Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Three Dead in Mall Shooting Rampage; Pope Opens Twitter Account

Aired December 12, 2012 - 09:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Hope you're having a good morning. I'm Don Lemon.

The stories we're watching right now in THE NEWSROOM:

U.S. stock futures are up as Team Rubicon rings the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. There they are. Big question is how investors will react to dropping oil prices.

Possible movement to avoid the fiscal cliff, House Republicans meeting right now on Capitol Hill and House Speaker John Boehner expected to speak in about 30 minutes. We're going to bring that to you live when it happens here on CNN.

An Oregon mall is shut down in the middle of holiday shopping by a gunman on a killing spree. Three people are dead, including the gunman, and a fourth person is gravely wounded. The victims and the deceased gunman had not been identified. But police believe the gunman was in his early 20s.

Near Portland, Oregon, police say this shopping mall was bustling with 10,000 people when a mass gunman opened fire. Witnesses say he fired at random, killing two people, leaving a third victim, quote, "fighting for her life."

Shoppers say at least 20 rifle blasts echoed through the mall and sent them running for cover.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TYLOR PEDERSEN, WITNESS: I was inside applying for a job and next thing I know, I see a few people running into Sears and away from the middle of the mall, saying that they heard shots and there's a shooting going on, wasn't sure if it was for real at first until I had seen the reactions on their face that they were serious.

CRAIG ROBERTS, CLACKAMAS COUNTY, OREGON, SHERIFF: The mall is supposed to be a place that we can all take our families, feel comfortable that this is a great place especially at the holiday season like this, and these things aren't supposed to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: They certainly are not supposed to happen.

Let's talk more about this with Christi Welday. She's on the phone. She and her friend had just stopped in the mall for a bite to eat.

So, Christi, good morning to you -- as good of a morning as it can be for you, having witnessed this and been there when it happened.

So, tell us what you were doing with your friend, what you saw.

CHRISTI WELDAY, WITNESS (via telephone): Yes, we just stopped in to have a late lunch and actually we were just finishing up and had just got up from our table when we heard the first shot, which we didn't know what it was. It sounded like something just -- I thought maybe a table or something dropped to the ground.

And then I heard it two more times and I'm looking around for it and it was just a constant bang, bang, bang, bang, and I knew that something was wrong and, my girlfriend just kind of froze up and she started screaming like "Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?" And then I just grabbed her by her coat and told her to get out and we took off running for the book door.

It's been very bothersome. I haven't been able to sleep all night. It plays over and over in your head, you know?

LEMON: Yes. I can only imagine, my next question was how are you doing? And that's partially how you're doing.

We're looking at video now, Christi. There are people walking through the mall with their hands up.

As I understand from what I've been reading about this, the officials who were in the mall were telling people to get out and to run for cover. Why are you holding up your hands? Were you instructed to hold up your hands?

WELDAY: No, I didn't do that. I had already gotten out by the time we heard several shots, we probably heard about 15, 20 shots. I mean, we were already at the back door getting out, and so I don't know anything about putting your hands up.

We were in the parking lot and it was -- the parking lot was even still pretty empty, you know, at that time and -- I mean, the few people that came out were obviously everybody that came out around the cars because I made my friend run all the way to the car because people were shopping right as soon as they got out the doors. And for one, they were blocking the doors for everybody else. And two, if he would have come that way all of the people in that area could have been shot, you know?

So I just -- once we got out of the door, I just kept yelling at her to keep running all the way to the car, I yelled it three times, "Keep going all the way to the car", because she kind of, you know, freaked out.

Once we got to the car I felt a little bit safer but I just wanted to leave the mall and then there were a few, a teenaged boy that was just crying so we just wanted to check on, a few people, there was a family there with a baby in a stroller, and people that were coming into the mall, and that were getting ready to park. And we're just telling people that there's a shooting, you don't want to go in there and stuff like that.

So it was just a lot that happened so fast, and it felt like it took forever for the police to come, which I know it wasn't, they got there fast. But when you're in that moment it felt like forever. I kept hearing sirens but didn't see anybody.

LEMON: Yes. Yes, those minutes or seconds felt like hours sometimes when you're waiting.

WELDAY: Exactly.

LEMON: I can only imagine if you've ever been involved in anything like this. I have a whole lot of questions, Christi. So, just bear with me if you will. I know it's tough to relive this.

Did you ever see the gunman?

WELDAY: Did I see this guy?

LEMON: Yes.

WELDAY: No, I did not see him.

LEMON: You only heard it, right?

WELDAY: Yes.

LEMON: Yes. And your friend, how is your friend doing?

WELDAY: More or less, I stayed there until almost 11:30 last night. She's very shook up. She's not dealing with it as well.

I feel like I'm dealing with it OK but yet I know I'm not, because I obviously couldn't sleep last night and it's playing over and over in my head, but she's -- I think it affected her a lot worse.

LEMON: You said that you were helping people in the parking lot and children, so you didn't leave. You stayed to help. Did a lot of people stay to help?

WELDAY: We only stayed there for a few minutes.

LEMON: Yes, a few minutes. Were people just getting out of there or were there some people staying to make sure that everyone was OK, or were people just like I'm going to get the heck out of here?

WELDAY: You know, like I said I don't know my girlfriend was very concerned at that point about everybody that was in there. So if she wanted to stay, I told her there's nothing we can do and we saw the police started pulling in, I told her it's time to go. We have called home and told our families, our kids that we were OK and they started crying and just told us to get home, get out of there, so then at that point when she heard it from her kids, too, then she was ready to go.

So we were only in the parking lot a few minutes just like I said, the people that came out crying and everything, it just happened really fast and we just asked if everybody was OK.

LEMON: Yes.

WELDAY: And they still hadn't gotten it at that point, so I just wanted to leave the area.

LEMON: So your friend has kids. Do you have kids?

WELDAY: Yes, I have two, two girls, 13 and 16.

LEMON: Yes, it's a holiday season and you're there buying gifts to be with your family and probably for your girls. What do you -- what do you say to people? Life is so fragile.

WELDAY: You have to take it day by day and you know, live, love, laugh. As soon as I saw my kids, I just hugged them, and my husband, so -- you know, life is to short. You have to try to enjoy every moment.

LEMON: Yes. And be kind.

Christi, thank you very much. And please, give our regards to your friend, OK?

WELDAY: All right, thank you.

LEMON: Thank you.

Up next, we're going to talk to the Clackamas County Sheriff. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Back to Oregon now. Police near Portland say they have tentatively identified the man who opened fire on a shopping mall teeming with holiday shoppers -- the man described in his early 20s killed two people and seriously wounded a third.

Joining me is Matt Ellington, the undersheriff for Clackamas County.

Good morning to you. Thank you for joining us. I know you're very busy right now.

So far, you're not releasing his name. Why is that?

MATT ELLINGTON, UNDER-SHERIFF, CLACKAMAS COUNTY, OREGON (via telephone): Well, good morning, and you know, first of all, I'd just like to say that our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the victims of this horrible act, as well as the one surviving victim.

You are correct, we have identified the suspect. But we owe it to the victims to protect the integrity of this investigation. So, at this point, it would be inappropriate for me to release the name of the suspect.

However, I can tell you that about 10:00 a.m. West Coast time, we do plan on releasing the name of the suspect as well as the names of the victims.

LEMON: Ten a.m. West Coast time, 10:00 a.m. Pacific, you're going to release the names, right?

ELLINGTON: Yes.

LEMON: OK. Any idea of a motive?

ELLINGTON: You know, right now at this point in the investigation we do not have an idea on the motive, but what I can tell you is that the information we have at this point leads us to believe that there is no connection between the suspect and the victims.

LEMON: So you believe what you're saying -- and I don't want to put words in your mouth -- you believe it was random.

ELLINGTON: Correct.

LEMON: Random shooting.

ELLINGTON: Random in the sense the suspect did not know the victims.

LEMON: OK.

ELLINGTON: It's clear that his intent was to go to the town center and start firing.

LEMON: Yes.

We see people running with their hands up. Are they being instructed to run out of mall with their hands up for the safety around them and law enforcement?

ELLINGTON: Yes, I think that's probably a common sense thing, too, you know, these citizens, you know, get on their own. You know, this act of shooter training is something that we practice and do all the time. In fact, we've done it earlier this year at that facility, at that mall to prepare for an event like this.

LEMON: OK. Matt Ellington is the undersheriff for Clackamas County in Oregon, where that horrific shooting happened, and he is telling us now that at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Coast Time, they will release the name of the victim -- of the victims and also the name of the shooter. And he's also telling us that he believes that this was random at this point.

Any other information that you can give us now, Mr. Ellington, Sheriff Ellington, about this?

ELLINGTON: Yes. I can tell you we did recover one rifle at the scene, we believe that rifle was the one that the suspect possessed. We had reports I'm sure that you've heard that the suspect was wearing a hockey mask. We did recover a mask similar to that description, and we believe that the suspect died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

LEMON: So you said he was wearing a mask. What else did you say he was wearing?

ELLINGTON: I just confirmed he was wearing a mask and we did recover a rifle that we believe was the one that he used in this crime.

LEMON: All right, I thought you said there was something else that he was wearing during the time, so a mask and a rifle. What kind of rifle?

ELLINGTON: Right now, all I'm releasing is that it was a rifle. We can provide more details a little bit later, about 10:00 a.m.

LEMON: Is that the only weapon he had?

ELLINGTON: That is the only weapon we recovered.

LEMON: And rounds -- do you have any information on that? Was he carrying more and how many went off? Do you know?

ELLINGTON: I can tell you that there were multiple rounds fired. We found multiple shell casings at the scene.

LEMON: Ok. Do you know if this person is known to law enforcement; without releasing his name, you can tell us about him or if he's known to law enforcement?

ELLINGTON: Right now it would be inappropriate to talk about that just so we can maintain the integrity of this investigation but I do anticipate being able to answer that question later this morning.

LEMON: Thank you, under-sheriff. We appreciate it.

ELLINGTON: Thank you so much.

LEMON: Ok. One rifle recovered, wearing a mask, they believe he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time, they're going to release the names of the victims and also the name of the shooter believed to be in his 20s, again they found a rifle, multiple rounds, they said he shot off, and multiple shell casings found on the scene. Make sure you stick with CNN, we'll bring all of it to you live.

Up next a quick check of your "Top Stories".

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Checking "Top Stories" right now on CNN. Police near in Portland, Oregon say they have tentatively identified the gunman who open fire on a shopping mall teeming with holiday shoppers and they have recovered a rifle. The man described only in his early 20s killed two people and seriously wounded a third. Police say he killed himself, as mall shoppers and employees scrambled for cover.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I work at a kiosk right in the middle of the mall right below the food court. We heard about six shots at first and the people scattered like crazy everyone left. We waited around for a second and people at the stores were opening doors for to us get in, they're ushering everybody in there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: A suspect has been arrested in connection with pipe bombs found in Oklahoma City. Police say Kevin Wayne Burke was involved. The pipe bombs found attached to a truck on Monday and another found in a yard yesterday afternoon. Charges are pending in that case.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's six-hour surgery in Cuba was an apparent a success. And he'll spend the next several days recovering. That is according to Venezuelan state-run media. Chavez announced Saturday that his cancer had returned, but he's never said what type of cancer he has.

And a retail group says return fraud costs the industry $9 billion a year. That's when thieves return stolen goods for cash use counterfeit receipts or bring back already used item. The National Retail Federation says the problem affects about 65 percent of surveyed firms.

With the touch of an iPad, the Pope made history today. He sent his first tweet ever. But some people are more interested in his Twitter handle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Art is what can't be proven mathematically, right? It's where science ends. It's the part that makes you feel good but you don't know why. You know the way the object feels in your hands or looks, and you can almost if it's perfectly created, explain it to somebody else afterwards, but in the creation part, you can't.

You can see how the glass is constantly moving. My job is to basically shape it and balance it at the same time. If you do that, you get these wonderful shapes. Glass really rewards risk. A lot of times with glass, you're just waiting for the piece to cool down or for some temperature to adjust. And then there are these split seconds when you've got literally a fraction of a second to make a particular move in a particular way, and you don't get to repeat it if you do it wrong.

So this is a performance to it. It's sort of like dancing. You can't really think about it and do it well, you just have to do it enough that it becomes sort of mechanical and then you can sort of free your mind to -- to the design.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The Pope's first tweet ever has already been re-tweeted 33,000 times. I never thought I would say that, the Pope's tweet. Imagine that. And before he ever tweeted, he had more than 600,000 followers.

Here's the historic tweet, everyone. This is history. "Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart." That was nice.

Joining us now from Denver, John Allen, CNN senior Vatican analyst. John, you know, I never thought that I would be saying the Pope is tweeting right now. Here's what he's saying. We're going to have to read his responses on the air. We don't have to, but I'm sure we will, as we did that one.

Why now? Twitter has been around for years. 12/12/12 had anything to do with it?

JOHN ALLEN, CNN SENIOR VATICAN ANALYST: Don I would say maybe two- thirds of that is right. I mean the 12/12 part -- today is the feast of our Lady of Guadalupe which is a very important devotion to the Virgin Mary, especially in Latin America. I think the Vatican likes that coincidence.

The 12/12/12 thing, I mean an effort to refute the Mayan apocalypse or something like that, not so much. I mean look, the truth of it is, the wheels just grind a little bit more slowly at the Vatican than pretty much every place else on earth. You know what I mean. Their normal model is talk to me on Tuesday and I'll get back to you in 300 years. So by that standard, this is actually rapid response.

They've been wanting to do this for a while. Today was just the day they were ready to launch.

LEMON: Yes. I wonder if we're going to get any insight in his personality. Like if he's going to go, you know, have a great Easter, hash tag; you know. I don't know.

ALLEN: Listen Don, if you're thinking he's going to be walking around the apostolic palace with an iPad, you know thumbing out, "Hey, had a great birthday bash last night, wish you were here, that's not the kind of thing I think you're going to be getting from Benedict XVI.

What I think you will be getting is some insight into his teaching and kind of his thinking on the major issues facing the world. I think the Vatican's calculation is that quite often people's impressions of the Pope are not based on anything he's said but on what other people have said about him. And this is their effort to sort of help him break through that filter and speak directly to people all around the world.

LEMON: It also shows you the power of Twitter and helping to form a message and getting the word out. We're joking about it, but obviously it's something that the Vatican and the Pope are taking extremely seriously about I don't know, helping the Pope's reputation, maybe making him and Catholicism or the Roman Catholic Church more acceptable and more in the mainstream now?

ALLEN: Yes. You know, look -- I mean Benedict XVI highest priority for the Catholic Church is what he's referred to as the new evangelization. And basically Don, and that means trying to re- lighting the missionary fires of the church and particularly trying to reach out to people who have become alienated from it. Just maybe who were baptized as Catholics but aren't practicing it anymore.

And so I think you have to see, this sort of Twitter debut as one piece of that bigger picture. Now, you know, If you look just at the numbers, in terms of the number of followers the Pope has accumulated quickly, that would be an encouraging sign for the Vatican, although we probably should note that he's still about 5 million followers behind the Dalai Llama. So he's still got some go-around to cover. How well that's going to translate into people coming back to church, that remains to be seen.

LEMON: We don't know. John Allen, thank you very much. This is more in the mainstream, more moderate, more modern now. Thank you, John Allen.

The next hour of the Newsroom begins after a short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)