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Breaking News

Possibly Another Gunman and 30 Employees Still Inside Culver City Target Store

Aired November 6, 2000 - 10:20 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Want to bring you up to date on a breaking news story we've been following out of southern California all morning long, a gunmen situation, a hostage situation, at a Target store in Culver City.

As we understand it, Associated Press reporting that three suspected gunmen have been taken into custody.

We're showing these live pictures now from KTTV, one of our many affiliates we've been calling on this morning, showing us aerial pictures of the Target store and the back of the store and the parking lot.

As we understand it, a couple hours ago, a number of employees were inside the store getting ready to open up when three or four gunmen came in. They called police, and then began a very confusing situation as police tried to get hostages out of the store and try to figure out who was a hostage and who was a suspected gunman.

As we understand it right now, it's believed that another gunmen is still holed up inside the store with as many as 30 workers. Three suspected gunmen were taken into custody when they fled the store with a group of about 15 employees at day break.

And if you were with us, you saw those pictures as this group of employees came out of the back of the store, police carefully one by one trying to figure out who might be an employee and who might be a suspected gunman. They were frisking each employee one by one as they come up, having to lay face down on the ground.

We have with us on the phone right now Patty Morris. She is with Target stores in Minnesota, with the corporate parent.

Patty, are you with us?

PATTY MORRIS, TARGET STORES SPOKESWOMAN: Yes, I am.

KAGAN: Can you add anything to the reports that we've been able to give so far?

MORRIS: We'll, you know, really, the police in Culver City are much better equipped to provide specific information on the situation as it currently is at the store. You know our primary concern from headquarters and from all of our employees out in the field is really to do whatever we can to ensure for the safety of our team members.

KAGAN: Of course. What would be store policy in a situation like this? Did the employees do the right thing as much as you can tell?

MORRIS: Absolutely. You know, at 5:00 a.m., when this situation began, the store was not yet open for business. It was a period of time when our perimeter alarms had just been turned off to allow for the transfer of team members from our overnight crew to our day side staff. And, definitely, I think that they did absolutely the right thing, not knowing that the situation was about to happen. One of the employees was able to get out of the building and call 911 and get the police there just as soon as possible. And we're very pleased with the way that they handled it.

KAGAN: As we mentioned this happened -- or as you pointed out -- happened very early in the morning, between 5 and 6 o'clock California time. Why would there be so many employees in a Target store long before it opened?

MORRIS: Well, again, we do have employees who work overnight restocking our shelves and pulling inventory. And then, again, as 5 a.m., we do start allowing our day side work staff to enter the building to, again, prepare the store for that day's business.

So it's really not unusual at all to have, you know, 20, 30, 40 team members in a store at that time of day.

KAGAN: Patty Morris with Target stores, I imagine you will be monitoring the situation as we are here at CNN.

MORRIS: Yes, we will. Thank you.

KAGAN: Thank you for joining us on the phone there.

Once again, possibly another gunman still holed up inside of this Target store. We're showing you live pictures from Culver City. And according to Associated Press, as many as 30 employees still holed up, being held hostage, inside that store at the same time. Police have three suspected gunmen in custody.

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