Meet the Press NOW — September 4

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I'm Kristen Welker in Washington. We will get to the very latest from the campaign trail and new allegations of Russian election interference in just a moment. But we begin with breaking news out of Georgia where at least four people are dead and nine have been hospitalized after a gunman opened fire at Appalachian High School in Windert, Georgia. We're expecting an update from authorities at the scene later this hour.

We will bring you that when it starts. The scene earlier today and all too familiar one for schools in America, first responders on the scene, students evacuating, parents scrambling to make sure their kids are okay. Law enforcement officials tell NBC News that the suspected gunman is a teenager who is alive and in custody, authorities have not revealed the suspect's identity or potential motive or the identities of the victims. In a statement, President Biden said the administration was working with local officials while reiterating his call for Congress to pass stricter gun laws.

While Vice President Harris addressed the shooting from the campaign trail calling it a quote senseless tragedy. NBC News Law enforcement and intelligence correspondent Tom Winter joins me now also with me as NBC News correspondent Marissa Parra. Tom, let me start with you and the investigation. We should say that we are anticipating a news conference from Georgia.

What do we know about what happened this morning? Well, that's right, Chris, in that news conference expected to begin at approximately 4 30 p.m. Eastern time. It's going to be the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is kind of the statewide investigating body and law enforcement agency who looks at these big crimes or does complex investigations in Georgia along with the local sheriff's office and the FBI.

The FBI, we are told, is there in an assist mode? And that just means that there's not a motive at this point that we'll turn this into a federal investigation. We haven't heard anything along those lines such as terrorism or hate, but obviously we're waiting to get more information and we're waiting to get more information because the suspect who's been identified as a teenager, that suspect is alive and we don't know whether or not they're talking to police or not, which would presumably help them with a motive. They did not have an identification on their person that maybe tells us a little bit of information, Kristen, that they are not yet at the age of 16.

So perhaps they don't yet have a driver's license. And that's why we're being cautious with publicly identifying that individual because a minor, of course, and there's consequences with that. But also we want to make sure that information is right. And that's based off of some instances that have happened with other minor shooters in mass shootings in the past.

So that's what we know about this individual, which admittedly is not much. Shooting happened sometime before 10, 30 a.m. Eastern time this morning. Four killed, as you mentioned, nine injured.

We do anticipate the number of injured to go up, but that's because we have been told that a number of individuals were injured in the process of fleeing that school. We've heard from students all day long, just the emotional response they had to hearing that gunfire and having to leave their school. And here we are just a few days after Labor Day into the start of a school year across the country and already talking about yet another school shooting. And so we'll continue to wait for details from law enforcement and the gun.

The fact that this individual is a teenager and that they are under the laws and the legal limits of Georgia, how they were able to get that gun, all questions we have and all things were hopeful, Kristen, to get answers to. Yeah, I would like to say it's hard to believe that this could happen so soon after Labor Day and yet it is not. Unfortunately, here we are again reporting on yet another tragic school shooting. Tom, let me ask you, as you mentioned, one suspect is in custody.

What do you know about whether anyone else was involved in this? Sure. So no indications of any other individuals of the information coming on the record to us from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that this individual is alive. The fact that they were taken into custody occurred apparently shortly after the shooting began in the fact that this individual is alive is a bit of a rarity.

We've seen in some of these mass shootings, oftentimes the suspect is shot by police or in fact shoots themselves. So that's a little bit of a rarity. No indications of a second individual at this time. And of course, a second shooter or another person involved is actually quite rare in these type of events.

So at this point, it seems to be fairly well contained and police have been clear that there's no other at large threat to that particular community. And we haven't heard anything along the lines of some sort of any sort of international involvement. I always put an asterisk on that these days because the types of things that kids consume at home, because of smartphones, because of computers, they're access to information from all over the world and within this country that can sometimes push somebody to do this. Well, that's a separate story altogether.

Yeah, well, I know you will continue to work this story. Tom Winter, thank you so much. Marissa, let me turn to you. I know we've heard from some of the students, the parents, grandparents in that community.

What are folks saying there? To summarize, Kristen, it was chaos and trauma that we've been hearing largely, whether it's from students who witnessed it firsthand or from loved ones who rushed to the scene. I want to take you to some of what we saw, those striking images, whether it's the images of those ambulances lined up. And I mean, one after another, after another outside of this high school or the reunification process, we saw so many videos of breathless parents, loved ones, and they were just loved ones sprinting to make sure that their students, that their children were not among those who had been injured or were killed.

And so among what we're hearing from students who, by the way, you know, this is a high school, these are ages anywhere between 13, maybe 19 tops, Kristen. They started school one month ago. And so this was in the midst of probably that back to school excitement. And instead of exactly that, Kristen, they describe hearing gunshots, seeing blood, seeing gunpowder on the floor and running for their lives, listening to yourself.

I heard gun shots and then my teacher tore us together corner. And then we, they were cleaning this, I heard like screaming and police officers like get down, put your hands on your head. It was crazy. And then when they were clearing their building, like the rooms, because you know, sometimes they shoot us high amongst the kids, they were clearing our room and busted the door.

And they had to AK at us. Like, sometimes they put your hands in the air. It was really crazy. You just never know what's going to happen.

What was the one thing that happened? Hot towels are going to die. And I was going to go to the bathroom right before it happened. And I'm so glad I didn't because I'll probably be dead right now.

I feel really sorry for the kids that they've had to experience this and the parents who got those phone calls that it was their child. And Kristin, I want to point out how tight knit this community is. This is, Winder has 19,000 people. This is a small community situated between Athens, Georgia and Atlanta.

And this school, this high school has an enrollment about 1800. So we want to point out even if that number does remain as it is, which at this moment stands at four dead, nine injured. I mean, this entire community changed forever, Kristin. Yeah, it's just devastating to hear those accounts from Winder.

Let me ask you about the victims. Marissa, are we hearing anything about them, about their families as the woman who was interviewed there just indicated it just the worst nightmare of any parent to get that phone call? So Kristin, I will say that I am seeing a lot of posts and chatter online. And we, of course, always want to be careful and err on the side of caution for two reasons.

Of course, one, we want to make sure that we're accurate and we're still waiting for confirmation from police from law enforcement. And it's not just because of accuracy. It's also for the sake of respect for the families. A lot of times they don't release names because there are family members still waiting to get notified to find out that this is going to be the worst day of their lives.

But what I can say, as I mentioned, four dead, nine injured, as it stands right now, it is still preliminary information. But we are learning new details from area hospitals who are telling NBC News, confirming that they did get victims. Kristin confirming that they had everything from gunshot wounds. They had victims with gunshot wounds to victims who had anxiety and panic attack symptoms.

And so that is important to remember, because a lot of times when we do see this number of injuries reported, we don't always know what the extent of those injuries are. Sometimes it can be a piece of debris that hits someone. It could be in the midst of the chaos running away. People do get injured, even if it's, you know, being trampled on by other people.

So of course, we're still waiting to find out and confirm many things here. We're expecting that update very soon from police, the local sheriff's office there. But I will say that from what I am seeing to summarize online, Kristin, we're hearing really from loved ones who did make it, but just absolute anguish for people that the community suspects did not, Kristin. And as we mentioned, a very small and tight-knit community that it's going to take a long time for them to recover from this.

Absolutely, Merissa. Thank you for your great reporting. Really appreciate it. We will, of course, come back to you if that news conference gets underway, Tom Winter, as well.

Thanks for your investigative reporting, as always. We will continue to follow the latest developments out of Georgia and bring you updates as we get them. But we do want to turn now to the final sprint to election day as both campaigns to the trail, Vice President Harris speaking in New Hampshire just moments ago, addressing the Georgia shooting. Take a look.

This is just a senseless tragedy on top of so many senseless tragedies. It's just outrageous that every day in our country, in the United States of America, that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive. It's senseless. We've got to stop it.

And we have to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country once and for all. Now, former President Trump also weighed in, saying on social media that, quote, our hearts are with the victims and loved ones of those affected by the tragic event. The vice president is spending the day in New Hampshire as her running makes stops in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania. Former President Trump also in Pennsylvania today to take a Fox News Town Hall as JD Vance is set to deliver remarks in battleground Arizona.

It comes as new battleground polling shows Harris opening up a small lead over the former president in four key swing states, though all of these races are within the margin of error. Take a look. National polls, meanwhile, show key Democratic voting blocks who are unenthusiastic about voting for Biden starting to come home. Harris has improved on Biden's lackluster support among black voters, but not enough to match Biden's 2020 numbers.

Remember, this is a group Democrats won by 75 points in the 2020 presidential race. Harris has recaptured the lead over Trump among Hispanics, but again is not yet matching the 2020 margin Democrats won with Hispanics by more than 30 points in 2020. She's also made notable gains compared to Biden among young voters. NBC News is taking a deeper look at that critical group of voters at a first of its kind poll of Gen Z voters aged 18 to 29.

NBC's state to correspondent Marquise Francis has more on what's motivating them and what it could mean for November. Right now, Gen Z voters are supporting Vice President Kamala Harris and her bid for the White House. It is locked in. I am voting for Kamala Harris.

Yes, Donald Trump, I think would be if not close to the end of our democracy if he is elected president again. According to a new NBC News state to Gen Z poll, 50% of registered Gen Z voters support Harris in comparison to 34% who support Trump. I trust her. Many young voters we spoke to said the vice president is stepping into the race changed their feelings about the election.

I think ever since Kamala stepped into the plate, I've seen a whole new energy. At the start of the election, I was really worried with Kamala. I'm kind of excited. It's something new.

She's young. Age, something young voters say matters with 73% supporting setting a maximum age limit for candidates to be eligible to run for president. I think it should be across the board. I think when it comes to Congress, they also meet age limits.

There will be one that said that I will do it. I think belong to the nursing home. Like a candidate that is almost 80 years old has no idea what it's like to be in my shoes. And the number one issue they say they care about right now?

The economy, I hate to say that I am leaving paycheck to paycheck. I still have to work a second job to pay my rent. Young voters put inflation and cost of living as their most important issue, followed by threats to democracy and abortion. The youngest generation of voters ready to make their voices heard this election.

My vote matters 100%. I'm excited to vote. I don't think this election could be any more important. Marquise Francis joins me now for more on our Gen Z poll also with me, NBC senior political editor Mark Murray and NBC News chief political analyst Chuck Todd here on set.

Marquise, let me start with you. Obviously we showed the poll numbers, but you actually talked to some of these voters. What was your big takeaway here? Yeah, thank you for having me.

As mentioned in the package, so many voters told me they're energized about this race. But they also said that they are also nervous and a little scared about what's to come. As we noted, about 50% of respondents said they would support and vote for Kamala Harris, but also 34% said they would vote for Trump. And I also want to add the fact that seven in 10 respondents said they believe the US is ready for a female president, which pretty much pales into comparison.

In contrast, a lot of chatter we heard right when President Biden dropped out of the race. And so many people saying, is the US actually ready for a female president? Gen Z is saying they are. And as we also noted in the package, age is a big concern.

And so Vice President Harris right now is 59. She has a birthday next month. And so she will be 60 compared to when President Trump was currently 78 and 73% of our respondents said they actually support setting age limit. And they believe it should be actually lower than 70.

And if former President Trump were to win this election, he would be 82, older than Biden at the end of that first term, next term. It's just fascinating, Marquise. Just very quickly, obviously, tragic day as we track another school shooting this time out of Georgia. I know that the poll asked Gen Z voters about the issue of gun violence.

How does it rank in comparison to the other issues? Yeah, well, in total, about 85% of Gen Z responded and said they are either very concerned or somewhat concerned about gun violence. And as you mentioned, we saw what happened today in Georgia. I looked up a statistic in every town for a gun safety set.

There's been more than 100 incidents of students on school grounds this year alone. And as you mentioned, also in Georgia, this is less than a month in school. But it also pales in comparison to how Gen Z voters feel about other concerns in terms of the number one issue being inflation and the cost of living. One in three respondents said that is their top concern, actually spoke to a 22 year old in Arizona who's in fight school.

And he actually mentioned that he has to pick up two to three additional jobs just to get bought. He said the cost of gas is going up. You're not able to get as much with groceries. And so these are real concerns.

And depending on what Gen Z voters think and who the right candidate can kind of make things better, that's what they're voting for. Marquise, great reporting. Thank you for breaking that all down. Really appreciate it.

We're going to break it down even further now with Chuck and Mark. Let me start with you. What do you make of these Gen Z numbers? How significant were the big takeaways here?

Well, looking at the horse race overall, Kristin, you know, obviously a 16 point advantage for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump is better than what we end up seeing from a lot of national polling when Joe Biden was leading the Democratic ticket. But it's not yet at the 2020 levels or certainly even what Barack Obama was able to get in 2008 and 2012. And so when I look at those young voter numbers as well as Latinos and all the other demographic groups, Harris isn't a better place than Biden was, but she's not out of the woods politically. Yeah, and still has some improvement to do.

Yeah, Chuck, that last point that Mark makes seems to be the ongoing challenge for Vice President Harris. You still not at those rates that she would need to be at in order to walk away with this. And that's why this is so close. Well, you know, the spread matters in some ways less than the percentage of voters that are under the age of 35 that show up.

All right. And one of the it's just an easy test, right? If Gen Z shows up in numbers that are equal to voters over 65, Harris is going to win. Hard stop.

That's what we saw with Obama. That's what we saw with Biden. If that if that is not if Gen Z underperforms with the other three generations, millennials, boomers and older voters, then then you start to me that's that's our challenge. But this is where just look at the 2022 in terms of 2018, mid-term, but purely 2022.

Younger women are fired up the vote and it all has to do with the cops. Yeah. Okay. So break that down, Mark, because here you see economy is their top issue, young voters, top issue with all voters, top issue or by a larger margin.

But Chuck's right, the issue of productive rights, the issue of abortion, Roe v. Wade being overturned, we have seen it being a motivating factor and a change maker since the midterms. Yeah. And getting at that motivating factor, Chris, I think it's important to note this poll, like a lot of other wins, what's the most important issue and always the economy and the cost of living pops is number one.

What is a little bit different about this poll is that the threats to democracy is a little bit less than we've seen in our national polling and also immigration well down from what we often end up seeing over all national polls. But when we talk about the issue of abortion, one way our national poll outside of this poll often does it is, is there a single issue that you would vote for regardless and that single issue of voter, that's when abortion really does start to pop. And so just asking, it's like, what's the most important issue for the election? It doesn't quite get at the motivating factor.

Yeah. I think that whole democracy, I think it's a terrible construction because I think that is an eye of the beholder. It's a bit subjective. Some people say threats to democracy and see the jobs decision.

Other people say threats to democracy and see January 6th, other people say threats to democracy and see going after Donald Trump and the trials, right? So I think that's a very misleading poll, a result, a cross book. Everybody's been doing it. Yeah, right.

Trying to create this umbrella. Right. And I really think it's led people to misleading that result. Talk, going back to the point you make though, about turnout.

What are you seeing when you look at the enthusiasm numbers? Well, look, what you see is the enthusiasm numbers have been there for Trump and now your now Harris has got it even. And I think a debt even race, then you start to look at mechanics of the campaign. And this is where the mechanics of the Harris campaign look to me a lot more reliable than what the Trump campaign is doing.

You know, look, take Gen Zic. They're both targeting specific sort of sub demographic groups within Gen Z. Obviously, Harris is going after women, young women. Well, Trump's going after the gamers, right?

The young men on this, but they are not frequent voters. Many of them are not even registered. And so this has been a, it is, they're relying, and I think turning this operation over to these turning points folks who have no track record for actually doing elections. They have a track record for rhetoric on the internet, but they don't really have a track record of actually door knocking.

You know, he has outsourced a lot of his get out the vote. So if you have equal enthusiasm, you'd rather have the ones that know where these voters live than the ones who are relying on outside groups to do it. I want to read a little bit of Chuck's column from this week. Have you both two on it a little bit?

You write Chuck that whoever swing voters see as the most incumbent like will lose this race, effectively. What do you mean? And it's so fascinating to think about it because Harris is in office and yet Trump's the only one who's been president. It's a sin.

It's just look at every election we've had in the 21st century. Okay. We've since 2005, we believe that country's been headed in the wrong direction. So every opportunity voters have been giving to basically change directions in Washington, one way or the other.

They've chosen that. We've we've had multiple times to Senate's change chance, multiple times the House has changed hands, multiple times the White House has changed hands. You know what, how often that happened in the 20th century? Yeah.

That's changed hands once in 50 years. Okay. Then a little bit before then, but the last four years, I mean, we had stability upon stability. We only have one, one term president who was preceded by another party and succeeded by another party.

This time we're doing it all over the place. So no, you cannot be seen as the incumbent. And this is why she's basically trying to paint Trump as the, as the leader of this political era. Yeah.

Therefore he is, you know, the incumbent of the era and obviously, hey, you're part of this administration. And I do think it is either beholder. If you care about policies and you don't like some of the Biden policies, then you're probably might have a shot at your vote. But if you're like tired of the chaos, that's a different type of incumbent or change election.

So much makes this moment unprecedented. And this is yet another dynamic. Well, even on the policy that Chuck was talking about, you know, you end up looking at polling where Harris right now is doing better on the economy and immigration than Joe Biden ever was. So it was a better, right?

And you know, when you actually look at say, well, I'm really upset about the Joe Biden presidency or the Biden, you know, Biden Harris on the economy and on immigration, then all of a sudden, when Harris is doing better than Joe Biden ever was, you see how she is not being viewed as an incumbent, even on an issue like immigration, where she did kind of have a little bit of a role in the administration. Right. And it's Chuck is saying the Trump folks are doing everything they can to say no, she is the incumbent. We obviously have a debate coming up in less than a week.

Mark, we saw the significance of debates in the debate between Biden and Trump. What are you watching for? I'm looking at this board seeing if this honeymoon period and it's important to note that this month plus has been a honeymoon for Harris for the Democratic Party. And I haven't been in a presidential spin covering elections like this, where one candidate and one party's had four or five, six weeks of nothing but really good news or no adversities.

As we all know, even with successful candidates, there is a diversity. Barack Obama faces it, Donald Trump, of course, in 2016. And at some point, there is actually going to be her time in the ring. I don't know if that's going to be the debate or even afterwards, but there's going to be some type of transition.

Keep this in mind. Donald Trump has only succeeded in one, one on debate, one on one debate ever. And it was because his opponent was barely ambulatory. I'm sorry.

Like that's why, you know, if you had just listened to Trump without hearing Biden, you wouldn't have said Trump had a very good debate. He was sort of meandering. He was all over the place. He just wasn't meandering in all over the place.

You know, it's all about, right? You know, don't judge me by the Almighty. Judge me by the alternative. I think this debate, Trump has more to lose than Kamala.

If Kamala flops, voters are willing, probably willing to see a second. Let's see how you do the second time. As bad as they fear, that's a bad sign for us. Okay.

Well, a lot to watch. Thank you for breaking all of that down. Mark and Chuck, great to see you both. Well, you are now looking at Winder, Georgia, where we are waiting an update from authorities on the Appalachian High School shooting.

That's expected around 4.30 Eastern. Also coming up, breaking news from the Justice Department, the Biden administration is cracking down on alleged Russian plot to interfere in the 2024 presidential election. We'll have details straight ahead if you're watching. Meet the press now.

Well, the back, we are following breaking news with the Biden administration taking aggressive action against Russia for allegedly trying to influence the 2024 election. Announcing this afternoon a series of coordinated actions by the State Department, the Treasury Department and the Justice Department that include sanctions and criminal charges against two Russian media operatives. It comes in response to an alleged scheme by Russian actors and its state-controlled broadcast of Russia today, also known as RT, to spread Russian propaganda and disinformation targeting U.S. Voters.

Here's Attorney General Merrick Garland this afternoon at the start of a meeting of the Justice Department's election threats task force. The Justice Department's message is clear. We have no tolerance for attempts by authoritarian regimes to exploit our democratic system of government. We'll be relentlessly aggressive in countering and disrupting attempts by Russia and Iran, as well as China or any other foreign-malign actor interfere in our elections and undermine our democracy.

NBC News Justice and Intelligence correspondent, Ken D'Alenia joins me now. So, Ken, a significant announcement today by DOJ, by the Attorney General. Talk about why this is such an important moment. Well, Kristin, for one thing, it shows how far the U.S.

government has come since 2016, when the FBI and other agencies essentially looked on helplessly while Russia interfered in that presidential election through Internet propaganda and also by hacking and leaking material. And then years later, explained it all in an indictment of several Russian intelligence operatives. Now, they are acting proactively. In the middle of the election campaign, they are unrolling this massive action across three agencies.

You have an indictment, you have seizures of 32 Internet sites, you have sanctions by the Treasury Department, designations by the State Department. The indictment is perhaps most significant. The DOJ has indicted two employees of RT, formerly known as Russia today, which U.S. government has said for years as essentially Russian government propaganda platform, but accusing them of orchestrating a $10 million propaganda scheme by sending information disguised as real news to American companies.

In one case, a company we identified that appears to be Tenet Media in Tennessee, which put out stuff on YouTube that had like 16 million views. So, there was a far reach to this operation. It had impact. But the Justice Department, the other parts of the Biden administration trying to nip it in the bud and they say that this investigation is ongoing.

They're not going to stop between now and the election. You know, Ken, it's interesting because a lot of people will say, wait a minute, didn't the Biden administration already accuse Russia of interfering? Why is the indictment necessary given that? How does it change or add to or bolster that accusation by the Biden administration?

Yeah, well, these two people in there that are in Russia, so they're outside the reach of U.S. courts. But what this does is it stops the operation essentially. This company that was publishing these YouTube videos that millions of people were watching has now been named essentially an unwitting, supposedly unwitting victim of this Russian propaganda operation.

So that stops it essentially. And when they seize these 32 other domains, these were places on the internet where Russian propaganda, Russian disinformation was leaking into the American discourse. So it's a way of holding the Russians accountable. It's also a way of stopping the bad actions.

And you know, America, Garland was very firm today saying we're not going to tolerate this. So, Ken Dileen, thank you so much for that report. Well, law enforcement officials are about to provide an update on that deadly shooting that took place at Apache High School in Georgia this morning. You see them approaching the microphones.

Let's give them a moment to get settled and listen in. Georgia, real investigation. And we wanted to come back this afternoon and present you with a little more of a timeline of the events that have taken place here today. And then what we know up to this point with the investigation.

At approximately 10, 20 a.m. this morning, the Barre County Sheriff's Office received alerts about reports of an active shooter and radio traffic from school resource officers concerning the same concern or having the same concern within minutes law enforcement was on scene as well as two school resource officers assigned here to the school who immediately encountered the subject within just minutes of this report going out. Once they encountered the subject, the subject immediately surrendered to these officers and he was taken into custody. Additionally, what I want you to know, as of now, there are four individuals who are deceased from this incident, nine that have been taken to local hospitals with various injuries.

So those that were deceased, two of students and two of teachers here at the school. The priority right now for us within this investigation is to gather all the facts, to make sure that we're accurate with it because this is a murder investigation. As the sheriff mentioned earlier this morning, the shooter is in custody. His name is Colt, that's C-O-L-T Gray.

He is a 14 year old student here at the school, G-R-A-Y. He is a 14 year old student here at the high school. Again, he has been taken into custody. He will be charged with murder and he will be tried as an adult.

We are coordinating these charges and obviously this investigation with District Attorney Brad Smith, who is the District Attorney for the P-MOT Judicial Circuit here. Since earlier this morning, we talked with the assistant and the current numerous interviews have been taking place through our investigation with students, faculty, as well as any other witnesses that we could identify. Law enforcement had a very, very swift response to this incident. Once the incident was determined that there was a concern here, those resources, whether it was a net response or throughout this investigation to assist, came obviously from the sheriff's office here, from other local law enforcement agencies, state law enforcement agencies, and the federal law enforcement agencies as well.

To include not to be left out, multiple EMS personnel, multiple fire personnel, and agencies, those agencies responded here as well today. And I am extremely grateful, as I know this year, for that quick response and the partnerships of working here together with what all is going on. Currently from the investigative perspective, we have crime scene agents and other special agents from the GBI from close to a dozen of our different work units from across the state that have responded here today to work on this investigation, again, collecting evidence, conducting interviews, and so forth. I do want to pass this along, that if anyone has any information that wants to be passed on concerning this investigation, that they can do that anonymously at our tip line at 1-800-597-TIPS or 1-800-597-8477.

They can also report this by downloading to see something, send something out. They can be done by Android or Apple phones either one. They need to report any tips concerning this investigation. Let me close out before I turn this over to the sheriff.

And it lets you just remind you that this is still a very active investigation. There is still a lot that is very fluid. There are still a lot of interviews to be conducted that will continue on into the night, as well as crime scene work and collecting and gathering evidence. But what is more important for me to mention here to you is my heartfelt sympathy to the parents, the students that were here today, regardless of where they were in the school.

This has got a great impact on them as well as on this community. My thoughts and prayers along with everybody standing behind me and every law enforcement agency in this state, and many I will tell you around this country, they are in our thoughts and prayers. And we will continue with that. We ask for your patience as we continue through this and we will continue to try to give you as many updates with information as we can to keep you informed.

But thank you for being here. I'm now going to turn it over to Barricani Sheriff Judge Smith. Thank you. HOSE Y.

Good afternoon. I'm Sheriff Judge Smith at the Barricani Sheriff's office. I never imagined that I would be speaking to the media in my career over something that happened today, the pure evil that happened today. I cannot thank the people behind me for the support they give me today and give this office and give this staff.

This sits home for me. I was born and raised here. I went to school in the school system. My kids go to the school system.

I'm proud of the school system. My heart hurts for these kids. My heart hurts for our community. But I want to make it very clear that hate will not prevail in this county.

I want that to be very clear and known. Love will prevail over what happened today. I assure you that. It is very early as to what happened.

Governor Kent reached out to me and has provided me every single resource that he has to make sure justice prevails. I don't know why it happened. I may not ever know. We may not ever know.

But I ask that you and our community lift up our schools, lift up our public safety, and that again, we do not let this hateful event prevail as to what happened today. I want to thank the surrounding agencies and counties and cities and state and federal authorities that have come and provided us because they prevented a lot of more tragic events from happening. Continue to lift up these families, continue to lift up our students and our kids and know that love will prevail. At this time, I'm going to ask Dr.

Lauduff, our school superintendent to come and speak, on behalf of the school. Good afternoon. I'm Dallas Lauduff. I'm the superintendent of the Barric County School System.

I want to thank the Barricount Sheriff's Office and all of our law enforcement partners for their swift response today, along with that of our staff. I'd also like to thank our community for their response and patience as we work to reunify the students with their families here today and secure the rest of our school campuses. Our schools will be closed for the remainder of this week as we cooperate fully with law enforcement to get answers to the many questions that we all have about this incident here today. But as we have closed, our central offices will remain open where we will have brief counseling available for our community every day this week and thereafter as we support each other through this terrible event.

In closing, I just want to say to our community, as a school system, we are here for you. We support you and we are ready to get you any support that you may need as we grieve through this together. Thank you. Sure.

I'm saying, hey, you're not the family's community. Are you investigating this as some sort of heat crime? Well, shortly, if someone decides to take a firearm into a school where kids are given an education or an entitlement education, we want to harm others, so meet a table. Sir, if you can talk about the visual interaction, please.

We have a table of thought we should. I didn't describe that to us. I didn't know exactly how it was. Obviously, the shooter was armed and our school resource officer engaged him and the shooter quickly realized that if he did not give up, that it would end with an OIS, an officer involved shooting.

He gave up, got on the ground, and the deputy took him into custody. Is there any idea of the weapon that inside the schoolman was really warning that this was going to happen? Not that I'm aware of, again, very early. And we're still looking into that, whether or how he obtained it and how he got it in the school.

As soon as I was done with his parents or his family to learn more about what led up to these moments. We have? No. We seem to have a large Hispanic population.

Have you been able to communicate with the people in their language to make sure that everybody knows what's happening? Yes, sir. I have the school. The school and our office has, people that speak in Spanish, and they have spoken to those folks as well.

Yes. Is the shooter talking? Is the shooter was interviewed? Sorry.

Is the shooter talking? Is he saying why? The shooter was interviewed, and he was speaking with our investigators earlier, along with the GBI. Oh, sorry.

He's saying it's not that I love you, Sheriff. It is helping our investigation. Sheriff, the force of threatening calls perhaps speaking to the school choir to the shootings that happened. None that I'm aware of.

I know that you have a lot of questions about the student that we mentioned that we identified earlier. Keep in mind that that's part of our investigation that we're looking into every aspect of that individual. This connection here at the school, obviously, as I mentioned earlier, he wasn't student here. So it was part of our investigation.

We're looking at all aspects current and prior involving that individual. Can you tell us how many rounds of fire? Yes. Can you tell us how many rounds of fire?

But the shooter is a student, yes. Why can't we expect this? We do not know how many rounds. We're not the president.

We're the shooter. How did he pass? He passed his involvement. Come on.

For now, this is the information that we have. It is an active investigation. I assure you, we do plan to come back out here in a couple of hours. Please make sure you're following the GBI X page.

That's where we're going to be putting the updates. If there's anything that's new, we'll make sure that we hear that information is still very early. Investigators have a lot of work to do. We appreciate your patience.

Do expect another in-person news conference out here next few hours. Monitor the X page and we'll be sure to update you accordingly. Thank you. That's the X-X.com.

Thank you. Thank you. And you have been listening to authorities in Winder, Georgia, just a tragic update to the shooting that occurred there earlier today. According to officials, four people are deceased.

Two of them are students, two teachers. Nine were taken to the hospital and you just heard the sheriff say all nine were in some capacity shot. Authority saying that the suspect is a 14-year-old student. He is in custody.

One official saying he will be charged with murder and tried as an adult. They also say that he's been interviewed and he is speaking to investigators as is his family. You could see the emotion in the sheriff's voice there, Sheriff Jud Smith, pausing, speaking through tears, calling what happened pure evil, saying that hate will not prevail. Love will prevail over what happened today.

And as we continue to break down what we just learned from authorities in Georgia, I do want to turn to NBC's Marissa Parra. Marissa, you could see the emotion in all of the authorities' faces. You could hear it in their voices, particularly the sheriff. Obviously, this entire community has been shattered.

Exactly, Kristen. And that's exactly what we were talking about earlier in this hour. In fact, when we talked about how tight-knit this community is, we heard from the sheriff himself saying that his own kids belong to this same school system. So you can imagine some of the very same people that are responding to this, whether it's local agencies, EMS, the sheriff's office, many of them likely have some sort of tie in some way or another.

So we heard that emotion. We also learned a couple of more details in addition to what you just recapped, Kristen. So we understand the police were on the scene within minutes. And that suspect who has now been identified as a 14-year-old student immediately surrendered and was taken into custody almost immediately.

You mentioned how this 14-year-old suspect is talking with investigators. They said that they don't know of any targets at this moment. But we always preface our information that we're reporting at this moment is preliminary. And they did the same because they're still deeply in the process of doing interviews, learning as much as they possibly can with survivors who are, of course, traumatized.

And they're young. Remember, this is a high school. We probably are talking about anywhere between 13 years old, 19 tops. And then, of course, we talk about the deceased, two students and two teachers dead.

We don't have any more details on those injured. We know that nine were hospitalized with gunshot wounds. But then we also talked about earlier, Kristen. We heard from hospitals in the area who said that they also had people walking in with other injuries, people who had panic attack and anxiety attack symptoms.

And this is pretty common in situations like this. It's chaotic. People are running for their lives. They might have been hit by debris.

We don't know. They might have tripped over themselves, hit their face. This is very common in these types of mass chaotic situations, especially in a mass shooting. I will add quickly, we heard from the school superintendent who said that Appalachia high schools, these area high schools, will be closed for the remainder of the week, probably for two reasons.

Kristen, one, they have a lot of investigating to do. And I know that this is something we'll be hearing from the Tom Winters of NBC, that investigation, they need to look through and comb through all of the evidence that is left. This is now a crime scene. This high school where students are supposed to go to learn.

But then there is also the trauma aspect of this. We've been hearing from eyewitness accounts of these very young people. And even, of course, they're loved ones. The trauma that is here.

So, Kristen, they also did mention that there is grief counseling for those who need it. In this area that is undoubtedly shaken. Yeah, Marissa, you heard the school superintendent saying there's going to be grief counseling for the remainder of the week and beyond. And of course, you could hear the reporters continuing to ask questions, even as the news conference was coming to a close, including was there any warning?

The sheriff said not that I'm aware of. But again, and I stress this point that you just made so well, this is still an investigation that is very much in its infancy, very much in its early stages. You heard every law enforcement official who just spoke make the point that they believe as though the response was swift and prevented a larger tragedy from happening. And again, that school officer engaging the shooter who did surrender.

Marissa, you've been talking to family members. You've been talking to those who live in the community and hearing from them throughout the day. What have people been saying about this horrific tragedy? Well, it's hard to talk about because you can feel and see and hear the trauma from people who witnessed this firsthand.

I mean, you have young high school students describe walking past a horrific scene. And I know that we have aired and I can have my producers let me know if we have any of this sound available to play. But we have heard firsthand from students who described seeing gunpowder and blood on the floor as they quite literally ran for their lives. And so of course, this is traumatic for those students and faculty and staff who had to witness this.

But then just as difficult to watch, Kristen, are these images of parents running breathlessly to that football field, waiting to make sure and find out that this is not going to be the worst day of their lives. That reunification process a slow one. For safety reasons, you can understand, if we can pull up a video that we saw, of course, there was a heavy police presence that still exists outside of that high school. All of those ambulances lined up one after another after another.

But then you see these large crowds that, you know, from a distance you see, it looks very small. But you guys think about it's of course not just law enforcement, it's not just EMS, it's students and parents waiting to reunite with each other. We've heard testimony from several who did not have their phones on them for one reason or another. So that delayed the process of their loved ones, even finding out if they were okay.

And so this is something that we understand is still happening right now. Love ones still waiting to be with their families. But Kristen, like we've talked about, I'll say it again, for dead at least nine injured. But this entire community, a tight knit one, changed forever from us.

Marissa Para, thank you so much for helping us cover what is yet another national tragedy, really appreciate your careful and thoughtful reporting. I do now want to bring in John Kasich, he's of course the former Republican governor of Ohio and NBC News political analyst, governor, thank you. Here we are on yet another unbearable day. Kristen, it's like, I remember the day we had a shooting in a tight knit small community.

I didn't go right away. I went a little bit later and went in and saw the principal, the superintendent, guidance counselor. We got everybody we could up there to help them with the trauma that was caused. Just like this community, this was a very tight knit community.

And I'll never forget the second night, the entire community gathered in the church. They had speakers outside the church. I mean, I'm sorry, the speakers were people could hear outside because there were so many people were there. Everybody in the community walked to that church.

Kristen, when something like this happens, it is what do I need to say that frankly hasn't been said. In a way, it's almost like a flashback when I think about the pain of that community. And I must tell you that over time, they did recover. I was there at the graduation of the seniors in the class that year.

And but I tell you, it's unfathomable in America and it happened so much at a time. And when I saw it today, I just couldn't believe it's happening again. Yeah. And here we are right after Labor Day, governor and talk to me a little bit about the role.

Obviously you heard the officials there, their emotion in their voices. They talked about the fact, obviously they've been in touch with governor Kemp. What is the, how did you see your role in that moment? What does governor Kemp need to do in this moment for that community?

What do you think that they will see? My role, my role basically Kristen was to be pretty invisible until they asked me. I mean, when I showed up, there were, you know, there were cameras and trucks with, you know, big, big, big ways in which to communicate. And I snuck in the back of that school.

They didn't know I was really there. And when I walked in and when it initially saw me, I think they were, they didn't know what to think. And I said, look, no one knows I'm here. I'm here to just do whatever I can to offer you support.

And I think they so much appreciated that. Because we got there, you know, that same day. I waited a few hours before I went. That was a smart thing to do.

But the fact that I had slipped in there and slipped out of there without anybody knowing, without any fanfare or anything like that, I think was deeply appreciated and went back to next day and met with all of them again. And then that night they asked me to be part of the program, which, you know, it's like, you know, what do you tell a community about the loss of young life? And what I did is I talked to them about what I had gone through with the death of my parents who had been killed by a drunk driver and how dark my world had been, but how I had somehow found my way. And I told them that they would find their way.

But it's important for them. It's important for the people in that church, that we're in that school, the superintendent, the principal, the guidance counselor, and what the governor can do is offer them all the help they need in terms of the counseling that they're going to need to get through this and open it wide. Yeah. Just not the kids in the school, the teachers superintendent, but anybody in the community.

Because it's a horrible impact on the community. If they can get the help they need, they can hang together, hold each other's hands, give each other hugs. They'll move forward. But you know, that's kind of like tomorrow.

It's a day, it's shock, it's stunning, it's a stunning development. It's a terrible, I mean, think about it, kids shooting kids, right? And then maybe sometime, Kristen, we should talk about why nothing ever seems to get done around this whole subject, but it's not for today. But let me also say the people who were in that school who responded the way they did and were able to secure that school from the shooter.

Think about them. Think about how excellent they were, the training that they had. We had almost the same kind of a thing where there was actually a guy from the gymnasium, you know, somebody that teaches that who chased the kid out of the school. They're heroes.

Those people are heroes. And but what Kemp should do is just make sure they have all the resources that they could possibly, that he has that they could possibly need. And my recommendation is low key. They'll tell you what they need from you.

And as you are making very clear part of that is just being present when you're needed. You know, the sheriff who was so emotional governor and you're right, I think the discussion about what to do about this will have you back to have that discussion. But he said something, he said, hate will not prevail. Love will prevail over what happened today.

It was so powerful. I thought that he had the presence of mind to say that. I want to be clear. He did not seem to be indicating that this was a hate crime.

Instead, he was saying, no, what you're saying, how can a 14 year old walk into a class and do this to their own classmates and their own schoolmates? Yeah, we don't know. And you know, somebody brought up mental illness to me earlier today. I don't want to go there.

We don't know. It's too early. This is not a time to speculate. But what I will tell you is if we did if the community holds together, which I'm sure they will, I'm sure they have a lot of strong faith elements in that community of all types.

If they can hang together here, the sun will come up. It will come up. It came up in that little community that I know so well now and it will come up in Georgia. But coming up is later, right now it's grief.

It's tears. It's sobbing. It's saying to the Lord, help us. Just like a dude, your father or your mother.

We need you. We need help and help will come. But now is the time to stay together, to hug and it's just terrible. And when you see it, it's children, you know, Kristen, children.

Yeah. That's the hardest part, I think, understanding that two children, that anyone would lose their life today at the start of the school year, but that two children were killed in this. It's just, I think, unbearable for that community and quite frankly for the country. Governor, thank you.

Thank you for joining us to give us your important perspective. Yeah. And we do, Kristen, at some point, not now, but at some point, we've got to discuss this and why things are not happening the way they should to protect our children. Well, I'm going to have you back.

Not today, but I will have you back to do have that very session. We'll have somebody back. I will have you back, Governor. Thank you.

Really appreciate your perspective. Thank you, you too, Governor. I'm back tomorrow with more Meet the Press now that is continues with Hallie Jackson right now. It's here.

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