Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

UCLA Shooting; Clinton Speech; Prince Death; Clinton Says Trump's a Threat. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired June 02, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00] CHIEF CHARLIE BECK, LAPD: By his reaction that he may have even known that there were issues over this property right thing.

QUESTION: Chief --

QUESTION: Chief, there's been a note that's been a note that's been characterized as a suicide note and then this kill list note. Are they the same note or are these two different notes?

BECK: Two different notes. Two different locations. The note that was left at the homicide scene doesn't refer to suicide. It is a note, but an instructional note to the finder to go check on his cat, which we did. And then it also has some verbiage related to the other potential victim, this professor that survived.

And then, in the follow-up investigation to St. Paul, the investigators, FBI agents, working in concert with the robbery/homicide division, discovered this other list, the list that had three names on it and was characterized as a kill list

QUESTION: Did the list have anything (INAUDIBLE)?

QUESTION: Hey, chief, chief, chief, chief, is there any connection with the two professors and this woman of Minnesota? Have you connected any dots? I know it's early in the investigation.

BECK: Not that I know of.

QUESTION: Chief, is there any indication, any -

QUESTION: Chief, was there any else on the list other than the names, what you're calling the kill list? Like did it say anything else on it?

BECK: No, just the names.

QUESTION: Any indication that either professor expect him to go to the campus? I mean he basically had no business at UCLA anymore. He was done. Is that correct?

BECK: He was done. He graduated in '13. He had been living in Minnesota for a number of years. You know, I don't think either of them expected to see him.

QUESTION: Chief, are you able to piece together how long he was on campus before the shooting happened? And were there any reports prior to his shooting of a man with a gun or a backpack or anything that could have led police to him?

BECK: We don't know how long he'd been on campus. You know, I would assume it was a brief amount of time. But that's just an assumption. We may find more evidence to that when we recover the vehicle in that we will find out when it was parked or possibly find out when it was parked.

QUESTION: Chief -

QUESTION: Oh, can you (INAUDIBLE).

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).

QUESTION: Thank you.

BECK: So - so - so there's nothing to indicate that there was any prior activity. We didn't - we didn't have any prior calls that I know of, although, remember, UCLA has their own campus police, so they - they - there may be something I don't know about. But certainly I didn't get any information when I arrived at scene about prior calls. The only calls that I know of were the multiple calls that went out when the three rounds were heard by adjoining classrooms. And then we had a lot of follow-up sightings that all were determined to be false sightings after the investigation began.

QUESTION: Chief, just to clarify, so there have been some posts online where he alluded to possibly a code being stolen or something along those lines. Is that something that you are looking at and does that bear any (INAUDIBLE) reality?

BECK: Well, that appears to be the - that appears to be his motive. Now, when I say his motive, there doesn't - there's nothing factual to this. UCLA, you know, we have discussed this with UCLA, and UCLA says there's no truth to this. This was a - this was a making of his own imagination. And so we believe that that may certainly be what was the causal factor, but we don't think there's any basis in fact for it.

QUESTION: And the motive for the killing of the girlfriend?

BECK: Well, we're not -

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).

BECK: I won't characterize her as a girlfriend, but I will say that we don't know the motive for that.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) just to clarify. The note with the reference to the cat led you to the address in St. Paul, which you (INAUDIBLE) shooter's address?

BECK: Yes.

QUESTION: And then there you found the kill list?

BECK: Yes.

QUESTION: Oh, so he said, check on my cat? Oh, no, check on -

BECK: No, we're not going to check on your cat (INAUDIBLE).

QUESTION: The - check on cat - check on the victim's cat. No, no, I'm sorry, I just want to make sure.

QUESTION: Check on his cat.

QUESTION: Oh, his own cat?

QUESTION: His cat.

BECK: His cat.

QUESTION: Oh, gotcha. OK.

BECK: His cat.

QUESTION: Got it.

QUESTION: Chief, you mentioned that your officers said that it was his intention to kill the professors? Is there anything that you can talk about, was there any intention, do you think, or evidence shows that he was going to make this a much more masked type of killer than what it was, or he just went there, stayed in that room, shot the professor, couldn't find the other one and then killed himself in that room and never left that room?

BECK: Well, you know, that's hard to say at this point in the investigation. Certainly he had enough rounds of ammunition on him and enough - and two pistols (INAUDIBLE) caused many more fatalities than the one. You know, we're still trying to piece together his movements, you know, through surveillance video, witness interviews, that kind of thing. So we'll know better if he did search for the other professor first or if - you know, we - but we don't know, he may have went to this one first and that - that was all he could take.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Last question!

(CROSS TALK)

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) Minnesota. Can you just talk more about the details surrounding that?

BECK: Well, we believe the guns were legally purchased. And I know at least one was registered to him.

And I'll take one because - because -

QUESTION: Did he actually - can you confirm that the blogpost was indeed written by him, the one that referenced the stolen code?

[14:05:03] BECK: Well, I don't have any way of doing that. I think we believe that these are his blogposts. But I don't have any way to confirm them.

QUESTION: Known history of mental illness problems?

BECK: Don't know that.

QUESTION: Chief, do we know what stopped (INAUDIBLE)? Was it some outside element that stop him from going further or did he give up at that point and commit suicide?

BECK: Just don't know. You know, it's certainly the - certainly the evidence is that he committed suicide immediately after the homicide.

QUESTION: But it's not clear whether or not he knew that the other professor was not on campus?

BECK: No. I have no way of knowing that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Thank you.

BECK: Anyway, thank you.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: A lot of new details there. Coming in from Los Angeles, the police department chief, that was Charlie Beck there, talking about what we were in live breaking coverage on this time yesterday, the active shooter situation in the heart of the campus there at UCLA.

So we now have new information, not only on this now deceased shooter, remember, police came out and said it was a murder/suicide. We also now know that a body was found back in his hometown of Minneapolis/St. Paul, back in Minnesota. Apparently a note was left to check on his cat. They checked on the cat and found what they're calling a kill list. Three names on that kill list, including the now deceased former professor of this PhD graduate, the shooter there from UCLA, in addition to the body of a women in St. Paul, Minnesota. And it also sounds like, as we just heard from the police chief, that he, perhaps, was intent on murdering another professor at UCLA.

A lot of new details. Kyung Lah has been working this for us. Kyung Lah is going to join me now, our correspondent based in Los Angeles.

And also, Kyung, the fact that Chief Beck said he was heavily armed, this man.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, certainly pointing to how much worse this could have been. What the chief there is painting for us is a portrait of a man who was definitely determined and very deranged. From what we're hearing from the police chief, that he was under a delusion about stolen intellectual property. That he had a beef with these two professors from UCLA. A campus that he left in 2013 when he graduated with this PhD. So he drove back to this campus to find those two professors.

And it's an extraordinary twist. One professor he finds, Professor Klug. He murders that professor. A second professor, who he had named in that kill list found in his residence in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that professor wasn't on campus that day. That professor was not found. That professor is doing fine today, or at least is alive.

So what the police have been able to figure out, based on notes left behind by this gunman, is beginning with that note in his backpack at UCLA saying to check his cat in Minnesota. They go to the residence. They find that kill list. They have on that list Professor Klug, who was killed, that second UCLA professor, who was unharmed, and then the name of this third woman. The third name on that list, a woman. They check her residence nearby and there she is found dead.

So the portrait that we're getting is definitely a determined man who for some reason decided to lash out at these people.

BALDWIN: So, Kyung, just quickly on motive, this dispute over intellectual property with this professor who he murdered. We don't know motive on this woman whose body was found back in Minnesota. Do we know, were there more names on the kill list, or was it those three?

LAH: Police haven't said anything beyond these three. We simply don't know. And we should point out that Chief Beck very quickly said, yes, he seemed to have this beef about intellectual property, but this was from his imagination. That this was delusional. That he was driven by a function of his own imagination. So that's something that we should remember here.

BALDWIN: Kyung, thank you. Let me bring in Art Roderick, CNN law enforcement analyst and also former assistant director of the U.S. Marshal Service.

You just heard Chief Beck, Art. What do you make of all of this?

ART RODERICK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I mean we thought this was over with yesterday, and then, obviously, they found information that contained the kill list and, you know, it is law enforcement's duty to go out and notify these individuals that they're under some kind of threat. Obviously, what that led to the discovery of the woman's body in Minnesota. It's just a very bizarre case. Motive is going to be the main issue here. Whether it's - whether he's delusional or not and whether it's this intellectual property issue, obviously, we have an individual that is pretty unstable that committed these acts and had targeted an individual as opposed to going out and just shooting random individuals. He had specific people that he picked out.

BALDWIN: You know, whether or not there are other people on the kill list, I - my mind, obviously, also, just quickly, goes to the professor who happened to not be on campus this time yesterday. You know, whether or not this person has any sort of history, mental illness, I imagine that, too, will be investigated.

[14:10:06] RODERICK: Exactly. I mean he could have been on campus. He just couldn't have been located by this individual and he ran into the first person. And, obviously, to do the homicide in Minnesota and then drive back to L.A., that took a lot of planning and a lot of time. And he probably knew, you know, his time was running out after he committed that first homicide there at UCLA and decided to end it all.

BALDWIN: And three years after he graduated he got his PhD.

Art Roderick, thank you so much.

Kyung Lah, thank you so much.

RODERICK: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: That's what's happening in Los Angeles today.

And now, staying in California, another breaking story. CNN is about to bring you special live coverage of a campaign speech unlike any other so far here in the race for the White House. Hillary Clinton about to go for the jugular when it comes to Donald Trump and his foreign policy, and also his character and temperament. Just as a handful of national polls show she is neck a neck against Mr. Trump. Her campaign sent out a statement saying, Secretary Clinton was going to explain not just why Trump is unfit to be the country's next commander in chief, but also that he would be an actual threat to national security. Much of this stemming from some platform ideas from Donald Trump, including, as we've reported on for many months, this temporary ban of Muslims visiting the United States, his thoughts on reshaping the U.S. involvement in NATO, and allowing several countries access to nuclear weapons.

So, let's go first up to Brianna Keilar, CNN's senior political correspondent, who is there at the location of Secretary Clinton's speech in San Diego.

Set the stage for us, Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the stage is that Hillary Clinton, Brooke, is going to be speaking here shortly in San Diego on a stage where she is flanked by, I counted them, 19 American flags, where we're hearing an Souza march play ahead of this, something that you might hear at a White House event ahead of time, as she tries to make the case that she has the temperament to be commander in chief, not Donald Trump.

You named some of the specific policies she'll be talking about. She will mention, though, she will draw contrast with Donald Trump, but the speech I'm told talking to aides is about something bigger than that and it is, as you said, about temperament. For instance, even though she'll talk about her policies and her world view, the bigger objective here is to contrast herself with Donald Trump, someone, as one aide said to me, will have a foreign policy that is dictated by, quote, "the vicissitudes of his mood," and trying to outline what they see as the risk of someone being commander in chief who, in the words of this aide, is rash and unstable.

So I think she'll be making the case that this is beyond differences of opinion, this aide telling me, look, someone like Mitt Romney, someone like John McCain, this is someone who, yes, she had differences with, but Donald Trump is an outlier beyond even other Republican candidates by a long shot.

BALDWIN: I am sure as we take Secretary Clinton live there in San Diego, Donald Trump will be responding in 140 characters or less, as he already has today, right, Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes, that's right. So he tweeted out multiple times today, as he often does. He talked about this. He said in a tweet, "crooked Hillary, who I would love to call lyin' Hillary, is getting ready to totally misrepresent my foreign policy positions." Of course, he's been taking aim at her on her foreign policy as well, her time as secretary of state, her e-mail issues, how she handled Benghazi. \

It's also interesting, though, Brooke, he also tweeted out more about Trump University and some of the issues that are taking place there with that court case. He obviously feels very vulnerable there. That's an area that the Clinton campaign is striking at, as well, because they do believe that even though they're - she's talking foreign policy today, a lot of this election is going to be determined on the economy. And it's part of the reason why even though this is foreign policy speech, it's about something bigger than that. It's about temperament because there is this feeling that unless there is some big event when it comes to foreign policy, just basic differences on policy positions aren't going to be what change voters' minds going into November.

BALDWIN: I hear you several times over using the word "temperament," Trump's temperament. Brianna Keilar, thank you. We'll come back to San Diego there momentarily for the big speech from Secretary Clinton.

Also, more breaking news for you today on this Thursday afternoon involving the death of music legend Prince. His hometown paper now revealing the cause of his death. Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:19:04] BALDWIN: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Breaking news today in the death of music legend Prince. "The Minneapolis Star Tribune" reports Prince died of an opioid overdose. The paper cites this source with knowledge of the investigation into the star's untimely passing. We're still waiting for those medical examiner autopsy results. Don't have that yet. As you well know, Prince died, that was back on April 21st, inside his Paisley Park compound, just outside of Minneapolis. Staff members found his body inside his studio elevator. He had been there for at least six hours. Officials say there were opioids found on him.

So, let's bring in Sara Sidner, who is there live outside the medical examiner's office. And also with me on the phone, addiction specialist Dr. Drew Pinsky, host of HLN's "Dr. Drew."

But, Sara, to you first.

So, opioids, do we know anything more than that?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nope, that is it. And it's not a surprise to a lot of people who have been watching and following this case. We're now at 45 days since Prince died. Everyone is waiting on that toxicology report. We know that the medical examiner sent that, all of the details, to a lab, his bloodwork to a lab, and have been waiting for that to come back. Now we're hearing from "The Star Tribune" reporting from an investigative source in law enforcement who has said that - I suppose those have come back and that opioid overdose was the cause of death.

[14:20:25] What we will hear from the medical examiner, when they do come out with an official ruling, is both the cause of death and the manner of death. The manner of death being whether or not it's a homicide, a suicide, an accidental death, and the cause of death, obviously, being whether it was an overdose or a stabbing or - so we have been expecting to get these results very shortly because we are now six weeks on, which is not an unusual amount of time to wait, especially for a toxicology report.

The autopsy report was done the day after Prince died, but the toxicology reports tend to take longer because they're testing for a lot of different things. Exactly what was in Prince's system, whether it was Percocet, which has been reported before from some law enforcement sources, that those pills were found on his body and inside of his home, or something else, we do not know. These are very, very thin details. But we may not get a whole lot more from the medical examiner's office as to exactly what because the law is very specific as to what they can tell us.

But there has been a lot of little details that have come out along the way. That, for example, there was an emergency call made by his people who were worried about Prince, that he was becoming more agitated in the days leading up to his death. They called in a specialist from California. That doctor couldn't make it but sent his son. The son's attorney saying he was sent on a life-saving mission to Prince's home, and in his backpack was Buprenorphine, which is the drug that can counteract an opioid overdose. So there are a lot of little details that have people wondering if this is indeed exactly why Prince died.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Pieces of this puzzle. Sara, thank you so much.

Dr. Drew, I mean you heard Sara mention this California doctor that was to be there the next day. If you read "The Star Tribune" today, they say the doctor was there to help Prince kick some sort of opioid addiction. What do you think when you here this now definitively, opioids?

DR. DREW PINSKY, HLN'S "DR. DREW": Well, it's not - it's just confirming what we've known all along, which is that he was on opioids and he died. And whenever a young person dies who does not appear to have any other reason for an early demise and they are taking prescription opioids, you can virtually guarantee it's an accidental death. But it is not exclusively opioids. Let me be really clear. This report is not complete yet. You are going to hear that it's not just opioids, but it's opioids plus. And, again, this is in my clinical experience, 20 years of working with this material. It's going to be opioids plus a Benzodiazepine or sleeping medication. It is that combination that when accidentally combined they are frequently done so that leads to people's - someone's death. Someone who otherwise might not have died, might have been able to get off these drugs.

And let me - and I want to sort of refine something Sara said. She said that the (INAUDIBLE) on the (INAUDIBLE) and the blocking agent that the doctor had ferried out there by his son, that was to take somebody off opioids. That doesn't counteract withdrawal or it doesn't counteract the overdose effect. It's to do - put somebody through a withdrawal. So, clearly, he was struggling with opioid withdrawal. He was not sleeping. We heard he hadn't slept for a long time. I believe you are going to hear that in addition to the opioids, somebody gave him a sleeping medication and that's what finally did him in, unfortunately.

BALDWIN: So sad. Dr. Drew, thank you so much.

Again, we wait for that toxicology report and those details, as you mentioned. Thank you so much.

Let me now bring in more breaking news. We have now learned - we'll get to politics in a second. But breaking news here, boxing legend Muhammad Ali is in the hospital, being treated for a respiratory issue. We are told he is in fair condition. The stay is expected to be brief. The family is requesting privacy. Updates as we get them on Muhammad Ali.

Moments away, Hillary Clinton's major foreign policy speech there in San Diego, California. We just talked about how she will target Donald Trump on national security. But let's talk about why. Let me bring in CNN political director David Chalian.

David Chalian, we just heard Brianna perfectly tee it up at the top of the show saying, you know, it's - yes, it's on foreign policy, but it's really also comparing and contrasting Secretary Clinton's temperament, right, versus that of Donald Trump?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Right. This is every bit as much a character speech than it is a foreign policy and national security speech. And this is really part of Hillary Clinton's now sort of two-week concerted daily effort to try to build a narrative frame around Donald Trump as unqualified, unfit and dangerous to hold the presidency. And this - she is trying right now - her campaign's entire mission for this spring period, this preconvention period, is to try to disqualify him as a valid alternative to her.

[14:25:08] And so every piece of that argument, Brooke, today it's going to be on the foreign policy/national security piece. We'll see domestic policy, economic policy all throughout and this is her laying a predicate for a fall general election audience, which will sort of fully tune in, you know, after Labor Day.

BALDWIN: But is this dangerous at all because, you know, as we talked about, she's a bit more hawkish, especially as a Dem. She's still fighting the good fight. You know, she's in California. Bernie Sanders is nipping at her toes. I mean we talk about the need of party unity on the Democratic side. Might this hurt her at all with Dems?

CHALIAN: Well, listen, her relationship with Democrats over some foreign policy decisions has been anything but harmonious at times. I mean we know her vote for the Iraq War, which she now calls a mistake, is what basically delivered Barack Obama the Democratic nomination in 2008. And she has been, you know, I think trying to get back with the base of her party over the course of this year and the Sanders challenge and what have you on certain foreign policy issues.

But she is more interventionist, more hawkish, if you will, than certainly Bernie Sanders, than certainly how Barack Obama portrayed himself as candidate and certainly more so than Donald Trump and how he's portraying himself. And so, I don't think you're going to hear some big banging of war drums from Hillary Clinton today. I don't - I think that's not where the electorate is and it's not where her campaign has been about.

But I do think, as you heard President Obama today in Colorado Springs at that commencement address, I think you will hear warnings of isolationism. Now, Donald Trump would reject that. He would say that's not his world view or his policy. But he is certainly, as he has said, much more about America first rather than thinking through the interconnected global ramifications. He is - he has put sort of an America first approach and she's going to try to explain why that may be dangerous.

BALDWIN: Glad you brought up that speech at the Air Force from President Obama. We're going to weave that in, in our mega coverage here, of course, of Secretary Clinton's speech there in San Diego. Live pictures. Brianna counted them, 19 American flags to flank the former secretary of state. Stand by for that. We'll take her speech momentarily.

A quick break. Back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)