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Two WDBJ Journalists Shot and Killed on Air; Shooters Has Died of Self-Inflicted Gunshot Wound; Hillary Clinton Addresses E-Mail Controversy. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired August 26, 2015 - 15:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:30:26] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Back here on CNN breaking news. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

We've been covering the tragic deaths of two young journalists in Roanoke, Virginia, this morning shot and killed by a former employee of this TV station. It's our CNN affiliate WDBJ. This happened on live television. It happened right around 6:45 this morning. We've now heard from the sheriff in Franklin County confirming that the gunman is dead after ultimately shooting himself during this police pursuit.

We're also learning a lot more about the two young journalists, 24- year-old Alison Parker and 27-year-old Adam Ward. Both starting their careers. Adam was a photojournalist who attended Virginia Tech. He was 27. Alison Parker was just 24. She gone to James Madison University. She was working at this TV station as a reporter. They were a team each and every morning. And so hours after the -- the shootings the general manager of the TV station came on air to express really what these two young people meant to the station, to the community and just absolute heartbreak in this newsroom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFFREY MARKS, PRESIDENT/GENERAL MANAGER, WDBJ: We're in shock. All there is in our building today is hugging and crying and consoling. Many members of our staff were very close to Alison and Adam and everybody knew them. They were loved. They were positive people. They never shied away from an assignment. If you asked them to work late, they did it. If you -- you didn't even have to ask them. And you're never prepared for this, and you just pray every day that your people are going to be safe. And we are grateful to the families of these two victims who gave them to us so that they could do their job and do the job so well to make WDBJ 7 so strong. And our hearts go out to them as it does, I'm sure, from every one of our shoes and from those at WDBJ 7.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That was the general manager. And now, I have someone here who worked at this TV station. Knew both of these young journalists and also apparently knew the gunman. He's Larell Reynolds. He joins me now.

And Larell, just first to you, I'm so sorry for what happened. I was a cover reporter in Charles, Virginia. I know what it's like to get that first job in TV and had that special relationship with your co- workers. So I'm so, so sorry for you, first and foremost. How did you learn about this?

LARELL REYNOLDS, FORMER WDBJ EMPLOYEE: I worked overnight. I checked my phone and I had so many messages. And they were like did you hear the news? I checked twitter and just seeing WDBJ trending which is heartbreaking. And then knowing that like seeing the faces of Alison and Adam, I just can't put it into words like how it felt.

BALDWIN: Can you tell me about them? Let's start with Alison.

REYNOLDS: When I worked there, Alison was an intern and she was kind of like the super intern of the group. She's very polished, bright. She like had such a zest for news industry. Adam, he like -- everyone was saying in the newsroom he's such a funny goof ball. He had such a positive outlook on life and he was so determined to make a -- like put a smile on your face.

BALDWIN: I can't imagine how hard this is for you. I really do appreciate you being on with me, Larell. And as you're, you know, remembering these two people, the superstar intern and this, you know, funny cameraman and it is just based upon all their smiles and they are in the pictures together, it makes my heart smile to see how much that you can tell they love their job.

And so, there they were this morning, you know, covering this tourism bouncing back at this one place in the Roanoke area, and they were murdered on live television. And the man who was holding the gun was someone who worked at the TV station before, and you know him as well.

REYNOLDS: Yes. He was a reporter when I was there. He -- personally I was -- he was all the time in the studio. He was not the best co- worker. And, you know, he's very aggressive towards people. He couldn't take criticism, and he took it personally. And at the station he was let go and threw a huge tantrum that caused a lot of our co-workers to fear our own safety. There were -- like we were in a lockdown the day that he was fired. And a few days later we had like police detail that kind of watched over the station because we didn't know the extent of I guess his mental illness.

[15:35:00] BALDWIN: Hang on a second. I've seen people be fired and I've seen human resources be killed and I've seen people being walked out of buildings, but your building was on lockdown because of this. When you say he threw a tantrum, be specific.

REYNOLDS: Well, I wasn't there. I came in like a few hours later after the tantrum. And the aftermath of the tantrum was there use newsroom desk, like computer monitors and things thrown on the ground. People were shaken and like in tears because they experienced something so horrific at that time. Police officers were there in our building watching over us. BALDWIN: Now, I don't know how long you -- how long ago you left the

station or even -- I don't even know how long ago he left the station or was told to leave the station, but was this a name that still resonated in the newsroom? Was this a name that people still sort of remember him and were worried about him or was his presence long gone?

REYNOLDS: Well, I left probably a few months after he was fired. So I don't have any perspective of how his name is still on the newsroom. What I do know is he filed a lawsuit against the company and that lawsuit this year did not succeed in his favor. So I don't know if that's pent up aggression from the lawsuit. He felt that his firing was racially motivated.

BALDWIN: You know, Larell, the theme of racism has come up now that we've learned he sent this 23-page fax. I don't know how much you've been following. But he sent this fax up here to ABC News and apparently part of the fax in addition to calling himself a powder keg whoa was one day going to go boom, just quoting him, he also apparently said he was motivated by that church shooting just a couple of months ago in Charleston, South Carolina, which was racially motivated. And so, he was apparently infuriated by that. And a couple days later that's when he bought the gun. What did he ever talk to you about anything race-related while you two were at the station?

REYNOLDS: You know, I just thought about this. He did kind of approach me one day, and he was kind of like us, we need to stick together. And he insinuated like that the black people in the company needs to watch out for each other. So he always had that racial awareness and the company even though it didn't exist to my knowledge, to my experience of how the company was.

BALDWIN: Let me just move off him and my final question to you, Larell, is, you know, when we talk about Adam and we talk about Alison and are mindful of them, especially through the rest of the day, how do you think they would want us to remember them? What will you miss most about these two?

REYNOLDS: I'm going to miss like -- Alison and Adam are very positive and uplifting people and they don't want this moment to be negative. They want people to come together and just remember them in a good light, remember the best moment of their careers, of their personal lives, and I just -- my heart just is going out -- my co-workers, my -- they are like my family and to their families.

BALDWIN: It is a family. It is a family when you're young and working in a newsroom like that. It is 100 percent a family.

Larell Reynolds, thank you so much. I am so sorry.

We'll be right back.

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[15:43:35] BALDWIN: Once again, I just want to say the names of the two young journalists whose lives were lost today, 24-year-old Alison Parker and 27-year-old Adam Ward. So our condolences, of course, with the newsroom family in Roanoke, Virginia and their own families.

We're also learning a bit more about the shooter who is now dead, died because of his own self-inflicted gunshot wound just about two hours ago.

So let me if to our investigative correspondent Drew Griffin who has been looking into the shooter's past. And specifically, we know he's worked at a couple of different local stations, Drew, and there was a lawsuit that he filed some years ago tell me about that.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Let's start, Brooke, by saying let's not say his name, why not. I'll just called him the dead suspect.

BALDWIN: Fine by me.

GRIFFIN: But every place that we have checked he has had a short stint of employment that seems to have ended badly. That seems to be the case as well when he worked in Tallahassee, Florida, as a reporter. He worked there one year before he was fired there in the year 2000. The news director, the then news director, said he was fired because of very odd behavior. And the shooting suspect filed a lawsuit claiming racial discrimination. In the suit he claimed that a producer claimed him a, quote, "monkey" and other allegations of racism were made in that lawsuit that, quote, "black people are lazy." One of his co-workers told him according to that lawsuit. It was settled out of court. We don't know the disposition of it, but there seems to be a history everywhere this person has worked where he's been a very difficult employee to work with and very difficult to his employers as well.

[15:45:09] BALDWIN: Yes. According to someone who is a former employee, with him at DBJ, apparently the day he was fired, the building was on lockdown because of some tantrum he threw, so there you go.

OK. Drew Griffin, thank you so much.

On the other side of the break we're going to talk to Brian Stelter just about how he would have known where this crew was located in Roanoke to even commit such heinous crimes. So we'll talk about that in just a second.

Quick break. We are back after this.

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[15:50:10] BALDWIN: Three little letters, why? Why did this deranged gunman want to kill two young journalists on live television in Roanoke, Virginia, this morning? We don't know. We may never fully know. But one of the questions being asked and it was addressed by the general manager of this TV station, WDBJ is the location of the TV crew this morning? How would this man, this gunman have known where they were to come and find them and to commit such and atrocities.

Brian Stelter is still with me, our senior media correspondent, host of "RELIABLE SOURCES." Not to get too inside baseball, but you know, having been a local reporter in four different TV affiliates before coming to CNN, you know, and having work the morning shift, you just sort get that assignment. Sometimes, you know, ahead of time, sometimes, you know, but at the end of the day, they had a live hit before he showed up.

BRIAN STELTER CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: That's right. I was actually just watching the live shots that they were doing earlier in the morning, 5:45, 6:15. So, it was pretty obvious to viewers where the crew was that morning, what they are going to be doing that morning. They were going to be covering this lake and the chamber of commerce event all morning long, so it would be obvious to any viewers how to go and see them. And in this case, perhaps, the gunman.

That said, we do have a sense of methodical planning here. We have heard about the rental car a month ahead of time. You see the twitter account set up a week ahead of time. Perhaps he had targeted them long before this morning, but it is obvious, you know, people were able to see on television where they were, and it's heartbreaking to watch their report.

You know, morning TV is a special time of day, by the way. People are just waking up, they are turning on the TV for companionship, to find out what happened overnight, and you feel a real connection to the people that are on in the morning when you're watching at home. So to the viewers in this local community, I've been reading their comments on Facebook, so many of them are in true shock about losing someone they considered a friend.

BALDWIN: Both of these people grew up in this general area. And just incredible words, I'm just -- I think I'm going to take this with me definitely to the rest of the day, but Alison's father saying, you know, listen. They talk to her every single day. It is so extraordinary close, extraordinary close to her family.

Brian, thank you so much.

STELTER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: I know, John Berman will have so much more on this story coming up next hour on "the LEAD."

Quick break, though, and let's have some positive news.

Let me show you something, as we talked so much about the Dow this week, look at the green, 619 points in positive territory, eight minutes left to go of the trading day. That's some good news for us on this Wednesday. We'll be right back.

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[15:56:53] Well, it was just Monday morning remember when the Dow Jones industrial opened negative a thousand points, my goodness what three days could do for you, up 622 points. Couple of minutes left to the trading day, folks. It is on track to be the biggest daily point gain since we've seen since 2008. We'll be we watching the closing beg to see where those numbers stand for.

Meantime, let's sneak in some politics here because it is significant. We ahead from Hillary Clinton, as we have been talking about. Remember, she addressed the tragedy in Roanoke, Virginia from earlier this morning. She is also taking some questions from reporters. You know, she ended her vacation early to hit the trail, get back on the trail, and all of this in the background. There have been rumors now persisting that the vice president Joe Biden may be jumping into this race.

CNN's senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns is there traveling along with Hillary Clinton, with press corps there in Iowa.

Joe Johns, I know you got a question in about a potential Biden run. How did Hillary Clinton respond to that?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, she responded in a very genteel way, to tell you the truth. She doesn't endorse the candidacy, of course, to Joe Biden, but she focused on her campaign and she did talk about him from the personal side. Listen Brooke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let me start by saying vice president Biden is a friend of mine. He and I were colleagues in the Senate. I worked with him as first lady. I worked with him obviously in President Obama's first term. And I have a great deal of admiration and affects to him. And I think he has to make what is a very difficult decision for himself and his family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: She also addressed that issue of a personal server for state department email once again saying it wasn't the best choice saying she takes full responsibility for that decision. And that she understands why people are concern about it, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Hey, Joe Johns, I still have you for 60 more seconds before "the LEAD."

Let me just follow up on a bit about Joe Biden. Listen, you've been covering Washington for a long, long time. You know, really this is somebody who has wanted to be the president of the United States since the late '80s. This would be his third go-around as he throw his hat on the ring. We know that he met with Senator Elizabeth Warren over the weekend at his home at the naval observatory. How much longer do you think he really has to decide?

JOHNS: Well, he says his going take -- or people around him, I should say, say he is going to take two or three weeks, and by the first week of October we should have a decision on whether or not Biden is going to get into the race. He doesn't have that much time because as you know, Hillary Clinton has a very well put together organization here in Iowa and in other places. She also has a lot of donors, a lot of fund-raisers, and people are working hard for her. So his problem is getting enough people to put together a viable organization in a very short time, if he decides to do that, Brooke.

BALDWIN: People talking about the Biden option.

Joe Johns in Iowa, thank you so much where Hillary Clinton has been. Again, she did addressed what happened in Roanoke this morning.

I know my colleague, John Berman, here will have much more on that coming up on the next hour.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me today.

"The LEAD" starts now.