Transcripts For CNNW CNN 20240702

And so, it is the Ongoing Investigation to apprehend this individual are happening simultaneously. I cant stress it enough, this is Ongoing Investigation in the early stages and more information is going to be coming out in conjunction with the Attorney Generals Office as the lead prosecutor. We cannot share all of the information right now, and i am sure that you understand that. I want to give out two numbers that are good with the tip line and 911 is appropriate for this, but if you can call these two numbers this going to the state police tip line. Area code 2072139526. 2075099002. Well be sending something out later that has the information in it if you were not able to grab it now. Again, this is a very fluid situation. We have a lot of resources as chief st. Pierre had mentioned earlier that are on the ground and in a coordinated effort to apprehend this individual. We have notified the Department Of Education and they have determined what they are going to do with the schools, and a lot of the schools, area schools were shutdown today based on our conversation with them. As more information is coming in, we will provide it to you. Thank you for the time. This is a difficult time for, i think that the community of lewiston, and difficult time for the obviously the victims families, and it is a tough time for Law Enforcement. It was a Rough Night Last night, and we are committed to bringing, you know, whoever is responsible for bringing this person to justice. And we are currently looking for mr. Card right now, and someone we would like to apprehend. Thank you. Thank you, colonel. The fbi Special Agent in charge cohen, if you could join me, please. Thank you. My name is jodi cohen, and im the fbi Special Agent in charge from boston that covers maine. Our hearts go out to everyone who was involved in this senseless violence. We are working hand in hand with the Law Enforcement officers, and we are here to process the extensive scenes, and we are providing the investigative and tactical support, and victim specialists are working those affected bed be i affected this tragedy. We are asking the public to stay vigilant and come forward with any information that you might have that you feel is helpful to our investigators. My pledge is that the fbi will carry out this investigative case with rigor. We will work day and night alongside our Law Enforcement partners to get the answers to the questions this community deserves. We thank the public for your continued cooperation and patience as we have continued to work this very active investigation, thank you. Appreciate that. I would say that the reality here from the Resource Standpoint is that when we have asked for anything the answer has been yes, period. Tactical teams, response team, and full blown investigative units and Detective Units coming from multiple states whether it is the commissioners from vermont, New Hampshire reaching out to me directly, massachusetts, and saying what can we do for the state of maine, and so we are prepared to take a few questions and keep in mind that we may not be able to answer as in depth as you would like, and we dont plan on taking a great deal of questions. The followup press events will allow for that. S sir . Arstyle rifle, and the other thing is that there are reports that the individual had Mental Health issues that he had made threats to shoot up the national guard, and so clearly some signs that he was on someones radar, and the question is becoming why he was in possession of this weapon, and certainly why wouldnt he be stopped sooner . Those are all valid questions and questions that we are looking into now, and not questions that we can answer today considering that this occurred last night, there is still an active search for the suspect in question, so i can appreciate the questions bush not something to answer right no now. And for certainly to follow up on all aspects of that. Go ahead right here. Can you tell us i am not sure, and we wanted to break it down by gender, and we did not break it down into age ranges at all. Yes . And the suspect in the case or the Person Of Interest, and i noticed that the language is clear, because you are saying Person Of Interest and not suspect, and why that terminology and what can you tell us . We used Person Of Interest last night for half of the room that was here for that press event and as the colonel had mentioned there is now Arrest Warrants for murder for this particular individual, mr. Card. So, he is viewed as a suspect, and there is a full court press by all of the partners to bring him into custody. What was the second piece of the question . What can you tell us about the recent issues of his Mental Health, and the language in the bulletin for Mental Health for two weeks and how can someone with that profile be in possession of firearms . We know that statues are complex, and that not something that goes into motive and behavioral Health Issues and i suspect that you will be hear back to us about that. And we have been seeing the helicopters, and can you tell us about what is leading you for that far north of the seaport . We have Law Enforcement assets deployed over a number of communities and following up on a number of things. As you can imagine, there is a number of Search Warrants that we are following up on and partners from the New Hampshire state police and that copter was here last night to assist us as well, and whether it is tactical elements out or searching an area, and some of the air assets would be valuable for us, and this is what they are doing. And can you tell us why you are there . We wont speak to what brings us to a specific Community One way or another. And why are people encouraged to have dna Family Members or loved ones and what is that well, so, we did have a Family Reunification Center open last night, and Behavioral Health liaisons fully engaged to work with families and loved ones and work with the victims for that matter that are in the hospital and seeking treatment, and so those things are actively occurring and dealing with each one of the situations separately, and so do we need dna on that or waiting to find a loved one, and some kind of Family Member that we can make a notification, and this is varying across the board. I will take two more questions. Right here. What was the motive . You say triggering ve ing eva motive, but it is clearly something that is important. One additional followup from you. Why this bar or why this town . I think that is speaking to motive so i appreciate the followup, but it is not something that we can be prepared to answer today. Right here, sir. And will these Arrest Warrants be issued today well, reactively searching for him, and if i knew the answers to that, it would be a different Press Conference and we dont know the location, and we will leave it with that, and we are working with the attorney generals with the murder homicide warrants. So, with that, we are going to be take off at this point. Thank you, thank you. All right. There is the latest update and tragic update from all of the officials there. The death toll has now increased. 18 People Killed in two Mass Shootings overnight. One female, and most of them male. One female was killed at the Bowling Alley, and three people transferred to the hospital and died and bringing the total to 18 People Killed and 13 people injured. They do not know where this man is. Now with an Arrest Warrant for eight counts of murder which will be going up obviously, but they dont know where he is, and the manhunt is under way. But clear hly he is a suspec and there is eight counts of murder as they identify the bodies, but ten people they have not been able to identify, and so now the person is now officially a suspect. John mill ser with us, and we have a whole panel of folks to help walk through this. John, what did what did you learn here . Well, what we learned is that they have the resources they need. They have the engagement of every relevant federal agency, every data set, every technology, and they have a investigation that divided into two parts. One is the homicide investigation, why these places, why these people, what is his background, but second, and this is going to be the top priority is the manhunt where they have devoted largest number of people and resources, because it appears that from hitting the two locations and when the commissioner was asked specifically why those places, he said, well, that goes to motive which suggests that it is not stating implicitly, but it is suggesting that he picked the two places for a reason, and some connection either between him and the places or the people. And suggesting they are knowing more than they are saying publicly right now. And an escape to the trailhead and a boat launch, and he knows the area, and he did not make that turn by mistake, and he had a plan and it is to stay at large and not to be captured there, as so many of these shooters are, and it adds another element, and it is not a manhunt within a small area, but it is someone who has the resources and the training to put some distance between them possibly. And jonathan, what did you hear. We learned some new details with the death toll tragically being updated but still some questions left unanswered because the suspect is still on the run. What else were you hearing and what else stuck out to you . Well, listen, a lot of insight during the Press Conference, but not a lot of information that people were really seeking. What we heard as mr. Miller said, a lot of Law Enforcement coordination around the investigation under way and details lacking. It is either by design or they dont have the information or following up on the investigative leads, and they dont want to reveal what the approach and methodology is going to be when they had dress this, but when you are addressing the public, you have to reassure them, and one thing that the community is looking for is if people are safe. We heard limited assurance that the community is safe, but there a large scale of mobilization of state, federal and local addressing situation, but what people want to know is what specific actions are being take epp, ataken and what are they broadly looking for, and is this person in the community or did they flee. And Commissioner Miller pointed out really good that based on the multiple shooters over time and distance and the shooter evaded police shows that there is a more sophisticated level of planning that went into this attack, and more importantly, how this suspect is evading police. We need to understand what are those resources that are being applied by Law Enforcement right now to address this suspect who is now on the run for well over 12 hours. Commissioner harris, will et me bring you in, former Police Commissioner in baltimore, commissioner harrison, what is lingering is the reassurances or more information that is needed really for the public of where exactly is the area that is the search area at this point, and i mean, we know that there is a shelter in place for lewiston, lisbon and bodoin . Thank you for having me, but that is why the state police is leading it, because it is beyond one jurisdiction and multiple jurisdictions and they are searching far beyond lewiston and the entire state and with help outside of the state. So the one thing that i have had to do it many times in two mayor cities. The previous guest was right, to give reassurance, number one, that we are on this. Law enforcement is on it. There is a synchronized effort to find this individual, and we would like the know more about this individual, but the fact that Law Enforcement is synchronizing the efforts and it is coordinated to locate this individual, and this is number one. Yes, reassurance that people are safe, but more importantly in a state of crisis, reassuring people that all of the efforts are synchronized and all of the resources that are available to the president to the governor to mayors and the city managers are all at play here. I think they did a good job of giving the reassurance that they are united. As the time goes on, we will hear more about the details. As i said last night on the show, we talked about the skill and the ability of mr. Card to inflict harm on so many people so fast. I am concerned about his skill and ability to evade police for long periods of time. His ability to anticipate how police would come after him, and his ability to inflict that amount of carnage again if he is faced with an encounter with Law Enforcement, and to have that much ammunition, and to shoot that many rounds that fast, it is possible that he has that much ammunition if not more, and to position himself to have a violent encounter with more, and we have talked about suicide, surrender and or a violent encounter with Law Enforcement, and all of them are plausible and dangerous. So they are all well planned, and if they are too much too fast, because we have to make sure that we are staying in front of the decisions that mr. Card is making. And that seems to be a real challenge now as we are watching and this is playing out, and they do not know, they are saying where he is right now, and question still lingering is how many weapons that he had or even has with him at this point. If everyone can stay with us. We just got in a statement from President Biden on this, and it is a lengthy statement, but he says off of the top, once again, the nation is in mourning after yet another senseless and tragic Mass Shooting. Today, jill and i are praying for the americans who have lost their lives and those in Critical Care and for the families and survivors and Community Members enduring shock and grief. I also urge the area residents to heed the guidance of the local Law Enforcement officials and they are acting with the state and federal officials and as i told the administration to provide everything that is needed to support the people of maine, and we will continue to be there every step of the way. Bottom line, 18 people are dead today after two Mass Shootings last night and a suspect is now still on the run, and they do not know yet where he is. We have to get a quick break in, and we have much more to come. Stay with us. Welcome back. We continue to follow the breaking news out of lewiston, maine, and this is where the mass shooter is still on the louis. It has been 15, 16 hours since the shooting took place and people across multiple cities are sheltering in place. This is what we learned from the maines governor on what she called a dark day in maine. I am profoundly saddened to stand before you today to report that 18 people lost their lives. 13 people injured in last nights attacks. The full weight of my administration is behind Law Enforcements efforts to capture the Person Of Interest robert card, to hold whoever is responsible for this Atrocity Accountable under the full force of state and federal law and to seek full justice for the victims and their families. As you heard there from the governor, the latest update is 18 people were killed in these two Mass Shootings, 13 others wounded. It is truly just in minutes that this played out. Eight of those killed have so far before identified. Eight families now informed. There are victims that the officials have said in this Press Conference that have not yet been identified, and so there are families still waiting to hear the fate of their loved ones. Lets start with shimon prokupiez, and we heard you in the Press Conference, and what more are you hearing . Well, i mean, look, there are questions about this suspect now, his background, and what is going on in this persons life. The Law Enforcement here seems to have this information, and they are investigating it, and they certainly say they dont want to talk about it right now. I mean, that is a key issue here. The gun ownership, what was going on in his life, and the motive here, and you know, it is a Big Questions that still need to be answered. I think that the other thing in all of this is how quickly all of this unfolded. You are talking about a time line, and it still wasnt thorough as it could be and hopefully we will get there with the Law Enforcement, but talking about the first 911 call coming at 6 56 p. M. At the Bowling Alley where people would ultimately be killed, and then at 12 30 at 7 08 p. M. , there are multiple 911 calls from the bar, schemengees, and so then we have a 12minute gap of what happens after 7 08. They find the suspects car. And what happens at that point, and now, of course, we didnt really get to talk about this manhunt and what is going on. One of the communities that Law Enforcement has been focused on is where they found the car that is in lisbon. But i was there all morning, and it is really just the Lisbon Police department, the 17person Police Department that is out there searching for this individual. We are not seen a bigger presence there, and perhaps that has changed since this Press Conference has happened. So, the bottom line is that obviously, there are a lot of questions, and it seems that the officials at that point dont want to answer the questions. They have Ongoing Investigation. Then of course, look, in the end, it is all about the families who sadly, you know, just more families in this country who are grieving today because of what happened here. So, i think that for the city officials here, and the state officials, they will have to answer some more questions at some point, and hopefully that happens, but with this big thing is the man hunt, and where is this person, and how safe are people, people certainly in the communities dont feel safe. They are on edge. The stores are empty, and closed and people are not leaving their homes. This is a lot for the community to deal with and for state and city officials to deal with right now. You have to imagine that we dont know if the person is on foot, driving or perhaps in a boat, and we have so many questions of where he could be. Shimon prokupiez, stay with us, because we want to continue the conversation with our panel, john miller, andy mccabe and as you know, there are questions of in terms of where this suspect is and how police will find him. So walk us through what is happening on the ground in terms of the various agencies now. Well, rahel, what should be happening, and we dont know if it is the case, because we are not quite frankly getting information about this, but what should be happening is that all of the agencies report to the Incident Command Structure which is usually led by your state police officials, and they have the authority and the responsibility to coordinate among the agencies to divvy up the tasks to make sure that each agency with the unique skills and Legal Authority are using those things to maximum results to try to solve this problem. So typically you think of the federal agencies like the fbi to be focused on the intelligence side of this, and using the court authorized access to electronic surveillance, identifying devices and Telephone Numbers and email accounts and those sorts of things to try to generate the leads and maybe the state officials thinking more in terms of the state Law Enforcement of doing this Grid Search Work if they have identified the areas of where they think that they should be working for this guy and then local Police Responding to local calls, but the facts are that we are not seeing a lot of that execution in the obvious way on the ground, and it does not mean it is not happening, but we are not seeing it. They are not telling us very much. So you have a little bit of the disconnect here, and that is starting to create the impression that things are not as coordinated as they could be, and i hope that is not the case, but we will have to see. And daniel brunner, the retired fbi Special Agent, and what are you hearing in that, because we heard from the governor three towns that are still in a shelter in place, under the shelter in place advisory, but there is no search area. Theres no area of focus or concern that is out, that was announced at the Press Conference, and so what is the tugandpull, if you will, of needing to keep your, some of the cards close to the vest, but also, you have a town, this whole state is terrified and paralyzed now, because there is a dangerous man on the loose, and people need information. Absolutely, and what is striking is the pennsylvania manhunt from a few months ago is that a lot of the Law Enforcement resources were brought into the area to conduct the manhunt. At this point, we are hours into the investigation, and not only are they investigating the ics is investigating the manhunt and determining the motive and where he could be going, but additionally the problem of where the vehicle was recovered. The vehicle was recovered at a trailhead, a boat launch or a parking lot. Let me jump n daniel. We have to jump back, because it is the Chief Medical Officer for the Maine Medical Center where the victims were taken. Again, he wont answer all of your questions, but with that, dr. Alexander. All right. Thank you, jim. Again, i am john alexander, the Chief Medical Officer, and Chief Medical Officer for Central Medical care in maine and we are the flagship medical health care. First, extend the thoughts and prayers to the families of the victims impacted by this tragedy and it has been a challenging 16 hours as you have heard from Law Enforcement officials who have been very supportive over the past half day. We have some heroic efforts by our team members last night continuing into today and they have provided expert and compassionate care, and one of the challenges with identifying the patients early on was the speed in which our teams needed to act. We had first patient arrive at 7 24 p. M. , and over the next 45 minutes we received a total of 14 patients. Eight of the patients were admitted to the hospital, and three of those patients are deceased, and two discharged home, and one was transferred to Maine Medical Center. We also had one patient that was taken to st. Marys hospital. For the eight patients who are currently admitted, five of those are in stable condition, and three in Critical Condition. We are not going to comment at this time on the gender or the ages of those patients. Nor will we comment on the nature of the injuries. Id like to thank also all of the hospitals, health Care Providers, ems agencies and air service from augusta, portland and we had incredible support from throughout the night and into today, and outpouring and ongoing assistance and very much appreciate all of the efforts. Once again, i want to extend our thoughts and prayers to the families, to their loved ones and to the victims who have bct thank you for the caregivers and for those families. Can you tell us again, we will not comment on the nature of the injuries at this time. Are there any of the victims under the age of 18 again, we will not comment on the ages or the gender of the patients at this time. Are there sure. You know, so our team, we are a level three trauma center, and we have trained Trauma Anesthesiologists and trained Emergency Hospital staff, and as we mentioned when the first patient arrived at 7 24, we have approximately 25 team members and anesthesiologists and other care persons to care for the patients, and when the next patient had come in, it was ballooning to 50 or 60 Care Providers who have gone through extensive training for those injuries and we are thankful they were there and prepared to help take care of the patients that we received. Doctor, the patients are coming by ambulance or though thers by private vehicle . All of the patients came in by ambulance or first responders. And with mass casualty training, how did that prepare you and match reality . Our team did an amazing job. They provided a high level of expertise to get the trauma into the Training Bases and trauma rooms and they are trained regularly and it showed. It was ongoing. How did you receive the patients . As they came to us. We had the normal staffing available to us, and mentioning the ballooning, we had 100 team members off duty coming into the hospital to help and ensure that we were able to care not only for the patients that we received from these horrible scenes, but also to take care of the patients that we had there. Doctor, from the sheriffs deputies and the Police Officers from the other jurisdictions, and is this similar to the health care and you will see the doctors and nurses from other towns come in, and if so, is that helpful and you like to see happen . Well, you know, certainly in the short term, there is an outpouring of assistance that is being offered. And we dont know what resources you need or dont need, and so it is helpful, because we could organize the resources, and use them effectively. As an example, we had Ambulance Services from other counties coming on site at one point where we had approximately 10 ambulance Crews Standing by outside of the trauma senor to assure that if we patients who needed to be transferred they could. And we had nurses and physicians from area hospitals, and helicopter support, and not only from our own life flight of maine, but also from Boston Med Flight and dartmouth, and so the short answer or the long answer to that is yes. And doctor, can you tell us why you would we were taking lead from Law Enforcement of what we need to do, and how we need to do it as long as the city is what is the term they use shelter in place. As long as it is shelter in place, we will have that current status. This is seeming to happen a lot in america, and the situ situations, and can you tell us how that is regularly occurring well, i dont know if i have a professional opinion of how to respond to this. I would say it is a tragedy, and i think that we should do our best to respect the families and those people impacted and the caregivers, and i will add one thing that is just talk about that, we have an incredible amount of support for people who are going through a difficult time right now, Mental Health issues or any kind of, you know, stress or anxiety from not only the events that have happened or having to witness some of it. So we are continuing to provide the resources and much for the question asked earlier about the other areas and neighboring towns and communities, we have received a lot of the support from the neighbors towns and communities and agencies around the state in order to offer support not only to the patients and families that we have, but also to the team members. Last question. People want to know when they can come out . Well, right now, we and the other Trauma Centers in the state are adequately supplied with blood and other supplies, but the one thing that i would asked for the people at home right now is if you are in an area where you are being asked to shelter in place, do so and stay safe. Can you tell us from time that you were first notified of the patient to arrive and the last one . Sure, that time frame was approximately 45 minutes and we ar received 14 critically ill patients, and it happened very quickly and our teams responded exceptionally well. Thank you, all. That is intense and obviously not giving more detail on the patients or the nature of the injuries right now, but he did say that three are critically injured. He told us that 100 team members came in last night after the event to try to meet the need of these two Mass Shootings happening in their community, and that is a sense of the overwhelm that perhaps the medical community had after these two matwo mass sgs. We will take a quick break and be right back. You want to be able to provide your child with the tools or resources they need. With reliable internet at home, through the internet essentials program, the world opened up. Fellas, fellas. Thats how my son was able to find the hidden genius project. We wanted to give yall the necessary skills to compete with the future. Kevins now part of this next generation of young people who feel they can thrive. Heres why you should switch fo to duckduckgo on all your Devie Duckduckgo comes with a builtn engine like google, but its pi and doesnt spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. And theres no catch. Its fre. We make money from ads, but they dont follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. Boydwin. Welcome back, everyone. 18 people dead, 13 people injured and at least 3 people still in Critical Condition now. Multiple communities terrorized and everyone is holding their breath in maine, because there is a manhunt under way still for that man. His name is robert card and he is now a Murder Suspect after two Mass Shootings that played out yesterday evening and he is still on the run, and he is considered arm and dangerous. And we have been following this story all morning, and we want to continue the conversation now and bring in the panel, Emergency Physician doctor dr. Megan brandy, and also gun instructor steven gatowski, and we just heard from the Press Conference that we have learned where the victims and the patients were brought to the level iii trauma center, and we have learned that in the hours following okay, i am hearing from the control room that we have lost the doctor, and we will try to get her back up, but steven, you were sharing with me and kate another story about a previous gunman who had been on the loose thinking of pennsylvania for example, and walk me through the civilian side of this, if you might, the communities, the towns, the families who are still for more than 16 hours waiting for this man to be arrested. Yeah, absolutely. It is incredible. Yes, absolutely, it is incredibly stressful and horrible experience that i had to deal with last month at my moms farm who was inside of that search area of that gunman who was arm, and this is worse because of the background of this particular shooter who is also with a more capable capable shooter. Dr. Rainy, we are hoping that the connection sticks, and we have heard from the Chief Medical Officer, and one of the Maine Health Care system, and talking about how they have 14 critically ill patients and 45 minutes and all they were up against when you know that you are talking about Gunshot Wounds with, at least some of them. Talk about what has happened in that trauma center. My heart is going out to entire community, and the state of maine, and no matter how prepared you, you cannot be prepared for this influx of patients. You are using Battlefield Triage of who you go to first and who you are most likely to save and how to manage the limited resources in the early minutes to hours when every moment makes a difference of just saving a life or not. I know that folks there did their utmost last night, and i am grateful for there being a level three trauma center, and i think that it was difficult for the colleagues in las vegas where they were bringing the Mass Shooting victims to a level i trauma center, but the ripple effects of this will be felt by the medical community of that community for weeks and months and years to come. Thank you, dr. Ranney, and steven, thank you for your expertise. We really appreciate it. And a father who is still, still waiting to see if his son survived and he is speaking is out. Welcome back. Back to the breaking news out of lewiston, maine where the search for a suspect continues. The suspect accused of killing at least 18 people last night at two separate locations. A restaurant and Bowling Alley. There is now a large scale manhunt across the state involving local police and also federal agents. Police telling people in lewiston and also nearby towns to shelter in place while they continue to scour the area for the 40yearold suspect robert card. Communities are not only shattered by the horrible tragedy, so many people injured, two locations, two Mass Shootings last night, and also still not over. Police said this morning they dont know where robert card is and they are helping for help and tips. So many families are still in shock for what happened and what they dont though. One father whose son was working at the restaurant, one of the sites of the Mass Shootings last night, he said he has been waiting for hours to hear from his son and still nothing. When you get anything that happens like this, you hope you go empty. There is just nothing. Nothing that you can do. You have like a monster inside of you. And it feels like it is blow off. We also heard from a man who was inside of the Bowly Alley Will at the time and he had to hide inside one of the machines until the shooting was over. Just spending the Night Bowling and he just came in and heard a loud pop. Thought it was a with a moon. I had my back to the door. And as soon as i turned and saw that it was not a balloon, he was holding a weapon, i just booked it down the lane and i slid basically into where the pins are and climbed up on the machine and was up on top of the machines for about ten minutes until the cops got there. Two people, their stories, an entire communities now on lockdown, sheltering in place. And with no real end in sight as this manhunt continues. Thank you all so much for joining us. A lot of brazil today. This is cnn news central. Ins