Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With John Berman And Poppy Harlow 20170614

Any questions because this is an active ongoing investigation. All right. So the police chief is giving some information. Just as important the information theyre not giving. They didnt want to release the identities or locations of the five people transported with injuries. There may be concern about a continuing threat. This is an active crime scene for them. There was one shooter engaged by Capitol Police and local police within three minutes he said they engaged the shooter. The shooter was hit. He, too, has been transported to the hospital were told by authorities. Cnn is going to have continuing coverage of this shooting in virginia at a gop republican baseball practice early in morning. We do note that the house gop whip, Steve Scalise was hit in the hip. He was treated there. His injuries are not life threatening. Lets go to wolf blitzer for continuing coverage of this situation. Wolf . This is cnn breaking news. Were following breaking news here in the nations capitol in washington, d. C. And nearly virginia. Im wolf wlblitzer in washingto. A gunman opening unfair at a baseball practice thats right outside of washington, d. C. According to both congressional and Law Enforcement sources, the shooting appears to be deliberate. The shooter is in custody and is being taken to a local d. C. Hospital right now. House majority whip Steve Scalise had been shot. At least two Capitol Hill Police officers were also hit. We know at least one congressional aide staffer was also shot. The president tweeted this just moments ago, representative Steve Scalise, a true patriot, badly injured but will recover. Our thoughts and prayers are with him. That is from the president of the United States. Congressman mo brooks of alabama was on the scene. Hes joining us on the phone right now. Congressman, how are you . Well, im a little bit shooken up. The adrenaline is starting to calm down a little bit. The emotional aspect of it is still there. Something ill never forget. I mean, how can you . Thats an awful, awful situation. So congressman, for viewers here in the United States and around the world who are just tuning in, tell us what you and your fellow republican lawmakers were doing at that ymca field and what happened. Well, its the home of the titans, the same High School Team from remember the titans if you recall that football movie. Maybe the ymca has an ownership interest. Im not sure. But we were practicing for the congressional baseball game which is tomorrow night. Democrats and republicans play in Washington Nationals baseball stadium. 10,000 to 15,000 people show up and it generates 600,000 for charity. President s show up on occasion. And, so, we i left my condo about 5 30 in the morning. Rode my bike to the ball field and we were doing batting practice. Im on the third base side of home plate. I hear this bam. And i look towards the third base dug out and on the other side of it it is a cinder block dug out. I see what appears to be a rifle and a quick succession of shots. I see the shooter. Hes probably 80, 90 feet away from me on the side of home plate. I figure out if i can see him, he can see me. I immediately ran around home base to the other side of the batting cage. It has a big four foot high barrier around the batting cage. Hit behind it as there was a long succession of shots and then at the very beginning i hear Steve Scalise Say Something loudly. I dont know if it was a scream or cry or help or im shot or something, but hes on the ground in between first and second base. He was fielding balls at second base and im lying on the ground with two or three other folks behind this plastic near home plate and im thinking, well, you know, a bullet would go through that, but he cant see me. But then again he might come around the third base dug out around home plate and have a clean shot at it and wed be lying on the ground easy targets 10 or 15 feet away. Thats what he ended up doing, but because of that risk, the two or three of us lying belly down on the ground we made a decision, individually or collectively, i cant remember, but we all got up and sprinted over to the first base dug out where there is about a two foot drob into the ground so you at least have some cover. So we have nothing but baseball bats to fight back with. Some of the people are jumping in. Stafford comes in. Hes got a bullet hole in the calf of his leg. He says hes fine. But he doesnt look too fine to me. So i pulled off my belt and myself and another gentlemen used the belt as a tourniquet. But i dont remember who was next to me. It was such a blur. As the tourniquet is put on to stop the flow of the blood, were lying facedown as best we can be breathing dug out dust and then we hear loud gunfire, bam, bam, bam, in addition to the gunfire coming from the rifle, which is almost nonstop. And i look up and fortunately it was one of our guys shooting back with a pistol. The guy with the rifle about 100, 120 feet away. That caused that man, the shooter, probably caused him to take cover. But it was rather startling as you can imagine to look up and there is a pistol being fired about five feet from your head. And the joy i felt knowing it was one of our guys, ill never forget that guy. He also got shot somewhere in the process defending congressm congressmen. Eventually the shooter came around the third base dug out like i had feared he might and he got behind home plate and i think thats where our guys, our security detail, took him down. Somewhere in that process we hear the cries of shooter down, shooter down or something to that effect. Steve scalise in the meantime has dug himself to the out field grass from the infield dirt. If you go out there, there is a long stretch of blood. And i think jeff blake might have been the first one out of the dug out to run to Steve Scalise, first or second. I followed thereafter. Eventually someone brought liquids out there. He was getting thirsty as you can imagine with blood loss. I forget who was first applying the pressure to the wound, but when brad got there, he was cutting the legging of scalise to get to the wound. I think i may have mentioned this, but brad is a doctor from cincinnati. It was great having him there because he knew exactly what to do. He asked me to apply pressure to the wound, and i did that while he was working on him. And at some point the capital security guy who had already been shot, who helps take down the shooter, came limping over to us in the outfield, totally ignoring his own wound to check on the person he is primarily responsible for, as hes a part of the house leadership team. Number three in command of the house of representatives of the United States congress and we insisted he go back and get tended to. Those two Police Officers showed incredible bravely to be in a gunfight. Pistols against a rifle from 90 to 120 feet distance. As you know, that kind of distance heavily favors the rifle. One of our security detail from what i understand was shot in the chest. A helicopter landed after everything was secure, a helicopter landed near where Steve Scalise was on the ground and one of the two, i dont know if it was Steve Scalise or the Capitol Police officer was air lifted out. At this time the shooter was on the ground. I dont know his condition. And, you know, im still at the ball field. Shortly after, if i can get to my wallet and backpack and stuff that i need to vote on the house floor later today, hopefully they let me get through but we have this yellow tape. But thats my way back to the capitol. Congressman, i know this has been an awful, awful situation. I understand that there was security there. There was a protective detail from the Capitol Police because Steve Scalise is a leader, the majority whip in the house of representatives. Otherwise, im told there wouldnt have been any police there; is that right . If we didnt have that security detail, we would have been at the mercy of the shooter and he had a lot of ammo. In my judgment he shot at least 50 times. I dont know how many times that the Capitol Police shot back. It was substantial once they were in position where they could engage him. But for the Capitol Police and the heroism they showed, it could have well been a large scale massaquer. Do you have any idea what kind of weapon it was . No. I was about 80 or 90 feet, roughly speaking. I was on the third base side of home plate swinging baseball bats, warming up because i was about to take batting practice. I looked around and saw the barrel right next to the chain link fence. It might have poked through it a lit. But it was shooting through the holes of the chain link fence at us and then i saw the full and i saw him. But it was about, you know, 70, 80, 90 feet away. And i quite frankly wasnt focussed on the type of rifle that it was. I recognized that if i could see him, he could see me and all he had to do was shift my direction about 20 or 30 degrees and i was a sitting duck. And there were two Police Officers from the Capitol Hill Police detail there with the majority whip congressman Steve Scalise, is that right . I dont know if they were there for the protection of the entire congressional delegation. We also get this because we are in a high risk occupation. There are bad guys out there who want to get us. But certainly it is not for the whole of us. They were there because of Steve Scalise was hes one of the Senior Leaders in the United States government. The congressman from louisiana. They made the decision he should come. But if not for them, we wouldnt have had a chance. How many Police Officers were there protecting . I only know of two. Its possible there was a third one that i did not see. But i am only program with two officers who were here. Keep in mind, i dont ride in the Capitol Hill Police vehicles to and from the capital. I think Steve Scalise does as part of his security detail. I ride my bicycle about nine miles over the potomac. Normally it is a Beautiful Day and great exercise. Today it is going to be a lot more somber. And were just told, congressman, that the Capitol Police have deployed what theyre december troscribing as Police Presence throughout the capitol for protective purposes to be on the side of caution right now. Do you have any idea, congressman, the shooter who is now were told who is in a local d. C. Hospital if he was shot by Capitol Hill Police who were there on the scene, do you have any idea about motive . Were there any statements made . Can you describe what you heard and what you saw as far as the shooter is concerned . I never heard the shooter utter a word. Certainly nothing before the shots were fired. Once the shots were fired i did not hear him say anything. But as you can imagine, there was a lot of screaming, a lot of hollering. People were yelling shooter, shooter, active shooter. In the dug out when we were lying on the ground there were a couple of folks who had their cell phones with them who were streami i screaming into the cell phones that we were under attack. That was it. We know im looking at the roster of the 2017 Republican Baseball Team and you guys, as you point out, were supposed to play i assume. I dont know if that game is going to take place over at Washington National park tomorrow. But i count 34 republican members of the house of representatives and senate as part of your team. Do you know how many showed up for the practice this morning . If i had to guess, and im not one of the coaches, joe bardon and Roger Williams of texas are both the coaches. My judgment would be in the neighborhood of 25 to 30 were here at the beginning of practice. But a lot of people start to leave after they have had the batting practice segment of it. We typically to, at least today, we did outfield first and im an outfielder fielding and normally i stay in the outfield the whole time during batting practice in which case i would have been in left field without any place to hide. But for some reason today i left the outfield a little bit early and about the time i got to home plate is when the shooting erupted. But for the grace of god or good fortune, id be in the hospital with Steve Scalise right now. Have you been told about his condition, congressman Steve Scalise . There were about four or five of us that ran out there to tend to him. He seemed to be conscious the whole time. There was a trail of blood from where he was shot. And when i say crawl, i mean i dont think there was ever any distance between the grass and himself, the dirt and himself. He was pulling himself along the ground. He wanted liquids, which is often what happens when you have a loss of blood. Youre thirsty. And so someone ran back to the dug out and got him some things to drink. That was going on while i took over. Whatever was helping with the compressions on the wound left for some reason, maybe to go get the water. I dont know the reasoning. I mean what happened. But at that point, thats when brad winstrom was there. If i recall, he asked me to put pressure on the wound with a cloth. He had been doing it. Thats when he started cutting through the pants to get to the leg wound, get a better view of it and decide what he as a physician could do. So we were fortunate to have a physician on the team and of course those two Capitol Police officers, the bravery they described, thats not good odds and they both took bullets trying to protect our lives. All right. Congressman, thank you so much for updating all of us. Fortunately youre okay. I know that brad winstrom is a physician and senator rand paul was there, too. Hes a physician as well. At least two medical personnel were on the scene. But it was a dangerous situation. Fortunately those Capitol Hill Police officers were there and could deal with this. Hopefully everyone will be okay. Lets hope that congressman Steve Scalise and the others that were shot and injured are going to be okay. Congressman, thanks very much. Good luck to you and well stay in very close touch. Thank you as well. A lot of people who are wounded need it right now. We certainly send all of our prayers to all of you, all of the members of the Republican Baseball Team. Has anybody said anything about whether this actual game at Washington Nationals park will go forward but is that still up in the air . There was some discussion during the period of time where we were herded together on the chance there was a second shooter, that was probably about the time that the helicopter was carrying off one of the two most injured people, and there was discussion about it. I dont know. It really hasnt been foremost on my mind. I do know there was a discussion. I dont think there was a decision made. Probably that decision will be made later today. And it is a real shame. It raises 600,000 this year for washington d. C. Charities to help folks that are needneedy. It is a great pbipartisan event it is awful. And we are told a staffer, a man you know from texas, has been shot among those. Hes now been identified as among those. Was he the one that was shot in the calf . I dont know where he was shot. But we are just being told that he is among those that was shot. He still had any belt around his leg when he was being carted off by the medics. I hope it was put to good use. It seemed to be. Yeah. Were told he was shot. He is receiving medical attention. But once again we dont know his condition. Hopefully he will be fine. I know the baseball practice that republican members of the house and senate had began at 6 30. Thats normally when you practice before the business of the day gets up on capitol hill, right . Yes, sir. I leave my condo near the navy yard at about 5 30 in the morning and bike the eight or nine miles to the ball field. And then we start warming up around 6 15 or so and start sending fly balls and infield practice around 6 30. Normally lasts until 7 15 to 7 30 and then we rush back to the capitol, take our showers and start the workday. Is it usual and i know you have to run that you practice at the Eugene Simpson park in virginia. Are there usually spectators that show up and watch you practice, or is this pretty much closed . There were people that live in the neighborhood that might be walking their dogs or doing Something Like that. We have a good rapport with them. Well Say Something to them. We say hello to them. But theyve been nice. Weve been nice and then this happened. Yeah. Awful situation. All right. Congressman mo brooks. Good luck to you. I know you got to go. I am being told to go further away from the ball field by Law Enforcement now. Congressman, we will stay in touch with you. Take care to those that are injured. Certainly totally agree. Former congresswoman tweeted a little while ago, my heart is with my former colleagues and their families and staff and u. S. Capitol police, Public Servants and heroes todayen ena every day. Barbara, tell us what you are seeing right now and the information you are getting. Reporter were actually 10 minutes south of the pentagon. If you look over my shoulder, you will still see a very active Police Presence there about a block or two down is where this baseball field is. We are behind police lines at this point. Chief Michael Brown of the alexadria police came out to brief reporters on the Law Enforcement situation. He said they got the first call of this emergency at 7 09 this morning and that they were able to be on the scene within a few minutes. The indications are that both the security detail from capitol hill and apolice is in custody. This is very much an active crime scene, but assuring people that the neighborhood is safe, that there is no concern about additional gunmen here at this time. He didnt use those exact words, but he did make the point that they consider the neighborhood safe now. Five people transported to the hospital and now a very active crime scene. We saw federal agents a short time ago from the alcohol, tobacco and Firearms Bureau show up. We know that fbi is working this. City police, state officials, Capitol Hill Police because, of course, an attack against members of u. S. Congress is a federal Law Enforcement issue. So this will be a very lengthy one can assume investigation. They say that they have many witnesses obviously to interview about this to put all the pieces together about what exactly happened. The chief of Capitol Hill Police also coming to brief reporters. But not offering details about the condition of the victims. Thats certainly a privacy issue for them and their families and not giving them any details about the attacker. They are not releasing any information at this point, but they did say, and this was about 25 minutes ago, that they would be back to further brief the these media in the public in about an hour and a half. Wolf . The Alexandria Police department on the scene and the Capitol Hill Police department as well. They will be briefing us within an hour or so. Barbara star i want to get back to you shortly, so standby. We are also getting a lot of reaction from members of congress, the leadership. As i pointed out earlier, a tweet that paul ryan, speaker of the house just put out this morning. The hearts of the whole house are with the representative Steve Scalise, the brave staff and all those in harms way. As we heard from mo brooks maybe 25 or 30 members of the Republican Baseball Team. Their roster has about 34 members in the house and the senate. They were getting ready for a big game against the democrats tomorrow in Washington Nationals park. They were practicing early this morning as they had been doing batting practice, field practice and all of a sudden a shooter shows up and starts firing from a rifle. Joining us on the line joining us right now is david woodrough, a local resident who was running in the area when the shooting took place. Tell us where you were and what you saw. Good morning, wolwolf. I live about a mile and a half west of there when i happened to look over at the field and noticed there were a group of folks playing baseball which i thought was out of the ordinary being that early in the morning. Took 15 more steps and i heard 12, 14 or so gunshots ring out. Clearly they were gunshots going one after another. Heard some more shots and at that point was down the street a little bit here east of monroe and was able to duck into a parking garage where i was able to call 911. Spent 10 or 15 minutes there until the situation seemed as though it was getting under control. More and more Police Coming in. Came out and i saw immediately two members of the congress that i know and that i work with from time to time and it was at that point i put two and two together and realized this was the congressional baseball practice going on. A grave situation took a more serious turn. All of a sudden in addition to the Capitol Hill Police who were there on the scene, im told, because representative Steve Scalise is the majority whip, the number one republican in the house of representatives, he is automatically protected. He has protected detail with him. They were there and could deal with this shooter. Based on everything you saw and heard, one shooter, right . Yeah. That appears to be the case. Again, in walking to a few of the members here and talking to some of the other members, it sounded like a one shooter and it sounds like there was one person involved here. It was pretty remarkable how quick police were able to get on the scene. U. S. Capital police, their helicopter here in and out twice to help evacuate two of the first victims and had to have been within 10 or 15 minutes of this incident being over. Did you have a chance to speak to my members . I did. I talked to two members of congress that i know. They were clearly shooken up and distraug distraught. They said they were fine, but clearly this was a terrible day. Describe the neighborhood. This is northern virginia, right outside of washington, d. C. As barbara star said, just barely close to the pentagon. Describe the area where this shooting took place. A residential area . Yeah, very much. You know, i have lived here for over a decade now. It is a great, quiet area. Really if you dropped in here, you would never know you are only seven or eight miles as the crow miles to the capitol. I was here last night with my son. Its a great place for folks often who come to washington work on capitol hill and move right here to start a family. To have Something Like this happen here, something that was clearly planned out, clearly thought in advance is really, really shocking. Yeah. This was not like a rough neighborhood or anything like that. Very, very quiet residential, peaceful area in alexandria virginia where a lot of government workers reside. In your ten years you have lived in this area, have you ever heard or seen of a shooting along these lines . No. This is really remarkable. This is really a terrible day for alexandria. This is definitely out of the ordinary. Thank you very much for your eye witness accounts. Are you okay, by the way . Oh, you bet. You bet. I just need a shirt. Yeah, all right. Just be careful. Thanks so much for that. I want to go to the white house right now. Our correspondent is there. We are getting reaction from the president , the Vice President and others. What are you hearing there . Whats been the reaction . Lets start with what were seeing. We see an extended security perimeter around the white house. Thats standard procedure. So thats what were seeing here. In terms of what we are hearing, the president and the Vice President have been briefed about the shooting there. Both of them weighing in. Lets start with the president first. The president tweeting out also releasing a statement, the president saying the Vice President and i are aware of the shooting incident in virginia and are monitoring developments closely. We are deeply saddened by this tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with the members of congress, their staffs and Capitol Police, First Responders and all others affected. And trump also tweeted about this incident as well, wolf. Representative Steve Scalise, a true friend and patriot was badly injured but will recover. Our thoughts and prayers are with him. The Vice President was scheduled to give a speech at 9 00 this morning. That speech obviously canceled. He, too, has weighed in on this incident as well. He tweeted saying karen and i are praying for Steve Scalise and all hurt for a speedy recovery. Our hearts are with them and r their loved ones. This is hit very close to home. Any indication we will be hearing from the president . It is a good question. The president as you know today had a very light schedule. It is his birthday. The only schedule he initially had on the books was for an event at 3 00 with the labor department. All indications expect that we are expected to hear something more from the president later today. Yeah, i will standby for that. All right, thanks very much. Another eye witness to the shooting is joining us. Noah, tell us where you were and what you saw. I was just at the dog park right next to the baseball field. I come every morning. So i was just going into the dog park and there is a double gate so the dogs cant get out. I heard the first shot, but i thought it was fireworks. When i heard the second shot, i realized its not fireworks and people were starting to scatter. I grabbed close to the ground and kept holding my dogs to make sure they wouldnt run off. You could hear the shots skimming off the gravel, hitting some of the fence. I realized there is trash cans there, let me try and get behind them. I was just lying on the ground. Its very frustrating where there is shots and there is nothing you could do. Its like let me get my phone and you see all the movies where they have this phone footage. So then i was just recording. So i got about five and a half minutes of video. The police still have that. Theyre downloading that. Hopefully it is something worthwhile. It looked like it was about 100 yards away. I was going to interrupt for a second, though. You actually did see the shooter, is that right . I didnt. I saw where the shooter was shooting from. So it looked like they were shooting from a little snack shop or dpug out in that area. I saw the officers of security were shooting back at. The police were able to get there and then more people were shooting, but it seemed to go on more five or ten minutes. They were laying on the ground pretty helpless. We saw people running, trying to get away as soon as they were able to see where the shooter was at. I was sprawled out on the ground trying to record video that hopefully will be worthwhile. After it was done, all the shots stopped and they were able to get up and realize what just happened. And you have given your video over to police. I assume they are collecting evidence from as many people as they can at this stage and we will be hearing from police at this stage within about an hour or so for more details. You go to this dog park, i take it, fairly often, right . Yeah. I live right in the area. And the republicans they practice here every morning. So i guess if you live in the area, it is a regular thing, you know theyre here practicing for the game. I dont know how obvious that is to people who dont live in the area. But usually its not people coming around to like watch. Its not like a big spectator sport. They usually get here after 6 00 and theyre here until 7 30 and then i guess they go to work. It is a nice community, nice family community. It is not you know, there is mom and pop shops everywhere. This isnt a franchised area and it is really close to d. C. So whoever game wasnt i dont think testifies from the area. We know the shooter was shot himself by Capitol Hill Police who were on the scene and is now in a d. C. Hospital. Thanks so much, noah, for that eye witness account and good luck to you. Sure, thanks. I want to go to our senior washington correspondent up on capitol hill. There must be a strong sense of shock up there right now. What about 30 members, republican members of the house and senate were at this baseball practice early this morning. And then you also have republican and Democrat Members connected to this game because as you are hearing there you have members who practice regularly and then this game as well as the congressional womens softball game, which is a Bipartisan Group of lawmakers, there arent as many women to field a team. They play journalists. I played for years. These are games that are rights of summer. And these are practices that have been going on for months on a regular schedule. As soon as it warms up, this starts. This is something really enjoy as they look forward to these games. But we have just heard from or spoken with a couple of republican members of congress. They were getting information developing as it was coming in. So we spoke with dave of virginia. He was certainly shocked and he had concerns where he was thinking about a number of these members who did ride their bikes to the practice. He was well aware that they were practicing and obviously very shocked that this had happened. The same with congressman shawn duffy, who you know wolf. He was hearing developments while he was doing a Cable Television hit and he was hearing those developments coming in live and you could just see just how shocked he is. So theyre up here on the hill. They are waiting to figure out exactly what is going on. We do know that things are starting to be affected. This was rather going to be a busy day of hearings and mark ups of bills. We know that some of those are starting to be canceled. There was a House Natural Resources Committee on gun legislation. That has been canceled until further notice. You can see tour groups are still going on behind me. Certainly everyone is cognizant of whats going on. I want to add some context because i lived for sheers a short distance from that park. That dog park, thats where i would take my dog. It is right adjacent to these fields, the ymca, where the bullets came through the windows, that is someplace i have been. In fact, there is a whole series of windows where people, at least they used to be, on treadmills and they would look out toward the park. So you can imagine at that time that its peak work out time, just how many people were around and sort of at risk as this was happening. But this is, you know, as you think about it, you think about the Security Risk of repeated practices at the same time during the same time of the year for years on end. You can see how this might be a concern, but i think especially in a Community Like the dell ray neighborhood, you wouldnt think this would happen. This is a community that prides itself on its main street, as you heard that man say. This isnt a franchise area. Thats on purpose. That is an area that is families. It is you know, you go there on a weekend, which i just was. I actually went there in the last week or two and its stroller central. This is a very idyllic family neighborhood were talking abot there. Yeah, right outside of washington, d. C. Our justice producer is telling us that Law Enforcement does now have a tentative identification of the shooter. Theyre seeking to confirm it. They are not releasing a name yet. A Law Enforcement source says that they clearly will be releasing the name once they get final confirmation. But this is described as a tentative identification of this shooter. And very quickly, this baseball game, the Republican House and Senate Members versus the Democratic House and senates members. It has you correctly point out, for those of us here in the nations capitol, this is a big deal. They raise about 600,000 for wonderful causes. I dont know if the game is going to go forward tomorrow at this point, at Washington Nationals park, but just like the womens baseball game, the mens baseball game is these members of congress are 34 republicans on the roster of the Republican Team and i assume similar number on the democratic team. They take this very seriously. They do take it very seriously. It becomes very competitive. You can certainly imagine as you have the republicans versus the democrats there. And the mens team is this very big production because it is there at nationals park. You are familiar with this event. Not only is it this dozens members of congress who are playing. There are so many people who attend, staffers, members of congress, other washington officials. And it is a gathering that a lot of people look forward to in the summer. Yeah. I was at the Washington Nationals game monday night, and throughout the game they were promoting thursday this big game between house and Senate Members, republicans and democrats. And they were looking forward to it. And wolf, i would say, having spoken to one republican member of congress, theyre finding it difficult obviously to find this game is going to continue tomorrow night. They expect that this is going to be canceled. We dont have that word yet. But then also how the schedule is just going to be affected here in the house of representatives today. Were already starting to see that. Obviously there are going to be some changes Going Forward we would expect. Yeah. You can just hear how shaken some of these members are. We spoke to congressman mo brooks of alabama, clearly shaken. Rand paul shaken, understandably so. Individuals, jeff blake, the senator from arizona. This is an awful, awful situation. As you can tell, representative brad winstrom told an aid that the shooting, quote, was like being in iraq again only without his weapon. Hes okay. Hes unhurt. Clearly these republican lawmakers who were there were clearly taken by what they saw. It didnt just go fn or a minut or two. It went on for ten minutes and 50 shots were fire bid the shooter with this rifle. Capitol hill police were on the scene. Hes now injured, heading to a local d. C. Hospital. Anything else you are getting . I assume the speaker and others will speak out at some point. I assume they are going to go before the cameras at some point and talk about this. I expect so. And were still waiting. I think things are in flux now but we will get news on how things are going to be changing. The house floor was supposed to gavel in at 10 00 a. M. We will see if that happens. But we are expecting this day will be very much different and i think we are going to be hearing from the speaker very soon, although we dont have that officially at this point. You heard them even talking to members of the congress and we heard this from the ones we have spoken with here on capitol hill. There is a detail, obviously, during this practice because you have leadership there. But there also are a lot of members, i think you heard from one who had biked to this practice. When talking about the type of weapons were hearing what a watch that is for what that detail may have been. Again, this isnt something that theyre used to encountering, obviously. They are prepared for this, but this is a situation where you can see it appears that it was just at odds really. This is obviously the element of surprise, the resources that the detail had at their disposal and whatever they may have been dealing with coming from this suspect who now as you mention the identity has been determined but we dont know what it is. One final question. The condition of representative Steve Scalise, the majority whip, any update . We do not have any updates. We are checking with the hospital as well. But certainly here from capitol hill we do not have those updates. Standby. We are going to get back to you up on capitol hill. I want to bring in joe, a Law Enforcement trainer, former nypd sergeant and dr. Sanjay gupta. Walk us through what is happening right now based on all the information you are getting. All right. First of all, you are going to have to worry about the search warrant. Thats why they are not going to release the identity of the perpetrator. So they are going to find his car, his house where he lives. They will be executing search warrants and they dont want the media or anybody else to find out ahead of time so they dont know theyre coming. The police want to go into these locations and make sure they are not boobytraped or what have you. One of the things that the driver said that i was a little upset about is that he was talking to other witnesses. The police out there have to make sure they separate these witnesses, that they dont talk because witness contamination becomes a huge problems in these cases. They dont feel with a lot of shootings in this area. It is a nice, quiet area. Well, the police may not be used to these kinds of things and they have to make sure theyre separated. The second thing they have to do is make sure there arent any cars that this individual drove in at the location. Make sure that is if it is, make sure thats been rendered safe. Eventually they are going to have to get search warrants. So when we release the information finally of who this individual was, we want to make sure we have his incident records, we have his cell phone records and probably there is a lot of residential surveillance cameras in this location. So those investigators should be going door to door in the neighborhood, asking family members if they have surveillance cameras because they might have had this on tape. And thats something that they cant obviously look at, you know, overlook. Its extremely important. These are the three things right now, the cell phone records and surveillance videos thats going to help the police put this together. Sanjay gupta, were told that Steve Scalise was shot apparently in the hip. But that doesnt sound like a life threatening injury, right . Not typically, no. You know, the good news here is that the Central Nervous system, spinal cord, obviously not in that area and oalso no vital organs. Hold on for one moment because we are just get ago statement from the office of the majority whip Steve Scalise. Let me read the entire statement to you and then well assess. Quote, this morning at a practice for the congressional baseball game, whip scalise was shot in the rip. He was transported to the hospital where he is currently undergoing surgery. He is in stable condition. Prior to entering surgery, the whip was in good spirits and spoke to his wife by phone. He is grateful for the brave actions of u. S. Capitol police, First Responders and colleagues. We ask that you keep the whip and others harmed in this incident in your thoughts and prayers. Finally the statement adds, this office will release Additional Information regarding the whips condition as appropriate. All right. Lets assess what we heard. Hes in stable condition, shot in the hip. Stable condition, in good spirits, spoke to his wife, obviously. Awake, conscious. To be able to do that, thats not surprising as you point out in part because these injuries to the hip, theres good news in all that, you dont have vital organs in that area. It doesnt sound like he has blood loss that was significant enough to impair his consciousness. Sounds like he received fluids immediately and im sure en route to the hospital. It sounds like what was being described was a rifle, a long barrel. Those are going to be higher velocity wounds, so it could still be a higher significant wound. You worry about damage to that part of the body but also blood vessels, which would be part of the reason hes getting the operation now, is to stop any bleeding or prevent any of that bleeding from occurring during this injury. Thats typically what happens. Thats a part of that stabilization process. But these types of rifle injuries obviously much more significant than a handgun injury. Mainly again because of the velocity of the bullet and the medical teams are having to figure out exactly what occurred as a result of this injury and work on fixing that. And when they say hes in stable condition, describe what that means precisely because weve heard all sorts of descriptions of conditions, good condition, critical condition. But stable, what does that generally mean . Stable is a vague term in that regard because someone could be completely unconscious and be stable. We know thats not the case here obviously. It typically is referring to their Blood Pressure and their heart rate. In a trauma getting it is most reflective of blood loss. That is what youre concerned about. Is there ongoing blood his ability to maintain his Blood Pressure, and it sounds like it has not. Hes been able to maintain his Blood Pressure and his heart rate, breathing on his own. He was able to talk to his wife on the phone. Thats typically what theyre referring to and you know, it does bode well. It doesnt mean he doesnt need an operation, it doesnt mean its not significant, it doesnt mean he may not need future operations as a result of this and the indicators are pretty good in terms of his recovery from this sort of injury. Hes undergoing surgery at the med Star Hospital Center which, by the way, is not that far away from capitol hill right now. Once again, congressman, Steve Scalise, the majority whip and the number three republican and the number three leader in the house of representatives was shot in the hip earlier this morning, 6 30, 7 00 a. M. When he was doing baseball practice with the democratic members tomorrow. We dont know if that game will go forward in Washington Nationals park. Sanjay, stand by. Representative dave brat of virginia is joining us right now. You were supposed to join us to talk about a whole host of other issues to talk about those other issues, while i have you, i want to get your reaction. You know this area. You know alexandria and the republican members of the Baseball Team, the roster of about 34 members. Give us your reaction . We all know the risks, and i think, you know, it brings back our youth to go play ball and we have members riding bikes over there, 50 of us in public, and i think we need to do a better job thinking through the Security Risks and were all thankful that scalise had his crew there, otherwise rand paul said it would have been a slaughter. Its too bad you get into politics and i was sitting in the weight room with 20 other guys and it was partisan with the sessions thing and we were all yelling and screaming and we do get along well and the democrats where our brothers today and everybody was shocked and concerned. We were just watching it unfold together and just as pieces come in. We just heard votes got canceled for today so were not sure about the Game Tomorrow Night and well see what we do, but weve got to do a little bit better planning and immediately, it brings town halls, and you have a thousand folks and people that want to, you know, give you their views as constituents and et cetera. The security thing now will be ramped up to a new level and if it takes one person thats off the rails on a certain day, its not good. Our Law Enforcement producer said congressmen do have a tentative identification of the shooter. Theyre trying to finalize that. Have you heard anything at all from your colleagues who this shooter is, any motivation or anything along those lines . No, i mean, we heard one of my colleagues from florida, he was on the team, and he said someone did show up prior to the shooting and said are you guys republicans or democrats . He reported that on the news earlier today so thats not good. We dont have knowledge of that connection, but its in the air, right . There rr some folks out there who just ratchet it up too high. You dont know if that individual who asked the team players, the members were republicans or democrats. You dont know if that actually turned out to be the shotter, right . Thats right. Thats right. It could have been someone asking are you democrats or republicans, an innocent question of those practicing for a big game tomorrow, right . Thats right. I want to be precise before Law Enforcement. Theyll have a news conference, we are told fairly soon. Capitol hill police as well as Alexandria Police where this occurred. Whats the mood generally among your colleagues . You were at the gym working out this morning when you heard the bad news. Well, its just terrible. Everybody is focused on scalise because hes our buddy and roger and a couple of other colleagues and i heard theres more Serious Health concerns with some of the staff that were shot. We heard one in the chest maybe, and our heart goes out there. Thats the big deal and hopefully scalise is good, and we all love him. Hes just a great guy, and were thinking there and your brain races ahead to those with more serious conditions and thats where we are right now. Were just waiting and hoping everyone is doing okay, and ive got 50 texts within ten minutes from the people back home. Are you okay . Were you there . I cant imagine these families what they have to go through, and i do have to thank the officers that do put their lives on the line every day. Theyre all super people and they help us in every way and so we want to thank them and a couple of the guys, you know, raced out in the middle of the field and brooks was out there, a member of congress from alabama putting his belt on and scalise or one of the guys as a tourniquet right away and hes got guts and it brings out the finer angels, as well. We spoke to congressman brooks of alabama. He did take off his belt. We do know that a staffer working for congressman Roger Williams from texas and we know one of the staffers was injured and we dont know if mo brooks put his belt on that staffer and we dont know the extent of the injuries and youre right, presumably some of them are serious. I dont know if you heard Steve Scalises office put out a statement saying hes shot in the hip if the med star washington Hospital Center thats close to capitol hill. Hes described as being in stable condition and prior to entering surgery, he was described as being in good spirits and spoke to his wife by phone. You know Steve Scalise well and ive interviewed him on many occasions. Hes very highly regarded among his colleagues, right . No, hes a jovial guy. Hes like reagan. Im sure he almost cracked a joke about it, but its not funny. But hes the kind of guy that will make you feel at ease even if youre going through pain. Hes just that way. He goes up to the podium at our conference meetings and lighten, and cracks the ice and lightens the mood no matter what bill were dealing with. Hes that kind of guy. We are told hes the first member of congress, sitting member of congress to be shot since arizona representative Gabby Giffords was shot back in january of 2011 and she put out a statement expressing her deepest sympathies and support for Steve Scalise. So its it doesnt happen all that often, but even once or twice, and im sure you agree thats way too many times. It goes straight to us and then your familys emailing you and the wife back at home, the kids and theyre immediately, are you taking care of yourself . Are you being safe . Well have to make sure where our trips and where were together we have to think about it Going Forward. Its unfortunate, but thats the world right now. What i hear you saying, when you have a town hall or any of your colleagues, democrat or republican, when you have a town hall theyll have to have significant security there and i dont know if you need metal detectors and a lot of folks just walk in and they want to participate, but youve got to have some security, i a sime. After this event, thats going to change the calculation. In retrospect, you can see it more clearly. When someone sneaks over the white house fence and flies planes over the white house lawn or whatever. We should be thinking through ahead of time, but now our sergeant at arms and weve got great professionals and theyll ratchet it up and give us good guidance and counsel back home and we have our state sheriffs and police back in our counties and they show up at the town halls and do a great job and if you get someone of this caliber this morning and the intent is that vicious, its hard to be prepared to handle that kind of contingency. It certainly is, especially when youre out there just practicing, playing baseball and all of a sudden a horrendous thing like this occurs. Dave brat of virginia. Ill speak to congressman Chuck Fleischmann of tennessee, hes a republican and he was there on the scene and joining us on the phone. Congressman, first of all, tell us how youre doing . Wolf, im shook up. Thank god. Im a little bit bloodied from jumping in the dugout when we were under fire, but there were several other people shot and heart a lot worse. Just a horrible, horrible morning for us all and a sad day for america. Are you still there at the baseball field . No, sir. They kept us in an area that was blocked off until everybody was interviewed and then the Capitol Police put us on a bus any brought us back to capitol hill. So all of us who were able are now back on capitol hill in our offices. So walk us through what happened. Where were you when the first when you heard that first shot . Yes, sir. We were close to the conclusion of the practice. We practice every day. The republicans and democrat dechls both have a Baseball Team and i play on the Republican Team, this is my seventh year and i was walking from left field down the third base side and said hello to my good friend trent kelly who was at third base and like we always do, we were talking, and then i walked towards home plate and i heard a single large pop, and im not a ballistics expert, and i said gosh, that sounds like