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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Oregon Campus Shooting. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired October 02, 2015 - 12:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:00:18] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DISPATCHER: Active shooter at UCC, 1140 Umpqua College Road.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He came in and there were gunfire immediately.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We all kind of ran different directions. I was just praying that I would a - I would make it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You could hear the people - you could hear them moving and crying.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was terrified. I have never been more terrified for my life ever.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We call our parents, our loved ones, you know, just saying the "I love yous" and, you know, we didn't know what was going to happen, if those were our last words or not.

OFFICER: He's exchanging shots with them. He's in a classroom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was an exchange of gunfire. The shooter is deceased.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me be very clear, I will not name the shooter. I will not give him the credit he probably sought.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our thoughts and prayers are not enough. It's not enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The sun is rising over Roseburg, Oregon, a beautiful community amid rolling hills, a bucolic surrounding, and yet the scene of such carnage, it is so incongruous with what happened here on a campus behind me in these hills yesterday. Coming up towards the 24 hour mark after a gunman charged through this campus leaving a wake of destruction, bodies and injured behind him. It is the worst school shooting in this state's history.

The flags by order of the governor will be flying at half-staff throughout this state today. All of this after 26-year-old Chris Harper-Mercer went about his business in the deadliest of ways, and yet, himself, lies dead today by his own gun or by the police is not clear at this time. The investigation continues into what made this young man tick, what made him do what he did. The investigation continuing also into how these victims died and why they died, where they died, how they died is such a macabre story. The victims now telling their stories, those who could speak before surgery, noting that he actually demanded to know their religions before executing them if they said Christian.

The tales just beginning to leak out to us to today, and we are now just under an hour until the next official news briefing by the sheriff here. We are counting down to that. CNN will, of course, bring that to you live. But that sheriff making news himself, John Hanlin, so angry yesterday, giving his news briefing about what had happened here and why he would not dare utter the killer's name.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF JOHN HANLIN, DOUGLAS COUNTY, OREGON: No, I don't. I don't want to glorify the shooter. I want don't want to glorify his name. I don't want to glorify his cause. And as - in order to prevent that, I'm - I'm refusing to state his name. The Oregon State Medical Examiner's Office will put out a notice identifying who the shooter is. But again, that's the only information that will come out. You won't hear his name from me or from this investigation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: The early forensics just getting underway about a mile up the road from where I am. But make no mistake, behind me is still an active crime scene, even out here at the highway.

I want to take you across town as well where my colleagues, Ana Cabrera and Sanjay Gupta, are standing by. Ana's at the public safety headquarters and Sanjay Gupta's at the Mercy Hospital with the updates on the victims.

First to you, Ana Cabrera. Give me a bit of a feel for where we're headed today in terms of what we expect in the next hour and where this investigation is headed.

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As we understand it, Ashleigh, right now in the building behind me the sheriff and the investigators are doing an internal briefing trying to update each other on what they have learned overnight. They've been working around the clock. About 100 investigators from federal, state and local law enforcement tracking leads, talking to family members, talking to friends of the shooter and, of course, collecting evidence in that extensive crime scene that we're told spans two different buildings and at least two classroom where is the victims were found both dead and alive.

We know nine people were killed by the shooter before the shooter lost his life. We also know there were at least nine others injured, suffering injuries ranging from gunshot wounds to the stomach, to the back, to the head and to the limbs. We're also starting to hear more stories about some of the survivors and what they experienced.

[12:05:02] Chris Mintz (ph), his family tells us, was shot seven times. He was in a neighboring classroom when the gunman opened fire, heard the gunshots and went toward the gunshots trying to stop what he could feel or sense was going to be a tragic situation. Again, he survived. So many others weren't so lucky.

We heard from another survivor who says she was in the class where she believed a lot of the fatalities happened, and that's where she said the gunman walked in, opened fire immediately, fired point blank at the professor before then turning the gun on the students, asking each individually if they were a Christian. And apparently, according to the father of this woman who survived, she told him that if you said "yes," that the gunman then said, "well, good, you're going to see your God." So, Ashleigh, we're hoping to get more information about those people who died, as well as what kind of motivation the shooter may have had to commit this crime.

I just spoke with the president of the university, interim president Rita Cavin, who tells me they do not believe the 26-year-old gunman was a current student at this community college. They're still looking into whether he was a student here in the past, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Ana, those critical stories, those critical accounts coming from the survivors of this horrifying carnage. And to that end, I want to go out to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, my colleague, who's standing by live at Mercy Hospital for an update on how these people are doing.

I mean just so remarkable that we have these survivors given the methodology carried out by this killer.

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No question about it. And just the way that he was trying to shoot these people, how close he was to them. We're about five miles away from you and Ana right now, Ashleigh, just to give you an idea of what transpired here. I talked to the chief medical officer. They say they got - they were monitoring the radios and monitoring the scanners. They got about a 10 to 15-minute notice before the patients started to arrive.

Look, this is a small town. This is a relatively small hospital. Ten to 15 minutes is not very much notice for the number of patients that were to come in here. And, in fact, it was 10 patients that originally came in. One patient died in the emergency room itself, nine more patients actually were being cared for in this hospital yesterday. And it just gives you an idea again of what was happening.

You know, and in some ways, because it's a small town, so many people, they tell me, just came to help. In fact, I asked the chief medical officer about that specifically, how do they put it all together, how do they make it all work? Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JASON GRAY, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, MERCY MEDICAL CENTER: I've got to give kudos to the medical staff and the staff and the community, how people who were on their days off came in. Physicians, retired physicians called up, retired physicians showed up wanting to volunteer their service. Physicians canceled their days. The emergency responders, the pastoral staff who came in to volunteer their services, you know, those are the anecdotes that are really pretty amazing that shows, even though something -

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: It just goes to show you, Ashleigh, just, you know, what happens in a small town like this, that people just started to hear about what had happened, they started to go to the hospital, offering their services, and I think - look, I think a lot of people probably were able to survive that may not have otherwise survived because of those additional resources.

We do know, Ashleigh, three patients were transferred from this hospital. This is not the sort of hospital that has specialty-type surgery available. Three women we understand between the ages of 18 and 34, who had all had gunshot wounds to the head, were transferred to a hospital about an hour away from here, about 65 or 66 miles away from here. So they are being cared for over there. They are still in critical but stable condition, we're hearing. And we're hearing another patient may be discharged from this hospital even as early as today. So some potentially good news in all that, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Well, Sanjay, keep us posted. Our hearts and our thoughts and prayers not only go out to those family members of the victims' who lost their lives, but the prayers certainly going out for those who are trying to battle for theirs and for their health and safety as well. Sanjay Gupta reporting for us. Thank you for that.

There are more victims in this shooting. Those who perhaps did not end up being hit by a bullet, but were certainly party to this carnage, whether hearing it, seeing it or escaping it. And to that end I want to bring in a couple of guests right now who are kind enough to join me.

Christina Cobb, you're 17 years old. This is your fourth day, I think, at this community college. Your mom is here with you. I want you to just help me get through what you processed over the last 24 hours having heard these shots in the classroom next door and now knowing what actually transpired.

SARAH COBB, UMPQUA COLLEGE FRESHMAN: It - it's an awful feeling knowing that that happened. I - Immediately as i contacted my mom, she said, Sarah, I love you. I love you. And I was able to console her and tell her I was all right, but all the commotion and everything, I just didn't know what to think about - I don't know what to think. I never - I never would think something like this would happen in such a small little town like this.

[12:10:18] BANFIELD: Christina, I can't imagine getting that call from your daughter. Have you even been able to process what you've been through?

CHRISTINA COBB, SARAH COBB'S MOTHER: Not completely. It was - it was an abrupt quick text from her when I first got the first notification from her. And it wasn't her phone number, because all of her belongings were - were left behind. So we - we've just been contacted through that - another student's phone number. So that's - that's how I found out. So I was completely beside myself and worried. BANFIELD: Sarah, some of the accounts are that students, certainly who

were in the classrooms that were directly targeted, their belongings are scattered everywhere and that students who were in adjacent classrooms, like yours, who could hear these shots and could see the kids running, your belongings are scattered as well. But take me back to that moment and - and what immediately went through your mind and what action you took immediately?

S. COBB: What I initially - when we first - first heard the initial gunshot, I thought maybe it was like a textbook or a desk ramming into the wall or something like that. And other students were thinking the same thing. And so I was looking around and my parents have always told me from a young age, be alert, be aware of your surroundings, and so that's what I was doing, I was looking around, seeing if things were going on. And the teacher - we could hear all the commotion going on in the room next to our, and there's a door that leads to that room that connects the two and she to go open it, and then she pulls her hand back and she's like - she just says, are you OK? Is everyone all right? What's happening?

And I see these two girls running out of the building and I realize, that was a gunshot. We need to get out of this building. And I let the teacher know, we've got to go. Open the door, we have the leave. And that's when I heard the third - second - second and third gunshots. And about that time, I was out of the door and I was sprinting as far away from the area that I could get. If I had taken the other direction, I probably would have been in the middle of all the gunfire.

BANFIELD: And now that you know what was happening on the other side of that door, are you able to even think of this at this point? Are you able to processes this? Are you - are you realizing how incredibly lucky you are?

S. COBB: I am so lucky. It - it brings - sorry. It brings such a greater appreciation for life and I couldn't be more thankful.

BANFIELD: Christina, I cannot imagine how you're thinking, how close your daughter was to this danger.

C. COBB: Oh, I was beside myself. I didn't know what to think. I just immediately sent a plea out for prayers on social media and contacted my parents to let them know what was going on as well.

BANFIELD: And school is closed until Monday, but Monday is not long from now. How are you going to manage and are you going to go back and how will you feel?

S. COBB: At this point, I'm not sure how long it will take me before I can go back there. I mean I was almost involved with it. It was right on the other side of the door and on the other side of the wall and it could have been me.

BANFIELD: What about your thoughts about her returning?

C. COBB: I'll take her - she'll take the lead. I'll be with her if she needs me to be. I'll attend her classes if I need to, to be right with her.

BANFIELD: Well, I am so thankful that you came out to talk to us today and I really do wish you, you know, health and well-being as you try to navigate through what you've been through. It is not easy. And you have also joined a club that many Americans, unfortunately, have joined unwillingly. And thank you for telling your story today. I appreciate it.

S. COBB: Thank you.

C. COBB: Thank you.

BANFIELD: Thank you so much.

And that is the story that the president has been saying as well, that this is now all too often just routine, the number of shootings that we have had to endure in this country.

I'll have those numbers for you, actually, coming up shortly, but I also wanted to tell you a little bit about some of those stories from inside those two classrooms, two buildings, 10 minutes, nine victims, 10 if you count that shooter. The harrowing account of what he did moment to moment demanding people stand up and answer his question "are you Christian?" Those stories are coming up next.

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[12:17:48] BANFIELD: Welcome back. We're continuing our live coverage. I'm Ashleigh Banfield, reporting from Roseburg, Oregon.

And if you haven't heard of Roseburg, Oregon, before, get ready to hear about it a lot because it's joining the ranks of other communities that have names that will live in infamy, sadly. The Columbines, the Paducahs, the Jonesboros. This is a community absolutely reeling after a gunman, just 26-years-old, wielding three short-arm firearms and one rifle rampaged through a campus just up in these beautiful bucolic hills that could not be more incongruous a sight, the beauty and the quite of this community, completely shattered by the evils of what this man did.

Nine victims, 10 if you include his body that lay dead after the killing, but we don't know yet if the police killed him or if he killed himself. We're still waiting on a lot of details, and we're hoping to get some of those details when the sheriff, at the top of the hour, holds yet another official news briefing.

The information is scatter shot at this point because this is a forensics scene, and it is massive. I must mentioned that the college is about 0.8 mile this way, but the crime scene starts right here, right behind me. Effectively, they're leaving no stone unturned, and there is a lot to go through, two buildings, two classrooms, and all of those victims.

And the stories that are coming from the victims, those who survived, are nothing short of bone-chilling. Our Jean Casarez stands by live now with some of the accounts. And, Jean, I want you to walk me through, one of these survivors,

Anastasia Boylan, who told her father before she went into surgery to have a bullet removed from her back, a, how she survived, and then, b, Jean, what she saw and heard happening all around her in the classroom.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Ashleigh, she is so descriptive. She's, obviously, in the hospital, but she's spoken with her father. How did she survive? Her family is saying that she just laid there and played like she was dead, even though she had been shot in the back. And the question is, what is the state of mind of this shooter at the point of time when he's in that classroom? Well, Anastasia's father spoke with Anastasia in the hospital, as I said, very descriptively she described exactly what happened. Listen.

[12:20:09] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STACY BOYLAN, ANASTASIA BOYLAN'S FATHER: He came in and there were gunfire immediately and scattered the room, got everyone's attention. He, from what I understood what she said is - is he shot the professor point blank, right, one shot, killed him, took him right out of it. And others had been injured. And then he - this man had enough time, I don't know how much time elapsed before he was able to stand there and start asking people one by one what their religion was. "Are you a Christian?," he would ask them. And if you're a Christian, stand up. And they would stand up. And he said, good, because you're a Christian, you're going to see God in just about one second. And then he shot and killed them. And he kept going down the line doing this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: And Anastasia also told her father that he did the shooting by one of the - with one of the pistols. And when he'd run out of bullets, he'd take the magazine out, put a new magazine in filled with bullets and then keep shooting.

And as far as Anastasia, she was in surgery last night. The bullet that went in her back traveled down to the base of her spine, next to a nerve, Ashleigh, and the surgeon told her father that he was concerned because the bullet was lodged so close to the nerve that potentially there could be neurological damage. So it was a very, very concerning surgery that she had last night.

BANFIELD: Her story is so unbearable, the fact that she was playing dead and could hear the gunman screaming, asking each person on the floor to stand up and answer what their religion was. And he yelled, blonde woman, stand up. Blonde woman, meaning her, and she just played dead. Do we know at this point if she's - if she's going to be OK, apart from the fact there may be this neurological damage, is she going to come out of surgery OK? She's not one of the critical, is she, Jean?

CASAREZ: She's not one of the critical. We don't know what her condition is at this point. But her family wanted her story out because they - they see the hero she is. Her brother is a student at the very same school and he called her when she was on the floor, and the medical attention hadn't come yet, and she - he was talking to her and she was saying, I was shot in the back and I can't feel my legs.

BANFIELD: Oh, God, imagine the call from her brother. Jean Casarez with just astounding details. Thank you for that. Continue to update us when you learn more about Anastasia and also the others as well.

We are also just moments away, as I said, from an official update from the sheriff's office. We've been getting these periodic updates as to the investigation and the circumstances involving the victims and their family members and the notifications, et cetera. But coming up after the break, I'll be able to speak with one of the county commissioners as well. And make no mistake, there may be more media on scene here than county commissioners. This is such a small community. How are they coping? How are they managing? And who is helping? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:26:45] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tries to block the door to keep the gunman from coming in, gets shot three times, hits the floor, looks up at the gunman and says, it's my son's birthday today. Gets shot two more times -

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he's going to have to learn to walk again, but he walked away with his life, and that's more than so many other people did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Family members of Chris Mintz (ph), an Army veteran, shot seven times by this killer, yet he survived. And his story is nothing less than absolutely heroic. He tried to bar that killer from getting in the room, tried to block his gunfire. Down on the ground he begged for mercy saying it's my son's birthday today, and the killer showed no merry, continuing to fire, but Chris survived and he will have more to tell as he recovers from his injuries. His family says he has two broken leg and will have to learn to walk again, but he survived seven bullets.

I also want to turn now to Douglas County Commissioner Chris Boice, who's kind enough to join me right now live from the public safety headquarters.

Mr. Boice, is there anything that you can tell us to update the investigation at this point, and the forensics collections of what's happening behind me up at the college?

CHRIS BOICE, DOUGLAS COUNTY COMMISSIONER: I know that the investigators are working diligently at the scene. I'm not part of that investigation. I don't have any new information as far as how well that investigation is progressing.

BANFIELD: And what about manpower? This is a very small community. I think here about 22,000 people in the town of Roseburg. Do you have the kind of manpower that you need in your sheriffs and your local police, your investigators, even the morgue situation?

BOICE: We do. We actually have a tremendous amount of support from outside of our community pouring in as well. We've got investigators on the scene from the Oregon State Police investigative unit, from the FBI, from the U.S. Marshals' office and, obviously, our own law enforcement working at the scene as well.

BANFIELD: And then, of course, from the technical, there is the emotional. I cannot imagine, in a town as small as this, there won't be everyone down to the last person affected in some way by this. Everyone's going to know someone who was affected by this.

BOICE: That's very true. We have a very tight-knit, very small, rural community. And when the dust settles on this thing, rest assured that everyone in our community is going to find out that they're very close to someone involved in this incident. And it's tragic. It's one of the - obviously one of the worst days that I have had to serve as a county commissioner. It's been very difficult.

BANFIELD: You know, we - we cover these stories all too often, commissioner, and we often, if not always, hear the same refrain, and that is, I just never thought it could happen in a place like this. And I'm looking around and it couldn't be more true of this community. But this is now your new reality.

[12:30:02] BOICE: It is. And we did feel exactly the same way. You know, we have a - a very tight-knit community. It's kind of - the kind of place where most everybody knows everybody else. And you see this sort of thing on the news, unfortunately,