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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Chattanooga Shooting; Shooter's Father Investigated; Chattanooga Victims; Pentagon Reviews Security; Verdict in Theater Shooting. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired July 17, 2015 - 12:00   ET

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

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[12:00:58] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in today for Ashleigh Banfield. Welcome to LEGAL VIEW.

We now know the name of a second U.S. Marine shot to death Thursday in a rampage in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Skip Wells, 21 years old, from Marietta, Georgia, seen here on the right. His identity confirmed just a short time ago. He, Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Sullivan, and two other Marines were killed by a man who sprayed their military recruiting center with bullets.

Also just into CNN, the name of another U.S. service member shot in that rampage. Randall Smith was wounded, shot three times and he remains hospitalized right now. His name being confirmed to CNN by his family.

We're also learning more about the man who officials believe acted alone on that two-location shooting spree, although his motives are still not clear. Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez was armed with a military-style rifle and several 30 round magazines. Police say he was a U.S. citizen, naturalized, born in Kuwait, and his friends say Abdulazeez recently spent a couple of years outside the U.S. in Jordan or perhaps even Yemen. Abdulazeez held officers at bay with his weapon for a time after shooting up the military center, but police eventually moved in and shot him dead.

And then look at this sign posted on the door of the Chattanooga mosque attended by Abdulazeez. The mosque has canceled all activities surrounding this weekend's Muslim holiday.

CNN's Victor Blackwell is in Chattanooga for us right now.

So, Victor, tell us where the investigation stands right now. Any more about what may have driven this man to start shooting like this?

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fredricka, you mentioned those four who were killed. In addition, there are several who were injured, one of them a Chattanooga police officer. Let's learn more now from the Chattanooga Police Department chief, Chief Fred Fletcher.

Good to have you with us here.

CHIEF FRED FLETCHER, CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE POLICE: Thank you for having me.

BLACKWELL: First, tell us what you know about the officer who was injured. How is he doing?

FLETCHER: Well, first, thanks for your concern about him. Despite this brutal assault, this vicious assault on members of our arms service and a member of my police department, he is actually doing as well as can be expected. He has his family with him. He's receiving tremendous medical care from Erlanger Hospital and this community, both in Chattanooga, our police department, and nationwide has provided an outpouring of support for him and his family and our broader community.

BLACKWELL: Thank you for sharing that and add our support to this officer as well.

FLETCHER: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Let me ask you, there are some elements of the timeline that are still coming together. We know that at least from witnesses that there were calls made to police here after the initial shooting. Was there any pursuit of this - this - this suspect, of Abdulazeez, after the calls here?

FLETCHER: What happened was, it originated here, as you pointed out.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

FLETCHER: And officers of the Chattanooga Police Department, brave, selfless men and women of the Chattanooga Police Department, immediately started looking for him. Someplace between here and the other scene, they encountered him and they engaged him and they put themselves between this community and harm's way to help ensure as few people were harmed as possible.

BLACKWELL: Tell me about that encounter. How did they come upon him?

FLETCHER: They were looking for him.

BLACKWELL: OK.

FLETCHER: They were out in their parole cars looking for a description of the suspect. They encountered him on the road between here and there. They ended up following him in some manner to the other location where they engaged him in a gun battle.

BLACKWELL: OK. Describe this gun battle for us, if you can.

FLETCHER: That's still part of the investigation. We're still interviewing a myriad of witnesses. There's a lot of information to take in. We're going to be collating that, processing that. I'd refer you to the lead agents and the lead agency, the FBI, who will provide that information when it's available.

BLACKWELL: Can you quantify for us this - you say they caught him and then followed him. How long was that following if not using the word chase?

FLETCHER: It's - I'm not avoiding the word "chase," we just don't know yet.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

FLETCHER: We're still - we're still compiling the interviews and we're waiting until the investigation is at an appropriate point to release that information. And, again, the FBI and the DOJ will be with you on that.

What we know is it's about seven miles from here to the other scene.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

FLETCHER: Somewhere between here and there they identified the vehicle and the suspect. They followed him and they engaged him to and at the other scene and they put themselves in tremendous, tremendous risk to protect this community.

[12:05:12] BLACKWELL: So if your officers saw him before they got to the other scene, did they witness the shooting of those Marines?

FLETCHER: No - no - down there?

BLACKWELL: Yes.

FLETCHER: That's still part of the investigation. All of the officers are being interviewed. Witnesses are being interviewed. That's being compiled. That's part of the ongoing investigation. And, again, that's the purview of the lead agency, the FBI, to release.

BLACKWELL: OK, so the lead here, FBI, DOJ. What physically are your officers - what is your department doing as part of this investigation?

FLETCHER: We are working in parallel with our partners, with the DOJ, the FBI, the ATF, to aggressively and robustly investigate this. We're also providing basic protection to this community to make sure they are and feel safe as they do every day in Chattanooga.

BLACKWELL: Yes. All right, Chief Fred Fletcher, thank you so much for -

FLETCHER: Absolutely.

BLACKWELL: For giving us the latest on the investigation.

FLETCHER: (INAUDIBLE). Thank you.

BLACKWELL: All right, Fred, we'll send it back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much. Keep us posted. Victor Blackwell, thank you so much, and police chief.

All right, new to CNN right now, some more details about the gunman's family, specifically his father whose name we're learning has also been known to the FBI. Evan Perez is our justice correspondent. And also with me is the FBI's former assistant director and our law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes.

Good to see both of you.

So, Evan, you first, who is this gunman's father and why is it the FBI was very interested in him?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Fredricka, his name is Youssuf and he came up in a couple of different FBI investigations. And one - one was in the 1990s, his name came up in a broader terrorism financing investigation. It was opened and closed fairly quickly, no charges were ever brought, no wrongdoing was ever alleged.

After 9/11, again, his name came up in another terrorism financing investigation. It relating to money that he was sending to what he believed was a charity and which the FBI thought was actual money going to terrorism. Again, they opened the investigation, they looked into it and they just - they closed the case without bringing any charges against him.

It's important to add that important context because the FBI doesn't - there's no indication the FBI - that the FBI believes the father knew about what was about to happen yesterday or that it had anything to do with the attacks that his son carried out yesterday. It's also important to remember that after 9/11, a lot of Muslim-Americans who were sending money to overseas charities, especially in the Middle East, came up in these types of investigations when the FBI began more aggressively looking at financing of some of these charities and had some concerns about where the money was going.

Again, this is a man - his family was a very successful family. They had - they had some money and it was not unusual for someone of his means to be brought into the investigations like this.

WHITFIELD: So, again, just for clarity, Evan, so the father's history - and we're talking post-9/11 -

PEREZ: Right.

WHITFIELD: That is not necessarily being linked to what took place yesterday involving his son.

PEREZ: Exactly.

WHITFIELD: But we are just in told - in context now just letting people know that the FBI had been made aware of the family name by way of the father and this activity.

So then, Tom, help us understand - and we are talking about particularly post-9/11 where this investigation was conducted involving what kind of money was being sent by the father, Youssuf, here. How typical is this, this follow of the money if a contribution is made overseas? TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, it's very typical,

Fredricka. And, you know, I should add more context to this. In Islam there are five pillars of the faith, and we know the first one is, there is no God but God. Mohammed is his messenger. But the third pillar state that a devout Muslim must donate 2.5 percent of their savings to charity. And normally that would be collected in the mosque and there were many large charitable organizations in the U.S. collecting that money from the mosque and then sending it overseas. And many, in one of them, a large case of the FBI in Chicago, the Holy Land Foundation, but in those cases it was determined that the followers in the mosque, throughout the country, were donating money that they thought would be going to, you know, furnish classrooms in Afghanistan or Chechnya or places like that for good causes. And what the investigation disclosed is that when the money was transmitted overseas, in some cases it would be withdrawn and diverted and used to supply a terrorist organization. But the individuals here in the U.S. donating it were donating in good faith, not thinking it was going to support terrorism.

WHITFIELD: All right, Tom Fuentes, Evan Perez, thanks so much on that. Appreciate it.

PEREZ: Thanks.

FUENTES: You're welcome.

WHITFIELD: All right, up next, focusing on the victims of this tragedy.

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[12:13:12] WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back.

While so much focus has been on the gunman, we can't lose sight of the victims. We still don't know the names of the two of the four U.S. Marines killed in the attack yesterday. One of the dead is Thomas Sullivan, a Marine gunnery sergeant. Skip Wells was also killed, according to friends and family members. He graduated high school in 2012 and studied history at Georgia Southern University.

Alexandra Field joining me now with more on this.

So what more do we know from family members?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, Thomas Sullivan is being called a hero by loved ones online, and rightly so. This is someone who reportedly earned a purple heart. He also did two tours of duty. He is a native son of Massachusetts. He is being honored in his home state today in the city of Springfield, where a flag has been lowered to half-staff outside of city hall.

There's Skip Wells and in Marietta, Georgia, they are mourning him. He graduated from high school just three years ago. He went on to study history in college. He became a Marine. He recently took a trip to Disney World with his mother. And she's put out a statement today saying this to CNN. She says, "my son died doing what he loved for the love of his country and his family."

We also heard this morning from a dear friend of Skip Wells, who says that he knew Skip since he was in the fourth grade. And this is how he describes him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARRETT REED, FRIEND OF MARINE SKIP WELLS: I mean he loved this country. You know, his mama - his mama served in the military. His - I think - I believe she was a Marine also. So I figured he - I figured he just wanted to follow in her footsteps. I know he was in ROTC in high school. He loved that, you know. I just think, you know, that's his - a calling that he had.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FIELD: Two fallen Marines, both being mourned today, and two more Marines whose names have not yet been publically released, Fred.

[12:15:03] WHITFIELD: And then among the wounded, a sailor. What more do we know about that person?

FIELD: We had heard from Randall Smith's grandmother. She has said that it was her grandson, Randall Smith, who was wounded in that shooting. She says he was shot three times. He is the father of three children. She says that he was hit in the liver, the colon, and the stomach, that he spent the night in surgery and that today he is fighting for his life. His family very hopeful that he is going to recover from very serious injuries. They say that he was also instrumental in this investigation. He saw the shooter, tried to warn others, but was not able to get away, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Alexandra Field, thank you so much.

All right, the same day of that Chattanooga shooting, the jury in the Colorado theater shooting reached a verdict finding James Holmes guilty on all 165 counts against him. For the families of the victims, it's a decision three years in the making.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This isn't about a thing who indiscriminately kills and if you look at it, it would kill again if it was let out. And thank God the jury saw that and they saw it pretty quick, right? They saw it really quick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Alexander Teves died on July 20, 2012. He was just 24 years old. His father joins us with his reaction to the verdict, next.

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[12:20:00] WHITFIELD: All right, in the hours since the attack this Chattanooga, Tennessee, we have heard from the White House. Right now, a press briefing is underway right now. Josh Earnest at the microphone. Let's listen in.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president received a briefing yesterday both from the director of the FBI, as well as his top counterterrorism advisor here at the White House, Lisa Monaco, to get an update on the investigation. The attorney general, Loretta Lynch, is obviously involved in these ongoing investigative efforts.

At this point, I do not have an update on the status of their investigation. I know that the FBI made clear yesterday that they are looking at a variety of possible motives, including the possibility of domestic terrorism. So that is a part of their ongoing investigation, but I will allow the investigators themselves to provide you with an update when they're able to. The president indicated yesterday that he wanted to try to keep the American public informed as much as possible in a timely fashion on this ongoing investigation and I'm confident that our investigators will do exactly that.

QUESTION: What about information on whether anyone else was involved in the shooting?

EARNEST: Well, they're taking a look at all of these questions in the context of the investigation. I don't have additional information about that.

QUESTION: The army chief of staff said earlier today that security at military recruiting centers and reserve centers would be reviewed. Does the president think it's time to beef up security at those places like that?

EARNEST: Well, the president certainly believes it's appropriate for the Department of Defense to conduct a review like that. The president alluded to this in his statement yesterday, that it's important for us to take the necessary steps to ensure that our men and women in uniform are safe, particularly when it comes to our men and women in uniform here at home.

And there was an announcement from the Department of Homeland Security about some additional steps that they would be taking. There are some facilities that are jointly operated by the federal government and the Department of Defense where the Department of Homeland Security has jurisdiction. So I'd refer you to the Department of Homeland Security for additional steps that they can tell you about. There will be some steps I'm confident that they won't be able to discuss publicly. But it certainly makes sense that the Department of Defense would be considering doing something similar.

QUESTION: And then, lastly, the daily guidance for today included this rare line, that the president will remain overnight in New York, spend time with his daughters. Usually you only just say he's remaining overnight in New York. Can you flesh out the father/daughter weekend a little bit?

EARNEST: Yes. This is an opportunity - as you know, the president is and had been scheduled to travel to New York for a fund-raising event. That is not particularly unusual. But, yes, the president is looking forward to a rare opportunity that he'll have to spend a little personal time with his daughters in New York over the weekend. I don't anticipate that we'll have a lot of details in advance.

WHITFIELD: All right, at the White House there, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest reminding people that the president does believe that it's appropriate for the Department of Defense to review security. And we understand that the Pentagon has conducted an initial review of security at military bases and recruiting centers as a result of what took place yesterday with this gunman opening fire at the security and recruiting centers. And we have certainly heard from a number of people who have been questioning and wondering why is it these military men and women would not be armed given that they are in a very vulnerable situation now at these recruiting centers.

Let's check in now with Barbara Starr at the White House for the very latest on this initial security review that's been conducted and what is the conclusion?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka.

Well, you know, in the hours since Chattanooga, in fact, an initial security review was conducted. We're told there were no immediate recommendations for raising security levels. You know, you have two things you're dealing with here, military bases, which generally are more secure and are at a heightened state of security already. Recruiting centers, like in strip malls in Chattanooga. They are in busy civilian areas. You can't really arm the recruiters, we're told. The U.S. military does not arm itself against American civilians out on the city streets. So it would have to be law enforcement or private security.

A very difficult challenge because as we've talked about, these recruiting centers are supposed to be open to the public, inviting young Americans to come in and talk about having a military career. So what we know is they are reviewing taking a look at whether there's anything else they can do, but right now no immediate changes.

Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Barbara Starr, keep us posted. Thank you so much.

All right, another big story we continue to follow, the same jury that found Colorado theater shooter James Holmes guilty will also determine whether he lives or dies. The penalty phase in the trial starts next week and at the heart of the case 12 people who lost their lives, their loved ones and the 70 other people who were wounded. The scars are physical. There has been a psychological toll, a financial toll and certainly an emotional toll on so many as survivors and victims' families express their feelings about yesterday's verdict.

[12:25:20] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YOUSEF GHARBI, THEATER SHOOTING SURVIVOR: My body shuddered. I just felt flushed of everything. So much relief. That felt great.

JANSEN YOUNG, THEATER SHOOTING SURVIVOR: I felt so much relief. I just feel closure and a weight lifted that I didn't even know was there. SANDY PHILLIPS, JESSICA GHAWI'S MOTHER: We're very happy that this

animal, this monster will never see the light of day.

MARCUS WEAVER, THEATER SHOOTING SURVIVOR: It's been a long three years, you know, just to get to this point and this is just a steppingstone. There's still a whole other phase that we have to get to.

When you walk into a theater with an AR-15 shotgun, it - and you take lives like he did that night, what do we do as a society? How do we react to that? What is the proper penalty?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: While one man destroyed lives, another died trying to save the life of another. Alexander Teves risked his own life while shielding his girlfriend from gunfire. She honored him by changing her last name to Teves. Monday it will be three years since his death.

Tom Teves, Alex' father, joining me now from Centennial, Colorado.

Good to see you.

TOM TEVES, ALEXANDER TEVES' FATHER: Hi, how are you?

WHITFIELD: I know this has been an incredible roller coaster ride for you and your family. What was hearing that verdict like for you and hearing your son's name being read?

TEVES: It was good to hear the verdict. It's - you know, hearing my son's name being read? I wish I didn't hear my son's name being read. I wish I wasn't here.

But, you know, the thing is, that - that thing is a public menace and now I feel good that he'll be kept away from the public for the rest of his life so he can't kill again, because the defense attorney said in his closing that he still feels the same way today. He wants to kill. So thank God the jury did the right thing and they did it in record time, I would say. But they also took their time to look through it because if you think about the two people that were second degree murder, they were in the other theater. So it wasn't just a slam dunk as much as it might seem. They - they took their time and were thorough.

WHITFIELD: We're looking at these beautiful pictures of your son Alex and I know you wish his name never had to be read yesterday, but tell us about your son.

TEVES: Oh, Alex just - you know, we may not want to admit this, but if you think about what happened yesterday, there's a war between good and evil going on, and it's been going on since the beginning of time and Alex was pure good and this thing that's in jail is pure evil. You know, there's - there's - God said there's nothing a person can do but to lay down their life for a friend, and that's what Alex did. He was just the best kid ever. I mean he - I mean he - he did so many things in such a subtle way to make people get together and be friends. He was just terrific.

He - they had a thing in the school I like to tell people. He always wore a white T-shirt and blue jeans to school every day and Karen, my wife, asked him one day, why do you do that? And he says, because I don't want to take any sides. And they had a spirit day in senior year and everybody would have to buy these $10 blue T-shirts that talked about the school and Alex's year they doubled the price. So without even talking to Alex, they all decided to make spirit day into Alex Teves day and everybody wore white T-shirts. So I mean that's the kind of kid he was, you know? He was just a terrific kid.

WHITFIELD: Well, beautiful memories, and our hearts go out to you and other families who are experiencing the very same thing. Tom Teves, thank you so much.

TEVES: Take care.

WHITFIELD: All right, we'll be right back.

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