Police: 2 Children Killed, 14 Children & 3 Adults Hurt In Shooting

25:27Starting a new school year already comes with nerves, anticipation. Then you had this layer of feeling unsafe. How might this affect students across the country and what should their parents and teachers be doing? Yeah, I mean, it's just really a fraught time, I think, in so many ways. And the start of school year and, you know, people in my county went back to school today, too, or yesterday, actually. The start of the school year is always somewhat a combination of nerves and excitement. And so I think that parents have to be really careful that they know that already students have the jitters.

26:03And so I think the first step is really finding out what your student has actually heard. Because depending on the age of your child, they might have heard more or less than you were expecting. So it's not the type of thing where we want to sit them down and talk about this without first kind of getting an idea if they've heard something about it because anxiety can grow so quickly. We don't want to contribute to that unnecessarily. Senator Amy Klobuchar, who's from Minnesota, she told CNN earlier today that her former staffer's daughter was in the church and was watching her friends get shot.

26:39One got shot in the neck, one got shot in the stomach. The girl then had to tell her friend's father what happened. These are really heavy things to carry and witness for anyone, for a soldier in combat, let alone a child in church. What can parents do to help their children cope after witnessing and experiencing such a tragedy? And are there any specific behavioral warning signs parents should be looking for in their kids as they process this trauma? It's staggering. I mean, it's horrifying just when you think about the sheer number of students who have actually been direct witness to this type of violence over the years.

27:20And it's absolutely enormous, the toll that this takes in terms of trauma. And the first thing to remember with the trauma response is that when it has just happened, everything is in flux. Everything is in motion. Someone might be in shock. Someone might not be ready to talk about it. Typically, we don't want to force people to talk about details of the trauma if we don't have to when they're not quite ready. So the first step, if your child has witnessed something horrific, is to let them know that they are now safe. Give them space. Bring them home. Let them know right now they are safe and you are ready to listen when they feel like talking.

27:58And then think about professional supports. I truly would advise anyone whose child has witnessed this level of violence to strongly consider whether or not they could talk to somebody and to seek out professional support. because it is true that the ripple effects of trauma can keep going and may even just emerge later on when you think your child is doing okay. A kid might be able to sort of proceed as normal for a while and then it hits them later. They're watching a movie and it all comes back to them and that's when it explodes. So in terms of behavioral warning signs, any change from your child's norm is worth paying attention to.

28:34Some kids start to withdraw socially. They start to isolate themselves. They might have been an A student. Now they're a C student. They might be more irritable. They might be just more pessimistic. They might be just in a sort of dark mood where they seem to make comments that are kind of cutting. Also, any type of warning signs that make it seem like they are really, really depressed, which typically, in addition to social isolation, has to do with tearfulness, has to do with moodiness more so than you're used to seeing. Of course, it's complicated if they're an adolescent because some of these mood fluctuations can be normal.

29:11Dr. Andrea Bonier, we always appreciate you. Thank you so much. As authorities investigate what led to this horrific tragedy, we're going to uncover even more disturbing writings, apparently written by the shooter. New horrific details next.

29:30We continue to monitor the horrific breaking news out of Minneapolis about the shooting at a Catholic school. Two young students were murdered in the shooting. 17 others were wounded, including 14 children. We want to show you some new images, apparently from a video that was shot by the shooter. On one message written on part of a firearm, It says six million wasn't enough. That's obviously a reference to the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust. Another one of these ramblings says Israel must fall like a phoenix. We rise from the ashes, unquote. These two are just two of the many depraved writings and racist writings and extremist writings that police are reviewing right now, including expressing fondness and appreciation for previous murderers, previous school shooters.

30:23Earlier today, the principal of Annunciation Catholic School had this moment after today's shooting. We lost two angels today. Please continue to pray for those still receiving care. Nineteen people were shot today. An eight-year-old and a ten-year-old were murdered. Let's go back to CNN's Whitney Wild. She's in Minneapolis. And Whitney, we know Pope Leo has reached out to this grieving Catholic school community. That's right, Jay. He reached out directly to the archbishop here who shared Pope Leo's words. And he expressed profound, profound sadness that such an event would happen here at a Catholic church on the first day of the Catholic school's school year.

31:11The Archbishop here took a moment to note that Pope Leo had spent time in Minneapolis. He had spent part of his time growing as a priest at a hospital here in Minneapolis. He's familiar with the area. And again, the Vatican reached out directly to the Archbishop here. The principal here wants the world to know how strong and resilient this community is. They are beginning their school year with this theme of hope. Here's more from the principal, Matt DeBoer. When we planned for this school year, we intentionally chose a theme from the prophet Jeremiah chapter 29, a future filled with hope. There's nothing about today that can fill us with hope.

31:54We, as a community, have a responsibility to make sure that no child, no parent, no teacher ever has to experience what we've experienced today, ever again.

32:09The other message that Principal DeBoer shared, Jake, was he wanted, what he said was he wanted everyone to put these words into their mouth. Never again. He wanted that to be the main message here. He wants everyone watching to say never again, everyone in this community to say never again. because what brings you hope in this moment, Jake, as you know and as I know, and we've covered so many of these, is that it is how the community reacts, how your neighbors react, that gives you hope in those immediate moments following a tragedy. Jake, this is a school that has a very long history. The church here was founded in 1875.

32:46Many of the people here are descendants of the founding families of this school. They will need each other now more than ever, Jake. Whitney Wild on the scene in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Thank you so much. We're going to continue to follow new details coming out of Minneapolis. We're also following some other breaking news from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC. The agency's brand new director was just ousted after just a few weeks on the job. We're going to talk about that next.

33:20We're following other breaking news. sources are confirming to CNN that this afternoon the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, was ousted. Only weeks into her tenure, Dr. Susan Menares was sworn in on July 31st. During her confirmation hearing, Dr. Menares distanced herself from some Trump administration actions, including the mass layoffs at the CDC. Her comments also appeared to put her at odds with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is neither a scientist nor doctor on issues such as the benefits of vaccines and fluoride in public water.

33:54It's not clear as of now why Director Menares was let go. HHS did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment. We will bring you more information on that story as we learn it. Also in our politics lead, a state Senate race in western Iowa is drawing the attention of Democrats all over the nation. It is a rare moment of victory for Democrats. In a special election Tuesday, Democrat Caitlin Dre captured an open state Senate seat previously held by a Republican. She won 55 percent of the vote in a county that President Trump easily carried just last year. And state senator-elect Dre joins us now.

34:35Thank you so much for joining us. Congratulations. I want to get to your win in a moment. But obviously, one of the biggest issues across the country right now is crime and gun violence. And we've been focusing up until now on the mass shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school, Minneapolis, obviously very close to Iowa. In Iowa last year, there was an incident at Perry High School near Des Moines that left two dead and six injured. A 2022 incident in Sioux City involved pellet guns that injured four students and adults. What do you think can realistically be done? I think that the number one thing we have to realize is that these are children and human beings and not statistics.

35:17And it is unconscionable to me that we continue to throw our hands up and say, what can we do when we know that the solution is universal background checks, is reasonable solutions that can be proposed and can be enacted that are supported overwhelmingly by Americans and by responsible gun owners. And I am devastated like other parents across the country to hear of yet another incident at a school. Let's turn now to your state Senate race. Your district includes Sioux City. And as we noted, President Trump easily won this area. State Senate District won last year. How'd you do it? Did you focus on quality of life issues, on affordability issues?

36:03What was the main reason you won, do you think? absolutely affordability is the number one issue that i heard about on the doors over and over again and i think the reason that that message was successful is because we met people where they are we knocked on over 17 000 doors we made almost 30 000 phone calls and we really just wanted to hear from the constituents in senate district one we prioritized spanish language communication, which is a feat in and of itself. I am mildly bilingual. And so that was really important to me. But we are a surprisingly diverse area and quality of life, like you said, and affordability affects us whether we are black, white or brown.

36:51And being able to afford a good life in Iowa has gotten harder. So reaching voters with that message was priority number one. What kind of solutions were you talking about with voters in your state Senate district to help them with the affordability crisis? Obviously, right now, inflation, it's OK. It's not great, but it's much better than it was during the Biden administration. Obviously, tariffs are causing some problems, I imagine, in Iowa in particular. What specific issues? Yeah, the number one thing that I kept hearing over and over again is that it is increasingly difficult to make a living in the working class.

37:34We disproportionately at both the state and federal level have policies that benefit a slim minority of people at the very top. And it is not fair to continue to saddle the working class with overburden of taxation. And so we need to get back to a tax structure in the state of Iowa that has those at the very top paying their fair share. And that resonates across the working class, like I said. It's no secret that the Democratic Party nationally is struggling to find a winning message. I'm old enough to remember Barack Obama winning Iowa in the presidential race twice. Twice he did. And now it seems just a solid red state.

38:17What happened to the Democratic Party that they stopped being able to win Iowa? I don't think that we have stopped being able to win Iowa. And this race and others across the state that we've had in special elections are proof positive of that. We have a message that is resonating and that message is how can we help? What can we do to make your life a little bit better? And right now that looks like making child care and health care and housing more accessible and more affordable. And that resonates with Democrats, Republicans and independents. State Senator-elect Caitlin Dreger, the first Democrat we've had in a long time with a smile on her face.

38:59Thanks so much for coming on and congratulations. My pleasure. Thanks so much for having me. We're also following, of course, that tragic shooting today at a Catholic school in Minneapolis. Moments ago, we learned two-by-fours were put up through the handles of the church door exits. Those were put up by the shooter, police say. There are also disturbing writings by this person. Much more of the new details coming next.

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40:46Listen to Chasing Life, streaming now, wherever you get your podcasts.

40:52This is CNN Breaking News. Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. We start tonight with breaking news. Police in Minneapolis say they do not yet have a clear motive, but they're reviewing an apparent manifesto after a horrific mass shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis by a former student. Police say children were praying inside a Catholic church during a mass, marking the first week back at school, when the gunman shot through the windows. Two children, ages 8 and 10, were murdered. 17 others, 14 children, and three elderly adults in their 80s were also wounded. All are expected to survive, we're told.

41:29Police say the lone gunman then took her own life. Listen to one shooting survivor, a 10-year-old fifth grader named Weston Halsney, describing how his friend, another child, shielded him from the gunfire. I was like two seats away from the stained glass windows. So they were like, the shots were like right next to me. I think I got like gunpowder on my neck. I just ran under the pew and then I covered my head. My friend Victor like saved me though because he laid on top of me, but he got hit. Police say they're evaluating a series of videos that the shooter apparently posted on YouTube this morning.

42:12Various racial and religious slurs were written on the weapons. Psycho killer, suck on this, kill Donald Trump, Six million wasn't enough. One of the gun magazines also listed the names of six previous notorious mass shooters. There were also, as I mentioned, some horribly anti-Semitic writings seen in the video, including Israel Must Fall. Six million wasn't enough. An apparent reference to the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. CNN's Shimon Prokopos is near the crime scene in Minneapolis. Shimon. Jake, this was just day three of the new school year. There are signs welcoming students back, one of them reading, a future filled with hope.

42:51That message tonight clearly has ended in yet another school shooting. The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible. Two children are dead and 17 others wounded in Minneapolis after a gunman fired through the windows of a church. Police say dozens of children and worshippers were attending a morning mass to mark the start of the school year at Annunciation Catholic School. Two young children, ages 8 and 10, were killed where they sat in the pews. Principal Matthew DeBoer says teachers were crucial in saving lives. Within seconds of this situation beginning, our teachers were heroes.

43:43Children were ducked down. Adults were protecting children. Older children were protecting younger children. And as we heard earlier, it could have been significantly worse without their heroic action. Of the 17 people injured, authorities say 14 of them were children. All remaining victims are expected to survive, according to police. Two of them were adult patients, nine pediatric patients. Four of them required the operating room. The shooter was armed with three weapons, according to police. A rifle, shotgun, and a pistol. Officials say all three weapons were legally purchased by the shooter recently.

44:21The coward who fired these shots ultimately took his own life in the rear of the church. Ten-year-old Weston Halsney, a fifth grader at the school, described the unimaginable. It was like shots fired and then we kind of like got under the pews. They kind of, they shot through the stained glass windows, I think, and it was really scary. We waited like 10 to 5 minutes, I don't really know. And then we went to the gym, and then the doors locked just to make sure he didn't come. And we waited in the gym for more news. My friend got hit in the back. Did he go to the hospital? Yeah, he went to the hospital.

45:11What went through your mind when you saw that? I was super scared for him, but I think now he's okay. Some neighbors also rushed to help after hearing the gunfire. Patrick Scallon comforted three young victims. I told them and assured them I'm not leaving you until the ambulance gets here and they're going to take good care of you, you're going to be okay, and you're going to be with your parents real soon. And I think that's all I could do. The mayor of Minneapolis clearly frustrated after yet another all too familiar American tragedy. Don't just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now.

45:45These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church.

45:56And Jake, those stories from those little kids and the stories that we're hearing about the teachers and the other officials here who try to come in and rescue and help anyone they could. We're going to hear so much of those stories tonight. There's a vigil planned here. The scene out here, police continue to go over the scene. Crime scene investigators have been here now for several hours as investigators continue to do the work that they need to do to try and figure out exactly why this happened. Jake? Scrum Pope, Chifon Prokopos in Minneapolis. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Let's bring in CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller also with us, retired FBI agent Steve Moore.

46:32John, police are saying, Minneapolis police are saying that the rifle and the pistol and the shotgun that the shooter used were all purchased completely legally. As for a motive, this is what the Minneapolis police chief, Brian O 'Hara, said investigators are looking into. Take a listen. There was some sort of manifesto that was timed to come out on YouTube. It's been taken down, and our investigators are going through that to try and develop a motive from that. Additionally, there are these three search warrants happening in residential locations, and we may very well find more information or writings that could give some sense to that, but we don't have that now.

47:13John, what are your sources telling you about the shooter's manifesto and the bizarre videos posted on YouTube that investigators are now looking into? Well, looking through the manifesto, that's a lot of pages kind of rambling. A lot of it is his self-pity for how his life is going, that he has been depressed for a long time, that he has been planning to do this for a long time, that he knows it's wrong, that he knows his friends are going to hate him for it, that he knows he's going to take his own life at the end of it. He said it was better to die standing up than kneeling down for all the injustices.

47:56he appears to believe he has suffered during his life. This is not foreign territory for us. Basically, I look at this guy, and I know this guy because we've seen this guy before. He has written messages all over his rifles to homages to the New Zealand shooter who killed 51 Muslims in mosques while they were praying, to the Norway shooter who killed children in a camp, and is known as the biggest body count, very much like what we saw among the Buffalo shooter. These are individuals who, you know, we look for that specific motive. There won't be a specific motive. He's got problems in his life.

48:41He has decided to blame everybody else. He has anti-black messages, anti-Semitic messages, anti-religious messages, anti-God messages. In other words, his motive is he hates everybody because his life's a mess and he figures it's not his fault. Steve, according to a yearbook obtained by CNN, the shooter graduated from this school, Annunciation Catholic Grade School, which goes up to eighth grade in 2017. And according to social media posts, the shooter's mother previously worked there from 2016 to 2021. How might those connections factor into the investigation? Well, just playing off of what John said, when you feel aggrieved, when the whole world is against you, you tend to go back at the one place where you felt most maligned, most punished, most put upon, and go back and do your damage there.

49:44I suspect that there are some issues with Catholicism and the fact that he was transitioning. And I think you have to go through all of this. The tough part is going to be when the FBI, not prosecutes, determines motive and hate crime status, is which hatred will they choose? This guy hated everybody. Yeah. And Steve, what's different about the investigation now that the FBI is investigating this as an act of domestic terrorism and as a hate crime targeting Catholics? How does that change the investigation, if at all? Well, it's not going to change it as far as a prosecutor situation, Jake, obviously, but as you know, but what it will do is help in the profiling, the behavioral analysis part of this thing, so that hopefully one day we can start getting people into treatment before they do this kind of thing.

50:47if they show danger signs, if they show predilection for this kind of thing, we can do something about it. I think we're kind of in the Stone Age at this point. But one day, who knows where we can get. And each step along the way is going to be, unfortunately, like they say, written in blood, because you learn only by tragedy. Steve Moore, John Miller, thanks to both of you. Let's bring in Minnesota State Representative Emma Greenman. Her district includes Annunciation Catholic School. Representative Greenman, what's going through your mind as you reflect on the trauma your community is going through right now?

51:26Well, I am grateful for all the outpouring of support that we have had in our community. We are obviously grieving. This just happened this morning. Kids and families, the parishioners who are impacted. It is a shock and a shattering that so many other communities and families have experienced. This idea that gun violence can shatter, you know, come into your school or your church and frankly your grocery store or your theater. And it's just it's incredibly painful right now. Do you personally know people who were impacted today? It's hard not to. So an enunciation, yes. And enunciation is right in our community.

52:12People go by their Christmas trees there. I was just there last year talking to the Girl Scouts who are working on their playground. So it is the ripple of this is much more than just the kids and their families. These people in our community, we are all grieving for them. The ones we lost and the ones that are impacted and victims and still working on injuring their wounds. Take a listen to the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Fry, just a short while ago. I think the impetus has to be on all of us as leaders to do a whole lot more, to recognize that we've got more guns in this country than we have people.

53:03and it's on all of us to recognize the truth and the reality that we can't just say that this shouldn't happen again and then allow it to happen again and again beyond that. What realistically can be done, do you think, to prevent this type of violence from happening in this country, whether schools, places of worship, or whatever? What can be done to keep these weapons out of the hands of people who will do harm to themselves or others? We owe it to these kids, to their families, to folks in our community to not become numb because of this violence that is disrupting and destroying people's everyday lives.

53:51We cannot say there's nothing we can do. And in fact, countries around the world do not have the same issue because they have taken action. The principal at an enunciation school earlier today said, when we pray, move our feet. And we have to at every level of government, communities need to demand it. We need to move our feet because this epidemic of gun violence here in Minnesota today, but we have seen it in Florida, in Texas, in Colorado, in probably every state in this country. It shattered our community today, but there are lots of things we can and need to do, and we can't become numb because that would be letting down all of the victims in the past, the folks who died and are suffering today, and the future generations of Minnesotans and Americans who deserve better.

54:44So I believe Minnesota has red flag laws. I'm not sure how effective they've proved to be, but red flag laws depend upon parents and friends and community members to make the call and say, this person appears to be in some sort of crisis and we should make sure that he or she is not able to buy a gun, at least until we've made sure the person's okay. does Minneapolis have the resources for that? It's one of the most famously progressive cities in the country. So the red flag law is a state law, just like we passed universal background checks recently. It took years and years to get there. But what we know is we can't solve a national epidemic just here in Minnesota.

55:32We are working our best to keep up. But this is a national epidemic. And it is a national epidemic that centers and has to do with high capacity weapons of war that are being used against people in their everyday lives, in this case, children. And we had a national assault weapons ban. We had less of these incidences. I was in high school when Columbine happened. It is a travesty and a failure of our state and our country that we are still having these conversations and asking, can we do anything? We can. We know that there are tools. We need to think about the weapons, not just the people. We need to do all of these things because you should be able to go to school, you should be able to go to church, you should be able to go to the grocery store and not worry about being a victim of gun violence.

56:25And right now, people around the country, not just here in Minnesota, but people around the country have that fear and a personal experience with that kind of gun violence. That's what we're talking about not becoming numb to and doing. And so there is more we need to do. We need to make sure that those laws we do have work. But this is a national epidemic, not just an issue here in Minnesota, which is the most recent victim. No, I of course, of course, it's a it's a national epidemic. I just have much more faith in local communities to try to solve these problems than I do in Congress. That's the only reason I ask.

57:02Minnesota State Representative Emma Greenman, thank you for joining us. We really appreciate it. We're continuing to following the breaking news out of Minneapolis where two children were killed, more than a dozen others injured, specifically 14 children, three elderly citizens wounded in a mass shooting at a Catholic school. What police are now revealing about the multiple weapons involved, and we're going to bring in the timeline of today's events as they search for a motive. Thank you. Stay with us.

57:34And I ran in as the police were there, getting there kind of alongside. It was just chaos. Then just started helping kids out, you know, saw a lot of injured kids. It was tough. It was and I just, you know, selfishly was just like, where are my girls? Where is Dune and Olive? That's all I could think about. Obviously, that's not selfish at all. We are back with the breaking news sound there from a dad who rushed to Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis when he got word that shots had been fired at his children's school. This is a moment no parent, no child should ever have to experience that in America.

58:12It happens again and again. Let's bring in our friend Steve Gutowski. He's founder and firearms reporter with the reload.com and excellent news site that you should subscribe to if you have an interest in these issues. Steven, police say that this gunman had a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol all purchased legally. You've seen images. Can you identify what kinds of firearms they are? Yeah, certainly, at least from the pictures, it appears to be an AR-15 style rifle, pump action shotgun and then a semi-automatic handgun. and so some of the most popular firearms in the country. The Minneapolis police chief said the weapons used today were recently purchased, also legally.

58:52Minnesota does have a red flag law, so apparently nobody had reported this individual to authorities. What else are you looking for to learn in the coming hours and days? Yeah, I mean, certainly as far as the legality of the purchases or the laws involved here, We kind of know everything we already need to know, which is that the person who committed this act didn't have a criminal record or a mental health record that would have disqualified them from owning guns. They purchased their guns relatively recently. These are not uncommon things in these sorts of attacks, unfortunately. It's difficult to disarm somebody if they don't have that criminal record or the history of being committed to a mental health facility or something of that nature.

59:37if nobody has intervened at the sign of red flags in this person's life, then under the law, really regardless of what state you're in at this point, there's not a lot you can do to keep them from owning firearms. You study why shooters commit crimes like these. And these days, shooters also study each other. I mean, this person, this disturbed murderer referenced other shooters, the New Zealand shooter, the Sandy Hook shooter, the Tree of Life shooter, etc. Have you observed any sort of common themes that we should be focusing on or looking at? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if you look at research on this from universities, places like the Violence Project is a very good source on this, what you'll see is a thing called social proofing, where these shooters tend to copy or, you know, a lot of maybe more common term for it is copycatting.

1:00:35You'll see them explicitly reference other shooters in the past. You'll see them do similar acts like just the existence of a manifesto, for instance, is very common in these kinds of attacks. But that's not something that really existed in popularity until the Columbine shooting. right? And a lot of the shooters today are still echoing the things that happened in the Columbine shooting. And a number of the shootings since then have also referenced those shooters and then other shooters that they take inspiration from. It's sort of a game plan that you'll see these attackers follow. And we're seeing a lot of the same symptoms of that in this attack.

1:01:18All right, Stephen Gutowski, thank you so much. Always great to have you on. We're going to have much more on our breaking news out of Minnesota in a moment. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to join us to try to explain how hospitals prepare for these type of mass casualty events. Plus, a follow-up to a story we brought you on Monday. The White House has now put several FEMA employees on leave after they signed a public letter warning about Trump's cuts to FEMA that they think could put the American people at risk. They're being punished for it. That's ahead.

1:01:55And we're back with our breaking news out of Minneapolis, Minnesota, where a gunman murdered two children and wounded 17 others at a Catholic school. Of those 17, 14 are children and three are elderly adults in their 80s. Police are calling today's mass shooting literally in mass a, quote, deliberate act of violence. Two children, eight in 10 killed, 17 others, 14 children, three elderly adults wounded. They are expected to survive. Let's bring in trauma neurosurgeon and CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, you have written op-eds speaking about your own personal experience treating gunshot wounds, including one where you operated on a patient with a gunshot wound to the head.

1:02:34You wrote, quote, it was a handgun injury and we were able to quickly control the bleeding and relieve the pressure on the brain. The patient spent one day in the ICU for observation, was discharged a few days later. Had it been a rifle injury, there was hardly any chance he would have survived, unquote. quote, how do different weapons change the type and severity of gunshot wounds? Well, it's the size of the munition and the force of the blast. I mean, when you're talking about these high-powered rifles, it is a very different injury. And I remember even back during my residency, looking at the impact of different types of munitions.

1:03:08We went out to this field and our professor shot watermelons with these different types of guns, rifles, and we saw the impact. With a handgun, it's almost the same amount of energy on the entrance and the exit, almost like makes a pinhole sort of injury. With a high powered weapon, it's hard to talk about, Jake, in terms of what you see there. It causes almost a cavitation within the body. So the exit wound is much larger. There's a lot of energy that's sort of distributed in the body. And I think when the ER doctors in Minnesota were talking about the fact that all these different resources were necessary, it's because an injury like that might affect the chest, might affect the abdomen, might affect several different organs.

1:03:53So it is just far more devastating than a handgun. Both can be bad, but it's far more devastating. It is tough to talk about, and we don't show the images, though sometimes I do wonder if we talked more about it and showed more of these images, if laws would change to keep these firearms out of the hands of people who mean to cause us harm if there would be more action. But many of the victims are children. And so continuing with this difficult conversation, I wonder if that changes the approach for surgeons like yourself. Well, you know, there's a lot of dedicated children's hospitals. You have one in D.C.

1:04:28There's one in Atlanta. Children are not just little adults, meaning that there's many things about them that are different in terms of their physiology, how you'd care for them. But I think the big thing is just consider what I said in terms of the devastation of a big cavitation sort of injury, creating a cavity in the body, essentially, as a result of this wound. You might need pediatric surgeons, trauma surgeons, neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons, anesthesiologists, all these people sort of to be able to manage all the different things that a wound like that would cause in anybody, but especially a child.

1:05:01The hospital where most of those wounded in today's shooting were taken to. It's the same hospital that's dealing with the aftermath of other shootings that happened just yesterday. Take a listen to what the chair of emergency medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center said earlier today. We've had two mass casualty events happen in the last 24 hours. I mean, that does take a toll. But we also have to recognize that we are here as a critical resource for our community. And we have to take time to process the care that we deliver in these situations. And we have to be able to move forward because we are obviously needed.

1:05:41How does it impact an emergency room, that kind of traumatic wound over and over coming in to mass casualty events in just hours? Well, psychologically is one thing, Jake, and that's probably a much longer conversation. But in terms of the procedural aspect of this, Sadly, they're really good at this because they do this all the time. You know, so at 846, the call comes in. All these things go into place at that point. ORs that are already underway, they're basically told we're going to delay the next case, keep lots of operating rooms open. Blood is sort of mobilized. There's an all call that goes out to the community to try and get more blood.

1:06:18Other surgeons may be called in. It's a process. I mean, just this weekend in Atlanta, there was a mass casualty shooting. We know hundreds of rounds were fired at the CDC a few weeks ago. These hospitals, I didn't used to see these types of injuries early in my career. I remember seeing them only on the battlefield when I was covering wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And now you see them all the time. And I don't think I'm exaggerating all the time in many of these urban hospitals, Jake. Yeah, I remember covering the war in Ukraine a couple of years ago. and there were American doctors, surgeons that had come to Ukraine to help them with the war wounds that they were experiencing.

1:06:56And their expertise was from living and working in the United States, not from being in the military. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much. Appreciate it as always. Joining us now to discuss Congressman Greg Stanton, a Democrat from Arizona, former mayor of Phoenix. You're also on the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force. Police say the Minnesota shooter was carrying three different types of guns. Is there any appetite in Congress at all to deal with this real problem area we have where most people that have guns are not a risk to anybody? Most people that have mental illness are not a risk to anybody, but there is this overlap.

1:07:36And keeping guns out of the hands of these people who mean harm to others or themselves, That's the area that Congress and lawmakers should focus. Is there any appetite to do that? Tragically, we are heading exactly the wrong direction on this key issue, Jake. Look, what happened today is a horrific tragedy. I'm a parent. I can't even imagine kids having to cover up other kids in church while bullets are flying and the teachers trying to keep the kids safe by pushing them under the pews. It's unimaginable. And we can't look away and we can't get numb to it. But right now in Congress, with this administration, we're heading the wrong direction.

1:08:11They're eliminating, they're decimating the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, mental health care that you've talked about. I mean, with the big bill that just passed, we're going in the wrong direction on health care generally and mental health in particular. They're getting rid of the Department of Education, which helps to fund mental health support for students that need it in schools. This is such an important issue, and yet we are heading in the wrong direction with this administration. Speaking of this administration, switching topics, you're the ranking member of the subcommittee that has jurisdiction over the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, that deals with natural disasters in this country.

1:08:49The Trump administration just put several FEMA employees on leave, paid leave, but still on leave, against their wishes. This was because, or at least after, they signed on to a letter sounding the alarm, warning that because of actions taken by the Trump administration and FEMA leadership and unqualified individuals, American lives were at risk during hurricane season. What is your take on what they did here in terms of putting these people on leave? You met with FEMA employees today. Yes, I did. I'm here in Washington now, a little early. Congress will go back in session next week. but I came here because I wanted to meet with those employees face to face.

1:09:27They're whistleblowers. They are sounding the alarm that the changes made by this administration puts Americans at risk. They believe that we are less prepared for a natural disaster than even before Katrina 20 years ago, where the 20-year anniversary, the tragic anniversary of Katrina is happening right now. They believe in particular that this decision by the Department of Homeland Security that contracts as low as$100 ,000 have to be personally signed off by Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, has slowed down the response. It certainly slowed down the response with the tragic flood just recently in Kerr, Texas.

1:10:08The ability to respond telephonically to a call center, the call center contract lapsed because of this need to sign off on each and every contract, delayed action. We're not even doing pre-mitigation disaster plans with local communities. If local communities have the support necessary to plan for these disasters, the impact could be so much less. We're in the middle of hurricane season, and we are in danger. And these brave, heroic employees wanted to come forward. They risked their own careers to warn the American people that we're at risk. FEMA is not prepared. They're trying to pass off this responsibility to the states and not accept the responsibility the federal government has to have that we support our states and our communities when there's a tragedy that goes beyond their capacity.

1:10:56And we're heading in the wrong direction, sadly, with FEMA at this moment. Congressman Greg Stanton, Democrat from Arizona, thanks for being with us today. Really appreciate it. Coming up next, we're digging into President Trump's latest attempt to exert power over Washington, D.C. This time it sounds like the mayor is on board.

1:11:14We are following more breaking news. Sources tell CNN. This is an update to a story we brought you a few minutes ago, that not only has the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, Susan Monares, been ousted, but three of her top deputies have also announced they are leaving the CDC. They are the CDC's chief medical officer, the CDC's director of immunization and respiratory diseases, and the CDC's director who oversees infectious diseases. Inara's was sworn in less than a month ago. And obviously, with all of the anti-science, anti-medicine things that the director of the HHS, Secretary of HHS Robert Kennedy Jr.

1:11:55says, this is a story of a lot of interest. Also in our politics lead, the Department of Transportation is taking over Washington, D.C.'s iconic Union Station, the train station, part of the White House's latest push to exert power over the District of Columbia. Amtrak is currently in charge of the day-to-day management of the transit hub, which has been passed among public and private partnerships for years. CNN's Pete Muntean now takes a closer look at this latest Trump administration takeover.

1:12:26And the military already patrolling its halls. Washington, D.C.'s main train station is the newest target in the takeover of the city by President Donald Trump. He wants Union Station to be beautiful again. He wants transit to be safe again, and he wants our nation's capital to be great again. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy made the surprise announcement in Union Station as Amtrak unveiled its new Acela trains. Now the Department of Transportation will run Union Station, which Duffy says it already owns and needs to clean up. We're going to take Union Station back under DOT control. Not a power play.

1:13:07We've always had it. We are going to make the investments to make sure that this station isn't dirty.

1:13:16Protesters shouted down Vice President J.D. Vance as he visited Union Station last week. I'll tell you, a couple of years ago when I brought my kids here, they were being screened at by violent vagrants and it was scaring the hell out of my kids. It is the latest move impacting D.C. by the Trump administration now in its third week of controlling the city's police department and deploying the National Guard. Trump insists the city is plagued by rampant crime, even though statistics show crime here has been going down. I think taking over Union Station is a stretch. I don't think Union Station needs, like, too much assistance.

1:13:53I think it's great. I think it's a beautiful landmark. I think Trump is trying to take over everything he can. Anything that he thinks he can take over, that's what he's going to do. 117 years old, Union Station has been owned by the federal government for more than four decades. But station management has been dogged by a complicated history of private partnerships. Last year, Amtrak took control of the entire station, vowing to revitalize retail space gutted by the pandemic. D.C. Mayor Mariel Bowser says it could cost billions to revamp Union Station, and a federal takeover is a good thing. It's an important asset for the nation.

1:14:31So it is appropriate, in my view, for the federal government to make the necessary investments in the transformation of Union Station. D.C. Mayor Bowser says it could cost$8 billion to rejuvenate Union Station, and the city simply cannot afford that. It could be even more. The federal government has not made clear what they will do exactly with Union Station. The Trump administration has been pretty low on details, but Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says President Trump has been clear. He wants D.C. to be beautiful. Jake. All right. Pete Muntean outside Union Station. Looks pretty beautiful from here, but inside, I don't know.

1:15:13Coming up, when will it end? A top White House official concedes it might take months to end the fighting in Ukraine. We're going to take you to Russia next, where Kremlin leaders just laid out their new red line.

1:15:30In our world lead, 12 days since the Alaska summit and nine days since European leaders met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. And still, no deal, not yet, to end the fighting in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Zelensky says a delegation will meet with U.S. officials in New York on Friday to try to, quote, speed things up. But some in President Trump's orbit, such as Special Envoy Steve Whitcoff, concede that a deal might not come until the end of this year. CNN's Fred Pleitkins in Moscow. Fred, what are the Kremlin's sticking points? Hi there, Jake. Well, the Russians are saying that they're not per se against security guarantees for Ukraine provided by European nations.

1:16:07But what they are against is European countries putting boots on the ground in Ukraine. That's because the Kremlin says they don't consider these to be European troops, but to be troops of European countries. and the spokesman for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, he said that most of those countries are, of course, members of NATO. And the Russians, of course, have been pushing that narrative that they say the current conflict in Ukraine has some of its roots in the expansion of NATO, which happened in the decades after the end of the Cold War. Now, the Russians today also not really offering a timeline as to if and when a meeting between Vladimir Putin and the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, could happen.

1:16:48One of the things, of course, that the Russians have been saying is that such a meeting needs to be well prepared and that it needs to have real results. The Russians obviously saying that they believe a lot of those tough issues, like, for instance, territorial questions, but also security guarantees for Ukraine, need to be worked out before Vladimir Putin would be willing to sit down with Volodymyr Zelensky. All this, of course, Jake, as Vladimir Putin in the next couple of days is set to travel to China to further bolster ties with Xi Jinping. Jake? Fred Pleitkin of Moscow, thanks so much. Joining us now, founding partner and Washington correspondent at PUC, Julia Yaffe.

1:17:24Julia, thanks so much for being here. So Russia continues to relentlessly bomb Ukraine. Zelensky says Russian strikes knocked out power to more than 100 ,000 households overnight. Russia's clearly continuing to send the same message. They want Ukraine. They want it all. Well, and they're sending a message that they're winning and that they could take this all by force if necessary. that if they don't get it at the negotiating table, they'll get it on the field of battle. But that's not necessarily true. And Russia's not doing as well as they would want us to believe. Ukrainian attacks, Ukrainian drone attacks have taken out quite a few Russian oil refineries.

1:18:02There are now gasoline shortages and gasoline rationing in parts of Russia. The Russian economy is not doing that well. Sanctions are having an effect. Again, they're not, you know, the silver bullet, but they are working. And the reason that Putin is asking for all this stuff at the negotiating table, like the last little piece of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, is because he hasn't been able to take them in literally 11 years of active fighting. So, you know, he's trying to kind of do some smoke and mirrors to convince Putin, excuse me, to convince Trump that he is, you know, he's the big dog, he can win this anyway, and he's just going to throw him a bone by negotiating.

1:18:43but that's not totally true. I want you to get your reaction to something we heard from Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff. His proposal on the table, it involves an ask. It may not be, it may not be something that the Ukrainians can take, but no one's ever made that kind of progress here. And it's because of his force of personality. Force of personality. There's no way Ukraine would ever agree to that, those territorial concessions, would they? Not as things stand now and not without ironclad security guarantees. But there's a problem, as I've written, there's a problem with these security guarantees from the West, too.

1:19:20If the West was willing to offer real ironclad security guarantees to Ukraine, they would have done that three years ago. They could have done that yesterday or today. But in fact, Europeans don't want to send their boys to die in Ukraine. Right. And Russia knows that. And so Russia is also pushing and saying that, oh, we can't have this. We can't have that. I think both sides know that there's no there's actually no peace deal on the on the table. I think Steve Whitcoff is trying to CYA a little bit and preserve face for Trump. But people are telling me that, look, this is some progress for the Ukrainians and the Europeans, that if if Trump understood in Anchorage that Putin is not serious about peace, which he seems to have understood, then that in and of itself is progress.

1:20:09All right, Julia Yaffe, thanks so much. Always great to have your insights. You can check out her writing on Puck. Coming up next, why Delta Airlines has just agreed to pay millions of dollars to resolve a class action lawsuit. Stay with us.

1:20:25Our last leads begin in our Law and Justice lead. A federal judge ruled today that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland undocumented immigrant, cannot be deported until at least early October. The judge in the case is planning to have the Trump administration testify on October 6th about its efforts to re-deport Abrago Garcia. He's expected to remain in ICE custody until then. In our money lead, Delta Airlines has agreed to pay more than$78 million to resolve a lawsuit over a 2020 fuel dump that covered tens of thousands of properties in California, including homes and schools. In January 2020, a Delta flight jettisoned about 15 ,000 pounds of fuel to reduce the risks of an emergency landing.

1:21:03Several dozen people on the ground were treated for minor injuries in the fuel dump. In our health lead, the FDA approved updated COVID-19 vaccines, but for a more limited group, adults age 65 and older and younger people who are at higher risk. With this and the rescission of emergency use authorizations, it may be significantly more difficult for certain people, such as infants or young children, to get COVID vaccines, despite being especially vulnerable to COVID. You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, and on the TikTok at Jake Tapper. You can follow the show on X at The Lead CNN.

1:21:36If you ever miss an episode of The Lead, you can listen to the show once you get your podcasts. Aaron Burnett out front starts right now. I'll see you tomorrow.

1:21:48Go inside the sports moments that brought us together and made history. From the underdogs to the rivalries and the miracles. It sends chills down your spine. It's what sport was all about. The new CNN original series, Decades in Sports. Now streaming on the CNN app.