happened inside the building in this complex and also about possible motive. what might have prompted this man to come into the complex and start shooting. what we can tell you is, from all indications we ve gotten so far from police, fbi, and other officials, the gunman came into that building prepared to inflict carnage and prepared, seemingly, to do battle with police. my deepest condolences and prayers go to the families of those who left home this morning and will not return tonight. reporter: tragedy in virginia beach friday evening. a mass shooting at the virginia municipal building, the deadliest mass shooting in america since november of 2018, when 12 people were killed at the border line country music bar in california. today is virginia beach s darkest hour. i have a number of officers right now who are processing through what best could be described as a war zone. reporter: a virginia government source tells cnn it was a disgruntled employee,
a city worker escaping from the building and who could be the suspect. so there were a lot of different things that were happening mu i simultaneously, unlike when you see something like this in a choreographed tv or movie special, this is a very different environment. you cannot replicate the intensity of an environment such as this. do you think people in the community will come to this. this is a public building, do you anticipate the public being scared in the coming days and weeks? our job is to provide public safety to our residents, our visitors, our businesses, and we will ensure that they feel safe. as you heard, we can t answer a lot of these questions because the investigation continues. we re still inside the first 24 hours. i can t speak enough about the courage that police and
but, you know, what s interesting, also, is that the police chief and others have said that, you know, their police officers were already very well trained for a possible event like this. and it was evident from the details that we know. they got into the building very quickly. we re told that four law enforcement officers were the initial ones to come into the building and they quickly determine idea the shooter was, based on the sounds of the gunfire and were able to engage him. their actions might very well have saved many lives. victor? all right. brian todd, we ll get back to you. this news conference happening in a few moments from now. of course, we ll bring that to you live. but also, we want to show you this. a photo journalist from our affiliate wtkr was here at the municipal building yesterday covering a different story when the shooting started. here s what he says happened. it was pretty scary, when i right after 4:00, because we were doing a live shot at building 1,
1-800-call-fbi. 1-800-225-5234. we also have a large scale number of counselors available for the city employees, for all city employees who are touched by this event, as well as citizens and family members who may also be affected by this particular event. we were able to review some film last night, review some film of the officers who responded into the building. the officers checked every room on every floor, every closet, under every desk, and they escorted a large number of city employees out of the building. and remember, they are escorting out of the victims while the victims were still in the building. it you to know those officers worked with compassion, they worked with caring, they worked
infrastructure departments are served by administrative assistants that work with the public, but all the inner all the accesses to the inner offices and conference rooms are secured and require this pass and as i ve told you, he was in possession of a pass. access to this building is important, but considering his gut punch of an attack, might you re-assess security at this building? of course we will do an after-action review and take appropriate actions, should we determine that thesis a require. i want to follow up on the trauma that everyone is experiencing right now. what plan is there for assistance psychologically to all of the witnesses, victims, and other employees? we have numerous agencies that provide both family assistance and employee