Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Thursday, March twelfth, and we
Speaker 1: have two breaking news stories we're keeping an eye on,
Speaker 1: one in Virginia the other in Michigan, both having to
Speaker 1: do with attacks of some kind at both places, one
Speaker 1: at a university, the other at a synagogue. Welcome to
Speaker 1: this episode of Amy and TJ. Rhoades. Let's start with
Speaker 1: the synagogue, and we will this school we're talking about
Speaker 1: as Old Dominion. We will get to that story as well.
Speaker 1: But these stories are happening and developing in the last
Speaker 1: matter of minutes. But let's start with the synagogue robes,
Speaker 1: where it doesn't look like anybody was actually killed there,
Speaker 1: but it sounds like this potentially could have been a
Speaker 1: major attack.
Speaker 2: It could have been horrific.
Speaker 3: This is a synagogue that had young children being schooled.
Speaker 3: This is Temple Israel Synagogue and West bloom Field, Michigan,
Speaker 3: and this was quite the same. But it looks like
Speaker 3: it's a situation where security was on alert, they were
Speaker 3: on top of things, and they ended what could have been,
Speaker 3: as you pointed out, a horrific tragedy where at this
Speaker 3: point the only person in this attack who was killed
Speaker 3: was the person trying to attack.
Speaker 1: This in agog, and some questions surrounding that about how
Speaker 1: this person died and rope you stopped me in. We've
Speaker 1: been looking at the same reports and piecing information together,
Speaker 1: but it appears this man had a rifle correct, but
Speaker 1: never got off a shot. What they're explaining here to us,
Speaker 1: this person rammed the synagogue with his vehicle and was
Speaker 1: able to essentially drive the vehicle through the synagogue through
Speaker 1: essentially a hallway, eventually stopped was stopped by security, as
Speaker 1: you mentioned, who essentially opened fire on them, but robed
Speaker 1: A fire of some kind breaks out inside the vehicle,
Speaker 1: and they think that might be the way the man.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure how he died yet exactly.
Speaker 3: So some headlines because these are now just initial reports
Speaker 3: and this is a developing story. I mean, if you
Speaker 3: look at the video and the pictures coming out of
Speaker 3: this area in Michigan, the amount of police on the
Speaker 3: scene is remarkable. But yes, they say the vehicle caught fire.
Speaker 3: Some of the headlines say that he was shot by security,
Speaker 3: fatally shot by security, and we know that he was
Speaker 3: shot at by security, but the vehicles certainly caught fire,
Speaker 3: so they don't know if the fire ended up taking
Speaker 3: his life or if he was actually shot to death.
Speaker 3: But either way, he was in the vehicle when it
Speaker 3: caught on fire. So we don't know if there were
Speaker 3: explosives in the vehicle. We don't know why the vehicle
Speaker 3: caught fire simply because shots were fired.
Speaker 1: So that right now is the question we all know.
Speaker 1: I think most of us generally know. It doesn't happen
Speaker 1: with cars the way it happens in movies. You can't
Speaker 1: just thump it and a car explodes. It's hard to
Speaker 1: get a car to just simply catch fire. So what
Speaker 1: was going on in there? And that is a major
Speaker 1: question and a scary robes to consider what he might
Speaker 1: have had in the vehicle, which lends himself to what
Speaker 1: he might have been thinking and what he might have
Speaker 1: been planning.
Speaker 3: That's correct, because if you look at some of the
Speaker 3: images that are coming out of this area near this
Speaker 3: synagogue near Detroit by the way, if you aren't familiar
Speaker 3: where West Bloomfield is, there was this huge plume of
Speaker 3: smoke coming up from the synagogue. That's how big this
Speaker 3: car fire or this explosion was, and so it could
Speaker 3: be seen from miles away.
Speaker 2: So obviously, when you look at the.
Speaker 3: Amount of police that have descended on this area. There
Speaker 3: are clearly bigger concerns of what was inside that vehicle,
Speaker 3: What is inside that vehicle. This isn't just oh okay,
Speaker 3: the active shooter situation has been diminished, the attacker is
Speaker 3: dead and police are on the scene. This looks like
Speaker 3: this is an on going serious situation.
Speaker 1: This is an incredible police response. We're looking at it
Speaker 1: in some of the live pictures right now, but it
Speaker 1: is an enormous response. Here a press conference a short
Speaker 1: time ago with some local officials, law enforcement officials who said, no,
Speaker 1: we haven't handed over the scene. They essentially have to
Speaker 1: go through and make sure there are no incendiary device.
Speaker 1: He said that, yeah, to make sure there aren't any there.
Speaker 1: So again and again you have been now rogues, I
Speaker 1: should We've been looking again. This is fast moving, but
Speaker 1: you've been looking at some of the conversation. Again, we
Speaker 1: know it's going to go here. But the concern right
Speaker 1: now is a lot of it. We see the pictures
Speaker 1: of bombs and missiles flying other places, but the concern
Speaker 1: is that makes its way to us in some way
Speaker 1: and people get inspired and want to attack.
Speaker 3: Correct, because we actually heard from Iranian clerics and certain
Speaker 3: islam clerics inciting this war, saying our brothers and sisters
Speaker 3: around the world, attack the enemy aka the United States,
Speaker 3: in any way you can.
Speaker 2: And so to have a synagogue.
Speaker 3: A Jewish place of worship targeted in Michigan, which which
Speaker 3: is a hot bed of activity. But this is a
Speaker 3: huge synagogue, twelve thousand members. And again attached to the
Speaker 3: synagogue was an early childhood education center. And when this
Speaker 3: happened with the okay by police, there were images of parents,
Speaker 3: as you might imagine. I get chills just thinking about
Speaker 3: it and seeing it, rushing into that building getting their kids.
Speaker 2: I mean, the fear and the chaos that ensued.
Speaker 3: But there are reports now that there were mortars, some
Speaker 3: sort of bomblike material, bomblike devices possibly inside this car.
Speaker 3: And that is why we are seeing this ongoing increasing
Speaker 3: police presence around the synagogu.
Speaker 1: Right, And it's a sprawling place. It is a huge campus,
Speaker 1: if you will, what we're looking at here, But that
Speaker 1: concern robes is going to be there, that conversation will happen.
Speaker 1: We've gotten word that yes, the president is aware of
Speaker 1: what's going on here. According to the press Secretary of
Speaker 1: the President is aware, but we have seen it in
Speaker 1: places all over the country. Already, certain sites are getting
Speaker 1: an extra level of protection because of the concern of
Speaker 1: things like this. And as we look at these pictures,
Speaker 1: some of these I don't think this picture is live anymore,
Speaker 1: but still you have smoke coming out of this place.
Speaker 1: They're trying to understand what has caused that. Sob you,
Speaker 1: we're in a situation where there might still be trying
Speaker 1: to clear a building and can't necessarily get to it
Speaker 1: yet because it's not safe.
Speaker 3: That vehicle is still in the buildings, and that vehicle
Speaker 3: is what exploded. That vehicle is what caught fire, and
Speaker 3: that is why we're seeing that smoke coming out of
Speaker 3: that synagogue. So imagine trying to you don't know completely
Speaker 3: what's in that vehicle.
Speaker 2: You don't know what still could possibly explode. You don't
Speaker 2: know if the car has been booby trapped in any way.
Speaker 3: So they have to proceed with caution, but they also
Speaker 3: have to proceed with urgency. This is a frightening situation,
Speaker 3: and this is exactly what folks have been concerned about,
Speaker 3: especially folks who are Jewish, who are concerned about Look,
Speaker 3: this is a US Israel led invasion on Iran, So
Speaker 3: it would make sense that potentially it could be linked
Speaker 3: to what we're seeing here, this attack, with what's going
Speaker 3: on in Iran.
Speaker 1: Would you tell me the number you said there was
Speaker 1: a count, a stat of how many synagogues have been attacked?
Speaker 3: You tell me, yes, I just saw a headline that
Speaker 3: five synagogues have been attacked in just the last five days.
Speaker 3: So there have been synagogues targeted and attacked around the
Speaker 3: world since the invasion of Iran. I shouldn't say invasion,
Speaker 3: but the attack of iran't we don't have boots on
Speaker 3: the ground, but the attack on Iran.
Speaker 1: Oh, boy, get ahead of us, please, But that I
Speaker 1: did not.
Speaker 2: I was a slip of.
Speaker 1: The top, all right. So that is one ongoing that
Speaker 1: is a right now. That is a many by many
Speaker 1: getting updates on that story. The other is happening in Norfolk,
Speaker 1: Virginia at the campus of Old Dominion University, where we
Speaker 1: were getting reports and these are always robes. They are
Speaker 1: scared as hell when you see them, because a lot
Speaker 1: of us have been that kid on campus, A lot
Speaker 1: of us have kids on campus. But anytime you see
Speaker 1: that a school is in lockdown and there's possibly an
Speaker 1: active shooter situation, any type of shoot on a campus
Speaker 1: that is certainly concerning. Stay here will give you the
Speaker 1: latest about what is happening on the campus of Old
Speaker 1: Dominion University.
Speaker 3: Welcome back everyone, as we continue to monitor to developing situations.
Speaker 3: We just told you about the situation that is ongoing
Speaker 3: and in absolutely still developing as we record this out
Speaker 3: of just outside of Detroit, Michigan, where a synagogue was
Speaker 3: rammed and the attacker inside that vehicle was armed with
Speaker 3: a rifle. That car has caught on fire and now
Speaker 3: we have a massive police presence as that it would
Speaker 3: be attacker has been killed, but they still have a
Speaker 3: lot to go through it determining if that car is
Speaker 3: still at any risk to the folks around the area
Speaker 3: inside that synagogue.
Speaker 2: It is a developing situation.
Speaker 3: So far, thankfully no one inside the synagogue was injured.
Speaker 3: The security there was able to take out or at
Speaker 3: least stop the would be attacker, and so that investigation
Speaker 3: is ongoing. But just across the country in Virginia, just
Speaker 3: shortly before that incident happened, we now know a gunman
Speaker 3: opened fire at Old Dominion University.
Speaker 2: In Constant Hall.
Speaker 3: Folks, I don't know exactly if it was a dorm
Speaker 3: or if it was some sort of a meeting place.
Speaker 3: But we know that some students who were inside that
Speaker 3: hall said they were taking tests or they were studying
Speaker 3: when gunfire rang out around just before eleven am Eastern time.
Speaker 2: And we know that one person was killed.
Speaker 3: We know that two others were injured, and we've been
Speaker 3: told that the gunman is dead.
Speaker 1: That's all we have at this point, but that that
Speaker 1: campus was shut down on lockdown. They have given the
Speaker 1: students the all clear. But again that's one of those
Speaker 1: things where we don't know what the relationship was between
Speaker 1: any of these folks. Where it's supposed to be a
Speaker 1: bigger event. Is this a target event? They haven't and
Speaker 1: I have not seen that. Again, this is developing also
Speaker 1: in the past matter of hours, so please tell me.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen the suggestion yet whether or not this
Speaker 1: was targeted or what this was meant to be possibly
Speaker 1: a bigger shooting.
Speaker 3: Right now, officials seem to be completely unsure as to
Speaker 3: what motivated this shooting, and they are actively investigating it.
Speaker 2: In fact, they have suspended canceled.
Speaker 3: All classes, as you might imagine at Old Dominion, not
Speaker 3: only for today, but for tomorrow as well as they
Speaker 3: continue to try and put the pieces together of what
Speaker 3: exactly happened.
Speaker 2: They had a press conference a short while.
Speaker 3: Ago, but they really are unclear as to exactly why
Speaker 3: this happened, how this happened.
Speaker 2: But they and they don't know.
Speaker 3: They do not know if this was a targeted attack
Speaker 3: or not, but they do believe the latest information is
Speaker 3: that the gunman may have taken his own life. It
Speaker 3: doesn't appear as though security or police on the scene
Speaker 3: were the ones to take out this shooter. They do
Speaker 3: believe it was a self inflicted gunshot wound. But after
Speaker 3: he killed one person and injured to others, now there
Speaker 3: is there's someone actually was injured. It's a little confusing,
Speaker 3: but there's another being carried away by police and they
Speaker 3: show somebody. There's a video out there online of someone
Speaker 3: in handcuffs being taken away from the scene. They don't
Speaker 3: know if that has anything to do with the shooting
Speaker 3: or not, but a lot of folks are trying to
Speaker 3: figure out what could have happened, what did happened on
Speaker 3: this campus. But this is a developing situation and the
Speaker 3: FBI is.
Speaker 2: At both scenes.
Speaker 3: Cash Bettel is making comments on both scenes, saying our
Speaker 3: agents are aware, our agents are aiding in the investigations,
Speaker 3: but these are early stages, and just with the state
Speaker 3: of things in the world right now, it's just it.
Speaker 2: It feels chaotic, it feels frightening.
Speaker 3: We hear about potential attacks in California, and now you've
Speaker 3: got these target attacks potentially or at least smaller attacks
Speaker 3: that are just as scary. I mean, kids going to school,
Speaker 3: young ones going to learn at a synagogue. I mean,
Speaker 3: it just feels like at this point everyone is just
Speaker 3: on edge given these developing stories.
Speaker 1: Well, folks who just wanted to hop on and give
Speaker 1: you those updates, had two developing stories and they are
Speaker 1: still developing now. As always, top right corner of your
Speaker 1: Apple podcast app where you see our show page, there's
Speaker 1: a little button there that says follow click that you
Speaker 1: can make sure you can subscribe, make sure you get
Speaker 1: these updates. We weren't expecting to do this one, but
Speaker 1: the news was happening, so we wanted to hop on
Speaker 1: and give you an update. We always appreciate you spending
Speaker 1: some time with us. I am TJ. Holmes on behalf
Speaker 1: of my dear Amy Robot. We will talk to you
Speaker 1: soon on