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Gunman's Allegiance to ISIS; Gunman's Background; Victims in Hospitals; Gunman's Home Search. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired June 13, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:17] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Here we go. Top of the hour. You're watching CNN here. I'm Brooke Baldwin, live in Orlando.

And just quickly to give you a vantage point. You can see the Pulse sign just about a block away from me. In this 95-degree heat, we are covering this story. CNN's special live coverage of America's worst terror attack since 9/11 and the deadliest shooting in U.S. history. Forty-nine innocent people enjoying life. It was Latin night, salsa, murenge (ph), murder, and another 53 hurt.

We are now seeing, as new information, new video is coming in, new video here, this is just inside Pulse Nightclub showing the exact moment that those shots rang out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the club.

(EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm at the club.

(GUNSHOTS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now, the main woman there you just saw in that video, her name, Amanda Alviar (ph), 25 years young. Amanda did not survive. She recorded this video on her cell phone on Snapchat, a recording of what would become her final moments.

Now, the gunman, apparently inspired by ISIS, calling 911, not just once or twice but three different times in the middle of his siege here at the Pulse Nightclub. And apparently in one of these calls, he pledged his allegiance to ISIS. He also pledged his allegiance to the Boston bombers from a couple of years ago. The FBI declaring just a short time ago, quote, "this killer was radicalized."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: We're working hard to understand the killer and his motives and his sources of inspiration. But we are highly confident that this killer was radicalized and at least in some part through the Internet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Authorities telling CNN today the shooter tried to buy military grade body armor recently. We know he bought those guns, but body armor we just learned here, suggesting this attack has perhaps been in the works for at least a couple of weeks.

Let's begin our coverage this hour with our justice correspondent, Pamela Brown, who has more on these key details into the investigation side of all of this.

Pam, beginning with the body armor and, by the way, we also have law enforcement analyst and former assistant director to the U.S. Marshal's office, Art Roderick, who's here with me as well.

But, Pamela, let me just begin with you.

The gunman claimed to be working directly, you know, on behalf of the Islamic State, but there is absolutely no evidence of that.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: At this point, there's no evidence that he was directed, Brooke. And adding further confusion to investigators, it appears that he had some sympathies toward al Nusra and al Qaeda. In fact, during that 911 call, he talked about this American suicide bomber who lived in Florida, who he went to the mosque with, whom he had ties with, and that suicide bomber was tied to al Nusra, which is an enemy of ISIS.

And we know as far back as 2013, Brooke, this gunman was talking about his familiar - familial associations with al Qaeda to his co-workers when he was a private security guard. We know he was a security guard since 2007. This raised the alarm bells for his co-workers. Co-workers went to the FBI, and the FBI checked this out, interviewed him twice and he actually admitted to saying this, but then he only said it because he felt like his co-workers were taunting him because he was Muslim and there was nothing to substantiate these claims that he was making. So, essentially, the FBI then closed that investigation. And then the next year actually interviewed him again as part of that investigation into this American suicide bomber to see what kind of a relationship he had with him.

And here's what Director James Comey had to say about that today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: In July of 2014, the killer's name surfaced again in an indirect way. Our Miami office was investigating the Florida man who had blown himself up for the Nusra Front in Syria, again the Nusra Front being an al Qaeda group in conflict with ISIL, and we learned from the investigation that the killer knew him casually from attending the same mosque in that area of Florida, but our investigation turned up no ties of any consequence between the two of them. In the course of that investigation, one witness told us when asked, do you know anybody else who might be radicalizing, that he had once been concerned about the killer, because the killer had mentioned Alwlaki videos.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And Director Comey said that the FBI could not find any derogatory information on the gunman, so essentially the FBI moved on from there. He was not considered a high priority target.

[14:05:08] And, Brooke, of course, that is something that's going to be under scrutiny right now. Was anything missed after that? Were red flags missed? He did say that the FBI is looking into whether he was scoping out other targets in the weeks leading up to the attack on the nightclub. And as we know, CNN spoke to a store owner who claimed in the past couple of weeks he went into buy this body armor, he was denied his request because the store didn't have it. But, of course, all of this is raising questions.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: All right, Pamela, thank you so much.

And, Art, let me just turn to you. On a couple of Pamela's points, one of my first thoughts was, when I found out he tried to get this military grade body armor -

ART RODERICK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Right.

BALDWIN: And he was denied, right, I'm thinking, well, thank goodness he was denied that. But I'm also thinking, if he was on some sort of list, had been investigated, and, by the way, I think the FBI is phenomenal -

RODERICK: Yes.

BALDWIN: And I know there are hundreds of ISIS sympathizers out there, right?

RODERICK: Right. Uh-huh.

BALDWIN: But if you go in and you try to buy body armor, why is there not a red bell that goes off somewhere?

RODERICK: Well, there should have been in this particular case because military style body armor is body armor that can stop high-powered rifles. Usually what law enforcement has, what we generally carry on a day-to-day basis is like a level 3-A (ph) vest that can stop handguns. That's another add-on plate that you put in the front that can stop high-powered rifles. This sounds like what he was trying to purchase. That's very difficult to get and it should have raised some red flags somewhere.

BALDWIN: So he couldn't get the body armor -

RODERICK: Right.

BALDWIN: But he could get - and I have - Art I've covered too many of these.

RODERICK: No, I know. I know. That's right. BALDWIN: We've had too many conversations about mass shootings.

RODERICK: Yes.

BALDWIN: And I keep - I mean the AR-15.

RODERICK: Right.

BALDWIN: It is the weapon of choice, apparently, for mass murderers.

RODERICK: Yes.

BALDWIN: He was able to get the weapon and other weapons, what -

RODERICK: Right.

BALDWIN: Because he was a security guard?

RODERICK: That's got - that's partly to do with it. I mean he was - he was licensed to carry in the state of Florida.

BALDWIN: Yes.

RODERICK: And he had a security job. Probably the revolver that they found in the van very possibly could have been his work revolver. If you're in - if you're going into a mass casualty situation and you're trying to take out as many people as you can, you're really not going to use a revolver. He bought the Glock 9mm, which is a semi-automatic, holds 13 to 15 -

BALDWIN: Sure.

RODERICK: Fifteen rounds before you have to reload. The AR-15 that he got can hold 20 or 30 mag - rounds in a magazine. So - and those are very easy, very quickly to load and reload and can cause a lot of damage, as we can see here.

BALDWIN: Hear some of the survival tales and we'll be hearing more and they can - they've been saying, how is it that somebody could continue shooting so much.

RODERICK: Right.

BALDWIN: We kept waiting for him to stop and he just wouldn't stop.

Stay with me.

Rene Marsh, let me just bring you in, because I understand you have new details here on the investigation and perhaps this gunman.

Rene, what are you learning?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, we're learning more from the company G4S Secure Solutions, which hired Omar Mateen in 2007. So the security company described to CNN this background check that was conducted in 2007 and a second check that was done in 2013. The check included a criminal record check. They also looked into prior employment, education, Social Security, credit report, driver's license, a drug test, as well as work references.

This security company, G4S, says that the background check also included a psychological evaluation. Now, the specific evaluation is a test called MMPI. That stands for Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Test. Now it was described to me as an in-depth psychological evaluation. This security company says they then rescreened Mateen in October of 2013. They say they rescreen about 15 percent of their employees just as a - as precaution each year and he was one of those employees in 2013.

But they didn't find any red flags, anything that would suggest that he shouldn't be working for them. I do want to note that this specific security company has a huge presence here in the United States. They have many federal contracts. The company provides service to federal buildings, airports, nuclear power plants. It's partnered with more than 90 percent of the U.S. nuclear facilities. So they do a lot of federal work. But they have confirmed to us that Omar Mateen did not work in any federal building.

So, again, Brooke, now we're just getting more insight about what kind of checks were done on Mateen before he got that position as a security guard.

BALDWIN: Sure. No, it sounds like this highly representable security company crossed their t's and dotted their i's.

Rene Marsh, thank you for that.

And, Art, let me just turn back to you.

I mean, you know, you heard criminal record, jobs, credit, drug tests, psychological evaluations, all done, passed.

RODERICK: That's the standard procedure that they use. Any time you get a government contract, this's usually written into the contract for that private security company to do all that. And they have to provide that themselves. You know, we're talking 2007. It sounds like they retested him in 2013. I'm not sure if they did the psychological testing in 2013 because generally what happens is after so many years you do what's called a reinvestigation.

[14:10:10] BALDWIN: Sure.

RODERICK: And a lot of times that's just a criminal history check.

BALDWIN: And not the full, in-depth -

RODERICK: Not the full blown, in-depth check that you general get when you first get hired on.

BALDWIN: Sure.

OK. Art Roderick, thank you so much. Do not go too far here. Again, we're live in Orlando, just about a block from this Pulse

Nightclub. And right now, so many of these young people, a lot of them, they're the victims. They're still in area hospitals. There's one just another block away. All of this right in this tight area here of Orlando. So many of them still sitting in hospital beds fighting for their lives.

CNN's Victor Blackwell is live at the Orange Regional Medical Center, just about a half mile south of here.

And, Victor, what do we know about those who are being treated today?

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that 36 hours after this shooting began, this has been a very urgent day here at the Orlando Regional Medical Center. There were six people who underwent surgery today. There were surgeries overnight. And we're getting a fuller picture of the number of victims and the severity of their injuries that came to this hospital.

We're told that 44 victims were brought to this hospital system, 11 to other hospitals. Nine died. But the hospital leaders say that that - those deaths were in the first few hours after the shooting. None in the last 24 hours or so. Six people have been discharged. And by their count, 29 remain in the hospital. Of those 29, five patients are in grave condition.

Now, of course, we know that 49 people in all were killed by that gunman. We know that now 46 names of the 49 have been released by the city. Just the last few in just the last five minutes. So we've still got three names out for those families who are waiting for confirmation from the city of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Brooke, back to you.

BALDWIN: Victor Blackwell, thank you so much.

And coming up next here, we will take you live to the shooter's home. Hear what investigators have actually found inside. You know they've been combing through everything they can get their hands on.

Plus, we are now hearing the shooter attended the very same mosque where an American suicide bomber worshipped. But the big question is, did they ever meet? Was this man influenced at all?

And moments from now, Donald Trump will address the attack here in Orlando after suggesting, quote, "there is something going on with President Obama because he doesn't say the words 'radical Islam'."

You're watching CNN's special live coverage here. I'm Brooke Baldwin in Orlando. We'll be right back.

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[14:16:51] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For my daughter and my two nieces, please come and get us. Please, come and get us now. They're shooting. They're shooting. Got a phone call from my daughter saying she was hit and she was bleeding in her arm and she was going to pass out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: We just wanted to make sure we are listening to those who survived and those loved ones here who have survived just something absolutely atrocious here in Orlando. The Feds working through the night to search the shooter's home. I can tell you that hundreds of people in the Ft. Pierce neighborhood here in Florida had to be evacuated. The exhaustive search was completed just a short time ago and that is where we have Polo Sandoval just outside of his apartment.

Polo, what have they found?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brooke, it's not necessarily what they found just inside the apartment, but also outside of the - in a vehicle that we are actually not standing not too far from. It's a vehicle that if you walk up to it and look in the window, you will actually see federal court documents inside with the gunman's name on it. We - it reads, it's actually titled as a search warrant and then below that it's basically an inventory of what federal authorities removed from that vehicle, and that includes DNA samples, also different vacuum samples, as well, and some of those DNA swabs, along with a couple of other trinkets that were removed from inside of the vehicle that's just outside of the apartment complex that Omar Mateen called home.

This is rather standard when it comes to these federal investigations. However, when's significant here is that we have to recall what we heard from prosecutors just this morning, that they are looking into the possibility that there may have been at least other people who acknowledged that this attack was in the works. So, again, that just brings you up to speed on the investigation that's happening only about two hours south of where you are there in Orlando.

As for the people here, Brooke, obviously they were quite shaky after the incredible amount of police activity that we witnessed here after daybreak yesterday. The scene, though, was cleared by federal authorities just before sunrise.

And the last thing I should mention, which is kind of a bizarre twist here, Brooke, investigators are back out here again. This time, though, at the local level. That's because just behind the apartment complex, behind what we are told is actually Mateen's apartment, the rear sliding door was actually open after it was secure. So now there's question about whether or not people actually gained entry into that apartment complex, into that actual apartment itself. So federal - so rather state investigators are back out here, as well as some of the local authorities here, mainly, and they're processing the scene again for evidence. However, federal authorities are very confident that anything that would have been considered evidence is no longer here. But, again, they have to be safe. They have to make sure that this investigation was not jeopardized - BALDWIN: Of course.

SANDOVAL: (INAUDIBLE) something that we're keeping a very close eye on right now, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Of course. You can understand the shakiness, right, of some of the people in that neighborhood after this has happened in their community.

Polo Sandoval, thank you so much.

You know here in really the entire city of Orlando, the LGBT community has been absolutely devastated by the tragic events in the Pulse Nightclub just about a block behind us here.

I have two guests who are good enough to be with me in the thick of June heat here in Orlando. Terry DeCario, the executive director of the center - LGBT community center in central Florida, and also with me John Cutter, the managing editor of "The Orlando Sentinel."

[14:20:07] So, gentlemen, thank you so much. And I hate that we're meeting under the circumstances, but this is what's happened. And so first just, Terry, to you, you know, you have been - you know some of the victims. You have been essentially hospital hopping, correct?

TERRY DECARIO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE CENTER: Yes. It's been a whirlwind 24 hours.

BALDWIN: Are you - are you still in the blur? Stepping within it?

DECARIO: I've slept about 15 minutes in the past 24 hours. It's just been nonstop since I got the phone call at 3:30 yesterday morning that something was happening. And originally we found - we heard it was just a shooting, so we made our way down. And as things developed, we realized how bad it actually was.

BALDWIN: Can you just tell me a little bit about some of the stories you've heard from some of the folks who have survived, who you've spoken with in the hospital?

DECARIO: You can't imagine some - with the three-hour standoff and people inside the club Snapchatting from inside the club, you know, they were taking pictures or trying to get messages out to friends and family and looking from where they were being held hostage out to a siege of bodies lying on the floor. It's just - they're - we have grief counselors. We have 17 working right now to talk to people and to talk to the regular community in large because there are so many stories that are coming out. It's just - it's really devastating.

BALDWIN: You hear the stories of people barricading within the bathroom.

DECARIO: Right.

BALDWIN: Initially thought it was fireworks.

DECARIO: Right.

BALDWIN: But didn't understand why that was. Can you share one specific story just of someone -

DECARIO: Somebody - a girl who thought her life was over, was on Snapchat and was just snapping away, trying to, for lack of a better word, get her life out there.

BALDWIN: Report. Oh.

DECARIO: Thinking that she wasn't going to make it out. And to be able to tell the people this is what we went through. She made it out, thank God.

BALDWIN: Thank God.

DECARIO: But total trauma on a 25-year-old girl.

BALDWIN: I have more for you, but, John, let me just show our viewers - so this is a pretty - it's a beautiful cover of the paper this morning where you have two young people just in an embrace. And you can see the bold print, "our community will heal." And, you know, I've seen other newspapers where, you know, you see the - on the front page the young man in most cases who's done this. Why did you choose this?

JOHN CUTTER, MANAGING EDITOR, "ORLANDO SENTINEL": Yes, the kind of things Terry's talking about, just the grief, the horror. I mean one of the things that - this is our community, too. This is where we live. This is where we work. And we really felt as if we needed to make a statement and make a connection with our readers. And we thought the best way was to take this editorial and talk about healing, talk about the grief we're feeling, but also talk about where we're going.

BALDWIN: But this is something that people watching need to understand. I mean I know we're journalists and we wear the journalistic hat, but this is when, you know, you are rushing to a newsroom. You have friends potentially in this nightclub. You're covering this story, right, yet you're not even sure if your friends are OK.

CUTTER: No. Even when I arrived very early yesterday, I mean there was a couple of people who were close to tears because they were doing just what Terry and his friends were doing, were trying the reach people that they knew, that they loved, were they OK, sending text messages. And they didn't know. And then they were trying to work too. So we - that kind of thing happening all day is what really led us to that. We didn't want to see a big, huge headline that said, 50 dead in Orlando. Everyone knew what happened. We felt we needed to make a statement.

BALDWIN: Can I just say, I don't think I've been to Orlando since I was a little girl going to Disneyworld with my family, and getting off the plane this morning and seeing people, excited to be in Orlando, with their Mickey Mouse hats and I just - it's such the - the dichotomy of what they're looking for, right, or what they come here for and what has happened right there.

CUTTER: Right.

BALDWIN: Right there. For the people who are watching around the world, what do you want them to know?

DECARIO: Orlando is hurt. Orlando is - had a cold slap in the face. You know, this could happen to any city around the world, but it happened in ours. Orlando's hurt. We will heal. I have seen within the past 24 hours this amazing city and the amazing people in this city, not only our LGBT community, but the community at large come together. I've gotten calls from Berlin, the mayor of Berlin, the mayor of London. The world is watching.

BALDWIN: They are.

DECARIO: But here in Orlando, LGBT and non-LGBT are coming together and standing together. They'll heal. They'll cry together. And Orlando will come back stronger. But we just tell everybody to grab your loved ones and hug them and tell them you love them because you never know if you might go out to a nightclub and something like this might happen.

BALDWIN: Terry, thank you so much.

DECARIO: Thank you.

BALDWIN: I really appreciate it.

John, thank you very much.

CUTTER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: "Orlando Sentinel."

Coming up next here on CNN, we will have new details here on this investigation. We have new information about the shooter's attempt to buy military grade body armor. We will tell you why he didn't get to make that purchase. He was stopped.

[14:25:04] Plus, we are waiting for Donald Trump to speak here. He is set to take the stage in mere minutes. Live pictures. His speech will focus, we're told, on terrorism and national security there in Manchester, New Hampshire. I'm Brooke Baldwin. We're back right after this.

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BALDWIN: And here we go. We're back. Let's listen in. Donald Trump speaking there in Manchester, New Hampshire. Let's listen.

[14:30:03] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Radical Islamic terrorism. Even her former Secret Service agent, who's seen her under pressure, and in times of stress, has stated that she lacks the temperament and