Breaking - National Guard Shooting in Washington DC

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's an interesting way to start our show today.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
I have everything lined up way so we can talk
about Thanksgiving, ways that we're going to have a chance
to talk about what the weekend is going to hold,
have some fun talking to you about different things, and
I'm hopeful we can still do that. But we have
a responsibility to tell you what we're hearing from Washington,
d C. And this is what we are hearing, at
least right now. There are differing reports about how everything

(00:25):
went down, but there has been a shooting in Washington.
At least a couple of National Guard troops were struck
by gunfire. We don't know where they're from. We don't
know if they're from DC. We don't know if they
were sent there from somewhere else as part of this
you know, crackdown on crime in the DC area. Remember

(00:48):
this crackdown on crime in d C was quite controversial
when it happened a couple of months ago. Donald Trump
has the ability, because you know, the federal government can
override local government in Washington, D C. And Muriel Bowser,
who's a Democrat, just announced, by the way, this week,
she's not running for reelection, but she was pushing back

(01:09):
and first said, this is an overreaction. We don't have
that big of a crime problem in DC, and then
within a couple of weeks realized how much better things
had gotten in DC. So it has been a success
as far as that goes. But of course there is
still violence. There's violence in our country all the time.
You hear it in our newscaster, local news. It feels
like every day we're hearing about some shooting that's happening.

(01:31):
And you just hope that as time goes on, people
realize how dumb that is, how you know, we can
do better to value life. Just doesn't seem like everybody's
on the same page on that. What we know is
that it occurred in downtown Washington, d C. In the
vicinity of the White House. I hesitate to say that

(01:51):
it's close to the White House, people, you know, how
close is close?

Speaker 1 (01:56):
This was not on the White House lawn. This wasn't
next door.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
But if you've been to Washington, DC, a lot of
the stuff that you see in DC, like the White House,
like the Washington Monument, like the Lincoln Memorial, to the
National Mall, all that stuff is kind of all within
the same general area. You know, the Smithsonian Museums. Those
are all just down the street. Like it's very I

(02:21):
wouldn't say compact, but everything is pretty close to each other,
and it's all well within walking distance certainly. As you know,
there's a lot of security at places like the White House,
the Capitol Building, all these other places. I've been Washington,
d C. A few different times. I really like Washington,
d C. It's one of my favorite places in the
country to be with the history, with the you know,

(02:46):
all the different important things that you see. It just
feels like there's action happening all the time. I hate
hearing news like this. So this takes place according to
the DC Petropolitan Area, they said on their social media
they're at the scene of shooting in the area. They
have it blocked off or seeing some camera footage now
of it being blocked off in that area right now.

(03:06):
And we do not have exact information beyond that. We
don't know the we don't know the reason this happened.
We don't know how many people in general overall we're shot.
But this is something, you know. Christinoam literally just posting
this on her x account. Please join me in praying

(03:27):
for the two National guardsmen who were just shot moments
ago in Washington, DC. The Department of Homeland Security is
working with local law enforcement to gather more information. We're
going to find this out together, but certainly harrowing stuff
in DC, and as we learn more information, we are
going to let you know anyway, I honestly, I have

(03:50):
no idea where to go from there.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
You know that.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
They I'm seeing different people saying that they are that
the person is in custody, but we never quite know
what to believe. You know, these are different sources and
there are different videos, different photos. We'll do the best

(04:18):
that we can, but as this develops, we will let
you know the best that we can. This has happened,
the reporting has happened. We think the shooting has probably
happened within the last forty five ish minutes. But real
news has gotten out about this and is starting to
get into the national news cycle here in the last
ten or fifteen minutes. So we really are just learning

(04:39):
it as it is occurring right now, and our prayers
obviously for the National Guards members who are.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Injured in this. From what we're hearing.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
We're thinking, by the way, roughly about a mile from
the White House.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Is what we're hearing.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
These National guardsmen were in uniform, so there was no
mistake as to who you know, what they were, or
you know what their job was, or who they were.
And we have differing reports now that there are some
national analysts that says the alleged shooter is still at large.
So I don't look like this, this is the thing

(05:27):
I'm not. I wouldn't call myself a journalist, right, but
this is why it's difficult to be a journalist, because
you want to get things right, but you also want
to get stuff out, and there's always this whole thing
is like would you rather be right than first, or
would you rather be first than right, or would you
rather be first and then hope that you're right, or
would you rather be first and beg for forgiveness if

(05:48):
you have something in like incorrect. And we're now just
getting breaking news from DC Police that we do have
the suspect in custody, so this is happening all very quickly.
And now DC Police do say that they do have
the suspect in custody right now, So you know what
I think we should do. Let's take a break, Let's
rerack the deck here and we'll bring you some live

(06:11):
coverage of people who are on the ground there. We
get national news on Fox News. I've got it up
here and they are talking to people there. We'll see
if we can't pull some stuff up and get that
to you and just try to give you the best
amount of information that we're hearing. Because this is still
so new, We're trying our best here to give you

(06:32):
the information as we hear it. After a shooting that
has injured at least two National Guardsmen in the DC area,
Let's take a listen to their local coverage.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
Hopefully we can get a different vantage point just what
is taking place on this other side, since what we
are being told from witnesses is that is exactly where
that shooting took place. Again, two National Guardsmen now in
the hospital. Any we'll send things back over you.

Speaker 4 (06:55):
Thanks Matthew. You mentioned witnesses. Were you able to speak
to anyone who who saw this happen or the aftermath
of the shooting.

Speaker 3 (07:05):
You know, this is one really good way of putting
it as far as how heightened everyone's feelings are at
this moment. As I was walking down to where I'm
standing now just a block away, you heard a security
guard for one of your businesses around here, saying why
is this happening, of all the times, just before Thanksgiving?
Obviously this is alarming to a lot of people. I
did speak to one witness. She didn't really want to

(07:28):
go on camera. She did say she saw the two
guardsmen on the ground at that moment, and she did
see that third person also being taken away by ambulance.
And according to this witness, she's describing that third person
as an innocent bystander. Not sure exactly where she worked,
but she says that she was rushed into the bank

(07:50):
nearby and asked to hunk her down as obviously a
lot of issues were happening. Didn't know what was going on,
so to be on the safe side, they just stuck
inside the bank and waited till they are able to
eventually be able to leave. And that's at some point
when I met her. She took a video of the
other side of the scene, just the amount of law

(08:12):
enforcement making with their way down. But you could tell
that she startled, obviously a little bit uneasy knowing that
she saw those two guardsmen on the ground after they
were shot.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Any So, another one maybe in.

Speaker 4 (08:28):
The second one one person in custody, But are you
getting any indication that they might be looking for more.

Speaker 5 (08:34):
Suspects at this point?

Speaker 3 (08:39):
We don't know, but it wouldn't be a surprise if
they are looking for another person.

Speaker 5 (08:45):
Was this targeted? Was this random?

Speaker 3 (08:47):
That's obviously one of the biggest questions. But certainly with
this type of shooting and certainly this tap of investigation,
they wouldn't rule out if they're looking for a potentially
a second suspect, knowing full well guardsmen were involved, and
knowing how close we were to the White House. So
we don't know exactly if they're looking for a second suspect,

(09:08):
but it wouldn't be surprised if they're looking for potentially
other people who.

Speaker 5 (09:11):
May be involved.

Speaker 4 (09:12):
And Matt, I know we're getting word of the closures,
and I can imagine this is a fairly large closure.
It's closed off to pedestrians as well as vehicle traffic.
But are you able to see exactly how large this
scene is, Like, give us a sense of how large
this vicinity is?

Speaker 5 (09:34):
Yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
Let me step aside here once again just to give
you an idea. So this is seventeenth and I across
the Way is seventeenth and ah, we were able to
find parking for myself maybe around Connecticut and K and
that is about a couple of blocks away. But we
could already tell that more police were heading out to

(09:55):
the scene. So at least would say two blocks from
the heart of this scene. The road currently is blocked off,
and I wouldn't be surprised if they continue to expand
that depending on how this investigation is going.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
All right, so we're gonna we're gonna go. Let's throw
the TV up here. Chris Schwecker is a reporter in
the DC area. I believe, let's take a listen into
what's on Fox News here with the latest that they
have on this happening in Washington, and.

Speaker 6 (10:25):
Operating efficiently and making sure first and foremost that all
the information goes to one place, that it doesn't go
to your own agency, and then get pigeonholed or compartmentalized
that all the information flows into the command post immediately.
And that's you know, that's a big challenge. So the
fog war is still there. It's they're trying to get

(10:45):
some first hand accounts of what happened. Are there other
shooters out there? You know, are there others injured, and
there are a lot of things going on at the
same time, but it's incredibly challenging to try to get
all the agencies on, you know, on the same playbook here, Chris.

Speaker 7 (11:04):
We know there's about twenty three hundred National Guard troops
in the district right now, and about nine hundred are
from the District of Columbia National Guards, so so many
are local young men and women, and we know that
their mission has been extended through the new year. It's
going to go at least through February of twenty twenty six.

(11:26):
Tell me about you know, we've been watching this situation
for months now, and there was some pushback from the left.
There were protests when these National Guard troops first came in.
A lot of people didn't like to see soldiers, you know,
patrolling on their streets in the middle of a city,
in the middle of the nation's capital. But there was
a crime problem and there were people on both the

(11:47):
right and left that welcomed it as well. Was this
just a long time coming? I mean, we didn't see anything,
There were no incidents of this, you know, like nature
the entire time they've been here. Why do you think
this happened now.

Speaker 6 (12:04):
Yeah, well, first I'd say, we don't know whether this
was you know, was a situation where a crime was
being committed and the National Guard intervened, or whether the
National Guard officers were targeted and this was a you know,
a very targeted shooting. What I what I can say
is a visible presence, a police presence, a National Guard
presence will reduce will reduce crime. We've proven that in

(12:28):
the past, over many, many years, and they've proven that
in DC, and as you say, there's there's been some
reluctant acceptance of the Guard's presence, so you know, maybe
you know it is maybe it's a little surprising that
this hasn't happened sooner, but we really don't know what
happened at this point. And and you know, I'd say
it's fifty to fifty that they intervened in a crime

(12:50):
or that they were targeted. And you know, they're getting
they're getting the sacks down right now. But I applaud
the presence of the of the Guard and and DC.
The fact that they have won many people over in
the district because now they live in a safe place
is proof that this works. And it's worth doing.

Speaker 7 (13:09):
All right, Chris Wecker, thank you for coming in here
on this breaking news. We appreciate it. Let's go now
to Republican Senator Mark Wayne Mullen of Oklahoma, who's on
the Armed Services Committee. Senator, we were going to have
you on to talk about something completely different, and now
we are caught in the middle of this breaking news
praying for two National Guard members, and we don't know

(13:30):
how badly they've been injured. They've been shot here in DC,
just about a mile away from the White House. It's
an incredible moment, an incredible scene, because this is supposed
to be one of the safest places in the district.
There are supposed to be so many officers all across
this area. This is just a little bit north of
Lafayette Square. I know you've been there quite a few times.

(13:51):
Just give me your first thoughts as we watched the
scene unfold. Again, we don't know what the motive is here.
We don't know what this guy was up to, whether
he was targeting these true or maybe they just got
caught up in something.

Speaker 8 (14:03):
Well, I should first of all, it breaks our hearts
because we're running up to Thanksgiving. We know these men
and women. They're willing to protect one hundred percent of
our freedom by the sacrifice in their own life. But
you never want to see this happen on our own
streets right here in our nation, much less in the
nation's capital, literally within the eyeshot of the White House.

(14:27):
Some of the pictures that are circulating online. I'm to
verify if they're true or not, but you know, they're
very disturbing. They look like they're pretty serious injuries. It's
I agree with Chris, it's too hard to know right
now if they were actually targeted or not. They may

(14:48):
have been intervening. I know that anyone walking around that
in the uniform and they would see someone in distress,
they would be running towards the threat, because that's what
our men and women do in uniform. They run towards
a threat. And it's right now I think I believe
that Secretary Christian Nomes said it best. We need to

(15:08):
be prayed for them. We also need to be praying
for their you know, for their families as well. I'm
sure they're not quite informed yet, and so every family
member that has their loved ones deployed in our nation's
capital right now with the national guard. I know they're
glued to your TV and they are concerned. They're probably

(15:30):
calling their loved ones want to know if they were
the ones that were targeted or if they were the
ones that was part of this incident. And and all
we can do is stand by and wait for answers.
I will say, though, issha, it's telling If Secretary Christie Nome,
who I was visiting with last night, and I know
she's with her family for Thanksgiving as well, if she
put out the statement that said we need to be

(15:52):
praying for them, that will probably tell you the seriousness
of the injuries.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
All right, So we're gonna we're gonna dip out of here.
That's Mark Wayne Mullin, a Republican from Oklahoma's on the
Armed Forces Committee.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
Just today. Yeah, I don't.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
I didn't want to be talking about this today, but
we have to have to make sure that we give
you the latest information. This is a truly uh, I mean,
it's sad, it's it's a stunning development honestly, of what
has happened in Washington, d C. Certainly feels like from
what we're hearing, I don't.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
This is me from Omaha talking about what I'm seeing
and how I'm reading this. I've covered enough stuff like this.
It feels like this is a random person. This is
not like some major, large, you know, operation of people
trying to uh, you know, target National guardsmen and women.

(16:50):
It seems like this was a random individual who either
there was an escalation, which we do not know. We
do not know what the situation was. If there was
an escalation, Hopefully we can learn that in exactly what
occurred here. Honestly, that comes secondary. The motive comes secondary
until we know the condition of the two members of
the National Guard and potentially others who were shot. You

(17:13):
were hearing as we were kind of both reading and
listening to other feeds here that there was ten ish
gun shots or so.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
Yeah, I saw ten to twelve.

Speaker 9 (17:24):
Again, I don't know how verifiable that is, but just
what I was seeing based on Fox News.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
Yeah, we'll develops.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
Yeah, yeah, So we're going to do the best that
we can to give you the latest information on this.
But the story if you are just joining us here
this afternoon, there are at least two National Guards people
who have been shot. These two National Guard members were
in Washington, d C. We don't know where they're from.
There are people from the National Guard from all over
the place that are serving in Washington, DC right now,

(17:52):
but two are injured from gunshot wounds, and we don't
know their condition at this point. The suspect of the
shooting isn't custody. We do not know how many other
additional victims there may or may not be, but we
will have that information for you as we learn more
with each passing second here, and Donald Trump has just

(18:13):
recently posted on his truth social account, we will get
that to you. We will get you as much information
possible coming up on news Radio eleven ten up ended
a bit here by this breaking news that we're covering
for you Washington DC. A suspect is in custody after
two National Guards members. National Guard members have been shot.

(18:35):
Senator Chuck Schumer has posted we'll get to his thoughts
in a second. A lot of different politicians are speaking
on this. We don't know the condition of the National
Guard's members that are injured.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
Here.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
Donald Trump on his truth Social says the animal that
shot the two National guardsmen, with both being critically wounded
and now in two separate hospitals, is also severely wounded,
but regardless, we'll pay a very steep price. God bless
our great National Guard and all of our military and
law enforcement. These are truly great people. I, as President

(19:09):
of the United States, and everyone associated with the Office
of the Presidency, am with you.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
Yeah, this is not good.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
None of this is good, especially a day before Thanksgiving.
You really hate to hear this, You hate to see this.
We're keeping an eye on information and as we get
more reports, because this happened the news was breaking. Basically
as we hit the air at two o'clock, we're still

(19:39):
pretty much without details except the fact that we know
that these are critically wounded National Guard members. We know
that the individual who they believe is the suspect is
in custody, and we don't know any motives. Obviously, we
don't know if there are additional wounded people. There's a
chance that that we were hearing from a reporter that

(20:00):
in DC that there was a.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
Third person that was wounded.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
By every other account that we're hearing, the only other
person that's being mentioned here is the suspect who seems
to be wounded. So I don't know what led to this.
I don't know if this was a random attack. I
don't know if this is something that escalated and then
it led to gun fire. I don't know if this
was some sort of crime that got switched into a

(20:25):
shootout essentially, but this is obviously you were reminded that
the people who wear the uniform, whether it's law enforcement,
whether it's the National Guard, whether it's our military, the
danger is real no matter what all the time, even
if you feel like it's secure. And honestly, Washington, DC
has turned into one of the safer places to be

(20:45):
in the last couple of months thanks to the presence
of the National Guard in the city. And we will
do everything that we can to bring you the information
as we learn about it this afternoon, and you hope
it looks like jd. Vance is going to say something

(21:06):
at some point here in the next oh gosh, what
will it be the next twenty minutes. Maybe they're showing
that there's going to be him speaking here momentarily. I
don't know, certainly he's going to have to talk about this.
I don't know if that was something that he's going
to speak about something else also, But we will let

(21:28):
you know and let you hear from him as this happens.
Now Chuck Schumer I mentioned that he mentioned something about
this on his social media. He says, my heart breaks
for the victims of this horrific shooting in Washington, d C.
Near the White House. I'm closely monitoring the situation and
and praying for the wounded National guardsmen and their families.
I thank all the first responders for their quick action
to capture the suspect. You know, this is also a

(21:55):
moment where you are trying to you know, you think
about how nasty our politics has gotten, and how this
can bring it back to reality for you, how difficult
it is that.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
You're dealing with.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
People's lives and people's deaths and people's injuries like that.
There I just in my heart, especially the day before Thanksgiving,
I wonder, and I'm just I'm curious as to what
goes on in a person's mind who wants to inflict
violence like this, whether it was premeditated or it was
something that escalated, And we will find out whatever that is.

(22:42):
Not that that should actually really matter that much. It
certainly matters in a court of law and what punishment
and individual would have. But I can tell you that
I just it really hurts me that we get to
we argue, we want to get angry, we want to
fight in and we get ourselves all riled up about

(23:02):
these things. Some of them are really important, and I
understand that a lot of them are trivial.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
A lot of them are.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
It is reality television of the political theater, and unfortunately
we have found ourselves getting wrapped up in this stuff
when people's lives, for real, are in danger. I mean
this Charlie Kirk thing. This is a different situation, but
the Charlie Kirk thing is a great reminder of when

(23:29):
people just cannot understand how to handle their feelings because
they disagree with somebody's words or somebody's opinions, and they
end up turning to violence. It's really an unfortunate situation.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has said that federal agents are

(23:50):
at the scene of the shooting now, and the FBI
is going to be assisting here with the investigation. As
you would imagine. Kerr beyond that is going to be
anyone's guess. It appears as though Vice President jd Vance
there's somebody approaching the podium there, but I do not

(24:13):
believe it is jd Vance. We will let you know
if and when Vice President Vance is going to take
the podium to speak, and we will let you know.
This is certainly going to probably be a multitude of
things that he is going to speak on, but we'd
like to hear what he has to say about what's

(24:34):
happened here in Washington, d C. Assuming that's something that
he is going to address as he gets to the podium. Again,
if you are just tuning in, a suspect is in
custody in Washington, d C. After a shooting that is
left two National Guard members injured, according to Donald Trump,

(24:54):
critically injured into two different hospitals in the DC area.
The third individual that we know of that has been
taken to a hospital is the suspect who is in
custody and was apprehended apparently very short shortly before Chris
Wicker back on with another report here from you know,

(25:16):
he's a former assistant FBI director, And let's go ahead
and see if we can't listen into what they're talking
about here.

Speaker 6 (25:24):
Well, yes, I mean it's not a surprise that the
FBI would respond in the nation's capital to this type
of shooting of a too National Guard officers. I mean,
they are going to be a member of the team
at this point, not in primary They won't be in
primary jurisdiction. They would be there for whatever whatever, you know,
resources are needed. They're part of the team. They have

(25:47):
the best forensic capabilities around. I mean, they have a
forensic Evidence Response team and second to none, so they'll
be there. They can do speed review of video. They've
got the technology to do that. So they of course
they've got good interviewers who can get quickly get to
the to the heart of the matter with witnesses and
and get things organized. They have software they can organize

(26:09):
the the income, you know, the processing of leads and
the triaging of leads as they come into the command post.
So they bring a lot to the table, but they're
not at this point unless this is terrorism related, they
won't be the primary agency, so they're be a member
of the team.

Speaker 7 (26:24):
Can I ask you, Chris, I mean, okay, this gunman,
according to the President, has been severely wounded as well
and taken to a hospital. Can the police and can
the FBI and whoever is taking lead here, can they
begin interviewing him right now if he's conscious.

Speaker 6 (26:43):
Subject to the doctors, you know, the medical necessities that
are that, you know, the doctor can give them permission
to do that, the doctor blocks access because it's he's
too critical. No, but I mean it's fair game to
go in there and interview somebody, whether you know, you've
got to be a little careful with that. If their
in and out of consciousness. If they're not, you know,
they don't have their wits about them, they can't knowingly

(27:06):
waive their rights. If you will, then you know, you
get into a question of mental capacity in a medical
situation like that where they're under medical treatment, depending on
how bad they're injured. So a lot of factors there.

Speaker 7 (27:20):
Okay, all right, Chris, thank you so much for joining us.
I want to get back to Mark Meredith. He is
on the scene for us gathering some new information. Mark,
what do you know?

Speaker 9 (27:32):
I show good ef you once again. The police have
just moved us backup block. When we spoke to you
just a few minutes ago, we were very very close
to the shooting scene, only a block away. Since then,
they have moved all of the media and the bystanders
that were out here.

Speaker 5 (27:43):
They moved us backup block.

Speaker 9 (27:44):
We are right at sixteenth and I so really just
straight down from the White House. But a few moments
ago I heard from a source who I've been in
contact with it for years, who had a chance to
tell me about what they saw witness wise, and that
you could see from where the shooting occurred. It occurred
right outside of the metro station. There was a bus
stop directly in front of the of this metro facility,
this Farragut West stop, where there was tons of shatter

(28:07):
glass indication that where the gunfire occurred, and that in
that in that position you could see the National Guard
members being attended to by his colleagues, by other people
that were there helping him in the situation. But that
also again gave us the first idea of where this
shooting took place. There was rumblings that it happened inside
the train station. From my source, it happened right outside there.

(28:29):
And then I've also seen some other pictures from people that.

Speaker 5 (28:31):
Had other vantage points.

Speaker 9 (28:32):
And you know, there's buildings right around here, There's high
rise buildings, so from those positions people could see down
and see exactly what was happening. You could also see
somebody else who I assumed to be the suspect, on
a stretcher at this point, as we know, they are
also getting medical attention. But from my source here, the
shooting occurred directly outside of this metro station and you
could see that there was the shattered glass around the

(28:53):
bus stop that separates the sidewalk as well as the
train station itself. In terms of the update, we do
expect these police to be giving it on camera briefing here.
I would imagine within the next hour or so. We
were also waiting to get more details. They are, well, there,
it is live right now here.

Speaker 5 (29:08):
Can we show this mark real quick? Yeah? Can you
say it one more time? What was it? Seventeenth? The
penn is going to be where the news briefing is
going to be. Any idea how long? Any idea? How long? Sir?
How long? Out your guess?

Speaker 9 (29:21):
Okay, so seventeenth the pen for our crews that'll be
out there is going to be where the media briefing
is going to be. This is kind of the new
setup here where they have now put up new police tape.
We're just a block away again, if you know, from DC,
from the hay Adams Hotel, the Saint Regis, and they've
been pushing everybody back here because the police were getting
they were trying to do their investigation, and there were
so many law enforcement agencies that were coming at AISHA.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
All right, let me go ahead, and we're going to
pause it right now. Vice President jad Vance is at
Fort Campbell speaking to American troops there. Certainly he is
going to address this. We're going to hear what he
has to say at the podium here on this Wednesday.
I don't know how long I'm going to stick with this,
but we just want to hear at LEAs it's the opening.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
Remarks from JD. Vance.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
He's at Fort Campbell with the American troops, speaking to
troops there, and of course this was a pre organized
speaking engagement that he already had. But you know, within
the last hour, news has come out about this shooting
in Washington, DC, which is injured two National guards men,
two National guardsmen. I keep getting that mixed up. I
keep saying national guardsmen. I don't want to just National

(30:22):
Guard members because we don't have a ton of details
about this. Anyway, you know where I'm going with this.
Here is Jdvan's Vice President of the United States, and
this is at Fort Campbell.

Speaker 10 (30:34):
Well, it's great to be here in beautiful Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Speaker 5 (30:39):
And let me just say.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
I want to.

Speaker 10 (30:47):
Say first before we get started on a somber note,
we had and some of you may have seen this
on your phones or on social media, but apparently there
was a shooting outside the White House just a couple
of hours ago, and we're still learning everything. We still
don't know the motive. There's a lot that we haven't
yet figured out. But what we do know is that
a couple of National Guardsmen were injured in the line

(31:08):
of duty. And first of all, I want everybody who's
a person of faith to say a prayer for those
two National guardsmen that they're able to spend Thanksgiving with
their families instead of losing their lives, because I understand
they're still in pretty tough condition.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
But I think it's a.

Speaker 10 (31:23):
Samba reminder that soldiers, whether they're active duty, reserve or
National Guard, our soldiers are the sword and the shield
of the United States of America. And as a person
who goes into work every single day and that building
and knows that there are a lot of people who
wear the uniform of the United States Army, let me

(31:45):
just say, very personally thank them for what they're doing.
We're grateful to them and we're praying that they're going
to be safe and they're going to spend Thanksgiving with
their families.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
God bless them, all. Right, So there's JD. Vans.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
He's going to go into what he was going to
talk to the true groups at Fort Campbell in Kentucky
about last ten minutes. Over the last ten minutes, West
Virginia Governor Patrick Morrissey mentioned that these were on his
social media. So these are two members of the West
Virginia National Guard and these were eight like within the

(32:22):
last ten minutes, he said. According to reports on the ground,
one did not survive the attack and the other was
taken to a nearby hospital and talked about, you know,
prayers and stuff. And just recently in the last five minutes,
Governor Patrick Morrissey of West Virginia says on his ex account,
it is with great sorrow that we can confirm both
members of the West Virginia National Guard who were shot
earlier today in Washington, DC have passed away from their injuries.

(32:45):
These brave West Virginians lost their lives in the service
of their country. We are in ongoing contact with federal
officials as the investigation continues, our entire state grieves with
their families, their loved ones, and the Guard community West
virgin and you will never forget their service or their sacrifice,
and we will demand full accountability for this horrific act.

(33:08):
That's from the Governor of West Virginia who has said,
these are two West Virginia National Guard members and we
don't know.

Speaker 1 (33:17):
Obviously, I'm not going to give us names yet. They
want to make sure that.

Speaker 2 (33:20):
The families and everybody who needs to know will know.
We don't know the condition of the suspect. We know
the suspect was taken into custody and was transported to
I would imagine a medical facility. Just a senseless another
senseless act of violence in the United States of America,

(33:42):
this time in Washington, DC, and this time against people
who are wearing the uniform. And it should make us
all crawl with anger, honestly, And I hate that we
have to talk about this to day before Thanksgiving, which
is supposed to be a time of jovial family, family
and memories that we're going to build for the rest

(34:04):
of our lives. And two National Guard members aren't going
to get to do that. Now and their families aren't
going to get to do that now, and we should
be very angry that there are people in our nation
that do stupid, horrific things like this. But of course,
the big news of the afternoon is just before we
hit the airwaves at two o'clock this afternoon, we learned

(34:24):
of a shooting in Washington, d C. About a mile
away from the White House, and we're learning more and
more details as time goes on. The unfortunate information that
we do have to share is that these were two
West Virginia National Guard members. Both of them that were
shot have already been pronounced dead. We know the suspect
is in custody. We don't know the suspects condition, we

(34:47):
don't know the motive, we don't know much anything else.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
At this point.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
We would anticipate getting some information with a live press
conference at some point. They're going to get the media
put together for that sometime in the next I would
say my guests would be in the next hour or two.
I would imagine that we'll still be on the air
by the time that occurs, but I can't promise you
anything because they haven't told us a specific time. Three

(35:13):
eight is the time right now, we have been dipping
into some national reporting just so we can hear what
people have ought with that that are boots on the
ground who are actually able to report on this. Mark
Meredith has been doing the reporting for Fox News from Washington, DC.
Let's hear his latest report that just occurred a few
moments ago.

Speaker 9 (35:33):
That's where it appears those gunshots occurred. The suspect also
in custody. No yet to update yet on his condition,
but you can imagine here the tremendous loss that the
entire city of DC, as well as our neighbors in
West Virginia are also facing right now. Where this attack
occurred is also very important because of the symbolic of it.

Speaker 5 (35:51):
We're just so close to the White House.

Speaker 9 (35:52):
The National Guard deployments have been a huge, huge moment
for the Trump administration. They've made it their mission to
try to clean up the crime, and there's been a
lot of political controversy Joey with that decision. But these
troops have been out on the streets now for several months,
and in addition to that, we have seen them come
and go from different states, different deployments that have sent
their troops. I live in DC, and I've seen them

(36:14):
even as recently a Sunday evening. I even thank them
as I was going back to my house to say
thank you for your service, because it.

Speaker 5 (36:20):
Is a thankless job.

Speaker 9 (36:21):
And so many of these National Guards members have been
out there on a holiday weekend, nights weekends away from
their families. And there had been some criticism from some
that they felt that this wasn't an accurate deployment. But
these people were obviously targeted here and this is an
indication that this was somebody that wanted to send a
message that we know that the President, vice President, all

(36:42):
top levels of the government have been responding to this
in real time. And while it is a holiday weekend, Joey,
I've seen a number of law enforcement agencies atf FBI,
Secret Service, DC Police, Metro transit police, you name them,
they've been out here trying to respond to this. We
are expecting an update from DC Police within the next
few minut So Mayor Bowser, our DC's democratic mayor, who

(37:03):
just announced yesterday she's not even going to seek another term,
would also likely have plenty to say about this, because
this is going to have repercussions all across not only
the district, but around the country. In fact, I'm struck
by how much this is already becoming an international story
because we are only a block away from the White House.
You've got international media out here that are also trying
to piece together exactly what happened. Vice President Vance already

(37:24):
addressing the situation while he was in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Speaker 5 (37:27):
I would imagine the President will have more to say
on this.

Speaker 9 (37:29):
I don't think any of the public events on his
schedule today, but he's been active on truth social I
also heard from somebody who was on the ground that
Cash Mattel, the FBI director, had.

Speaker 5 (37:37):
Also stopped by.

Speaker 9 (37:38):
I did not see that with my own eyes, but
I would imagine at any news conference he would make
his presence known as well.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Joey, all right, so there's the latest Mark Meredith, great
reporting down there in DC, reporting for Fox News, and
we're just grabbing that so we get some additional information.
He provided some for us there and what is going
to take place just a senseless tragedy. And you know

(38:06):
a bit of an analysis from him there, which I
think is fair that this is going to have some
ripple effect. You're going to tell me that this city,
which has become quite safe. I mean, a horrific shooting
like this could happen anywhere. I mean, I've lived in
much smaller communities that also have had like a police

(38:31):
officer killed or ambushed for one reason or another.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
Just a horrible, horrible thing to have happened.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
And this is, as far as we know, a very
isolated incident as it relates to this suspect and what
this suspect was doing. But it will have an impact
on safety. I'm interested to see what you know, and

(39:02):
we're hearing prayers. So far, we haven't heard anybody use
this as some sort of political platform.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
I think this is one of the things.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
The thing about Charlie Kirk and the Charlie Kirk assassination
is because of his platform of who Charlie Kirk is
and what he says and what he does and all
of that stuff, there was this idea of him being
this very political figure, and when he was assassinated, the

(39:33):
people who were on his political side, the Conservatives, mourned
and mourned and mourned, and the people who were on
the opposition, the liberals, many of them very insensitively, went
completely out of their way to say.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
I'm glad he's gone.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
Basically, it costs a lot of them their job, It
costs a lot of them their reputation. It became a
very political divide, even just in his assassination. And I
don't think anybody was I don't think anybody was surprised
by that. As much as we would like to think

(40:13):
that people are better than that, people are not. Now
you have this situation. These are two people who are
in uniform. These are two people who were deployed as
part of an operation to make Washington, d C.

Speaker 1 (40:32):
Safer and it was working. It has worked.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
They're saying, you know, carjackings, they're saying, you know, just
murder in general, all sorts of really bad, nasty, you know,
terrible things that were happening in Washington, d C. They
are now saying that, you know, these are getting cleaned up.

(40:58):
It's very positive. So I'm not one hundred percent sure
where the politics are going to go, because anytime that
we have something that is like this, anytime that we
have a shooting or something that becomes a major national
or international story, the conversation is going to get political.

(41:26):
Maybe tomorrow, maybe in a couple hours, maybe a week
from now, somebody's going to say the National Guard shouldn't
even been there, and that's going to be the political take.
Oh the guns on the streets. He didn't clean up
all the guns on the streets, Otherwise these guys would
have been alive. Still, Oh, well, it was the fascist
government of Donald Trump who's going out of his They're
going out of their way to take on all of
this stuff. Right, You're just like, I hope that we

(41:51):
can stop this. I hope that we can stop this.
And this should not be a political conversation. And that's
why this is going to have major ripple effects no
matter what ends up happening today or what information with
the motive is, because the lives of our uniformed military officials,
our National Guard, anybody who's serving our military to die

(42:14):
doing their job at the hands of a crazed individual
on our soil should be unanimously condemned and not politicized.
I don't know if I can trust our people in
government to do that, but that's my hope. Has been

(42:35):
another post on x by Governor Patrick Morrissey of West Virginia, who,
if you do recall, about a half hour ago, posted
that both of these West Virginia National Guard members who
were shot. He said that they have passed away as
of about eight minutes ago. He reposted and said, we
are now receiving conflicting reports about the condition of our

(42:57):
two Guard members and will provide additional updates once we
were more complete information. Our prayers are with these brave
service members, their families, in entire Guard community. Patrick Morrissey,
this is not a mistake you can make. You cannot say,
you cannot post, You cannot tell the world via social
media hastily, I might add, when no one else is

(43:20):
reporting on this. You are the governor of the state
of these two National Guard members. You should not be
saying things that you do not know are one hundred
percent true. It's insane to me that he would do
that and then like it's good that he's retracting it
if it wasn't true. But if this doesn't tell you
all to think before you post, even if you think

(43:41):
you are privy to information and you want to get
that out to the masses, there was no need for
him to post that until he knew one hundred percent
for sure. So we can hope this adds additional prayers
and hope that there may be a chance that these
two National Guard members can still survive. But Patrick Morrissey
said one was dead like forty five minutes ago. He

(44:03):
said they were both dead as of a half hour ago.
Now he's saying he's got conflicting reports on both of them.
So I have no idea what to tell you. What
we do know is that they have said sometime soon
there will be a press briefing about this situation, and
police on the ground will give us the information that
they have. I would imagine this hour there will be

(44:24):
a press briefing from the DC Police about this shooting
that involves two National Guard members from West Virginia. That
much we seem to be all accurate on is that
these R and D two members from the West Virginia
National Guard. West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrissey made a apparently

(44:47):
an erroneous announcement, at least at the time, that the
two National Guard members had passed away, but has since
walked that back and said that we're receiving cons inflicting
reports about the condition of the Guard members. Who is
you're the governor of the state. I know he's not
in the room, but like, how are you getting conflicting reports?

(45:12):
It seems like a pretty important thing to either say
or not to say. You know, I had an anonymous
person shoot me a message who's been in d C, and.

Speaker 1 (45:23):
He says, this has been.

Speaker 2 (45:26):
A smashing success the National Guard presence in DC. You
can so much feel the difference. You can feel it
on the metro, on your commute in all the public areas.
D C is way way, way better to visit. I
we're hearing it. Well, you know Muriel Bowser, the mayor

(45:47):
of DC, who I'm sure we're going to hear from
at some point. You would imagine Muriel Bowser says she's
a Democrat, and that's probably part of the reason why
she's resigning is she was like pushing back on this
whole Trump being involved in putting the National Guard troops.
She's like, oh, you shouldn't do this because she's a democratic.
Course she doesn't want to cooperate with Trump. And then
she has no choice because because of the rules in

(46:10):
the federal government can override local government in DC, Well,
you have no choice but to accept the fact that
Trump was going to do this, and then as soon
as he does it, it works and within like three
weeks she was even saying, Okay, this is obviously working.
So she has a little bit of egg on her
face just for pushing back. And I'm sure this is

(46:32):
wearing her out, just realizing how successful this Trump thing
was and she really couldn't combat it. And now she
basically has to admit that it worked, and now all
of the Democrats hate her. American politics in twenty twenty five.
Does it make sense to you yet? Does it make
sense to anybody yet?

Speaker 1 (46:51):
Now?

Speaker 2 (46:52):
I again really do hope and pray that in some
way a miracle happens in both of these National Guards
members are going to survive. I really hope. So we're
going to do the best that we can to give
you every update that we have on that. I don't
know if we can trust Governor Patrick Morrissey of West

(47:13):
Virginia to give us that update when it takes place.
I might have to wait for the police to actually
give us some update. I don't think the police will
tell us the condition of the people. My assumption is
all they're going to do is tell us what happened,
how it happened, and what we know as to why
it may be happened. They're not going to be able
to nail all that stuff down immediately.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
Probably they're going.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
To have to do a full on interview with the suspect,
you would think. But we should at least be getting
additional information when that occurs. When we get updates on
the condition of these two National Guard members, we will
give those to you as as soon as we possibly can.
The other thing that we're going to be paying attention

(47:56):
to beyond that, beyond maybe what you hear from your bowser,
if she maybe she's gonna even be here, I don't know,
maybe she has something to say, you know. Whenever we've
had like the school shootings, like the Minneapolis school shooting
at that Catholic school. Jacob Prye, the mayor, he showed
up for the press briefing, was there and was able
to chat and have that as a presence, which I

(48:23):
think is a good thing. It's positive to see as
many leaders at that briefing as possible, so we don't
have to wait with baited breath to hear what these
individuals say or what they think, or what they know
or what they've learned, or what the next step is
going to be. But We're going to keep an eye

(48:44):
on this the best that we can for you. If
there's a a moment that potentially could set up a
maybe a shift. I've said this about one hundred times

(49:04):
over the last couple of years. Every single major national
international news story, everything that has become something that's violent,
whether it's a school shooting, whether it's the assassination attempt
on Trump, whether it's the Charlie Kirk assassination. I've said
this so many times. I can't believe it anymore, as
much as I want to believe it. But you would

(49:24):
think that maybe a dialogue is going to take place
as to what we can do in the future to
be a better country, because we do live in the
best country in the world, and I'm thankful for that.
You know, we're in Thanksgiving. I'd rather live here than Serbia.
I'd rather live here than Indonesia. I'd rather live here

(49:45):
than in Mexico somewhere. I'd rather live here than anywhere
else in the world. And I think most Americans would
feel that way. I think most immigrants who come here
legally and want to be a part of their community,
they feel that way. That's why they're here. This is
the greatest country in the world. We're about to celebrate
two hundred and fifty years of this country. There have

(50:08):
been some crazy things that have happened. You can go
all the way back to seventeen seventy six. We were
fighting a war for our independence. We had to build
a government from scratch with no real information on how
to do it. We created, essentially the concept of a
constitutional republic. We created the concept of what many people

(50:31):
around the world say is a democracy where everyone has
an opportunity to have a say you aren't like. Just
because you have less money than your neighbor doesn't mean
your voice counts any less, at least in voting. The
optics of what this country stands for has been challenged.
We've been involved in world wars, We've been involved in
civil wars. We've been involved in wars that really don't

(50:54):
even directly involve us. We've had civil rights movements in
multiple centuries. We have had presidents who were amazing, who
have their faces carved in mountain sides. We have had
presidents that were so bad that they threw us into
the single bloodiest conflict that this country has ever fought.

(51:15):
But what I can tell you, is that as crazy
as some of this stuff has had and all this
stuff that has taken place, all the things that have occurred,
the one thing is that America has rolled on the
United States, hasn't stopped, hasn't ceased to exist. It has
overcome all of these challenges. And our latest challenge is

(51:40):
our own political divide. Our politicians are responsible. We're responsible
for not holding them accountable for it. And every time
that there's something like this, which I hopeful this doesn't
get politicized, I don't want my statement to be politicized,
and I don't want this tragedy in DC today to
be politicized. But if it were to be politic sized,

(52:00):
that tells you everything you need to know is that
our politicians will go, will stoop to any length for
people to say, that's the side I want to be on. Universally, unanimously,
this should be condemned. The National Guard, in our nation's military,
all branches should have our unwavering support from the top

(52:21):
to the bottom, every single person in this country. And
the last thing that we need to be doing is
trying to politicize or leverage a random shooting against two
National Guard members who are doing their job, serving their
nation in the way that they were assigned, and politicizing

(52:44):
that for political gain. That weaponization should be left in
the past. And until we have political leaders on both
sides of the aisle who refuse to make these types
of tragedies political statements, we are going to be stuck
in this loop forever and it will take all of us.

(53:06):
We're not going to get all the crazzies out. We're
not going to get all the criminals out. That's never
going to happen. We are always going to have squeaky wheels.
But what we can do is change our culture to
where it is less prevalent and people feel like they
are no hero when they do things like this. No
one will be celebrating no matter what the motive was here,
no matter what this person was attempting to do, and

(53:27):
whether it escalated to a shooting, no matter if this
person just wanted to shoot a couple of National Guard members,
no matter what the motive was, We need to come
together to the table and say this is the kind
of thing that should never ever happen. How do we
instill that culturally to every person in America. We all
have to buy in from the very top on down.

(53:48):
We will give you the latest when.

Speaker 1 (53:50):
We find it.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
We are hopeful sometime this hour to hear from the
DC Police as they are going to hopefully give us
some briefing on what they know from this track.

Speaker 1 (54:00):
Situation in Washington, d C.

Speaker 2 (54:01):
Going to be a show where we were going to
basically just sit here and talk Thanksgiving traditions, food.

Speaker 1 (54:08):
Customs and all this stuff.

Speaker 2 (54:10):
But the breaking news is taking a complete precedent over
this and we are continuing to cover it.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
In Washington, d C.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
A shooting involving two National Guard members who are from
the West Virginia National Guard. We have learned are injured,
critically injured. According to Donald Trump. About an hour ago,
West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrissey said that these two National

(54:42):
Guard members had passed away about a half hour ago,
then recanted that statement and said that I'm getting we're
getting conflicting reports, which he didn't really elaborate on that.

Speaker 1 (54:56):
Again.

Speaker 2 (54:56):
I just it's unfathomable how you could potentially get that
wrong in that moment with everybody paying close attention, and
it's a terrible look for him, it's a terrible look
for his office. But it does instill at least some
hope that maybe these two National Guard members can survive this.
The suspect is in custody. We will tell you that
I don't know how much additional information we have as

(55:19):
we continue to wait for a press briefing from DC police,
and we are under the impression that Director of the
FBI Cash Pttel will also be there and we'll talk
about the FBI's role in this investigation as they continue
to look into a possible motive. Mark Meredith has done
the reporting for Fox News and we've been getting our

(55:41):
latest information from him. He's at the scene, he's been
breaking this down. Let's go to his latest report.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
The Office of the Presidency am with you.

Speaker 2 (55:50):
We're gonna check back in now with markin Mare that
he's live on the ground in Washington near where this happened,
and he's got more.

Speaker 5 (55:56):
Mark, I assured you a few updates from the last talk.
Moments ago.

Speaker 9 (56:02):
The White House called a lid, meaning we don't expect
President Trump to address what happened here in DC on
camera this evening. As you mentioned, he is down in Florida.
Odds are we would hear something on his social media
pages with the President not expected to speak today on
camera about the horrific events that happened just about two
blocks away from where I am standing. This shooting happened
a few minutes before three o'clock Eastern today.

Speaker 5 (56:22):
What we know is that.

Speaker 9 (56:23):
Two National Guard members we believe from West Virginia, we're
shot and at fairly close range, and that a suspect
is in custody and also was either tackled or also
severely injured in the confrontation of his arrest. We are
expecting an update from DC's police leaders as well as
the FBI director Cash Hotel within about twenty five minutes
or so, only about a block and a half from

(56:44):
where I am. The police here have moved everybody back
that we're pretty close to the shooting scene. Because this
shooting happened right outside of a metro stop, the Farragut
West Metro stop, which contains three different subway lines. It
is a popular spot on a normal weekday because this
is a heavy government area, a lot of businesses, the
Saint Regis Nice hotels. Being a holiday weekend, I would
imagine the foot traffic was a little bit less slower

(57:06):
than what we would come to see and also the
President not being here still because of where we are
in downtown d C. A swarm of federal resources have
been on this scene now for several hours, including the ATF,
the Bureau of Alcohol to back on firearms, the FBI,
the Secret Service, you name the three letters, odds are
they have an agency person out here, but odds are well.

(57:26):
Also be hearing from Metro Transit Police as well as
a representative from the West Virginia National Guard about what
they know about their fellow members. The confusion came pretty
much about forty five minutes ago when the Governor of
West Virginia, Patrick Morrissey, had put out on social media
that those service members had died, and then just about
twenty minutes after that he clarified that there was conflicting

(57:49):
information and that those service members are alive. That was
the last updoate we've had on our condition. Our assignment
desk reached out to DC Police to try to get
an idea of the hospitals that these service members, but
were not being told which hospitals they have been taken to,
and obviously the families of those who were impacted are
also trying to be notified.

Speaker 5 (58:06):
We're trying to piece together.

Speaker 9 (58:07):
This, just like investigators exactly what happened, any information about
the suspect.

Speaker 5 (58:11):
Of course, we've.

Speaker 9 (58:11):
Mentioned that the suspect is in custody, and President Trump
even mentioning that he expects the full weight of the
justice system to come down on this individual. I know
we talked a little bit about the possibility of motive here.
We don't have any more information Joey here on that
that would likely also come from federal investigators, whether or
not the.

Speaker 5 (58:28):
Gunman said anything, screamed anything.

Speaker 9 (58:30):
We had a horrific attack just a few months ago
at a Jewish facility, and right before that shooting happened
in the evening hours, the suspect in that case yelled
out free pala signed and shot and killed two people
as well.

Speaker 5 (58:42):
We don't know in this.

Speaker 9 (58:43):
Case whether or not the suspect indicated.

Speaker 5 (58:46):
His motives verbally.

Speaker 9 (58:47):
But these people that were attacked, Joey, they were in
their very normal to see camouflage gear. And I say
that sounds weird to say it like that, but they
were in their National Guard attire, which would be the
camouflage as you know, as you well know. But also
in addition to that, on the back of what they
were wearing was a huge black vest, if you will,

(59:09):
that also had white lettering that said National Guard. So
you would not mistake these people as just ordinary tourists
or as DC police, but these stood out as members
of the National Guard.

Speaker 5 (59:19):
One other question we're.

Speaker 9 (59:20):
Going to have to try to piece together too, is
was there any other additional debts threats to these members
of the National Guard. They've been out here on the
streets of DC for several months and we've kind of
seen them come in waves where if you are on
the National Mall, you may see them, but then the
next day you may not see anybody.

Speaker 5 (59:34):
I live in the city.

Speaker 9 (59:35):
I saw some just on Sunday evening as I was
walking home. And they just depend on where they are
being deployed. It's not like they are on every city block,
but they have been stationed at high traffic points like
a metrostop.

Speaker 5 (59:47):
They wanted their presence to be known.

Speaker 9 (59:49):
They wanted people to know that they were here and
that they were going to be visible. And Joey, when
I was at the shooting scene before the police moved
us all back a block, we saw members of the
National Guard standing ready, still on duty. Obviously very curious
of what was happening and praying for those that were hurt,
but in an indication that their mission.

Speaker 5 (01:00:05):
Is going to continue even after today's tragedy.

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
Joe, all right, so there's Mark Meredith reporting for Fox News.
It's good to just hear somebody who's there, you know,
and reporting. He makes it sound like four o'clock is
about the time that we would anticipate a press briefing.
I hate to make those types of promises, but I
don't want you to miss it. If it happens. If

(01:00:29):
it happens while we're in a commercial break, and they
start while we're in a commercial break, fear not. We
have the ability to play it in its entirety as
it begins. You know, we're technologically savvy on this afternoon show,
so we're able to make that happen for him.

Speaker 5 (01:00:46):
Good afternoon, everybody.

Speaker 11 (01:00:47):
My name is Cashptel, FBI Director. We're here to brief
you on the tragic events that happened today at approximately
two to fifteen local time in Washington, DC. 're two
of our brave members of the National Guard and the
Department of War. We're brazenly attacked in a horrendous act
of violence.

Speaker 5 (01:01:03):
They were shot.

Speaker 11 (01:01:05):
They're in critical condition as you can see behind me.
We have assembled the full force of both the federal
and state and local law enforcement agencies to bring bear
all of our resources to make sure we find the
perpetrators responsible for this heinous act and make no mistake,
they will be brought to justice. Since this is an
assault on a federal law enforcement officer, this will be

(01:01:25):
treated at the federal level as an assault.

Speaker 5 (01:01:27):
On a Fed law enforcement officer.

Speaker 11 (01:01:30):
The FBI will lead out on that mission with our
interagency partners to include the Department of Homeland Security Secret
Service atf DEA, and we're thankful for the mayor's assistance
in this matter. The Metropolitan Police Department and their skills
in investigating homicides and gun shootings in this city is exceptional.
We will work together collaboratively because this is a matter

(01:01:51):
of national security, because it is a matter of pride.
President Trump has been informed, we've been in contact with
the White House. Will we will short chain the American
public with no resources to make sure we find and
safeguard our nation's capital right here in Washington, DC and
bring anyone responsible for this heinous act of violence to Justice.

(01:02:13):
I would lastly like to add to the American public
in the world, please send your prayers to those brave
warriors who are in critical condition and their families. They
are here serving our country. They are here protecting everyday
Americans and citizens around the world in our nation's capital.
They are the heroes of this day and we must
remember them on this day and every day, and their

(01:02:33):
families and the sacrifice they have made. I will now
turn it over to Chief Carol the Metropolitan Police Department.

Speaker 12 (01:02:38):
Thank you, good afteran everyone. My name is Jeff Carroll On,
the Executive Assistant Chief here at the Metropolitan Police Department.
At approximately two fifteen this afternoon, members of the DC
National Guard we're on high visibility patrols in the area
of seventeenth and I Street Northwest. When a suspect came
around the corner is on with the firearm and discharge

(01:03:01):
at the National Guard members. The National Guard members, there
were other members that were in the area. They were
able to, after some back and forth, able to subdue
the individual and bring them in the custody within moments.
Members of law enforcement in the area were also able
to assist and bring the individual into custody at this time.
As the Director mentioned, the National Guard members are being

(01:03:23):
treated at a local hospital. DC Fire and Ems respond
to the scene to provide first aid for those.

Speaker 5 (01:03:28):
Individuals and transport them to a local hospital.

Speaker 12 (01:03:30):
The suspect in this case was also transported for treatment
at a local hospital.

Speaker 5 (01:03:35):
And am Mayor, thank you.

Speaker 13 (01:03:38):
I'm Muriel Bowser, I'm the mayor of Washington, d C.
And I to want to send my thoughts and prayers
to the families of the guardsmen and to the guardsmen
who are in critical condition in a local hospital. I
am joined by members in leadership from the DC National Guard,

(01:04:00):
from the West Virginia National Guard, United States Secret Service
Deputy Mayra Apia Fire Chief Donnelley, and Metro's general manager
Randy Clark, and we join with the FBI Director in
ensuring that MPD investigates the US Attorney prosecutes this case

(01:04:22):
to the fullest extent of the law. I've had the
opportunity to breathe US Attorney General Pambondi, who was speaking
to the President when I called, as well as the
United States Attorney Pierrot, who assured me that her this
case will have her office's complete attention.

Speaker 10 (01:04:44):
Mayor is there any other suspect?

Speaker 9 (01:04:47):
Chief?

Speaker 5 (01:04:48):
Sure so.

Speaker 12 (01:04:49):
Now at this time, there's no indication there was any
other suspect. The one suspect that was involved in this incident,
they were shot during the interaction and they were transported
to the hospital for treatment.

Speaker 13 (01:05:02):
What we know, Andrea, is that this is a target
at shooting one individual who appear to target these guardsmen.
That individual has been taken into custody.

Speaker 9 (01:05:12):
Man all more details on the condition of the two
National Guards shit, whether or not anyone else was injured,
and a.

Speaker 1 (01:05:21):
Quick question for the FBI directink.

Speaker 5 (01:05:23):
You said that we'll make sure we find the perpetrators
for this act.

Speaker 9 (01:05:27):
So just to clarify, the person believed to be responsible
is in custody and there are no other suspects.

Speaker 12 (01:05:34):
Sure so, I can start out again, Chief Carol from MPD. So,
both the individuals, the Guard members, they are in critical
in the condition at local hospital at this time being treated.
At this point, we have no other suspects. We have
reviewed video from the area. It appears, like I said,
to be a lone gunman that raised the firearm and
ambushed these members of the National Guard, and he was
quickly taken into custody by other National Guard members and
law enforcement members. Any sense of motive now at this time,

(01:05:58):
Obviously we're very in the plenary state investigations. You know,
there's a lot of things, a lot of agents that
are here from various federal agencies, law enforcement agencies. We
have the full power of the FBI and or federal
partners here in the task force. So we're looking at
all those different aspects, but we don't have any motive.
The National guardsmen that were shot, I'm told they were armed.

Speaker 5 (01:06:17):
At this time.

Speaker 12 (01:06:18):
That's part of the pulminary investigation. Sure, so how the
suspect was apprehended. As I said, the individual, the suspect
came around the corner. He immediately started firing a firearm
at the two National Guard members. Uh So at that time,
there were other National Guard.

Speaker 5 (01:06:34):
Members that were in the area. Uh they heard the gunfire.

Speaker 12 (01:06:37):
They actually uh were able to intervene and to kind
of hold down the suspect after he had been shot
on the ground to a law enforcement got there within moments.
At this point, we're still investigating exactly who shot the individual.
It's not clear at this time. We don't know kind
of weapon there was DC Police. It happened right in
front of the Metro, although there is no indication that

(01:06:58):
the perpetrator was on the Metro. So there's Metro Transit
police in the area and obviously being on seventeenth Street
by the White House, a uniformed division Secret Services we're
in the immediate area as well.

Speaker 5 (01:07:09):
We do not know at this time. It's still inn investigations.