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Special Coverage of the Shootings in Chattanooga, Tennessee. 3:30-4p ET

Aired July 17, 2015 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00] ED REINHOLD, FBI AGENT IN-CHARGE: All indications are that he was killed by fire from the Chattanooga police officers. We have no indication that there was any self-inflicted wounds. However, we will examine that to make sure that's the case. Yes, sir?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) while he engaged the police officers?

REINHOLD: Yes, I can tell you -- and the question was, was he wearing body armor? The answer to that was, no, he was not wearing body armor. He was wearing what we consider a load-bearing vest. Meaning it was a vest that he was able to carry additional magazines of ammunition while he moved around on foot. Yes, ma'am?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) was the suspect wounded multiple times and where were the wounds?

REINHOLD: Again, we have not completed an autopsy on the individual. So I don't want to speculate as to when and where he was hit. Obviously, there were sufficient injuries to him to eliminate the threat to the other service members and personnel in the area. Yes, sir?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Jeremy (INAUDIBLE) with the Atlanta Constitution. To what extent was his use of social media, writing on blog, something that you're looking at as part of your investigation?

REINHOLD: The question is, and I know it's hard with the microphone, it kind went in and out on me. But let sure I got the question right. And that is, are we exploring his use of social media?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Particularly, his blog writing.

REINHOLD: Blogging or whatever?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Yes.

REINHOLD: We will look at every possible aspect to include his use of social media. We obviously want to know what his thoughts were and -- and/or who he was associating with at the time. Yes, ma'am? Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE).

REINHOLD: Because of the HIPPA concerns, I'm not going to discuss the condition of any of the survivors at this time. Yes, sir? UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: I have follow-up question (INAUDIBLE) FOX

on TV news, Nashville. Can you talk to us and all about how the other victims were injured? You talked a second ago about the police officer that was injured. What about the other two that survived that were injured?

REINHOLD: My understanding that is, and correct me if I am wrong, they were gunshot wounds as well? Two of the other wounded, injured?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's our understanding, that they are gunshot wounds but until an autopsy is done, sometimes that can be misleading.

REINHOLD: Yes, sir?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE). How many police officers were engaged in the fire fight?

REINHOLD: At this time, we're not going to discuss the number of officers involved. Obviously it was a massive response by the Chattanooga police department. And let me reiterate the bravery that these officers demonstrated. It is apparent, by looking at the crime scene and what we have seen so far of the crime scene, that these officers were under a tremendous amount of gunfire from this individual and yet they continued to move forward against this target and engage him and eliminate that threat saving numerous lives throughout this community.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: In the back with the camera?

(INAUDIBLE)

CHIEF FRED FLETCHER, CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE POLICE: Absolutely. All patrol officers in Chattanooga are armed with a duty weapon, a side arm, which is exactly like the one I'm wearing right now. It is a six-hour .45 caliber semiautomatic pistol. They are also equipped with a patrol rifle which is a 5.65 millimeter ar-15 type or comparable patrol weapon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the back with the camera.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Can you talk about the type of fire fight that they encountered?

FLETCHER: Significant. It was clear that this gunman had every intent to encounter and to murder police officers if he needed to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Agent Reinhold? In the back with the camera?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Yes, sir. Got a question. Eric (INAUDIBLE) from channel 12, WBDEF. About two hours ago the chairman from the homeland security gave a presser at MacDill air force base which is as we know a central command. During that presser, he said that the shooter, from what he understood, was inspired by ISIS. Are you guys confirming that this was an ISIS-inspired shooting?

REINHOLD: No, we are not confirming that. What we are saying is at that is a possibility that we will explore just like any other possibility. At this time we have no indication that he was inspired by or directed by anyone other than himself. In the back with the white shirt?

(INAUDIBLE)

[15:35:00] REINHOLD: She was not arrested. The individual escorted out of the home as a matter of precaution is handcuffed. We do that whenever we make entry into a location for officer safety. Once it was determined that the scene was secure and she was not a threat, then she was un-handcuffed and taken care of. All the way in the back with the white shirt?

(INAUDIBLE)

REINHOLD: OK. The question is, looking at his emails, have we determined whether he's contacted any foreign countries? I'm not going to go into detail as to what we have found or not found as far as evidence goes. That would be considered evidence. So I'm not in a position to answer that at this time. I will say we are exploring all possibilities to include any contacts overseas. I'll take about two more questions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Sir, (INAUDIBLE), CBS news. You talk about Mr. Abdulazeez traveling out of the United States. Was that within the last year or two years?

And also for Chief Fletcher, have you spoken to Officer Pedigo and can you tell me about his state of mind and how he's doing today?

REINHOLD: As far as travel, we're exploring where and went he traveled. I don't want to go into too much details as that time frame until our partners overseas have an opportunity to conduct their portion of the investigation. Chief, do you want to --

FLETCHER: Thank you for your concern. I've spoken directly to all of the officers involved in this incident. I have spoken to many of the families and I'm speaking with families of the victims. They are all doing very, very well. They have the support of their police department, the support of their city, the support of their community and what I'm learning recently, the support of this entire country. We thank you very much for that. They are doing very, very well. Again, I applaud them for their bravery. Thank you for your question.

REINHOLD: Thank you all very much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks, everybody. That will conclude the press conference for today. That's the only press conference --

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Official there is in Chattanooga. We are learning some more details about the gunman and the heroic actions by the cops in Chattanooga. As we heard one of the officials say it absolutely no doubt cops saved lives there.

And we're also learning about the gunman, that he was wearing a load- bearing vest with various magazines and ammo. He had at least two long guns and one handgun, we're told.

Also, the FBI, special agent in charge said that at this point there's no indication that there's any link to ISIS here. But he made it clear that officials are looking at every possibility right now.

Another part of this investigation is the travels of this gunman.

And for that I want to bring in my colleague, justice reporter Evan Perez. Because you're learning a little bit more about his travels overseas to the Middle East. Is that right, Evan?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Pamela. The Jordanian government has confirmed that he was - he did travel there last year and that is actually going to be one of the focuses of the investigation for the FBI here. They want to know who was, in particular, who was he associating with, was there anybody that perhaps would raise concerns perhaps anybody who is connected to known terrorist organizations who might have influenced what happened yesterday.

Very significant from that press conference, from Ed Reinhold, the special agent in charge there in response to the speculation from the homeland security chairman in the house who said that he believed this was ISIS inspired. He said that that is a possibility he's looking into. But he also said, at this time, we have no indication that this was inspired or directed by anyone other than by this gunman.

Significantly, also, he mentioned that there were possible charges that might be coming from this. There might be a prosecution. And that is the part of the investigation that is focused on the weapons. As you mentioned, two long guns, one handgun was what were found there. And he also said, significantly, that some were purchased legally and some may not have been. So that is where the avenue for possible prosecution will come. That is a very active part of this investigation right now as well.

BROWN: All right. Evan Perez, thank you so much.

I want to bring in Karen Greenberg for some analysis on this.

Because we heard Evan talk about the fact that he went to Jordan apparently in the last year. But why would this be so critical for investigators to figure out what was going there? Jordan is an ally. It is not considered a terrorist state haven. It is pretty moderate. Why is this so key, though?

KAREN GREENBERG, DIRECTOR, CENTER ON NATIONAL SECURITY, FORDHAM LAW SCHOOL: Because they are trying to put together this person's life and what might have motivated him to do this. And they are very careful in their use of language. They said, we don't think this was - we don't know if this was inspired by or directed by. And the real question is, was this directed by anyone or was this a self-propelled mission? And what does that mean to be inspired by?

In terms of Jordan, they are going to want to know who he met with. Did he actually stay in Jordan? Did he go to other places? And what groups do the United States have on their radar and what avenues do they not have on their radar?

But I think the larger point here is that when you're talking about what it means to be inspired by ISIS, I think the question becomes very broad. ISIS that may not have to do very much to be accused of inspiring someone and this individual fits a number of the criteria that have defined the 62 cases that we've already seen in the system since a year ago.

[15:40:43] BROWN: How so?

GREENBERG: In a number of ways. He fits the age group exactly, the average age is in the 20s, 26, but there are many that are 24. He's also somebody who radicalized later in his career. In other words, he was not necessarily radical Islam early on and there has been signs of it growing of the beard, et cetera, et cetera.

BROWN: In the past couple of months.

GREENBERG: In the past couple of months. He has been link to it. He has a recent criminal charge against him which is something we've been seeing in a number of cases. He has targeted federal officials in the way that ISIS has called for and that others have responded to in this country in the ISIS cases.

So there are a number of factors that distinguish him in this regard. He is also an American citizen. Eighty percent of the ISIS cases are American citizens. Ten percent of those are naturalized.

So - the one way, an ironic way that he doesn't fit, is that only a handful of these 60 cases are people who have, you know, Middle Eastern ties and Middle Eastern backgrounds that are active. And so this is a new -- not surprising but new in terms of the database we have seen.

BROWN: I want to bring in Ron Hosko here, the former director of FBI, the criminal division.

Ron, we've heard him talked about sort of set the scene of what happened yesterday with these two shootings. He was wearing a load- bearing vest with magazine and ammo. He had at least two long guns and one handgun. This sounds like someone who was bent on killing people, killing members of the military.

RONALD HOSKO, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, FBI CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION DIVISION: Unquestionably, that was his intent. He accomplished it. To the extent this is foreign-inspired, terrorist inspired. This is very much a victory for terrorism. And I think a very legitimate concern, we've heard it expressed by the director of the FBI, a concern that this act inspires others, that others are inclined to follow and say, look, here was a victory, ISIS or others may claim it. I'm a little surprised we haven't heard a claim from ISIS as their victory. And I think there's good reason for pause here before we line up behind representative McCaul. This could have been inspired by an AQ offshoot, AQAP or some other piece of radical Islam.

BROWN: And I think that's probably part of the reason why they were really choosing their words carefully in that press conference saying they don't want to jump to any conclusions.

Ron, this was a relatively unsophisticated attack. We had learned that he wasn't on any terror watch list. He wasn't on the FBI's radar before. It seems hike this is really what law enforcement has been worried about happening, the unknown. How do you stop something like this from happening?

HOSKO: Very difficult to do. And we've heard public officials, law enforcement officials talking about it in recent weeks. And we saw an example of where it can succeed in Boston just within the last week where a police captain referred the FBI to his own son. That is a tragic event when a father has to point at their son as a potential radicalized person.

However, it can succeed and I think as we get deeper into this investigation, hear more from the FBI, the question that we have to ask is what were the missed opportunities, which there are in so many active shooter cases.

BROWN: There normally are pre-event indicators as we talk about, Ron. And that is going to be a center of this investigation, a focus of it. We're also learning that his father was investigated by the FBI in a terrorism investigation. We're going to talk about that and more right after this quick break. So stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:48:30] BROWN: Welcome back to CNN's special breaking news coverage. We have a panel ready to analyze everything we just learned from this press conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

And something that we want to talk about here is what we have learned today through officials that the shooter's dad had been investigated by the FBI in a terrorism finance case. It was opened and then closed.

But I want to bring in Bill Gavin to get his thoughts on this. Bill Gavin, the former assistant director of the FBI's New York office. How relevant, Bill, is that to this current investigation, the fact that the shooter's dad, even though he had been on the FBI's radar, his dad had been for a terrorism case?

BILL GAVIN, THE FORMER ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF THE FBI'S NEW YORK OFFICE: His dad's name came up on this terrorism case, I guess, it because he contributed money to some organization. It could very well on his part have been an innocent contribution that he made or it could have been kind of a borderline case.

But when the bureau looked at it and I'm sure that they looked at it in conjunction with terrorism task force and maybe some of our allies overseas, they weren't able to attach this to a terrorist act or relate him to terrorism and that's why he came off the grid and they closed that case.

BROWN: And he was cleared, we should make that point. And this happened in 2002 right after 9/11 when the FBI was questioning and investigating a lot of people for their activities, financial activities, money being sent overseas.

Karen, I'm going to bring you back in because we were talking about this whole notion of international terrorism or domestic terrorism. And again, the officials there in Chattanooga choosing their words carefully, but they came out and made it very clear today this is a terrorism investigation. What is the difference between what we saw in Chattanooga and what we saw recently in Charleston, South Carolina with the killing of those nine African-Americans inside the church?

GREENBERG: Right. I mean, in the broader spectrum of the context of what is going on, what we are seeing is this isolated case of violence that are devastating. The reason -- they are not terrorism traditionally is associated with some kind of political act and often sometimes at civilians and sometimes at federal officials. And there are a lot of individuals that would probably like to see the Charleston incident characterized as terrorism. The federal government has decided not to do that.

But in many ways, there are similarities. The age of the individual is the same. The anger of the individual may turn out to be expressed as the same. Certainly the Charleston shooter shared much with many of the ISIS individuals in terms of what we learned about his discontent and his trajectory.

So, it's something that they picked for legal reasons, sometimes very strategic reasons. Traditionally, you're looking at domestic versus international terrorism, as that which is a domestic group, let's say a hate group, somewhere in the United States or an international organization associated with a foreign -- designated foreign terrorist organization.

BROWN: One of the quotes that really stuck up to me though in this press conference is when he said, the FBI special agent in charge said, there's no indication that he was inspired by or directed by anyone other than himself. So what does that mean exactly and would you so label him a terrorist?

GREENBERG: That's a very good question. If this was a political act that was aimed at federal officials and they find out that he is associated in any way, they may -- they would have, if he had not been killed, or if they find other individuals, designate this as terrorism. But I think you're touching on something very important here, which is the larger trend towards violence and lone wolves and lone shooters. And the question is, what is ISIS? ISIS is a global gang that exploits discontent among children and 20-year-olds. I mean, that is one way to describe who they are. And so, the line between what ISIS is -- what it has captured, the mood that is has captured and what it means wit-large (ph) is very important. And we may be seeing an individual who was inspired by a general sense of knowing what ISIS is about.

BROWN: Karen Greenberg, interesting perspective there.

We have to take a quick break. But on the other side of the break we are going to hear from the girlfriend of one of the victims, one of the four marines that was killed yesterday. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:57:49] BROWN: Welcome back.

A special education teacher in Washington, D.C. made a life changing decision when he took what he did in class every day and made it around the clock job.

Meet CNN hero, Richard Bienvenue.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD BIENVENUE, CNN HERO: When I was a special Ed teacher I taught carpentry Tot high risk kids. During the day time, they would (INAUDIBLE). You could see the spark. They would go home at nighttime and would get erased.

The tears would see, the anguish they would go through. I saw a real need, and that's when the idea hit me. Don't let them go home.

We provide residential setting for young men. During the day they learn trades. At nighttime they get their high school education. We take on a lot of tough cases from foster care to the court system.

The emotional support that we give is critical. The grounds are wide open, fields, trees, the chickens, animals. It is not a lock up. This is so it becomes a home for many of them. When they leave we try to help them find a job and a place to live. Anything they need, we make sure that they have.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The program saved my life in every day. I'm currently enrolled in college. I feel like I've gone from the bottom to the top. Then he gave me the tools to build my future. I decided to come back and work with youth like other people work would me.

BIENVENUE: I don't want see any more kids fall through the cracks. If I can give them an opportunity to turn their life around to step forward, that's my life's work.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: To nominate a hero in your community, just go to CNN.com/heroes.

John Berman has more of our special coverage of the shootings in Chattanooga. And to watch more of my interview with the girlfriend of one of those fallen marines, go to CNN.com.

"The LEAD" starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to "the LEAD." I'm John Berman in for Jake Tapper.

Our breaking news, an ISIS inspired attack. That's what the chairman of the house homeland security committee just called the carnage in Chattanooga.