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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Police Update on Louisiana Theater Shooting; Two Young Women Killed in Theater Rampage; Teachers' Heroism Helps Save Lives; Learning from the Incident. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired July 24, 2015 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00] CHIEF JIM CRAFT, LOUISIANA POLICE: As quickly as our crime scene processor can get it to us but they have to be, as I said, very slow and deliberate and so that information is slow in coming. So now we've -- we'll really get into the nuts and bolts of an investigation and trying to put all the pieces together and hopefully we get a picture or more valid profile of who this guy is and why was he here.

We know he had some contacts early on in the city with some businesses but, you know, nothing that would have alerted anyone to think maybe we need to call law enforcement about this fellow or anything like that. So it's going to be really slow now. Slow going from this point forward.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you have a better picture of (INAUDIBLE)?

CRAFT: No, we don't. But we saw some stuff that was posted and we -- the Fusion Center is helping us get that information so that we can get an accurate picture. We're being very cautious with social media because of the amount of speculation and embellishment that sometimes takes place and of course anything we see on there we're going to have to confirm and make sure it's accurate.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you know where he purchased the gun that he used?

CRAFT: Not yet, but that is in process through the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms focus.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Did we know if he had (INAUDIBLE)?

CRAFT: We don't think he applied for one in the state of Louisiana. We're not sure if he had one in the state of Alabama.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Did he have a cell phone or laptop? Who, if anybody, did he communicate with?

CRAFT: We found some cell phones in the theater. We're not sure if they're his. Cell phones did not have batteries in them and were not functioning.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Did the officers that responded, were they on detail at the theater?

CRAFT: No, actually the officers that responded were on duty, they just happened to be right here on this property and within 60 seconds or less we had four officers who made entry into the theater to engage. We feel that when he spotted those officers or exited out that door there was a place car parked right there. He retreated back into the theater and that's when he self-inflicted.

Melinda, following up on that gun question, I think the concern as investigators is that -- was he by himself, was somebody else with him? Did somebody else buy the gun? All those things are important. We're trying to pull that together because that is indicative and we've got to look at some other things in this, that's why it's taken a little bit longer to actually find out how -- what were the particulars in the purchasing and what brought that gun to his possession. A lot of different things that could happen there.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How will you determine where he purchased it?

CRAFT: We got some information but not everything.

(CROSSTALK)

CRAFT: Because of the brand of weapon it is, it's more difficult to trace that type of weapon than it is other types.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: If this were asked already, I apologize. Does the theater have surveillance? How much was reported? How much did that help your investigation? And his demeanor, if he was in (INAUDIBLE) upon entering the theater?

CRAFT: The theater does have surveillance. It's near the ticket counter. He walked in just like any other patron, purchased a ticket to watch the movie and it didn't set off any alarms with anybody. He wasn't acting any different than any other person who was in line to get their ticket.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you have an update on the conditions of the people that were still injured? We haven't gotten any updates.

CRAFT: No, we have one in critical condition. We have two who were released and the other folks are still hospitalized. We have not identified those victims just for safety precautions and as soon as they are able to, we will be interviewing them and trying to obtain additional information.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Including the person that's critical, how many victims are still in the hospital as we speak?

CRAFT: Seven.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Out of the 12 that were shot?

CRAFT: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Was he pointing the gun at anybody directly or was he just shooting aimlessly into seats at the theater based on witness statements?

CRAFT: He did both.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

CRAFT: Because of the brand. The type of brand. I don't know if ATF wants to release that at this time.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So there were 13 shots? They shot 12 bullets and then himself?

CRAFT: That's what it would look like. We found 13 shell casings. But as I said the walls are carpeted. That makes it difficult to find bullet holes and other physical evidence so they have to go very slow.

[12:05:12] They've located at least 13 shell casings thus far. We don't anticipate having another update until later on this afternoon possibly around 5:00 p.m. We have some investigation activities that we need to do and that our crime scene people need to do and finish up so I want to let you all know that our next update will probably be some time around 5:00 p.m. And we will get that word out to you as soon as we decide on any exact time. Thank you.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right, I'm Poppy Harlow, this is LEGAL VIEW. I'm in today for Ashleigh Banfield. And I just want to recap for you what we just heard in this press conference held by Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft. He said there were 300 people in that movie theater at the time of the shooting last night.

To update you on the victims, he said one is still in critical condition, two have been released from the hospital, the others are still hospitalized. They are not releasing the names of victims at this point in time, of course. Two people were killed in this tragic shooting.

Also 116 people have already been interviewed by the police since this shooting happened just around 7:30 local time last night. They are still searching for a motive. What could have driven this man to carry out this horrific act? They say his car was outside of the movie theater, the keys were on top of the tire, as you know, he had been planning to try to escape but then when authorities approached he went back inside the movie theater and took his own life.

The fire alarm was pulled by a true hero after this shooting, alerting authorities to it. There is at this point no indication the authorities have any accomplices that this man was working with at with anyone else. They also gave us a little more detail about his life and what he was experiencing saying his mother had loaned him money to try to pull his life together.

In terms of tips and what the authorities are working off of right now, they said they're being very cautious in terms of social media because of all the speculation out there. They are scouring any social presence that he had online for indications. They do say that he did have some contacts in the area, in the Lafayette, Louisiana, area, but nothing that would have alerted police, nothing that would have alerted police to be on the lookout for him. Again, just to recap, the victims right now, one in critical

condition, two released from the hospital, the rest are still hospitalized, and those two people were killed in this shooting last night.

We continue to follow the developments of this, yet another tragic mass shooting in this country. This one carried out by a middle aged Alabama man that police call a drifter who fired 13 rounds from a handgun in that movie theater last night.

John Russel Houser, killing two young women, wounding nine other people, and though police say he apparently intended to flee, he did shoot himself as the officers arrived. He was 59 years old and within the past hour we've learned that he had been treated for mental health issues in 2008. He was also denied a concealed carry permit in 2006 and we've learned that he was evicted from his home in Alabama in March of last year.

Police also searching this motel room that he was apparently staying in right there in Lafayette. They found wigs, glasses, other things meant to be a disguise. What they haven't found any indication of yet, though, is a motive or, frankly, why he was there in that city at all.

Witnesses say the 7:10 showing of "Train Wreck" was just getting started when he stood up in the theater and he opened fire. Police say two officers happened to be on site at the time. Of course, many others quickly followed. Ambulances arrived in six minutes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Lafayette Police has the Grand 16 on Johnson Street on lockdown. And it's completely barricaded off and there have been multiple people transported via ambulance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We saw a lady with blood all over her leg. I just grabbed my child and then we just all ran.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We heard three shots. Not very loud but it was definitely three shots, so like what was that. When we walked around to the front of the theater, there was a woman on the foot. She had been shot in the leg.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Heard all the sirens and people coming out and chaos, basically.

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL R-LOUISIANA: Last night was a hard breaking night. I visited with family members who had rushed to the emergency room hoping and praying to God that it wasn't their loved one, it wasn't their child who had been shot.

CRAFT: This is such a senseless, tragic act. Why would you come here and do something like this?

KEITH PATIN, LAFAYETTE CITY-PARISH COUNCILMAN: It's something that we see that happens somewhere else on the national news. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Hard to make sense of it, isn't it? And I can

see the emotion in your face.

PATIN: Sure is.

[12:10:01] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How does the happiest place in the world produce somebody so full of, you know, hate and evil to just stand up in a movie theater and start shooting people? What provoked him that he did do that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: And that is absolutely the biggest question any time we see something like this. Why? Why did this happen? What sparked the rampage?

Ed Lavandera is live in Lafayette outside of the theater with more and what we're learning to know. I mean, just in the last hour, Ed, we learned a lot more about this man.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the initial pieces I think that investigators are -- that will send investigators down a path of trying to piece together this man's life to offer some sort of explanation for the motive in this attack. And what is interesting is just how very little information, even though they were able to quickly identified the gunman here last night in Lafayette, they had very little information.

At about 4:30 this morning Central Time they ended up at a motel not too far away from here along Interstate 10 where authorities say that John Russel Houser had started to move into earlier this month. So he hadn't been in the Lafayette area very long but they were searching through there. That's what they talked about finding the wigs and disguises that obviously painted kind of a troubling picture of exactly what this man must have been up to or just trying to piece together just how much planning went into this attack.

As you mentioned briefly there at the very beginning we're also from his hometown of Phoenix City, Alabama, which is just across the Georgia border from the city of Columbus, we have details about how he was treated for mental health issues back in 2008 and 2009. In the state of Alabama he had applied for a concealed handgun license which was denied because of an issue with a criminal charge of arson on his background.

So clearly a lot of troubling details that are starting to emerge that investigators will be using to piece together the mental health of this gunman and just exactly what kind of details that might be able to offer them in putting together a motive. And one of the things I think I found interesting as well as going back to just how little information they really had about him. And putting out the calls as you heard some of these investigators talk about over the course of the last hour about how they've put owl calls and they've started receiving calls from area businesses and people in the area that have seen him.

HARLOW: Right.

LAVANDERA: And we talked to one state police officer who said that one of the things that they'll be doing is going to some of these businesses looking at surveillance video trying to piece together who they were talking to, and what their movements were -- what his movements were like.

HARLOW: Yes. Absolutely. Ed Lavandera, thank you very much for the reporting.

And I just wanted to read all of you some of the posts that have been found online from him on a political web site called "Political Forum." He says in his bio, quote, "believe us, we will be mad max in less than five years." He also writes this about family. "no family is safe in U.S. environment."

Again, these are just early stages of the investigation. But as you can see that's sort of contributing to what sort of state of mind he may have been in.

Of the two young women who were killed last night, police say one died instantly, the other one passed away at the hospital.

CNN's Boris Sanchez here with me with much more on these two young beautiful lives.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Poppy, just such a tragedy. We're learning more about the two victims this morning, 21-year-old Mayci Breaux and 33-year-old Jillian Johnson.

We're learning Mayci was from Franklin, a small town about an hour south east of Lafayette. She was at the theater with her boyfriend and officials confirmed to us this morning that they believe she and her boyfriend were sitting directly in front of the shooter before he decided to open fire.

You mentioned Mayci died on the scene. Her boyfriend was also shot. He remains in the hospital. Jillian Johnson also shot there. She died at the hospital. She ran a boutique in Lafayette. And we're told she was a lively member of the community, someone who was a musician, had a local band, she ran the boutique with her husband Jason.

In all this tragedy, though, some acts of heroism.

HARLOW: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Two teachers who were on the scene, Jena Meaux and Ali Martin. One of those women diving in front of the other one, taking a bullet for her friend then running to a fire alarm and pulling the fire alarm trying to alert others.

HARLOW: Right.

SANCHEZ: To what was going on.

HARLOW: And that's how the police said today that they learned about it.

SANCHEZ: Right.

HARLOW: Thanks to that --

SANCHEZ: That fire alarm. Law enforcement officials telling us that likely saved plenty of lives in that theater.

HARLOW: That's amazing. All right, Boris, thank you very much. We always learn about those amazing people in situations like this.

Coming up after the break, we are going to talk to Cammie Maturo, and she is a friend of both of those hero teachers, one a librarian, one an English teacher, gone far too soon. But we're going to learn more about them next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:18:15] HARLOW: All right, more breaking news on that movie theater shooting last night in Louisiana. We have just learned in the past few moments that the shooter John Russel Houser was a student at Faulkner University. He graduated in 1998 from the Jones School of Law.

Two high school teachers, Jena Meaux and Ali Martin are being called heroes for what they did in the theater last night as those bullets rang out. One woman shielding the other, the other able to pull the fire alarm despite being not in the foot.

Joining me now is Cammie Maturo, she is not only a friend of both of them, she also teaches with them. Jena is a librarian and Ali is an English teacher.

What amazing people. You never know in a moment like that how you're going react, what you're going to do. And that is really when your true self comes through.

CAMMIE MATURO, FRIEND OF HEROIC TEACHERS: Yes, ma'am, I agree with you. They actually did exactly what we were trained to do as teachers is protect one another and protect our kids in the classroom and do whatever we can to let others know something is happening, and for Ali to know exactly where that fire alarm was, was a great deal. It's made me more aware of where I go out in public to know where the alarms are, security, the exit doors. It makes you more aware because she did what we are taught. That their teachings went into effect.

HARLOW: Yes.

MATURO: What they're being taught as a teacher.

HARLOW: That's a very good point. I know later today you're heading to the hospital to visit them. Can you tell me how they're doing right now? How Jena, how Ali are doing both physically and also just emotionally?

MATURO: Well, I'm not going to comment too much on that. I told the families that I would leave that up to them, but I can tell you they're doing the best they can in this kind of tragedy.

[12:20:11] It's senseless and it's a tragedy. And they're both strong women but they are also human beings who have just been put through a whole lot of trauma in a split second. And --

HARLOW: I'm sorry, continue. No, go ahead.

MATURO: It just -- it shows exactly who they are. I have switched schools and teach at the elementary now, but I taught with Jena and Ali for about four or five years and have --

HARLOW: You know, it looks like we lost Cammie Maturo in there. She was joining us by Skype and sometimes that technology just cuts out. But you heard what she said, she thought with both of those hero teachers and she said exactly who they are as teachers kicked in last night and authorities say they certainly saved lives by acting in the quick way that they did.

Coming up next, three years ago to this week we witnessed another mass shooting at another movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. Next, a family member of one of the victims, a 24-year-old. We'll share his thoughts on what happened last night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. We're following the latest development in a tragedy in Lafayette, Louisiana. Another American community, another mass shooting with innocent people killed and injured by a man with a gun.

We are learning now a protective order that was filed in 2008, the shooter, John Russel Houser's family said he had a, quote, "history of mental issues, i.e. manic depression and-or bipolar disorder."

[12:25:11] Also his wife at the time was so worried about his mental state she removed all of the guns from their home. And then they had him involuntarily committed to a mental facility. That order, though, was lifted in 2009.

Still so many questions here. How did he get the gun is a big one.

City Councilman Kenneth Boudreaux joins me now. He's from Lafayette City-Parish. Thank you for being with me very much. Still several people are in the hospital, we've learned one in critical condition. What can you tell us about how they're doing?

KENNETH BOUDREAUX, LAFAYETTE, LOUISIANA CITY COUNCIL CHAIRMAN: Actually, the one in critical condition is doing better. Latest reports indicate that improvements are being made. Our community is actually healing as we speak. The resiliency of Lafayette is being shown immediately and we just thank God for all the outreach from other communities. I've heard from our mayor down in Baton Rouge, our capital city, he sends his prayers and strength from his community and so many of my colleagues from throughout the country so we're doing well. Considering the circumstances, we're doing well.

HARLOW: I'm glad to hear that and I'm glad to hear that person in critical condition is doing a little bit better at this hour.

I want you to listen to what one of your fellow community members said, Keith Patton, a council member on the Lafayette City-Parish saying this morning on "NEW DAY."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATIN: It's terrible. You know, we're used to dealing with natural types of catastrophes, hurricanes, stuff like that. But nothing like this.

Being on the local government here, we often pass ordinances and laws continually, but I think a big part of the issue is to have vigorous enforcement of the laws we do have. I think that's a place where we could be more proficient and efficient, to pay more attention to that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Kenneth, do you agree with him that really what you've got to look at now as a community is more vigorous enforcement of the laws that are already in the books?

BOUDREAUX: Well, part of it is the laws that are on the books but in addition to that, like you've been covering, we have to look at the mental health, the mental condition of some of the people who access guns, although we are on a local level I think that we have a bigger issue here and that's an issue that the president has been trying to address since he's been in office and that's access to guns, especially people with mental illness.

You know, so I agree with Councilman Patin that we need to do a better job of executing on laws that are in place but we're going to need some additional things to limit gun access for those who should not have guns.

This is not our first experience, maybe Councilman Patin's first experience with this type of thing, but I'll tell you in my district in Lafayette we have three unsolved murders this year in 2015. We have an additional fourth unsolved murder dating back to last year so gun violence is very prevalent in my community, this just adds to it, and at the end of the day we're going to have to address that issue.

So the laws that are on the books, do well by them but we have to be vigilant and look at new laws and see what it's going to take to make our community safer.

HARLOW: Do you think it will happen? It seems like the same conversation that this country has after every mass shooting. Are you hopeful anything will change?

BOUDREAUX: I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful and I have faith that it's going to be a matter of time before something good happens, some real change takes place. And let me be very clear. People will tell you, everyone you're going to interview here in Louisiana going to talk about we're a gamesman state and how we are a recreational state. And I myself, I hunt, I fish, I enjoy those recreational

opportunities. But one thing I make clear to people is that guns in the woods of Mississippi, the mountains of Montana, and in our fields as we hunt our game is totally different than guns in our neighborhoods and in our communities and then access into our theaters and into our schools and our public facilities. So we have to just get real with this conversation and address the real issue and stop sugarcoating and make sure that we're talking about the real thing. And that's public safety.

HARLOW: All right, Councilman Kenneth Boudreaux, thank you very much. I am so sorry that you all are going through this.

BOUDREAUX: Thank you. Thank you.

HARLOW: Thank you for being with me.

Well, the shooting in Louisiana brings up horrific memories of three years ago to the week. The Aurora, Colorado, movie theater shooting that claimed 12 lives and injured 70 more. A father of one of those victims is with me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)