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Chattanooga Shooting. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired July 16, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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


[14:00:00] PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: And we're also now hearing there may be another shooting at a separate site nearby.

Also, we're trying to get confirmation of how many people have been hurt or killed in this shooting. The city's mayor calling it "horrific," and revealing an officer got caught in the gunfire.

Let's go straight to Victor Blackwell, on the phone at the site of one of the shootings.

Victor, what can you tell us?

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, Pamela, I'm at the Lee Highway location about maybe 150 feet from the Armed Forces Career Center and the National Guard recruitment office here. It looks to be maybe two to three dozen gunshots, the bullet holes through the windows. And listening to a witness report earlier, there was a description of some indiscriminate firing. But looking at the businesses on either side of this recruitment center, it appears that these other businesses have not been hit by bullets.

To the right of this location there is an Italian restaurant where local police, the Chattanooga Police Department, as well as the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, they are holed up, talking to witnesses. And we're seeing them individually, one by one, being released, getting into cars. And although we're attempting to speak to them, they are driving off here. We know that there will be that news conference soon where we'll likely get some - some information.

There are about maybe a dozen to maybe 18 or 20 evidence markers in the parking lot possibly marking shell casings or other possible evidence here, but the lion's share, if not all of the law enforcement here is from the Chattanooga Police Department and from the sheriff's office. Some of the businesses - most of the businesses, I'll say, have closed for the day in this strip mall, understandably, after what happened here just a couple of hours ago.

Pamela.

BROWN: So again, Victor, you said that there were two to three gunshots there. Does it appear then that this recruitment center, this military recruitment center, was specifically targeted?

BLACKWELL: Yes. I mean there is a Cricket store on the left of this recruitment center. There's this (INAUDIBLE) Italian grill on the right. And just from looking - from, you know, my vantage point here, I don't see a single gunshot or a bullet hole in the windows of either of those businesses. This recruitment center looks to be three storefronts. I don't know if there - you know, once you go in one of the doors, if it's all one large space or if they are one next to another individual recruitment centers because they do have different signs over them. But in these doors there's no fewer than a dozen bullet holes in each of these and there are no bullet holes in the Cricket business on the left, a cell phone company, or in the Italian restaurant on the right that I can see from where I am. So all of the markers, all of these bullet holes are in this career center here at this strip mall.

BROWN: I know you're just arriving there, Victor, but are you hearing anything about injuries there, fatalities?

BLACKWELL: Yes. The law enforcement here, they're not saying much about anything. They are referring all of the requests from the media to that news conference that we're expecting to start pretty soon, and that's where the answers will come from. But from what I can see, right next to this recruitment center, we've got six police officers and when they open the door I can see a few uniformed military officials. I can't tell if they are recruitment workers from that company or people who - from next door or if they have come in afterwards. But we can see them in those - those military uniforms going in and out and now they've opened the door again. I can see a couple more police officers inside the Italian restaurant. So that seems to be where they've set up to speak with any potential witnesses.

BROWN: OK, Victor Blackwell, thank you so much. Stand by, we'll go back to you after we hear from police at this press conference.

I now want to go to my colleague, Evan Perez.

Evan, we know from authorities there that the active shooter situation has come to an end. Does that mean that the shooter, shooters, are deceased?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: That's the indication that we're getting, Pamela, from law enforcement officials here and - federal law enforcement officials who are, obviously, now at the scene there. And we expect, because this is a military facility, that this is going to be a federal crime scene. It's going to be something that's going to be handled by the FBI and the ATF as they get there to try to figure out where this gun came from, who this shooter is and whether or not there was some reason - what the motivation for this - for this attack was.

Now, as you and I have been reporting in the last few weeks and, frankly, for months now, there have been an increase in the number of threats against military facilities in the United States and there have been multiple times in which the Pentagon and the military have increased their security levels because of those threats. So that's also something that law enforcement is walking into this with that on their mind because they don't know whether this person who carried out this shootings, whether this person was particularly animated for a particular reason to carry out this attack. [14:05:13] Clearly, this person was only trying to attack those two

military facilities. So that's the belief right now. The question is, why is that? Is it related to some of those other threats or whether - was there something in particular against these facilities and was there something that is - that this person had perhaps some incident and some relationship - past relationship that played into this. That's - those are the questions that investigators now are looking into.

BROWN: Trying to determine whether or not this is terrorism related. And to be clear here, Evan, the belief is that it was one shooter, is that correct?

PEREZ: Right. We have no indications that there is another shooter. That right now all we have been told by law enforcement is that there is - there was one shooter and that that shooter is deceased.

BROWN: OK, Evan Perez, thank you so much.

I want to go now to a witness who joins us on the phone right now. Fred Wright is a salesman at the auto parts store right down the street from the scene on Lee Highway, where our Victor Blackwell was.

Fred, thank you so much for coming on to talk with us. I imagine you're pretty shaken up right now. Tell us what you heard.

FRED WRIGHT, WITNESS WHO HEARD THE SHOOTING (via telephone): I'd walked out to my van this morning and while I was out there I just heard some multiple firing shots going off. And I really didn't know what it was at first. I - we knew the training center was up there and we thought some of the guys were just having a training exercise, but I saw the men start coming down through the burrs (ph) and all the bushes and they were running towards me and hollering for me to call 911, that someone was shooting at them. So three of them ran in here with me and we locked the door and we called 911.

And then they hung around down here for a pretty good while until we could, you know, kind of go outside and look around a little bit. But they were trying to find their other friends, too, which had come down through the bushes and the burrs and stuff and they went on down toward the road and they all hooked up together and we all met back up here and I did never see the shooter. I could just hear it because it was right up on the hill from us where we're at here.

BROWN: And when you heard it, Fred, because we've been hearing reports that this shooter was firing indiscriminately. My colleague said there were two to three dozen shots just at one location alone. What did it sound like to you?

WRIGHT: I could tell it was an automatic weapon going off. It sounded like it was 30 to 40 shots to me. I mean it - you could - you could tell it was a lot of shots.

BROWN: Wow. Wow. And, Fred, this is anyone's worst nightmare. When you gathered that this was actually a shooting, you're having to call 911, what was going through your mind? How were you feeling in that terrifying moment?

WRIGHT: It was - it was pretty unnerving. You know, I was concerned. I was hoping he wasn't coming down here where we were. So we were pretty concerned about it but then, you know, just adrenaline kicked in and we did what we had to do.

BROWN: Fred, if you would, for our viewers familiar who aren't familiar with this area, could you set the scene for us. What is it like there? Tell us about the neighborhood.

WRIGHT: The neighborhood around this area is - it's a - it's a business area where it happened at. It's a -- there's a McDonald's, Taco Bell across the street. It's a - it's a main artery, the road is, and I mean we're just going about our everyday life. I mean nothing like that really ever happens around here.

BROWN: So it's a crowded area. It's a place where a lot of people go not just - it's not just a military recruitment facility. There are a lot of other areas.

Fred Wright, thank you so much for coming on to tell that story. We appreciate it.

WRIGHT: Thank you very much.

BROWN: And I want to turn now to Alexandra Field, who has been following this story ever since the very beginning.

Alexandra, as Evan had said, there have been threats against military installments for several months now. The law enforcement has been warning about that. Do we know if there have been any specific threats to these facility or these facilities where the shootings happened?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, until we know who this shooter is, we probably don't expect to hear much more from law enforcement about why specifically these two facilities were targeted. And there was a great deal of confusion as this unfolded this morning, Pamela, about which facilities exactly had been targeted. We then came to learn that there were two separate, distinct military facilities. One was that reserve center. The other was that recruitment center where Victor Blackwell saw those two or three dozen shots fired.

You know, this started around 10:50 in the morning. It's our understanding that there were people inside the recruitment center. It was the mayor of Chattanooga who brought this to light, alerting the public of what was going on by tweeting that there had been a horrific incident. He, at the time, did not elaborate on the details, gave the investigators their space to try and detain, capture or take down this shooter or shooters, as people had wondered. At this point, there is no indication that there were multiple shooters, as Evan points out, but still certainly these questions about why these two locations were picked and whether there were other locations in mind.

We know that there also had been some confusion about who or what police were looking for. Reports of a gray car. Also reports of a black car. And we knew almost immediately when the mayor said that there had been a horrific incident, that an officer had also gone down. No word on that officer's condition. Of course, most people are waiting and hoping to hear for the best news possible about that officer's condition when we hear from law enforcement officials in - in just a short while, we hope.

[14:10:16] BROWN: And hopefully we'll hear from him soon.

And, you know, not surprising, there are these conflicting reports because so often, in the very beginning, these situations are so chaotic with these active shooter scenarios.

I want to go now to some witness sound we have. People who were actually there on the scene when the shooting was unfolding. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We heard a loud pop and so the owner of the salon and I went to the window to see what was going on. And when we got to the window to see what was going on, we saw the silver convertible Mustang and he was just unloading some type of large rifle. Laneesha (ph) is my client and she was sitting in the car waiting to come in for her appointment, so she saw everything and heard everything, also.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What was your reaction, Laneesha? It must have been terrifying.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Initially I saw her coming to the door and I was telling her to go back and so - and I - I just pulled off trying not to - because I know he had saw me and I didn't want to get hit. So I pulled off and then I tried to go around back where I saw some people escaping from the back of the building, to see if, you know, she would be coming out through the back.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What was the scene like?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was - it was a regular day. I mean he just pulled up and I didn't think anything of it. he had his drop top and he looked to the side and the next thing you know he lifted up his arms like this with a big, black gun and just - it was one shot and then it was just endless shots, one after another, just unloading into the Army.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What was the scene like inside your salon?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just crazy. We - once we realized what was going on, we were like, call 911 and get to the back of the building. I mean that was the only thing that we thought of. And just, right now we're just thanking God that we're safe, that all of us are safe, that it could have been us at any - at any moment. So we're just thankful right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And we are still waiting for that press conference to begin. It's going to be held by Chattanooga Police. We hope to find out more details, especially whether there were any injuries, fatalities, anything more we can learn about this gunman. We are going to take a quick break and we're going to have more of CNN's special breaking news coverage right after this. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:16:32] BROWN: Welcome back to CNN's special breaking news coverage.

We are waiting for a press conference to begin any moment now in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And for our viewers just now joining us, I want to bring you up to speed with what we know as of now. This shooting unfolded at around 10:50 this morning and we're learning that there were two separate shootings at military facilities several miles apart. One was a military reserve center, another a military recruitment center. And as our reporter on the ground there, Victor Blackwell said, there were two to three dozen gunshots at one of the facilities. And as you can see, this - these are - this is the door showing those holes from the bullets. Two to three dozen at one location alone.

We know from the mayor that an officer was injured. We're being told that the active shooter situation has come to an end. My colleague, Evan Perez, was told through his sources that they believe there was one gunman and that one gunman is deceased. We're still waiting to learn more about whether there were any injuries or fatalities, what was behind this, whether or not this was terrorism-related. We hope to have all those questions answered in this press conference coming up.

But for now, as we wait for that press conference, I want to go to our analysts, Harry Houck and Jonathan Gilliam, our law enforcement analysts here.

First to you, Jonathan. As you hear what we know as of now - and there's still a lot more to learn - what stands out to you? What strikes you?

JONATHAN GILLIAM, FORMER NAVY SEAL: Well, I mean, first and foremost, we do see that this was targeted specifically against this National Guard recruitment center. So was this somebody who was mad at National Guard for whatever reason or was this somebody who's - overall they're just using that to target the government? That's what, I think, we definitely know that that was the target. I think that's - that's specific right here.

The second thing is that, what is standing out to me is that this happens again and again where once they say that the shooting is over, everyone drops their guard. What I'd like to see is that guard stay up for a while because we just don't know, especially right now in this fluid situation.

BROWN: I was going to ask you, are you surprised, because I think within an hour or so, I could be a little fuzzy on that, they said the shooting was over. I imagine with this much territory - I mean we know that there were two shootings five - around five, six miles apart.

GILLIAM: That's right.

BROWN: That that would take some time to really nail down whether there was one or more shooters, right?

GILLIAM: Well, so - yes, exactly. And as you analyze it, you see how information is coming in and you guys are developing a picture. Well, law enforcement is doing that as well. They may be a couple of steps ahead of you. They may be several steps ahead of you. The press is actually often right there along with law enforcement as it develops because you have the ability to reach out to other witnesses.

However, just like you guys are still putting the picture together, so is law enforcement and they just can't assume that it's over with. That, to me, is, I think, the biggest danger here and I think the public needs to still stay sharp right now because when you have something that is this targeted, you do know that somebody has a specific goal in mind rather than just a random shooting. If there's something specific, what that spells out to me is that there's a possibility of coordination. And if that's the case, then there could be other people involved.

BROWN: But we know in most of these active shooter situations, it ends up being a male shooter acting alone.

GILLIAM: Right.

BROWN: In most of the cases, the FBI did this study and out of the 160 shootings they looked at, I think all but six, you know, were males acting alone, essentially.

GILLIAM: Right.

[14:20:01] BROWN: We're just finding out some new information, that the FBI is now leading this investigation, which isn't surprising given the fact that these are federal facilities, military facilities.

HARRY HOUCK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Exactly.

BROWN: Harry, what would this investigation look like?

HOUCK: Well, I'll tell you right now, once they had this man identified, they're going to see if he's on any kind of terrorist list. That's very important. They'll probably executing search warrants in his house right now, going through his computers, things like that, or going out to find out if there's any other kind of link here. Was this an ISIS-inspired or was this inspired for some other - some other type of thing? Did he have a problem with these two locations? Is he one of those right-wing groups here in the United States? We don't know yet, all right.

But it's really interesting to me, though, we're not hearing too much about the first place of the attack that occurred five miles away. I wonder how many bullet holes are there and did the police get some kind of a, you know, a call first for that location and to be able to be in that area and then once this happened, they were closer to what was going on and they were able to apprehend him. As far as we know, it sounds like maybe that he's dead right now, but I don't think we can confirm that, have we?

BROWN: My colleague Evan Perez says that - the belief right now is that the shooter is deceased.

HOUCK: Right. Exactly. So, you know, it's - it's - it's very interesting to me that the, you know, the fact that he's a lone shooter that we know of right now is one of the problems that we face today. The fact is, we'll never be able to get any intelligence information about a possible attack occurring in the future when you have one gunman who decides he's going to do this on his own and he's got no contact with anybody and there's no way we can have intelligence information letting us know about this attack. But it would be very interesting to see if he's on one of the watch lists.

BROWN: And, you know, as Evan and I spoke about, there have been a lot of FBI warnings recently, Jonathan, saying that military is increasingly becoming a target. The concern, of course, is that, in the terrorism realm, that followers of ISIS could launch an attack on military. Again, we don't know the circumstances here -

GILLIAM: Sure.

BROWN: But, what we do know is that there is a heightened level of alert at these military facilities given the threat landscape that we face right now.

GILLIAM: Right. And these recruitment stations are highly vulnerable because what happens is, it's not a base. It's in a strip mall. So what -

BROWN: So there's no - what about security? Are -

GILLIAM: There's no more security there than there is at the Dunkin' Donuts down the road. I mean this is a problem that we have with recruitment centers is that it's made so the public can walk in and inquire and join in the military. However, it's still a part of the DOD and it's still, you know, succumbs to that possibility of being attacked. It's what we've seen. This also happened in Little Rock, Arkansas. It happened down the road right here at the recruitment center at 3:00 in the morning in Times Square. These things are going to happen and I think that they need to start looking at these recruitment centers as something that you're venerable.

HOUCK: They should - yes, you know, they should definitely arm these guys at the recruitment centers, the military. I mean they're very vulnerable. If you're going to pick a target, a military target, more likely to attack a recruitment center because nobody's armed there. If you're going to attack a military center, there's a good chance somebody's armed there and you're going to get shot back at. So that's why at first when I thought we had only had one attack here, I said, well now I know why he only attacked the recruitment center because there was - nobody was going to shoot back. But now we know he hit both places.

GILLIAM: And this is interesting. If I can follow up on one thing that you said a minute ago. Two things really stand out here - or the possibility of two things. One of which this person potentially did, which is go somewhere else and do some shooting so that law enforcement goes there, then they can attack another installation. The other thing that could happen is that they attacked this installation, law enforcement responds and then they attack them.

HOUCK: Right.

GILLIAM: So that's why, you know, with the mayor and the governor rushing to get there, these are things of old-school ways of thinking. We need to get away from those things because we just don't know, is there somebody waiting in hiding. Eric Rudolph is a perfect example where he waited until authorities got there, set off another bomb right in front of them.

HOUCK: Right.

GILLIAM: We need to start thinking this way.

BROWN: And we know right now the FBI leading this investigation, authorities trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. We hope to learn more at this press conference coming up from Chattanooga Police. And right after this quick break, we're going to go to our reporter on the scene where one of the shootings happened. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:28:14] BROWN: Welcome back to CNN's special breaking news coverage.

We are awaiting this press conference to begin any moment now in Chattanooga, Tennessee, about these shootings that unfolded earlier today.

Before that press conference, I want to get to our colleague, Victor Blackwell, who is at the scene of one of the shootings. Victor, set the stage for us. What is it like there?

BLACKWELL: Pamela, I'm at the Lee Highway location, and this is a strip mall. This is where the military recruiting shooting happened at this location.

Let me step out of the way because what's behind me is most important here. If you look across under that Armed Forces Career Center sign, you see the doors here. Just - the doors and windows riddled with bullets. I've counted no fewer than two dozen bullet holes in the windows here.

I just had a conversation with a man named Keith Wheatley (ph). He is the property manager who arrived here just moments after the shooting and what he describes is - it's striking. He says when he showed up, there was what appeared to have been a military, a uniformed person on the sidewalk. It appeared that he had been shot. Now, that is his account. It's important to say that CNN has not been able to independently verify that a person here, a member of the Marines, according to Wheatley, has been shot, but that is his account. He says he also went inside the recruitment location and it was just

riddled with bullets. He says that this location is divided into several offices. So while you see here what looks to be one large collection of storefronts, he says it's divided into the four branches of the military and the National Guard recruiting office. He says there appear to have been maybe nine to 12 people inside, all rushing around to find out if everyone was OK.

[14:30:00] He said when he was inside, it appeared that everyone was all right. I am waiting for him to send me pictures that he shot with his cell phone of the inside of this recruitment center.

But let me give you another look here as we wait for that and this news conference.