Shadowing Practice: ‘Extremely frightening’: Wolf Blitzer sees gunman open fire a few feet away - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Wolf Blitzer. We see you as well.
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162 sentences
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Wolf Blitzer. We see you as well.
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We know that you witnessed this gunman in action, and you have stated that the gunman was firing as they were brought to the ground, but you were unclear in the direction to which the gunman was firing.
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Could you describe the clothing or the weapon that you saw from that gunman from your vantage point?
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Is that a question for me as well?
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Yes, Wolf. I just saw a big gun.
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I don't know what kind of weapon it was.
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And I heard a loud the loud bangs that were going off.
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It was extremely frightening.
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I was only a few feet away.
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It was a total coincidence.
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I was walking back to the ballroom.
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We were on one floor above the ballroom.
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We had to go down stairs to go back into the ballroom, but the gunman was clearly on the secure side of the metal detectors.
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I don't know how he got through if he got through.
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If he had been there earlier.
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But he was armed, he was firing, and police were there, and they, and they were on top of him within a minute or so.
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And then they were on top of me to protect me as if I could have been shot, too.
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So it was just a very frightening moment.
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And I'm not surprised at all that they've called off the whole evening out of an abundance of caution, knowing that at least one individual armed with a weapon.
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Had I managed to get, a few feet away from the door to the ballroom, he was not in the ballroom.
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He was outside the ballroom.
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One floor up.
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Yes, up to stairs. Up.
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But, it was clearly a very dangerous situation.
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A situation like that.
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You don't take any chances because you don't know if he was acting alone, if there were others involved with him and what was going on.
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So I'm now in the lobby of the Washington Motel, and all the people who were inside are slowly taking the escalator up, and they're getting ready to leave and see if they could get a ride home one way or another.
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The security going into the event tonight was incredible.
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I had never seen security around the Washington Hilton Hotel, where white House Correspondents Association dinner or for any other major dinner, as tight as it was today.
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And I've been to about 30 of these white House correspondents Association dinners over the years that I've been with CNN.
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And it was just very, very, very intense.
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And I have no idea if there were any indications that something like this could happen.
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But I know that security was beefing up potentially for something and something happened.
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But the shots were fired just outside the door, to the ballroom.
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The shooter did not get into the ballroom.
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We're shooting one floor up the stairs leading to the ballroom.
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And, it was just the normally loud, difficult to, you know, to comprehend what was going on.
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And I'm sure we'll be learning a whole lot more about the suspect, what was going on, if there was a motive or whatever.
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But when the cops saw me only a few feet away from the shooter, they threw me to the ground and and got on top of me to protect me.
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And then after a few minutes, they picked me up and took me away to a secure room, the men's room, which was not very far away, and there were about 15 other men already inside who were just trying to stay secure in the face of the gunshots that were going up.
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And I think I heard at least three, maybe six gunshots.
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Boom, boom, boom, boom.
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And it was just enormously loud.
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I had no idea what was going on.
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And for, you know, initially when the cop pushed me down, I said to myself, I wonder if, you know, I was a target or whatever.
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And I thank God I wasn't because I was not shot.
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I was just thrown to the ground and protected, just to make sure that there were no gunshots aimed at me.
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So it was just a coincidence that I happened to have been there, walking back to the ballroom when all of this took place.
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And it was just a frightening moment indeed.
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And people are still here at the hotel.
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They're trying to get out of here.
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They want to go home.
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I don't blame them. And, it's just, you know, a scary, scary situation you can watch as is unfolding right now.
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You can see from the left part of your screen a moment. Yeah.
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This is the first time that we are seeing this on the big monitor.
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And the first time we are playing this at CNN.
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Okay. That guy, you see how quickly and you see the area that they appear to be near.
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We were told earlier in the presence of a magnetometer.
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Look at the number of agents with weapons drawn who are running and pursuing this person.
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And again note the very quick pace from which this person has moved.
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And again we do not see the shooting of a Secret Service member.
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We do have a picture of the suspect on the ground.
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We can show that as well.
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And a screen that shows the suspect without clothing on which seems to be which frankly, is, a normal course of business to remove, to see if there's any threat under their clothing and beyond.
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But let's let's bring in John Miller to talk more about this. John Miller.
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Again, we're seeing the photo of that suspect on the ground.
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We don't know if the suspect was shot because we're getting conflicting reports on that.
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It was hard to tell in the photo if he was wounded.
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You have some new reporting.
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Why don't you give that to us first?
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And then I do want to ask you to analyze the video.
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So first, your new reporting.
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Sure. I mean, we've been looking into this individual, since early on in this.
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And, you know, the picture that emerges of the man who is in custody is a 31 year old man from Torrance, California.
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He is a graduate of California State University from Dominguez Hills.
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He seems to go on from there to Caltech.
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He does a volunteer program at the Jet Propulsion Lab, looking at his social media, looking at his posts.
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What he what he plays as as a nerd techie.
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It doesn't scream assassin.
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Can't find controversial posts.
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He likes some other people's posts, complaining about layoffs in Washington of, federal employees and things like that.
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But he doesn't.
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And social media doesn't tell us much about him.
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So the picture that emerges is not what you might expect from your typical assassin.
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But then again, look back at the other people have been involved in these things.
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And, there, if you've met one, one attempted assassin, you've met one attempted assassin.
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And John, the president did say he has no reason to believe this individual was motivated by Iran.
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That's the one bit of information he gave us.
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And he was quite dismissive about the things.
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I don't think so.
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I don't think there's any reason to think that what he was motivated by is still to be determined.
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We will learn.
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Now, John, I don't know if you've had a chance to see the video the president put out.
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We played it.
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We'll play it again here of this individual running past the security.
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Just tell us what you see with your trained eye here.
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So he's running at breakneck speed, and you see the first, agent who he is running towards literally spins out of the way while drawing his gun at the same time.
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And then shots are fired.
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This happens in less than seconds.
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These are milliseconds in terms of the reaction time.
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And you can see, by the way they move forward and are now re whole stirring their weapons that he is down, which means either, he was shot and wounded by that gunfire or other Secret Service agents ahead of them, out of frame tackled him.
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But either way, he was taken down fairly immediately after he ran by.
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At that speed, I'm Jeff Carroll, interim chief of police for the Metropolitan Police Department.
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This afternoon.
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This evening, members of the United States Secret Service and the Metropolitan Police Department were here at the Washington Hotel.
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For a site detail for the correspondents dinner.
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As the mayor mentioned, at approximately 836 tonight, an individual charged a U.S.
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Secret Service checkpoint here in the lobby area of the hotel.
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He was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives as he ran through that checkpoint, members of law enforcement from the United States Secret Service intercepted that individual.
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This is a very preliminary investigation.
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At this point.
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We do know that law enforcement exchanged gunfire with the individual.
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We do know that a U.S.
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Secret Service, uniformed division officer was struck in his vest.
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He was transported to a local hospital for treatment.
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He seems to be in good spirits at this time.
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The suspect in this case, he was not struck by gunfire.
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However, he was transported to a local hospital, to be evaluated.
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Again, we're very early in the investigation.
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We have members of the United States Secret Service, the Metropolitan Police Department, and the FBI here to continue to investigate this matter.
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But at this point, it does appear he is a lone actor, a lone gunman.
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That does not appear to be any sort of danger to the public at this time.
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However, we are continuing to investigate this matter.
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At this point, I will, turn it over to, I believe, the FBI.
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Hi. Good evening.
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I'm Derek Cox, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's Washington field office.
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The American public should be proud of the quick response and heroic actions from law enforcement officers tonight to keep the American public safe.
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Their actions are absolutely heroic.
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The public should also rest assured that there will be no stone unturned during this investigation.
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The FBI currently has our joint terrorism Task Force here on scene, along with our Criminal Division.
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Our Crisis response team and agents from across the country are working on any leads that may come in in this investigation.
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Anyone with tips in this investigation should call one 800.
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Call FBI. Thank you.
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Director. Director Kern, thank you.
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My name is Sean Kern with director the Secret Service tonight, we saw exactly what our brave men and women do each and every day to protect our protectors.
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It's not easy.
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And I will tell you that they performed admirably.
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We got to see what they do.
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And that individual, when he charged a checkpoint, was apprehended.
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It shows that our multi-layered protection works.
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And I'm grateful to our partners that help assist us with building these sites and protecting these sites.
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Very fortunate that this officer is alive is being observed, and I'm grateful that the president reached out to this officer and spoke with him earlier.
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I ask everybody to pray for him and all of our officers and agents that were involved.
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And I will tell you, we will continue with the mission.
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Thank you. Thank you.
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Judge Fierro.
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I'm Jeanine Pirro, I'm the United States attorney.
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Right now. The defendant is being charged with two counts.
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924 C using a firearm during a crime of violence and a second crime under 111, which is assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon.
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Now, as you all know, there was an individual, a uniformed Secret Service officer who was shot and fortunately, he is doing our right and he will be fine.
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But it is clear, based upon what we know so far, that this individual was intent on doing as much harm and as much damage as he could.
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And thankfully, because of the checkpoint right outside the ballroom where thousands of people were situated, to hear the president of the United States, because that checkpoint worked, there was no one who was injured when it was clear where this defendant was going.
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Now, I want to make one comment as a participant, someone who was in the ballroom who came this evening to be part of a very lovely event at the white House Correspondents Dinner.
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I for the first time was in a situation where there were shots fired, shots heard, and a whole room went silent when I lifted my head.
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And when I looked up, every law enforcement officer was out there as we all had our heads down.
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Thousands of them.
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These are the men and women every day who do what they do silently, and they do it with courage and with dignity.
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Thank God for our partners.
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The FBI, the Secret Service, the Metropolitan Police.
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All of them tonight acted so quickly that they prevented what could have been a horrific event where we were all sitting there in one room.
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The defendant will be arraigned on Monday in federal district court.
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But make no mistake, there will be many more charges based upon the information that we are learning in this very fluid situation. Thank you.

Context & Background

The video features CNN's Wolf Blitzer providing an eyewitness account of a disturbing incident involving a gunman at a high-security event. The situation unfolded rapidly, with Blitzer expressing the intensity and fear associated with the shooting. He describes his personal experience of being just a few feet away from the assailant while he fired shots, highlighting the chaotic atmosphere and the immediate response of law enforcement. This account not only gives a glimpse into the event's tension but also serves as an excellent resource for language learners to improve their listening and speaking skills through the shadowing technique.

Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication

  • “It was extremely frightening.” - A phrase expressing fear that can be useful in various contexts.
  • “I don’t know how he got through.” - This indicates confusion or surprise, relevant in discussions about security or unexpected situations.
  • “It was a total coincidence.” - Useful for explaining unexpected events without intention.
  • “You don’t take any chances.” - This phrase emphasizes caution and can be applied in numerous scenarios.
  • “They threw me to the ground.” - A vivid expression that can be used to narrate a protective reaction in an intense situation.

Step-by-step Shadowing Guide

To enhance your English speaking skills through shadow speech, follow this guide using the excerpt from the video:

  1. Listen Carefully: Play a short section of the video, focusing on Blitzer's intonation and pronunciation.
  2. Repeat Aloud: After each sentence, pause and repeat what you’ve heard, mimicking the speaker’s tone and rhythm. Use a shadowing app to help synchronize your speech with the video.
  3. Break It Down: If a phrase feels challenging, break it down into smaller parts. For instance, "It was extremely frightening" can be split into its key components for better retention.
  4. Practice Shadowing: Engage in the shadowspeaks technique by continuously repeating the phrases along with the video for about 10 to 20 minutes. Focus on replicating the emotional nuances in the speaker's voice.
  5. Self-Assessment: Record yourself imitating the phrases and listen for areas of improvement. Compare your pronunciation and delivery with the original speaker, noting any differences.

Through this focused practice, you can master the art of shadow speak, improving your fluency and confidence in real-life conversations.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

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