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Jane Velez-Mitchell

Navy Yard Terror Caught on Tape

Aired September 25, 2013 - 19:00   ET

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


JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HOST: Tonight, breaking news. The FBI releases shocking, chilling surveillance video of Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis`s bloody rampage. Could this cold-blooded killer have been stopped before he killed a dozen people? We`re going to analyze this videotape tonight and debate it.

Good evening, I`m Jane Velez-Mitchell, coming to you live. Thanks so much for joining me.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELINDA DOWNS, FRIEND OF AARON ALEXIS: And it`s like Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde. Who was this guy?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We heard three more shots and really people running then.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First it sounded like a grenade. Then we hear the pow pow pow; we hear the gun firings.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was so intent on shooting her...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was no mental illness in him.

VALERIE PARLAVE, FBI WASHINGTON FIELD OFFICE: There are indicators that Alexis was prepared to die during the attack.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is nothing routine about this tragedy, nothing routine about your loss.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is no answers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: The terrifying new video shows 34-year-old Aaron Alexis, the lone shooter who gunned down 12 innocent people before being killed himself, entering the building and just roaming the hallways with this huge gun. It`s really something to see this, and we`re going study it tonight.

The FBI also released photos of the murder weapon itself, a sawed-off shotgun with purple tape wrapped around it. This calculated killer etched four different and very disturbing messages on his gun. We`ll also analyze what the heck those etchings mean.

Now, just a couple of hours ago the FBI said Alexis was a delusional murderer, ready to die during that attack and that his victims were chosen randomly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PARLAVE: There are indicators that Alexis was prepared to die during the attack. Alexis held a delusional belief that he was being controlled or influenced by extremely low frequency -- or E-L-F -- electromagnetic waves.

There is no evidence or information at this point that, in any case, he targeted anyone he worked for or worked with. We do not see anyone of that as triggering his attacks and we believe his victims were random.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Wow. That`s really crazy. ELF, magnetic waves. Call me: 1-877-JVM-SAYS, 1-877-586-7297.

Tonight we have a fantastic panel in the Lion`s Den ready to debate, including Mo Ivory, radio personality, and behavior expert Simone Bienne. So let`s start out with Mo Ivory, CBS radio personality.

I mean, I take a look at this video, Mo, and I sense that there`s a big problem here. Was this a missed opportunity to say, "Look at that guy on the surveillance video. He`s walking down the hall with a gun. Let`s stop him. Let`s isolate him. Let`s seal him off before he unleashes any carnage"? That did not happen, Mo.

MO IVORY, CBS RADIO PERSONALITY: Jane, I don`t understand it. Who`s watching the cameras -- no, who`s watching the TV sets that are monitoring these cameras? Because there were many times when he was very still. He was moving about very calculated and very -- you know, they say he`s crazy, but he doesn`t really look that crazy in the video.

I was really shocked when I saw it that that this wasn`t able to be, you know, stopped earlier than all -- all the people having to die. Because it seems to me that he was in plain view of whoever was monitoring the security cameras from the very beginning.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jon Leiberman.

JON LEIBERMAN, HLN CONTRIBUTOR: First of all -- I mean, first of all, killers don`t always look crazy. Second of all, of course he should have been recognized by the security there much sooner.

But what compounded the problem was, first of all, there are a lot of nooks and crannies in this building. Second of all, he remained -- he continued to arm himself as he went. So after he massacred some strangers, frankly, on the fourth floor, he comes down to the first floor, according to the FBI, and he shoots a security guard and takes his handgun, essentially reloading his arsenal. And then he floats between the third and fourth floor again. And it became a law-enforcement nightmare. This unfolded over an hour.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: What`s the point of having security cameras if you can`t stop somebody bad that you see walking around with a gun? I mean, listen...

LEIBERMAN: Well, frankly, one thing they`re looking into, Jane...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I go into office buildings all the time, and they can seal you off. They can seal you off.

LEIBERMAN: Agreed.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And if you are in the wrong place you can`t get out; you can`t get in. Why couldn`t they have a system where they could seal this guy off once they spotted him?

LEIBERMAN: Agreed. And one thing they`re looking into is did budget cuts play a role in the fact that these monitors weren`t manned appropriately? And why was this man able to conduct a mass killing over the better part of an hour?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I mean, I want to show you -- OK. You got him going in here. OK. He has no problems going in there. Take a look. There he is with the bag. He`s walking in with a big duffel bag that looks like it could be, you know, packed with God only knows what. It turns out it was packed with a gun.

I mean, C.W. Jensen, retired police captain, we can`t get into -- through airport security without going through something. If you go to a nightclub, if you go to a rock concert, they will check your bags. And yet this guy is walking into a naval base, a top security naval base with this bag filled with a gun, and there`s no checking mechanism? That`s crazy -- C.W.

C.W. JENSEN, RETIRED POLICE CAPTAIN: Jane, you`re so right. And so often with these cameras and things, what we have, like at the airport, is the illusion of security. We don`t really have security.

And the thing that disturbs me the most is this is a military installation. You have military people that are unarmed. And surveillance is great; 911 calls are great. But one guy, one gal with a gun could have stopped this.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Now, let me say that this is all on top of what the Navy should have known that morning but apparently didn`t hear what cops told them.

Alexis had a legitimate pass, like I have a pass, a legitimate pass to get into the D.C. Navy Yard and Building 197, and that`s where he unleashed all this carnage, now this despite a mental breakdown a month earlier.

Get this: On August 7, Rhode Island police say they warned the Newport, Rhode Island, naval base about this guy. Cops warned them. Alexis had told cops that somebody had sent three people to harass him, that he heard voices speaking to him through the walls and the ceilings of his hotel room, and that they were using a microwave machine to send vibrations through the ceiling. He kept changing hotels. He said the voices followed him.

And one friend said this guy was like Jekyll and Hyde.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOWNS: And it`s like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Who was this guy? I can honestly tell you Aaron was not hearing voices. There was no mental illness in him, other than if you want to say that the posttraumatic stress disorder was mental.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Straight out to the Lion`s Den. Simone Bienne, behavior expert, you`re seeing a whole series of problems here. You`re seeing that a month earlier cops told the Navy this guy is crazy, he`s hallucinating. Then he still keeps his pass. He goes in there with a bag, and then he whips out a gun. And it`s all caught on videotape, and they can`t isolate him. That`s a compound problem.

SIMONE BIENNE, BEHAVIOR EXPERT: It is. And I think it was interesting when we were talking about budget cuts earlier. Jane, I don`t think you can replace a human eye. Yes, you`ve got computer surveillance. But if there aren`t people manning it, when you look at that video, you can see how totally chilling it is and the irony as we are saying of this is at a naval base where these men are all trained to protect, to kill, to look after the American public, and yet they can`t look after each other. It`s absolutely tragic.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But Jon Leiberman, you`re suggesting that there`s nothing wrong with this and the Navy did nothing wrong?

LEIBERMAN: No, I`m not suggesting that at all. I mean, obviously, it should have been passed up through the ranks. First of all, what happened in Rhode Island when the local cops did a great job there of alerting the Navy as to this, you know, crazed guy who said he was hearing voices, but it never got passed to the appropriate people in the Navy. That`s No. 1.

No. 2, of course, security should be better there. What I was suggesting, however, is it`s clear that the security cameras weren`t manned, and this man was able to, for one hour, commit this crime.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I bet you they were manned. I mean, Mo Ivory, we`ve all seen the movies where people sneak past the security by distracting those who are low-level, low-paid people who are hired to look at security cameras. And they have a whole panel of cameras, but they`re sitting there, you know, chewing the fat and missing what`s going on. And that`s probably what happened here. I certainly doubt that there are security cameras and there`s no monitors to look at the security cameras.

IVORY: Sure. It defies our sense of security to think that, at a top security base like this, that even there were people that could see what was going on and didn`t know what to do or didn`t react to it or didn`t jump in to do something.

Maybe there were people watching it on the television, and maybe they tried to get away, as well, so they wouldn`t become a victim. We don`t know.

But what we do know is that a long amount of time went by before there was intervention to bring him down. And that is a huge problem. That is a huge problem at a place that is supposed to be one of the safest places that you would go to work at.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let`s go to the phone lines. Elizabeth, New -- Missouri, your question or thought. Elizabeth, Missouri.

CALLER: Yes?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Your question or thought, Elizabeth.

CALLER: Yes. I just wanted to say that -- prayers to the families.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, we all say that. Twelve innocent people died, and that`s why we`re discussing it. And that`s why we`re being tough here and asking the hard questions.

You see that spot shadow. You see people running for their lives down the hall as this guy goes hunting in a building where people are serving our country.

We have to look at this. This has to be improved.

The secretary of the Navy said that he was launching an investigation into security. Well, guess what? Check people`s bags when they`re going in. How about that for starters?

Stay right there. We`ll be right back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last month Aaron Alexis told Newport, Rhode Island, police that someone he`d gotten into an argument with sent three people to follow him and keep him awake by talking to him and sending vibrations into his body. That`s from the police report, which relays Alexis saying people were talking to him through a wall. And when he went to another hotel, he heard the same voices talking to him through the walls, floor and ceiling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOWNS: It`s like Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde. Who was this guy? You go from denial to reality to fear to blame.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Aaron Alexis was losing his mind. He was increasingly obsessed with the idea that unknown people were trying to control his mind through something called extreme low frequency, E-L-F, Elf.

Apparently, he wasn`t alone in this wild conspiracy. Listen to the FBI talking about the fact that this conspiracy is all over the Internet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PARLAVE: The E-L-F technology was a legitimate program for naval sub- tonal submarine communications. However, conspiracy theories exist which misinterpret its application as a weaponization of remote and neural frequencies for government monitoring and manipulation of unsuspecting citizens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And this is right in line with the etching on this madman`s gun. He etched, "My E-L-F weapon" on the gun he used to kill 12 people, referring to extreme low frequency.

He also etched, "End the torment." End to the torment.

So, Simone Bienne, does this mean that he was being so tormented by these hallucinations of the extreme low frequency waves that he thought were pervading his mind, going through the walls, that he wanted to sort of have death by cop but take down 12 people in the process?

BIENNE: I mean, it`s so sick and tragic. But what you do know is, if somebody is delusional and paranoid, then they will want to escape from their own mind.

And here is somebody who clearly didn`t know the difference between reality and, obviously, what wasn`t real. So we could look at posttraumatic stress disorder. That`s been bandied about a lot. And of course, posttraumatic stress disorder can lead to this kind of paranoia.

But also, here is a guy who is addicted to video games. And, OK. The research is still shady with regards to -- of course, it doesn`t make somebody go out and kill, but it does lead to aggression. And the kinds of video games that he`s playing, there`s a very interactive element.

And when I see the video that you`ve been showing, Jane, what we`re looking at is somebody who is starring in his own video game.

LEIBERMAN: Yes, but most people -- I mean, let`s be frank. Most people that play video games, most people that play video games don`t go out, buy a shotgun, then go to the Home Depot buy a saw so that they can alter the shotgun to make it a sawed-off shotgun and commit a massacre. I don`t buy into the fact -- Jane...

(CROSSTALK)

DANNY CEVALLOS, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Video games are nothing more -- video games are nothing more...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Go -- go ahead, Sierra Elizabeth.

SIERRA ELIZABETH, ATTORNEY: With all due respect, I`m so tired of the video game argument. Let`s get rid of it. We need to focus on the real issue here. We need to build more mental-health facilities. We need to have people specialize in mental-health issues.

We have this guy who went to a V.A. hospital and was -- was talking to doctors and didn`t have to see a mental-health professional? Why is that the case?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. We don`t need to build more hospitals. We`ve got to get smarter doctors who will actually recognize when somebody is completely out of their mind.

ELIZABETH: That`s right.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And hallucinating and do something about it, Danny Cevallos.

CEVALLOS: And do what? Let`s -- do what? When you start with video games, I mean, I have to jump on and say that video games at best are speech about violence. And we`ve been reading about violence since the days of Hansel and Gretel.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Let`s show some video games as we talk about this. We`ve got some video games. Show it. Show it while we talk.

Go ahead, Danny.

CEVALLOS: OK, yes. The Supreme Court has said that video games are at best speech about violence. We`ve been exposed to speech about violence since the days of the Romans and the Greeks. We focus on that, and then we focus on throwing out the baby with the bath water.

In essence, what are video games dangerous for? They`re dangerous, not because people are likely to go out and shoot people. They`re dangerous because you may never move out of your mom`s basement. But they`re not -- it`s the very rare individual that takes a video game and goes on a mass shooting.

And all you have to do is look at the numbers. And I`m not minimizing it. But statistically, mass shootings occur much less frequently than other forms of violence and other forms of shooting.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You know, I`m looking at the video.

IVORY: And it`s also -- Yes, but it`s also about intervention. It`s also about when you see somebody around you that is showing signs of instability and showing signs...

CEVALLOS: Yes. Do what, report them?

IVORY: Report them.

CEVALLOS: Report everybody. That`s who they`re going to report. They`re going to report people playing video games.

IVORY: No.

CEVALLOS: Wait, I want to clear. I want to be clear. Are we going to report people playing video games.

IVORY: No, we`re not talking -- no. I`m saying -- Let me be clear. I did not say report people playing video games.

CEVALLOS: I think you did.

IVORY: I said report -- No, I said report when we see people having aggression that is out of the ordinary. This man was showing signs of...

CEVALLOS: That`s on Sunday during the NFL. People always have aggression out of the ordinary. You`re going to have to be more thorough unless you`re going to report on everybody.

IVORY: You`re making -- no. You`re making that a very simplistic argument.

CEVALLOS: You said aggression out of the ordinary.

IVORY: No.

CEVALLOS: Tell us what that is.

IVORY: This behavior is not simplistic or out of the -- We`re not talking about a football game. We`re talking about a guy who would say...

(CROSSTALK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: ... how out of the ordinary it was. He shot...

IVORY: People.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: He shot tires out of...

IVORY: ... a car, exactly.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: ... construction workers in Seattle several years ago.

IVORY: Exactly.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Because he thought they were disrespecting him. He shot through either the ceiling or the floor of his apartment building.

IVORY: Exactly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: He had an arrest record. Then he has these hallucinations a month before. He goes to a V.A. hospital, tries to get help. I mean, the guy is screaming. He`s got red flags left, right and center. And this massive military bureaucracy fails to comprehend the red flags.

Remember, it was General Eisenhower, a conservative, who warned of the military industrial complex and the massive military bureaucracy that will feed on itself and grow exponentially.

We have to look at these bureaucracies, and we have to say when they`re spending -- we`ve all heard like the $5,000 toilet bowl cover. How about spending money on security for the brave men and women who are protecting our country and doing these jobs? And they should not have to face something like this.

Stay right there. We`ll be right back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He didn`t come out of his room much. Like I said, he played a lot of them online games where they were shooting all the time. And we would joke with him about that sometimes, because they were like, you know, his computer screen was like a lifeline. It was big. It was like wow -- it`s like, he`s shooting people a lot, you know. We would joke about that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PARLAVE: As part of our investigation we have interviewed coworkers and managers involved in a project that Alexis was working on. We have learned that there was a routine performance-related issue addressed with Alexis on the Friday before the shooting. But there is no indication that this caused any sort of reaction from him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, now we`re getting new information -- if you listen to what that FBI official said, there was an incident, a workplace- related incident. OK? Performance-related.

So we know that he was already disgruntled, because he felt that he hadn`t been paid by some subcontractor that he was working for, and now we know that there was some kind of performance-related issue on the Friday before this.

So the day -- the last work day before this -- this happened, I believe, on a Monday.

There has to be, Mo Ivory, there has to be a system in place when you`re dealing with a military installation where, if people have an issue at work where they`re disgruntled, something happens. Something happens where they can`t come back and shoot everybody, because workplace related violence is the -- it happens so frequently. We can almost predict it.

IVORY: Sure. And what`s so hard about it is -- is to know -- to figure out if everybody that was coming in contact with him knew all of the information about him. Or did just one person know one set of circumstances, another person know this happened? That they could have put the totality of his situation into perspective.

I got to believe that that had to be the case, because why else would they let him continue to have -- look, he has two badges on in this video. He had access to a lot of places there. I just think it had to have been a breakdown in people understanding the brevity of his situation. At least that`s what I want to believe happened.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: If they can create a computer program that can figure out on my computer what I want to buy when I wake up in the morning and open my laptop, they can, Sierra Elizabeth, come up with a program that would, in essence, predict when somebody is disgruntled, and they`ve got -- they`re complaining about not being paid, almost like a logarithm that would show whether somebody -- I don`t want to get to pre-crime from that movie, but we almost have to get to pre-crime.

ELIZABETH: Absolutely. I mean, in this situation especially, we have a serviceman. And for our servicemen and women we absolutely need to have a system in place where they know that they have to go check in with a mental-health professional and they have to do certain things in order to integrate back into society so that we don`t have these problems again.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We`ve got some breaking news just in. I`ve got to tell you this. Hold on a second. Breaking news. Danny Cevallos, people in the Department of Defense are reportedly steamed that the FBI put the video out. And we`ll show you that video again of the surveillance video of the killer with the gun going down the halls inside the naval facility, this video.

What do you make of the fact that the Department of Defense is very upset about that?

CEVALLOS: Well, it may have within done without authorization. These are two agencies working together and when one steps on the other you better believe they get pretty ticked off about it.

But we talked about -- I hear all this talk about this -- we have to look out for disgruntled employees? I mean, who among us is actually gruntled at their job? I mean, who among us is thrilled? And that`s the problem. We`re going to start -- we`re going to start...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But we`re not talking for the Navy.

CEVALLOS: Look, when we talk about trying to prevent things like this, you can never fully prevent tragedy. You can never wipe out all the monsters.

IVORY: You keep minimizing -- you keep minimizing it.

(CROSSTALK)

CEVALLOS: Quiet, everyone. Now the -- quiet.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Hold on. Simone Bienne. If you say "quiet" Danny, it better be good.

CEVALLOS: It is.

BIENNE: I`ve taken so many calls from vets who talk about the trauma that they`ve been through who feel like killing their wives and these are loving husbands. They need the proper support.

And if you walk around in whatever city you`re in, who are the homeless people? Most of them are veterans. We need to support them. If they are protecting America, we need to protect them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I agree with you 100 percent.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sure.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I mean, there were many, many, many, many, many breakdowns here.

IVORY: Right. Right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. Breaking news, a 16-year-old suspected of brutally killing his mother and younger brother. Police have been tracking him for days now. We`ve got some breaking news on that front. Stay right there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don`t find him innocent and I don`t find him guilty at the same time. I`m not worried about that. I just want him back to where I can figure out what happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well the hunt is on for this kid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There isn`t a clear reason why things spiraled out of control behind these walls.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He went from being someone who was missing to someone who was considered a suspect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stabbed and left in the bathtub.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Accused of killing his mother and brother right after his 16th birthday party.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Officers discovered their bodies in their apartment during a welfare check.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can`t disown him for something that we don`t know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the bathroom of the apartment with a large knife in the center of her chest.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was shy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He killed his mother and brother on Tuesday and kept living at the apartment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He`s been on the run for a week. And cops need your help in tracking him down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Court documents show Adrian had a temper.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HLN HOST: Breaking news tonight -- a 16-year-old boy accused in the grisly murders of his family just been arrested. This is breaking news. Adrian Navarro Canales on the run for a week after allegedly stabbing his mother and his kid brother -- just nine years old -- stabbing them to death inside their suburban Las Vegas apartment.

Now this young man charged as an adult with two counts of murder. The killings happened a day after the suspect`s 16th birthday party. The details of the killing right out of a horror flick. Police say both victims were found in the bathroom. 40-year-old Elvira Canales-Gomez had multiple stab wounds mostly to her head and torso. There was a large knife sticking right out of her chest. The body of her littlest boy, nine-year- old Cesar, found in the bathtub -- he`d been stabbed once in the chest.

Police were called to check on the family when the mother -- the woman who was stabbed in the chest -- she failed to show up for work as a chef at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas. Police initially thought the older brother, Adrian, may have been abducted by the killer or perhaps fled after being traumatized by witnessing the murders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEITH PAUL, HENDERSON POLICE DEPARTMENT: Detectives initially thought that the 16-year-old could be a victim of some sort. During the course of the investigation he went from being someone who was missing to someone who was considered a suspect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Was a 16-year-old boy a ticking time bomb? Court documents say he had a history of being violent, volatile and defiant. Family members told cops he would punch and push his mother when she confronted him. What caused him to snap?

Straight out to Doug Johnson, reporter for KVVU -- he`s live in Las Vegas. You have new information. Doug, what do you know?

DOUG JOHNSON, REPORTER, KVVU LAS VEGAS: Well at this point in time Henderson police are actually telling us they believe that the boy had been hiding in plain view on the Las Vegas strip this whole time. And like you said, Navarro is now facing two counts of murder after police say he stabbed his nine-year-old brother, Cesar; and his mother Elvira, to death a week ago on Tuesday.

Police discovered their bodies on Friday and since that time they have been searching for Navarro. Just last night we discovered that an employee at the Dairy Queen inside the Showcase Food Court -- that`s on the Las Vegas strip that`s right north of the MGM Grand Casino -- the employee at the Dairy Queen tipped off detectives that they had seen Navarro there.

And we just spoke with employees there. They tell us that they`d seen him since about Saturday. He`s just been coming in, hadn`t been eating anything, just been hanging out in that food court and that`s where detectives from Henderson actually took him into custody this morning.

And again police say that he`s likely been hiding on the strip this entire time just in plain view.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: What a horror story. And this young man, 16 years old -- just turned 16. He had had a party thrown for him by his mother the night before but that he had a pattern of violent behavior. He was isolated. He had no friends and he was desperate to go back home to his native Mexico.

So what exactly could have made him snap? Relatives -- they don`t know what to believe at this point. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANA MARTINEZ, SUSPECT`S COUSIN: I don`t find him innocent and I don`t find him guilty at the same time. I`m not worried about that. I just want him back to where I can figure out what happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Straight out to "The Lion`s Den". Simone Bienne, I got to ask you, you`re a behavior expert. What could have pushed this boy over the edge? I find it fascinating that he had had a birthday party the day before thrown by his family which as a 16-year-old I might have found very humiliating if I had no friends to bring to the party, just my family.

SIMONE BIENNE, BEHAVIOR EXPERT: Yes, a characteristic of teens who kill their parents, one of them, Jane, you hit it right on the head is isolation from their peers. But there`s also obviously mental illness, there is antisocial behavior which you`ve spoken about but also -- and I`m not suggesting this is happening in his family -- but many, many teens who kill their parents, there is some kind of abuse happening to them.

And, I mean, how smart is this kid in the sense that, I mean he`s clearly going through some kind of trauma. What is also common is amnesia of doing it. So we know that he texted his stepfather. But the fact that he right now is on potentially this strip. So he hasn`t gone that far.

And if there were some kind of violence happening to him where he`s learned this kind of behavior, then what we do know is that potentially he might not have been able to think that he could run away before.

MO IVORY, ATTORNEY: Yes, but Jane --

JON LEIBERMAN, HLN CONTRIBUTOR: Now this is --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Go ahead -- go ahead, Jon.

(CROSSTALK)

IVORY: Jane, he was very -- we know in the past that he was violent towards his mother. And we know that he hit her in the past. And again, we`re back to the same situation of not doing something about it, not removing him from the home. Look at how much bigger he was than his mother. She was tiny. She was petite.

If he was throwing her around, if he was abusing her, even if there was another abuse situation going on, that would call for some intervention, for some separation, for him to be removed from the house before he had an opportunity to do something like this. Never mind the fact that he wasn`t even in school. He hadn`t been in school for months.

LEIBERMAN: But somebody has to say something for that to happen and right now it doesn`t look like anybody in the family or the extended family ever had contact with law enforcement, ever had contact with anybody, Child Protective Services, anybody to raise a red flag. So you can`t just go yanking kids out.

But Jane, this wasn`t just a murder. I mean -- I read all of the documents. This was a slaughter. I mean what he did allegedly to this mother and to his little brother was a slaughter and frankly, he didn`t set up his life on the run at all.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: It`s a rage killing.

LEIBERMAN: That`s why they thought he could have been victim because all of his belongings, there, all of his documents and he --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: He stayed in the house. They think he stayed in the house --

IVORY: Right.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: -- and that he left and he came back after the authorities had made it a crime scene. And then when they left he came back. This is what I see. He was alienated --

BIENNE: That`s quite common.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: -- he didn`t feel he was a part of whatever was going on. He couldn`t make friends. He desperately wanted to go back to Mexico. His parents were estranged. That`s another aspect of this.

His mother had a boyfriend. His father lived hundreds of miles away in northern California. Listen to his devastated father just days ago pleading for his son to come home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADRIAN NAVARRO SOTO-MAYOR, FATHER OF ADRIAN NAVARRO-CANALES (through translator): Adrian, please call us. We are looking for you. Don`t be afraid. I don`t have any information about you. Call whoever you can -- me, your aunts, find a way to call us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Sierra Elizabeth, he was anti-social. He didn`t have any friends. He secluded himself inside his room and what was he doing in there? Playing video games ad nauseum.

IVORY: Let`s not put it on the video games, Jane.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I`m sorry. This is the second story we`re covering where video games --

IVORY: Jane why wasn`t he in school.

SIERRA ELIZABETH, ATTORNEY: Our parents have to be active -- our parents have to be active in our children`s lives.

IVORY: Right.

ELIZABETH: Was he in extracurricular activities?

IVORY: He wasn`t in school.

(CROSSTALK)

LEIBERMAN: He didn`t even show up for school for the past year.

ELIZABETH: Well, there are other activities other than being in school.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: There is conflicting reports on that. We just got a report in that he was enrolled, he just didn`t go. So I say where were the truant officers?

IVORY: Right.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Ok. Where were the truant officers saying why aren`t you in school? Because in Nevada you have to go to school until you`re 17, you cannot drop out. And he was enrolled and he just didn`t go.

So everybody dropped the ball and now this kid being charged as an adult will probably spend, if convicted -- we don`t want to convict him here on the show -- but he could very well spend the rest of his life behind bars.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: On the other side we`re going to switch gears but we`re still talking about young people.

Miley Cyrus of all people, she says she needs to become a mentor to a certain star -- you will not believe who. Stay right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Miley Cyrus.

BILLY RAY CYRUS, FATHER OF MILEY CYRUS: Oh her. She`s just Miley. He`s an artist, she`s real.

MILEY CYRUS, SINGER: Once I got my (inaudible) I just knew that`s something I wanted to do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She calls the criticism over her performance at the VMAs a double standard.

B. CYRUS: She`s the real deal. She`s got some great music ahead of her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The singer goes topples for several of the photos.

B. CYRUS: It gets even stranger when that little girl become a young lady.

M. CYRUS: You might as well as make them talk for like two weeks.

B. CYRUS: That`s still my Miley.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tonight former Disney star Miley Cyrus finally talking back and she`s taking it all off again in her first "Rolling Stone" cover. The provocative singer goes topless and sticks her tongue out yet again, this time at the people who criticized her VMA performance and she calls that a double standard.

Miley reveals a big secret. She mentors heartthrob Justin Bieber. Yes, Miley dishes a whole dose of irony warning Bieber not to become a joke and to keep his shirt on. Are you kidding me? Is she the best role model? I mean should she follow her own advice.

I will say this. Miley knows how to keep people talking. The controversial singer went after critics who say she got way too handsy with Robin Thicke at the VMAs. Miley said Robin Thicke didn`t get any backlash, not like she got. Nobody`s talking about him driving on a 20-year-old girl. If that performance wasn`t racy enough check out Miley twerking yet again in her latest music video "23".

(MUSIC)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Looking like a model except stop sticking your tongue out. Seriously, that is a problem.

Ken Baker, senior news correspondent, E! News, what the heck is going on with this young lady?

KEN BAKER, SENIOR NEWS CORRESPONDENT, E! NEWS: Well, Jane, I know you love that and it just inspires you to go out and dance and put on a basketball jersey and just get your twerk on, right? That`s what she`s trying to do. She`s trying to have fun.

IVORY: I think Michael Jordan would be disgusted with that video. But anyway --

BAKER: I would beg to differ. However, here`s what`s going on. I think to get the insight into Miley Cyrus because I think a lot of people are wondering. What is going on with her. What happened to Hannah Montana.

Well, she said it very recently in an interview. She said when I was a kid -- I`m basically paraphrasing -- when I was a kid I had to act like an adult. So now that I`m an adult, I`m acting like a kid. That was a very insightful and introspective statement. She`s basically acknowledging the fact that she has all this pent-up energy of having to have been perfect to be Hannah Montana, to be a Disney child star.

And now she has a chance to be independent, out on her own and she`s expressing herself. She`s obviously getting a lot of attention for it. And if you look at -- she`s breaking records on YouTube and Vevo for views of her "Wrecking Ball", of "We Can`t Stop". Her songs have been, since the VMAs debacle with Robin Thicke had been in the top five or top ten of all downloads on iTunes. So this is commercially working.

Now tastefully a lot of people would beg to differ. But from a commercial perspective this is absolutely working for Miley Cyrus.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I absolutely agree with you. I think she`s smarter than all of us combined. She`s been heavily criticized for this half naked twerking awards show performance but publicity has changed. And when celebrities engage in inappropriate they get massive coverage. The more inappropriate, the more massive.

Listen to Miley in her upcoming MTV documentary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

M. CYRUS: You`re always going to make people talk. You might as well make them talk for like two weeks rather than two seconds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: All right. Now adding to the public scrutiny she`s just called off her engagement to actor Liam Hemsworth who supposedly wasn`t thrilled about her VMA performance. Sierra Elizabeth, is this young lady having the last laugh because we`re talking about her right now and that means ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching for Miley Cyrus?

ELIZABETH: Absolutely. I love Miley, I think she`s fabulous. She wants to be a bad girl, let her be a bad girl. The only problem I had with the VMA performance was that it looked like it wasn`t choreographed. That`s the problem. But other than that she is cashing it to the bank. And I love it.

IVORY: No, listen --

ELIZABETH: Now the mentorship she needs to leave that alone. Don`t try to mentor other people. Just stay in your own lane.

(CROSSTALK)

BIENNE: Let`s talk about the mentoring with --

(CROSSTALK)

BIENNE: She`s talking about mentoring Justin Bieber. Ok, yes, he`s taking (inaudible) but what is she going to recommend he does? That he takes off his pants and wear like glitter thong and they jump on the bull together and sing the thong song? I`m getting excited about this.

I think, Jane, you are absolutely right. She is the woman that is making us talk about her and picking on Justin Bieber she`s pulling in all of those fans and saying I`m going to get even more attention.

(CROSSTALK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: We`re going to continue this debate on the other side but the thing that I found just so viscerally not good was the tongue thing stuck out. That I didn`t like. Everything else I could kind of get my head around.

Stay right there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

B. CYRUS: Miley is a very, very smart lady. She`s an artist, she`s real. I think that what`s happened over the years, Miley has been reinventing her sound. He`s evolving as an artist herself. I think that it`s -- all of what everyone is calling controversy now -- still, that`s still my Miley.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Time for the Pet of the Day. Send your pet pics to hlntv.com/jane.

Noopy -- Noopy, you are just snoopy. And Mack, you are crackerjack. Giselle, so elegant and going incognito, I see. And let`s see what we`ve got here. Begley, you are a beautiful pit. Pits are beautiful. They`re wonderful.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give us some space guys. You`ve got to respect that.

(EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re in our way.

(EXPLETIVE DELETED)

JUSTIN BIEBER, SINGER: What did you say?

(EXPLETIVE DELETED)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Oh, yes. Courtesy of YouTube -- the terrible 19s. Justin Bieber just reportedly involved in a brawl inside a London nightclub. TMZ posted a video of Justin carelessly peeing in a janitor`s mop bucket. There`s reports of him allegedly -- I don`t know, I wasn`t there -- smoking pot. And he always seems to get pulled over.

So Ken Baker, E! senior news correspondent, could Miley be a good mentor and how would she mentor him?

BAKER: Well, here`s the important thing. She`s just one year older than him. So if she is indeed mentoring him, you have to understand it`s more from a peer to peer level. But she has a lot of experience and frankly a lot of credibility in the whole area of how do you deal with immense fame, the pressure, the media -- she`s been through a lot. So she does have a -- she speaks truth. She knows that --

IVORY: Give me a break.

BAKER: Something important, Jane --

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Who said "Give me a break"?

IVORY: I said it -- Mo did. Give me a break, Jane. First of all Justin Bieber has been famous for a lot of years now. It is not like he`s just coming into the business for the first time and trying to figure himself out. He`s been famous for quite a bit of time. But if Miley Cyrus is what a mentor looks like, then I`m very concerned about mentorship programs.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I will say they`re hair seems very similar in style lately. And I think that`s a clue that maybe they`re hanging out. Maybe they were separated at birth. Stay right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Miley and the Biebs appear to be going to the same hairstylist. She says she`s mentoring him. I don`t know, maybe they should form a group together. Have some fun kids, but stay out of trouble. That`s what I say.

Nancy Grace is up next.

END