Gunman Opens Fire at Florida State University; Obama to Announce Immigration Overhaul; Buffalo Buried Under 6 Feet of Snow
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning, a gunman opening fire inside Florida State University's crowded library. Campus locked down, three people hospitalized. What we're learning this morning ahead. Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. John Berman is off this morning. It is just about 30 minutes past the hour. We're following this breaking news: a dramatic scene inside Florida State University's main library. A shootout as campus police confronted a gunman, telling him to drop his weapon.</s>DAVID NORTHWAY, TALLAHASEE POLICE: Instead of complying with their commands, the gunman, in turn, fired a shot at the officers and they returned fire killing the suspect.</s>DANIEL MORALES, FSU FRESHMAN: We saw this guy running saying someone has a gun. Run! At first we thought it was a joke. Again, we were a little flustered, but we didn't do much. We saw a group of people running with tears down their eyes and sprinting down the library. So at that point, I dropped everything that I was doing and started sprinting with them. With a group of people, we hid under several desks and there were people pacing around the room and we didn't really know what to do. We came up with the idea to barricade the doors. So nothing would happen or make it difficult for anyone to come in so we cleared off a bunch of study tables and we barricaded the doors with it. And that was what we did.</s>ROMANS: Police say there are three shooting victims in the hospital this morning. I want to bring in CNN's Nick Valencia on his way to Tallahassee right now to cover this story for us. Nick, what can you tell us?</s>NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Good morning, Christine. A frightening scene for everyone involved there on campus at Florida State University. As you mentioned, three people shot and injured. We know that right now. We also know that the gunman is shot and killed believed to be by campus police. The saddest of the three that were injured, at least one of the victims is currently in critical condition. We are waiting to get more information on those that are still hospitalized. The shooting took place around midnight at Strozier Library, which is there on campus. Over 300 people were in that library according to witnesses at the time of the shooting. I spoke to Alex Levine, who is a senior inside the basement. He describes to me a scene of havoc and mad house and chaos for about 30 or 45 minutes. He said he saw an officer show up in full riot gear and SWAT gear. He said it was very, very scary for everyone there because they just didn't know what was happening. He said at one point there was a brief search for what was thought was the second gunman, but that was later reported to be a rumor. They believe at this point this is the only person which was the shooter who has been shot and killed. There's the threat currently to the campus. The students tell me the scene was definitely one of confusion. People running around, people losing shoes as they are running from the scene. The student I just spoke to a little while ago, he just left after a very long night of being involved in this incident. He is still on edge and very frightened. What we know, though, Christine, that there will be a 6:00 a.m. news conference from Tallahassee Police Department. We hope to get more updates on the shooter and of course the motive, the why. Why did this happen? This is the question students are asking themselves this morning.</s>ROMANS: The shooter is dead, Nick? Three people are in the hospital. We assuming those are students in the hospital, although there are some reports that one of those people in the hospital may be a security guard. We don't know if the shooter was a student, but we suspect we are going to get a lot more information from the police at that press conference about just to that shooter was. Interesting, Nick, that it was finals week. It was a crowded library. Someone wanting to have maximum impact, that's where maximum impact would be -- Nick.</s>VALENCIA: Absolutely. You know, the student I spoke to said he had a metabolics test that he was studying for this morning. We know from Florida State University campus official that test -- anyone that was going to take a test, the tests had been canceled today. Any classes that the testing center for Florida State University have been canceled as well. Employees, though, are still going to show up to work today, Christine. Things will try to return as normal, but lots of questions that we will hope to get more answers to at the 6:00 a.m. Eastern news conference coming up here in about 28 minutes.</s>ROMANS: And Florida State University just tweeting that classes are canceled for FSU students here today. Nick, as you were pointing out, you know, some of the witnesses were describing, you know, 35 minutes of chaos. But I will say generally when you have school shooting situations. It can be hours before you have the dangerous situation contained. This happened at 12:30 and by 3:00 a.m., police had secured the scene and the shooter was dead. So a pretty swift response from campus police at FSU, we'll see what they have to say about that at 6:00 this morning, in just about a half hour. Nick, thank you for that. Best of luck to you today reporting on that story. Meantime, the other big story we are following this morning. Republicans and Democrats are bracing for an epic partisan battle over immigration. President Obama is ready to reveal his plan for overhauling the nation's immigration system. He will do it in primetime tonight. He is expected to rewrite the rules for deportation. This will affect millions of undocumented immigrants. He is doing it all without Congress. Listen to the president explain on his Facebook page what he is doing and why.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: So what I'm going to be layout is the things that I can do with my lawful authority as president to make the system work better even as I continue to work with Congress and encourage them to get a bipartisan comprehensive bill that can solve the entire problem.</s>ROMANS: All right, the president's decision to bypass Congress by using his executive authority has Republicans in an uproar. Let's get more on that plan and the reaction from our White House correspondent, Michelle Kosinski.</s>MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Christine. Right now, we know tonight the president will take this momentous executive action on immigration. It could affect at least 3 million people, possibly up to 5 million. What this would do is it is not a path to citizenship. It would be temporary and renewable. It would give people two things, the right to stay in America without being deported and the right to work here. According to sources, it would likely affect the parents of children, who are already American citizens or have a legal basis to stay here provided that those parents had been in America for a period of years. We don't know exactly what the parameters are. It is also likely that this would expand those same kinds of allowances that were granted by President Obama in 2012 to people who are brought to America illegally as children also known as dreamers. But those sources say this would not likely not extend to the parents of those dreamers so that has led some groups to complain already that President Obama's action is not going far enough. And on the other hand, you have fiercely angry Republicans who called President Obama Emperor Obama and threatened everything from law suits to defunding parts of the budget that would allow this executive action to work even impeachment. The White House though says it is confident that this executive action has a strong legal foundation and that it will be fully implemented -- Christine.</s>ROMANS: Right, a busy day at the White House, for sure, Michelle. The White House has released this photo of the president working on his big speech tonight. The president addresses the nation at 8 p.m. Eastern. You can see it live right here on CNN. More snow is falling this morning on bruised and battered Buffalo where there are already buried under 6 feet of snow. A monster lake- effect storm has killed seven people and up to two more feet of snow is on the way. Governor Andrew Cuomo is declaring a state of emergency for the region that is shut down and already overwhelmed. Just look at this scene, emergency crews simply can't get through the mountains of snow to reach hundreds of abandoned cars stopped in tracks by the storm. Let's go to Buffalo where meteorologist, Jennifer Gray is. It's a big departure for you from Atlanta to be up there in 6 feet of snow, my dear.</s>JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, yes. It is quite a change from home. This is something that even people in Buffalo can't believe. You know, they are used to a lot of snow, but they say this is unprecedented. We could be setting all kinds of records here, Christine. Almost an entire year's worth of snow falling in only 24 to 48 hours. We are now at a staging area where these bulldozers are. They've moved from plows to bulldozers because they are literally scooping this snow up and hauling it out. You can see one of those back here. The guys are already out. We got here this morning around 4:00. Visibility was zero. You could not see anything. Plows were still out there trying to take care of the roads. This is a parking lot that has been plowed many, many times. There's probably 6 inches of snow underneath me that's just been packed down. But there are so many streets south of Buffalo that look like this. This is not a snow mound because of a plow. This is actual snow that has fallen and this is how much snow we are looking at all over. Some areas have even more. We could see an additional 2 to 3 feet. So many people find their cars like this, completely underneath the snow. In this parking lot, there are probably about 50 cars like this that are just going to have to dig out in the next couple of days. Temperatures will warm up. However, we are expected to get rain on Saturday. That could pose a problem. Christine, this has been very, very serious. We've had seven deaths as you said. Now the concern, more people could be in danger as the snow continues to fall and roofs could even collapse from the weight of the snow. Gas lines could break as well. So it is not over yet here in Buffalo -- Christine.</s>ROMANS: Be careful getting in those buried cars and turning on the car. Be very careful about carbon monoxide poisoning. Be careful, watch your elderly relatives, anybody out there who is trying to shovel snow, it can be dangerous. Jennifer, thank you for that. Let's get right to meteorologist, Indra Petersons this morning. She is tracking the storm bringing us more of what's happening here.</s>INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Great shot behind Jen because you actually see that wind picking up behind her. That snow is so light because it is so cold that any amount of wind can bring visibility right down to zero. Again, just blows that snow right around and you can see even if it is not falling out of the sky, but unfortunately more will be falling again today. We're talking about another band of lake-effect snow to produce another 2 feet of snow in the exact same hardest hit areas. What are we looking at? Right now, Buffalo, you see yesterday they started to get a breather from the lake-effect snow. It tapered off throughout the day. The light snow fell from a cold front that went through and now notice the long line over the lakes again. Another band of the heavy lake effect snow is now under way. So here is what is going on. You have that very warm temperature of the lake and cold air above it. They want to flip. Cold air wants to sink. So with that, you get that instability and then the winds over the lakes produce all that instability and converge all of that snowfall right towards the end of the lake. Another way to look at it is the direction of the lake or wind. The wind is going across the fetch of the lake. The more snow you will have at the end of the bay. If you have a different wind direction so things can change so quickly that you are going to have less snow in a different place. This is the reason we are talking about this huge variety in these totals. You are talking about some places at 67 inches. Meanwhile, just a few miles away, only 3 inches of snow. That's the reason some people are getting a breather. The winds shifts just a little bit and here it goes again. Snowfall is about 4 to 5 inches per hour.</s>ROMANS: Here it goes again. Thank you so much for that, Indra. All right, breaking news this morning, a gunman opening fire inside a college campus library, three people wounded. The new information we're learning that's ahead. New fallout for Bill Cosby as more women come forward claiming the legendary comedian raped them. Brian Stelter is breaking it all down for us next.