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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Oregon College Shootings Examined. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired October 2, 2015 - 12:30   ET

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


[12:30:00] CHRIS BOICE, DOUGLAS COUNTY COMMISSIONER: Everybody know everybody else. It is and we did feel exactly the same way. You know, we have a very tight knit community and it's kind of -- the kind of place where most everybody knows everybody else, and you see the sort of thing on the news unfortunately all too often and you do have this sense of peace and security that this sort of thing would not happen in our community. And obviously, it can, and so now our community is pulling together and we're going to have to deal with it and fortunately, we have the help of other communities who have gone through the same thing.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN HOST: Douglas County Commissioner, Chris Boice, thank you so much for being with us, and I am sorry it's under these circumstances, and I certainly do wish you and your constituents and your entire community good luck in trying to process this

BOICE: Yes. Thank you very is much.

BANFIELD: Coming up next, I just mentioned it, we cover these kinds of stories all too often, and there is one person who perhaps has some remarkable perspective, it's someone who was shot four times in the rampage on the Virginia Tech campus. He's now dedicated his life to changing the way things happen, changing why these happen, but is anything changing? He's going to join me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:34:56] BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And of course, what's also routine is that somebody somewhere will comment and say Obama politicized this issue. Well, this is something we should politicize. I would ask the news organizations, because I won't put these facts forward. Have news organizations tally up the number of Americans who have been killed through terrorist attacks over the last decade and the number of Americans who have been killed by gun violence. And post those side by side on your news reports this won't be information coming from me, it will be coming from you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Well, when the President asks, CNN delivers, and we have put those numbers together for you and I can tell you numbers coming from the Centers For Disease Control from the years 2004 to 2013 say this, 313 Americans have died as a result of terrorism and that compares to more than 316,000 who died by gun violence, Americans who've died by Gun violence and if you want a headline on that for every one terror death there are more than a thousand gun death.

And if you want just one of those people who've been affected by that we might say it's Colin Goddard, who was shot four times on the campus of Virginia Tech, while he was in French class and in fact only seven classmates survived that class. He joins me live now to discuss his life's work which has taken a dramatic turn, something he never thought he would engage in, but now is fully advocating for gun safety and Everytown Gun Safety is the name of his organization.

Colin, you know, the typical question I would ask you is, you went through this and then you hear this on the news, how does this make you react, but I'm not going to ask you that. Instead, I'm going to ask you, Colin, we have called you 14 times. CNN has called you 14 times for your reaction since you went through what you went through on the campus of Virginia tech. And I'm not even sure what the questions should be now. I'm not even

sure you're prepared to give the kind of answer that you've been giving the last 13 times.

COLIN GODDARD, VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTING SURVIVOR: I will give you the same answer every single time you call me, we have to act to reduce gun violence in America, but I will recommend that you don't really need to call me anymore. You know what my answer is. You really should call somebody like Congressman Bob Goodlatte, who's the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee here in Congress, who has been the Chairman of the Committee that has done zero work on the issue of gun violence in America.

There are close to 100 bills in his committee and they have been ignored to this point, and my question is, why is that? We should be asking Congressman Bob Goodlatte what's the problem with this issue, what can we do about this. The same with Congressman John Boehner, he's leaving his post, right, he doesn't have to worry about the political calculations he's done before, he should do something on this now before he goes. So those are the people frankly that should be the center of this conversation about what we can do about these routine massacres in our country.

BANFIELD: And yet, as you process each and every one of these massacres, and, you know, by some accounts there has been almost one every week of the Obama administration. It's simply remarkable to even state that. At the same time, I know you recognize that there is a very strong conviction among many Americans to protect the Second Amendment and gun rights at all costs then that that stands in stark contrast with those arguments for gun control. It seems that we're at loggerheads no matter what, what is the solution to that impasse?

GODDARD: Well, the same time there's a strong desire by Americans to actually do something to reduce gun violence to respect the Second Amendment, but the same time make it more difficult for dangerous people to easily get their hands on a gun. And really at the fore point of that kind of policy discussion is background checks on all gun sales. There are many things that we need to do, you know, not just background check, for back ground checks is the one issue that the vast majority of Americans support, the vast majority of gun owners, has got the most support in Congress and then in states that have implemented this and Oregon is the recent one, but it only came about and was came into effect, sorry, in this past August. There are few women shot by live-in partners, fewer law enforcement officers killed by guns that aren't theirs and fewer suicides.

So if we look at the bigger picture of gun deaths in America which you showed at this -- beginning of this, you know, we have to ask ourselves, what can we do to do the greatest good in reducing the greatest number of gun deaths and injuries? That's when ideas like background checks really make a lot of sense, but the conversation just -- should not end there. There certainly is more things, but that is where the American population in 2015 have really come to consensus and it's now time for elected officials to follow suit and do what the vast majority of the Americans want them to do.

BANFIELD: Colin I appreciate this 14th visit that you had with us since you endured the attack on your college and I really hope we don't call you for a 15th time and yet I don't believe that that's possible

[12:40:00] GODDARD: I will be here everytime you call me and for anyone else who listens to this and thinks that something ought to be done and elected officials ought to do some thing, please join us. Text now to 877-877 and join Everytown for Gun Safety and demanding our elected officials take action.

BANFIELD: Colin Goddard, thank you so much again for your time, sir. I appreciate it.

Coming up next. Who was this killer? Why did he pick this place? Why did he target the ones he targeted and did he leave any telltale sign before he went on his murderous rampage? Those questions next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Welcome back. I'm Ashleigh Banfield reporting live from Roseburg, Oregon a place you may not have heard of before now, but with the forensic account team that's going on behind me of a crime scene that has nothing short of bloody and disastrous. There are nine bodies that were there, and 10th if you count the shooter, there are nine who are in the hospital trying to survive his carnage.

And all the while there are now stories that are starting to come out of what he did inside those classrooms. One coming from a young woman who was shot in the back and played dead, but to hear and see what was going on around her and one of those accounts was that the shooter actually delivered a box to one of the victims who survived.

[12:45:00] I want to bring in our National Correspondent Deb Feyerick who has more details about this. This is astounding information Deb what do we know about this box, what was in it, and what the circumstance was.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, here is what we can tell you is that this was told to the father of one of the girls who was shot in that classroom that the gunman apparently gave someone a box and told that person, "You got to deliver this." We don't know where that box is, we don't know what was in the box.

Obviously, there is discussion, there are questions as to whether perhaps it could have been some sort of manifesto, some sort of a document. You know a number of these shooters, they want to make sure that what they're thinking gets known and gets disseminated to the public at large, almost as way to justify the cruel and tragic nature of their violent act.

What we do know about this individual, he 26 years old, his name is Christopher Harper Mercer. He was on a number of websites including a dating website in which he describes himself as a conservative Republican. He lives with his parents. His mom is in Oregon, his father is in Los Angeles. He is not religious but he is spiritual. And the New York Times interviewed somebody who said that a neighbor who said, he seemed a little bit odd, because he always wore military- style outfits, and that he had a very close relationship with his mom.

Now, his mom lives about five miles from the university. And there are links to the university. He's got an e-mail that is directly linked to a community college and also he was part of a theater group in which he's listed as a production assistant and a production that's supposed to happen this month.

There is another more disturbing website, Ashleigh, it's a file- sharing system on that we are now learning, he downloaded or he shared a movie, a BBC documentary "Surviving Sandy Hook." He blogged on that website talking about the recent killings, specifically those two reporters in Virginia, and he says, you know, the gunman was alone and unknown, and then he goes on to say that virtually overnight, he was in the limelight. So clearly very disturbing patterns of what he was thinking prior to this tragedy, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Twisted and sick beforehand and certainly twisted and sick in those classrooms of the accounts that are coming out of demanding to know the religions of each of the victims he stood up off the floor and then point blank executed with a shot to the head for many of them.

Deb Feyerick reporting for us, thank you.

The Sheriff when asked about those details about the demands of people's religion that he didn't know anything about that, but will the Sheriff know more about this mysterious box that the gunman supposedly delivered to one of the survivors asking, "You must deliver this. You got to deliver this."

We should hopefully get that question answered in about 15 minutes' time. We are counting down to the next official update from the Sheriffs here in Roseburg. Back right after this

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[12:51:43] BANFIELD: Breaking News, I'm reporting live here out of Oregon and some news about this mass killer who went on a rampage not even a mile of where I am standing in a local community college here, taking out nine people, eventually dying himself, nine others in the hospital, and now we are learning this, about this 26-year-old killer.

The army has given a statement indicating that this killer was in fact in the army for one month, apparently discharged back in 2008 and I will quote what the army statement says, "Discharged for failing to meet the minimum administrative standards to serve in the U.S. Army," that can be for many reasons. But he apparently did not even make it out of basic training.

I want to bring in Lieutenant Col. Rick Francona, who not only happens to knows a thing or two about serving but also as lived here in this community for 18 years. Before we get to that, I want to talk a little bit about this breaking news and the fact that he -- I suppose you could say that he served although you just told me you're not even considered a vet unless you make 90 days.

LT. COL RICK FRANCONA, U.S AIR FORCE (RET.): No. He didn't even make it out of basic training. This would mean that at some point in that training, one of these training sergeants recognized something that was incompatible with military service, that could have been a variety of things, it could be physical, could be mental, could be other legal requirements he may not up met, citizenship things like that.

BANFIELD: And they don't make these things public, they don't put on the record what it was specifically that led them to kick him out.

FRANCONA: No, the discharge papers won't say that they'll just use this catch-all phrase.

BANFIELD: What about the notion that if he had some kind of mental illness...

FRANCONA: Right.

BANFIELD: ... does the army follow up with those people at the start?

FRANCONA: That's a good question. I really don't know how that is handled. I know that there will be a record of his that is kept. There will be an army record which has all of the details in it, but these public records won't have that, because of, you know legal issues and the private -- privacy concerns things like that. But if someone had access to his record, they would have access to what ever that reason was and we don't know what it is.

BANFIELD: So my assumption is, with this kind of information coming out that, I would imagine the FBI is on this immediately and working in concert with army officials who can dig into those details, and share it.

FRANCONA: Oh, absolutely. And once the FBI gets that then they may have a better idea of what impact that may have had on events here. But right now, it just says, he had joined the army and did not make it through basic training and it was discharged for whatever reason.

BANFIELD: So, not even a month and failed to meet the minimum administrative standards, 90 days to become a vet which indicates to me that there would be no mental health services if in fact they were a mental health issue available to this non-vet.

FRANCONA: Correct. There is no military service reason that caused his mental illness, there's no service connected disability so he would fall outside of the purview or veterans administration. So the veteran administration thought he has no record of this guy.

BANFIELD: And now let me put on your hat as a two-decade resident of this pristine community

FRANCONA: Close. Well, I live over on the coast.

BANFIELD: Close to. And that is this, a place like Roseburg, I've said it a few times to our viewers throughout this program and that is that people might not have heard of Roseburg before, and they will know Roseburg now.

[12:54:58] FRANCONA: For the wrong reason. And I've talked to many of my friends and acquaintances that I know of here in town, and you know, besides the shock and that this can't happen here. This is not why we moved here, this is not what this community is about. This is what Roseburg will be known for, for a long time to come, and that bothers them because they are proud of where this is.

BANFIELD: It joins sadly the ranks of the Paducah, the new town from the Columbine and (inaudible).

Thank you Col. Francona, I appreciate you joining us for this. And thank you everyone for watching.

I want to remind you that as top of the hour, we are expecting that live news conference with the local sheriff here who will update us for the details, any details that they are prepared to make public at this early stage of the investigation.

I'm Ashleigh Banfield reporting live. We'll see you in the coming hours.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Active shooter ECC.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All of a sudden just, bam, bam, bam, bam.

OBAMA: We are the only country on earth that sees these kinds mass shootings every few months.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He came in and there were gunfire immediately. He shot the professor point blank.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We all kind of ran different directions. I was just praying that I would make it.

OBAMA: That means there are more American families, moms, dads and children whose lives have been changed forever. [01:00:00] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I found myself looking around for the gunman in fear of being shot myself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Honestly, I just sat under the desk and pray that I didn't really know what else to do.

OBAMA: Somehow this has become routine.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Exchanging shots with him. He's in a classroom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was an exchange of gunfire. The shooter is deceased.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are in a war. This is domestic terrorism.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our thoughts and prayers are not enough. It's not enough.

(END VIDEOTAPE)