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| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| I guess it's better to... | |
| I'm done with the climate all day. | |
| Alright, looks like Governor Abbott's about to come in and we'll get to this press conference. | |
| Thanks for watchin' and it's pretty good. | |
| Absolutely. | |
| Two years ago, I knew it was a year ago. | |
| Wow, what a good one. | |
| Oh, yeah, yeah, both live and be cool. | |
| Yeah, I want to bet that money is better. | |
| Come here. | |
| So, I'm going to take this. | |
| So, I'm going to take this. | |
| Thank you. | |
| I want to thank the great citizens of Stockdale For pitching in and helping out and continuing to demonstrate to the entire world the way that Texans come together to help their fellow Texans. | |
| As a state, we are dealing with the largest mass shooting in our state's history. | |
| There are so many families who have lost family members. | |
| Fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters. | |
| The tragedy, of course, is worsened by the fact that it occurred in a church, a place of worship, where these people were innocently gunned down. | |
| We mourn their loss, but we support their family members. | |
| We appreciate the first responders and what they've done to help respond to this challenge. | |
| They are continuing in their efforts as they Put all the pieces of a very complex puzzle together to try to provide their community all the answers they need and deserve. | |
| Unfortunately, I'm sad to tell you to confirm, at least at this moment in time, there are 26 lives that have been lost. | |
| We don't know that number will rise or not. | |
| All we know is that's too many. | |
| And this will be A long-suffering morning for those in pain. | |
| We ask for God's comfort, for God's guidance, and for God's healing for all those who are suffering. | |
| As governor, I ask for every mom and dad at home tonight that you put your arm around your kid and give your kid a big hug. | |
| And let them know how much you love them. | |
| Knowing that we support each other. | |
| Tell your friend and your neighbor that you support them and that you will work with them. | |
| I'm very proud of the way that we have so many people working together to respond to this. | |
| Already in talking to the emergency Team in Texas reported that the Emergency Medical Task Force from San Antonio was deployed to help respond to the magnitude of this tragedy. | |
| San Antonio area hospitals and trauma centers have coordinated with regard to patient movement and patient care. | |
| The Red Cross has set up Family Assistance Center to help All families affected by this. | |
| One thing that is very important for everybody affected by this, whether you're a family member or non-family member, is that you avail yourself of counseling resources that will be made readily available in abundance. | |
| Now we have so many people who have helped Respond in coordinated fashion already. | |
| I want to express my gratitude to the president, who called from overseas. | |
| My gratitude to Senators Cornyn and Cruz, with whom I've already spoken, as well as members of the Texas legislature. | |
| But when you look at the robust response from just the immediate area, I want to express my gratitude to the Sheriff of Wilson County. | |
| To the district attorney from this area, Audrey Lewis, reason I say this area is because her territory is larger than just Wilson County. | |
| And to DPS, original director Freeman Martin, each of those three will be speaking shortly. | |
| But also to the mayor of the area where we are located right now, the mayor of Stockdale, to the Department of Homeland Security, to the ATF, the FBI, the Bexar County Sheriff's Office, the Guadalupe County Sheriff's Office, The Wilson County Sheriff's Office, the Lavernia Police Department, the Stockdale City Marshal's Office, and the Seguin Police Department. | |
| And I have no doubt that there are other law enforcement as well as emergency agencies that have responded to this. | |
| And I regret, if I did not mention you, just know that we appreciate the profound way that everybody's come together. | |
| I would like to now turn things over to Sheriff Joe Tackett. | |
| From Wilson County and whose jurisdiction the crime occurred and whose jurisdiction we're in right now. | |
| Thank you, Governor. | |
| Thank you for your kind words. | |
| We all in here know what happened today. | |
| And it's something we all say does not happen in small communities. | |
| But we found out today it does. | |
| We need your support. | |
| As media, don't blow it out there that, you know, it shouldn't have ever happened because it does happen. | |
| And we sincerely feel sorry for all of the people that are involved. | |
| We don't know names of any of the victims at this time because we're still trying to work the crime scene. | |
| As we get the names, we're going to be contacting family members. | |
| Letting them know what we have. | |
| At this time, we don't have any names of any of the victims. | |
| Thank you. | |
| Next is the district attorney, Audrey Lewis. | |
| Thank you all. | |
| We know that you have lots of questions that you want answers to, but understand this. | |
| Our number one priority and goal is to the victims and their families at this point, and we ask that you respect that as well. | |
| We want to make sure to notify victims' families before media gets a hold of that information. | |
| It is critical to those families that if we have bad news to bear, they need to hear it before it's announced on the media. | |
| We're going to try to work to ensure that that occurs. | |
| We have lots of law enforcement who are all working very well together with federal and local and state agencies, and we highly commend the professionalism that's occurring. | |
| But because we have to make sure that that crime scene is handled appropriately, it takes time. | |
| And unfortunately, that leaves a lot of victims' families wanting answers that we don't really have for them at this very moment. | |
| We will be updating them as soon as we have information and providing that information so that they have the answers they need to deal with either the loss or go to their loved ones who may be in the hospital. | |
| We appreciate the work of all law enforcement, and we appreciate you guys. | |
| We know that you're trying to get out information. | |
| We don't feel there is a threat that's continuing, and I think that the media's done a pretty good job making sure that that's been pronounced to the public. | |
| But we are working very diligently both to inform the families and to preserve that crime scene and make sure that it's handled appropriately. | |
| So thank you all for your time. | |
| And next is DPS Regional Director Freeman Mark. | |
| Everybody here wants facts, wants information about what's going on, and we'd love to provide you more. | |
| But if you came here and want to know the motive behind this shooting, you're going to leave here disappointed. | |
| We have certain facts that we can release to protect the integrity of the investigation. | |
| We have to release it in a timely fashion and collect the facts and make sure our information is correct before we release it. | |
| We're here assisting the sheriff, Joe Tackett. | |
| There's multiple agencies involved, DPS, Texas Rangers, FBI, HSI, ATF, Bexar County SO, and many, many others. | |
| We are all working together to support the sheriff in this investigation. | |
| At approximately 11.20 this morning, a suspect was seen at a Valero gas station in Sutherland Springs, Texas. | |
| He was dressed in all black. | |
| The suspect crossed the street to the church, exited his vehicle, and began firing at the church. | |
| The suspect then moved to the right side of the church and continued to fire. | |
| As he exited the church, a local resident grabbed his rifle and engaged that suspect. | |
| The suspect dropped his rifle, which was a Ruger AR assault-type rifle, and fled from the church. | |
| Our local citizen pursued the suspect at that time. | |
| A short time later, As law enforcement responded, that suspect, right at the Wilson, Guadalupe County line, he ran off the roadway and crashed out and was found deceased in his vehicle. | |
| At this time, we don't know if it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound or if he was shot by our local resident who engaged him in gunfire. | |
| We know he's deceased in the vehicle. | |
| The suspect has not been completely identified. | |
| We believe he's a young, white male, maybe in his early 20s. | |
| He was dressed in all-black tactical type gear and was wearing a ballistic vest. | |
| The delay in getting him identified is there were multiple weapons in the vehicle and the vehicle has been processed by our Texas Ranger Special Operations Group bomb techs. | |
| There's a lot of work to be done in this investigation. | |
| 23 found deceased inside the church, two deceased outside the church, and now one of them that was transported that was injured is deceased. | |
| Bringing the total to 26. We have approximately 20 that are transported to local and in hospitals in San Antonio with injuries that vary from minor to very severe. | |
| We know the ages range from 5 years old to 72 years of age. | |
| There's a lot of work to be done. | |
| We are only hours into this investigation, which is going to take a significant length of time. | |
| We will continue to provide information as it becomes available. | |
| We know you're going to have a lot of questions. | |
| There are many, many that we cannot answer. | |
| We continue to process crime scenes. | |
| We have multiple, multiple crime scenes. | |
| We have the church. | |
| We have outside the church. | |
| We have where the suspect vehicle is located. | |
| We have following up on the suspect and where he's from, his residence. | |
| We have many, many people to interview. | |
| We have Texas Rangers at all the hospitals, locating those and interviewing those who were injured. | |
| So not a lot of information to give at this time, but the state of Texas, we have every resource that we have available. | |
| Texas Rangers, Special Operations, Texas Highway Patrol, Crime Scene Labs, Victim Services, the Texas Division of Emergency Management. | |
| Every resource we have available is working. | |
| And at the end of this investigation, we'll be able to answer any reasonable question as to what happened. | |
| Was the neighbor injured? | |
| The one that engaged them by me? | |
| No, he was not. | |
| Is that great? | |
| Well, thank you all, and thanks once again to law enforcement at all levels, from the local level to the state level to the federal level. | |
| The collaborative working relationship is one that will ensure a swift and certain How many were in the church and how many escaped death or being wounded? | |
| We don't have those numbers. | |
| There were people in the church that escaped that were not injured. | |
| But we don't have all that information. | |
| Was masks being held at the time? | |
| Yes. | |
| Was a suspected shooter part of any sort of known militia group? | |
| Is that being investigated? | |
| Not at this time. | |
| That is being investigated, but we can't say it. | |
| What about him was suspicious to begin with, or what initiated the original call? | |
| Those are the types of things that are under intense investigation right now. | |
| And hopefully we will learn about them in the next 24 hours. | |
| The revised total of victims, that does not include the shooter, correct? | |
| Correct. | |
| Can you tell us anything about a possible raid at the suspect's home? | |
| All those types of things will be pieces of information that will be coming out shortly. | |
| Do you know anything about any social media postings that he might have hinted that he would have done this? | |
| All of those types of things are being looked into as we speak. | |
| Can we take one more question? | |
| When are you going to release his name? | |
| Do you know if the shooter's family was in attendance at the church at the time or had any connection? | |
| Unaware of that. | |
| When we release his name? | |
| As soon as possible. | |
| Was he known to the community or was he an outsider? | |
| We will confirm that when we learn it. | |
| How can people help? | |
| I think you're realizing that there's a lot of information. | |
| We want to piece the puzzle together. | |
| Before we provide you any misinformation, and we want to make sure that we meet with the family members who are affected by this before we release information publicly. | |
| We hope to give this information to you as soon as possible. | |
| Thank y'all very much. | |
| And the call that came in was an active shooter. | |
| There was no calls that came in of a suspicious person or anything before. | |
| So how did y'all know he was at the Valero? | |
| After the fact we started investigating him. | |
| Can we have the video tape from the service? | |
| No, they haven't gotten it yet. | |
| All right. | |
| We'll send out information and update from the bill. | |
| So we just got an update from the governor and a few other law enforcement officials. | |
| There have been 26 dead, including the, I think 27 with the shooter. | |
| Did you ask that question because he was a white guy? | |
| Is he a white guy? | |
| Yeah. | |
| I was just wondering why you asked that if he was part of a militia group. | |
| Well, I didn't ask if he was part of a militia group. | |
| I think he did. | |
| How do you think? | |
| I don't know. | |
| We'll have to find out once we can actually listen to it. | |
| Okay. | |
| Why don't we go and grab your stuff? | |
| We can grab the computer and start pulling that down and mixing it together. | |
| So obviously they're in the preliminary stages of an investigation. | |
| I went and asked the guy who asked if he was part of a militia group, and he denied that he asked that question. | |
| But now it's 6.53. | |
| 86 degrees here in Stockdale, just a few miles away from where the shooter struck this morning. | |
| We're going to go check out the scene now, see if we can see anything. | |
| At this point, I think they kept everybody here so they could keep them here and then have it be dark and they won't go over and investigate. | |
| But we're going to go check it out, maybe we can see where the car, where the shooter ended up. | |
| But there you heard it, a good guy with a gun stopped a guy doing a massacre and there were more people that could have ended up killed. | |
| So, Rob D. Reporting for Infowars.com. | |
| They have not released the name of the shooter yet. | |
| I've heard several names brought up on the web. | |
| We're going to be searching into those. | |
| And as soon as we have it confirmed, we will let you know. |
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