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THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER

Dow Drops; Illinois Manhunt For Cop Killer; Illinois State Police: One Suspect in Custody in Cop Killing. Aired 4-4:30p ET

Aired September 1, 2015 - 16:00   ET

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


[16:00:00]

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fifty percent of its sales that usually happen in China didn't happen because of the slowdown in China. Ford actually singled out the Chinese economy as a major risk to its bottom line.

As we see the closing bell, investors and traders here wrapping up the day, we do see the Dow down 467 points, yet another brutal day on Wall Street, Jake.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: And, Alison, with the stock market down 467 points today, this all comes just a bit over two weeks before the Federal Reserve in this country has a big decision to make. What are investors betting they will do? Explain that to us.

KOSIK: You know, if anybody had a crystal ball, they would really win out. At this point, it's really a tossup as to what the Fed is going to do.

There is a growing consensus among many, saying that they feel, with all the volatility going on with not just the financial markets in China, but the economy itself, because of the impact that its economy has on the rest of the world, many believe the Fed really should hold off on raising rates, which is expected to happen in about two weeks.

But even you look at the data in this country, in the U.S., it may be better than what we're seeing in Europe and China, but it's not consistently better. And the Fed had said it's going to make its decision on when it raises interest rates on how the data is here.

But you look at even today, here in the U.S., we had a manufacturer report that's the worst we have seen in two years. Consumer sentiment came out last week that is at a three-month low. At the same time, we're seeing GDP pick up, we're seeing jobs pick up, but wages are still flat.

So, the data that we're seeing in this country in the U.S. still not consistently strong enough for many to believe that the country's ready to see those rates go up, Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Alison Kosik, where Wall Street has had a brutal day, down 468 points, about almost 3 percentage points, Alison Kosik, thank you so much. Now let's turn to the breaking news in the national lead, a massive

manhunt happening right now, people looking for -- police officers looking for three men wanted for killing a police officer outside Chicago.

Right now, authorities have Fox Lake -- that's a far north suburb of Chicago -- surrounded in the air and on the ground. This is about an hour's drive north of Chicago. Locals there being asked to report any suspicious individuals, any suspicious activities. Officers are going door to door asking questions, warning neighbors that the men they're looking for could be armed and dangerous, likely so.

Schools just back in session for the year, some of them now on lockdown in the area, the FBI and U.S. Marshals joining the search. We saw officers with gun down pacing an area near train tracks. That's earlier today. We were making sure to show the video only after police have cleared the area. We don't want to tip anybody off about police whereabouts.

This morning, Fox Lake police say that the officer killed initially radioed, just before 8:00 a.m. local, that he was pursuing three suspicious men, and then nothing. All radio communication dropped off. Fellow officers later found their colleague shot dead.

Let's go right to CNN's Ryan Young. He's live in Fox Lake, Illinois.

Ryan, what can you tell us? What is the latest?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jake, this is still a very active situation. Just in the last-hour or so, we talked to a police officer here at the scene, asked him what was going on.

He says, look, this is still an active search and we're going to have another news conference in the next half-hour or so. But if you look behind me, you can see the massive staging area that's been set up here. We see officers from all different jurisdictions who arrived here.

We see the fire teams here. We have seen officers come from other jurisdictions like the ATF, the FBI in camouflage. And as we pan down this way, I want to show you this heavily armed vehicle. There are several heavily armed vehicles with SWAT teams attached to them all throughout this area.

What we have noticed is a very strong perimeter in some neighborhoods. We believe that's near where the officer was shot. They have shut that down, and we have officers who are walking by foot through the neighborhoods.

Now, look, there's heavy brush and forest-looking areas around here. And of course the officers have to work their way through that. They do have canine units involved in this. Remember, you talked about those three suspects, two white males, one black male, the officer approaching. Not sure if police have any additional information about them, what they were wearing, what they may have been doing when he first called in. That is stuff that investigators more than likely have some

information for. But we're not exactly sure. That's what this community is wondering at this point. Of course, you talked about the people who have been told to shelter in place. Hopefully, they're helping officers with any calls of suspicious activity.

But there have been a lot of people who have shown up to this area, who are just looking around and trying to see exactly what's going on. But every 10 minutes, we seem to see more officers moving into the area and then they're coordinating and then they're moving out, so obviously a massive situation from the air, the ground and maybe even the water.

TAPPER: All right, Ryan Young, we're going to continue to check in with you as the story progresses. Thank you so much.

Let's go now to Deb Feyerick.

Deb, what do we know about the police officer from the Fox Lake area killed, and what do we know about how he was killed?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we do know is, he was a 32-year veteran of the police force.

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A woman who spoke earlier to Brooke Baldwin was very tearful, saying that he was a good man, loved his job, loved his community. We're told by sources that in fact he saw these three individuals and approached them because he wanted to question them, something just didn't appear right. They began to run. He radioed for backup and backup actually was on its way as he alone began to give chase after these three men.

Backup was close enough that a source tells us that the responding officers actually heard the gunshot, the gunshot presumably that killed this police officer. When they arrived, they found that he was shot, and he was dead, pronounced dead there, on the scene.

The three individuals now, there's this massive manhunt, as you have described. And you have to think about it. It's not just the manhunt that's going on. It's also the nitty-gritty of the investigation. You have got authorities who are going, for example, to gas stations or convenience stores, anywhere where there might be some sort of surveillance image, so that they can try to get some sort of identifier on these particular individuals.

They're also combing the area, trying to find eyewitnesses, anybody who may have seen something, anybody who may have heard something and subsequently looked out the window to see what specifically was going on. You have got helicopters in the sky, canines on the ground. This is an area, Jake, that's been in lockdown for nearly seven hours.

So, you have a lot of people who are trying to get to their kids who are still in schools. You have people who want to go home, but the most important thing is for people to shelter in place. And once that lockdown is lifted, whatever time that might be, then they may be able to come out.

But, right now, sources aggressively are trying to find anything they can on these individuals because the highway that they were near, US- 12, it runs right into Wisconsin and then right straight down through the metropolitan Chicago area. If these men did have a vehicle, they could be long gone by now.

TAPPER: And, Deb, what are your sources telling you about the manpower moving in the operation to find these three individuals wanted in a cop killing, two white men, one black man? Tell us about the manpower moving in.

FEYERICK: Oh, yes, it's massive, Jake. It's just massive.

You have got the Lake County Sheriff's Department. You have got Illinois police. You have got the Fox Lake police officers as well. You have got federal agencies, including the ATF, the U.S. Marshals, even the FBI. Again, this is one of their own that's now been gunned down, killed in cold blood, and there are reports that in fact the suspects may have taken the officer's gun, all that now under investigation.

But the presence, the sheer force, they're doing everything they can now to try to contain this situation and find these men.

TAPPER: All right, Deb Feyerick, thank you. We will check back with you as well.

I have two CNN law enforcement analysts joining me now, Harry Houck, a retired NYPD detective. Also with me, Tom Fuentes, a former FBI assistant director.

Harry, let me start with you.

We have only heard a fairly weak description of these guys, two white men and a black man. Is it possible that police know a lot more than they're telling, and they don't want to tip off the suspects?

HARRY HOUCK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, surely, that stuff really happens. The suspects might be in a location watching television right now.

We don't want to give them too much information. But there's definitely a good chance -- there might be some video that was picked up from some of the gas stations and the areas that your reporter had talked about before.

And I tend to think that if the police have a certain area cordoned off, they may have some information to believe that these three thugs are still in the area.

TAPPER: We're being told right now -- this just into CNN -- that the Illinois State Police says they have one suspect in custody. That would be a huge break in the case, Tom Fuentes, assuming that this is true. We know that often police, there is confusion during events such as this. But assuming that is true, one presumes that this is a great news for

the investigation, Tom Fuentes.

TOM FUENTES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Absolutely, Jake.

And the thing of concern here is that when this shooting occurred at 8:00 a.m. Chicago time, it's a long distance north of Chicago. And it's kind of a rural area. It's a recreation area. A lot of lakes. A lot of people have summer homes, go up there on weekends to go boating and fishing.

And so if they -- they would have a lot of places to run and hide and go into a home, if it's occupied, do a home invasion, if it's unoccupied, hide in a home or a shack or a cabin, so there were a lot of opportunities for them to escape.

And when the shooting happened at 8:00, how long would it take to get enough officers up there to even have any reasonable perimeter? And the other thing we don't know and didn't know at least was, how did they get there?

If this officer is chasing three people on foot, how did they get to that area? Where are their wheels? What form of transportation took them to that location in the first place? And were they able to use that to get away?

Also, there are reports that they took the officer's gun, and Taser and they found the officer without it. So, if they didn't have their own gun, did they overpower him and kill him with his own, which has been a very common occurrence as well for police officers?

(CROSSTALK)

FUENTES: There's many possibilities.

TAPPER: If you're just joining us, I want to bring you up to speed.

The Illinois State Police say that one suspect is now in custody. Earlier today, at roughly 8:00 a.m. Chicago time in the north suburb of Fox Lake, a police officer called in that he was approaching and pursuing three suspects. That officer -- then there was radio silence, there was no communication from that officer. He was later found dead.

There is a massive manhunt going on right now north of Chicago for these three suspected cop killers. We now are told by the Illinois State Police that one suspect is in custody.

Harry Houck, retired NYPD detective, presumably, the fact that they caught one suspect means that these men probably split up. This is a very wooded area. Does that seem likely to you that they split up?

HOUCK: That's definitely a possibility, because you're looking for two white men and a black man. They're going to stand out like that.

But what's really interesting about this, Jake, is the fact that they have this one suspect, and they believe he is definitely one of the killers involved in this. This guy's going to turn over his own buddies. We have a dead police officer here now. All right?

Smart detectives are sitting there talking to that man and giving him his options right now on exactly what went on down there. Who was the killer, who did the shooting? And he's probably going to give up his two buddies. And I bet you within the next hour or so, we're going to have the names of the two other perpetrators and possibly where they lived.

TAPPER: Harry, when you I assume tried to flip suspects like that, how do you do it? What's the pitch?

HOUCK: Well, the pitch is, you're the first guy caught, all right, so you get the deal, if he's not the shooter.

So what you do is you try and treat him like you don't think that he's the shooter, even though he might be. So, listen, I know you didn't do the shooting here, but I know one of your buddies did. Let us know who it is, who are they, and cooperate right now, and you're going to get a -- you're probably going to get a deal.

And you can tell them that. There's no problem with lying to suspects, just as long as he doesn't lawyer up. Usually in situations like this, that they don't, though. They usually do not lawyer up. And they will give up the other two suspects in this case. This is a really great break.

TAPPER: All right, Harry Houck, Tom Fuentes, stay where you are. We're going to come back to you.

We're going to take a quick break.

Once again, according to Illinois State Police, one suspect is in custody in this shooting of a police officer. The manhunt for the other two suspects continues. That story continues right after this very quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:17:00] TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. We are following breaking news in our national lead today.

You're looking at live pictures right now. Illinois state police are now saying they have one suspect in custody in connection with the killing of a police officer earlier today, about an hour north of Chicago. There's still a massive manhunt for two other men linked to that shooting, according to a law enforcement source on the ground.

The officer went to question these three men. One black man, two white men, the three men then took off running, the officer chased, called it in, and then he was later found shot and killed. Backup officers were dispatched to help. They were close enough to hear the gunfire.

Joining me now on the phone is Katie Dahlstrom. She's a reporter for "The Northwest Herald."

Katie, obviously, the manhunt is intense. Is the search as far as you can tell, centered around one particular part of town?

KATIE DAHLSTROM, THE NORTHWEST HERALD (via telephone): Well, there's police activity everywhere, and roads are blocked off across town, but what I'm seeing right now, is a lot of police at Sayton (ph) Road, near Rollins Road, and that's pretty close to where officers this morning told us the incident occurred. We have armored police vehicles, regular unmarked cars and police helicopters going to and from that area. And the police helicopters seem to be moving around Sayton road.

TAPPER: Fox Lake is about 20 minutes, 30 minutes from northern Chicago, about an hour from the center of Chicago. It's a rather small community, about 60,000 people. How are the people of Fox Lake responding to this manhunt?

DAHLSTROM: Well, the people of Fox Lake are surprised by this. The police activity is getting lots of attention in residents, this is not something that they're accustomed to. I think everyone is just shocked that something like this would happen in their community.

TAPPER: Tell us about the routes and the major roads in and out of Fox Lake. Are there easy ways for the two remaining suspect to escape police?

DAHLSTROM: Well, running through Fox Lake, you have route 12, you have route 59. These are roads that would take them far out of Fox Lake, we're also very close to the Wisconsin border. There is commuter rail service which has been interrupted for this search. We also have waterways here, that the suspects could escape. Those are a big presence in this area.

TAPPER: All right. Katie Dahlstrom, thank you so much.

Let's bring back our CNN law enforcement analysts as we look at these live pictures out of Fox Lake, Illinois, where there was an intense manhunt underway for the two remaining suspects from the cop killing from earlier this morning.

[16:20:07] Harry Houck joins us today. He's a retired NYPD detective. Also with me, Tom Fuentes, the former FBI assistant director.

Gentlemen, thanks for joining us once again.

According to Illinois state police, just to reiterate, one of the three suspects is in custody, two more still on the run.

Tom Fuentes, how likely is it that the three men split up?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, it sounds like they did, if they were able to apprehend one and the other two weren't close by, so they may have split up, we don't know the timing of the arrest, because more time went by, the more opportunity for them to split up and be further apart at the time of the apprehension. So, good chance that they did split up.

And we also don't know, you know, did they have time to do a carjacking? Did they have time to use the transportation that took them there in the first place? Did they do a home invasion, and steal someone else's car?

So, there's a lot of opportunities they would have to get away, but the fact that they have one in custody is a great development.

TAPPER: Harry Houck, who's taking the lead right now in this investigation. Would it be the local authorities, state authorities, federal authorities? Who helms such a search operation?

HARRY HOUCK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, I guess, you know, you want to rely on the experts here. This is a small town, so I'm assuming probably the state police right now. Also what's interesting right now is the fact that whenever or wherever they captured this first suspect, the other two might have been close by. So, they might have set up a whole different perimeter right now. Hoping that they're going to be able to entangle these guys in the perimeter, I need to know what time this arrest was actually made.

TAPPER: And, Tom Fuentes, the information that law enforcement gives to the media. Although sometimes there are leaks that are not sanctioned leaks, they may know more about where the suspects are, they may know more about who the suspects are, they may be reluctant to say that they have one suspect in custody. Tell us more about that.

FUENTES: I don't think they would hold that back, Jake, they're endangering the public if they do that. If they had a more accurate description, or the names of these individuals, they would put that out. You'd see their names and descriptions on television. If they thought they were in a vehicle, you'd see that description put out. If they thought they were in a particular location and set up a perimeter around that location, they'd be putting that out.

They will not be hiding that kind of data, because they need the assistance of the media, in order to get the assistance of the public in helping to catch these guys. So, I don't think they're going to be playing too much of hide the facts in this situation. They need the public's help. They want these guy apprehended as quickly as possible before they get apprehended again.

TAPPER: All right. Tom Fuentes, Harry, Houck, thank you so much. Stay with us if you would.

We are waiting for an update from local police on the killing of that police officer. And the capture of one suspect that CNN has been told by the Illinois state police. A police news conference is scheduled for a few minutes from now. We'll see it here live coming up.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:27:46] TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

We are continuing now with our breaking news. We're waiting on police to update on the urgent manhunt still underway for two suspects, the suspects police are hunting for right now are accused of murdering a police officer in FOX Lake, Illinois, about halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee.

Illinois state police earlier this hour told CNN that the third suspect is in custody.

Let's talk right now to Eugene O'Donnell. He's a former officer with the New York City Police Department. Eugene, thanks so much for being here.

According to Illinois State Police, one suspect is in custody, two more still on the run. How will police use this apprehended suspect to help in the search?

EUGENE O'DONNELL, FORMER NYPD POLICE OFFICER: He will obviously be questioned at great length to find out how much he knows. The real important part of this is not only to capture these people, which gets the marquee attention. The crucial part is that in a year or more perhaps, in a courtroom, somewhere in Illinois, this case is going to have to be taken to trial, and in the midst of this kind of obviously urgent situation, really important for investigators to be nailing down very methodically every possible piece of evidence that points to the guilt of these people, and also to make sure methodically everything that creates problems that points away from the guilt is also covered, search warrants are executed and the like.

So, whether this guy will cooperate or not, you can be sure they're well on their way at this point to bringing all of these people to justice.

TAPPER: Eugene, the sun obviously going to go down in a few hours, how does the darkness affect the search operation? On its face, it would make it more difficult. Is there any silver lining to it?

O'DONNELL: Well, to the extent these guys are on the run and tired and scared. Know that the town is locked down and everyone's watching them. Hopefully mental or physical fatigue will set in. But, clearly, this is a somewhat rural area, it's not a downtown area, which would have another set of issues. But in this, this is really just waiting them out in terms of putting the resources forward, aerial resources, dogs, humans on the ground, if they can get information from the arrested individual to leverage that information, to create a perimeter.

And, of course, this is state, federal and local. And if anybody's been around when a police person gets shot, law enforcement is in complete harmony in the situation. I'm sure the Wisconsin patrol is involved, and these guys will not find any way out. The law enforcement will definitely work together here cohesively.