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Accused Cop Killer Fatally Shot in Lakeland, Florida; Iraq: A Victim's Story

Aired September 29, 2006 - 10:28   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush with the latest in a series of speeches on terrorism. Good morning, everyone, I'm Tony Harris.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Heidi Collins. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.

Yes, talking a lot about successes and challenges, both in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is about the fifth speech now that we have heard as of late from President Bush on the war on terror.

HARRIS: Let's get to some breaking news right out of central Florida this morning. Just minutes ago, police in Lakeland confirmed that accused cop killer has been shot and killed.

Sheriff Grady Judd made these comments just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF GRADY JUDD, POLK COUNTY, FLORIDA: Ladies and gentlemen, God will be the judge and the jury this time. We found the suspect -- we found the suspect. He had dug in and was underneath a large, very large oak tree that had fallen over, completely covered by vines.

SWAT team members -- and I don't have their identifications or which agency they are from -- found the suspect while they were walking shoulder to shoulder through the thickest brush you can imagine in the state of Florida.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Let's get the latest now from CNN's Susan Candiotti.

Susan, the sheriff went on to say SWAT team members shot and killed the man who shot our deputies. Tell us more about how all of this unfolded this morning. .

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you heard, Polk County sheriff's deputies have their suspected cop killer and he is dead. Yet they don't know his name for sure.

Let's recap what happened. This morning, they showed a new photograph of this man, and said that they had three possible names for him, either Angelo Freeland (ph) or Alex or Andrew Clockston (ph), and that he had ties to Miami; and, records show, once had an address possibly in the Lakeland, Florida, area where we are. This unfolded yesterday about noontime when the suspect was stopped for speeding. It was a routine traffic stop. Then he took off running into the woods. Shots were exchanged. Police say he shot and killed Sheriff's Deputy Matthew Williams, 12 years on the force, as well as his police dog, and also wounded another deputy.

Sometime after that, they saw the suspect one more time when he exchanged gunfire with a Lakeland police detective. And then the search was on, all night and again about half hour into this shoulder- to-shoulder search this morning. Police say they practically tripped over this guy in very thick brush. Police say the rest happened in a matter of moments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDD: We asked to see their hands. They showed me one hand. I grabbed to jerk a cloth off of his other. We saw the gun. We started shooting. SWAT team members shot and killed the suspect who killed our deputy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: As one SWAT team member said, according to the sheriff, "I was standing on top of him before I saw him." That's how thick the sheriff said the brush was. And this man had evidently carved out some area in the dirt underneath this huge fallen oak tree. And important to note this. The gun police say that was found on this man was a .45 caliber handgun, the same kind of weapon carried by the fallen deputy, Matthew Williams. They don't know yet to whom that gun belonged at this time. Obviously, a lot of investigative work left to do.

Back to you.

HARRIS: And, Susan, if you would, tell us what you've learned about Deputy Williams, killed. We understand he was a husband and father of three.

CANDIOTTI: That's right. He had also been on the force for 12 years. And not only is this a tragic death at any time, but this happened to happen on his wife's birthday.

HARRIS: CNN's Susan Candiotti for us. Susan, thank you.

COLLINS: CNN security analyst now and former SWAT team member Mike Brooks joining us.

And, boy, you know, you can't imagine the emotion. That coupled with finding out that this all happened on Deputy Williams' wife's birthday.

MIKE BROOKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely.

COLLINS: We talked a little bit, Mike, yesterday about the emotion that is running through the bodies of these fellow officers, knowing that one of their colleagues has been shot and killed. That being said, the perimeter, as they call it, was kept so very tight. Do they not deserve some accolades for keeping him from getting, you know, farther away?

BROOKS: Absolutely. You know, it was a three-mile area on the west side of Lakeland they were looking for him in. And it was just a short distance from where he had actually gotten into the shootout with Speirs and Williams. And he was -- he dug himself in. And I can tell you, as a former tactical team member, you know, looking for fugitives like this, this guy, you know, he was not -- he didn't go very far. And that's usually what happens. But they did a heck of a job. And we saw armored personnel carriers, we saw SWAT teams from, you know, from Lakeland, from Polk County, Florida Department of Law Enforce. Over 200 officers all night long, kept this perimeter. Excellent discipline. They went through. They told him to show his hands. He didn't show his hands. They did what they had to do.

COLLINS: Yes. Will there be any questions about that? Obviously the investigation is still ongoing. But don't -- isn't that the rule of thumb? I mean, if you don't show both hands when you are commanded to do so, you, therefore, are opening yourself up for being killed.

BROOKS: Absolutely. I mean, he pulled one hand up. He had something over the other hand. They pulled that off. He had a gun. They shot and killed him. There's going to be an investigation into this to make sure that it was a good shoot, as they called it. But as far as we're concerned, after shooting two officers, and Diogi, the canine officer, his dog. They shot his dog, too. And, you know, that's part of the family. That dog -- those dogs are part of your family. They're not just your partner, they're a part of your family. After doing that, these guys were ready for anything at all. They did what they had to do and it sounds like a good shoot to me.

COLLINS: And remind everyone, if you will, about that terrain. I mean when we're saying that he was -- he was found just 75 to 100 yards from his last encounter with the Lakeland police officer, it's amazing how he was able to burrow down underneath this fallen oak tree so close to where it all began.

BROOKS: It is, Heidi. Yesterday we covered this all day yesterday. We saw some of the footage of how thick that underbrush was. It was -- I mean it's stuff like I've never seen before. I've never had to do a search in areas like this. They deserve a lot of credit because that officer -- Deputy Speirs, who initially started the chase, he went in, came back out, waited for his backup, Deputy Williams, and then he and his canine dog, they went back into the woods after this guy. And that's when they -- the shootout initially took place. And then later on, he shot at a Lakeland officer who -- after he popped out from behind a house when this Lakeland detective was actually trying to notify a family what was going on in that area. This is just some unbelievable terrain and some underbrush like I've never seen before.

COLLINS: Yes. And as our Susan Candiotti mentioned, we are not positive yet but we do know that the gun that was found on him was the same type of weapon as the deputy that was killed, Deputy Williams. BROOKS: Exactly.

COLLINS: How long will it take for them to determine whether or not it was, in fact, Deputy Williams' gun?

BROOKS: They probably know by now. All they have to do is look at the serial numbers. That serial number is in his personnel records and they should know whether or not it is his gun or not. It sounds like it was. They're Smith and Wesson that law enforcement use, a .45 caliber weapon. They're not that common. Yes, you can buy them, but they'll be able to know momentarily whether or not it was his gun or not.

COLLINS: Yes, the Polk County Sheriff's Department got their man.

BROOKS: Yes, they did.

COLLINS: All right, Mike Brooks, thank you.

BROOKS: Thank you, Heidi.

HARRIS: Still to come, first the death threats, then a stranger called.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAFAL ABBAS, VICTIM'S NIECE, (through translator): He said to her, "are you Umm Luma?" She said, "yes, dear, what would you like?" The first shot hit her in the arm and she fell to the ground. When she fell, he got out of the car and shot her four times all over her body.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: You won't believe this story. An Iraqi grandmother targeted. Questions and grief ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Just moments ago, law enforcement in Lakeland, Florida, got their man. The man -- there he is -- suspected -- the name has not been released yet, we should say. There have been a couple different aliases. Our CNN correspondent, Susan Candiotti, mentioned on the air just a few moments ago. So we are working to confirm the true name of that suspect who shot and killed the sheriff's deputy and a police dog and wounded another sheriff's deputy in Polk County, Florida. This suspect now dead, shot by SWAT teams after they scoured the area, shoulder-to-shoulder manhunt for this man who ended up being remarkably only 75 to 100 yards away from where he was last seen by Lakeland police. So we will continue to follow this story and let you know any more as it comes in.

HARRIS: President Bush touts progress and takes on his critics in his latest speech on the war on terror. CNN's Kathleen Koch joins us now from the White House. And, Kathleen, it felt a bit like a tick tock. The president offering up a chronology of the efforts since 9/11 to take on global terrorism.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Certainly, Tony.

What the president described it as -- this speech is about what he said is a challenge of our time, he said, which is standing against extremists and supporting moderate leaders. And as anyone who watched the speech was very aware of, he, at great length, went on about the history of what's happened in Pakistan and in Afghanistan since 9/11. And the president really using Afghanistan in particular of an example of how difficult it is to build a democracy from the ground up.

The president coined a new phrase when talking about extremists, the Taliban, the resurgence that you see going on there and he called them haters of humanity and talked about how important it was that the world rally around these moderates. And didn't make a direct comparison to Iraq, but over and over again in his discussion of what was happening in Afghanistan, you heard words that certainly applied in Iraq. He said about Afghanistan, in order to win war you have to have a clear strategy, respond to the conditions on the ground, not to critics who change their position constantly. So very clear that he was trying to make a point about Iraq in discussing what was happening in Afghanistan.

President also took on his critics who released, as he says, selectively portions of that National Intelligence estimate this week. That was something that upset the president quite a bit. He said, "it's an indication we're getting close to an election." The president made the point in this speech that he said, you do not create terrorism by fighting terrorism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Some of the selectively quoted from this document to make the case that by fighting the terrorists, by fighting them in Iraq, we are making our people less secure here at home. This argument buys in to the enemies' propaganda that the terrorist attack us because we're provoking them. I will want to remind the American citizens that we were not in Iraq on September 11, 2001.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: So President Bush there trying to continue his efforts to blunt that fire storm of criticism that has come out since the release of those portions of the NIE that concluded that the Iraq War has become the main recruiting tool for extremists worldwide and thus made Americans less safe than they were before 9/11.

Tony.

HARRIS: Well, Kathleen, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean, will have some things to say about the president's latest speech. And we will have him here, Howard Dean, next hour right here in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: The body count in Baghdad keeps going up. Police say they found another 25 corpses. The latest apparent victims of sectarian violence. That pushes the number of bodies found this week to 147. Police say most showed signs of torture. Their hands tied and gunshot wounds to the head.

HARRIS: A death threat with a bullet, but her family figured no one would harm a beloved Iraqi grandmother. Well, they were wrong. CNN's Arwa Damon has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): For the family of Umm Luma (ph), pain and anger.

OSAMA RUMANI, VICTIM'S SON, (through translator): They killed my mother. I saw my mother on the street. I picked up her brains with my own hands and wrapped it. Picked up her brains.

DAMON: Umm Luma's killing left her family haunted by fear and a question many Iraqis ask, why? So far, no answers.

She was a grandmother, grew up in a middle class family, married the man she loved and lost him to illness two years ago.

RAFAL ABBAS, VICTIM'S NICE, (through translator): She had a strong personality. She was a leader of us at home. But at the same time, she had a kind heart. She stood by me, stood by us.

DAMON: She had lived a simple life, raising a family of four boys and two girls. But then one day the so-called Brigades of Death filled in her name on the dotted line. The death warrant was left at the house. "Where will you escape, Umm Luma?" it read. "Await the rage, the slaughter and the murder. Our swords are on the necks of every traitor, agent and coward."

The Brigades of Death, like many Sunni extremist groups, view the Shia as being conspirators with the Americans. This is actually the second threat that the family received over the course of a year. But wrapped in this one was a bullet. The family fled, but no one, least of all Umm Luma herself, thought that they would really kill a woman. So after about a week, she went back home.

On September 16th, she went to buy bread for breakfast. Her niece heard the killer call her by name.

ABBAS: He said to her, "are you Umm Luma?" She said, "yes, dear, what would you like?" The first shot hit her in the arm and she fell to the ground. When she fell, he got out of the car and shot her four times all over her body. The killers could not have been more than 18 years old.

RUMANI: Shoot her once. Shoot her twice. Break her leg, her arm. But why this? Why? Why hurt us like this? We ask you, why? DAMON: Within minutes of the shooting, a stranger pulls up on a motorcycle, checking to make sure Umm Luma was dead and asking for her sons.

ABBAS: We are now living in extraordinary fear. If I'm home alone, I get terrified. Yesterday, for example, was really windy. The door blew open. I fainted because I thought they had come for us.

DAMON: The niece said Umm Luma dreamed of a secure Iraq. Now the other members of her family fear they too may not live to see it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Arwa Damon joins us now from Baghdad.

Arwa, a couple of questions. This is the second time I've watched your piece and I'm still -- can you clear up for me why this woman was even targeted? What's the motive here?

DAMON: You know, Tony, I wish I knew that and I'm sure that's a question that the family really wants to know. I mean, if you look at the group that carried out this attack, they signed that letter the Brigades of Death. I mean, they're pretty much an unheard of name. They're not a well-known name like al Qaeda in Iraq or some of the other insurgent groups that are formed, Tony. They're just a gang that decided to form this death squad or carry out sectarian attacks against an old woman, Tony

HARRIS: So just talking about thugs? I mean just common criminals?

DAMON: Pretty much. I mean we heard the niece say there, I mean she thought that they were barely 18 years old. And from her description of them, it seems as though they were just common criminals who one day said, hey, let's form a death squad.

HARRIS: Yes. Maybe this is a question that gets at what is happening on the ground there, practically speaking. Is there an investigation of this? This is a horrible incident, horrible for this family the way this woman was gunned down. Is there an investigation along the lines of what we would think of here in the states going on now?

DAMON: No, unfortunately, not quite. And that's for a number of reasons. First of all, the Iraqi police are overwhelmed by the number of such incidences. I mean they happen all the time. They don't have the infrastructure or the abilities to actually conduct an investigation and go after every single one of these gangs.

And another issue though, and this is what the police here are extremely criticized for, is that sometimes they just don't respond. In fact, according to the niece that we heard from there in that package, she tried to call for help. Her aunt was already dead, but she was trying to call for help, trying to call emergency services so that they could at least come and remove the body and nobody responded to her. And that's not the first time that, you know, I've been hearing that over the course of the last few years. A lot of times Iraqis don't feel that they can call, say, you know, 911 and actually see someone respond, never mind actually launch an investigation.

HARRIS: Well, you put a face on all of this violence in Iraq for us, in Baghdad. Arwa Damon, thank you. Appreciate it.

COLLINS: And this news just in to CNN. The Senate has unanimously approved $70 billion more for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Once again, that was a unanimous vote. That brings the budget to $448 billion in total. As we have reported before, it's interesting because there has been quite a bit of partisan debate over the course in Iraq, anyway, as we know. About $8 billion a months being spent there.

So, once again, this is a record Pentagon budget. $70 billion more just approved by this Senate for Iraq and Afghanistan. So we'll continue to follow that story as well.

HARRIS: And, Heidi, this just in. Breaking news in to CNN. We take you to Weston, Wisconsin, for this story. The principal at Weston school was shot this morning by a former student who entered the school armed with multiple weapons. This news coming to us from our affiliate there, WKOW. The district, superintendent and folks involved in the district school system are reporting this right now. Let's listen to a bit of some sound from the reporting of our affiliate there, WKOW.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, WKOW: We are told at this moment, in fact, from school district officials over at the school, just on the border of Sauk County there in Cazenovia, Wisconsin, that the elementary students are being loaded on buses to go home. The high school, meanwhile, is still in lock-down. Students, that means, are locked in their rooms, wherever they were when this shooting took place. We also understand from school district officials that the person responsible for the shooting is in custody, has been apprehended.

Now, Weston School District, again, as you can see on the map there, is located in Cazenovia, Wisconsin, which is just to the west of Reedsburg in Sauk County. Now John Klang is the principal for all classes there. A small district. Classes from P-K right up to grade 12. He's also a district administrator.

There are two people acting in his stead at the school district this morning who are planning to release more information on a press release here very soon. As that becomes available, we will bring it to you.

Again, we want to recap, that this morning, we are told that Weston School Principal John Klang was shot apparently by a former student and, again, all students in that area safe and on lock-down. Some headed home as we speak.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HARRIS: OK. And, of course, we will continue to follow this. CNN has been able to confirm the details in that report from our affiliate in Weston, Wisconsin, WKOW, that the principal at Weston School, John Klang, has been shot. Still no update on his condition at this time. The school, obviously, in lock-down. An elementary school has been evacuated. That coming from a spokesperson from the school district. We will continue to follow the developments and update this story as soon as we get more information.

COLLINS: Two in one week. Certainly don't like the hear that. Platte Canyon High School in Colorado and now this.

HARRIS: That's right.

COLLINS: So, as Tony said, we'll continue to watch it and bring you those developments as we get them.

Meanwhile, you can watch this weekend, CNN and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, why he says the war is not a mistake. An exclusive interview and some candid comments. Watch "Rumsfeld, Man of War," CNN Saturday and Sunday evenings at 8:00 Eastern. We'll have a preview for you coming up ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: And, as usual, we have a lot of it today. Reminding you about this event. Happened just moments ago in Lakeland, Florida, where Polk County sheriff's deputies and other law enforcement officials in the area shot and killed the suspect who is accused of killing one of their own, Deputy Matt Williams. Also killing a police dog and injuring another deputy in that area.

He was burrowed underneath a fallen oak tree in some very, very dense terrain, only 75 to 100 yards away from where he was last seen by Lakeland Police. That would have been yesterday. So amazing how close they were. They have their man, they say.

HARRIS: And want to update you on a breaking news from just moments ago. The principal at Weston School -- this is in Weston, Wisconsin. I can pinpoint that location a little better for you in just a moment -- was shot this morning allegedly by a former student who apparently entered the school armed with multiple weapons. Principal John Klang was shot. No word on his condition at this time. The school, obviously, locked down. This happened in Cazenovia. That is outside of Limerick, Wisconsin. So, once again, we will continue to follow developments in this story and bring you the latest information as we get it.

COLLINS: A twin tornado of flames vexing fire crews in California.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two of them. Two of them. Oh, I got the other one next to them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They merged. They merged.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it came out the back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Just another day for the Day fire. That story ahead in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: And the president speaks. The Democrats respond. The chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean, is responding to the president's speech on the war on terror. And some other issues. We'll talk with Howard Dean ahead in the NEWSROOM.

You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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