Return to Transcripts main page

WOLF

Press Conference on Oregon Campus Shooting; ATF: Gunman had 13 Weapons on Campus, At Home; Hurricane Joaquin to Cause Flooding; Coalition of Countries Ask Russia to End Airstrikes on Syrian Opposition. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired October 2, 2015 - 13:30   ET

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


[13:30:00] JOHN HANLIN, SHERIFF, DOUGLAS COUNTY, OREGON, SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: I continue to believe that those media and community members who publicize his name will only glorify his horrific actions. And eventually, this is only going to serve to inspire future shooters.

At this time, I would like to introduce ATF assistant special agent in charge, Salinas Nunez.

SALINAS NUNEZ, ASSISTANT SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, ATF SEATTLE FIELD DIVISION: Good morning, everyone. As the sheriff said, I'm the special agent in charge for the Seattle Field Division. And I wanted to provide some information on the weapons that we have in custody so far.

So far, we have recovered 13 weapons. Out of the 13 weapons in u custody, six were recovered at the school, seven recovered at the shooter's residence, and all 14 traced to a federal firearms dealer, and they are all at different stages in the tracing process. Eight of the 14 have been traced to first trace purchasers. Seven have been purchased by the shooter or a family member, all within the last three years.

In addition to the weapons recovered, we also were able to recover a flak jacket lying next to the rifle at the school, and it had steel plates with five magazines. An additional amount of ammunition was also recovered at the apartment. And that is all that we have at this moment.

I also want to thank our Seattle, our Phoenix Field Division, and the North Carolina Field Division, and Atlanta Field Division for obtaining all of the tracing information for us.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Did you say flak jacket?

NUNEZ: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And 13 weapons or 14?

NUNEZ: 14 currently. It was 14 weapons, and one of them he actually traded back to the store for one of the firearms that were recovered at the school.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Did you find all 13 or 14 at the school?

NUNEZ: No, no, six recovered at the school and seven recovered at his resident.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Were all of the purchases legally?

NUNEZ: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Were they the purchased locally?

NUNEZ: No, not all of them.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: They were all purchases by the shooter?

NUNEZ: Some were purchased by the shooter were no purchased by the shooter.

HANLIN: Folks, I will open it up for you if we can get through the rest of this real quick. It you let us get through the rest of this real quick.

This is really an active investigation, and we have a number of resources conducted all throughout the night, and follow-up investigations, and I want to remind everyone that we have a toll free number to collect tips from those in the community, and so if anybody in the community has any information about this incident or if you have any video or photographs relevant to the incident, please call 800-FBI and choose option seven. Anyone who is feeling anxious about this incident, again, I encourage you to seek counseling help. It is available. You can find a listing of resources on our press releases.

So at this time, I will be willing to answer a couple of questions.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sheriff, Sheriff, can you confirm the photograph of the shooter to give us absolute confirmation?

HANLIN: I cannot.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And is it normal for one person to have this amount of weaponry?

HANLIN: In Oregon, I mean, this is a hunting state, and firearms are popular in most households, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And, Sheriff, what is the connection to the shooter in the schools?

HANLIN: That I don't know, and that is part of the investigation on going, and we don't have information on that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And, Sheriff, can you tell us --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Has there been any notice about the reports of the gunman giving someone a flash drive of information, do you have something on that?

HANLIN: Well, again, we are in the middle of the information, and any information pertaining to that would be irresponsible of me to comment at the time.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sheriff --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sheriff?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you confirm the number of fatalities at this moment?

HANLIN: the number? I'm sorry.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION).

HANLIN: Yes, a number of 10 fatalities. That number has not been changed.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: That includes the shooter?

HANLIN: Yes, that includes the shooter.

(CROSSTALK)

[13:35:09] UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And you come under attack, being a strong Second Amendment advocate. And how do you feel about the politicalization of this attack?

HANLIN: Well, like I said this morning, my focus is on getting this investigation completed and taking care of the victims and the families of the victims, and so now is not an appropriate time to have those conversations.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sheriff, Sheriff?

HANLIN: For the shooter, it would be easier to focus on the victims, if you know who some of the victims are, and you have released some of the victims --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Last question.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

HANLIN: Regarding the names of the shooter?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: No, just the names victims (INAUDIBLE)

HANLIN: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you release the names (INAUDIBLE)?

HANLIN: No, as I mentioned before, it is a mass casualty incident, and there is protocols in place that require that the notifications be authorized be by the Oregon state medical examiner's office, and we hope that the notifications will come hopefully by the end of today, but at this particular point in time, I am not able to answer that question.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sheriff, Sheriff --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: No more questions, Sheriff.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: No more questions, please.

I have some information for those of you in this room that you need to know. At 11:30, outside of this building in front of the fire bays, the governor will be holding a press available with the Oregon congressional delegation. That is 11:30 outside in front of the fire bays.

We expect to have another press briefing later in this room later this afternoon. When we get the time set, we will post it to flash alert, and our Twitter account.

Thank you.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. So there you have all of the latest information. About 45 minutes or so from now, in less than an hour or so, the governor of Oregon will have a news conference there, and another one scheduled for later in the day, and no time announced. And we did learn from the ATF, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms representative, that there were 13 weapons that had been discovered there on the campus, and at his apartment, one that had been traded.

Now, to discuss what we have just heard, we have our experts, Matthew Fogg is a former chief deputy U.S. Marshal; Tom Fuentes is our law enforcement analyst, former FBI assistant director.

Lots of weapons. People watching all in the United States and all over the world are going to say, this young man, 26 years old, he was discharged for whatever reason from the U.S. Army after serving maybe a month in basic training, all of a sudden has all thse weapons that were purchased legally according to this ATF official.

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Right. And there is no question about the number of weapons and the way they were purchased have not been in any discussions about increased gun control or increased background checks and all that. So he purchased them legally. We don't know if he's ever had an official judgment of being mentally ill or mentally incompetent or what his parents or mother did with him when he was a child, much less as an adult. So we don't have enough information about the number of weapons, and where they were purchased, and the other members of the family and what they knew about him.

BLITZER: And it's surprising that he had 14 weapons and brought six of them to the campus to start killing people randomly and asking them if they were Christians, for example, and then executing them.

But I will take it that you are not that surprised, Matt, and tell me what your reaction is?

MATTHEW FOGG, FORMER CHIEF DEPUTY U.S. MARSHAL: Well, while it is troublesome that he had so many weapons, and he had gotten some from family members, and where do you draw the line of how many weapons a person can buy, and is he hunting or how to get them on the campus, and then just randomly shooting people.

This is what I call the epitome of the lone Wolf sort of case when you look at the background and say, how come nobody knew about this guy, and nobody knew what he was doing? We have to know that something knew something or was he just totally berserk, and did he snap? Because you have to wonder what -- somebody had to know something.

BLITZER: And we know that he was close to the mother, and lived with the mother, and she had to obviously noticed something.

FUENTES: She might have, but the way that the laws have evolved on mental health issues, a parent can't do a number of things for an adult child, can't them the medical care they might need. If they get it and get a prescription for medicine they can't make them take it, can't monitor them, don't have access to the medical records to that individual under the medical privacy laws. So really, a parent, if they can't address it when a child is a child, once they are adulthood, that is it.

And we have also taken away the ability of the police if they have encountered who is mentally ill or disturbed, and if they are not doing something illegal at that moment or threatening somebody, their hands are ties, and they can't commit the person or make the person to get treatment.

So when we talk about needing mental health reform in the country, every law enforcement officer on the street knows it is a fact that their hands are tied to do anything about this.

[13:40:29] BLITZER: And do you agree, Matt?

FOGG: Yes. Our hands are tied, and when and if they are really mentally ill, and when to report it. And somebody has to know something. Just like the person who is going to commit suicide, he may have said, I am going to committee. And maybe he had said something to somebody. And when you talk about this amount of guns and this amount in his custody, I've got to believe that he said something to someone.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: And these 14 weapons purchased legally by the 26-year-old killer. All right, guys, standby.

We'll have a lot more going ion. We will take a quick break and much more of the breaking news coverage right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:45:22] BLITZER: Take a look at the live pictures now flooding in Portsmouth, Virginia. Areas like this are already waterlogged thanks to a low pressure system off the U.S. The combination of that and the potential of Hurricane Joaquin could set the stage for historic flooding on the east coast of the United States. Right now, Joaquin is a dangerous category 4 storm that's parked over the central Bahamas.

Our Meteorologist Jennifer Gray is joining us now.

Jennifer, why is this hurricane been so difficult, at least so far, to forecast.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It really has, Wolf. You had two huge weather patterns playing tug of war and you had a layer of upper level low, and the high area of high pressure out to the east, and so it is basically which one wins? If the area of low pressure wins, then the storm would have Bent back to the West as we talk talked about earlier in the week, and we know it won't happen now, but it looks like the high has won. So it will be taken out to sea. And now, across North Carolina and South Carolina, and the storms are going to train. Think of the train on tracks one car after another, and these storms are going to follow one after another, and it is going to bring the possibility of massive amounts of rain. On top of that, you have strong onshore winds, and let me show you on the floor what we are talking about, and as Joaquin starts to travel to the north, the winds are going to wrap around and we are going to be getting strong onshore flow, not only this moisture pumped in causing a lot of rain, but winds also pushing all of that the ocean water inland, to the West, and so during high tide, especially, you will have a lot of coastal flooding, and then you will see flooding in general on top of that due to the storms that I mentioned before.

And now, we will take you back to the wall, and talk to you a little bit more. And here is the radar, the forecasted radar, and this is the training effect that I have talked about and the storms following up to the north, and North Carolina and South Carolina are going to be feeling it the most, and this is the forecast radar and you can see South Carolina getting into the mix as we go through the next 24 to 48 hours, Wolf, and now, this is going to be a something to watch, and you could have historic flooding. And the topography is interesting, too, because the mountains to the West, and so it is going to be draining, and there is nowhere for this water to go. And we could see 10, 15 maybe more rain in this area over the next 48 throughout.

BLITZER: I can't imagine how much worse it would be if Joaquin actually made landfall on the east coast of the United States. But right now, it doesn't look like that will happen, fortunately, but the effects could still be significant. All right, thanks, Jennifer, for that.

Still ahead, the grey area of Russia airstrikes in Syria. Is ISIS really being targeted? We'll take a closer look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:52:48] BLITZER: Russia's defense ministry is reporting that they launched 18 airstrikes over Syria in the past 24 hours, primarily focusing, they say, on ISIS. The Kremlin began the campaign on Wednesday saying it wants to fight terrorist groups there. But there's growing international concern, including here in the United States, that Moscow is only interested in propping up the Syrian president Bashar al Assad. A coalition, including the U.S., Turkey and others, has called on Russia to stop airstrikes on Syrian opposition and just focus on ISIS targets. The Russian air strikes are a topic of conversation during meetings in Paris today with his French, German and Ukrainian counterparts.

For more, I'm joined by our chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto.

If Russia continues the strikes, what's the U.S. going to do?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: We heard the protests on the floor of the general assembly earlier. But there aren't any clear options other than that at this point, particularly, options that the U.S. And its coalition partners find. You don't want to get into a military conflict and that's why the focus has been on the de-confliction. You have a lot of coalition war planes flying in close proximity it to Russian war planes and you don't want to have a misunderstanding.

BLITZER: The Russian defense ministry, the new information they released on the airstrikes and some of the details, a command post and communication center of armed ISIS groups has been destroyed. A field camp of ISIS militants was hit. Bunkers, fuel stores have also been destroyed. Rebel commanders, on the other hand, say it's not true. How does the U.S. and coalition partners figure out what's going on?

SCIUTTO: It does appear they struck some ISIS targets but it's clear they struck targets backed by the U.S. and coalition. So in effect, it looks like they are striking any group that threatens the regime and the forces of Bashar al Assad, which fits with the U.S. perception of Vladimir Putin's main goal, which is to keep that e regime surviving. That's their goal.

[13:55:00] BLITZER: Secretary of State John Kerry says it's important to continue a dialogue with the Russians. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: So we're trying to define who will do what where and this will test whether or not they are really going after ISIL or there to support the Assad regime. If they are it there to support Assad, Russia has made. A catastrophic mistake because they will be siding with Assad, Iran and Hezbollah against the entire rest of the community in that part of the world, against Sunnis, it runs the risk of inviting even more jihadists to come into Syria.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: It's a huge issue right now.

SCIUTTO: No question. Basically, Kerry is echoing the broader point you hear from officials, which is, in effect, to Russia, knock yourself out, go in there, but you're taking on all the risks of being drawn into this conflict.

BLITZER: We'll stay on top of this story.

All right, Jim, thanks very much.

That's it for me. I'll be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room."

For our international viewers, "Amanpour" is next.

For our viewers in North America, "NEWSROOM" with Brooke Baldwin will begin after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)