it's fascinating because in these types of stories, they have not released a name of the suspect on the right-hand side of the screen but they know who he is. they got the picture. they know who he is. they're not ready to give the name right now. but as we have seen, they're going through that person's social media footprint, trying to find out if there's some type of a name that goes with the alleged crime here. though we don't know what happened so far. we were told to give you the timeline. the university of north carolina tweeting at 1:03 p.m., armed dangerous person on or near campus. go inside. avoid windows. it was an hour and 21 minutes later they tweeted again, emergency update, remain sheltered in place. this is an ongoing situation. suspect at large. check alert carolina nc.edu for endates. these are live pictures. the police footprint on this scene is mass. it is one of those things where it's an all hands on deck scenario. right now as john roberts was pointing out earlier, the posture of the police seems as if that there is no active shooter on scene. but the question becomes what happened when there was. the other question becomes what happens now. we know because it is standard operating procedure that all of these shootings on campus are treated the same. they will go from building to building, room to room looking for suspects and making sure it's not just one. might be more than one. what we have found interesting so far in the two hours this has been going on and jonathan hunt is with me here, what is interesting so far, jonathan, is that you look at social media. there's been very little information on x or facebook, social media, instagram, any of those types of things from students that saw something that they could report or put on social media. when we did this a short time ago in michigan, there was a great deal of information on social media. >> seems information for the students themselves is hard to come by, trace, as we see some students that are being cleared from the buildings, being led out there. as you rightly point out, the u.n.c. police and other law enforcement agencies are going building to building now. as you look at this, trace, this person of interest, bottom right of the screen there, is still at large according to the u.n.c. police. you just think of the campus itself. if he's still on campus, it's 729 acres. u.n.c. chapel hill has around 20,000 undergraduates enrolled. close to 12,000 graduates. that's a potential 30,000 people on the campus. the number of buildings is huge. the caudill labs where we believe the initial shooting took place, right on the campus there. it's just to the north of the football stadium, which you can see on the map there, top right. so he could have gone in any correction on campus, could well be off campus right now. clearly although the posture of the police in that one picture doesn't look urgent. they are urgently looking for this person. they want to find him. there's been a shooting. we're getting various reports about the numbers of wounded in this. we have officials -- >> and initial reports are more often than not wrong. you bring up a map of the campus. when you bring up caudill labs, you talk about the football stadium, what is also interesting about this area is that because there's a football stadium there, there's also easy access off of the campus. on and off of the campus. what you have is, and happened in a certain area near the football stadium and because it's near the football stadium, there's an easy way to get off of campus and away from campus. on the other side of that, which is hard to see, there's wooded areas. wooded areas where somebody potentially could hide if they were wanting to hide. as we have found, you know, notoriously when people do these types of acts, it's not really one of those things where you go and you run. these are one of those things that you tend to, you know, be found on scene in some capacity at some point. i also would point out, jonathan, it's interesting to me that when you look at the live pictures here, we're seeing the students come out. this is stuff that we have seen in columbine. you see the students come out. initially everybody is a suspect. every absolute person on campus is considered a suspect at least in the early going. so everybody is methodically led off in the same capacity. >> it's interesting just about an hour ago, trace, we got reports via one of the local tv stations was being held in custody. it was a person described as wearing a gray t-shirt. you can see right there, the person of interest is photographed, if that is a current photograph, in a great t-shirt. so police had arrested this person, taken them in to custody, this one person that was handcuffed initially, questioned for some time and then that same tv station reporting that the handcuffs were removed and that person let go. so that goes to the point that you're making that everybody on that campus, all 30,000 students if they're all there today, could be a suspect. that's why you see the police leading them out carefully. they're checking every i.d. as they do that. interesting to know one other point. those students we're seeing being led out of buildings here, they're not running. that would give you the indication police don't believe that the shooter or alleged shooter is in the precise vicinity of that one point where we're seeing the picture. >> it goes back to the initial tweet. so you know, roughly 45 minutes ago, they said emergency update, remain sheltered in place. the fact they're moving students off of the shelter in place and trying to get them off of campus is a good thing. that will help them invariably be able to do the next step, which is to go from building to building and room to room and search for people. the for of north carolina, roy cooper, issued the following statement here. my office is in communication with law enforcement and officials at u.n.c. chapel hill who are taking precautions to protect campus, safety following today's shooting amount tragic way to start a new semester and the state will provide any assistant necessary to support the u.n.c. community. we've all pointed out back in 2019, there was another shooting at the university of north carolina. that shooting left two people dead. there's been a monument put up in the case and the person that was found guilty has been sentenced to life in prison for that shooting. it is also kind of fascinating to me as you look at these pictures and we're trying to get some local information there because there hasn't been a lot of chatter, jonathan, on the police radios. you look and you listen to this. a lot of people listen to these things. there's not been a great deal of chatter going back and forth about where to go, where to set up, that kind of thing. as far as information, there's not much of that. >> that may be a deliberate act on the part of the u.n.c. police and the other agencies involved here that they want to keep information as tight as they can. they may know -- in fact, they know more about this person of interest than they are sharing with us right now, including as you pointed out, the person's name. they may have some real idea of where this person might be headed and may be headed there. they don't want to give anything away. one other point i wanted to make, trace, that is the first day of school for the school district there. the chapel hill carboro city schools. they have gone in to secure mode. it's a lockdown, nobody allowed on to the school campuses, off of the school campuses. instruction we're told is continuing. boy, what a day to go back to school for all of those kids in the chapel hill carboro school district. >> it is chaotic. you know, if we had video cameras all over the town, police are probably likely in the know of who this person is on the right-hand side of the screen and very likely to be at that person's house looking for ed, looking for information as we kind of talk about this. i want to bring in phil holloway. this is interesting to me, phil. if you look at the scene here, he's a criminal defense attorney. former prosecutor. retired georgia police officer. knows the area. phil, as you look at this, what is your take-away from what we're seeing on the screen as the students start getting -- making their way off of campus? >> trace, it's good to see the students apparently being cleared from the scene. my initial response is that, you know, this is obviously a massive police presence. you'll have multiple agencies, obviously the first responders are likely campus police. of course you have local police, you might have the fbi, you may have -- i saw some state troopers there. you'll have officers responding from everywhere. when this call goes out, what happens is every police officer who hears it on the radio or sees it come across stops what they're doing, if they can, and head that way. so it can be very chaotic. one thing that is very, very important is to -- they want to get there in time to neutralize any shooter, they want to save lives, treat anybody that might be injured. looks like -- i hope we are -- well passed that phase. the challenge of course is to have an organized situation. you want to have a commander, an incident commander that is responsible for coordinating everything. it's important that everything goes through that particular commander. everything has to be coordinated. once they get sort of a handle on that, they have to say, okay, what is our situation? what do we have on our plate now and how do we deal with it? here they're presented with this photograph of this individual that we see on the screen. we don't have a name yet but looks like that might be a photograph that is off of some type of i.d., perhaps a student i.d. or a deliver's license, which suggests that they know the person's name. to the point being made about the lack of radio traffic. i suspect this might be an alternative sort of a radio channel or talk-around that is not necessarily able to be monitored. these officers are sharing information. we just may not be pre -- privy to it. they don't want him to know what they're doing and how they're doing it. they want to find him and make sure he's not a threat to these students or any other persons in the area. >> phil, stand by. i want to bring in my cole parker, former fbi agent. she joins us as the investigation goes forward in the early hours of this thing. what is your take-away from this? as phil noted, there's a huge police presence. you wonder if that is in response because they know this happens. the response in 2019 was not as robust. so this kind of a reaction to it will never happen again and the robust going to be the -- the response will be robust? what is your take from this? >> i think that any time there's an active shooter, it's going to be extremely robust. you'll have the local, state and federal authorities. this is a team effort. everyone will play their role. right now in the initial aftermath of an active shooter, i can tell you from my personal experience, you get to the scene and there's a lot of action going on. there will be a central command post and one agency that will be in charge. they will be leading this investigation. right now the subject is at large. that is their top priority. the top priority is the safety of the students, those on the campus and in the surrounding areas. they are going to be providing medical assistance. if someone is shot or injured, that's the first priority. the next priority is to secure the location and to locate the subject currently at large. the students on campus, the key is to stay calm. to remain calm. if you approach the one that appears to be the suspect, do not engage them. call 911. the information is crucial. whether this is the actual suspect or not, there's analysts behind the scenes at these various agencies running through, scrubbing their social media accounts and finding everything that they can find about these people. because you put the picture on the screen, individuals watching this. if you know who this person is, if they are a family member, a friend, call law enforcement immediately and make sure that you get that information to those that need it. the other thing is that securing the location for a large campus like this is a mighty task. they have to sweep through every room starting with where the incident a kurd and working their way out. it could be possible this suspect is probably well off the scene. any experience, they don't just sit around. those in the surrounding area, the community, i hope they're looking at the pictures. if you see anything, kaw law enforcement immediately, call 911. if you engage with the individual, do not engage. call 911. they're armed and dangerous. it's very important. safety is number 1 in these situations. looks like mass chaos. the law enforcement agencies are collaborating, having a certain assignment and certain task in this. it will be taken care of. this person will be found and likely found through someone that knows them, knows their whereabouts. the law enforcement analysts, people on the back end are scrubbing social media accounts and the recent whereabouts of where the individual is. >> what do you make of the silence from police? we've heard very little from authorities and we've heard local reports in the local media there, the north carolina charlotte area. that it is a chapel hill area. it hats been -- there's a couple of people that have possibly been wounded here. we've heard none of that from police. is there a reason that we haven't gotten an update on what they have found here? >> there is a reason for that. my personal opinion is because is he at work right now and they're trying to take care of what happened on a the scene? that would be up to the communications department, whatever agency is doing this. i want to give credit to the law enforcement officers on the scene. the top priority is making sure that people are safe and securing the scene. if they're wounded or injured, that's the top priority. not to say that that information won't be coming out as it becomes available. even on a scene like that, having responded to an active shooter here in south florida, you don't always know what is happening. there's so many moving parts. the key is to communicate with the multiple agencies on the scene and they'll get everything in order. they want to give out proper information to the community. the last thing they want to do is give out false information. the key is to do it slowly, methodically and make sure it's accurate. >> would you agree as the students walk by, police on campus right now must believe the threat is not necessarily high at this point? clearly you can see some students. they're walking, hugging each other, on the phone, talking to their families. there's not this sense of urgency that we saw an hour, hour and 20 minutes ago. >> based on what i'm seeing, i have a similar assumption. right now it appears that they're there, they're present. it's hard to know until they're there. i can tell you having worked at these scenes, the media has to get the information accurately. it takes time to piece together the facts and the communicate it to the media, communicate it to the communities. right now it appears that, you know, in certain areas of this large campus, it doesn't appear to be as much of a threat. you don't underestimate and to be vigilant, careful. if you've been told to shelter in place, shelter in place. stay calm. trust that law enforcement is doing their job. this is a very mighty effort to collaborate this many agencies. you've got different agencies, different radios. the fbi radios are different than the local radios. the communication, it takes time to get everyone on the same page. these officers and agents are doing things that you're not seeing right now. >> a very good point. state and local police on the scene. the fbi has made its way to the scene. stand by, if you would. bring in former assistant fbi director, chris swecker. chris, i heard you talking earlier about this. i'm wondering at the same time, nicole says police are busy, going room to room, making sure every enclave is clear. stand by, chris. i want to go a local reporter. >> after five minutes of it starting, hey, guys, we just received an alert that there's an active shooter. we're going to keep you in here for a second. i'm checking my phone. yeah, there's an active shooter in the building next to me. >> that is so scary. you get this alert and you realize then what's going on. you see these police outside. how did they get you out to make sure that you were safe and able to come out here? >> they just had us file out? >> how did you find out what was is going on? >> the university did their best. just talking to other students. this is an event that you can't plan for. >> did you see anyone injured or anything as you were being led out? >> thank god, no. >> just what is this like? you're a week in to class. you have to shelter in place. you're going to an economics fair. supposed to be a good time. what is this like to have something like this happen here on campus? >> it's sobering. it's a really strong reminder that there's certain issues that, you know, we might think won't happen to us, but they canned they will. it's put in perspective how grateful i have to be for days that i get to enjoy chapel hill for the beautiful skies and not for the tragedy that happened today. >> so glad you're safe and able to get out of here. your family knows you're okay? >> yeah,'s been in contact with them. >> thanks for stopping and talking with us. as we have seen here, you see more students coming out of the buildings here as the police lead them out to safety. we have not seen the helicopter circling around in awhile. they give you any direction what to do, where to go after this? >> i list across campus. i don't know where to go right now. they're not letting me to my dorm. i don't know where to go. that's why i'm just here. >> we hope you get some directions here. thanks for talking with us. a lot of students walking down that way towards franklin street, just down there. carolina inn, in that area. they don't know where to go from here. you hear it from her, this is not something to happen on your campus. you don't know where to go. you're telling your students to stay in lockdown but these students are being led out of the biggest threat area and not knowing where to go at this point. we'll continue to get this story here this afternoon. >> trace: there you have it. that is matt talhelm from wral television there in the research triangle there. these are live pictures again. you can see the presence -- u.n.c. police just sent out a message a short time ago telling students to shelter in place again. we've seen students come out in various groups. as this young woman was just saying, she's not sure where to go. the messaging doesn't seem to be telling these kids here's the plan, here's what we're going to do. we have the police saying shelter in place. all classes and events have been cancelled. you clearly have students being taken off of campus, directed off of campus. where they're being directed to is uncertain. >> it would seem to speak to the notion that the police don't know where this person of interest is and which of any particular direction he could have gone. there was scanner traffic earlier that we should mention, trace, that did talk about a particular vehicle that they were looking for. so if indeed -- if indeed he did get in to that specific vehicle, he could be a very long way now given this this started breaking two hours ago. so it would seem the police -- unless they're not telling us everything that they know and we assume not but it would appear that they don't know where this person is. you also want to point out, trace, just combing through the social media app x, there's an account that is the exact picture that you see on screen there of the person of interest. also the profile picture on this particular x account. that per describes himself as an graduate student at u.n.c. we don't know if that is that person, but interesting that they do have an account. they posted this person on x on july 31 looking to make new friends. >> trace: police clearly know who this person is. they wouldn't put the picture out. they know that he has social media ties. clearly checking his social media footprint. we see students walking out there. back to former assistant fbi director chris swecker who assessed the security on these types of events. chris, what is your take-away? jonathan said about two hours. the first tweet came out at 1:03 p.m. we're two hours in the first alert being sent. >> this person could well have jumped in to a car and gotten off of campus very quickly. there's a lot of entrances through the campus and exits through the campus. it's sprawling. i've assessed the security at the campus. i've gone over every building in that campus, been in the buildings. i suspect they still believe he's somewhere on campus and going door-to-door. they don't know where he is. they're cautiously using the tactical teams going door-to-door. they're going to clear students out as appears to be what is happening now. they don't know where he is. it's very clear to me. >> trace: going back to the student we heard from there. the student said that this alert came out. they said there was an active shooter on campus. i was in a building. sure enough, there was an active shooter in the next building over. we're talking about the caudill chemistry labs. it's unclear how she knew there was an active shooter. was she told? did she hear gun shots? we didn't get to the bottom of that, chris. so clearly some of these students are getting information about exactly what transpired on campus. >> yes, this is a wired campus. social media is incredibly active. 's seen it personally. there's two people that specialize in mining data from the social media postings. looking for threats and that sort of thing. as someone's mentioned, they're all over that. if they know who this person is, they're dissecting his social networks and interviewing people as quickly as they can trying to sort of scheme out that entire social network, whether it's a first connection or second connection. right now it's just manual and tactical. it's going from building to building. these are very old buildings. some of them from the 20s. they're heavy brick. shots could have been fired easily and not heard just outside the building. i suspect the shots were fired inside the building. >> trace: i think that's probably a fair assessment. i want to understand in this situation because you know if you're a parent that has a child who is a student at u.n.c. that you are somewhere across the country panicked, maybe close by. at what point do believe start releasing information? at what point do they come out and say, okay, here's the deal. here's what we know. here's what transpired. right now the information has been lean and there are a lot of people, you know, thousands of people across the country wanting to know exactly. maybe many of them have been in contact with their students. maybe some have not. it is very tense times right now for a lot of parents and families of u.n.c. students. >> yeah. i was one of them. i had a daughter there at one time. there was an incident on campus. we were out of our minds with worry and i was the head of the fbi in north carolina. so they're certainly capable of notifying all of us what's going on. they're obviously, they being campus police, the city police department, chapel hill police department, the sheriff's department from orange county, they're deliberately withholding information right now because they think that it would tactically give this bad actor some sort of advantage. so when the time is right for them, they will release information. if they wanted our help, they would put more information out. so as you said, that tells me that they probably identified the person, want everybody to be aware of what this person looks like. they don't need us knowing who this person is. so they're working leads. i'm sure there's detectives all over the place right now and agents from the fbi and atf running down these leads as fast as they can. probably what will lead to us this person. if we get a cell phone number, even better. those are easy to track. >> trace: i'm sure they have a lot of that information. chris, stand by. i want to go back to nicole parker. your assessment of this. you've been on these types of scenes as you just notified us. chris said maybe the police don't want to reveal their cards right now because it might compromise the investigation. it might give the suspect, you know, some information that would be detrimental to the investigation going forward. is that a fair assessment? >> that is a fair assessment. you know, you don't want to tip off the suspect and ruin any potential intelligence that you could get. i think also, speaking from a very logistical perspective on these, there's so many agencies and people that are stepping in to assist. i can tell you there's one point agency. they will be responsible for communicating everything to the public. they're working quickly behind the subpoenas. there's a lot happening right now that we don't see on the news. there's people behind the scenes that are determining, okay, who will take a lead, who will be in charge, who is the voice and the communication to the public. again, the number 1 priority is always the safety of the students and those in the vicinity. based on my personal experience and my opinion, i'm guessing the suspect is probably no longer on campus. i'm guessing that he has fled. unless he was immediately seen on campus and taken down, which it does not appear that has been the case, they usually want to get out of dodge as quickly as possible and as far from the scene as quickly as possible. the media is doing an outstanding job of putting his picture out there. that's how they'll find him. someone know whose he is. analysts, agents, police officers behind the scene are scrubbing everything about this individual. they'll likely go on his phone. if there's a known telephone number, you know, that's a high probability. i won't go into details how that's done. they're working very quickly on issues that you're not aware of. trust me, there is more organization than you can see. but it is important to communicate to the public and especially to the students. they don't know where to go. that is not a good feeling. i can tell you having responded, the first thing is that the general public, they're looking to law enforcement. they want to know you're protecting them, that they're safe. that student that they just showed, she didn't know where to go. she didn't know what to do. it's really important to communicate and to let the general public know to remain, you know, in place, in shelter, not by windows, not by glass. in a place of safety. if you don't need to be out and about in chapel hill, don't don't be out. if you engage someone that appears to be the suspect, call 911 immediately. >> trace: looking at that picture and police are releasing the picture, they know who he is. why not release the name along with who he is and maybe what his description is along with that so if you're looking for help from the public, why not give the public all the information that you can possibly give them about this person, maybe try to find them. >> that's a great question. again, having not been there and i'm very careful not to judge what is happening there because i'm not there. i have been there. when others are second guessing decisions, it's very difficult. i can tell you maybe they don't know for certain that this is the definitive suspect. maybe it's a person of interest. there might be more information. >> trace: let's go back to the local reporter here and get an update on what he's seeing. watch. >> opened up the doors. we haven't seen anybody the ambulance. this has been going on for so many hours now. 3 1/2 hours since this lockdown went into effect. there's the stress, the heat. we're going to keep an eye on that to see if anybody has been injured here. it is a lot calmer now than that rush of people that were brought out of these buildings, led out by police. you heard the one student just explain that this is something that you expect but don't expect. i covered the virginia tech shootings. that was in 2007. it's crazy we're still seeing this, reports of an armed shooter on a campus like this. it is a little quieter here than when the students came out. now waiting to see if we can get some information about what happened in these buildings. all events, classes, everything cancelled the rest of the afternoon and evening here in chapel hill. >> there's matt talhelm from wral television there. he brings up a good point. the number of ambulances. we have said it's a strong police response but not a lot of reports about ambulance activity. from the school shootings that we have covered over the years, that's a very good sign. the fewer ambulances you have called to the scene, the better it is for the overall outcome of these types of activities. we're not reading anything in to it. as a signal point, that is a positive indicator. i want to bring in ted williams, former d.c. detective and fox news contributor. i want your assessment here. you're a former police officer and lawyer. you have a different perspective on this. what are you gleaning from this? >> i'm gleaning, trace, at this time it looks as though everything is pretty much under control. if you look and notice that law enforcement are standing down. they don't seem to be as rushed as they're going to a specific location. i have to tell you, i believe they know a great deal at this point. i agree with your previous guest, nicole. they net to get reporter cameras right away. parents, relatives, friends of students at this university that needs to know what's going on. the more information that comes out, the better it is i believe. for instance, you know, they've said and unconfirmed that the person, the asian individual or picture that we have may very well be in a vehicle. they given a description of it. it's unconfirmed. ly not give that description. i think law enforcement needs to get that information out. if there's a vehicle out there that they're looking for, they need to give the public that information. they need as much help as they can. if they believe this person is in one of those buildings, naturally they have to clear the buildings out. but i got to tell you from all indications right now and you said it earlier about the ambulances, you can see we don't see ambulances. trace, you and i have covered many of these cases. we've seen where there was trains of ambulances there to take the injured individuals or people that are no longer here with us away. so what i'm hoping is, we will have a presser or law enforcement officers will come before the cameras, let the public know what's going on. this is the very first day of school for some of these people. so a lot of individuals out there worried about their loved ones. >> trace: very good. stand by, ted. i want to get back to jonathan hunt to give us updates. what are you hearing. >> interesting news coming from wral, the affiliate in the u.n.c. area. trace, they are -- they have just said on their live ongoing blog that they have learned a person is in custody. one of their reporters now just saying on x two minutes ago, u.n.c. says that the suspect is now in custody. so that is interesting. i would point out that just over an hour ago, 1 1/2 hours ago, the police did take somebody in to custody. we saw that person in a great t-shirt handcuffed. that person questioned and let go. this is a separate report on wral, reported against the person in custody originally being released. they're now reporting the suspect is now in custody. we're waiting on more information from official sources. that is the reporting of of the local affiliates there. >> trace: important not to conflate. the suspect initially that was let go was wearing a great t-shirt. this person wearing a gray t-shirt. we're not bringing any connection to this whatsoever. >> the initial person that was taken in had a great t-shirt. he was questioned. he had handcuffed placed on him. the handcuffed were removed and he was allowed to go on his way. now more than an hour and a half after that incident, we're getting further reports that somebody is indeed again in custody. >> trace: thanks, jonathan. break in when ever you want. joining us by phone is lieutenant joe cardinale. if this person is in custody, shouldn't it be time to take the picture down and give students information that they need and more importantly, the parents across the country that have students at u.n.c., information about what happened hahn campus and whether their children are just fine? >> it's not time to shut it down yet, trace. they still have to -- regardless if he's in custody or not, still have to go through the rooms. we don't know if he ditched a gun someplace. have to look for evidence. the incident commander -- later on, leave nothing behind. they can say yeah, we did this, we did that area. we looked for somebody else that was possibly an accomplice. so you have to keep head fast with this and search those areas. everything you mentioned is being done. once they identified them, they're going to social media, going to his house where he lives, if he has a vehicle, they'll get search warrants. the key here is the person is in custody. there was the victim that was shot. i'm sure the family has been notified and put the parents' minds at ease. the fact that he's in custody lets me believe that they've had good inkling as to where he was and where he was going. we still don't know what the motive is. we still don't know if this is accidental. we don't know how he got the gun on campus. all of these questions will be answered. they'll see if he did know the victim. you know, how this all came about. >> trace: we still don't know if this person acted alone. in most cases, the shooters act alone but not always. as we have seen, that's the reason that you still go building to building and door-to-door to make sure that you have cleared the entire building, especially as we have been told here, some of these buildings on campus are very old. they're 100 years old. so some unique descriptions and facets to these various buildings, joe. >> absolutely. trace, what they'll also find out, you know, they'll check the cameras, see if this person was walking with somebody else. they get the cameras within the classroom and see what led to this. was it an argument or an accident? you don't know this yet. they'll take it step by step. once they have the full picture, they'll make a statement saying this is what we believe happened. this is the individual. they'll go back and see if there's any rants from the past. could be targeted. until we know which it is is, they'll keep doing the investigation. they're doing a great job with it. >> trace: great insight. thanks, joe. hold out. let's get back to former fbi special agent nicole parker. your thoughts on the fact that wral is reporting that a suspect is in custody. if that's the case, is it now time to release more information about a name and maybe it's time to take the picture done or leave it up and that benefits the investigation? >> you know, it's not going to hurt to keep it up if that is the person that is in custody. like your previous guest say, maybe there was a co conspirator in this. likely not. we don't know. right now the tempo is going to slow down. once the individual and the threat to so tiety and to the school has been eliminated, if that is the individual, they are in custody, law enforcement will continue to investigation feverishly. safety is number 1. now it's happened. if there's only one individual involved in this, then we go into investigation mode. addressing the wounded. if there was one individual shot, i'm not sure. i don't want to give out false information. addressing the wounded first. then we go to take charge. it's not just that room where the shooting occurred as the crime scene. they're going to go through and trace the steps of this individual when they entered the campus, they're going to review the video, see where they came in, where they entered, where they walked and look through anything that they can find as shreds of evidence and evidence preservation and processing the crime scene and work it like any other crime scene now that the threat has been eliminated. again, it's just good law enforcement work at this point. it's a collaborative effort and multiple agencies on scene. this is where you'll see good law enforcement. who is in charge, we'll work together, get to the bottom of this. they'll look at who this person was, who caused him to do this, what his ideologies were. they'll do a very thorough investigation. you'll understand and have a better picture. i wouldn't be surprised if they have a press conference soon to address the public. the key is to have students there, if you're a student there, a loved one there, to understand that it's a secure scene at this point and people can rest assured that there's no longer a threat. >> trace: the thing is, nicole, i was at columbine 25 years ago. i've been at a dozen of these school shootings. you go through these and when there is a radio silence and sometimes they're worse than anticipated. would you agree with us when you look at the scene here and see one or two ambulances on scene, we haven't seen any of those ambulances leave that maybe this is not as serious as we thought it was in the early going? is that -- you think that's a fair take on what is happening there? >> i can understand that being a fair take. i can absolutely understand that perspective. you're going go to the witnesses, who was there when it occurred, how many shots were fired, what did they hear. can tell you unfortunately and tragically, when there's loss of life and they are confirmed, when it's been swept there is a loss of life and confirmed they're dead, they have to process that crime scene. they don't immediately move the bodies out immediately. i'm just saying it can be a good thing or not a good thing. i think the most important part now is going to the witnesses. who was around and they're going to start interviewing witnesses. what did you see, what did you hear. those immediately in that room. if it was in a lab or wherever it took place, what did they see? that is the the most important part right now. if there is another individual that may have been involved or if -- they're going to answer those types of questions. the most powerful information in intelligence is those that were actually there. they're pulling the individuals aside. that's what happened hat the parkland school shooting. you're immediately bringing people to safety and then you start conducting the investigation. there's law enforcement officers conducting interviews and processing the crime scene at the school or the campus. on the back end, people behind the scenes that are researching who this individual is, running down every thread of information that they can about him. >> trace: stand by if you would, nicole. i want to bring in dionne joseph. what do you make of what is happening there? you think she being properly policed? >> absolutely. when i see or hear that there's not a lot of ambulance presence, that's a good sign that we don't have a mass shooting. i don't know that for sure not being there. but the lack of ambulances is a sign that things have calmed down. usually when you have an active shooter, you'll see officers rying to neutralize the threat. when you see a systematical approach going door-to-door. and we have evidence gathering, we also have to find the weapon and gather all facts before we release information to be public. >> trace: the local affiliates are reporting the suspect is in custody. then it becomes when do you start releasing information to the public and to the parents that are very concerned. >> i'm sure that will be soon. in law enforcement, you have to cross every i, gather every t and talk to all witnesses. gather the evidence. may seem like someone is guilty because the evidence is there. you have to make sure that you have the facts before you release the information. you don't want to be wrong. >> trace: what do you make of the lack of witnesses? we have covered these things for so many years. there's always people around. always people that say, i saw this or i heard this or i knew this. you go on social media and the local reporters are on scene. you're getting very little information about what is specifically happening. these are buildings, first day of call that for all intents and purposes are full. this is a chemistry lab, caudill labs that you'd assume would have a good amount of students th there. the social media on this has been limited. >> that can depend on what happened. the amount of people present when it happened. you can be in a classroom or in a place where there's not a lot of people around when the incident occurred. of course, there's a lot of people. they'll pull out cell phones left and right. there was a limited amount of people and that might be why. >> trace: who takes lead in this? we know the fbi is there, local police are there and campus police. who takes lead? is it automatically the fbi or is it a state organization or does the school take the lead on this? >> that i'm not sure. i think when it happens, whatever law enforcement is there and close is who goes and tries to respond and neutralize the threat to the public. as far as the investigative portion, i'm sure they're hashing out who will be a lead on this. i'm not there. so i don't know their protocols out there in north carolina. when it's in the immediate whatever agency is close by to neutralize a threat, whether it's the local, capitol police. whoever. that is who will be responsible. >> trace: thank you so much. appreciate your time. breaking news coverage continues here. the shooting, if you just joined us, this is at u.n.c., the university of north carolina in chapel hill. the reports came in a little after 1:00 east coast time in the afternoon. so we are pushing three hours that the university first sent out the alert. the suspect who you seton the right-hand side of the screen, the local affiliates say is in custody. police have not confirmed that. they have not confirmed anything about what happened inside what we believe is caudill labs a chemistry lab there. we know shots were fired. we do not know how many victims, if there are any victims. police have not confirmed that our breaking news coverage will continue after this. absolutely. at newday usa, that's what we're doing. we put our arm around the veterans. i think the veteran out there needs to refi his home, he may want to purchase and we can help them and provide that financial solution for them and their families. it's a great, rewarding feeling. everybody in the company, they have that deference and that respect and that love for the veteran that makes this company so unique. i'd like to take a moment to address my fellow veterans, because i know so many of you have served our country honorably. one of the benefits that we as a country give you as a veteran is your eligibility for a va loan, which that you buy a home with no down payment. now, there's no reason to rent when you can own. helping veterans buy homes. that's newday usa. as someone living with type 2 diabetes, i want to keep it real and talk about some risks. with type 2 diabetes you have up to 4 times greater risk of stroke, heart attack, or death. even at your a1c goal, you're still at risk ...which if ignored could bring you here... ...may put you in one of those... ...or even worse. too much? 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