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American Morning
Sniper Suspects Now Charged in Fatal Shooting of Louisiana Woman
Aired November 01, 2002 - 08:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The sniper suspects are now charged in the fatal shooting of a Louisiana woman.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ballistics comparisons by the Louisiana State Police crime lab have now positively linked the .223 caliber bullet used to murder Miss. Ballenger with the weapon used in several of the D.C. area sniper killings.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: Hong Im Ballenger, the mother of three sons, was shot in the head September 23 as she closed the beauty shop where she worked. Her husband, Jim Ballenger, called police, told them he believed that the sniper suspects killed his wife.
And Jim Ballenger joins us now from Baton Rouge.
Good morning, sir.
Our heart goes out to you.
Thank you very much for being with us this morning.
JIM BALLENGER, VICTIM'S HUSBAND: Good morning and thank you.
ZAHN: Sir, when you heard the news reports about the capture of the sniper suspects, I understand you immediately thought these are the men who had something to do with my wife's killing. Why did you think that?
BALLENGER: Because god put it on my heart and I believed it, even though the police and everybody said it had a different M.O. I still believed that these were the men that did it. God let me know that.
ZAHN: And when you told police about your suspicions, what did they say?
BALLENGER: They said it was a different M.O. and that they don't believe it. They had other leads and they didn't believe that that was the one that happened. And I called Crime Stoppers and told them the same thing and they told me that they had different leads, too. So then I finally called the FBI and the FBI said they would look into it and they'd let me know something by Friday. Well, by Thursday I found out on TV that it was linked to the shooting, that the ballistics showed that they killed my wife.
ZAHN: So you're basically saying it wasn't until you talked with some of the FBI folks that you feel that your suspicions were taken seriously?
BALLENGER: That's right.
ZAHN: Let's talk a little bit about one of the witnesses at the crime scene who actually worked with your wife at the beauty supply store. What did she say she saw?
BALLENGER: She said she heard a gunshot and she looked up and saw a man grab the purse from my wife as she fell and he ran into the woods. And she went home and called the police. She was too scared to stay there. She went home and called.
ZAHN: And how long was it before you learned that your wife had been shot and killed?
BALLENGER: Forty-five minutes later. Well, I didn't know she was killed. I, they called me on the phone and said my wife was in an accident. So I got my little 10-year-old that was with me and I brought him down there because I thought I was going to have to translate from Korean to English for her, because I figured she got nervous from a car accident. And when I got there I saw the Channel 2 news and the police had it taped off and everything. And I told my son to stay in the truck. And I crossed the police barrier and they come up to me and said what are you doing? I said I want to see my wife. I heard she was in an accident. And that's when they told me, no, she wasn't in an accident, she was killed.
And so then they had me take my son across the street in the truck and I told him to wait there and I tried to get my, some of my friends at church to take my son home with them, and they didn't hurry fast enough and he went across the street and he heard the people talking in the crowd and he come running back and he said, "Daddy, mommy was shot and killed." And that was a bad thing for it to happen like that.
ZAHN: I know you're a man who has a lot of faith and I know you also believe that your wife is in heaven right now. If it turns out that Muhammad and Malvo are convicted for your wife's killing as well as the rest of these killings that they're accused of doing, would you support the death penalty?
BALLENGER: No, ma'am. I think they should live and live in prison for the rest of their life and think about what they did. I think they should be able to be on counseling and see a chaplain at the prison and learn about Jesus. And like I said on the news before, I forgive them for what they did. I hate the crime they did, but as Jesus said, father, forgive them for they know not what they're doing. And I feel the same way with these guys. They didn't know what they were doing. They just needed some money and they were too lazy to get it and they were a coward and they shot my wife in the back of the head. And I believe that they have a chance, if they turn themselves in, like I told them, or they're caught now, that it's better to take the punishment here on earth than to go to, stand in front of god and go to hell for all eternity.
So I'm praying for them as I pray for everybody else, that they accept Jesus as their lord and savior through all this.
ZAHN: So because of your faith, you're not feeling any bitterness about what happened to your wife? Or do you still...
BALLENGER: No bitterness. I'm not bitter, I'm just upset because I don't have my wife with me. You know, that's normal human reaction to be upset. But I've got peace in my heart and in my mind knowing that she's in heaven because of the way she was here on earth, the way she treated everybody. She was an angel. She was in choir at church. She went to bible study three times a week, plus all day Sunday at church. And anybody needed any help, she would help them. Like some people in our neighborhood needed some food some time, we just took and she said come on here, let's go to the store. We'd buy food and set it in front of people's door and they didn't even know where it come from. That's how good she was. She would do anything for anybody.
People would come to her store, buy stuff and find out they didn't have enough money, she'd reach in her purse and pull out enough money to help pay for it for them. That's why I know she's in heaven. She's a good Christian woman and she raised my sons and she helped raise me to be a good Christian.
ZAHN: Wow, what a legacy that is. And I know that everybody we've talked to about your wife has said the same thing. She certainly was a shining light.
Jim Ballenger, once again, our hearts go out to you.
Thank you very much for sharing your story with us this morning.
We appreciate it.
BALLENGER: I appreciate it and thank you for having me.
ZAHN: Thank you.
BALLENGER: God bless you all.
ZAHN: Thank you.
Will the list of charges against the accused sniper suspects grow even longer?
John Walsh, whose program "America's Most Wanted" helps to track down crime suspects, has been following the story.
He joins me now to talk about that and the cases of three missing children. Good morning, John.
JOHN WALSH, "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED": Good morning, Paula.
ZAHN: I know you have almost as a matter of routine gotten used to hearing these stories of the victims like Jim Ballenger talking about his wife. Within the context of this investigation, does it come as any surprise to you that the murder of his wife is now being linked to the snipers?
WALSH: No, it doesn't. I mean if you, as they're piecing it together now, people are coming forward, different jurisdictions are coming forward and saying we have unsolved homicides, we have unsolved cases. And I went to the command center and did a special "America's Most Wanted." We were asked by the command center, 12 different jurisdictions, to do that. And we got a record number of tips.
And it started to unravel that people had called the police about John Muhammad. First, the Army soldier in Tacoma, Washington, who said this guy is a nut case and he's shooting an assault rifle, a semi-automatic rifle at night at ten o'clock. And they came to interview him three times.
Now, in Baton Rouge, he was working out at a gym with his son, not his son, with John Malvo. And one of the people that were arrested for domestic abuse there had befriended John Muhammad. And he had asked to see an FBI agent and he had told the FBI agent in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, this guy is a nut case, he's a weirdo, I'm afraid of him. He's asked me to help him build a silencer for an assault rifle and you should investigate this guy. He also claims to have converted to becoming a, to Islam, to becoming a Muslim and then he thinks the 9/11 attacks were something of great accomplishment by the Islamic community, al Qaeda.
Not that he has any ties to al Qaeda. He has no ties to al Qaeda. But there were red flags all across the country and it still breaks my heart, after 21 years of doing this, 16 years on "America's Most Wanted," that there is a trail across the country and law enforcement agencies don't put these things together. They don't exchange information. Two FBI agents investigated John Muhammad in different parts of the country, but it was never put together until 13 people were shot in New York City -- I mean, I'm sorry, in the Washington, D.C. area.
And I said one thing from the beginning, it will be the public that will break this case, it won't be law enforcement. And it was the public.
ZAHN: Well, with a lot of good police work, too, in the process.
WALSH: Well, they worked very hard. They worked very hard. But it was the tips and the calls and the persistent people and people who still called that hotline, even though they had to wait five hours to get on the hot line, one of them being the sniper, who said I called the hot line five times and it wasn't handled properly and, you know, I'm going to kill five more people. So, you know, I'm a great fan of law enforcement, but at some point in this country we have to realize and law enforcement has to realize that we have to have a better system of communicating and a better exchange of information and not wait until the 13th shooting.
ZAHN: Well, that's true in a broader picture, too, when you look at the failures of the FBI and the CIA and all the investigation surrounding that.
Let's talk about what Attorney General John Ashcroft said yesterday about the possibility of maybe not just having two gunmen involved in these killings, perhaps a third person. How viable is that?
WALSH: Well, you know, I don't know, because somewhere along the line they may have gotten help, they may have bought another gun. For example, I interviewed the young woman who survived in Montgomery, Alabama. He shot her in the back of the head and killed her coworker. An incredibly courageous woman.
Now, she was shot with a handgun down there and they disposed of that handgun. So there may have been someone that helped them along the way or an accessory to, you know, selling them weapons, etc. That's a possibility. But I think it's just those two. You know, he manipulating this 17-year-old boy that he had for six years, brainwashing him, manipulating him and going around the country and, you know, getting revenge for his failures, his failure in the military, not becoming a Green Beret or a special operations officer.
It's now, you know, come to light that he told people that he was a CIA spy, that he was an FBI agent. Two failed marriages, kidnapping his own children. He was just a miserable failure. Stealing from his business partner.
ZAHN: What do you make of that latest theory, that one of the ex-wives suggesting that, in fact, he was on a way to kill another ex- wife and that all these other killings were done at random to, so there would be no pattern...
WALSH: Well, I...
ZAHN: ... when another ex-wife was bumped off?
WALSH: Well, everybody's got their theories. I think it's certainly a distinct possibility that he killed that woman in Tacoma, Washington just out of revenge because her family testified against him in the custody battle, which sort of started his spiral into hell. I'm going to get even with everybody.
And along the way he was a coward, just as that man said, he was a coward to kill my wife. Because when they ran out of money -- you know, they were living in homeless shelters and begging food and getting food from old friends of his, etc. -- and that he was killing people like in the Baton Rouge -- I'm sorry, in the Montgomery, Alabama murders in front of the liquor store, they shot two women in the back, in the back of the head, murdered one, permanently damaged another, to grab their purse for money.
I mean basically they're cowards. He may have been going to shoot the ex-wife because he really hated her about the custody battle. But along the way I think he was just venting his stupid revenge and anger on anybody across the country, because he was a loser. He's a loser coward.
ZAHN: John Walsh, as always, thank you for dropping by.
Good luck with your new show.
Did you want to add something? But you have to do it so quickly.
WALSH: No, I just, I just, I know you've just got to show...
ZAHN: I know there are some missing children here.
WALSH: ... these pictures of these missing kids, because you know what really bothers me is the media will gravitate to a case like Elizabeth Smart, but this little boy, Christopher Dixon, 13 years old, was kidnapped recently, Shawn Hornbeck (ph), 11 years old. These are cases that haven't gotten a lot of national attention and these parents are desperate to find these kids.
ZAHN: OK, we'll leave that picture up there a second as we go to the break. And Sabrina Allen (ph). She's been missing since April.
WALSH: We have a chance of getting her back. She was taken by her psychotic mother and that little girl we may be able to get back. But it's by pictures is that's how we get missing children back, by exposure like this.
ZAHN: Thank you for giving us the opportunity to show that and good luck with your new show.
WALSH: Thank you.
ZAHN: John Walsh.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Woman>
Aired November 1, 2002 - 08:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The sniper suspects are now charged in the fatal shooting of a Louisiana woman.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ballistics comparisons by the Louisiana State Police crime lab have now positively linked the .223 caliber bullet used to murder Miss. Ballenger with the weapon used in several of the D.C. area sniper killings.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: Hong Im Ballenger, the mother of three sons, was shot in the head September 23 as she closed the beauty shop where she worked. Her husband, Jim Ballenger, called police, told them he believed that the sniper suspects killed his wife.
And Jim Ballenger joins us now from Baton Rouge.
Good morning, sir.
Our heart goes out to you.
Thank you very much for being with us this morning.
JIM BALLENGER, VICTIM'S HUSBAND: Good morning and thank you.
ZAHN: Sir, when you heard the news reports about the capture of the sniper suspects, I understand you immediately thought these are the men who had something to do with my wife's killing. Why did you think that?
BALLENGER: Because god put it on my heart and I believed it, even though the police and everybody said it had a different M.O. I still believed that these were the men that did it. God let me know that.
ZAHN: And when you told police about your suspicions, what did they say?
BALLENGER: They said it was a different M.O. and that they don't believe it. They had other leads and they didn't believe that that was the one that happened. And I called Crime Stoppers and told them the same thing and they told me that they had different leads, too. So then I finally called the FBI and the FBI said they would look into it and they'd let me know something by Friday. Well, by Thursday I found out on TV that it was linked to the shooting, that the ballistics showed that they killed my wife.
ZAHN: So you're basically saying it wasn't until you talked with some of the FBI folks that you feel that your suspicions were taken seriously?
BALLENGER: That's right.
ZAHN: Let's talk a little bit about one of the witnesses at the crime scene who actually worked with your wife at the beauty supply store. What did she say she saw?
BALLENGER: She said she heard a gunshot and she looked up and saw a man grab the purse from my wife as she fell and he ran into the woods. And she went home and called the police. She was too scared to stay there. She went home and called.
ZAHN: And how long was it before you learned that your wife had been shot and killed?
BALLENGER: Forty-five minutes later. Well, I didn't know she was killed. I, they called me on the phone and said my wife was in an accident. So I got my little 10-year-old that was with me and I brought him down there because I thought I was going to have to translate from Korean to English for her, because I figured she got nervous from a car accident. And when I got there I saw the Channel 2 news and the police had it taped off and everything. And I told my son to stay in the truck. And I crossed the police barrier and they come up to me and said what are you doing? I said I want to see my wife. I heard she was in an accident. And that's when they told me, no, she wasn't in an accident, she was killed.
And so then they had me take my son across the street in the truck and I told him to wait there and I tried to get my, some of my friends at church to take my son home with them, and they didn't hurry fast enough and he went across the street and he heard the people talking in the crowd and he come running back and he said, "Daddy, mommy was shot and killed." And that was a bad thing for it to happen like that.
ZAHN: I know you're a man who has a lot of faith and I know you also believe that your wife is in heaven right now. If it turns out that Muhammad and Malvo are convicted for your wife's killing as well as the rest of these killings that they're accused of doing, would you support the death penalty?
BALLENGER: No, ma'am. I think they should live and live in prison for the rest of their life and think about what they did. I think they should be able to be on counseling and see a chaplain at the prison and learn about Jesus. And like I said on the news before, I forgive them for what they did. I hate the crime they did, but as Jesus said, father, forgive them for they know not what they're doing. And I feel the same way with these guys. They didn't know what they were doing. They just needed some money and they were too lazy to get it and they were a coward and they shot my wife in the back of the head. And I believe that they have a chance, if they turn themselves in, like I told them, or they're caught now, that it's better to take the punishment here on earth than to go to, stand in front of god and go to hell for all eternity.
So I'm praying for them as I pray for everybody else, that they accept Jesus as their lord and savior through all this.
ZAHN: So because of your faith, you're not feeling any bitterness about what happened to your wife? Or do you still...
BALLENGER: No bitterness. I'm not bitter, I'm just upset because I don't have my wife with me. You know, that's normal human reaction to be upset. But I've got peace in my heart and in my mind knowing that she's in heaven because of the way she was here on earth, the way she treated everybody. She was an angel. She was in choir at church. She went to bible study three times a week, plus all day Sunday at church. And anybody needed any help, she would help them. Like some people in our neighborhood needed some food some time, we just took and she said come on here, let's go to the store. We'd buy food and set it in front of people's door and they didn't even know where it come from. That's how good she was. She would do anything for anybody.
People would come to her store, buy stuff and find out they didn't have enough money, she'd reach in her purse and pull out enough money to help pay for it for them. That's why I know she's in heaven. She's a good Christian woman and she raised my sons and she helped raise me to be a good Christian.
ZAHN: Wow, what a legacy that is. And I know that everybody we've talked to about your wife has said the same thing. She certainly was a shining light.
Jim Ballenger, once again, our hearts go out to you.
Thank you very much for sharing your story with us this morning.
We appreciate it.
BALLENGER: I appreciate it and thank you for having me.
ZAHN: Thank you.
BALLENGER: God bless you all.
ZAHN: Thank you.
Will the list of charges against the accused sniper suspects grow even longer?
John Walsh, whose program "America's Most Wanted" helps to track down crime suspects, has been following the story.
He joins me now to talk about that and the cases of three missing children. Good morning, John.
JOHN WALSH, "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED": Good morning, Paula.
ZAHN: I know you have almost as a matter of routine gotten used to hearing these stories of the victims like Jim Ballenger talking about his wife. Within the context of this investigation, does it come as any surprise to you that the murder of his wife is now being linked to the snipers?
WALSH: No, it doesn't. I mean if you, as they're piecing it together now, people are coming forward, different jurisdictions are coming forward and saying we have unsolved homicides, we have unsolved cases. And I went to the command center and did a special "America's Most Wanted." We were asked by the command center, 12 different jurisdictions, to do that. And we got a record number of tips.
And it started to unravel that people had called the police about John Muhammad. First, the Army soldier in Tacoma, Washington, who said this guy is a nut case and he's shooting an assault rifle, a semi-automatic rifle at night at ten o'clock. And they came to interview him three times.
Now, in Baton Rouge, he was working out at a gym with his son, not his son, with John Malvo. And one of the people that were arrested for domestic abuse there had befriended John Muhammad. And he had asked to see an FBI agent and he had told the FBI agent in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, this guy is a nut case, he's a weirdo, I'm afraid of him. He's asked me to help him build a silencer for an assault rifle and you should investigate this guy. He also claims to have converted to becoming a, to Islam, to becoming a Muslim and then he thinks the 9/11 attacks were something of great accomplishment by the Islamic community, al Qaeda.
Not that he has any ties to al Qaeda. He has no ties to al Qaeda. But there were red flags all across the country and it still breaks my heart, after 21 years of doing this, 16 years on "America's Most Wanted," that there is a trail across the country and law enforcement agencies don't put these things together. They don't exchange information. Two FBI agents investigated John Muhammad in different parts of the country, but it was never put together until 13 people were shot in New York City -- I mean, I'm sorry, in the Washington, D.C. area.
And I said one thing from the beginning, it will be the public that will break this case, it won't be law enforcement. And it was the public.
ZAHN: Well, with a lot of good police work, too, in the process.
WALSH: Well, they worked very hard. They worked very hard. But it was the tips and the calls and the persistent people and people who still called that hotline, even though they had to wait five hours to get on the hot line, one of them being the sniper, who said I called the hot line five times and it wasn't handled properly and, you know, I'm going to kill five more people. So, you know, I'm a great fan of law enforcement, but at some point in this country we have to realize and law enforcement has to realize that we have to have a better system of communicating and a better exchange of information and not wait until the 13th shooting.
ZAHN: Well, that's true in a broader picture, too, when you look at the failures of the FBI and the CIA and all the investigation surrounding that.
Let's talk about what Attorney General John Ashcroft said yesterday about the possibility of maybe not just having two gunmen involved in these killings, perhaps a third person. How viable is that?
WALSH: Well, you know, I don't know, because somewhere along the line they may have gotten help, they may have bought another gun. For example, I interviewed the young woman who survived in Montgomery, Alabama. He shot her in the back of the head and killed her coworker. An incredibly courageous woman.
Now, she was shot with a handgun down there and they disposed of that handgun. So there may have been someone that helped them along the way or an accessory to, you know, selling them weapons, etc. That's a possibility. But I think it's just those two. You know, he manipulating this 17-year-old boy that he had for six years, brainwashing him, manipulating him and going around the country and, you know, getting revenge for his failures, his failure in the military, not becoming a Green Beret or a special operations officer.
It's now, you know, come to light that he told people that he was a CIA spy, that he was an FBI agent. Two failed marriages, kidnapping his own children. He was just a miserable failure. Stealing from his business partner.
ZAHN: What do you make of that latest theory, that one of the ex-wives suggesting that, in fact, he was on a way to kill another ex- wife and that all these other killings were done at random to, so there would be no pattern...
WALSH: Well, I...
ZAHN: ... when another ex-wife was bumped off?
WALSH: Well, everybody's got their theories. I think it's certainly a distinct possibility that he killed that woman in Tacoma, Washington just out of revenge because her family testified against him in the custody battle, which sort of started his spiral into hell. I'm going to get even with everybody.
And along the way he was a coward, just as that man said, he was a coward to kill my wife. Because when they ran out of money -- you know, they were living in homeless shelters and begging food and getting food from old friends of his, etc. -- and that he was killing people like in the Baton Rouge -- I'm sorry, in the Montgomery, Alabama murders in front of the liquor store, they shot two women in the back, in the back of the head, murdered one, permanently damaged another, to grab their purse for money.
I mean basically they're cowards. He may have been going to shoot the ex-wife because he really hated her about the custody battle. But along the way I think he was just venting his stupid revenge and anger on anybody across the country, because he was a loser. He's a loser coward.
ZAHN: John Walsh, as always, thank you for dropping by.
Good luck with your new show.
Did you want to add something? But you have to do it so quickly.
WALSH: No, I just, I just, I know you've just got to show...
ZAHN: I know there are some missing children here.
WALSH: ... these pictures of these missing kids, because you know what really bothers me is the media will gravitate to a case like Elizabeth Smart, but this little boy, Christopher Dixon, 13 years old, was kidnapped recently, Shawn Hornbeck (ph), 11 years old. These are cases that haven't gotten a lot of national attention and these parents are desperate to find these kids.
ZAHN: OK, we'll leave that picture up there a second as we go to the break. And Sabrina Allen (ph). She's been missing since April.
WALSH: We have a chance of getting her back. She was taken by her psychotic mother and that little girl we may be able to get back. But it's by pictures is that's how we get missing children back, by exposure like this.
ZAHN: Thank you for giving us the opportunity to show that and good luck with your new show.
WALSH: Thank you.
ZAHN: John Walsh.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Woman>
