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this is cnn breaking news. >> hello. thank you for joining me. i'm fredricka whitfield. we are on top of several breaking news stories. a huge police presence in houston after reports of shots fired at joel osteen's lakewood mega church. we are waiting to hear if there are -- is there any progress on the investigation? right now, we are learning that u.s. secretary of defense lloyd austin has been taken to walter reed medical center. it was for an emergent bladder issue. let's begin in houston. a shooting taking place at this mega church in houston, right on the southwest freeway there in houston. we also have reports, as you said earlier, that the shooter possibly is down. tell us more.

>> that is what we are hearing. this is joel osteen's lakewood church, nationally known, broadcasts his sermons every sunday across the country. the harris county sheriff is saying he believes the shooter is down. here is the pivotal question. was anyone shot? were any of the parishioners shot? our affiliate khou spoke with someone who was in the church ready for the spanish language service to begin at 3:00 p.m. central time. all of a sudden, they started hearing multiple shots. the usher told them to run. apparently, everyone did run out of the sanctuary. we do have a brand-new sound from khou, an affiliate of cnn. someone who believes that they potentially are an eyewitness. take a listen. >> we were escorted during the

evacuation by s.w.a.t., by the police, local houston police and also by the fbi. >> describe what you saw and/or heard. >> we were leaving the service. joel was meeting and greeting everybody right outside on the second floor where all this happened. i was one of the last people to meet and greet with joel, the pastor here. i went to the ladies room. i headed towards the nearest exit on the second floor. i heard this bam, bam, like mechanical sounds like -- it almost sounded like folding tables were being dismantled and dropped to the floor. there was -- they were erratic. they were there was another set of bam, bam, bam. then all of a sudden, it sounded -- i stopped.

i looked at the entrance. people were screaming and scattering. i went, no, no, no, this is not equipment, dismantled. there's something going on. then i saw a gentleman i would say late 20s, early 30s, but i couldn't get a look at his face. he was standing like this, and he had -- it looked like a pistol, because it had a long pipe on it. okay? it was -- he was pointing not the opposite direction, but at an angle to me. >> do you think he was one of the shooters or the shooter? >> he had to have been. there was a gun in his hand. okay? >> he wasn't an officer? >> no, no, no. he was dressed in normal clothe clothes. i saw him near the entrance. he was standing like this, almost the feet apart and he was like this.

evidently, that's where the shots were coming from. >> obviously, this is a parishioner that says she believes that she saw someone with a gun. she's talking about a long barrelled gun. we had heard this was actually between the services, because they have numerous services through the day. the spanish language service was to begin at 3:00. this was a parishioner that was exiting the church. from her vantage point, she believes that she saw someone with that gun. the harris county sheriff is saying that not only the possible shooter is down but he believes one of our deputies on scene may have shot him. this is a huge church. capacity is 16,000. we were talking about it is really one of those mega churches, cameras inside broadcasting the church services every sunday. obviously now, a place where there is so much law enforcement

and the family reunification center has been announced in houston. it's at the lifetime fitness center in the groeenway plaza. >> we are looking at video of seeing people streaming out. very orderly being taken to a specific area. you talk about the family unification area. do you have anything more on the separation of people? what happened. a lot of people were running. we heard from eyewitness accounts people were running. you had an usher telling people to get down, et cetera. as it pertains to the police investigation, is it the urging of investigators who want to keep everybody while they are trying to figure out details of who is responsible, keep everybody in a central location and at the same time bring people who may have been separated together?

>> i think what you are saying is true. we see all the people exiting the church. obviously, they wanted people to evacuate. what we don't know still is whether any of the parishioners, anyone who was there was injured. that we don't know. that pivotal question right there. the fact remains that if there were shots fired, it's still potentially that crime scene. they need to get any evidence that they have of what potentially may have happened. there are so many people there. you don't know what each individual person may have seen, may have experienced or witnessed. may be crucial to the investigation. >> right. let me juliette kayyem. it's ongoing. it's an active scene. you have people of interest on every level who are all still there at the lakewood church. talk to us about the importance of why you would want -- why law

enforcement wants to keep everyone together. people have seen things. they have experienced something different. they are trying to figure out all that happened and what precipitated it as well. >> yes. just depending where the shooting took place, which we don't know. we don't know if there's other victims. we will hear that relatively soon. it would be what happened and what did people see happened. a single eyewitness isn't going to give you much. 20 people seeing the same thing will tell you who he was. was he known to the congregation? did he have a fight with someone before and come back with a gun? this becomes relevant just for any investigation or if there was anyone else involved who may have planned this. it's hard to -- look, the place itself is so massive that it's going to be a few hours before they secure it. you have 20,000 people. this was a later afternoon sunday sermon.

it wasn't the morning one. nonetheless, these are major facilities that have to get evacuated. you have to get -- you have to be calm but you have to get family un ification in place. they will have to be interviewed. some will be quick. others may have seen a lot. by police to get a picture of what, in fact, happened. if there are charges pressed against the individual. we don't know his state or others. >> you heard that sound bite from that one churchgoer who described what she believes she saw. this taking place as she described right in the middle of a changing of services. that further complicates things. you have a different flow of people coming and going. there's activity, potential distractions right while someone is now carrying out this horrible act. >> right. she described the fact that joel

osteen was present there. we will want to find out what his condition is and where he is right now. he has tremendous security, whether it follows him out to say good-bye to people, but certainly when he is up on stage, that stage -- i have seen it. that stage has security all around it. no one can really charge him. these are like concerts. these are huge, huge events. making sure that at least by this one eyewitness, this did look like it was a transitional period and lots of people were not seated at the time. so just figuring out getting people back together and figuring out where leadership of the church is is key. we have no reason to believe that this was anything more than a scary shooting at a high profile place that has global outreach. he is known globally. people watch these things live.

being able to tell what, in fact, happened will be important for the houston police to do as soon as possible. >> juliette, you can see the positioning for a news conference that's going to take place outside of that church in 20 minutes or so from now. of course, we will monitor that and possibly take that live as it it's happening. okay. all right. juliette, just ahead of this press conference, what's your feeling as to the kind of information that investigators want to have at hand to encourage the investigation further and also make a good assessment to perhaps allay a lot of fears in the community about what happened? >> yeah. this is a big deal for the city and then for people who are

watching. we don't know what was heard on air. we don't know videos were going on. houston police department knows how to do this. we have had challenges -- i'm being nice here -- with other texas police departments about the disclosure of information. it's just not acceptable anymore. these mass shoot -- these shootings, are happening too frequently. houston knows how to do this. tell us if others were harmed. if there's any other fatalities. where leadership of the church is. that's going to be of import to people who are -- who view the church and view -- and view joel osteen as the equivalent of their religious leader, the head of their church. then where the investigation goes from there. houston knows how to do this. hopefully, sticks to the game plan, despite the fact that this is a big church with a lot of -- a lot of controversy and politics around it at various times. doesn't matter for purposes of

today. give us the numbers, and that's what the public deserves. >> yeah. okay. julie kayyem, thank you so much. aerial pictures right now around lakewood church where this shooting took place. reportedly the shooter is down. in 20 minutes or so from now, there will be a press conference. we will monitor it or even take it live if we are able to do that. the other big breaking story, the u.s. secretary of defense, lloyd austin, is back in the hospital. he has been transported to walter reed medical center for a second time now in the past three months. priscilla alvarez has more on this. he has been transported there. we know he was transported there earlier when people did not know. but he was hospitalized earlier for prostate-related issues. this would be his third

hospitalization as we know in recent months, priscilla? >> reporter: we are learning that he was transported around 2:20 this afternoon. only a few hours ago. by his security detail to walter reed medical center. this statement says the reason for that was, quote, symptoms suggesting an emergent bladder issue. this goes on to note the secretary is retaining the functions and duties of his office and adds the deputy secretary is prepared to assume functions and duties of the secretary of defense if required. to your earlier point, this comes after the defense secretary was hospitalized for complications following prostate cancer surgery in early january. he was discharged in mid january. all of that caused a firestorm on capitol hill and at the white house because the president and congress did not know at the time that he was hospitalized or the reason for why he was

hospitalized. since then, the defense secretary apologized saying it was mishandled and committing to better communicating should it come up again. that's what we are seeing play out today. this statement explicitly notes that the white house and congress have been notified that the defense secretary was taken to the hospital this afternoon. this is because of an emergent bladder issue. in early january, the reasons were because of complications following prostate cancer surgery. committing to keep updates coming as they have them. for now, all we know is that he was transported with his security detail earlier this afternoon and that he is retaining the functions of the post. >> priscilla alvarez, keep us posted as you learn more information. we are wishing him well. coming up, president biden held a call with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu today. what he said about a potential

hostage release and israel's ground operation in city of rah fa.

president biden and prime minister benjamin netanyahu speaking on the phone today for the first time in weeks amid growing tensions. the conversation comes as israel plans to evacuate more than a million palestinians, taking shelter in the southern city of rafah. as it prepares for a ground offensive. civilians say they have nowhere left to go. qatar is calling on the u.n. security council to prevent israel from committing what he describes as genocide. on capitol hill, the u.s. senate in a key vote moved one step closer to passing a bill that would provide tens of billions in assistance and military aid, not just for israel, but also ukraine and taiwan.

jeremy diamond joining us live from tel aviv. what do we know was, i guess, the nucleus of the conversation between president biden and netanyahu? >> reporter: well, it's important to note that this is the first time these two men have spoken since president biden just days ago called israel's military response in the gaza strip over the top. it comes as there are clear tensions between netanyahu and the white house. we are told most of this 45-minute call focused on these hostage negotiations, negotiations that could potentially provide a lengthy cease-fire in this war in gaza. it comes as netanyahu has slammed hamas' counterproposal as delusional. u.s. officials have sought to focus on the fact that there has been real progress on these talks in recent weeks. the cia director is set to go to cairo tuesday. this was a key call ahead of that next critical meeting as

hamas has been meeting with egyptian and qatari officials. we know that another portion of this call also focused on what the israeli military is telegraphing may come next. that is a major military operation in what has become the last refuge for so many palestinians. 1.4 million palestinians living in the southern most city of rafah. we are told president biden told the israeli prime minister that an israeli operation in that city should not proceed without serious and clear plans for how to evacuate the civilian population from there, how to ensure their safety, and that the president also talked to prime minister netanyahu about increasing humanitarian aid there. a very clear message from the united states at a time when so many countries are expressing extreme concern about this potential military operation where there are so many displaced palestinians. >> do we know whether netanyahu

gave any detail to president biden how people would get this safe passage? >> reporter: no. at this point, it seems like the israeli military is very much in the planning phase to try and prepare for that eventuality. we know the israeli prime minister said today on u.s. political shows that he has directed the israeli military to plan on both fronts, and also to provide safe passage for those civilians, but there are little details about what that would look like. here is the israeli prime minister earlier today. >> victory is within reach. we're going to do it. we're going to get the remaining hamas terrorist battalions. but we're going to do it white providing safe passage for the civilian passage. >> reporter: the prime minister

talked about the civilians moving north. we know north of rafah there's just enormous destruction with a majority of the buildings and structures having been either partially damaged or completely destroyed. one of the reasons why rafah has become that last refuge for so many displaced palestinians is because that is also where much of the aid is coming in via that rafah border crossing with egypt. humanitarian aid groups have more infrastructure in rafah than anywhere else in the gaza strip. planning for how to shelter these -- so many of these people, feed so many of these people, provide clean water is a major challenge. so far, no details from the israeli military about exactly how they will go about that. >> jeremy diamond in tel aviv. thanks so much. let's bring in david sanger. he is "the new york times" white house and national security corres correspondent. good to see you. you heard netanyahu there, who

sounded very definitive that he is going to be able to grant safe passage to people. but to where? >> great question, fredricka. obviously, israel said this before at various moments when they asked many of the palestinians, the residents of gaza, to move south as their operation began. now they are down in rafah where, as you heard from jeremy, there are in the region about 1.4 million palestinians. that's a good part of the population of the entire strip. they are kind of out of room, because south of them is the fence. so they can't get through that. and north of them is rubble from operations that have taken place already. it's not clear where they would have the space, where the

israelis or someone else could set up the tents, the sanitary facilities, the food distribution. now the good news here is that it doesn't look like it's all that imminent. of course, if the hostage negotiations work out -- prime minister netanyahu sounded pretty skeptical of that -- then there would be this cease-fire that might at least delay and perhaps prevent the rafah operation. >> do you think this discussion out loud is really about trying to go through a back channel of negotiations that really it's about negotiations, perhaps threaten to try to evacuate people or threaten this ground incursion when really it is about trying to find some leverage in negotiations for the release of hostages? >> it could well be.

at the same time, we don't hold a lot of doubt that a good deal of the hamas leadership is probably down in rafah. there are going to be tunnels down underneath the city, the way there have been in other locations in gaza. the israelis are going to want to get at that. the prime minister said in that clip that you played that israel was very close to victory here. that is not the assessment of the intelligence officials i have spoken to from the u.s. and from european countries. many of them believe that a lot of the leadership still remains. now, maybe some of the capability has been seriously degraded. this gets to the hard question, how do you define defeat of hamas? which, of course, is one of the israeli objectives. the other is the return of all the hostages. of course, we are finding these

two objectives in direct competition with each other. >> now let me talk to you about nato and what's being said on the campaign trail. former president donald trump at a rally hit some familiar themes or nato and how not all the countries are contributing. take a listen. >> one of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, sir, if we don't pay and we are attacked by russia, will you protect? i said, you didn't pay, you are delinquent. he said, yes? let's say that happened. no, i would not protect you. i would enkcourage them. >> you wrote about those comments. how dangerous is this? >> pretty threatening and

dangerous, if you believe that the president would carry through on it. we know that during his term in office, particularly in 2018, he did want to pull out of nato. what he did in that brief clip that you played was something different. something we didn't hear during his four years in office. which was essentially an invitation to vladimir putin to go test the solidarity of nato by going after a nato country, and the president saying that the united states would not come to that country's aid. we don't know if this conversation really took place. it falls into a pattern of stories that the former president trump has told many times where sometimes the conversation back and forth has been amended to fit his narrative.

that may have been the case here. i suspect we would have heard it -- heard about it if -- a few years ago if he had told the leader of a major country that the united states would not come to their aid. it would essentially be the shatshat er shattering of nato. that's the ultimate goal of vladimir putin. >> david, great to see you. thanks so much. >> good to see you. at any moment now, there will be a press conference in houston outside of the lakewood mega church where a shooting took place earlier today. we will bring you those latest details from that press conference at any moment.

we want to take you to houston and a press conference involving a shooting at joel osteen's lakewood church. let's listen in. >> the first responders reaction

in a timely fashion. i want communities to know that the first responders are doing their job in protecting the public and surrounding communities. i also want everyone to know that this is a perfect example of the collaboration between departments. it's exactly what we have been calling for. hpd, constables, i could go through a list of multiple agencies representing their agencies in a very responsive way. we want to give our condolences to reverend osteen and his congregation. it's unfortunate on a day we want to attend church, watch america's number one sports event, we find ourselves gathered here to respond to this

tragedy. we want hustonians to know they are protected. we want to thank the houston fire department for their quick response. medical profession whose tending to one of the injured. as mayor of houston, i want to assure everyone that everyone is at work doing their job. let's come together on this beautiful day, a day that we are experiencing a tragedy. let's hug our loved ones. when you leave here today, go hug your loved ones and say a prayer for those that are involved. say a prayer for those officers that had to drop the suspect. they are suffering right now. all these other first responders that i'm surrounded by, they are doing their job so we can be safe. at this time, let me yield to our police chief.

>> thank you. like the mayor said -- i think the most important message, before i get into details, is to talk about the resilience of our great city. we worship together. we cry together. but we rebuild together. this is a tragic day. watch how we stand together. no suspect or suspects will tear down our city and our places of worship. pastor osteen is standing with us and all of our partners. i want to thank them all, local, state, federal partners. i just want to give detail here, but pray for everybody that's involved. the victims who i will discuss here. the unsaid victims, those vehicles that came here to worship today and had to witness this. rest assured, in this city, we are going to stand strong and

we're going to move forward. at approximately 1:53 p.m., a female approximately 30, 35 years old entered the property on the west side here in the parking lot of lakewood church. she entered the building. she was armed with a long rifle and a trenchcoat with a backpack accompanied by a small child, approximately 4 to 5 years old. once she entered, at some point she began to fire. i want to compliment the off-duty officers who were working here. one tabc agent, four years of service, 38 years old. a 28-year-old officer, two years

of service. both officers -- officer and agent engaged striking the female. she's deceased here on the scene. unfortunately, a 5-year-old kid was hit and is in critical condition at our local hospital. there was a 57-year-old man who didn't have anything to do with it, i don't think, was shot in the leg. he is seeking treatment in the hospital. let's all pray for each and every one of them. once she went down, officers reported back to u threatened she had a bomb. we searched her vehicle and the backpack. no explosives were found. she was also spraying some type of substance on the ground. hfd came. the fire chief will speak

briefly on that. again, we are going to stand strong. again, i want to commend those officers. she had a long gun, and it could have been a lot worse. they stepped up and they did their job. i want to thank them for that. as you know, when an officer is involved in a shooting, we conduct a criminal investigation, harris county district attorney's office, and also both agencies conduct administrative investigations. that will take place. both of these officers -- the officer and the agent will be placed on administrative duty. again, let's pray for everybody. we stand strong here in houston. i will pass it on right now -- let me say this, too. places of worship, that's what they are. that's what they will remain in our city. it's an opportunity for us to

refocus and make sure that we all look out for one another. there will be increased patrols and a lot of conversation in our command post with our fellow partners and our local partners. we will increase those patrols in and around those religious institutions. it doesn't matter which faith. we love everybody here in our city. everybody is important. let me pass it on to the fire chief. >> thank you, chief and mayor. first of all, let me thank all the agencies that are here with us. this is really a team effort. our prayers are with and our positive thoughts are with the injured and with the officers that engaged this suspect. it's traumatic not only for our community, but it's certainly traumatic for the officers who had to take a life. we worry about their mental health as well. our prayers are with them. we're going to give them whatever support they need to ep sure they are able to manage through this incident safely.

the fire department and police department were here within minutes. we where dealing with consequence management of this incident now that the threat has been neutralized. we are going to take our time to ensure that any issue, any risk is properly vetted. we have our hazmat team on scene. you have units that are participating in collaboration with the houston police department's bomb squad to ensure we are looking at every aspect that may be of risk. right now, i can safely say that we have not found anything that is of concern to our community or to this location. we are going to take our time to ensure that we look at every aspect. our hazmat team and our rescue team will remain on scene. we will collaborate in this effort. we did transport two patients,

one a 5-year-old child in critical condition. they went to texas children's. we transported a second male about 56 years of age with an injury to the hip. last i heard, he was in stable condition. both are still in the hospital. the child is still in critical condition. we don't have any further information as far as his status. again, let's pray for this community as a whole. this is traumatic for every houstonian. these incidents are unfortunately something that we deal more often than we need to with. we are going to remain on scene. i will pass this on now to who? >> quickly, this is an isolated incident, we believe, at this moment. no further danger to our public. we do want to do -- conduct a

methodical search of the building to make sure that nobody is in there, nobody else is in there hurt. that will continue. we ask the public stay away from the area, let us do our job on that. the reunification location for parents or family members is the lifetime fitness center here. come up, we will direct you. try to stay on the east side of the building, not on the west side of the building. we will get you reunited with family members. pastor? >> first off, thank the chief and mayor and all of the men and women who did an amazing job. you said it, chief, it could have been a lot worse. we are devastated. we have been here 65 years. to have somebody shooting in your church. we don't understand why these things happen. we know god is in control. we are going to pray for that 5-year-old boy and pray for the lady that was deceased, her

family and all and the other gentleman. kind of in a fog. we're going to stay strong. we're going to continue to move forward. there are forces of evil. the forces that are for us, forces of god are stronger than that. they will go strong and do what god has called us to do, lift people up and give hope to the world. i want to thank all these gentlemen. i can only imagine if it would have happened during the 11:00 service. we were in between services going into the spanish service. if there's anything good of it, she didn't get in there and do worse damage. we thank god for that. he is watching over all of us. as the chief says, we will keep going strong. bring hope to the world. thank you. >> i will get translation to spanish.

>> you heard from joel osteen there, who was giving thanks to all the first responders there. grateful that the outcome was not worse. are you heard from the police chief and you heard from the mayor there the description of some 30 to 35-year-old woman who entered the church with a long rifle and the two police officers who were on duty working at the church were then able to take her down. in so doing, a 5-year-old was shot and a 57-year-old shot. both of those injuries, they are being hospitalized. we have been following this as well. jean, remarkable sequence of events taking place here. >> very, very unusual sequence of events. right now, the fire department continues to do a memthodmethod

search to make sure they don't find anything. in addition to what you are saying, this woman walked in with the long gun, the rifle, had a trench coat on, a backpack on, but was accompanied by the 5-year-old child. that is what they said in that press conference. these off-duty officers started to immediately engage, was the word, and in doing so it appears that the 5-year-old was shot. he is in critical condition at this point. joel osteen said it was a young boy. then a 57-year-old man was shot in what we know to be the hip. he also has been taken to the hospital. before they engaged her, she said she had a bomb, according to the houston police

department. they saw her spraying something outside on the ground. fire department has also engaged in that area along with the police department. they did not find any explosive device at this point. they don't see anything of concern on the ground of what she was spraying. this investigation continues. >> yeah. it's remarkable. we heard from joel osteen who was talking about this happening in between services. this taking place right as the spanish language service was to begin. he described there were so many more people who were there at the same time. he is grateful that more injuries didn't take place, that the outcome wasn't worse than what it was. >> and thank goodness that they were positioned, those off-duty officers, in what appears to be the sanctuary of the church that you would enter before you enter

into the actual area. the foyer, before the sanctuary. >> yeah. it sounds like the description was there were two officers who were working at that church. one representing houston police. their instincts were very fast. they made their observation, and it didn't take long before they actually shot and took down that suspect. >> now we see why the church was evacuated as fast. not only because of the shots, because i think the person was engaged and the female, 30 to 35 years old, was downed very, very quickly. but the fact that she had said that there was a bomb, i think, made them act very quickly to get people out of that church. >> sorry to interrupt. we will go back to the press conference. they are taking questions. >> i don't want to speculate on anything. next question. go ahead in the middle.

>> is it the belief the officers that opened fire, did they strike the child? >> i have no idea right now. she fired. we don't know. i don't want to speculate. i will say this. if it was unfortunately -- that suspect put that baby in danger, i'm going to put that blame on her. next question. go ahead. [ inaudible ] >> a little bit louder. we do believe -- we believe that to be correct. [ inaudible ] i'm not sure just over here on west side here, just behind us. we will get those details to you later. go ahead, sir. >> how many shots? >> i have no idea. multiple shots. >> was there any explosive device? >> nothing found.

we are searching the entire grounds. if it is, we will report back to you on that. next question. >> did you find an i.d. on the woman? >> i'm not sure if we found an i.d. if we did, we will share that with you. you know what we are up against today on this day. i think it's very important for us to get before the cameras as quickly as we can, not competing with the super bowl and everything else. let our citizens know that everything is good here. we are standing together. we are moving forward. i'm sorry. let me -- one thing. i forgot -- hold up. hear me out. i forgot to say the pastor is not going to go with any more questions or anything today. it will be a time later. i'm sorry. didn't mean to cut you off. within minutes. within minutes a lot of officers responded. [ inaudible ]

i'm not sure. i'm not sure. >> any witnesses? >> that's part of the investigation. we are going to talk to those witnesses. some are still here, thank god. they stayed back. that's part of the investigation. one more with you and then i'm going to get over here. >> the child that was with this female, is it believed they are related? >> i don't want to speculate. i don't know. the only thing we know is that they arrived together. next question. [ inaudible ] yes, yes, a white vehicle. i failed to say that. a white vehicle. >> any more description? >> not right now. just a white vehicle that we did search that vehicle to make sure there were no explosives or anything found in it. go ahead. >> is there any idea what was sprayed on the ground? >> we don't know. the fire department, they are still evaluating that. a few more questions. go ahead. >> was the child the woman's -- the boy was the woman's child?

. >> what relation? >> i don't know, i don't know. let me get somebody who hasn't asked me a question. go ahead and then i'll come back to you. go ahead. speak up a little bit. >> do you know how long -- >> until we get through. and i, the pastor, and his staff will make that decision. it's going to be closed for now. i think that was the last service for the day anyway. who's next? >> i was wondering about the other gentleman who was hurt. was he a parishioner, walking by? >> i think so. i think so. that's what we believe at this time. shot in the leg, in stable condition. >> an officer said they're still searching for another male suspect. is that not the case? >> i don't believe so. we believe her to be the lone suspect. when shots are fired people run from that area. some people may say he was a suspect, some not. we don't believe that at this time, okay? anybody that ran away or anything, we're going to ask that they call hpd homicide.

even if you left the scene, we need to get a full statement of what you witnessed. >> were officers wearing body cams at the time? >> i'm not sure. i'm not sure. >> [ inaudible question ] said she had a bomb -- >> i'm not sure. i didn't talk to her. that's just what's told to me. we're gathering more information. we're going to do two more questions, somebody who hasn't asked me anything. >> the female that's the suspect right now, she's under investigation or is she no longer -- >> she's deceased. yes, ma'am. thanks for asking. go ahead. last one. >> is that vehicle still on scene? >> yes, it's still being processed as part of the scene. it takes hours before we clear the scene. >> -- security camera video? >> we'll see. we'll see. you know, we're very transparent here in the police department, hpd. so, we have put it at the right

time, appropriate time. and if there's body worn cameras, the officers will work an extra job. i don't know the policy by the federal agency, but we'll check with our officers. thank y'all. let's continue to pray for everybody. thank you very much. >> all right. when he says everybody, there are two people who remain hospitalized, being treated for injuries, after shots were fired. our jean casarez back with us. but the shooter, who entered the lakewood church, joel osteen's lakewood church there in houston, that shooter, who was described as a woman between the ages of 30 and 35, she was taken down by the two officers who were working and on duty at the church there, jean. while she was taken down two, other people were injured. and it is notable that this shooter came in with a 5-year-old. and that 5-year-old was shot as

well. and you heard from the police chief there who said, if that child, you know, was brought in by that shooter -- and that's what they suspect -- then whatever happens to that child, it's on her. he did say he wanted everyone to feel rest assured that everything is good here, we're standing together, and now moving forward. >> one thing that we just learned with what was said by law enforcement was that when this woman, 30 to 35 years old, came in with the trench coat, with the rifle, with the back pac, she then started shooting. and the law enforcement officers who were there in what is believed to be the foyer of the church, engaged. shots were flying both way because they saw what she had, what she was starting to do, and potentially potentially where she was trying to go, into the sanctuary, and it's at that time the child that accompanied her, that she brought in, was shot, along with

a man that was shot in the leg, in the hip. at this point, they don't know what shot went into either the shooter or law enforcement the 5-year-old or even the 57-year-old man at this point. but it obviously was an emergency situation that had to be taken care of before the masses of people inside that sanctuary would start to be potentially shot by this female shooter. >> frightening situation. we heard from pastor joel osteen who said, while this happened in between a spanish language service just about to begin and the other service, which was much larger was wrapping up, he was just, you know, counting the blessings on how it really could have been a far worse scenario, with so many more people there. but he extended that he was hugely grateful to all the first responders who were there. all right. jean casarez, thank you so much. we're going to continue to follow that story, which police

assure the houston community that everything is okay now now that they have taken down the shooter, someone who walked right into joel osteen's lakewood church. and we're also following the other big story out of washington, d.c., where the pentagon is confirming that the u.s. secretary of defense, lloyd austin, has been transported to walter reed medical center for another time, the second time in the past three months, transported because of complications. cnn chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta joining us now. sanjay, help us understand. what we have been told is emergent bladder issue. now, we know that he had complications from his prostate surgery earlier, and then he was hospitalized for the prostate surgery. so, now this is really a third hospital visit. but perhaps the second one that sounds like in the category of an emergency. >> yeah, exactly. i mean, this poor guy.

he's had a rough go of things, fred. there's no question about it. it was mid-afternoon when we were notified that he was going to the hospital for, as you mentioned, emergent bladder issues, which is something that can happen after someone has had prostate surgery. typically if it's emergent, someone has what's called urinary retention. the bladder becomes descended. it's real painful. he can't pee. that's what the emergency is. it can be a real emergency. besides a bladder being destended, it can cause problems with heart rate and blood pressure and things like that. just a quick time line. again, as you mentioned, it was in early december that he was first notified that he had prostate cancer. he waited to have that operation until december 22nd. people sometimes schedule these operations over the holidays. and it seemed like it went fine. he was discharged the next day. then on january 1st, he was hospitalized for a bladder

infection. at that point he was in the hospital for quite some time, two weeks at that point, fred. and now, you know, it's not even a month later, and he's back in the hospital again. all we know, again, it's these bladder issues. it could be a remnant of the infection. but with prostate surgery, you can get an issue where it just becomes hard to empty one's bladder. and that can turn into a real problem, which is probably what they're addressing right now. not likely what we'll see. we're expecting an update. not likely he will need any kind of anesthesia for this. but i'm sure they're trying to address the bladder issue as we speak. >> so, as you're saying, these are relatively common side effects after having a prostate-related surgery? >> well, as far as complications go, these are the ones that more typically happen. but, you know, a lot of people have this operation and don't have any of these, sort of, you know, follow-up complications or necessary hospitalizations. but, you know, the area of the

body where this operation take place, it's right in that area around the bladder, around the urethra. people can developing swelling, a fissure. any of those things can lead to a problem with the bladder. >> he's probably nay lot of pain, right? >> yeah, this poor guy. the pain from not being able to empty your bladder, the abdominal pain. that can cause other symptoms in the body. people can drop their blood pressure. they can have aberrations in their heart rate. so, they describe this as an emergency, and i'm sure that was part of the reason why as well. >> all right. dr. sanjay gupta, thank you so much. of course we're wishing him well. as you said, he's been through a lot. and it is ongoing. all right. thanks so much. >> announcer: this is cnn >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

hello again, everyone. i'm fredricka whitfield. we continue to follow multiple breaking news stories at this hour. police just giving an update in houston, where they say shots were fired inside joel osteen's megachurch, lakewood. one of the victims is only five years old and now in critical condition. also at this hour, u.s. defense secretary lloyd austin is back at walter reed medical center. the pentagon says he had a bladder issue, emergent bladder issue. and at this point he has not been admitted to the hospital. all right. first let's begin in houston where jean casarez continues to follow the developments out of houston at joel osteen's mega church there. we just heard that press conference. help bring us up to date on everything. >> well, this happened mid-afternoon in houston at the lakewood church, joel osteen's church. it was all r