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CNN Live Sunday

Gunman Opened Fire on Four Officers Outside Dallas; Investigators Looking Into Message John Mark Karr Left in High Schol Yearbook; New Issue of "Time" Magazine Asks Voters About Hillary Clinton

Aired August 20, 2006 - 19:30   ET

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

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: A standoff outside of Dallas, Texas as Midlothian police respond to some kind of an explosion, a window being blown out. A gunman they found in a neighboring apartment opened fire on four officers. They are hospitalized right now and this is new video that just came into the CNN Center and let's get to the part where, apparently, officers are firing what we would presume to be at the gunman.
Appears to be automatic weapons fire. One affiliate out there in Midlothian, Texas, said the gunman is believed to be armed with a 9 millimeter. With me on the telephone right now is Lisa Block, with the Texas Department of Public Safety. Lisa, we were just watching this dramatic shootout, if appeared to be, with police officers. Can you tell us a little bit more about why they were responding that way? Because I understand negotiations are going on with the gunman.

LISA BLOCK, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY (on phone): Actually, I don't have information right now about what's going on at the scene, but I can give you background information.

LIN: All right. Earlier a Midlothian police spokesperson told me that it first started with a woman who -- her apartment window was blown out for unexplained reasons and police officers arrived and determined that it was a shot out. They traced the trajectory of the bullet and ended up at the suspected gunman's apartment, is that right?

BLOCK: Actually, I haven't heard that. I can tell you what DPS has done and how we responded, though.

LIN: OK. Please do.

BLOCK: At about 3:20 today we received a call that the Midlothian Police Department had three officers down and they needed assistance so DPS trooper Rick Smith (ph) from the NS (ph) office responded to the Stonegate Apartments and was shot, as well.

LIN: He was shot in the face, is that right?

BLOCK: That's correct.

LIN: How is he doing?

BLOCK: He is in good condition and is waiting on going into surgery.

LIN: Is he talking?

BLOCK: He is talking.

LIN: All right. So that hopefully that is a good sign, then.

BLOCK: Yes, definitely.

LIN: All right, Lisa. Do you have any other role in this standoff as we're looking at it right now?

BLOCK: Yeah. We have troopers there on the scene and we're working to bring it to an end.

LIN: All right. Are the negotiators with your department who are talking with the gunman?

BLOCK: I don't know for sure.

LIN: All right. Lisa Block with the Texas Department of Public Safety. She's the spokeswoman there. Reporter on the scene with KDFW, one of our CNN affiliates, Rebecca Aguilar, Rebecca, what can you tell us about what's going on right now.

REBECCA AGUILAR, KDFW-TV CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol, we're about 40 miles south of Dallas in the small town of Midlothian. Let me show you right behind me is the apartment complex where all the officers, including Texas troopers have surrounded the area and there is a barricade going on right now.

We do not know if a suspect or suspects are inside. There have been two shootouts so far. According to police, Midlothian police were responded to some kind of call out here and then they asked for a Texas trooper to come out and help and all four were shot.

Now, back to me over here, just a few minutes ago there was a shootout. I don't know if the video is playing right now, but let me show you some of that video.

Now, again, Carol, you can see all those police officers, SWAT is out here from the surrounding area. Again, we're looking at that apartment complex right behind me. We have no idea. Again, the officers have been very busy dealing with a suspect or suspects inside. Neighbors in this small town and it is a very small town south of Dallas tell us that this is a rough area. This apartment complex over here to our right is a complex that's known for drug dealing.

So, we have no idea how many people they're dealing with inside. We do know that four officers have been shot. We do not know their conditions right now. Carol, back to you.

LIN: All right, Rebecca, a Midlothian public information officer says that they are in fair conditions. One of the officers who is in fair condition is actually talking and heading into surgery right now. We're going to be staying on top of this story that is still unfolding with a gunman inside and negotiations under way.

Also, another one of our top stories, a crime suspect, John Karr, winging his way back to the United States at this hour. He is a suspect in the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. He's on a nonstop flight from Bangkok to Los Angeles. The estimated time of arrival, 12:30 Eastern. Stan Grant was there when the flight boarded in Bangkok.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STAN GRANT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What a flight to be on. Thai Airways direct Bangkok-Los Angeles and John Mark Karr is your fellow passenger.

He's on your flight.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is he in handcuffs?

GRANT: Indeed, he's on the flight. Karr arrived at Bangkok Airport flanked by police and straight into a media pack. A scene so familiar to that last week paraded in front of cameras with this stunning statement.

JOHN MARK KARR, MURDER SUSPECT: I love JonBenet and she died accidentally.

QUESTION: Are you an innocent man?

KARR: No.

GRANT: This day no comment, a small man lost in the throng. He was dressed in a shirt and tie. Thai officials telling CNN Karr asked them, quote, "I want to dress well. I want to dress like a teacher for the last time."

Forty-one-year-old Karr, a teacher in Bangkok, before his arrest. As he was fast tracked through customs, his fellow passengers were only just learning Karr would be on the flight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not happy about that.

GRANT: You're not?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But I'm glad they caught him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really don't care. It's a long flight, we're all uncomfortable and what he's going to do, get up. Come on. Where are you going to go? It's an airplane.

GRANT (on camera): A long flight to Los Angeles, yes, it certainly is about 15 hours from here and awaiting John Karr, a lot of questions. Stan Grant, CNN, Bangkok.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Investigators are already looking into a strange message Karr left in a high school year book. Now, one of Karr's high school classmates has come forward and she has a revealing story that could provide some insight into his personality. Here's reporter Chris Canon of WTVF in Nashville.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN COBB, HIGH SCHOOL CLASSMATE (voice-over): He could have the world by the tail.

CHRIS CANON, WTVF CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A yearbook full of memories from the class of '83.

COBB: Shocked is putting it very mildly.

CANON: Twenty-three years later, though, Susan Cobb sees one picture in particular much differently than before.

COBB: That can't be the same John Karr.

CANON: But it is. The man that police have pinned the 10-year murder mystery of JonBenet Ramsey on is the John Karr Cobb went to high school with in Hamilton, Alabama.

COBB: Pretty much like the John I knew, yes, he looked like he lost just a little bit of weight, but not a whole lot.

CANON: Cobb remembers the senior with a big smile as someone who kept to himself, but when it came to band, Karr made it clear he wanted to be drum major, a job he eventually lost to Cobb.

COBB: John got angry, he started shouting at me. And that was really about the -- he just never had anything to do with me after that.

CANON: Cobb says that was the only time she saw Karr's temper when she took the spotlight from him.

COBB: He wanted his, as Andy Warhol said, 15 minutes of fame. This is a terrible way to go about getting it.

CANON: Accused of the Ramsey murder, the 41-year-old Karr may also face child pornography charges from when he was a teacher in California.

COBB: When I see these reports of him, you know, supposedly getting too friendly with the female students, that sends shivers through my spine.

CANON: Memories of John Karr, who 23 years ago seemed to have the world by the tail.

COBB: Right now looks like the world's got him by his tail.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: On Monday, Larry King is going it have an exclusive interview with Ramsey family attorney Lin Wood and the Colorado professor who led police to car. That's Monday at 9:00 Eastern.

Stormy skies are also causing trouble for air travelers today. So let's go to meteorologist Jacqui Jeras for our flight tracker report. Jaqui?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Carol, it's a real mess if you try to get in or out of parts of the east today. West you've been OK. And for the most part, the Midwest is fine, but we're honing in on the Atlanta area right now with our flight explorer system and all these airplanes you see are lined up trying to get into the Atlanta area and there are no planes taking off, not at least until the top of the hour because of the thunderstorms and all the storms over here into Alabama, these are pushing into our neighborhood here and also some thunderstorms up into South Carolina. So we think this is ongoing throughout much of the night.

Let's show you some other areas which are being affected by some of the weather here across parts of the East for today. In addition to Atlanta, by the way, over an hour waiting getting out of there. Ground stop in effect right now. Boston, we've got some low, overcast conditions there. New York City and Newark, weather starting to get a little bit better in terms of clearing skies, however, we do have some very strong winds across the area.

What about tomorrow? Sunday, maybe you're staying at home, well, we're looking at travel trouble across parts of the East again tomorrow. The Northeast, however, we think will be fine. The showers and thunderstorms we think are moving up to the north, skies should be clearing out and we think we shouldn't have too much trouble there.

The Upper Midwest, over all doing good, but Minneapolis may have some delays particularly in the morning, then we get into the Southeast, that's where we have trouble. Atlanta into Charlotte and also into the Tampa Bay area and Miami can expect to see a few delays and we also expect an isolated delay or two out of DFW with some thunderstorms brewing there.

Across parts of the West, doing pretty good here with the exception of the morning delays anticipated in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Other than that, looking good across the West, but, boy what a big mess we have going on tonight. Looks like that is going to last at least through tomorrow through much of the Southeast.

Carol?

LIN: All right. Thanks, Jacqui.

Want to get back to our developing story outside of Dallas, Texas. Where a shooting occurred. Four police officers shot and you're looking at dramatic footage of a shootout between officers and what they believe to be a lone gunman.

A local affiliate reporting that he may be armed with a .9 millimeter. Those four officers being treated at a local hospital. One of those officers shot in the face. He is headed into surgery right now. Now, these pictures taken about an hour ago and, since then, I've spoken with the public information officer for the Midlothian Police Department in Texas and he says that there are negotiations going on right now with that gunman. He couldn't say what this gunman wants right now, but at least there is a dialogue going.

This all started when a woman called police saying that her window was blown out. They determined that it had been shot out. They located the apartment where the shot came from and that's when the person inside, they say, opened fire on the responding officers.

A developing story that we're staying with throughout the hour.

In the meantime, a big question on "Time" magazine's cover this week. Do we love her or hate her? Well, we've been doing our own research. CNN hit the streets to see how folks feel about her and her chances to become the nation's first female president.

Plus friend no more? Well, John Kerry compares Joe Lieberman to Vice President Dick Cheney. What he said when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: A major milestone for former President Bill Clinton. He turned 60 yesterday. Now these pictures were taken on his birthday, which he spent with his wife, Hillary and daughter Chelsea.

All while he's all smiles here, Mr. Clinton wasn't completely thrilled about turning 60. He says he hates being the oldest person in the room, which he insists he often is now. And on the positive side, he is grateful to be alive after his heart surgery and he views every day as a gift.

Now, Hillary Clinton is eyeing her husband's old job. Maybe, maybe not. She claims she is too busy working on a Senate re-election to worry about a presidential reelection bid, but the new issue of "Time" magazine is already asking voters, do you love her or hate her?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LIN (voice-over): Hillary Clinton may not talk about her possible run for president in 2008, but everyone else is. Love her or hate her? This week "Time" magazine's cover asked and polled the public for their views on the New York senator. Many believe Clinton would be the front-running Democrat if she were to run for president, but if you need proof that the senator is a polarizing political figure, all you need to do is hit the streets of her home state.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Love her.

QUESTION: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's Hillary Clinton, what's not to love?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't like her.

QUESTION: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her personality, I guess. Not really sure but she's kind of repelling in a way. I guess she's not as feminine as I expect a woman to be.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Love her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Love her. That seems to be the way most people across the country, particularly in my world, feel about her. Some love her, some hate her. Personally, I think she's great. She's a woman's woman and she gets my vote.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of the females available, which would you like to have in the White House?

LIN: Few of the people we talked to weren't sure of how they felt, but there were some ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't hate anybody, but I think I feel right in the middle about her. I think she's a brilliant woman, I don't think she can win the election.

LIN: And hey, this is New York. Everyone has an opinion, even on whether it's fair to focus attention on the person and not so much on what she stands for.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think there has been a candidate where you either love them or hate them. Usually, you know, there's some sense of concern about the issues.

LIN: But the issue for now is whether the freshman senator will even make a bid for the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm technology correspondent daniel Sieberg, did savvy cybersurfers send "Snakes on a Plane" to soaring heights in ticket sales? Try saying that three times fast.

Coming up, we'll show you how the Internet and the film have been so closely intertwined in the last several months and look at some of the wackiest parodies making the rounds. Plus we'll tell you where those snakes were headed. These were some real snakes on a real plane.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: We are watching a scene unfolding outside of Dallas, Texas, in Midlothian, Texas, where four law enforcement officers were shot. One in the face by a gunman who apparently opened fire on a neighbor. That was the initial call that got them to the scene.

So let's go to an affiliate reporter on the scene right now. Bob Greene from our affiliate WFAA. Bob, what is the situation there now? I understand that officers are actually in conversation or negotiations with the gunman. BOB GREENE, WFAA CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, they are in conversations, negotiations with this suspect. His name is Richard Miles. He is a 25-year-old. Just a minute ago, police put up this tape that you see. They have moved officers away and they brought in the SWAT and they seem to be, by all indications, about to try and perhaps go into this apartment.

They've tried one or two more times to call this gentleman, Richard Miles, on a phone that is inside that apartment. We're told that he has not been picking up that phone. So, the negotiations, I guess, continue at this time.

Just a little while ago, though, when we were on air officers from four different organizations, four different affiliations tried to take the suspect, just a little bit ago, but shots were fired and, of course, we heard those shots while we were on air, pretty scary situation for all the folks out here. That's another reason that they put up this police caution tape at this time. So no one gets close to that scene, in case this man decides to start firing shots again.

That is the scene right now. We're told, again, all four officers are still alive at this point, Cody McKinney (ph), Dusty Compton (ph) and Sergeant Brian Woolery (ph) with Midlothian police and also DPS trooper Rick Smith. He is in the most critical condition right now. He was shot just under his eye and we are told that he is in ICU right now, he's in surgery.

So all of those officers still alive at this point, so, that's the good news. The bad news is this standoff seems to be continuing even almost four hours later. That's about what we have from out here in Midlothian. Carol?

LIN: All right. Bob Greene, thank you very much from CNN affiliate WFAA. And while that officer is in surgery right now, we understand he was talking right before surgery, so hopefully that is a good sign.

"Snakes on a Plane" slithered into theaters this weekend and what started as an online obsession is now number one at a box office. Charming movie goers out of a little more than, well, a modest $15 million. Now, the campy thriller is riding a wave of Internet- generated hype. Bloggers out there actually guiding filmmakers. Daniel Sieberg?

SIEBERG: Yes they have. This has been going on for several months and in many ways the Internet site of "Snakes on a Plane" has taken on a reptilian life of its own, shall we say, shedding to reveal layer after layer of endless material and lots of hardcore fans out there.

You may have heard that Internet users helped secure the title, "Snakes on a Plane," it used to be called "Pacific Flight 121." And they added a now famous line for Samuel L. Jackson that we simply can't repeat here, you've probably heard it and even generate enormous underground buzz that swelled up to the mainstream. But where does the Internet's effect on the movie end and the movie's effect on the Internet begin. Well, it's all become about as twisted as a coiled snake, shall we say?

The first site we want to show you that was on this pretty early is the aptly titled, "Snakes on a Blog." This site run by a guy who wanted to go to the premier of the movie and according to his blog site, he was able to go. He carried this on for many months and generated a lot of interest in the film. This is from "Snakes on Myspace." A very popular site where a lot of people had references to the film. And buzz has been going on through e-mail and different sites like this Wiki site here, "Snakes on a Plane."

You can find snakes on an insert Website here sort of anywhere online. A lot of videos at video filing site YouRube, which is very popular. We compiled a couple of them. Mostly parodies as you might imagine. This one here, some guys rapping or trying to rap, shall we say, these few guys here very low-budget production. You can see the plane in the background, the clouds, they tried.

The second one we've got is, well, it's Claymation. Again, sort of a low-budget production. A little silly. It's got less expletives in it than some of the other stuff we've seen. We had to edit out a lot in this segment.

This one looks more like a kid show on Saturday morning. And the last one we got has a snake. You can see it there. It's a sock puppet snake and a paper airplane.

So the budget went down in dollar value as we went along with those segments.

In any case, the Internet's impact on the film and vice versa may not have translated into more money at the box office. So far studio estimates are below what some had expected this weekend. And Carol, before we go, I want to give you an example on what you can get on the Web site snakesonaplane.com. This is where you can actually go and tailor a message for somebody that sounds like it's from Samuel L. Jackson. If we can play that now.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SAMUEL L. JACKSON, ACTOR: Carol, this is Samuel L. Jackson. Snakes on a plane just might be the best motion picture ever made. It's that good. So, listen up, forget about your regular job, working in the media and stop wasting all your free time listening to that crazy music. Just hop in your cute wannabe sports car, go get your co-worker, Daniel, and go see "Snakes on a Plane."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIEBERG: So, lots of clever marketing with this.

LIN: Wait, wait, he was really talking to me.

SIEBERG: This wasn't a fake thing, absolutely. I don't know how he got it.

LIN: We have it get Shanon in on it.

SIEBERG: That's right. We'll all go see it. I haven't seen it yet, but I'll have to check that out.

LIN: Samuel my man, I always knew it. Thanks Daniel.

SIEBERG: Yeah. And coming up, by the way, at 10:00, we will have something about real snakes on a plane. This is sort of a reality check. This does happen.

LIN: Oh, get out.

SIEBERG: I know, it's hard to believe. But we'll give you some incidents when this does happen. Not quite as horrific as the movie, but some pretty scary examples.

LIN: The stuff you find, Daniel Sieberg.

SIEBERG: Ah well, it's the online world.

LIN: We'll see you at 10:00.

SIEBERG: All right.

LIN: Thanks.

All right. Up next, "CNN PRESENTS: Terror 2.0," how to spot the next breed of terrorists. And at 9:00 Eastern, "LARRY KING LIVE." Will there finally be justice for the Ramsey family. A look back at the parents' ordeal.

And then at 10:00 a look at one of the weapons in the war on terror, racial profiling. Should it be used to keep you safe? The day's top stories, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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