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Police Release Shooting Timeline; Security Guard's Bravery; Girlfriend Says She Didn't Know about the Attack; Some GOP Lawmakers Open To Bump Stock Ban; One Hundred Seventy Two Of The Wounded Remain In The Hospital; Three U.S. Troops Killed, Two Wounded In Niger Ambush; Senate Intel Committee Looking For "Hint" Of Collusion. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired October 05, 2017 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:00] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: From a new perspective also this morning. In a video taken by a city worker who helped evacuate the open air concert site, just across from the Mandalay Bay Hotel. Look at that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Run! Don't walk!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Run! Go! Go! Go! Everybody, go!

Go! Run! Keep your head down! Go! Keep your head down! Go!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Thirty-two floors above police were closing in and the sheriff says the gunman still had plans to escape. This has 172 victims still remain in the hospital. At least 35 of them remain in critical condition this morning. Hundreds of families, thousands of relatives left heartbroken.

We have many new threads to sort through. Let's begin this hour with our Jean Casarez, who's been on this story from the moments after the shots rang out.

Jean, what else are you hearing.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, authorities are trying to find out exactly who this killer was. He was known as the wealthy gambler and he also allegedly told a real estate agent that he gambled about $1 million a year.

Now, besides that, we now have a timeline. It took a couple of days. They said it was body cam video from officers, as well as closed- circuit video from the scene, from the venue, that showed them exactly how long those shots rang out. 10:05 p.m. is when they said that the barrage of bullets began. 10:15 it ended. Ten minutes of shots.

They're also saying at 10:17 the first two officers actually arrived to the 32nd floor. They had pinpointed that floor in that short of amount of time. At 10:18, the security guard, who was by himself walking and saw this door ajar stopped and a barrage of bullets came out at him. He was only shot, by the grace of God, in his leg.

But it was developed and discovered that there were cameras right then. Officers saw cameras on the food cart outside the door. They realized that they needed to call in the full SWAT team.

While that was being assembled, they began to clear the rooms on that floor. Tactical units got into the hallway. And then at 11:20, they made entry into that room. They knew that shots were not being fired anymore after that time. They saw the perpetrator deceased on the floor.

Now, we are also learning that a week before there was another music festival here in Las Vegas and the killer had rented a room at the Ogden Hotel, really a condominium unit, and they're now looking at surveillance video from the Ogden to find out who he may have been with, what he brought in and what the circumstances were.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And, Jean, we're also -- you mention the security guard that was shot in the leg. We're also getting new information about what he did once he was shot.

HARLOW: Yes.

CASAREZ: That's right. We're finding out information that after he was shot, he didn't go seek medical attention at all. He helped them with key passes to get into the other rooms to help clear them.

Listen to the sheriff as he describes him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF JOSEPH LOMBARDO, CLARK COUNTY, NEVADA: His bravery was amazing because he remained with our officers providing them the key pass to access the door and actually continued to help them clear rooms until our officer demanded that he go seek medical attention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: They believe 200 rounds of ammunition came out that door at that security guard. And, Poppy and John, to only be shot in the leg is a miracle.

HARLOW: Yes.

BERMAN: A miracle for him.

All right, Jean Casarez, thanks so much for the reporting.

We do have new details coming in about and from the gunman's girlfriend. Marilou Danley has been questioned by authorities. CNN's Jessica Schneider has more.

Jessica.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, you know, the shooter's girlfriend, she issued a lengthy statement saying she is devastated by the deaths, but insisting she saw no signs that Stephen Paddock was planning something, in her words, so horrible.

Danley now is cooperating with authorities. She's been interviewed by FBI agents. She's talking with Las Vegas police. She arrived back in Los Angeles Tuesday night. Her lawyer read a statement addressing what Danley knew and he explained how Stephen Paddock purchased her a plane ticket to the Philippians two weeks before this massacre.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT LOMABARD, ATTORNEY FOR MARILOU DANLEY: He never said anything to me, or took any action that I was aware of that I understood in any way to be a warning that something horrible like this was going to happen.

I was grateful, but, honestly, I was worried that first the unexpected trip home and then the money was a way of breaking up with me. It never occurred to me in any way whatsoever that he was planning violence against anyone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:05:02] SCHNEIDER: So Paddock did purchase that ticket for Danley. She arrived in the Philippines on September 15th. That was about two weeks before the shooting massacre.

Now, Danley's sisters have spoken out in Australia. They say that Paddock sent her away so she wouldn't, quote, interfere with the planning. And Danley's stepdaughter from a previous marriage, she's also coming to Danley's defense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANETTE HENRY, MARILOU DANLEY'S FORMER STEPDAUGHTER: And who's to say, you know, where the guns were concerned, you know, being in his house, that he didn't take those guns there after she went to the Philippines.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHNEIDER: But here's the thing. We know that Paddock has stockpiled at least 33 weapons since last fall. And since Danley has lived with him in his Mesquite home, investigators are probably not likely to take her statements denying any knowledge at face value. So, still a lot to come in terms of that investigation.

Poppy and John.

HARLOW: Absolutely. Jessica Schneider in Washington, thank you so much.

With us now to go through all of this, law enforcement trainer, former NYPD sergeant, Joseph Giacalone, and CNN law enforcement contributor and former FBI special agent Steve Moore.

Joseph, let's begin with her, let's begin with Danley. They've talked to her now. As Jessica said, they're not going to take everything she says at face value. And it is significant that he bought 33 of those 47 guns in the, you know, in the span of a year, a recent year, last year. So what do they do? They're going to dig through her, I assume, digital archives, right, her phone, her computers. What else?

JOSEPH GIACALONE, LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINER: Well, Internet records are going to play a big role in this. They're also going to look into the financials going on between them --

HARLOW: The $100,000 wire.

GIACALONE: Well, yes, and see if anything happened prior to this. I mean if this is the first time that's happened, that could be, you know, just an outlier. But if this has happened before, she could have a story in saying, like, you know, look, we did this quite often.

So, you know, follow the money is the way to go. I mean he has -- seemed to have a lot of money. His brother made a statement in a second interview and said that, you know, he's retired because of the money that his brother gave him and so his mother lived a comfortable life, too. So there are a lot of people that are getting money from him.

And, you know, some of it could be legitimate. It could all be legitimate. But, you know, investigators are going to find out. They're going to have forensic accountants on this for sure.

BERMAN: You know, Steve, the idea of an accomplice. When the sheriff said late last night, you have to assume he had help. That jumped out to so many people. And wouldn't there be an incredibly high level of urgency to find out if this is, in fact, true --

HARLOW: Yes.

BERMAN: Because if he did have help, if there was some kind of accomplice, there's someone on the loose right now connected to the murder of 58 people.

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: Exactly. And I don't think that law enforcement's sense of urgency in finding an accomplice right now indicates to me at least, from the outside, that they actually believe there was an accomplice. Somebody who was part and parcel of planning and executing the attack.

I, obviously, I have some concerns and some questions for Marilou Danley. Why did -- you know, if he was breaking up with her, why did she feel like he could send her off to the Philippines? She had had a marriage fail before and she didn't leave the country. So a lot of things about this story need clarification at least.

But at the same time, he had enough money to where he could certainly hide purchases, especially if he didn't bring them home -- bring the weapons home. So there's so much that you have to unpack here.

HARLOW: Joseph, the sheriff's words, hard to believe that he was able to move this amount of gear into a hotel room unassisted. We're talking about ten big bags from his car, you know. But you can do that. I mean you can have bellmen help you at these hotels. You stack them on to those carts and you bring them up. I mean do you think there's something else that the sheriff is thinking here or signs that they're seeing that their -- they think he didn't do this alone other than just transporting those 10 bags up to his room?

GIACALONE: Well, he has the video surveillance, right?

BERMAN: Right.

GIACALONE: I mean this is a casino. There is cameras every five feet. So they know exactly if he had help or not.

But I think many of us have taken our own stuff up there. It's just that, you know, did he make trips back and forth to the house to gather more stuff as he realized -- because, remember, this was the third day of the concert. So as he was watching this, was he planning on doing something else, maybe within the hotel instead, and then realized that this concert was a much better venue to do so?

BERMAN: And, Steve, one of those pieces of information we got overnight again is the belief that the killer had made plans to escape.

HARLOW: Right.

BERMAN: He wanted to get away, or at least had made contingency plans to do so. Does that change the way you look at him and look at this entire operation?

MOORE: Yes, it does, because that means that he wasn't necessarily completely suicidal. The way we wrap our brains around this in law enforcement is, the person had decided to go out with a bang, but the first decision was suicide. This one may -- I mean when you get down to people thinking that they might escape, it takes away the conclusion that their first decision was to die, which means there was another motivation.

HARLOW: He had, Joseph, 50 pounds of explosives, 1,600 rounds of ammunition in his car at the Mandalay Bay parking lot that he didn't choose to bring up. Now that could just be he didn't have room in the bags, what have you. Does that leave you at all to believe what -- if he was planning to escape, which we now know, did he have a secondary target planned?

[09:10:17] GIACALONE: Well, we've seen that it could either have been a diversion, set something off in a parking lot or in the car so that they -- you know, (INAUDIBLE), but we've also seen before where people have set these bombs have targeted first responders knowing where they're going to set up.

HARLOW: Yes.

GIACALONE: So that's a scary situation for law enforcement. And this is something that, you know, we -- they need to be careful of an incident that happens in the future because the second device or the bomb could be targeting the cops. BERMAN: And they were very careful clearly after this, you know, going

into the house --

GIACALONE: Yes.

BERMAN: You know, with all -- all the protections that you normally do.

Steve, you know, the year prior to this attack, he bought more than 30 of the guns in one year. The sheriff said they're looking to see if there was some kind of incident that sparked him, that changed him, that led him to do this. So we learned he bought 30 guns. We also learned he'd been to this other festival. He had rented a room --

HARLOW: Yes.

BERMAN: Overlooking this another festival. This is at least one. Who knows where else he went. This guy had been planning this for a year.

MOORE: He had. And, you know, that kind of takes away this whole, well, he snapped theory. And so, yes, what you look for in a situation like this where somebody has gone completely violent is, you look for a change, a reversal of fortunes. But what's interesting here is that usually the change is completely devastating where you lose a marriage, your finances -- you go bankrupt. But with some people, moving from being somebody with $10 million to being somebody with just $1 million, it's insufferable to them.

But somewhere along the line -- I mean if you look back at the -- at the shooter in Austin in 1966, they autopsied him and found out he had a brain tumor that was affecting him. We still are at the very beginning phases of understanding what could have caused this.

HARLOW: One final note, Joseph. Great reporting from our Scott Glover (ph), Ann O'Neill (ph) about his home and the extent he went to block himself from his neighbors or anyone else, that he erected these solid mesh privacy screens to block his neighbor's view of the home. There was some sort of -- the neighbors didn't like that. they protested the Homeowners Association.

I mean would that be a sign to anyone or is that just this guy likes his privacy?

GIACALONE: Yes, I mean, it could just be the guy likes his privacy. I mean we've all had problems with neighbors in the past. But, you know what -- you know what, this is something where he attracted attention to himself, which is unusual by guys like this who try to plan something.

HARLOW: Right.

GIACALONE: So I don't know if it's anything nefarious in that respect. But, you know, we need to figure out, you know, what Marilou knows. That's basically what we're dealing with here.

HARLOW: For sure. BERMAN: And every little thing matters at this point.

And, again, the concern is, is there anyone else who knew anything and how quickly can they get to them.

HARLOW: Yes.

BERMAN: Joseph, Steve, thank so much.

GIACALONE: Thanks for having me.

BERMAN: The discussion about guns, banning bump stocks. Now Republicans saying they have no problem with that notion. Does it make it more likely that there will be some kind of measure to stop this process that allows semiautomatic weapons to become essentially machine guns?

HARLOW: Also overnight, American special forces ambushed by extremists in Northern Africa. Three green berets killed. Now the hunt is on to find the killers.

And, another threat in the Caribbean. Tropical Storm Nate is forming. Could it hit the Gulf Coast this weekend?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:17:27]

HARLOW: A handful of Republican lawmakers this morning say they will consider banning bump stocks. They think a hearing should be held to determine that. Bump stocks is the device used during the Las Vegas massacre that abled the killer's gun to fire so rapidly. He used 12 of them to alter guns essentially into machine guns.

Our Sunlen Serfaty is in Washington with more. This is a bill proposed by Senator Dianne Feinstein to ban these. It looks like it has some Republican support?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Poppy. I would describe it as tepid interests by many Republicans on Capitol Hill. I can tell you up on Capitol Hill, but certainly it's significant in the fact that it's not outright saying no and rejecting this Democratic proposal by Senator Diane Feinstein.

I can tell you up on Capitol Hill this week, I have spoken to numerous Republican senators, and the sentiment that does seemed to be growing is that yes, this is something that I can take a look at.

Admittedly many saying that they don't know much about bump stocks that they are first starting to learn right now in the wake of the Las Vegas shooting, but that they are willing to consider this legislation and learn more about it.

We also heard from Senator Ron Johnson. So far, the only Republican senator to point blank say that yes, he does support this idea of banning bump stocks. He said, quote, "Automatic weapons are illegal. To me that's part of that same type of process. So, I have no problem banning those."

And it certainly is significant as well that we have seen many members of the Republican leadership, Senator Thune, Senator Cornyn, really endorsed potentially looking at this legislation.

Senator Cornyn saying that he believes that Senator Grassley and the Senate Judiciary Committee should hold hearings on this. That warrants at least in hearing. But a little bit of a reality check here, of course, is that senate hearing has not been scheduled yet.

This bill has 26 Democratic members signed on, but absolutely no Republican co-sponsors yet. And of course, Mitch McConnell, who sets the floor schedule says the agenda here for Congress, he said he believes that legislation as of now is just too premature to consider. Back to you.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We will see. But it does seem that a lot of Republicans and Democrats are saying there's a logical disconnect here and it is something they are very interested in pursuing. Sunlen Serfaty, great to have you back. Great to see you. Thanks so much.

HARLOW: Welcome back.

BERMAN: All right. A 172 people in the hospital this morning in the wake of the attack in Las Vegas, 489 injured. That number was lowered slightly because the sheriff says some people were counted twice.

We also are learning more about the 58 people who were killed. CNN's Scott McLean joins us with more of their stories -- Scott.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, John. We should also point out that there are 35 people this morning in critical condition across two hospitals. As you mention, there are 58 victims here.

[09:20:07] What they all have in common is they leave behind family and friends. These are people like Thomas Day, who was at the concert with friends and family, including his adult children. His daughter, Whitney, said he was the rock of the family, a guy who cared about everybody.

In fact, his kids' friends called him Daddy Dave because he treated his kids' friends as his own kids, and his employer called him a family man and a people person that others really liked to be around.

Another victim, Brian Fraser, was from La Palma, California. He was a father of four, and his oldest son, Nick, said that he was a really involved parent, a guy who coached football and baseball.

He was at the concert with about 20 other people. He waited around for Jason Aldean because he was his favorite country singer. His employer said he impacted everyone he came across with his infectious personality and positive attitude.

Now I also want to tell you about one person that I met in the hospital yesterday, her name is Taylor Barr (ph). She is 22 years old. She has a long road to go to recovery, but she is truly one of the lucky ones, lucky to be alive.

She was shot in the arm and driven to the hospital in the back of a pickup truck by a complete stranger. She wants to find the driver of the pickup truck to say thank you. While those bullets were coming down, her dad, Chris, was actually laying on top of her to shield her from the bullets. At that moment, she remembers panic, not pain. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAYLOR BARR, SHOOTING SURVIVOR: All the adrenaline and confusion, so I don't remember feeling it that much. I love him. He's such -- he's my hero. You know, him and everybody else there. He didn't even care, you know, like, he was just trying to keep us safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: So, because of being shot in the arm, she has limited movement and feeling in her left arm. The problem is that especially acute for her is that she works with her hands. She has a small business doing nails for a living.

The doctor says she likely would not have use of her left hand for about a year so not only does she now have this massive hospital bill to contend with, but she also would likely be out of work for the next year.

And so, you know, while this story is likely going to fade from the headlines, it's important to keep in mind that a lot of these victims are going to carry the impact of what happened on Sunday night for a long time to come -- John and Poppy.

HARLOW: For a long time to come in so many different ways. Scott, thank you for the reporting very much.

Ahead for us, the top Republican and the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee making headlines yesterday saying they are still investigating to see if there was collusion amid the Russian interference in the election and warning Russia will strike again. The new developments ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:27:09]

BERMAN: Breaking overnight, American special forces ambushed in Africa while conducting counterterror operations. Three Green Berets are dead after the attack. This took place on the Mali-Niger border.

HARLOW: Now the Pentagon is searching for the attackers. Let's go to the Pentagon. Our CNN correspondent, Barbara Starr, is there. What are you learning this morning?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning. Details still coming in and these are first reports. The military is confirming that three Green Berets were killed and two wounded when they were operating along with Nigerian forces in this West African nation.

The two wounded have -- and the remains of those killed have been evacuated out of the site. The two wounded Americans are now back at the U.S. military hospital in Germany and said to be in stable condition getting treatment there.

The Green Berets were in this part of West Africa conducting what they call an advice and assist mission. They try to help local forces go after al Qaeda and other insurgent elements to try and help them improve their abilities in that counterterrorism type of capability to go after terrorists elements in these areas.

But it's not a mission that's discussed very much. These are very remote areas and typically small teams of Americans going in. What we are being told at this hour is that U.S. and Nigerian West African troops are continuing their operations in this area, trying to find the attackers who launched the ambush against the U.S. and West African forces.

So, it's very much an ongoing operation in this part of the world and a difficult day for the U.S. Green Berets, three killed and two wounded. Operations still very much ongoing. Back to you, guys.

HARLOW: Indeed. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thank you for that very much.

Also, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee says there is a lot more work to be done to find out whether there was collusion with Russia at all during the election. The committee plan to conduct more than two dozen additional interviews after reaching the same conclusion that the intelligence committee that Russia did meddle in the 2016 election.

BERMAN: With us now, Steve Hall, CNN national security analyst, a retired CIA chief of Russia operations, and David Kennedy, a cyber security consultant and former employee of the NSA.

Gentlemen, it seems that the news conference by the Senate Intelligence Committee was designed to do three things and three messages. Number one, we are not done yet, and number two, we are still searching for proof of collusion, and number three, the Russians are still coming for us.

On that last point, listen to the chair of the committee, Richard Burr.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICHARD BURR (R), NORTH CAROLINA, CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: What I will confirm is that the Russian intelligence service is determined, clever, and I recommend that every campaign and every election official take this very seriously as we move into this November's election, and as we move into preparation for the 2018 election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)