Transcripts For CNNW At This Hour With Berman And Michaela 20141022

Saying that he is in the building, that he is okay. He says we are okay. And that the lone gunman is deceased. Josh win grove on the line there. Any movement where you are right now . No, were still in a holding pattern. We see people searching the building with their guns drawn. Its very much a fluid situation. You mentioned the war memorial. Thats just half a block down from centre block there, the Parliament Building where we are. Its very close, very an area in the heart of ottawa. Again, what i saw was one lifeless body. It did not look like a Police Officer. Weve seen reports now, i have not heard confirmation, weve seen reports that weve had one officer theres been one gunned down, i dont know if thats the person i saw or not but i saw a body on the ground in an area where police have been moving towards and fire manager shots at so it was as you can imagine, a very chaotic moment for everyone. Josh, from the witnesses that you have been talking to throughout the morning, are you getting any information about the suspect . The suspects description . What he or she was wearing . Are most people saying this was a man or a woman . An age range, what kind of gun this person may have been using . I cant give you anything on that. Its all a guessing game for us here were locked down right now so im relying on what i can see from this corner of the building and what i see is an active search going on right now. Wednesday you say is a day that when the members of parliament have these caucus meetings. So what you would expect are all the members of parliament typically to be there and we should mention, by the way, that the canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper were told is safe and has Left Parliament hill. But from what you gather if this happened around 10 00 in the morning you would gather that there are most of the members of parliament are right now currently on lockdown as you are with the other journalists. In. Unless theyve been taking them out. I know i saw one member who had her young child with her infant so that might have been sort of a special case. But as i say, the two biggest parties had their meeting right along the hallway where i saw Police Chasing or moving and firing they were very close to the action. Youre looking at 250 mps, a lot of people that would have been within earshot of it at this time. Thats not to say this was planned because of that but certainly at this time the gunfire was in a spot where a lot of mps and senators were at this time. Did you say you saw Police Officers inside moving through . Yes, shortly after the gun fire Police Officers came through a different door and ordered the journalists to the ground. Pointing their guns at us so it could be a sense of how fluid it was. A bunch of people from cameras and press passes on their necks being consider ed briefly as a potential threat. I know youre journalist. Youre used to reporting on whats happening and what other people are going through. Youre there right now locked down as you say its a fluid situation. Its unclear if the shooter is dead but we are getting the information from the official twitter account of a member of Parliament Saying that the lone gunman is deceased. Here is the tweet from the Canadian Parliament member bob zimmer. He says we are okay. So hes presumably referring to the other members of parliament and other Staff Members who may be with him right now. But josh, i have to ask you what are you going through . Are you concerned . My hearts certainly beating a little faster than it would be. On a normal week id be sitting outside a meeting waiting to . Ask questions of mps. So it was certainly a scary moment for everyone involved. We ran towards the flow of police and try to find cover. There are outposts throughout the building and pillars, large pillars throughout the building so police were looking in all these nooks and crannies. That was gap between the initial gunfire and the culmination that i saw that led to the body on the ground. A gap of maybe, i dont know, a minute. My memory could be off. Needless to say it was quite an ordeal. And so where the gunman was, if that was the gunman, its hard to say. We dont know. Theres lots of nooks and crannies, hallways, buildings, offices. So there appeared to have been a gap. This wasnt a situation of sort of chasing someone with them in your sights kind of thing. It was a gap of a minute or so between that first round of gunfire and the second round of gunfire. It sounded like two dozen or more shots. It certainly appeared to be mostly from Law Enforcement aimed at this one individual. So the first round of gunfire you heard presumably from the suspect who was shooting in the main Parliament Building then the second round of gunfire, josh, as you heard, you presume it was from Police Officers who were trying to hunt down the suspect . So theres a main foyer right in the building. Thats where it seemed to kick off. Now the presumption from witnesses is they gather he came from the doorway in front of that. Theres elevators and staircases nearby so its too soon to say for sure where he came from. I can tell you i didnt see him. There was one hallway going down the main floor of the west wing of the building and i was there and he didnt come that way. So rtd ice sort of piecing together witness accounts here. Of course all the witnesses im with are journalists and mps, not a lot of tourists in the build i building. Josh, lets recap what has been happening throughout the day and exactly where you were when all of this happened. What were you doing if you can just walk us through where you were, what you were doing and what transpired thereafter when you first heard the gunshots. This would have been just before 10 00 a. M. Local time. A bunch of us were outside the meeting of the governing party, all the mps are there. We just finished talking to the Justice Minister about changes, legal changes that canada is considering on how to give themselves more power to arrest terror suspects. This comes after an attack a couple days ago here that killed a soldier by a homegrown radicalized individual ran down two soldiers, killing one of them. So we just finished discussing looking at more powers to arrest suspects because in that case a couple days ago they talked to the guy but said they didnt have enough evidence to charge them. I was sitting in that hallway as the meeting was ongoing. I was writing a far less dramatic story than the one ive been writing since as things went down. We heard a loud bang, i looked to my left down the hallway to figure out what it was. It sounded like maybe a i dont know what it sounded like. Like a giant bookshelf had fallen down or something. It was a very loud bang as opposed to a subsequent popping that i heard. I dont know whether my ears adjusted or it was a different gun or whatever. But the smoke filled the main foyer. The police were taking cover. It was a very fluid situation. The journalists were sort of there with them and we all sort of were moving down this hallway called the hall of honor to the library of parliament. It culminated in gunfire there in front of the library of parliament that ended up with a body on the ground. Thats when the journalists were pushed out of the way. Josh win grove, stay on the line with us. Appreciate all the details and you remain on lockdown. I want to bring in bill curry now, a journalist who covered parliament and federal policy for the globe and mail bill, are you there . If you can hear me, please tell me where you are and what the situation is. Im just oults side the war memorial, kind of across the street from the Parliament Building. As soon as we learned there were shots on Parliament Hill and the war memorial i went to the war memorial and spoke to eyewitnesses here who describe seeing a short man with long dark and a rifle he fired about four shots at the war memorial and were not sure but i believe it was a member of the Canadian Forces on the ground receiving medical care when i arrived and they were taken in an ambulance. Witnesses say he was shot. After that happened the witnesses say that the mankind of ran over a bunch of hedges and bushes and ran over the hedges and went straigt to Parliament Hill and some people were hearing cases and thats what weve seen here. Theres a lot of tension because were still not entirely sure if theres still a shooter on the loose. Last i heard from police about half an hour ago they said yes, there was still a shooter on the loose and police were crouching behind their cars. I noticed in terms of report the mps and twitter that perhaps the shooter was caught. Im not sure of the situation on that yet. We have not confirmed that information yet. Is the shooter still on the loose or is he or she indeed deceased as the member of Parliament Bill zimmer has been tweeting the lone gunman is deceased and we are okay. We hear the activity behind you on the line there, bill. Obviously a very active scene as police are descending upon the area. What more can you tell us, bill, about the victim . What did the witnesses see and was this a canadian soldier . Witnesses say the man went down immediately and it didnt look good. He was shot and went down and received medical care so we dont know the status. There were reports people heard other police talking about a military person being a victim so that information is out there but not confirmed yet. Thats all we know here. In terms of the scene, Police Walked around quickly, you probably just heard a police car zoom by here fast. So certainly the body language is very tense. So if in fact the situation is defused, certainly doesnt look like it. You say you spoke to witnesses. Im curious to know how many people were there when the shots first rang out just before 10 00 this morning local time how crowd eed was it . It wasnt very crowded when i got there. I spoke to three people. I spoke to tourists and another man. Generally the war memorial is not a busy place other than Remembrance Day in november it attracts a big crowd but its a big kind of statue in the central part of the city and i think normally in the morning theres a ceremony that vvls certain members of the military but normally its not something that has is off limits from the public. Its kind of its a piece of triangular concrete space. Its wide open. This is not an off limits location. Bill, you say that the witnesses tell you there at the national war memorial, which is very close to Parliament Hill, that they heard four shots being fired. Whats the indication . Did this suspect walk directly up to this victim . Was this victim targeted or was the suspect shooting indiscriminately . Im just speculating here. So are the witnesses but it sounds like there was another person nearby the person who was shot and they were not shot so kind of piecing strands together. It seems like they were targeted. Everything happens very fast with the witnesses so theyre not entirely sure how. The police are yelling something right now and people are running away so something is happening right now. Bill, you should probably listen to officers if theyre telling you to leave and take cover because the information were getting from police on the ground is they believe one or more shooters are currently on the parliament roof there. So if youre seeing people around you running or taking cover or Police Officers telling you to leave i think it would behoove you to do so. Is that what youre getting from people on the ground . It just comes down somebody yelled something but everybodys staying put. Im seeing police running with their pistols pulled. Bill, if you need to go go ahead. I think im okay where im at at the moment. Im looking out at the war memorial which is behind the yellow tape there are im seeing several Police Officers kind of behind cement pillars for protection with their guns drawn. So obviously something is happening right now. But at the moment everybodys just staying put, nobodys being told to move further. Okay. So as youre seeing Police Hiding behind pillars or taking cover rather behind these pillars as we are getting from police right now that they believe one or more shooters may right now be on the roof of Parliament Building. So this is clearly a very active situation, a very fluid situation because just a few moments ago we saw a tweet from a member of Parliament Saying that he believed there was just one gunman and that he was indeed dead inside the main Parliament Building so now it looks like there is another threat that Police Officers are trying to diffuse at this point. What about the people on the streets, bill . Are they taking cover . Is it pretty empty . Are they listening to Police Officers orders to leave the area . Well, the streets around the war memorial were cleared earlier but police are running around okay were being told to move away from our Current Location locations okay. Since weve spoken its gotten a lot more tense here. Clearly a much more tense situation. There are reports of a shooter or shooters on the roof. Okay, bill, if you can stay on the line, please do, if you can not, we completely understand. We want you to be safe above anything else so please take cover, do what you what you need to do. In the meantime we want to go back over to Josh Wingrove who has been on the line with us as well, a local journalist who was actually covering this wednesdays session of parliament. There were caucuses going on and, josh, whats the situation there now because you are inside the building as all of this chaos is taking place outside. You can see in these life pictures a Police Officer running there on the screen to take cover behind a police car as were hearing from police that there may be shooters on the parliaments roof. Anything new you can tell us . Can you hear me . Yes. I cant tell you whether theres any shooters on the roof were still a lockdown. During major events on parliament there will be men with guns but of course theyre Law Enforcement so if there are people seeing people with guns on the roof that could be it. All we know is that were in lockdown. It appears to be being searched still. Were being told to stay away from windows. Thats the situation. Were taking a look at these live pictures right now on your screen. Just a few seconds ago, quite dramatic. We saw Police Officer there is with their guns drawn running across the street as media and the crowds standing out there are watching all of this unfold. It makes you wonder why these people are not taking cover if there are shooters currently on the parliament roof. So obviously the situation remains fluid, things are changing quickly. But right now police remain on the scene in Parliament Hill as there are reports of an active shooter or shooters. Again, we have josh win grove on the line ironally you were talking about making more arrests for suspected terrorists and this is coming on the heels of a deadly incident that happened i believe that was monday or friday. Correct me if im wrong josh. There was a soldier killed after he was run over by a suspected jihadist and that led the government to raise the Terror Threat level alert from low to medium, right . That was on monday and this was a canadian guy who had been going down this path only recently and had been posting on facebook he wanted to go abroad and fight, i believe, in syria but im not concern didnt recall. He was on police radar quick. They nabbed him at the airport in july trying to go to turkey. Which is of course in the region and they didnt let him go because they didnt have enough to charge him. But the Justice Department was talking about banning powers which raises civil liberty questions. Sorry, were being moved further away from with the windows. They were talking about giving them more power to arrest these guys or hold these guys. Josh, let me jump in there because obviously were getting more information right now theres a frenzy outside Parliament Hill and Ottawa Police are saying that they currently are dealing with two or three money gwen at this time. So clearly a present that right now as we have been seeing those dramatic images live on television coming from ottawa. Police running with their guns drawn. Crowds being told to take cover, to move away from specific areas. We see a picture on the left with a man in the suit being let out by a Police Officer, its unclear if there is an evacuation under way from some of these Parliament Buildings as Josh Wingrove, a journalist in lockdown, said wednesday is the day when the members of parliament are all there for the caucuses and hes on lockdown with one member of parliament but it remains to be seen if the members of parliament are in the building, or are they being let out. We know the canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper, he is safe, we are being told and have left the shooting area safely. If youre just joining us, we want to recap what has been going on, a dramatic morning in ottawa. This all began just before 10 00 local time at the national war memorial. A gunman showing up according to witnesses with a rifle and according to witnesses firing four shots at an apparent soldier who was there at the war memorial. They described the suspect to be a short man with long hair. This is according or the Journalist Bill curry who was there right now on the ground. He says he says that an ambulance actually took the victim away and the victim did not look good. These are tweets from the police and you can see the Royal Canadian mounted police and see this on your screen right now. It says rcmp advises people to stay away from Parliament Hill due to an Ongoing Police incident. This heres another one. Rcmp advises if you are in downtown ottawa to stay away from windows and off roofs due to Ongoing Police incident. We keep hearing the word ongoing so obviously situation is continuing to develop. Josh win grove, if youre there on the line, clearly the situation has not been diffused. Its not over yet even though we saw a tweet a few moments ago from a member of parliament who thought there was one gunman and that gunman was dead. Are you getting any information or direction from where you are right now locked down inside the main Parliament Building . We have no updates to give you theyve been kept away from windows with security around us again. Its a very big building, lots of hallways and staircases and places that someone could hide if they wanted to so were in lockdown here and no ones being let in or out of the building. So youre being told to stay away from windows as are the citizen there is who live in the downtown area. Lets listen into an interview with a witness on the scene. Is this a witness or member of parliament. Im joined now by liberal mp john mckay. Take me through what happened this morning. I was taking off my jacket to go into caucus, i hear pop, pop, pop possibly ten shots, dont know. I thought it was construction more than anything else. Suddenly security guards found rushing into the hall ways. Were sitting around talking and one of the construction people says said to us a better idea to stand one of the monuments. And then we started talking to another woman and she was apparently inside the Parliament Inside the library of parliament, saw the fellow wearing a hoodie carrying a gun and then the implications of this start to sink in because in order to be in that position you have to walk down the hall of honor. The hall of honor on one side is the caucus. How somebody gets a rifle walking down the hall of honor inside the parliament will be an interest i interesting piece of investigation. After that we got ushered off of the hill, then we find out about the soldier and this is kind of a day that changes everything. Was there a sense of urgency inside Parliament Hill . Did people understand what was going on or was it simply just unbelievable . Well, you kind of suspend it. Youre just doing what youre told to do. Youre not emotionally reacting. I didnt emotionally react until i was on wellington street its bizarre, like something youve never experienced before. People were relatively calm and no sense of panic. There was one woman who was crying but beyond that there doesnt seem to be a great sense of panic is there any communication between youre a member of the liberal party. Is everyone checking in to make sure everyones accounted for . Whats happening behind the scenes . Wed like to check in except that the lines are so jammed with everybody communicating messages its hard to get through. I talked to my staff. They were still in my office in the justice building, hadnt been evacuated yet so as far as my staff is concerned, theyre accounted for. Were told some mps were told to hide, go into a lockdown mode or security mode. Have you heard anything about that. I havent. But i cant be surprised especially if they havent accounted for the people with the gun or guns, i dont know whether theres one or two. You said this is a day that changes everything. You said you didnt start to feel emotion until you came outside and recognized it. Can you describe as a member of parliament how youre feeling right now . Well, this particle sysli the peoples house. Its the house of our democracy, however imperfect. And access is kind of fundamental. People have to be able to feel free to access their seat of democracy and the people that represent them. And i dont really want to think about im going to be forced to think bt the implications of heightened security, all of the stuff we will do in the name of security and the way it will impact our dialogue and how we live in this country. And im just a little nervous about where that conversation might go. You can fall into some major trends. Were throng that member of parliament. Its unclear how many more members of parliament have been able to get out of that building as the shooter, shooting, was under way. We want to report some new information now. Ottawa police saying that there were numerous gunmen on wednesday morning when the shooting began at the canada war memorial and that there have been multiple shootings. So, again, an active situation as right now police are searching for the gunmen who are involved in the shooting. It looks like it may have turned deadly. Our journalist was telling me he saw a body and it looked like the person was dead in the hallway of this main Parliament Building. I want to bring in see tteven c, a journalist with globe and mail. Where yo r you and what can you tell us . The streets are pretty much desserted. The police continually widened and cordoned off the area. And everyones been ordered inside. The police are full of police cars and mobile operating seinetors and its quiet. So youre not seeing people out there on the streets so it look like to you from your advantage point that people are listening to the warnings given out by police to stay away as they apprehend two or three of the gunman who are believed to be involved in all of this. The way it works is Parliament Hill backs into a river. The other side is blocks and blocks of Office Buildings and Police Patrolling streets now ordering people inside. Theyre basically shouting at people and telling them to again insi inside. Indeed, people are listening. Have you heard from any witnesses on what exactly transpired this morning . This all happening before 10 00 and we are hearing that there were now numerous gunmen at the canadian war memorial where at least one person was shot, according to witnesses, by a rifle. What are you hearing about what sparked this and how this transpired . I can tell you what happened after the war memorial. The war memorial is about a kilometer or so from Parliament Hill and after at about 9 50 in the morning i talked to political staffers whod come out centre block, the main block of Parliament Hill about a kilometer away from the war memorial and at about 50 police came outside and ordered everyone to take cover and this staffer works for the Democratic Party and said he saw a figure in his peripheral vision running into center block and police chai chasing after him. He said what ensued about after that was maybe 30 shots and following that people were ordered off the hill and this took place on the hill which happened at about 9 15 in the morning eastern time. So by most accounts weve been hearing throughout the program is dozens of shots heard outside and inside the building, cumulatively speak iing i guess whats shocking about this, steven, speaking with Josh Wingrove whos on lockdown inside the main Parliament Building. He hasnt had updates, theyre being told to stay away from windows. He says there are more than a dozen people inside the room with him and he told me from the witnesses you talked to they say that at least one of the gunmen entered through the main door of the main Parliament Building which is reserved for members of parliament. They typically have a badge to get through, however there is no metal detector but as weve been stressing throughout the past few minutes the Terror Threat level in canada was recently raised from low to medium what did this terror what was the Terror Threat level supposed to do because clearly the gunman were able to get through a Parliament Building and begin shooting indiscriminately. Well, youve raised two separate issues. The threat level was raised from low to medium on friday last week. This was before even the attack south of monday reel the other day. This threat level was raised last friday. The threat level insisted it was not based on any specific threat but on a general rise in background chatter around terrorist groups with al qaeda and al shabab. They insisted there was not a direct threat. In the case of Parliament Hill, there is metal detectors but members of parliament are allowed to do this directly. You can essentially make it inside if you rushed it the metal detectors are reserved for tourists. I want to stress again, the new information we were getting is there were numerous gunmen this morning at that war memorial where one person was shot and hit. Witnesses say that this person doesnt look very good. There are reports that this person may be a canadian soldier. Are you hearing anything about how many gunmen were truly there at this war memorial and if this victim that weve confirmed, just one victim thus far, was targeted . I have not, no. Okay. Okay. Theres now i see swat teams patrolling as well, people dressed in sort of tactical gear. Thats what youre seeing right now . Yes. Swat team dressed in tactical gear. You can see the live pictures here on the air as well. Lots of police swarming the area. This is obviously a frightening security situation, especially for the people who are on lockdown inside these Parliament Buildings and for people who are living and working near the downtown ottawa area. Steve chase, appreciate your insight into what youve seen and what youve been hearing. I want to bring back journalist Josh Wingrove, he is inside the Parliament Building, he was there when the first round of shooting took place, when the second round of shooting took place. Whats happening now and what are the people around you doing and saying . Josh wingrove, can you hear me . Okay, looks like we lost josh win drove. He is a journalist who is inside the main Parliament Building and hes been giving us a clear play by play of what happen happening throughout the day. Lets recap what we know thus far and weve been getting a lot of new information in. This all began just before 10 00 wednesday morning from the reports that were getting at the canadian war memorial. The reports that were hearing is that there were numerous gunmen. This is from Ottawa Police. Numerous gunmen, so more than one gunman at this war memorial. Witnesses say they saw a short man with long dark hair, we dont doctor v a description on what the other quote unquote gunman looked like. But at least one of them according to witnesses there on the ground was holding a rifle and they say they heard four shots fired at this war memorial and that this victim was injured, this victim was hit. By the way, ive this is new video inside the main Parliament Building. You can hear the gunshots being fired. Very dramatic video there. This video was just posted on youtube. This is from earlier when these gunmen reportedly ran from the canadian war memorial after shooting down at least one person and then ran into this main Parliament Building you see there. And as we heard there Josh Wingrove, he heard a first round of shots going off. According to his reports at least one of the gunmen entered through the main entrance of the main Parliament Building. And this is all happening on a wednesday when the caucus meetings are taking place, so this is when a lot of members of parliament, or most of them, are present. Steven harper, the canadian Prime Minister we understand has left the building safely. But what might be shocking to a lot of people is that this gunman was able to walk right in through the main entrance which is typically reserved for the members of parliament and just to start shooting indiscriminately and we heard from josh win grove that he did see one person on the ground slumped over and presumably deceased from what he was able to see. We do have a witness on the line with us. Im sorry, police tell me your name and what you saw. My name is Peter Henderson and i was right at the scene of one of the shootings this morning. Okay, what scene were you at and what did you see . Well, right beside in downtown ottawa right beside the Parliament Buildings theres a war memorial and i was locking my bike up right beside the war memorial when i heard four shots. We have a ceremonial honor guard of Canadian Forces, troops who stand guard at the war memorial and i was looking my bike up. I heard four shots. From that direction i turned around and ran and i saw one of those soldiers laying on the ground. How do you know this person was a soldier . Theres a ceremonial uniform they wear and it struck me as i ran up, i just saw the white gloves on his hands and i knew who he was. That is just horrible. How many people, peter, were at the war memorial . When you turned around and saw what happened, how many people would you estimate were there when the gunshots rang out . It would have been less than a dozen. Its sort of a its a pretty high traffic area but it was about 5 00 to 10 00 in the morning so most people were inside their offices and as soon as the shots rang out people ducked for cover. I quickly scanned to make sure if there was any shooter but, yeah. It was just a few. So you say there are about a dozen soldiers who were there for the ceremony, is that right . No, there was only there was only two soldiers standing guard at the war memorial. Apparently there were some soldiers nearby doing drills. One thing that i noticed as i ran up to the scene, i saw several members of the Canadian Forces running to the fallen soldier as well. Now, this fallen soldier, was he one of the people that was standing guard or doing drills nearby . He was one of the people standing guard. I believe its the tomb of the unknown soldier that we have there. So there were f there were two soldiers standing guard, what happened to the second person . I believe he ran. Our soldiers to the best of my knowledge they do not they hold guns but their guns are unloaded. I believe its meant to be symbolic at the wall memorial and he ran for cover after the shots, which i heard and sounded like they came from a very highpowered rifle. Sounds like it came from a very highpowered gun, you say. From what i understand according to a journalist weve been speaking with on the phone, peter, on the ground, he says that the victims saw suspect, at least one of the gunmen, and they describe him to be a short man with long, dark hair and that he was wielding a rifle. Did you get any glimpse of the gunmen or the gunman . No, i do not. Actually, im a journalist, too but i usually cover business in the telecom market, pretty far removed from this. But i instantly began speaking to zombie standers and they all said pretty much same thing. I saw one man who said he was long hair wearing a hoodie and he just came around the corner of actually Prime Ministers office right beside the war memorial and this witness said the man just came around the corner of the Prime Ministers office, put the gun on his shoulder and fired four shots into the back of this soldier. So it looks like from what youre hearing from the people there that this soldier may have been targeted . Yeah. It was clearly a target. Okay. Wow. And what about the people in the area . How many people were near or at the war memorial or other soldiers doing the drills, peter . Like i said, just a few. No more than maybe in the onebecome radius around there. Just a few dozen out. People getting their morning coffees, rolling into work a little late. As i was returning to my office after you know, i did the best i could to tweet out the information. Im not a doctor, there were trained people on the scene assisting the soldier so i decided to try and get whatever information i could out. As i was returning to my office, i saw maybe two dozen people standing on the street, my office is just 20 yards away. Peter sender son, let me ask you what the victim looks like in terms of age and where this person was shot . To the best of my knowledge, it was it looked to be a young man in his early 20s. Just just a soldier. I didnt get a good look at his face but it appeared he was laying down on his back. It appeared as though hed been hit in the back several times and had fallen backwards as people were attempting cpr on him. Okay, Peter Henderson, appreciate your descriptions there i cant imagine what must have gone through your mind as you were locking up your bike and see a victim there shot four times near the chest area i want to bring in senator percy down on the line. Can you hear me . I can. What do you know about what transpired and where are you . Im in my office on Parliament Hill, the building is in lockdown. As Parliament Hill is in lockdown. I was on the phone with someone on Prince Edward island after i heard the police arrive. After the phone call i looked out the window and saw the police opening up the trunk of their vehicles and i turned on the news and found out one of our Canadian Forces members had been shot at the war memorial, which is close to Parliament Hill. The allegation was the shooter or shooters then ran towards Parliament Hill and Parliament Hill was locked down. Senator, what else can you tell us about this Canadian Force member . You were confirming this con aid innian force member was shot. Who is this person . Does it concern you it looks like he was targeted . Well, i cannot. Im reporting to you what i heard from the Canadian Media that he was shot at the war memorial which is adjacent to our Parliament Hill and that the shooter or shooters then ran on to Parliament Hill. It appears that he was indeed targeted. As you know, canadians are participating in the fight against terrorism around the world and terrorists have obviously attacked in canada this week two days ago we had a member of the Canadian Forces who was killed intentionally and by an extremist, hit by a car and killed and now we have the shooting today. I want to ask you about what one of the reporters has been reporting to us. He is inside the main Parliament Building. He has been on lockdown as you are in your office, senator, and he told me from all accounts that he has been hearing that the gunman was able to walk right in the front door, the main entrance thats typically reserved for the members of parliament. Is that concerning to you . Well, again, these are rumors. The only fact we seem to know for sure is that Canadian Forces member was shot at the war memorial. There will be many, many rumors over the next few hours, im sure, but always until i hear exactly what happened, how many gun people you mentioned a gunman. Ive heard now theres two or three. We dont know. We just to deal with the facts at this stage. We are hearing from journalists that theyve heard dozens of gunshots and theyre in a frightening situation. Isnt this a country on edge after this incident you mentioned about a soldier being killed a few days ago when he was run over by a suspected islamic jihadist. How concerned should the citizens of canada be . Well, our Intelligence Services do a very good job of tracking extremists. Its impossible for them to track everyone. They keep a very close eye and i might add, as you know, canada is a very multicultural society. Weve had many young people who may be following under the sway of extremists. Recording those people to our intelligence service, that has been extremely helpful. Unfortunately, it seems as these people are stepped forward either individually or an organized group and committed the attacks they committed. The Terror Threat alert level in canada as a result was raised from low to medium after this deadly incident involving that soldier. What exactly does it mean when the Terror Threat level is raised . Does that mean that we are seeing increased security in sensitive areas like the Parliament Buildings . I would assume that it would be the case. The security people would be better able to tell you what steps they take at each level. But, you know, theres a heightened concern throughout the world as to these terrorist threats. But canadians have always fought hard for western values and we understand sometime there iss a price to be paid for that. Our thoughts are with the force member who was wounded today and other two were wounded and one unfortunately killed with their family members. But, you know, threats are part of the world we live in and this doesnt mean canadians in any way, shape, or form will back down from fighting terrorists around the world. You are taking a live look at these pictures. You can see Police Officers with their guns drawn taking cover behind pillars and walls as they are trying to address this active threat. Ottawa Police Believe they are dealing with two or three gunmen. I have senator percy down on the line with me who is also on lockdown in his office on Parliament Hill and senator, i just want to ask you since we want to talk about the facts here, what is the security like at the main entrance that is used by the members of parliament there . Well, theres security, you know. Theres a balance where, you know, a free and Democratic Society so citizens come on to the lawn, the parliament, theyre allowed to do yoga there or protest there. Thats part of our open and free democracy. But when you get to the doors of parliament obviously theres guards. Theres security screening system. If youre a visitor to Parliament Hill you go Security System like you do. Backpacks searched and electronic surveillance as well. Cameras everywhere and so on. So theres the balance between protection and allowing parliament to be open and available for all canadians and visitors to visit their Parliament Building. We can see these live pictures as the situation is ongoing. You can see on the left side of your screen, just dozens of Police Officers Walking Around a building the secured buildings on Parliament Hill. I have senator percy downe on the phone who is also in lockdown. I see members of parliament being escorted out. Do you expect to be escorted out any time soon . No. Weve been told to stay in our office and thats what we are doing. Okay. Senator percy downe, appreciate your time. Stay safe. Thank you so much for giving us that perspective of what has been happening. We want to go to peter brooks on the ground. Tell me where you are. Well, you are in washington. Whats the perspective from there . Obviously very concerned. And the First Priority is obviously to mitigate the risk to the people on Parliament Hill and in ottawa there. But then, of course, we have to figure out what happened, whether this is related to what happened in canada on monday, whether this is related to events in the middle east, whether there may be additional terror attacks in north america. So obviously, without jumping to conclusions, were obviously down here in washington and were obviously very concerned about our neighbors to the north. It was quite astounding to hear from one of the journalists on the ground there and he said one of the witnesses he spoke with said one of the gunmen entered through the main entrance and they saw a body slump over. He presumes this person might be dead. The Terror Threat level in canada was recently raised from low to medium. And are you concerned that it sounds like the gunman was able to just walk right in . We have had incidents at our own capitol and were lucky to have individuals brave enough to put themselves in harms way. Sometimes people are able to breach that security because there are also the peoples houses and we do have visitors that come and obviously weve made some changes down here where a capitol visitor center, people have to be screened. But obviously theres issues out there about what is going on in the world and canadian intelligence obviously had some sort of issues that made them raise their threat level to the level that they decided to do that. Perhaps based on intelligence, perhaps based on individuals in canada that talked about this and of course probably related to what happened on monday with the killing of that canadian soldier. Were in difficult times here and obviously on unchartered waters. Were going to have to put together cooperation between the United States and canada. You cant ignore those striking similarities that you mentioned, peter, with the incident a few days ago when a quebec soldier was run over by a suspected islamic soldier and now an apparent soldier who was targeted, according to witnesses on the ground, they said that they saw a man show up with a rifle and fire four shots at this canadian soldier. Peter brooks, appreciate your insight. I want to bring in cnns analyst tom fuentes. What is your take, especially with the security, at the Parliament Building, tom . I think its going to be the same issue there as we have here at the white house. How does somebody get through the front door and in this case, somebody armed with a rifle. I think its pretty clear that this was a soldier that was shot, targeted on purpose but then you have the secondary entry by one or more people unopposed at the door and thats extremely problematic. At this point its too soon to know if it was, you know, an attack by more than one person, what the background is of the person, do we have a deranged shooter, a jihadist. Well learn that in the next hours or days. But for the moment, its very problematic and the fact that its still an ongoing shooting situation is indicative of the lack of security at the front door. And its quite frightening, as we see those images, Police Officers pointing their rifles, their guns at the top of a building there. We were just hearing from Ottawa Police earlier that they believed that there was at least one or more shooters on the roof of the Parliament Building. They are taking cover, drawing their weapons. As we just saw a few minutes ago, drawing them and pointing it towards the sky, presumably towards the roof of one of the Parliament Buildings there on the hill. Tom, you know, practically speaking here because we were just mentioning with peter brooks that the Terror Threat level in canada was just raised a few days ago after this deadly incident with a suspected islamic jihadist being involved in all of this. What does it mean, you know, in the u. S. canada, practically speaking, when you raise a Terror Threat alert level . What is being done when that happens . Well, what its supposed to be, especially at targets that are supposed to be hard in the first place, like the Parliament Building or the u. S. Capitol building or the white house, there should be not only additional security but a heightened sense of security as to a potential attack. And so theres going to be a lot of questions in this case of how somebody with a rifle can get through the front door unopposed. So thats going to be a critical issue. Were going to have to find out exactly. But at the end of the day, for the person who is just deranged, whether hes a copycat or a jihadist, the motives are not relevant to the point of how do you get through the front door with weaponry. People are saying that there are people on the gun on the roof and running around and it make it is difficult for sightings of Law Enforcement officers running around or Law Enforcement on the roof as opposed to other, you know, bad guys. And this was something that always comes up and in a shooting like this where additional suspects are identified by witnesses who have, at the end of the day, not really suspects but could be Law Enforcement themselves, plain clothes Security Officers in the area. In this case, we have the ceremonial soldiers whose guns are probably empty and cannot really help but at least Law Enforcement, uniform and nonuniform, would have to be running obviously to the scene and covering all angles of this and can be misidentified by the public. I would imagine this is quite a challenging time for Law Enforcement officers as they are not sure how many gunmen they are looking for at this point but we are seeing these live pictures right now. It looks like people are inside one of the Parliament Buildings being escorted out now by the police. Quite a frightening situation as police are looking for at least one or more gunmen involved in this shooting earlier in the morning in ottawa. For those of you who are just joining us, i want to recap what we have been seeing and hearing. This all just happened at 10 00 local time. Witnesses on the scene say one gunmen the Ottawa Police say numerous gunmen showed up at the memorial and one person, a canadian soldier thats according to the local reports, was shot several times. Witnesses say that the gunman was holding a rifle, fired four shots at this canadian soldier who was wearing his uniform and then ran towards the direction of Parliament Hill where all of the Parliament Buildings are. Journalists on the ground tell me this is a very busy day, wednesday, when they are having caucus meetings so many of the members of parliament were there when the shooter or shooters began running towards the Parliament Building. We understand at least one of them may have made entrance into that building, began shooting n indiscriminately. All right. That is the very latest from ottawa. Whats been happening there with this active shooting incident. Cnns continuing coverage continues right now with ashleigh banfield. We begin with breaking news. Incredible video of a shooting possibly involving numerous gunmen inside Canadas Parliament in ottawa this morning. [ gunfire ]