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New Day

Fire on the Tarmac; Christie Hopes For Second Term; Battleground Virginia; New York City Mayor's Race; Mall Shooter Found Dead; Senate Votes on Anti-Gay Bill

Aired November 05, 2013 - 08:00   ET

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

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Police say the man who opened fire, thankfully hitting no one, is now dead after turning his gun on himself. The scare for shoppers and workers in the lockdown for much of the night, and we're gaining new insight as to why he may have done it.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Also, the problems are still piling up for Obamacare -- the website, politics. And now, a new problem: we're going to show you the document that reveals officials were worried people wouldn't buy into it at all.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: We've got some wild pictures to show you from Montreal.

Take a look at this. This is Trudeau Airport there in Montreal. Fire, smoke surrounding a plane right on the tarmac. How did it start and what happened to the people on board? We will tell you.

BOLDUAN: But, first, let's get straight back to New Jersey, where police say the gunman who opened fire at the Garden State Plaza Mall left a note and the county prosecutor tells NEW DAY his intent may have been suicide.

CNN's Poppy Harlow is live at the mall in Paramus, New Jersey, for us this morning.

Good morning, Poppy.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Kate.

His name is Richard Shoop. He is 20 years old. And he lived very close to this mall. It was just after 9:00 last night that he burst in, carrying a gun that authorities say looked like an AK-47.

It was made to look that way. It was actually a rifle. Shooting what police say is six rounds. Ultimately, though, he only shot himself.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW (voice-over): Chaos at a shopping center in New Jersey overnight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We heard four gunshots and everybody was scared. Everybody was panicked. So we took everybody -- we went in the back of the store, locked ourselves in with 13 people in total including me.

HARLOW: Hundreds of police, SWAT, and emergency teams swarmed the Westfield Garden State Plaza Mall in search of a gunman who authorities believed fired six rounds just before closing time.

The gunman, 20-year-old Richard Shoop, was discovered dead just after 3:00 a.m., his body found lying in a remote area of the mall. Authorities say he had a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Originally from Washington Township, New Jersey, now living in Teaneck, New Jersey. He's 20 years old. His body was discovered at 3:20 a.m. this morning just about an hour ago with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head area.

HARLOW: No one else was injured in the shooting. State police say the gunman apparently fired shots at security cameras.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was actually wearing a red and black motorcycle helmet. The visor was actually lifted up so I was actually able to see his face. He was a white male. He was wearing a full leather suit.

He wasn't really aiming at anything. He kind of had the gun in his hand aimlessly.

JOHN MOLINELLI, BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR: The mall was very crowded. It was within 10 minutes of closing. And when he came into the mall and he started firing his weapon. He had plenty of opportunities to shoot people. There were witnesses five feet from him but he chose not to. Instead, he just hit random targets, as he came in, a couple just fired right up to the selling.

HARLOW: Police say Shoop was carrying a rifle modified to look like an AK-47 stolen from his brother.

MOLINELLI: His brother purchased it lawfully. I mean, it is a serious rifle. It's a serious weapon.

It is a rifle, but you make additions to these weapons, and you add things to them, not unlike the Bushmaster.

HARLOW: But police say Shoop has no history of mental illness, but say he abused drugs.

MOLINELLI: When a life spirals out of control, sometimes people -- they feel there's only one way out and that's the way out that Mr. Shoop decided to go this evening.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: And the reason, Chris, why authorities are working on the thinking that this was really a suicide mission is because they were told by people inside the mall that they were close enough to the shooter that they themselves could have been shot and killed, that he didn't try to shoot them at all. So really, this could have been a mass shooting and it ended just up being suicide. I can also tell you that the shooter's relative is the one who called authorities just after 10:00 p.m. last night after hearing about this on the news, thinking that that could be their own relative told authorities. Authorities connected the dots and that's what brought them here ultimately, finding him here after 3:00 am., identifying him.

A lot more questions still, Chris. But so many more could have died. It was a tragic and really horrifying night for so many. Thank goodness more did not lose their lives.

CUOMO: A lot of people that were helpless in that mall. A lot of people in this man's friends and family group helpless to help him as well before this happened. Poppy, thank you for the reporting.

HARLOW: Right.

CUOMO: Let's bring in Harry Houck, long-time detective with the New York Police Department, still a security consultant.

Harry, let's -- we'll get to him in a second. But, first, what do you do in a situation when you're in a mall like this? We keep hearing these stories. What do you do? There's a shooter comes in. What are your options?

HARRY HOUCK, FORMER NYPD DETECTIVE: Right. Well, you have three options basically. That's to escape, hide or fight, all right? So, your first option is -- what I tell people to do is when you hear shots, hit the deck right away, all right. Assess the situation.

If it's the same time you hit the deck, take some kind of cover, because you don't know where those rounds are coming, all right? Once you see where people are running away from, they're usually running away from the shooter, all right? You want to head in that direction as safely as possible, get out of that location.

If you're in a mall, you might see that one of the stores are going on a lockdown, all right? That's your best bet. Make your way under that gate and get in the store and be on the other side of that gate, because we know from experience with active shooters is that when they get to a place where they're blocked from doing anything, they just moved on.

CUOMO: You said the first couple of minutes is the most dangerous. That's the period it takes for law enforcement to get involved.

HOUCK: That's correct.

CUOMO: That's your critical moment. In this particular mall, we do believe they had procedures in place. There were gates were coming down. Unfortunate consequence of hearing about these stories is, it is becoming part of people's thought process, what do I do? One of the unfortunate after effects of hearing about these.

So, that leaves us with him. HOUCK: Right.

CUOMO: They say it was a suicide attempt. He didn't really want to shoot people.

The idea of early intervention -- we hear that police knew who this was. How many tip-offs did you get in advance in terms of a violent event in your career?

HOUCK: None. Never gotten. I've gotten tip-offs of maybe a possible robbery occurring or something like that, but never a tip-off from a family member giving us a call and saying, listen, one of my kids or friends might be doing something bad. I think you need to intervene. We've had it for suicide where people call and say they believe somebody is going to commit suicide.

CUOMO: You think we need a culture adjust? I mean, people to talk about the guns, that will happen. But in all these mass shootings I've covered -- I've covered almost every one since Columbine. They always have here's this glorification exit through violence thing that we see also. Do you think it's time for a culture shift where we need more early intervention with people who seem destabilized? Not just mentally ill, because many mentally ill are not -- most are not violent.

But do you think we need a change?

HOUCK: Well, it would be great if we could get it.

I mean, the problem here is that you need family members and friends to be able to say if somebody is acting strangely, all right? Is somebody making threats? Is somebody making threats about 'I want to kill myself'? Maybe I'll shoot up a mall or I'm going to go into a movie studio, shoot that place up or something like that. You know, you've got to listen to this. All right? But a lot of people just say things.

I can't tell you how many times I've had threats, you know, called when I was a police officer. This guy threatened to kill me and he just said it. Most people just say things like that. They get mad, all right, and something doesn't occur.

The whole problem is when do you call the police? Do you call the police all the time? Because then we'll start getting like 1,000 calls a day from people. That's the problem.

CUOMO: It's frustrating, but no easy fix.

HOUCK: Yes, but we have to commend the New Jersey Police Department on the reaction. They didn't mill around. They went right into the mall immediately. You have to give them a pat on the back for that.

CUOMO: That's true. Within a couple of minutes they were in there with hundreds of guys on the scene. Nobody got hurt. Got to take progress when you find it.

HOUCK: Right.

CUOMO: Harry, thank you for the perspective. Appreciate it.

HOUCK: Thanks for having me.

CUOMO: Mick, over to you.

PEREIRA: All right. Let's take a look at our headlines topping the news.

Scary moments in Montreal's international airport. A baggage ramp caught on fire, sending five passengers on this jet to the hospital. Some 250 on board the 767 arriving from Casablanca had to slide down escape chutes. The injures said to have suffered from smoke inhalation and an investigation is now under way.

Doctors say Houston Texans coach Gary Kubiak suffered a mini stroke when he collapsed that half time of the Texan game Sunday night. He should be released from the hospital today, as doctors say his condition was temporary and there should be no residual effects. It's unclear how long Kubiak will be away from the team.

A tense standoff in Denver over this morning. Two teenagers are in custody. The pair broke into a middle school, stayed there for hours. They were armed.

Their goal? Apparently robbery. No students were in the building at the time. Police say they found a stolen computer in one of the teens' backpacks.

A law that would stop employers from discriminating against gay and lesbian and transgendered employees is moving forward. Seven Republicans join 54 Democratic senators to advance the Employment Non- Discrimination Act. Still, Republican House Speaker John Boehner says he will not bring the bill to the floor in his chamber it if passes the Senate.

World Series, won. Beards, done. Red Sox stars Shane Victorino and series MVP David Ortiz holding a ceremonial shave-off in Boston Monday, raising some $100,000 for marathon bombing victims in the process. Boston's beard really become a symbol of solidarity on their march to a third World Series titled "In Nine Years." But they're still celebrating, as they should.

BOLDUAN: Keep on celebrating. That's what I say. Until next time.

You don't have to comment. It's OK.

PEREIRA: While facing a Yankee fan.

BOLDUAN: All right. Let's get over to something that's a little less controversial at this table -- the weather. Karen Maginnis is in for Indra Petersons with your forecast.

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And good morning. Everyone, we're looking at weather. It's fairly stable over the next couple of days, that's good news, across the Northeast. And it's a good thing it's Election Day in New Jersey, also the mayoral elections and in Detroit and Boston could see also their first new mayor in 20 years.

But come Thursday, looking at a weather system that moves through. It will move through fairly quickly. As the storm system that is impacting the Midwest and the central Mississippi River Valley. As this weather kind of system gears up and moves across the Great Lakes region by Thursday, the clouds on the increase, those mild temperatures that were expecting over the next 24 to 48 hours, they start to disappear.

Temperatures are going to be cooler and for New York City, you could see between a quarter to half an inch of rainfall. So, for this afternoon, temperatures mostly in the 40s. We'll expect 50s by the afternoon hours and going into Wednesday, 60s. Then, we'll start to see the temperatures drop back down by later on in the workweek.

Back to you guys.

BOLDUAN: Thanks so much, Karen.

CUOMO: All right. Coming up on NEW DAY: election 2013. New mayor for New York City. That's definitely going to happen. Only question is who? Races for governor in New Jersey and Virginia. We'll explain how the results of these elections could change the political face of the entire country.

BOLDUAN: And the latest on the shooting at Los Angeles International Airport. How close did police come from stopping the rampage from ever happening? We'll tell you how the shooter's father tried to get police to intervene.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Got politics on the brain. We're following three big races today, mayor here in New York City and the races for governor of Virginia and New Jersey. Chris Christie, New Jersey's governor, of course, fierce head for another term as the state's governor. Get another term there. It should be easy for him, but could that term be interrupted by a White House run?

Our Election Day coverage begins with Erin McPike. She's in Minden, New Jersey, following it all. Erin, what do we know?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, it's true that everyone here in New Jersey is expecting a blowout later tonight in this race. And Chris Christie yesterday was basically boasting about it. He wants to set a record for the biggest state-wide win by a Republican here in 30 years or so, and he's been saying that he wants to use this race as a model for the national Republican Party.

He was fairly strident yesterday in criticizing his own party for trying to make a point rather than making a difference. And you know, Chris, of course, Chris Christie is quite a rock star here. So Democrats nationally didn't really invest in this race. Well, they're starting to regret that because, of course, Chris Christie is expected to use a re-election here as a launching pad for 2016 -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right. Erin, thank you so much for that. And another race, another key race is in Virginia where two powerful candidates are facing off in what's being seen as a battle between the old guard and the new. CNN's Chris Lawrence is in McLean, Virginia. Good morning, Chris.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kate. Yes. Voters here in Virginia have already started turning out to the polls, and they couldn't face a more starker choice, the extremely conservative attorney general versus the very liberal former chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Terry McAuliffe was here about an hour ago, casting his vote, and it has been a nasty fight.

There's also been a who's who of heavy hitters coming in to rally on the sides of both men. If McAuliffe were to win, it would give old friend, Hillary Clinton, a strong ally in the governor's mansion in 2016. On the other hand, candidates like Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, will be looking at how Ken Cuccinelli does to see if a strongly socially conservative message can win in a state like this that could go red or could go blue -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right. Chris, thank you. From Virginia to New York City where a Democrat is poised to become mayor for the first time in some two decades. CNN's Deborah Feyerick is following that race for us. Good morning, Deb.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning there, Kate. Well, Democrat Bill de Blasio, he is a former staffer for both Bill and Hillary Clinton. He's polling nearly 40 points ahead of his Republican challenger. Now, the unabashed (ph) liberal is promising to take the city in a progressive direction and close the gap between rich and poor, something that he plans to do by raising taxes on the rich in order to fund education for low-income children.

Now, the game changer for De Blasio, political insiders say, has really been his biracial family, diversity which has resonated with voters on the campaign trail. The underdog, Republican candidate, Joe Lhota, once served as the city's budget director under tough-on-crime mayor Rudy Giuliani.

He's more closely aligned with the policies of billionaire mayor, Mike Bloomberg. Majority of New York City voters are Democrat. Still, De Blasio would be the first Democratic mayor in more than two decades -- Chris.

CUOMO: Thank you very much, Deb. Interesting stuff to watch unfold.

What's at stake here? What could this mean specifically, but then, as we look at as a trend across the country, who better than CNN's "Crossfire" host, Newt Gingrich, to give us prospective. Appreciate your presence as always.

So let me give you a three-for with Christie. How big will he win? What will that margin send as a message in terms of the projecting it forth? Mitt Romney said they don't come better than Chris Christie. Do you agree? Is he the best that the GOP can do in 2016? Bundle it together for us.

(LAUGHTER)

NEWT GINGRICH, CNN HOST, CROSSFIRE: That's a lot to bundle. I think he's going to win by more than 25 points, probably set the record for at least the last 30 years. The question will be how many Republicans he brings into the legislature, which will be a big way of measuring his impact institutionally. I think he clearly is one of the top four or five candidates.

It's hard to jump beyond that, because you're going to have some very strong people in the race. You're going to have Scott Walker, governor of Wisconsin, John Casey, governor of Ohio, Rick Perry, governor of Texas. I mean, I think governors will play a big role in 2016, but Christie will be legitimately one of the top contenders and he'll be able to raise huge resources. And of course, he's in the New York media market. So, he'll get tremendous national press exposure.

CUOMO: Biggest weakness, do you think that what some people saw as reaching out, populism over partisanship after Superstorm Sandy, reaching out to the president, will it hurt him?

GINGRICH: I don't think it hurts him at all to say, look, my state was in enormous pain. The president of the United States came offering to help us and I had a job to help my state. The town was in great pain. I think you got to be a pretty narrow partisan to not sympathize of what happened on the Jersey Shore and the level of pain to say --

CUOMO: People first, politics second.

GINGRICH: I think so. And I think people are also just sick of the bickering.

CUOMO: Now, Virginia governor's race. Is this a Tea Party referendum? You know, I know Cuccinelli is saying it's a referendum on Obamacare, but it's really -- is it a look at what you're calling a more narrow political stream?

GINGRICH: Well, I think -- first of all, both the New York City and in Virginia, they plant (ph) allies winning. There's just an interesting note on the institution of the Democratic Party right now. And you have, you know, Terry McAuliffe who's a guy who raised an enormous amount of money. This is his second race for governor. He managed to define Cuccinelli early and define him as an extreme.

Now, one of the lessons -- there are two lessons for Republicans out of this. You have to assume the Democrats are going to have some kind of war on women campaign in every race you're dealing with. So, you better figure out how you're going to trump it. And second, the guy who gets defined as the extremist is the one who's going to be on defense all the time.

So, you'd better figure out how you're going to explain your Democratic opponent. If you're passing for the first six months of the campaign and let the other guy define you, you have a deep hole to dig out of it.

CUOMO: Because the presumption is that it's going to be bad, it's going to be negative. War on women, negative. War on Obamacare, negative. Shouldn't somebody put out a message, Newt Gingrich, that what we need is positive messages? Shouldn't somebody be arguing that that is the way forward if they want to be successful in politics? Where do we find that message?

GINGRICH: Well, first of all, as you know, nice lead-in. I just wrote a book called "Breakout."

CUOMO: What? Where is that in the note?

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: What's the book about?

GINGRICH: Well, the whole point of the book is to say there are an amazing number of good things happening outside of politics. So, you go and you look at everything from online learning to regenerate medicine, to self-driving cars, to the explosion of oil and gas that's available. Gasoline in Midland, Texas, dropped below $3 a gallon yesterday and moving towards the $2.50 that I predicted when I was a candidate.

You look around and you think, all these great things are happening out here. And then you watch government be incompetent. The Obamacare website is the obvious example. But frankly, the F-35 airplane cost overruns are bad or worse than the Obamacare website. And you have to say why is it that Washington can't learn from all these pioneers of the future?

And why can't we get to new, better ideas that could solve our problems without the constant bickering and the kind of ideological posturing?

CUOMO: I can't keep my head around this. The idea is perfect. So many people outside the process who will applaud this and hopefully read it.

GINGRICH: Yes.

CUOMO: But also, though, the messenger, you know that that's not the way the game is played in politics. I mean, look at what's happening with Obamacare. You say in the book, fight for better ideas. Say these are the better ideas. Be positive. You've got 40 plus votes to kill Obamacare. They don't work. Never an alternative plan to put forward in -- but why didn't you condemn them? You got a forum every night.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: You guys should stop. This is terrible.

GINGRICH: Again, that's negative. What I've offered in "Breakout" is a formula that either party can adopt that says there's a way forward that's very positive. I'll give you an example right now.

CUOMO: Please.

GINGRICH: -- at the budget conference today. There's a little firm called Theranos, great story on its own, founded by a young woman who dropped out of Stanford as a sophomore and took her education trust fund and launched a company. OK. This company has developed a microtechnology to analyze blood. They have lowered costs of blood diagnostics by 50 percent.

Now, that means for Medicare and Medicaid, you would take $157 billion out of the next ten years. I'm going to try just as an experiment to get somebody to walk into the budget conference and put on the table what if we saved -- a check for $157 million. What if we took a new idea, instead of an ideological fight, instead of the Democrats party of paying through tax increase and the Republicans Party of paying through cuts, what if we had better ideas that saved us huge volumes of money?

Now, there's a real immediate practical example of why "Breakout" is a totally different approach. And what I'm going to spend a lot of -- probably the next decade of my life trying to teach politicians, including Chris Christie, who in many ways fits this model. I mean, you look at how he's governed (ph) and threatened, new ideas, new approaches, a lot of courage in taking on the unions, he could be one of the guys who becomes a breakout candidate for president.

CUOMO: If you can convince politicians in Washington D.C. or anywhere that they need to go positive and have better ideas and leave the negativity to others, they will have to make a place for you on Rushmore.

GINGRICH: I don't know about that. We've done it three times. Ronald Reagan, contract with American, candidly the Obama 2008 campaign. Three examples of the kind of positive that works.

CUOMO: Well, let's see -- let's hope we see it again. Thank you so much.

GINGRICH: Good to see you.

CUOMO: Good luck with the book. Always a pleasure to have you on NEW DAY.

All right. You can check out Newt's new book, "Breakout." It's out this week. And a programming note for you, our own Jake Tapper is going to interview Governor Chris Christie today on "The Lead" at 4:00 pm eastern. Make sure you tune in for that. Kate over to you.

BOLDUAN: All right. Chris, thank you.

Coming up next on NEW DAY, new details about a possible motive behind the shooting at LAX and the warning given to police just before the rampage.

Also ahead, we know the Obamacare website hasn't been working well at all. That's caused big trouble for the administration. But now, an internal document could prove even more problematic. That story ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to NEW DAY. It is time for the five things you need to know for your NEW DAY, starting at number one.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA (voice-over): The man police say fired shots inside a New Jersey shopping mall is dead. Twenty-year-old Richard Shoop apparently took his own life. The county prosecutor tells NEW DAW Shoop was known to have had problems with drugs.

Shocking racially charged voicemail and text messages in the case of alleged bullying by Miami Dolphins player on a teammate. Lineman, Richie Incognito is said to have sent them to Jonathan Martin. Incognito has been suspended indefinitely.

It is Election Day, and there are big races. In Virginia, Democrat Terry McAuliffe faces Republican Ken Cuccinelli. Some saying it's a referendum on Obamacare. And in New Jersey, Governor Christie is expected to easily sail to re-election.

Floors (ph) for the Obama administration say mass collection of phone records need to continue. They told an oversight board having to ask for records in each investigation could slow national security efforts.

Testimony continuing today in the case of a Utah doctor charged with killing his wife. Four inmates are expected to take the stand and testify that Martin MacNeill confessed to that killing.

We always update those five things to know, so be sure to go to NEWDAYCNN.com for the very latest -- Chris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: All right. Thanks, Mick.

Today, it's New Jersey, but just Friday, it was LAX. And in that shooting, we have the first hint of a motive. The FBI now says the suspect went there to target TSA officers. And police say they got a warning about the suspect just minutes before the shooting.