Transcripts For WJLA ABC7 News At 4 20151202

Facility. This is a large facility made up of three buildings that deals with the developmentally disabled. Its called Inland Regional Center. They do care for people who are disabled. They walked in a secured building and once inside opened fire and were told began moving around the building continuing to shoot. The phone calls went out from inside the buildings. The alarm went off for the building for everybody inside to shelter in place. We know that because some of the folks inside were immediately texting friends and family outside the building to tell them what was happening. They were hiding inside the building. After maybe 20 minutes of this, they were given the order to get out of the building and evacuate the building with their hands raised. Hundreds of people came out with their hands up. In that time we understand from sources in los angeles, 12 people are dead. Lots of others wounded. We have seen a stream of ambulances rushing to the building. As far as the shooters, Police Responded in a there were so many officers, swat teams there in minutes. We have not seen or heard from the shooters. Were hearing now they may have all left in an s. U. V. And left the area. They were described as holding rifles and had body army on. This was a coordinated attack between three gunmen and a facility. This facility has not had major threats against it. They mad minor problems given the community they worked with, they had minor problems but one of the directors told a sister station in los angeles they had secured the facility with locked doors and the alert system. The alert system worked today. But again, 12 people dead and others wounded. So many questions unanswered. On the phone i want to bring in an expert to provide insight. Introduce yourself for us. Rob weinhold. The former officer and now you work with a group that deals with these Mass Shootings. Rob yes. Im rob weinhold, former baltimore official working with a company out of baltimore, maryland. Jonathan walk me through this. We have a lot of swat teams, not one, but many that are going through the building and on the outside as well. What are they look for . We are getting report that the gunmen left the area. What is their job now . Rob they want to make sure that the scene is secure. There was information about a package left behind. Also because it was described as three armed gunmen left and they were outfitted outfitted wy arrest moss, it doesnt mean there might not be another shooter in the building or another threat that needs to be eliminated. Clearly with a better in place situation with a shelter in place situation, there could be people hiding in closets or restrooms or safe zones that need to be extracted in a safe and a methodical manner. Our thoughts and prayers are with all the folks who have been impacted here. Jonathan no question. It appears that the victims in this case were vulnerable and defenseless. While the right protocol in place. You are dealing with motivated gunmen who conspired to do something evil. Jonathan i dont know of another situation that we have seen coordinated attack with three gunmen. The last time i remember anything with mass shooters or multiple is control bum columbine where three students talked themselves into going to the school and shooting fellow students. This looks coordinated. There is no doubt that its premeditated. Particularly if they were wearing body armor and armed. Three gunmen had to make plans to do this in terms of daytime. Point of entry. Escape vehicles. The exact motivations are not known at this point. I dont think terrorism can be eliminated. No question, this is a calculated evil crime against what could be a soft other a vulnerable target. Jonathan we are looking at the live pictures pictures frome sister station in helicopters. Hundreds of people brought out with their hands raised and they have to evaluate each and every person coming out of there. What is the process to victim out if they are victim or a gunman that ditched body armor and walked out as though they were part of the victims . Rob that is right. It wouldnt be the first time the assailant tried to blend in the population inside the building. So Law Enforcement officials have to be methodical and makes sure that each person belonged in the building. If they didnt, why were they there . Of course, naturally if there was a fourth, fifth or six member of this assailant team, they need to be identified. Its everyones hope that the suspects are out of the building. Good descriptions are continuing to come in the police hands. So local level of Law Enforcement can do Everything Possible to apprehend the folks. Jonathan three gunman at large that can go in and do Something Like this, this is a race time to get them off the street before they do it again. Rob it does. No doubt about it. We have said before its calculated. Everybody would be concerned they would go to another building and begin shooting or they would take a break and conspire to commit another act of violence on another day, or another location. It should be said anyone who has any information, no matter how small or minor should contact Law Enforcement authorities. Because they are putting the pieces of the puzzle together. With each person that comes out with their hands up, they will be interviewed and debriefed and provide more and more information. Which will crystallize, not only exactly what happened. But who they may be. Jonathan we appreciate your time. Stand by. We want to let folks at home know, let them know what they are looking at. This is live pictures from los angeles, San Bernardino, a sleepy community 30 to 40 miles east of downtown los angeles. At a facility that deals with the disabled. Its called Inland Regional Center. They deal with thousands of folks, both inpatient and folks who come in from off the street. So they have usually on any given day hundreds of people in three really big buildings there they are dealing with and working with on any given day. Today at 11 00 pacific time, three gunmen with rifles and body armor this is according to witnesses walked in a building and began opening fire and moving about the building and continuing to shoot. We are getting word 12 peo are dead. As many as 12 people are dead. A lot of other people are wounded. We have seen a stream of dozen of ambulances rolling in the area and picking up the wounded and taking them to the closest hospital. The closest hospital was put on disaster alert so all doctor and personnel have to come back to the hospital and deal with a mass casualty event. We dont know the number of wounded. But for the shooters, we are told a device was left behind and the three shooters got in a black s. U. V. And left the area. The building are being evacuate and people are transported to safer area to be interviewed to find the information that they can glean. Perhaps they can find the suspects that much faster. We know the president has been briefed on the mass shooting in california by Homeland Security. A situation we continue to monitor. The fact the shooters are at large is a terrifying component. Kimberly, we are going back to you. We have seen so many things happen on social media and instain tainously people inside the building were tweeting out and posting to social media saying pray for us. Joce sterman is tracking the activity for us and joins us with more. Joce as you would expect a flurry of activity on social media. It started like this. Two hours ago, videos like this from people inside San Bernardino asking the question does anybody know what is happening . Now we know what the situation is from the images like this, from doug sanders, an l. A. Print reporter. A few on the scene. Close by the action where this is happening. Full on swat activity as they comb through the buildings. We have ambulances on standby. You mention we dont know how many people have been injured but they are putting this as an oncall situation. They have ambulances at the ready for anybody who may be hurt. People in that area tweeting out to let family know they are okay. They are asking for prayers, saying they are on lockdown. People got out of the building, the Inland Regional Center calling their families there a nearby gas station after talking to police. To let them know they are okay. As you mentioned a few minutes ago there was a device left behind so they bring in the full artillery for this. This we believe is the robot sent in to go in and take a look at if device. They are taking photographs of that on the ground as well. This guy talking about being on lockdown. You see it on the news and you never think it could happen but it does. This is a reallife experience for theme people watching this unfold. Police cars, ambulances, fire trucks, fullon assault with the swat members showing up on the scene to handle whatever happens here. I want to show you what i think is one of the most heartbreaking video of the day. The twitter feed from the Inland Regional Center yesterday. They were tweeting about their Holiday Party. This is one of the clients with santa. They tweeted out this video showing them dancing, singing, having a great time yesterday, having no idea what was about to unfold 24 hours later at the center. Back to you. Jonathan that is one of the heartbreaking things i was monitoring today and listening to what was happening in bernanke. Happening in San Bernardino. A father said his son works inside the community. This is a place where People Volunteer their time and work with a vulnerable community. Called his dad, shelter went out and found a place to hide and stay there until you are noticed. You must feel helpless to hear someone is shooting. 20 minutes went by. Everyone was given the order to love the build leave the building with the hands up and go to ra place where the police were staging an area to round everybody up. That father found out his son is doing fine. I want to bring in Lieutenant Colonel tony schaefer. Ironic we should talk so soon because last night we were talking. We had a round table about terrorism in our country and how we face it and what is going on abroad. I dont want to speculate but i cant remember another time you had three suspects and coordinated aid tack. This sounds more like paris on our shores. We talked about this issue last night in detail. Sadly, i agree with you. Lets just be, lets not speculate but accept the fact that this profile, this attack profile is similar to the attack in paris last january. We are talking about a number of gunman moving through a soft facility. Killing people with impunity. There is something here regarding a pattern. We saw three separate cells in similar weapons, moving with military efficiency, military with armor and everything else. We cant conclude by the evidence so far its terror related. But i dont believe it was the mafia. I dont believe its a couple of folks who had a bad night and had gas and decided to pick up a weapon and go shoot people. We have to accept there is a solid possibility ill say there is a solid possibility not a probability that this may well be a terrorist attack jonathan why would you target a vulnerable population . This is a soft target like a stadium or mall. Why would you go after a facility like this . The same reason in the recent paris attack the terrorists went after the folks in the wheelchair. They want this to be as devastating and inhuman as possible. The fact is this, obviously. This is a very, very soft target. Going after hard target result in essentially less casualties that they can create. This is defined to be designed to be against a target that cant defend itself. We talked about this yesterday. Asymmetric operations. This is asymmetric about this is something we cant fix. They know and hitting this will make it difficult to respond if its a terrorist attack. Jonathan the motivation to find the marathon couldnt be father. The Boston Marathon bombing, in 48 hours they identified two suspects in the bombing. How fast will they identify and find the guys . It will come down to what is on the videotape they captured . One thing about the facility i will speculate on, they have a number of video cameras going. If someone got a license plate they may track the vehicle. This sounds like its planned with the military precision. They may have changed vehicles. So it will be important to figure out if they changed vehicles or continue to go to another target or continue the attack or is this the beginning of a series. This could be as we know from paris there was a rolling attack. Law enforcement in that region in particular has to be vigilant for the other incidents and the similar soft targets. Law enforcement has to be on top of this. At this point in time im sure the f. B. I. And the other folks are tying to figure out if there are intelligence available, indicating if folks would be around. Jonathan well work on establishing that signal better. Stay with us. Jackie gray under lockdown at an adjacent building. I understand what all the facilities and the buildings around the area in quarter mile are on lockdown. How did you know what was happening and what did they say to you . I found out what was happening when i ran to the restroom. I have to go outdoors to the restroom at my office. No one said much to me. I found out through coworker here at the offices that there has been a shooting. This occurred at the Inland Regional Center. There are 20 shooting victims and there are casualties now. That is confirmed. I have been reading tweets going on and find out what is going on since im in the office. The street is blocked off ajaysant to my office. Im not sure when i can leave but there is commotion outside the office. Jonathan since you are close enough to the building in concern, the i. C. R. , have you had issue, any issues prior . Have the police been called there before . Do you know of anything that happened before . No. Its usually really quiet. Jonathan are you surrounded by coworkers where you are now . Are you surrounded by the coworkers now wondering when you can come out . We are in individual office suites. Im in an office suite alone. Jonathan thank you very much. We appreciate that. We are monitoring resources about what is happening in San Bernardino. Bring in Lieutenant Colonel tony schaefer. A lot of the deranged shooting, the planned parenthood, people lost a few screws and walk in a place and open fire. In your specter those are the people with an emotional connection to the shooting. Its one of those things they just snap. This doesnt have the telltale signs of the people snapping in this case. Are you there, tony . Well try to get the signal back established if we can. We are monitoring all of our resources to get you up to date with the latest information. The latest we have is while they have evacuated now all of the wounded out of the police that was shot up. The Inland Regional Center. They deal with the developmentally disabled. On any given day there are hundreds of people in the buildings with all kind of care. They have individual and the family services. Job training. Residential care. Social services. Management services. They do a number of things there for the community. At 11 00, they were supposed to have a party with santa claus and thats when the gunmen walked in. Its secure facility. So the alarms went off for all the buildings for people to shelter in place and find hiding place, to lock doors. It was at that point, maybe 15, 20 minutes transpired the alarm came back on telling people to leave the building with the hands up. The police surrounded the facility. By that time the witnesses say the three gunmen got in an s. U. V. And left the area. Apparently from the reports we are getting, a device had been left behind. The bomb squad had to be called in to examine the device and determine what it was. A lot of wounded were transported as you see here. Pictures from the sister station. A lot of wounded were taken to the ambulances and transported to the hospital. We saw dozens of ambulances loaded with people. The number of wounded we still dont have at this point. We will continue to monitor the situation. As soon as we get updated information we will pass it on to you. We can do it on the facebook, twitter account for you. Dont miss the information. As soon as we get it, we put it out on wjla. Com, Facebook Page and twitter. If you monitor those you will get it right away. All we know is that three gunmen are still at large. We have been monitoring one of the resources, sister station in los angeles, kabc. Lets dip in there and see what is happening now. Listen in. Ajaysant to this particular facility we have report that are c. H. P. Or emergency medivac helicopters. You can see all kind of resources are in the area now. Lets go to michelle who is talking to a man who worked with the building . Michelle . Brandon, you do work at the building. However you were not there at the time of the it shooting. Correct. Tell me what you know . All i know is that there was a shooting. I went into hotel and looked at the news and it showed there were 12 casualties. I dont know. I havent been nothing has been confirmed to me. Have you been able to talk to any of your colleagues . I have talked to some of them. They all got out safely. Everybody i talked to got out safely. From what i heard the casualties were from an event that was hosted by it was an outside agency that came in. There was a county Agency Holding some sort of a banquet or something in the Conference Room . Correct. Tell me again what your colleagues said to you. How did they describe the incident . They werent in there at the time. They were all in locked offices. Listening on the police radio scanners. They didnt hear gunshots. They were just getting the Text Messages and phone calls from other people around the building. Who were the people inside of that Conference Room . San Bernardino County workers . I believe its beverageperson county workers San Bernardino county workers . Was at it Holiday Party . I dont know. Did your colleagues there indicate that they saw injured or deceased victims . Someone said they were walking over a couple of bodies but i dont know if they were dead or wounded or playing dead. Im not sure. They were injured as well. They did not see the gunmen . I dont think so. What were they told while hiding in the building . I dont know. Im sure they were telling them to stay in the locked offices until authorities could come in and lead them out. They were evacuated out the north entrance. They were taken, they walked up past orange shell road on waterman. You stepped out for how many minutes . I was gone for half an hour. You could have been. Do you work near the Conference Room . I dont work near the Conference Room but my office is right on the inside of one of entrances. Youre very shaken up. Yeah. This is all sudden. Its pretty crazy. You never think Something Like this is going to happen. The enormous scale of the scene. We keep getting pushed back by the officers. You can see a gentleman putting up police tape there. Hundreds and hundreds of police cars, highway patrol, sheriffs department, helicopters, fire department, ambulances all on the scene here trying to control this. Taking some of the eyewitnesses that you mentioned at the banquet and the offices at the i. R. C. Out of there trying to process them. We are hearing more and more as well about what eyewitnesses saw. One man told me he just spoke to his niece who said she was outside on a break when she saw three gunmen open fire going in and begin to fire. Swat teams eventually pulled her out as they did everybody else getting them to safety. Other people said they were outside of the building and in the helter skelter and didnt know where to go. They were told by a Security Guard go in the building or runway. This woman decided to run in the building which could have been a perilous decision. Ultimately she was safe but so many others are rattled by what happened. Let me under score that. You say you spoke to an eyewitness who definitely saw three shooters . He spoke to his niece who said there were three. We have been to so many shootings and in paris as well we were there. The eyewitness testimony is notoriously fallible. It is possible and that is what the police have been saying. There are eyewitnesses out there who are saying there are up to three of those gunmen out on the loose or still in the building, george. Thanks. Go to another eyewitness coming in the affiliate kabc. We know she is safe. She is at the golf course. That is the good news. You have good support here, too. Im the principal at the elementary school. This is my teacher. We are here to support each other. We do have a family. How has this been for you . Obviously, heartbreaking. I mean, im at a loss for words right now. I just want to make sure that her daughter is safe and others. Thank you. Thank you for speaking with us. We know she is safe. She has been at the golf course so its just a matter of time. Absolutely. Thank you. I appreciate that. Again, if you can imagine, horrible having to wait for her loved one. But again her daughter did let her know she is at the golf course. She is safe. Its just a matter of coming out with groups of people like we have been watching all afternoon or for the last hour to get loaded on the buses to be interviewed by police. That is the latest from here. Abc7, eyewitness news. President obama, as you said, has been briefed. He told Nora Odonnell he is waiting for more details. They cant say more about who is responsible or why the shootings took place. We know the f. B. I. , a. T. F. And federal officials are on the scene working with the local authorities. We believe there will be a series of Conference Calls where they will offer additional resources. Everyone again trying to get their head around what this is. Depending on what it is, the federal response could be significantly large. But for right now, ray kelly, former new York Police Commissioner as pierre said, f. B. I. , a. T. F. , Homeland Security on the scene and the San Bernardino Sheriff Department in the lead. Is the Sheriff Department equipped to handle this kind of an incident . I think in this day and age they are. Homeland security provided a lot of equipment, and, you know, you will see look like the swat teams all over the country. They look the same because of the distribution of equipment. A lot of focus on this, a lot of training. Active shooter is a topic of discussion throughout Law Enforcement. Steve, when Something Like this take place you inform the f. B. I. Agent. How do they divide up the responsibilities . It starts with the organization at the command post that is on scene. They are also going to have, that is close to the scene but not too close. They are also going to have various command posts established at the different agencies. The f. B. I. Has a joint Operation Center set up at their office. So does a. T. F. You have the Main Command Center that is nearby. Everybody is coming over to that location. You are talking about executives and the managers of thedy. Agencies that are involved. That is one of the first things they are doing. Organizing their response. The security of the location they are dealing with. Investigation they are conducting. Intelligence they are gathering up. A lot of people dealing with logistics. This is a longterm investigation. This wont end today. This will go on for days and potentially weeks. Something we dont know here. Even eyewitness reports in a situation like this can be unreliable. But one eyewitness told relative that they did see three gunmen on the scene. One report that maybe only one escaped in the s. U. V. Which could suggest you had different shooters in different locations now. You either have that, george, or you have them leave in other vehicles. We dont know how well organized they were. The thought being it makes it more complicated for Law Enforcement if that is the case. The way they are treating the scene would suggest they still have something there. It may just be explosives, maybe bad guys. This is going to take as we have all talked all afternoon quite a while to sort out. George help me out here. There havent been reports of shots fired in over two hours. Just about two hours. Doesnt that suggest that the shooters arent on the scene . Or could they be holed up . I think that would suggest that the shooters or the shooter is dead. Or they have left. Going back to what one witness said they may have had masks and gloves on. That would also suggest they want to be anonymous at least for now, for whatever reason. And it would further suggest they were going to leave. Obviously if you go to the scene, you are going to shoot a bumping of people and eventually going a bunch of people and are eventually going to kill yourself or Law Enforcement will kill you, who cares if you have a mask on or not. It takes a different twist. We still dont know what it means yet as to the real motivation behind the shooters. George, you know, its interesting that Law Enforcement is as frustrated as we are. You have the leader of the free world, the president of the United States who cant tell you what happened here. That tells you how dicey and fluid the situation is. And also, this is when you think of the echoes to paris. There was a plot planned for several days after the original but most of this unfolded in an hour or two. First shots fired around about 2 00 p. M. Eastern time. Right now more than two hours ago. Nothing else since then. No other attacks anywhere else either. That is right. In paris there were three attack teams that began at the stadium and the grand crescendo was the attempt to go at the concert hall. That is the concern for the Law Enforcement in this case, was the attack on the most Vulnerable People in the country . Disability center. Was that a distraction meant to pull Law Enforcement to one area so they could go to another area . People have been, reporter from paris talked about how what was different this time and what creates a different feel and a different kind of terror. The idea is they went after those who were just going about their normal life on a friday night. Here, the targets some of the most vulnerable in our society. Absolutely. Everyday life of americans under threat. This is something we talked about for years. There has been a concern ever since 9 11 we knew that alqaeda was going to be spectacular kind of attacks. They went after the World Trade Center not once, not twice. They try to bring down airliners. But for years intelligence and Homeland Security officials mystified by the fact they werent seeing more often these single attacks against soft targets. The concern has long been that one day the bell would go off and the bad guys would see they could kill a large number of people in soft targets using simple weapons. You dont have to have a huge truck bomb or massive bomb. You can simply go shoot people. I think what the recent pate, the steady spate of Mass Shootings we are seeing in the country that word is out be. You terrorists or mentally unable, be you whatever, that is the mode of operation, where you can have success. George we are flying blind here right now. We have no idea what the motive is or who is behind this. What we do know and what we have seen again and again and again in this country is a series of pattern of Mass Shootings unlike anywhere else in the world. Exactly. We talked earlier how the f. B. I. Looked at the Mass Shootings over a 14year period. Stunning the data. In the first seven years we averaged six incidents per year and now were up to 16 or more per year. That is a stunning number. Huge increase that is affecting the daily lives in the way we now are doing these events all the time. George how has it changed the work rate, ray kelly, the Police Commissioner of the Police Departments day in and day out . Ray there is a lot of drilling that goes on for active shooters. As i said before thats very much on the agenda of major Police Departments and probably Police Departments throughout the country. A lot of reading on it and table top exercises. One of the challenges that is mentioned before is the coordination of the multiple agencies showing up. That is so key to having an effective response. That is practice as well. Ray the table top exercises. George bring it to john, the abc news contributor, former terrorism official with the department of Homeland Security. You have advised state and local officials how to deal with the Homeland Security type issues. What can you tell us about what officials on the ground there in San Bernardino might know, what might have gone what they might have gone through to prepare for Something Like this and what they are doing right now . John well, george, as we watch the situation unfold over the last several hours, what we have seen is how the work that ray was referring to has born fruit. You have multiple personnel from multiple agencies responding to this scene rapidly. They are entering the location, they are working together. They are seeking to provide medical assistance to injured people on scene. That ability comes because of the monies that have been invested and the work that has been done on the ground in communities across the country to prepare for the types of events. Something that you talked about earlier about, and pierre talked about earlier about the number of events, we have seen increase in the mass shooter casualty attacks in several years. Not just people inspired by the terrorist ideologies but by people for broad range of reasons have come to the decision that the only way to bring meaning to their life is carrying out these type of attack. Its difficult for Law Enforcement to deal with. George there are so many different motivations or things to trigger something in the mind of those individuals. That is right. We have seen the common characteristics amongst the individuals who carried out the attacks. These are people who come from dysfunctional families, who are disconnected from the community, who suffered a series of life failures reasoned a searching for some thing, organization or a cause to belong to. They are seeking some meaning in their life. What is disturbing is that over the past several years increasingly these people are either turning to joining a group like isis or carrying on an attack on its behind or going into a school or Movie Theater or a Shopping Mall and seeking to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible. George in your old job at the department of Homeland Security, counterterrorism, you heard series of details coming in again, all unconfirmed but one to three shooters, body armor, masks, gloves. Where would that take your gut . What would you be searching for first . John well, you know, until the shooters are identified and are in custody, Homeland Security and the f. B. I. And frankly other Law Enforcement organizations throughout the region are concerned about is whether this is just one or what could be possible multievent attack scenario. We would be monitoring the situation carefully. We would be waiting to see if additional attacks begin to take place. We would be staying on top of any information coming in from the scene relevant to the identities of the motives behind the shooting. What we would be most concerned about is that this is not another paris type of attack where you are going to have an event in one location, followed by attacks in other locations. George does it feel like any incidents you worked on in the past . John unfortunately, we have seen way too many of the type of incidents occurring particularly over the last several years. This is a problem we need to get a handle on from a prevention perspective. We cant rely on the traditional counterterrorism strategies if this turns out to be terrorismrelated. The traditional counterterrorism strategies an capabilities at the federal referral arent designed to pick up federal level arent designed to pick up on homegrown threat like this. Something that is interesting, here is why we have to be careful about assigning what this is and what this isnt. If you look in the past few months look at the variety of the active shooter incidents we have had. Charleston, south carolina. Raciallymotivated shooting, multiple people were killed. Few weeks later, chattanooga, tennessee. Military targets, terrorismrelated. George more than one target. Pierre then earlier you had a shooting in a Movie Theater. Look at the variety. George planned Parenthood Center in Colorado Springs on friday. Pierre exactly. Huge variety but spate of shooters. There are more than a dozen gun Stores Within half a mile or 30 minutes of this center. Under California Law according to the attorney general there is a ten day waiting period from the time you purchase a gun and in that period of time the federal authorities did a background check. But there are questions about how thorough the background checks are and who is included and who is excluded. George and the information that is not there and the state and the local officials have the resources to do all the background checks they need to do. As we said, president obama was questioned on this in an interview when the reports started to come in with Nora Odonnell of cbs news. She asked about this incident. Take a look. Mr. President , it appears there has been another mass shooting in california. What do you know . We dont know that much yet. It is still an active situation. F. B. I. Is on the ground offering assistance to the local officials, if they need it. It does appear there are going to be some casualties. Obviously, our hearts go out to the victims and the families. One thing we do know is we have a pattern of Mass Shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world. There are some steps we could take, not to eliminate every one of these Mass Shootings but to improve the odds that they dont happen as frequently. Common sense gun safety laws. Stronger background checks. For those who are concerned about terrorism, we have a no fly list where people cant get on planes. But the same people we dont allow to fly could go into a store right now in the United States and buy a firearm. There is nothing we can do to stop them. That is a law that needs to be changed. My hope is that we are able to contain this particular shooting and we dont know what the motives of the shooters are. But we know there are steps to take to make americans safer. We need to come together in a bipartisan basis to make this rare. We shouldnt think this is something that happens in the ordinary course of events. It doesnt happen with other frequency in other countries. George the president referring to the legislation sponsored by democrat of california, Dianne Feinstein and republican peter king of new york toic ma it difficult for knows on the no fly list to buy weapons at home. He is always coming out to call for more measures to make it more difficult the people to access the weapons to pull off the Mass Shootings. It has been one of the great frustration of his presidency. Yes. Irregardless of that attack the country is reeling from the steady spate of the vents. The solutions have been difficult in coming. The moment appears to be nearing where there will be so many of these things that people are going to have to come together and try to figure out a way to deal with them. George there is a lot made of the legislation that the president talked about that people on the no fly list can still buy guns. Those who say that is appropriate, point out a lot of people on the no fly list dont belong on that list. It is far from precise. There are people on the no fly list that arent considered terrorists but perhaps they have a connection to a family. There is a lot of debate about the accuracy of that list. Nevertheless, as the president said, the list does prevent the individuals from boarding an airplane. That is not something, though, considered for instance when the waiting period is in effect for buying a firearm. Its not factored in. That is the issue in this legislation. You know with america, one big soft target. There would be no way to fortify every soft target in this country. That is not the answer to this dilemma. George ray kelly, speak to that issue right now. Here in new york city you have so much experience trying to protect areas like times square, that has seen direct threat on video from isis and others. How do you decide where to allocate your resources when the number of targets is not infinite but huge. Ray judgment is involved. You look at the masses of the people and the history of the location and the iconic nature of the potential target. Its judgment. So far in new york, 16 plots against it and up in have come to fruition. Whatever is going on you can say is working in some degree. George the fact you have a more fortified presence does have some kind of a deterrent. One thing we learned in paris is one of the suicide bombers was turned away by security if i if i by security at the stadium. It gives a comfort level. People are uneasy. After an event they feel comforted seeing police officers. George we expect to hear from the San Bernardino police in the next few minutes. We are coming up now on about 4 45 here in the east coast. 1 45 in the west. This started to unfold three hours ago in San Bernardino, california. At the Inland Regional Center. Anywhere from one to three shooters may have gone inside. Up to 12 people have been killed. According to reports from hospitals in the scene ten others injure and taken to the hospitals, being operated on right now. This situation still being described brad garrett, the former f. B. I. Special agent is described as active shooter situation on the scene. Officials in the region dealing with the possibility that the shooters mail have escaped in a black s. U. V. Because they dont know the answer to that, george. Until every room is cleared at this facility and maybe even surrounding buildings, they dont know really what they have. Is there a deceased and or active shooter secreted some place in the building . Did all one or three of them leave . So, three hours later its not the place you want to be if you are the police on the scene. But that is what you are stuck with. George maybe you cant answer this question but how unusual is it that there have not been any other reports since then of the black s. U. V. Being seen anywhere . Ray kelly was talking earlier about the ubiquity of the cameras along many of the public roadways. If they were still driving around wouldnt someone pick it up by now or not necessarily . Maybe. George, bad guys regularly organized will take one car to a scene, dump it, short distance away. Half a mile mile and get into another vehicle. So is that s. U. V. Parked behind some business down the road from the crime scene . Maybe. So now they are in some other vehicle traveling to another location. George perhaps again we dont know if it was one or three or if some are still inside that building. But you had been talking before also that the authorities now have to be careful about the possibility of a planned explosive device on that scene. Brad yes. It sounds like to me they are still concerned about that. The number of the people that are still on the scene clearly suggests to me that they just dont have it cleared yet. They dont know if they have explosives. Lets say some of the witnesses saw them with potential explosives. Until they can figure out what that is and neutralize it, they have to treat this as an ongoing scene. George what more can they be doing right now . We know they have gone door to door. We know there are hundreds, literally hundreds of police and f. B. I. Agents on the scene right now. It appears that dozens of people have been evacuated from the buildings. There hasnt appeared to be any activity or sound of shot fired for the last two hours. What exactly would be going on inside that compound now . Brad the only thing i can think of, george, is they are still not comfortable they know exactly how many shooters they had originally. Is there one still left in the building . That is a problem. When you have a scene where you dont have it cleared. You dont have it clerked of explosives. You dont have it cleared of bad guys. Then you have to treat it like there is somebody still in that building that could harm you. Or a device could harm you. So that will take a period of time. If you think of the johnor room, the storage roof, the basement, the roof. This building is of reasonable size. That is what is going on there. George Pierre Thomas we know federal officials have been alerted. F. B. I. Going on the scene as well to see if they can figure out anything more about those who might be responsible. Pierre exactly, george. There are critical decisions being made as well. What to do about malls in the area. Its hard to shut down society even when you have an incident like this. They have to make a lot of difficult decisions. The f. B. I. , the a. T. F. , all the federal agencies are involved. Everyone is consulting about what to do next. As brad said, they have to glean as much information from the scene to see if it points them in a particular direction. Jonathan we are waiting to hear from the police on the scene. George we expect to hear from the police chief soon. Around 4 45. Shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, california. The center for the developmentally disabled. There was some event, a banquet taking place this morning. Officials believe that was the focus of the shooters. As we watch a Police Helicopter go over the scene. Up to 12 people have been killed by one to three shooters. Some reports that the shooters may have escaped the scene in a black s. U. V. Reports also of ten people injured in local hospitals. Some of them critically, some of them being operated on right now. We are joined by the former chief of the new York City Police ray kelly. This whole area now being controlled by the San Bernardino department with a host of the federal and the state agency joining them. Ray exactly. This is a coordinated effort. You have a lot of resources there. The f. B. I. Certainly brings expertise and sophisticated equipment to the team. You have the manpower from the sheriffs office. The search now is obviously widened. You can get, you can get probably to mexico in threehour time from San Bernardino. They could have gone a long way away. You have to spread that out. I assume what they are also doing is questioning the witnesses in the hospital. People who are wounded and able to speak. One thing you do is go there to try to get immediate information. George one of the debates we have been having in the country in the wake of the shootings and the other incidents of violence is whether or not its necessary for the local Police Departments to have so much military style equipment. Here is a situation where its absolutely called for. Ray yeah. I think you can keep it at perhaps centralized location but the optics sometimes cause problems when you have civil disturbances. Certainly here, armored vehicle, probably would be very important. George because of the possibility of explosives on the scene. Brian ross, the chief investigate i core investigative correspondent. This comes in the wake of isisinspired attacks around the world. As you are telling before hold that. We have an eyewitness on the scene. Glen willworth. We want to go to him. Glen . Glen hello. George glen, its George Stephanopoulos here. Tell me where you were and what you saw. Glen my business is located across the street from the Inland Regional Center. There was a guy that came running over to our place looking for shelter that was filling up his water truck at a fire hydrant. He came over and said he thinks people are getting shot over here. I grabbed my side average. I hollistered up i holstered up and ran to the area where the water truck was and posted up there. It was a good spot in between the Regional Center and my business where my employees were. George what could you see . Glen i stayed there for about, ten, 15 shots go off. It sounded like Assault Rifle shots. There was movement in the trees. Its heavily treed there. I saw somebody, there was a lot of people running around, too, trying to get away from the area. Somebody got in a black s. U. V. That was parked right up where the shooting was. And then they pulled away. George one person . Glen slowly and calmly. I couldnt tell. The windows were blacked out. I couldnt tell how many people were there. They drove toward me and veered directions and changed and went through the parking lot and went out the back exit. Very slow, very calm. George very calm. Did you see any of them or did you see the individual before he got in the car . Glen no. No. You could just see movement. Like i say, there are a lot of trees and the type of trees are shade type trees. There is a lot of brush. Bushes and stuff. Very difficult to see what was going on. All i know if someone was coming toward my building it would be a problem. George you had several employees in the building, correct . Glen yes. I have 12 employees. Ewe are still locked down. Not letting them leave. Im outside and next to the Regional Center. I just talked to the sheriff to see if we can get passage from the employees to go home. George what did the sheriff tell you what was happening right now . Glen honestly, they dont seem to know a whole lot. They just told me they were going to have to get authorization and they dont know who to talk to about that so im still waiting to find out. George so right now your employees are still in lockdown across the street. You are looking in on the Regional Center. How many buildings . Is it three buildings in the center . Glen there is about three buildings, yeah. We are at the back side of it. That is why we are behind the police line. You know, we dont see a whole lot. You might be able to hear the alarms going off. I walked down here to talk to somebody because im a couple hundred yards away from the front of the Regional Center here. Come up this far to speak to somebody. George can you see what is happening inside the Regional Center right now . Glen nothing. Nothing. There is nothing going on. I dont see anybody going in or out or anything. But again im at the back of it right now. George its not surrounded by police. You dont see Police Moving in and out . Glen is plenty of police presence. They are all around it but on waterman. The street is kind of blocked off both directions to and from it. This is a circle here. So there is only, you know, two direction in and out here. Its all off of the waterman street here. George you havent seen them go inside the building or try to take anything out of the building . Glen i did. I saw them go in. They stormed it. I see swat go in. I was here when they went in. I saw them up on the roof. I saw them clearing out. George how long ago was that . Glen oh, gosh, i dont know what time it is. Probably around 11 00 i guess. George right at the beginning, shortly after you heard 10 to 15 shots. Glen yeah. There was more shots than that going off. But while i was posted up they had ten or 15 of them go off. Just before the shooting ended. George could you tell how long the shooting lasted, about how many minutes . Glen i couldnt say how long it was going on before the guy came over to our place seeking shelter. All i know is what happened when the guy came over to our place looking for a police to hide. That was when i went out. I wanted to make sure nothing came our direction. George after you went out is when you heard the 10 to 15 shots. And nothing after that . Glen yeah, i stayed there the whole time. Even after all the shooting stopped. The only thing i saw moving vehicle was is the black s. U. V. I was still posted up by the water truck. I watched that vehicle leave. I did try to look inside. It was 20, 25 yards away from me. I couldnt see anybody inside. George glen, thank you very much. We want to go to the scene where the sheriff and the police chief will be holding a press conference. Im brad toms with the San Bernardino county Public Affairs division. I want to provide you a telephone number in the event that you have information for investigative leads. The number that will be manned by the Sheriff Department 18663467632. You can call 180078crime if you wish to remain anonymous. Ill make a couple of quick introductions. We have chief from the San Bernardino Police Department standing here to my right. Sheriff john mcmahon to my left here. And the assistant director in charge of the l. A. Office of f. B. I. David bo rowdich david bowdich. I will hand it over to the chief. Good afternoon, everybody. So this originally started off at 11 00 this morning. Late this morning, early afternoon. We received a call here at the Inland Regional Center. 1400 block of south waterman of a shooting. It was quickly apparent we had what aamounted to an active shooter situation. There was a massive Law Enforcement response. Initially was our department that responded. Then very quickly word spread through the region we had a massive mutual aid response from every Law Enforcement agency in the immediate area to include the Sheriff Department, the Police Department, montana Police Department, the california highway patrol, probation department, parole. A number of agencies respond responded. Up to three people entered the building and opened fire on people inside the building. We have preliminary numbers of upward of 14 people that are dead. Upward of 14 people injured. We think those are pretty reliable but keep in mind those are subject to change. They are preliminary numbers. The 14 wound have had been taken to various area hospitals. In addition to Law Enforcement response there was a massive medical aid response from the city fire department, other area Fire Departments as well as the ambulance and the american medical response. As officers initially arrived on scene, they went into the active shooter protocols of things we train for. They immediately entered the building in search for the suspects. The initial information is that the suspects were potentially still inside of the building. It is a massive facility, employs several hundred people and it has take an long time to clear the building. In fact, i think we still have assets inside that are completing the clearing process. Information that i think is probably the most reliable at this point is that the suspects have fled, potentially in a darkcolored s. U. V. We do not have any identification on who those suspects are. We do not know the motive for the shooting at this point. I will turn it over to sheriff for a couple of comments. Thank you, chief. We are working closely with the San Bernardino Police Department in a unified command. As well as the federal parters to make sure we have the resources we need to thoroughly investigate the event. The officers are working hand in hand with the members of the San Bernardino Police Department as well as the other agencies to search the building as the chief indicated. That search is still ongoing. Because of the information that the suspects may have fled the area we have shut down and locked down the courts, and the local city and the county buildings in the general area around San Bernardino. We have an increased Law Enforcement presence at the highprofile areas including hospitals. We have been in contact with the School District and their School Police chief to take care of the school side of things. We continue to make sure we do everything we can to keep the public safe. We have been in contact with the board of supervisors. They pledged their full support and the resources that they have help solve this as well. We will Work Together to investigate this case once the scene is secure. And work hand in hand with the city of San Bernardino as we do in other highprofile events. Ill now have dave bowdich, the assistant director of the f. B. I. Say a few words. Thank you. We here with our state and local partners to assure that all the wounded are extracted and ultimately Public Safety is number one goal at this point. We will work as a Law Enforcement community to assure that we have done everything we can in our power to find, locate and apprehend the suspects. I know one of your questions will be is this a terrorist incident. I will tell you right now we do not know if this is a terrorist incident. We start from the beginning working with all of our local partners. We take the presumption that it may be, it may not be but we will work hand in hand with them from the beginning. If things change we are here from the getgo and there is no steps lost as the investigation proceeds. At this point im going to turn it back to the