Arapahoe County Sheriff's department and will do the care that we need to for the families as we go forward. It's a very, very difficult day for Arapahoe High School.</s>ROBINSON: Thank you, Scott. With that, Governor Hickenlooper would also like to make some comments. Governor, thank you for joining us.</s>GOV. JOHN HICKENLOOPER, (D) COLORADO: I'm not sure what I can add. Obviously, our hearts go out to the principal, Natalie Pramenko, Scott Murphy, the superintendent, you just heard. I mean, this is a good school district and to have this all too familiar sequence where you have gunshots and parents racing to the school and unspeakable horror in a place of learning, and in this case, we saw the incredible training and preparation of our first responders. I give Sheriff Robinson, who announced his retirement today, of all the ironies, I mean, they had this training so that, again, officers from all across the south metro area were trained in how to go in immediately into that school and make sure that the perpetrator, this kid, was -- I mean, the officers went right to him and they got to him within literally within minutes. That is a world of change from the way response used to happen and I think it just says volumes about these guys. Again, our hearts and prayers are with the entire Arapahoe school community, and we'll do everything we can to help them get through this.</s>ROBINSON: Thank you, governor. With that, I will try to answer questions. I want to also tell you that there are some questions that clearly, I am not in a position to answer because of the ongoing investigation. But I will certainly as I usually try to tell you when I can and cannot. Yes, sir.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, I heard that the suspect's locker was a cause of concern. Can you tell us anything about that?</s>ROBINSON: It's a process of the ongoing investigation. We certainly will look at every aspect and detail that may be associated with the suspect, not only his locker, anyplace that he may have frequented in the school and very frankly, his home as well.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it locker 444?</s>ROBINSON: I have no idea.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sheriff, you said that the teacher left the school immediately</s>ROBINSON: Still a matter under investigation of what the relationship between the shooter and the teacher was. We know that the student that was armed with a shotgun, as he entered the west side of Arapahoe High School, immediately asked for the location of this specific teacher and asked for that teacher by name. As soon as the teacher realized that, as I indicated in my initial comment, he departed the school. That was a very wise tactical decision. He took himself away from the school with an effort to try to encourage the shooter to go with him.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What can you tell us about the student who was shot? How did that occur and what was going on there?</s>ROBINSON: Don't know the details. Still a matter under investigation. We do know that that student suffered a serious gunshot wound. We believe that the student is still in surgery in a local hospital. We certainly share our thoughts and our prayers with her and her family.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What can you tell us about explosives or Molotov cocktails?</s>ROBINSON: Certainly as part of our protocol, our bomb squad from the sheriff's office responded initially because of the fact that we never know and we want to be err on the side of more assets than fewer. We believe that we have one device in the school. Initially, it was reported to me that it was a Molotov cocktail, but my bomb squad is working that, trying to identify it. I'll have more information the next briefing that we provide.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What can you tell us about the shooter, his age, class --</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Name?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Graduate?</s>ROBINSON: First off, I will not -- he's a current student of Arapahoe High School. I will not release -- we have identified him. We have investigators that are with his family and with his colleagues. I will not identify him at this point in time. When it is appropriate, I will identify the shooter.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about the age, sheriff?</s>ROBINSON: Again, I won't identify. I will provide any information relative to the shooter until I am prepared to do so relative to the ongoing investigation.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What about the student who intervened?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You were talking about the west side of the school where the shooter entered. Give us a sense because I've never been to this school. Give us a sense. Is this the office area? Is this one of the exits on the other side?</s>ROBINSON: The question was the configuration of the school on the west side. The west side of this school is typically made up of the student parking lot. It is an area that has at least two and probably three, if the kids are real innovative, different entrances and exits that can be used. Goes into the immediate area of the gymnasium and the pool on the west side so that gives you a bit of a configuration where we're at.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sheriff, who did the student ask for the specific teacher?</s>ROBINSON: He asked the other students that were in the immediate area, the location of the specific teacher.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who was it -- no teacher or administrator encounter this student first? How did the student get to the armed student first?</s>ROBINSON: Well, I think, first off, you have to understand that this is a high school. These young men and women that are here to be educated come and go fairly freely. They have down time, they have breaks in their day. So, they are moving in and about the school on a regular basis. Certainly as the individual entered the school, he asked for the teacher immediately from the students that were in the area. There were no other teachers in the area.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was the gun visible at that time?</s>ROBINSON: Yes. The suspect was carrying a --</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pump action (ph) or rifle?</s>ROBINSON: The student that entered the high school was armed with a shotgun. I'm not at liberty nor will I discuss the details of that weapon at this point. However, it was clear he was armed with a shotgun. He made no effort to hide it or conceal it. He carried it into the school as he entered the school.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was it the other students who alerted the teacher, then?</s>ROBINSON: No. The word got around immediately that he was looking for the teacher.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the active shooter protocol, is that something that was started right after columbine or just in the last several years? A little bit with the history about that program?</s>ROBINSON: Well, clearly, the active shooter protocol has to do with going to the threat and not waiting. It is a protocol that has been trained across the state of Colorado, not just in one or two local agencies, but we not only train in our individual agencies, but then we come together regionally and we train on these particular protocols. I will remind you of training programs that we put together in exercises around operation mountain guardian several months ago that had to do with active shooter. Those protocols, unfortunately, have had to be used far, far, far too many times in Colorado and across the United States because of these tragic episodes where people decide they've got to even up the score with a weapon.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sheriff, can you tell us if there was an SRO?</s>ROBINSON: We had an SRO. The SRO immediately responded on his own to the area of the threat.</s>ROBINSON: I do not know.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What can you tell us about the confrontation between the --</s>ROBINSON: Initially, we were told there was a confrontation between the shooter and the student that was wounded. At this point in time, it appears that that is probably not accurate. It appears that the student was simply in the area of the shooter and was shot at the time the shooter came through the school.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you describe where this person was shot?</s>ROBINSON: I will not discuss the wounds or any information around the victims at this point.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many shots were fired?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How was the shooter able to get into the school before we assume he took his own life?</s>ROBINSON: Well, the shooter actually went quite a ways into the school because we found his body in the internal portion of the school in a classroom.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sheriff, anybody discharge</s>ROBINSON: There was no law enforcement weapons discharged in the school. They were armed. Certainly, if you speak with students and faculty that were in the school, the deputy sheriffs and the police officers that responded and reacted to this active shooter were adequately armed.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many shots --</s>ROBINSON: They were armed with urban street rifles and their service weapons, which is part of our protocols. They entered the facility with the absolute responsibility and purpose of eliminating the threat. They quickly worked the school to try to find that threat and as soon as they found the individual down, they realized what the situation was.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sheriff, will your folks or CBI or the FBI searching the home of the shooter looking for any notes or evidence that this might have been seen coming?</s>ROBINSON: We will -- the question was if we will search the home of the shooter. We will conduct a thorough and complete investigation. We will take our time to ensure that it's done right. We will not do it quick. Part of our protocol will be a thorough investigation which includes a search of the suspect's home, a search of areas where the suspect may have had access to other weapons or material that would have motivated him to do this tragic act and we will search portions of the school that he would have had individual and immediate access to.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this point, is there any indication that this is tied to the anniversary of Sandy Hook?</s>ROBINSON: Absolutely no indication at all that this would be tied to Sandy Hook. Certainly, something that we will look into, always an issue we have to focus our attention on.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sheriff, is there a vehicle being searched in the parking lot that he drove here?</s>ROBINSON: If he brought a vehicle to this school, it will be searched. It will be rendered safe first, and then it will be searched.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many shots fired and where did the shooting take place?</s>ROBINSON: Shooting happened in the immediate west entry of the school. I don't know how many shots were fired. Part of what our investigation -- investigators will be trying to conclude.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And did the suspect actually have a class with this particular teacher? Did they know each other?</s>ROBINSON: They clearly had a relationship. The degree and level of that relationship is yet to be determined. Something that we will talk about in days, not hours to come.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you identify the teacher?</s>ROBINSON: I will not.</s>ROBINSON: I don't have any information.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This may be one for the school superintendent -- how long before classes resume?</s>ROBINSON: I certainly would leave that to the school board and the superintendent. And I'm sure that's an issue that they will discuss in the hours to come and will make a decision. Folks, I will take about three more questions.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sheriff, earlier, you said that there were no accomplices -- have there been any accomplices to collaborate or identified and the second question part of it is, there was no threats made to the school prior, not by this man, but by another person that you also perhaps investigate?</s>ROBINSON: First off, the question was if there were other threats. We don't know yet. No threats that we are aware of to this school or this teacher but that's part of what we are trying to investigate. At my 1:45 briefing, I told you that it appeared to us that there were no other co-conspirators or collaborators. It continues to appear to us that the shooter that is deceased was the lone actor in this tragic event, but we will continue to try to confirm that and ensure that we have that information accurately taken care of.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said that he's talking with his family and colleagues. What do you mean by colleagues?</s>ROBINSON: Certainly other students, friends, family members, anyone who had -- may have been associated with this individual that he may have indicated days or weeks or months ago that this was something on his mind. We will do a thorough and complete investigation and that includes dealing with anyone who may have been associated with our shooter over the last several months or weeks. Yes, sir?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As far as people who live around here, any idea how long everything is going to be shut down? They need to find a new route?</s>ROBINSON: I think that's a great question. We will keep this intersection and this immediate area shut down for the remainder of the night. I can't imagine we will open this area until shortly after 10:00 p.m. tonight. So, folks that are traveling need to make appropriate arrangements. The fact that we are keeping it closed down is a product of the resources we currently have in the immediate area and the fact that we have an ongoing investigation that will require our public safety professionals to move back and forth safely. We will keep this closed for a period of time.</s>ROBINSON: No, ma'am. It is not my last day. I simply announced yesterday my retirement, but that's not relevant to our situation.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has everyone been evacuated, sheriff?</s>ROBINSON: They have.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was there anyone injured in the evacuation?</s>ROBINSON: No.</s>ROBINSON: We have no other schools on lockdown. We initially thought about it but immediately realized that this situation was isolated specifically to Arapahoe High School. With that, folks, I thank you for your time. We will put out another media release, but it will be my intention that we are currently at 3:15, pushing 3:20 p.m. Mountain standard time. I will give another media brief at 6:00 p.m. And I don't know the location, but I can guarantee you it will not be in this intersection. Thank you all very much.</s>WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: there you have it. From the sheriff, Grayson Robinson, Arapahoe County, out there in Colorado, where there was a shooting at this high school, Arapahoe High School today. The shooter, the suspect in this particular case according to the sheriff, shot himself, and unfortunately, though, one student is in serious condition right now. A woman, a young girl was shot, another one in very minor condition, a minor wound sustained in this shooting at this high school. These are pictures from earlier when the students were asked to leave the high school with their hands up. They didn't know if there were any others involved and the sheriff now saying once again, does not believe others were involved. Joe Johns was listening and watching. For our viewers, Joe, who are just tuning in to the SITUATION ROOM right now, want to get an update on what was going on, update us on what we know.</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN CRIME & JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: There was a lot of new information in that news conference and kudos to the sheriff for putting it out there. What we now know is this shooter goes to the school, he goes to the west side of the building near a student parking lot, three entrances back there, and he asks for a teacher by name, and where that teacher's location is. He's carrying a shotgun. Then, he apparently walks into the building, somehow, the teacher he's looking for is alerted to the fact that the shooter's coming for him. The teacher exits the building and authorities are giving him credit for that tonight because the whole idea was to get outside the building so that the shooter would get outside of the building so that all the students would be safe. The shooter apparently goes further inside the building and shoots a student, and sometime thereafter, actually turns the gun on himself. Apparently the shot he took, authorities think, was self-inflicted. Now, a couple pieces of information that we hadn't been able to confirm until just now. Some type of incendiary device is believed to be inside that school. The sheriff said possibly a Molotov cocktail. So, that's one of the things they have to deal with. There's also a lot of concern about what might be in this young student, presumably a male's locker, so they have to check that. There's also talk of going to the house, perhaps, even a search warrant to see what might be at his home. And another question is whether he might have driven an automobile to the school, so if he did, they'll want to check that out as well. Otherwise, this is pretty much wrapped up there, but a very, very scary day at Arapahoe High School, Wolf</s>BLITZER: The student apparently, the suspect, was a high school student at that high school, walked in pretty easily with a shotgun, the sheriff said, right?</s>JOHNS: That's absolutely right. He walked in with a shot gun and there are a lot of questions about what kind of a shotgun it was. Also, one of the questions that I have as a journalist, of course, is whether it was a sawed-off shotgun because he apparently turned that weapon on himself and you know the long stock of a shotgun, it's very difficult to turn a shotgun on yourself, unless, it's sawed-off. But that's one question I would say, Wolf. The most important and key question here that we all want to know is about the motivation. What was the beef between this young student and the teacher he came to that school to find with the gun? So many questions, of course, that authorities will be asking for days about what was the relationship between the student and the teacher he came looking for, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: I'm sure we'll be getting many of those answers fairly soon, a relatively cohesive community there and I know the investigation is only just beginning. Joe, stand by. Summer Skrzypek (ph) is joining us on the phone right now, a senior at the high school. Summer, are you OK?</s>VOICE OF SUMMER SKRZYPEK (PH), STUDENT AT ARAPAHOE HIGH SCHOOL: I'm really shaken up. I still feel sick. I don't think my hands have stood still for the past like three hours.</s>BLITZER: YOU'RE 17 years old. You're a junior or senior in the high school?</s>SKRZYPEK: Sadly, I'm a senior. And this is the memory that I get to take away from my high school experience.</s>BLITZER: Tell us what happened, if you don't mind, Summer. And if it's too painful, I'll leave you alone, but if you want to walk us through, what happened, where were you when you first heard that there was a shooter in the school?</s>SKRZYPEK: I was in about two hallways down by the library from the west wing. The shots sounded like they were right outside the classroom. I, at first thought, it was a chair, like banging against the ground, but then three more shots were fired and my teacher immediately got up, did the lockdown drill, the lights were off and we were in the corner within 30 seconds. That's what probably saved us.</s>BLITZER: And I just want to point out, your parents have authorized this interview with us, right?</s>SKRZYPEK: Yes. That is correct.</s>BLITZER: OK. I just want to make sure that we're not doing anything that would be inappropriate. All right. So, you must have been scared. Do you have any idea what -- did you have any idea what was going on at that point?</s>SKRZYPEK: All I could think was I can't believe this is happening. Like, we've all heard about columbine, we're all well aware of it. We're well aware of Sandy Hook. I said not here, this can't be happening here. It seemed like I was in a dream. Then, when I looked around and saw the girls around me were crying, I just kind of, we all kind of hugged each other and I knew we were all terrified.</s>BLITZER: Without mentioning the suspect, the shooter's name, do you have any idea who this individual was?</s>SKRZYPEK: No. Right now, I don't want to know. I just want to know that all my friends and everybody I care about are safe and that the Arapahoe student body can get past this. That's all I want to know right now.</s>BLITZER: And the teacher that this shooter was supposedly going after, did you know who the teacher was?</s>SKRZYPEK: No. But I am thankful for his planning to get outside the school and get the shooter away and I'm thankful that all the teachers at Arapahoe were so well-prepared and saved all of us basically with their quick action.</s>BLITZER: We're showing our viewers video -- pictures of the students as they were leaving. I assume you were one of them with their hands up. Police came and said everybody leave, but raise your hands, is that what was going on?</s>SKRZYPEK: I had not been out at that point. We were rushed out by the S.W.A.T. team and we were told to run towards the other side of the street and everybody just started running as fast as they could to get across the street, the buildings there.</s>BLITZER: How --</s>SKRZYPEK: We were taken out fast.</s>BLITZER: How were your friends doing, Summer?</s>SKRZYPEK: I have only heard from a few of them. From my school, they're all shaken up. Some of them are still waiting for their parents to come get them. I know my friends around community, I've been getting tons of calls and everybody is joining together and trying to like get past this and be a community.</s>BLITZER: Summer, well, thank you so much for sharing. I know this must be an awful, awful, very painful day for you. Good luck. Good luck to all the students at the Arapahoe High School and your families and friends as well. Our hearts go out to all of you. Thank you very much.</s>SKRZYPEK: Yes, thank you.</s>BLITZER: I want to listen in, one of our affiliates, KDVR, is now speaking to another student.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I pray for everybody, you know? I hope nothing happen, but I hear two people got shot. I hear she's OK, something like that. Yes. I got the answer -- Thank God this is OK (ph).</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said you couldn't believe hearing this again in Colorado.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I couldn't believe it, because you know, I thought this would be like a safe area</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you glad to see your sister?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I'm very glad to see my sister.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you give her a hug yet? OK. All right.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you for talking.</s>BLITZER: All right. There you have the reunion, that young girl is OK. Obviously shaken, totally understandable. You're looking at these pictures of the Arapahoe High School in Colorado. Tom Foreman is with us watching what's going on. He used to live over there, Tom. So, you know this area well.</s>TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And we have new news out of there, Wolf, right now. We are being told by Swedish hospital, an excellent hospital not far from the high school there, that they are now treating two students who are both in good condition and Littleton Adventist Hospital has the student that is in the most serious condition. At least that's what we understand now. So, up until this point, listening to the sheriff, we thought there were only two students who are injured. Now, we're talking about three.</s>BLITZER: Two injured not that seriously, but one very seriously.</s>FOREMAN: One quite seriously. We don't have any more about the condition right now, but there are two different hospitals there not terribly far away, but that's the latest we know about that. This would be again, as we talked about, everybody being prepared there, Wolf, and the law enforcement and school community, certainly, the medical community there, too. Having lived through Columbine, I will assure you there are police officers on the scene and medical experts who are dealing with this today or at least in these institutions where the kids have been taken. There are people there who were there when columbine happened in 1999 who had firsthand experience. So, I'm sure they're on hand right now dealing with this and seeing what they can find out.</s>BLITZER: Yes. So close. Sheriff Grayson Robinson also saying that the student who's in serious condition, in surgery right now, is a young girl. So, we'll watch that and pray for her.</s>FOREMAN: I just want to point out in case anybody missed it there, he did note the student who was shot at that point, he said there did not seem to be any sort of targeting. It was simply happenstance. That student happened to be where the gun man was. That's one of those details we always look at when we're looking for motive and what was actually happening --</s>BLITZER: And the sheriff says the gunman then shot himself and is dead right now. We're going to continue on top of this story. Another awful shooting at a high school in Colorado. Much more of our special report right after this.