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Suspect Arrested after Three Killed in Shooting; France Honors Terror Attack Victims; Belgium City Seeks to Change Jihadist Reputation; Ugandan Man Inspired to Build a "Popemobile". Aired 12- 12:30a ET
Aired November 28, 2015 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Another deadly U.S. shooting: three people killed, including a police officer, at an attack at a women's health clinic.
Don't play with fire: Turkey's stern warning to Russia but Moscow is making threats of its own after its fighter jet was shot down.
And we will tell you what kind of welcome Pope Francis received in Uganda, the last leg of his trip to Africa.
And hello, everyone. This is CNN NEWSROOM, live from Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.
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ALLEN: We begin in Colorado where three people are dead, including a police officer. Many more were shot. This after a gun battle erupted inside a women's health clinic. Police say a 59-year-old gunman opened fire inside a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs Friday morning.
Authorities told people in the area to stay inside as officers exchanged fire with the gunman. The standoff went on for six hours before police arrested the suspect.
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LT. CATHERINE BUCKLEY, COLORADO SPRINGS POLICE DEPARTMENT: We did get officers inside of the building at the Planned Parenthood and the officers were able to shout to the suspect and make communication with him.
And at that point, they were able to get him to surrender. He was taken into custody. There were 11 people that were transported to local hospitals. Of those 11 people, five of them were police officers from various agencies that have responded today.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ALLEN: Police now say the five wounded officer and four civilians are expected to survive. In fact, they are all listed in good condition after being shot.
The officer killed was this man, 44-year-old Garrett Swasey, a six- year veteran of the University of Colorado police force there in Colorado Springs. CNN's Kyung Lah has more now on how this all unfolded.
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KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The first calls came in at 11:38 local time. Reports of a man with a gun from inside the Planned Parenthood building in Colorado Springs. Police quickly arrive on scene and are soon fired upon from inside the building. At least four officers are wounded.
DENISE, WITNESS: We saw officers fly into the parking lot with their lights on and everything. And then we saw them pass our shop and go over behind the Chase Bank, which is next door and then there were officers everywhere in the whole perimeter.
And then we saw one of the officers that was behind the Chase Bank go -- we heard several gunshots and then we saw one of the officers go down behind his car. And then the other officer helped him to safety and then --
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You saw -- Denise, you saw the officer go down. You saw an officer get shot?
DENISE: Yes. Yes. It was terrifying.
LAH (voice-over): The area of the shooting, which is heavily populated with shops and traffic, quickly shuts down. Business owners and customers told to shelter in place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were told to go back to our cars. And that's when a bullet cracked over my head and hit the stop sign on my left side and I just kind of flipped a switch and tried to do crowd control and get people back to their cars as fast as they could.
LAH (voice-over): At this point, police do not know if this is a single shooter or if more are involved. Law enforcement set up a perimeter around the building. The FBI, ATF and bomb squads also on the scene.
Those who are able to escape the Planned Parenthood building are quickly taken to safety but the gunman remains inside. And hours after the first call came in, the gunman is still firing on officers. Police are unsure how many civilians are wounded and how many remain inside the building. It has become a potential hostage situation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have not transported everyone to the hospital at this point. We are still working through the situation. LAH (voice-over): Police are tracking the gunman's every move inside the building. They are not only concerned that there may be hostages but also because of the possibility of explosive devices the gunman may have brought with him into the building before he began his assault.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (from captions): He is sitting in a chair right behind that counter with an AK. He's looking up at the ceiling; white male, trenchcoat, looks like maybe a beard. He's looking around but he's still sitting. He's got the gun at low ready position.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (from captions): He's walking down the hallway. Guns at his waist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (from captions): Which way he is walking?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (from captions): Directly toward the lobby.
LAH (voice-over): Finally, just before 5:00 pm local time, the suspect is cornered and surrenders to police, his ties to Planned Parenthood and his motives still unclear.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (from captions): He's going to come out with his hands up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (from captions): We got to take him out if he has any IEDs of suspicion on him.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (from captions): Are we in the way of the snipers?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (from captions): We have one suspect detained right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (from captions): OK. Good job.
LAH (voice-over): Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.
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ALLEN: For more now, here are people who were in the area when the shooting began. They describe what they heard and saw.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But she stopped by and said for us to get out of here but that there was a sniper and then the cops. We just kept trying to walk straight. And the cop was like, get out of here. There's a shooter. And they got their guns out and they kneeled down and they started evacuating people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw the initial officer as we pulled in, ducking behind his car. His face was bloodied. He didn't want anybody close to him. He told us to move out of there. We did and that's when we parked in front of the building next door, not knowing they were locked down.
They wouldn't let us in. And then we returned to the car, that's when the gunshots were zinging around.
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ALLEN: Here's the background now on Planned Parenthood. The nonprofit organization says it is the largest provider of reproductive health services in the U.S., providing sex education, contraception, breast and cervical cancer screenings, HIV screenings and abortions.
It operates about 700 clinics across the U.S. and estimates that 2.7 million patients visit its facilities each year. The organization says only 3 percent of the services it provides are abortions and that 80 percent of its clients receive services to prevent unintended pregnancy.
Joining me now are CNN law enforcement analyst Cedric Alexander here at the CNN Center and Steve Moore, a former supervisory special agent for the FBI. He's coming to us live via Skype from Los Angeles.
Thank you both for joining us.
Cedric, I'll start with you since you're here in the studio.
What do you make of the fact that this shooting went on for so many hours before the suspect suddenly gave up?
Apparently he was cornered.
CEDRIC ALEXANDER, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, first, let me say our hearts and prayers go out to those who lost their lives and those who are injured and we certainly pray for them to have a speedy recovery.
In an incident such as this, as you well know, it started out very violent. A number of people were injured. There was a reported exchange of gunfire between officers and the subject as well, too.
So subsequently what ended up happening throughout about a five- or six-hour ordeal, he decided to give up without any further incident. So that's good news. But unfortunately there was loss of life and severe injuries tonight.
ALLEN: But why do you think, after so long, he suddenly gives up?
ALEXANDER: Well, it is kind of hard to tell. You would think at the beginning of this -- and I pretty much had predicted that this would end in a shootout and they would have end up neutralizing that target, being the subject himself.
But whatever may have come over him, he made the right decision to give up.
Now what's important here, the information that's going to be ascertained from him as to, one, why did you do this? Two, who else may have been involved in helping this planning and
staging this unfortunate incident?
And also it gives us a lot of history into his mind and where he's from and what's his thoughts and ideologies may happen to be, whether it surrounds this clinic or whether it surrounds some other issues such as mental illness, whatever the case he may be struggling with.
ALLEN: Planned Parenthood certainly has been the subject of attacks due to the abortion issue in this country. But we do not know this suspect's motives.
Let's go to you, Steve, in L.A.
What do you make of the fact that this went on for so long? They didn't quite know what they were dealing with, it seemed, and there was confusion for a while and just trying to figure out who was in there and what he may have had on him.
STEVE ALLEN, FORMER SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT, FBI: It is confusing because I don't understand a five-hour standoff. I was on a tactical team. I'm not second guessing them, I promise, but if you know where the person is in the building as they seemed to and you think that they are a hazard to other people, they are going to be an imminent threat to other people, then you probably would want to plan an assault.
It seems that maybe he was not an imminent threat to anybody in the building at the time. Maybe they had most of the building evacuated, I just don't know. But the decision was made not to go in, which is an unusual decision. We will have to find out when the loss of life occurred.
Was it on the initial entry?
And no more violence occurred inside of the building?
Or was it later on down the line?
These are all things, along with his motive, that we will have to figure out.
ALLEN: Right, because 11 people were shot during this long ordeal.
What about the --
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ALLEN: -- Planned Parenthood facilities, did you have any information on how they are fortified or how they protect themselves from violence, since they have been the subject of violence in the past?
Say, do they have bulletproof glass and secure doors?
Somehow this person got in there. MOORE: I think you have to refer those questions to Planned Parenthood. I have seen several buildings and I have been involved in the investigation of attacks on Planned Parenthood buildings. You would have to believe that they are going to take some type of action to protect themselves.
But, again, they have to balance what they consider their need for access to these people, to their security needs. And that's going to be a rough decision for them because there's a group of not-well individuals out there who think they would be doing right by harming Planned Parenthood.
ALLEN: Thank you, Steve.
And Cedric, one final question to you, what are they trying to ascertain now from this suspect?
How is that going and when might we hear information from the investigators on what they are dealing with?
ALEXANDER: Well, this is certainly going to be a long investigation. It's going to cover a great deal of territory in and around that building in and of itself. But certainly they are going to question the subject. Hopefully he's cooperative to give them some idea as to why and how he planned this.
And that will give us further insight as well, too, into the other things that may come out of this investigation. But I think it is also important to note as well, too, when search warrants are given to officers to go into his vehicle, to go into any residences that he may own, it will be revealing as well, too, in terms of his planning of this operation.
ALLEN: Right, that they are apparently investigating his vehicle at this moment.
ALEXANDER: That's correct.
ALLEN: Thank you. Cedric Alexander and Steve Moore, former special agent for the FBI, thank you both for joining us.
ALEXANDER: Thank you.
ALLEN: Turkey has a warning for Russia: don't play with fire. It's responding to Moscow, apparently, detaining a group of Turkish business men. Russia threatened economic punishment after Turkish military shot down one of its warplanes.
Former CNN Moscow bureau chief, Jill Dougherty, is now a researcher with the International Center for Defense and Security and she has more for us.
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JILL DOUGHERTY, INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR DEFENSE AND SECURITY: Russia is planning even more retaliation against the Turkish government for the shootdown of its plane.
Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev has ordered the government to put together a list of possible actions and now they have that list complete and they will formally present it Saturday.
The government already had cut back on imports of food from Turkey. It had ended at least temporarily visa-free travel by Turks to Russia. And also it urged Russian tourists not to travel to Turkey.
Now the defense ministry meanwhile has released its version of how that shootdown of the Russian plane happened. They call it an ambush by the Turks and they also say that they informed the United States as the head of the U.S.-led coalition that their forces were going to be operating in a specific area.
Now, meanwhile, the Turks are looking to try to calm this situation; President Erdogan wants to meet with President Putin next week, the 30th of November, in Paris at a climate conference. But the Kremlin is saying no meeting has been discussed and no meeting is planned.
Finally, an interesting comment by a senior aide to President Putin, Yuri Yushiokov (ph). He gave the highlights of the meeting that President Putin had with French President Hollande.
And he said that there is a recognition that eventually there will have to be a ground operation in order to squeeze the terrorists but he said there is also an understanding that only the Syrians can do that,
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ALLEN: Jill Dougherty for us from Moscow.
Still to come here on CNN NEWSROOM, a somber remembrance as France pauses to honor the victims of the Paris terror attacks two weeks on.
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ALLEN: Welcome back. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM.
France paused on Friday to remember the 130 people killed in the Paris terror attacks two weeks ago.
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ALLEN (voice-over): To a mournful version of the French national anthem, President Francois Hollande led a solemn ceremony. The victims' names were read aloud, their pictures shown on a video screen.
Mr. Hollande spoke tenderly of those who died but he vowed that France would destroy what he called "the army of fanatics" behind the killings.
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ALLEN: Paris is refusing to be intimidated by the attacks. On Monday, the international climate conference called COP 21 conference begins as planned. Security will be extremely tight. Thousands of delegates from nearly 200 countries are expected. The goal: to produce a universally applicable plan to reduce carbon emissions and combat global warming.
Delegates hope to produce a legally binding successor to the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2020.
Several of the Paris attack suspects are linked to Belgium; a small town just outside Brussels was once called the city of jihadis after dozens of its citizens left for Syria. But since taking office, Vilvoorde's mayor has taken some extraordinary steps to change the city's reputation, including a deradicalization officer for the town. Here's CNN's Alexandra Field.
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ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The fastest-growing town in Belgium is small. Vilvoorde's population is just 42,000. So when it started feeding fighters to Syria, things spiraled quickly but then stopped suddenly.
HANS BONTE, MAYOR, VILVOORDE: The exodus started in the summer of 2012.
FIELD: So in those two years, from 2012 to 2014, had 28 people leave here to go to Syria.
Where are they now?
BONTE: Some of them are still there. Some of them are killed.
FIELD (voice-over): Mayor Hans Bonte took office in 2013 in the middle of the crisis. At the time he says Vilvoorde was called the city of jihadis.
BONTE: I've heard it, young boys telling me, my dream is to be killed.
FIELD (voice-over): Today the mayor is cautiously declaring at least a measure of victory for his deradicalization and intervention efforts.
BONTE: Radicalism, you win it or lose it on the corners of the street.
FIELD (voice-over): Counteracting messages from recruiters has taken the work of a coalition, the police, family, a lot of community members and outreach workers.
MOAD EL BOUDANI, YOUTH WORKER: We try to send social workers towards the houses, engaging into the families and tried for the first time providing help.
FIELD (voice-over): The proof of success, they say, is that no one has made it to Syria from Vilvoorde since May of 2014.
But nearby in Brussels, raids to root out anyone with ties to the terror cell that perpetrated the Paris attacks continue, making it clear there's still a second front in a bigger battle across Belgium, a country that is proportionately the largest supplier of foreign fighters to Syria.
What to do about those who come back?
BONTE: In my opinion, someone who has left Belgium to go over there to fight in Syria, he can stay there.
FIELD (voice-over): Seven of the 28 who traveled from Vilvoorde to Syria eventually returned to the town, Bonte says. Most were sent to prison, but the mayor says those who weren't are carefully and constantly monitored by the police and the community.
BONTE: Most of these people who came back, I don't think they are risky --
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BONTE: -- but you only need one fool.
FIELD (voice-over): He insists everyone must watch to keep anyone from falling through the cracks -- Alexandra Field, CNN, Vilvoorde.
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ALLEN: Pope Francis arrives in Uganda, the last stop of his Africa trip, and a man there is praying the Catholic leader will bless his unusual creation. We will have that next.
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ALLEN: Pope Francis has arrived in Uganda and here's a glimpse of the reception he received.
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ALLEN (voice-over): This is the second stop for his three-nation African tour and he was greeted by the Ugandan president, as well as singing and dancing crowds. In the coming hours, he will celebrate mass and visit shrines to martyrs. As we await his next appearance, CNN's David McKenzie stopped in
Kampala, where he met a man who built a Popemobile he hopes will get the pope's attention.
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DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Ugandan mechanic Moses Kayiira got wind that Pope Francis was coming to town, there was only one thing to do: build the pontiff a Popemobile for his trip to Kampala.
MCKENZIE: OK. It's a bit snug.
MOSES KAYIIRA, UGANDAN MECHANIC: (Speaking foreign language).
MCKENZIE: So the pope, he says, is smaller than me but also they can pull the doors off while he drives the Popemobile through the crowds of Kampala so he can wave.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Moses sourced parts locally and pulled images of the pope from the 'Net. He says it will all appeal to the people's pope.
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MCKENZIE (voice-over): "Wherever the pope goes, he says, "he is not a lavish person. He prefers to be down to Earth and interacting with ordinary people."
Pope Francis raised eyebrows when he arrived at the U.S. recently in a Fiat 500. And his official Popemobile was pretty basic, too. But Moses believes his hand-built four-wheel drive has another edge over an imported Popemobile.
"I made a rugged Popemobile," he said, "to suit the nature of our roads, which are rough and full of potholes."
Moses hopes Pope Francis will take a ride in his Popemobile or at the very least, he says, his homegrown holy vehicle deserves a papal blessing -- David McKenzie, CNN, Kampala, Uganda.
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ALLEN: Very sweet.
People in Auckland, New Zealand gathered on Saturday to mourn one of the nation's greatest rugby players, Jonah Lomu. The former All Black died suddenly earlier this month. A traditional ceremony called The Day of the Family was held on Friday. Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend a memorial service for Lomu in Auckland on Monday.
And that is CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen. Our top stories are right after a short break.
