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Press Conference on Campus Shooting in Illinois; Bobby Cuts Found Guilty
Aired February 15, 2008 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, welcome back everyone to the CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Tony Harris.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everybody, I'm Betty Nguyen.
We are waiting for a press conference to take place today from a hospital that has been treating many of the victims from the University of Northern Illinois where a shooting took place there yesterday killing five victims, the shooter also killed himself. Some 21 people were shot because of that.
HARRIS: Yes and that news conference to take place at Kishwaukee Community Hospital. We understand when that gets -- no shot of it yet, but when we get that and the news conference begins we will of course take you there for the latest information.
NGUYEN: In the meantime though, a killer's rampage on yet another American campus. The death toll changes though and new details are trickling in. Lets get to the latest from what we know at this hour. Authorities identify the gunman as Steven Kazmierczak. He was 27-years-old and a former student. In fact, we just got a picture of the gunman.
We're going to try to put that up for you right now. There he is. The gunman shot 21 people and in the past hour the coroner has corrected himself. He now says five of the victims have died, not six. I have been told that the news conference from the hospital there is under way right now so let's take you there and listen to what information they're providing.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... Kevin Poorten, the President and CEO of the health system, Pam Duffy, Vice President, patient care services, Mike Kokott, assistant Vice President and the on-site incident commander yesterday, Dr. Mike Kulisz, Medical Director of our emergency room, Dr. Roger Maillefer, General Surgeon and current Chief of Staff for Kishwaukee Community Hospital and Mike Holland chairman of the board of director for Kish Health System. Now I'll turn it over to Kevin Poorten, our president and CEO.
KEVIN POORTEN, CEO & PRESIDENT, KISHWAUKEE COMMUNITY HOSPITAL: Thank you, Joe. Good morning everyone. Let us stand together as a community and take time to pause and remember the spirit of life, the spirit of loss, and the spirit of hope. On behalf of our board of directors, the entire members of our medical staff, all 1,200 employees, and our volunteers, our heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to the victims, the families, the friends, the students, and the entire Northern Illinois University Community.
It's been truly amazing the outpouring of support, thoughts and prayers and assistance that has been offered by so many from throughout the country over the course of these past 20 hours. The responsiveness, the preparedness, the coordination and the team work has been remarkable among so many different and diverse organizations and people and agencies throughout the entire area.
I want to commend Dr. John Peters and the entire body of Northern Illinois University for their handling of this tragedy over the course of the past 20 hours. I've never been more impressed and more proud to be associated with an organization in a community as I have been this past 20 hours.
As Dr. Peters stated during his press conference, there's been an incredible amount of inner strength that has been displayed by so many people. The time is right now for us to begin the healing process. I'd like to introduce Dr. Mike Kulisz, who will come up here and give a brief statement and then we will be prepared to answer some questions. Dr. Kulisz?
DR. MICHAEL KULISZ, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN: Thank you, Kevin. Good morning. Just to recap, yesterday at approximately 3:00 p.m., or shortly thereafter, the hospital received information that there were multiple gunshot wound victims at Northern Illinois University. At that point we had instituted our preparedness or trauma alert, at which time we had called in extra staff which included physicians, as well as nursing staff, as well as ancillary staff.
At that point we had seen a total yesterday of 18 patients that were brought to the emergency room. All of which had sustained gunshot wounds. Of the 18, six were treated here and subsequently transferred to trauma facilities. They were transferred to Good Samaritan Hospital, St. Anthony's in Rockford, as well as Rockford Memorial. Eight patients were treated here and released.
There was one fatality that presented here and we also had three patients that were originally admitted, one of which will be discharged today, one which was subsequently transferred to Northwestern Hospital, and one that is in stable condition. The paramedics did an extraordinary job at bringing the patients here to us and the staff that assembled in order to treat the patients allowed us to take care of all those patients in a timely fashion.
Two patients that are here, one is actually going to be discharged, one is in fair condition.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is it true that one of them underwent surgery today?
KULISZ: One is going to undergo surgery, an orthopedic procedure today, correct. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dr. Kulisz, can you describe the nature of the injuries please?
KULISZ: All of the 18 patients that presented, all of them had gunshot wounds. Those that were serious that were transferred to trauma facilities sustained injuries primarily to the head and the torso. Those that were treated and released were primarily extremity- type injuries.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you describe what it was like when all these patients started coming in here?
KULISZ: We train for this twice a year. We have preparedness training for disasters, hopefully never to use it. But actually we were able to mobilize at the time when the patients presented to the emergency room, there were approximately five orthopedic surgeons, four general surgeons, five emergency room physicians, not to mention physicians representing every specialty, including radiology, anesthesiology, the ancillary staff was exceptional. All the nurses that were off actually came to the hospital uncalled. The paramedic response was unbelievable and the fact that they were able to bring them in and send them back out to the trauma facilities.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you say what was kind of going through your mind and what your big concerns were?
KULISZ: Actually, our biggest challenge, as I was thinking about this, is while we were doing it we really didn't think of how tough it was, because we're all trained for that, we were able to actually get everybody out. It wasn't until afterwards when all the patients were dispositioned did we realize what a tragedy it actually was.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doctor, can you talk a little bit about the triage process? Was something done on-scene and some done here?
KULISZ: Correct. The triage process was done by the paramedics on scene, and that allowed them to tell us via radio that we were going to receive all those patients to allow us to be prepared, then as the patients came in they were triaged and treated appropriately.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Those patients that are in the hospital currently, are they both suffering multiple gunshot wounds? Can you describe their injuries?
KULISZ: The patient that is currently in the hospital did have multiple gunshot wounds and they have an orthopedic injury. The other one that is being discharged today it was multiple extremity injuries.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you say orthopedic, what does that mean exactly? What part of the body are we talking about?
KULISZ: We are talking primarily about an extremity, in this case we're talking about an upper extremity and involves an injury that also has a fracture.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you see more shotgun pellets or actual slugs?
KULISZ: They're still analyzing that so that's difficult to answer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is, as far as the hospital in treating gunshot victims in the normal course of events, what is that? Do you see that kind of thing very often here?
KULISZ: No, luckily we don't see that here that often. But all of us are trained in treating gunshot wounds and Dr. (INAUDIBLE) can address that as well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you bring in extra staff to handle this emergency, if so, how many and how long did it take to get them here?
KULISZ: Yes. As I mentioned earlier, what happens is we go ahead and go through a trauma alert or a disaster plan so we brought in, normally we have two physicians in the emergency room at any given time. Yesterday at the height of this, or before everyone actually came in, we had five emergency room physicians. There were approximately three to four surgeons there. There were orthopedic surgeons. So everyone gets called in to the hospital. It was a very short time frame.
POORTEN: Let me comment about that, too because it's not just about the physicians. There is a mobilization throughout the entire facility and actually beyond the facility throughout the community. As I mentioned earlier, there is an awful lot of coordination and teamwork that takes place, so, yes, there was a lot of additional physicians and nurses.
But we had extra pharmacists, we had extra housekeepers, we had extra maintenance, extra security, extra chaplains, extra counselors. We made counselors available for not just only the patients and the family but also for staff. You can imagine in an event like this that is so tragic, the stress and the emotional strain that that puts on first and foremost the victims and their families, the student community, but also the employees here at the hospital.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Talk to us about treating gunshot wounds. I know you say you are trained to treat gunshot wounds but certain bullets have the ability to travel through the body. When you are treating a gunshot wound how do you determine what kind of bullet you are dealing with, how do you remove it and what are your main concerns when you're treating that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you say your name please?
DR. ROGER MAILLEFER, HOSPITAL CHIEF OF STAFF: My name is Roger Maillefer. I was a surgery on call and that means I respond to anything that comes to the emergency room. In the question earlier answered is that I immediately get a phone call from the emergency room physicians as they've gotten calls from the police is how our preparedness happens. The police calls the emergency room, they notify the surgeon on call, and then we start figuring out what we need to do to make sure we've got people present. As Kevin said, I was just amazed and very pleased with the response of the community. We had surgeons coming from outside our communities calling to see how they could help. We had all kinds of specialists available and actually in the emergency room. We had x- ray radiologists in the emergency room read things as we had. As you may know, this is a brand new facility and we just did a great job in providing excellent care. I was very pleased that our technology held up.
We had some new equipment that we had been using from a portable x-ray standpoint that really facilitated me as a surgeon taking care of these patients because I could look at the x-ray immediately upon its being done. I didn't have to wait for it to go to another place to be processed. That allowed literally the helicopter people that were right at the bedside to be able to be told this patient is cleared, get them on the gurney and get them out of here.
To answer your question about gunshot wounds, a typical gunshot wound that most of us are trained for in general surgery and trauma surgery is inner city. It is typically not what we saw yesterday. Usually these are handguns or rifles. Yesterday, as you can imagine, in a classroom full of students, that were trying to leave as buckshot was being fired at them, there were a variety of injuries from the front and from the back.
These are little pellets. They look like little BBs. Though on the surface they look very small and insignificant, you cannot rely on that. They can travel to places where they're not supposed to be. So first off you make sure that the patient is stable and then from there, you start doing x-rays to determine what other organs could have been injured in the track of the bullet.
You attempt to try and find where the bullet is either by physical exam from the entry wounds to the site where the bullet could be lodged, or you use x-rays to help determine that path of the bullet. Obviously with the knowledge of the anatomy, we can then anticipate what injuries we might see based on the trajectory of the bullet and the speed and the size of the bullet determines what kind of injuries you might see.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you working against time at that point?
MAILLEFER: As long as there are hemo dynamically stable which means their plod pressure is OK, relatively, no. Obviously we want to move things expeditiously because they can become unstable. Young people typically do very well until all of a sudden they decompensate. We have strong heart and lungs and we can handle a lot of blood loss, but that can be very deceiving.
Even though there could be a single injury, you need to be able to move resources very rapidly and I was extremely pleased not only as the surgeon on call, responding to the environment as well as my partners who took the patient to the operating room, but as chief of staff of this organization, I am just extremely proud to be a part of his institution and how we mobilized personnel. I literally saw nurses that had just gotten off the shift running back from the parking lots to come and help. It was just a really good experience.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many surgeries were performed here at this hospital, and given the amount of blood loss there must have been, was that a problem for you guys?
MAILLEFER: Actually, we didn't really sustain a whole lot of blood loss in these injuries. Buckshot is relatively small bullets so they tend not to cause a lot of blood vessel loss. We only treated one patient here for surgery as of this conference, and that one ended up needing to be flown out to Northwestern. There was a suspicion of a possible heart injury and we are not prepared to take care of that kind of injury here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Buckshot versus bullet, how many of the patients who were shot with buckshot sustained serious or critical type injuries or worse?
MAILLEFER: Don't know that I'm free to comment on all of that. There were several of them that were flown out that were related to buckshot injuries. Again, depending on where the buckshot goes, as Dr. Kulisz mentioned, if it's a front view, it can injury the airway, the esophagus. We had one penetrate the lung. One penetrate into the liver.
So they are small but they can cause significant damage. The larger bullets -- again, I'm not a ballistics expert but the larger bullets obviously cause more damage as they penetrate and as long as they don't penetrate any major blood vessels they do fine. So we did not have an issue with blood banking. There was some blood that was provided and was actually flown with the patients to the receiving hospitals.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doctor, was it -- you keep saying buckshot. Was it buckshot or --
MAILLEFER: I have never shot a rifle in my life. So I'm going to claim some ignorance and I'm going to have to refer that to the authority as to what kind of weapons were utilized.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) - Would double aught (ph) have caused greater injury --
MAILLEFER: I don't know what that means.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About 10 -
MAILLEFER: It looked like BBs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A shell, a double aught shell is about 10, 22 calibers -- (INAUDIBLE)
MAILLEFER: It just looked like BB entry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The treated and released, were all of those people shot or did some have injuries? (INAUDIBLE)
MAILLEFER: To my knowledge all the people that were treated here had gunshot wounds.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The fact that they didn't need surgery, does that mean that in some cases you can leave the buckshot in or --
MAILLEFER: Correct, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doctor, talk about the decision to transport people to other facilities. What were the critical factors in making that decision and were you concerned about the time it would take to get them there?
MAILLEFER: Right. As surgeons we work in very close conjunction with the emergency room physicians to try and help facilitate what needs to be done to these individuals. All of us in the emergency room staff, as well as surgeons, are trained to put in chest tubes and intibate people. We had an anesthesia team there that were available to sedate the people that needed to be intibated prior to their transportation to the receiving facilities.
We make assessments based on, first off, are they hemo dynamically stable. Is there blood pressure fine, is their heart rate. Are they speaking to us, are they neurologically stable. And then moving down to the secondary systems, is there other injuries that we need to worry about, internal injuries to the bowel or to the liver, and then moving on to the extremities, is there something else in the extremities that we would need to take care of. That is why this lady that was admitted during the night is an orthopedic injury. We needed to make sure that she was stable, she had no other injuries..
As you can imagine, this kind of scenario, there can be individuals who are trampled, who can be pushed around, and we did not see any evidence of that at our facility. I think that just speaks to how the students managed themselves at the site.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you seeing more shots in the back or front and side?
MAILLEFER: Both equally.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, both equally --
MAILLEFER: Yes. There were some kids, you can imagine again in an auditorium that are sitting there, from the belly button on up. Others as they were trying to leave received it from the back as well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was there any threat of overfilling capacity in the emergency room?
MAILLEFER: Yes. I mean there is always that threat. Look at 9- 1-1. I mean how many people can we physically handle? I will say thought that from our institution we handled it very well. We had the appropriate amount of staff. There was never a question in our facility of where is the equipment. I, in responding to certain needs, our nurses knew exactly what I needed and where I needed it. There was no, perhaps a layperson thinks we're frantically running around. We're not. We're trained for this. We prepare for this. We're calm. We know what we need to do. We do it. And then you sit down afterwards and figure it out. But there's no yelling, there's no frantic running around. We're dealing with the families. We had the opportunity to talk with families as they came, not very many of the parents got here. It was rush hour. We had multiple phone calls to parents on their phones while they were stuck on the highway.
POORTEN: Let me comment about the capacity issue. Because certainly we were prepared to handle this number of patients that were brought in. We talked earlier about emergency preparedness. There was a broader coordination of emergency preparedness that happens on a regional level.
So, depending upon the number of patients, victims, we were also prepared to be in very close communication and coordination with other hospitals outside the area which would have helped facilitate either resources, supplies, staff, and/or the acceptance of additional transfers out. But we never got to that point because we were able to manage as Dr. Maillefer indicated a number of patients that were brought to us.
NGUYEN: We have been listening to the medical physicians, as well as officials there at the Kishwaukee Community Hospital where they treated many of the wounded yesterday. 18 have been treated -- or I should say, 18 gunshot wounds, people, victims, with gunshot wounds were transferred. Eight were treated and released. One will be released a little bit later today and one has been transferred.
So, I guess the good news out of all of this is we are seeing that at least eight of them have survived the injuries that they sustained in yesterday's shooting, but on the whole though, five victims were killed. The shooter also killed himself, bringing the total of those dead in the shooting to six.
HARRIS: I guess the other bit of really good news is to hear the doctors talking about the response of that small hospital and that small community, and that when the initial calls went out, it was really a situation of all hands on deck.
NGUYEN: And they weren't frantic and they weren't panicked and they had plenty of expertise on hand to deal with such a situation. We do want to give you some more information. In fact, new information that's coming in to CNN dealing with the shooter. We've got new information out of Champaign, Illinois where is he believed to have lived. CNN's Dan Lothian joins us live from Champaign.
Dan, what have you been able to learn about the shooter?
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he lived at an apartment complex which was right off the highway and not far from the University of Illinois campus. I just attended a press conference with the police chief here, R.T. Finney. He told me as far as he knows, that this young man, Steven, was never on his radar, that there was never any problems, nothing like that at all.
What he did tell us, a little bit of new information, is that his police department has been assisting federal authorities and other law enforcement officials, and he pointed out that when officials -- law enforcement officials went to his apartment yesterday to search it - and then to the apartment that we visited earlier today, that they did see the number of items. One of the items he said at least one weapon was taken from that apartment.
So, in addition to those four weapons that we know were used in the crime, also an additional -- at least another weapon was also found inside his apartment. That's information that we just received. We also went over to his sister's house. She lives in Urbana, not far away from the college campus here. She did not want to talk. A family representative said to us that you have to understand what a difficult situation this is right now. And she does not want to talk to you.
NGUYEN: Yeah, that is understandable. At the same time, there are a lot of questions. And we learned today, Dan, from a News Conference there on the school campus that this Steven Cazmierczak was on medication and recently went off of his meds and was acting erratic. As you were at his apartment and talking with folks living near there, did they say anything to back that up?
LOTHIAN: No, not at all. In fact, it was interesting as we were walking around the apartment complex just asking if anyone even knew him. They said that they didn't even know that he lived there, at least the ones we approached. They pretty much found out about it when reporters started descending on that area and asking questions.
So, no. I mean first of all, they didn't know who he was so it was difficult for them to really even figure out if this guy was acting erratically. Certainly though they are all stunned that this person lived just a few steps away from them.
NGUYEN: Yes, it always seems to be that way that it's the quiet ones and everyone is just so shocked when they see something like this occur. But of course we'll learn much more about the shooter in the coming days. Dan Lothian with the latest out of Champaign, Illinois. Thank you, Dan.
HARRIS: All right, let's get you straight to the scene of this rampage. We're talking about Northern Illinois University. CNN's Don Lemon is there.
Don, boy, there was a lot of new information that came out of an on-campus news conference a short time ago.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, absolutely, Tony. I don't know if you remember it, because I know it has been such a busy day for you, you were going to ask me a question at the end of that press conference and we had to get to break, to get to our local affiliates. Do you remember what you wanted to ask me?
HARRIS: Yes. We knew of a couple of -- at least one other incident recently on that campus, referred to racial slurs in a bathroom December 10th.
LEMON: Right.
HARRIS: I believe was the date on that. But you referred to another incident that occurred last week. We just wanted to be real clear about what seemed to be two separate incidents on that campus and if they had anything to do with the events and the rampage.
LEMON: OK, absolutely. And they addressed that during the press conference. So let me tell you about that. There was an incident that you mentioned December 10th during finals last semester. It shut down the university one, maybe two days. It was a big local news story in this area because there was some sort of racist threat or racist message posted in a bathroom here.
So they closed campus just to be safe. One of the precautions obviously that they're taking, one of the measures since Virginia Tech. And then last week -- this is according to CNN affiliate and other published reports -- that there was another threat posted in a bathroom that said, you know, it was going to be -- something imminent was going to happen in February, question mark, '08. Then the word February, the F-E-A-R in that were capitalized.
Police addressed that at the press conference. They said the one that happened last week, not credible. That's why they didn't really talk about it. They interviewed some students and didn't think it was credible. The one in December, obviously they thought it was credible, that's why they closed campus down. So that's what happened with that. But also we had been talking Tony about the shooter -- any other questions before I go on?
HARRIS: Maybe just to get to some of the new information that came out of that news conference particularly from the campus police chief Donald Grady.
LEMON: I want you to listen to this because we've been talking about the medication and then we'll talk about it on the other side.
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. CHIEF DONALD GRADY, NORTHERN UNIV. POLICE: We have talked to people that are close to him, and apparently he had been taking medications. He had stopped taking those medications and he had become somewhat erratic in the last couple of weeks.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What kinds of meds? What kind of medication?
GRADY: I'm not prepared to share that with you. Thank you.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So there you go. They don't want to share that information. What they did share with us, Tony, is that he drove here. He went to the University of Illinois, which is in Champaign. Obviously purchased those guns on February 9th. He drove here, parked legally, and so they know that. They have the car now as evidence. Then he goes to that building and kicks in a door, which is an exit, an emergency exit.
They say he didn't say a word and he just started shooting. And we know -- we thought three guns, my gosh, how many weapons. Now we know he had four guns. Two of them purchased legally, two not legal. So that's the scoop on him. Just so we know, at noon as that press conference was going on at the hospital, his autopsy was just getting under way. I want to show one more thing to you before I let you get away here. Several newspapers here in the area, obviously people sobbing. But I think the "Chicago Sun Times" sums it up right here.
HARRIS: Yes.
LEMON: Why?
HARRIS: Also in that news conference, I guess we should mention the university president John Peters had some wonderful words for that community. He said that he is focused on the NIU family, focused on healing the NIU family right now.
LEMON: And, Tony, yes. And I think we caught the first part of that press conference live on our air. And he could barely get his words out, he was choked up. Obviously this has affected everyone here. It is obvious he cares about this community. By all accounts, on they did everything they could to handle the situation properly.
HARRIS: They are discussing ways now to formally sort of memorialize all the victims and there is a candlelight vigil tonight.
LEMON: Yes you asked me, 9:00 central at the Martin Luther King Commons there's going to be a candlelight vigil and they said they're discussing other ways to memorialize these students as well.
HARRIS: Don Lemon for us. Don, great work for us today. Thanks for helping us tell this story.
LEMON: Thanks, Tony.
NGUYEN: We're of course going to have more on the shooting in Northern Illinois University in just a moment. A lot of other news today to tell you about as well.
Senators Barack Obama and John McCain could soon pick up a key endorsement, at least a couple of them in fact. We're going to get the latest from the presidential campaign. Stay with us.
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HARRIS: You know it always feels a bit unfair, Betty, when we put a camera in the face of, say in this case, the parent of a child who has done something horrible as is the case here.
NGUYEN: And also a parent who's grieving at the same time.
HARRIS: And a parent who's grieving at the same time. But I understand that we've got some reaction from Robert Kazmierczak. He is, obviously, the father of Steven Kazmierczak. And this is from a short time ago from our affiliate in Lakeland, Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT KAZMIERCZAK, FATHER OF STEVEN KAZMIERCZAK: All right. Please leave me alone. I have no statement to make and no comment. OK? I'd appreciate that. It's a very hard time. I'm a diabetic and I don't want to go into a relapse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're sorry sir, for what it's worth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: And there you go. That's it. That's Robert Kazmierczak, the father of Steven Kazmierczak, reacting from his home there in Lakeland, Florida. Saying this is obviously a very difficult time for him, as you can understand.
NGUYEN: Yes, for so many reasons, on so many different levels.
Well, the online community already is flooding the web about the shooting at Northern Illinois University and our Veronica De La Cruz is monitoring the Internet for the latest information.
And the big question is, how are students reacting to this?
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, we've been looking through their MySpace profiles, their FaceBook profiles and I wanted to go ahead and start actually with the university's Web site. And we can find that at NIU.edu. Right now the latest information we're looking at posted at 10:10 local time, Betty.
Basically, they have posted the latest press conference. Under that, more information posted at 9:25 local which reads, the DeKalb County Corner's Office has confirmed a seventh fatality from the shootings that took place on campus yesterday.
You know, heading down that web page at NIU.edu, there are also condolences posted from universities across the country, including Virginia Tech. There they are right there. Also emergency numbers. There is information on vigils, prayer services. Also information on counseling. You know, earlier we heard Mike Brooks (ph) talking about the immense response from the university and taking a look at the web site you can really tell that they've been keeping on top of the situation as the events have unfolded.
NGUYEN: And, you know, Veronica, we're also learning a lot about the victims through their own MySpace and FaceBook profiles. What have you been able to see?
DE LA CRUZ: You know, there's this tribute page that I wanted to show you. It's been dedicated to one of the victims. Her name is Ryanne Mace. Earlier this morning, when the page was first started, there were only two members. And, Betty, I checked it just a few moments ago now there are more than 170. Here are some of the messages that have been posted so far. Melly Corzo writes, "I have no words. She was a sweet soul. I remember history class with her. I'd be so stubborn sometimes but she always found a way to lighten the mood." Another message posted by Amanda Garrett who writes, "I've known Ryanne since middle school. She was a wonderful person with a great heart. It's most unfortunate how these things happen, but she will always be in our hearts."
I also wanted to show you a MySpace page that we found from Julianna Gehant. She was 32-years-old. And her profile, unfortunately, has been set to private, so we haven't been able to read anything posted there. But I wanted to point out, tragically, her last log in date there, February 13, 2008.
I -- finally, I also wanted to share a story from a professor, Joseph Peterson. He was talking about exactly what he saw in the lecture hall as the whole thing went down. He says, "the gunman pulled out a handgun and began shooting at me. I kept running and he kept firing. Eventually I just got out of the auditorium. As for what prompted the gunman to fire, I have no idea. I never saw him before. In all, it was just terrible."
NGUYEN: Yes, we've heard a lot today, Veronica, them saying that the folks who were in that classroom, that the gunman didn't say a word, he just opened fire.
DE LA CRUZ: In the meantime, Betty, we're going to continue to scour the web and we'll keep you posted.
NGUYEN: All right, Veronica De La Cruz joining us live. Thank you for that, Veronica.
And a reminder that you can also see Veronica every morning on "AMERICAN MORNING" from 6:00 to 9:00 Eastern.
HARRIS: And just a couple of things we're going to update you on after the break. First of all, Bobby Cutts Jr. found guilty of aggravated murder in Canton, Ohio. That is a story we're going to update you on in just a couple of moments, and we'll get the latest from the campaign trail. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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NGUYEN: Twelve thirty-seven, Eastern. You are back in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Hello, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen.
HARRIS: And good afternoon to you, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.
Guilty. A former Canton police officer has been convicted of murder in the deaths of his pregnant lover and their unborn child. That means Bobby Cutts Jr. faces a possible death sentence. During the trial, Cutts testified he accidentally killed Jesse Davis and her near full-term fetus last June with an elbow to her throat, then panicked and dumped her body in a park. Prosecutors say Cutts strangled Davis over child support payments.
And a quick look now at presidential politics where right now it's all about delegates and endorsements. Hillary Clinton edges out Barack Obama in New Mexico's caucuses, gaining 14 delegates. But Obama got 12. And he could be on the verge of cherry-picking a couple of Clinton's super delegates, including long-time Clinton supporter Georgia Congressman John Lewis. Lewis, today, denying widespread reports he is thinking about making the switch.
Meantime, the Republicans are closing ranks. Mitt Romney getting behind former rival John McCain and CNN has learned that former President George H. W. Bush will endorse McCain some time next week.
OK. And a quick look now at more of the presidential politics and, again, all about the delegates and endorsements. Did I just -- OK. Democrat Barack Obama now surging and possibly -- let's move forward. This is a script we just read. All right. We just read this. Let's move forward. We just read the -- thank you.
All right. And again, not where we want to be. Let's give you an update on the story that we're following right now here in the CNN NEWSROOM. It is something that is breaking right now. Out of Texas. It's something that we believe we have -- Betty, you got a beeper on this coming in?
NGUYEN: Yes, we have some information . . .
HARRIS: And I apologize for that, everyone.
NGUYEN: Here's what we know so far. And the news is just still coming in. Multiple explosions are being reported at a south Texas gas pipeline. Authorities say some people are injured. We don't know the extent of those injuries. Let's get you the latest now from Officer Juan Martinez with the Hidalgo authorities.
Officer Martinez, if you could, tell us exactly what happened. And do you know why these explosions occurred?
OFFICER JUAN MARTINEZ, HIDALGO COUNTY, TEXAS, FIRE MARSHAL'S OFFICE: At this time, it's still under investigation. We're not sure as to what caused the explosion initially. We do have one reported injury and it does not appear to be life threatening at this time.
What we do have right now is, they have shut the gas line down. So what's happening right now is we are just allowing the residual fuel that's in the lines to burn itself out.
NGUYEN: So these fires could go on for some time?
MARTINEZ: That is correct. It could be burning for a couple of hours.
NGUYEN: But nobody else is in danger or are you having to cordon off the area?
MARTINEZ: The area has been closed off. There are no homes in immediate danger. So at this time we're just standing by here with several fire trucks making sure that it doesn't get out of hand. We're just waiting for it to go ahead and die down. And once that happens, an investigation will be done.
NGUYEN: Got you. So multiple explosions. The gas line has been shut down but the fire will continue for some time. At this point, though, only one injury, correct?
MARTINEZ: That is correct. And the multiple explosions are coming from the same line. We don't have multiple lines that are going up, it's just one line right now that every now and then it will get a gas pocket and that's where the several explosions have come from. But at this point . . .
NGUYEN: Do you know where this gas line goes and if it is going to be impacting any nearby communities?
MARTINEZ: Right now we don't have that information available.
NGUYEN: OK. Just asking because since you're shutting it down, if that's going to have -- cause any problems in other areas. All right. Officer Juan Martinez joining us live with the latest on the pipeline explosions there in south Texas. It's happening near McCook, which is a town near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Again, one injury. The lines have been shut down but the fires continue to burn and we'll continue to monitor that for you right here at CNN. There is much more to come. So you definitely want to stay with us for that.
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HARRIS: Welcome back, everyone, to the CNN NEWSROOM.
A former police officer in Akron, Canton, has been found guilty, convicted of the murders of Jesse Davis and her unborn child -- Bobby Cutts Jr. Avery Friedman is joining us right now. He's a civil rights attorney and a law professor.
Avery, as always, great to talk to you.
AVERY FRIEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY/LAW PROFESSOR: It's nice to be with you, Tony.
HARRIS: Great to see you, my friend. Help us sort of make our way through this jury verdict here. And I think the thing that surprised us initially is that he was found not guilty of the first count of the indictment, but you can explain that to us.
FRIEDMAN: Well, actually, he was found guilty of murder, Tony, but not guilty of aggravated murder. In fact, after the trial, the defense team asked the judge to declare a mistrial based on that -- what appears to be an inconsistency. Well, it isn't, because there were seven counts in this case, Tony. And Bobby Cutts Jr. was found guilty of aggravated murder of the unborn child who would have been baby Chloe. HARRIS: I have to ask you something. And I hope this doesn't become a bone of contention in this trial. We understand there was an all-white jury that actually heard this case. I'm just sort of curious as to how that aspect of this trial played out locally there in Cleveland and Akron and Canton, to the south of Cleveland.
FRIEDMAN: Well, you know, the defense team I, think, correctly so, made that an issue. One of the points they tried to make is that by using voting information, you're going to minimize the likelihood of diversity. They felt that if you use license registration, automobile licenses, you would create broader diversity. Judge Charles Brown, who was a very, very tough in this case, rejected that argument and indeed expect an appeal and expect that to be one of the issues.
HARRIS: OK. And I'll ask you another question in just a moment about the appeal. But as you watch this testimony from Bobby Cutts Jr. on Monday, first of all, were you surprised that he took the witness stand in his own defense?
FRIEDMAN: Let me tell you something, Tony. In 35 years of watching this and doing it, I have never seen this -- any kind of situation where someone charged with murder takes the stand. I think that's part of the reason that America was transfixed on this case because we saw a murder trying to explain away what he did. And, you know what, the jury didn't buy most of it.
HARRIS: And there was all kinds of, as we think back over this case, there was all kinds of consciousness of guilt. And I know that's a fancy attorney phrase, but this is a man who, for nine days, denied any role, any involvement in this at all.
FRIEDMAN: It was stunning. The fact that -- and I'm sure this affected the jury -- they knew -- and actually Bobby knew that Jesse Davis and that baby rotted in an open field with high grass for nine days. The coroner couldn't testify about the actual cause of death of Jesse.
HARRIS: Avery, based on what you've seen, is this a jury verdict that will withstand appeal?
FRIEDMAN: It's going to be tough to overturn it. Bobby has a very good defense team. But you know, we're not done yet, Tony. The jury's going to reconvene on the 25th on the second phase. And it will have to decide whether or not they're going to impose the death penalty or something less. So we've got a while to go before it heads to the court of appeals.
HARRIS: Yes. Avery Friedman for us.
Avery, great to see you, as always. Thanks for your time.
FRIEDMAN: Nice to be with you, Tony.
NGUYEN: Well, you definitely want to check this out. A winter whammy to show you. Look at these pictures. Some 500 drivers stuck on a mountain freeway in southern California after a surprise snowstorm. Mudslides, well they blocked another road nearby. The snow, ice and strong winds made roads just impassable along a 27-mile stretch of Interstate 8. Rescuers went car-to-car taking dozens of stranded people to a fire station and casino for warmth. No major damage or injuries were reported.
So let's get the latest on the weather out there. You know a lot of people, Reynolds, don't think of that kind of snow when you talk about San Diego.
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HARRIS: You know, it's something no one wants to imagine, a regular school day turned into an absolute nightmare.
NGUYEN: Yes, even now, those who lived the nightmare at Northern Illinois University are having trouble coming to grips with it. Our Don Lemon has been at the NIU campus since the wee hours of the morning talking to students who saw what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: I understand you've been up all night.
STEFANIE MILLER, NIU STUDENT: Yes.
LEMON: And how are you wrapping your head around this?
MILLER: There's no way you can wrap your head around it. It's an unbelievable experience. It's something that you never think that would happen to this town. The support is what's gotten most of us through it.
LEMON: Yes. And I know I talked to you earlier this morning and it's tough for you, but can you go back to 3:00 yesterday. You're in the sociology class -- or in the geology class and all of a sudden what happens?
MILLER: Gunman came in behind the curtain and fired from what I believe 20 to 30 shots. People screaming. People running around. From what I've heard, and from what I know, most of the people that were shot, were shot when they were running to get out. It was a scene from a movie. It was something that you thought was staged. It was an unbelievable experience.
LEMON: You didn't believe it at first?
MILLER: No, it was -- from what went on, from what was going on, it was like it was from a movie.
LEMON: And your best friend is gone?
MILLER: Yes. She's gone.
LEMON: What do you want to say about her? MILLER: She didn't deserve it. Nobody did. Nobody. This is something that never should have happened here. It's a quiet community. It's a local college. A lot of your, you know, DeKalb high school local schools around the town come here. It's something that doesn't happen here. Nobody deserved anything.
LEMON: Is there anything you can tell us about your friend? Because you said your best friend died, but there was also someone else, another friend who died.
MILLER: I knew two of the people that are deceased. I knew at least 40 people that were in the class. Just -- I'm in shock right now. I -- I -- I'm at that stage where I've gotten the phone calls. I know what's happened. But I don't want to believe it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Boy, oh, boy. Other students Don spoke with told him they do feel safe on the campus, even now.
NGUYEN: Well, our Brianna Keilar joins us now live from the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg.
What other schools have learned from Virginia Tech really came into play when this shooting occurred, Brianna. And, unfortunately, the folks there on that campus know the feeling all too well.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they sure do, Betty.
And the events that proceeded the shootings here at Virginia Tech on April 16th and how the university dealt with the aftermath of those shootings, that was really under the microscope. The findings were really put out there in the public. So an opportunity for a lot of schools to learn perhaps from mistakes that were made here, just to learn from the experience that this university went through.
Perhaps one of the big things dealt with campus security alerts. Basically the lesson learned there was to use them liberally and to use them quickly. We also spoke today with Larry Hincker. He is with the university relations department here at Virginia Tech. And, obviously, we said to him, you know, you've gone through this before. So what is -- what is this university in Illinois going through? And here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY HINCKER, ASSOC. V.P., VIRGINIA TECH: Well, the first thing is, shock and disbelief. I mean trauma like that, you just don't expect, even in light of the spate of school shootings that we've seen throughout the country and the horrendous tragedy that befell our campus last year. You just don't expect it's going to happen on your campus.
I mean, obviously, they're turned inside out. They've got an awful lot of families and shaken students that they need to deal with. The most important thing I think that that community needs to do right now is to come together as a community. It was this kind of sense of Hokie spirit that got us through and we're hopeful that they can find the same kind of thing, whether it's through a convocation like we had or a mourning together with each other. I think that's the most important thing they need to be thinking about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: In talking with some Virginia Tech students, they were really willing to sort of give some advice for how Northern Illinois University students maybe can handle this situation that they're in. Basically what they said, the biggest help for them was really to band together. We saw convocations here. We saw vigils. They said the helped. But the big thing was just the informal meetings, the getting together with their friends for lunch or hanging out and they said that really helped them get through it -- Betty.
NGUYEN: CNN's Brianna Keilar joining us live. Thank you, Brianna.
And we want to let you know that the CNN NEWSROOM continues right after this short break.
I'm Betty Nguyen.
HARRIS: Betty, thank you. Thank you so much.
I'm Tony Harris.
T.J. Holmes and Fredricka Whitfield continue our coverage.
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