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CNN Live Today

Sniper Anniversary

Aired October 02, 2003 - 10:14   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.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: In and around Washington, the anniversary stirs echoes of fears and anguish. About 200 people gathered for last night's candlelight vigil, remembering the first of the Washington area sniper attacks. Among those attending, the family members and friends of the 13 people who were shot during the three- week reign of terror.
Our next guest attended last night's vigil, and he witnessed the terror one year ago, Doug Duncan, the country executive of Montgomery County, Maryland. Today, his office announces a new education campaign about post-traumatic stress disorder.

Mr. Duncan, good to have you with us one year later.

DOUG DUNCAN, MONTGOMERY CO., MARYLAND EXECUTIVE: Good morning.

We're sort of glad we've got that behind us, but we're still living with the memories of it and still trying to deal with what happened last year.

KAGAN: Absolutely. Tell me a little bit more about last night's candlelight vigil?

DUNCAN: Well, we wanted to bring the community together, particularly to support the victims' families. We had several family members there, many family members there. We also had a few of the survivors, people who were shot and thankfully did not die from the sniper. So we brought the people together to show them the community still cared about them and is still praying for them and with them, and helping them as they enter a very difficult time, because the one- year anniversary is coming up for the loss of their loved ones, and the trials are going to be starting very soon. It's going to be daily reminders to them of the loss they suffered last year.

So we did that, and we also helped the community get through this. There are still some people who are very fearful, very anxious about what happened last year, and still trying to come to grips with it.

KAGAN: I want to talk about the trial in a moment, but tell me about this plan to offer help for people suffering from post-traumatic stress. It was a very stressful time. Having been there covering it, I remember it very well.

DUNCAN: It was a very stressful time. But when you add September 11th, you add anthrax, you add the sniper shootings, and then the Hurricane Isabel power outages that we've just went through, it's been a lot of stress and trauma over the last couple of years in our part of the country. So the federal government has given us a grant to do an educational campaign about post-traumatic stress disorder. If people find themselves losing sleep, if they're easily startled, if they see that they're avoiding reminders of what happened last year, we're asking them to contact a doctor or mental health professional, clergy member or family member, just to talk this over.

We saw tremendous anxiety in our community last year. We think we're going to see a repeat of some of that this year as people relive these memories that they have, and we want to make sure people stay calm and people help each other to get through this, as we did last year.

KAGAN: In about two weeks, the first trial of the two men arrested, John Allen Muhammad, his trial begins. There was a big tug of war after this arrest between Maryland, your state, and Virginia. Virginia ended up winning out on that.

DUNCAN: I wouldn't call it a competition. We wanted to make sure that as the task force worked together to make an arrest here, all the jurisdictions coming together at the local, state, and federal level to say we want to just put this to an end as quickly as possible, we want to arrest whoever is doing this, Then we work together and said, OK, where's the best place for the trials to occur. They got put in Virginia. They have got very seasoned, experienced prosecutors working the cases there. And we're confident that justice is going to be brought in the case. So I'm very pleased where the trials are and the prosecutors that we have working on these two cases.

KAGAN: I'm sure you'll be tracking it very carefully.

DUNCAN: Absolutely.

KAGAN: Doug Duncan, Montgomery County, thank you so much.

DUNCAN: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired October 2, 2003 - 10:14   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: In and around Washington, the anniversary stirs echoes of fears and anguish. About 200 people gathered for last night's candlelight vigil, remembering the first of the Washington area sniper attacks. Among those attending, the family members and friends of the 13 people who were shot during the three- week reign of terror.
Our next guest attended last night's vigil, and he witnessed the terror one year ago, Doug Duncan, the country executive of Montgomery County, Maryland. Today, his office announces a new education campaign about post-traumatic stress disorder.

Mr. Duncan, good to have you with us one year later.

DOUG DUNCAN, MONTGOMERY CO., MARYLAND EXECUTIVE: Good morning.

We're sort of glad we've got that behind us, but we're still living with the memories of it and still trying to deal with what happened last year.

KAGAN: Absolutely. Tell me a little bit more about last night's candlelight vigil?

DUNCAN: Well, we wanted to bring the community together, particularly to support the victims' families. We had several family members there, many family members there. We also had a few of the survivors, people who were shot and thankfully did not die from the sniper. So we brought the people together to show them the community still cared about them and is still praying for them and with them, and helping them as they enter a very difficult time, because the one- year anniversary is coming up for the loss of their loved ones, and the trials are going to be starting very soon. It's going to be daily reminders to them of the loss they suffered last year.

So we did that, and we also helped the community get through this. There are still some people who are very fearful, very anxious about what happened last year, and still trying to come to grips with it.

KAGAN: I want to talk about the trial in a moment, but tell me about this plan to offer help for people suffering from post-traumatic stress. It was a very stressful time. Having been there covering it, I remember it very well.

DUNCAN: It was a very stressful time. But when you add September 11th, you add anthrax, you add the sniper shootings, and then the Hurricane Isabel power outages that we've just went through, it's been a lot of stress and trauma over the last couple of years in our part of the country. So the federal government has given us a grant to do an educational campaign about post-traumatic stress disorder. If people find themselves losing sleep, if they're easily startled, if they see that they're avoiding reminders of what happened last year, we're asking them to contact a doctor or mental health professional, clergy member or family member, just to talk this over.

We saw tremendous anxiety in our community last year. We think we're going to see a repeat of some of that this year as people relive these memories that they have, and we want to make sure people stay calm and people help each other to get through this, as we did last year.

KAGAN: In about two weeks, the first trial of the two men arrested, John Allen Muhammad, his trial begins. There was a big tug of war after this arrest between Maryland, your state, and Virginia. Virginia ended up winning out on that.

DUNCAN: I wouldn't call it a competition. We wanted to make sure that as the task force worked together to make an arrest here, all the jurisdictions coming together at the local, state, and federal level to say we want to just put this to an end as quickly as possible, we want to arrest whoever is doing this, Then we work together and said, OK, where's the best place for the trials to occur. They got put in Virginia. They have got very seasoned, experienced prosecutors working the cases there. And we're confident that justice is going to be brought in the case. So I'm very pleased where the trials are and the prosecutors that we have working on these two cases.

KAGAN: I'm sure you'll be tracking it very carefully.

DUNCAN: Absolutely.

KAGAN: Doug Duncan, Montgomery County, thank you so much.

DUNCAN: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com