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The Lead with Jake Tapper

RCMP Holds Press Update on Ottawa Shootings; Terror in Canada; Possible Ebola Patient at Bellevue in NYC

Aired October 23, 2014 - 16:00   ET

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

BOB PAULSON, RCMP COMMISSIONER: The circle indicates the car as it approaches.

One of the pedestrians even approaches the car. As the suspect exits bearing his firearm, people run away.

You will see now the view to the East Block. He runs towards those vehicles that are parked there. The lead vehicle is a minister's vehicle that is occupied by a driver. The suspect goes around to the front of the car. There's some exchange with the driver. The vehicle backs up slightly.

The driver exits the vehicle and runs away. The suspect then drives towards Center Block. It is at this point that those actions were noticed by RCMP officers that vehicle that is moving with the door opened and pursuing the suspect vehicle.

So you see the green bus that goes by, one RCMP vehicle, the second RCMP vehicle. There will be a third. You will be able to see the suspect run into the Center Block.

Our officers are in pursuit. I can tell you that as he gets to the door of the Center Block, that's an exchange of gunfire with the House of Commons security officers. Our officers back up slightly as that shooting takes place and then pursue him inside.

Another view of the vehicle, minister's vehicle approaching Center Block. You can see police officers pursuing him into the door.

So now I'm going through some -- a little bit more detail. Witnesses interviewed by the Ottawa Police Service reported seeing the shooter at around 9:50 coming from behind the war memorial on the west side, where he fires twice at Reservist Nathan Cirillo.

The shooter is positioned on an angle behind the victim, where they cannot see him coming as they are facing south. The shooter fires one shot at the second guard, but he missed him. Witnesses heard the suspect yelling something that we don't know what it is in English, and then running towards the north. The

investigation revealed that he used the beige vehicle and headed to Wellington. The first calls received via 911 were at around 9:52:36. From the National War Memorial, the suspect drove north on Wellington Street and parked his vehicle at 9:52:23 in front of the Elgin entrance, which we have just seen on the video. And you will be able to see the slides as we go through the chronology. He accessed the grounds of Parliament Hill at 9:52:31 on foot and started running towards the East Block where members of Parliament's vehicles with parked.

At 9:53:16, video footage shows the suspect overtook one of these vehicles and drove towards Center Block. At 9:53:37, he immobilized the vehicle on the left side of the Peace Tower and starting running towards the main doors of Center Block.

At that time, RCMP vehicles on site chased the suspect to the entrance of Center Block. The suspect entered Center Block at 9:53:46, seconds before the RCMP officers that were chasing him were able to reach the doors. It took approximately one minute and 23 seconds between the time the suspect parked the beige car and then entered the Center Block.

Once inside Center Block, the suspect engaged in a fire exchange with House of Commons security and RCMP officers. The exact details of this exchange are still under investigation. We need to recognize the courage of all the officers involved in this fluid and dangerous situation.

The suspect, of course, was pronounced dead at the scene.

There is no longer an immediate threat. However, we continue to exercise increased vigilance and we are taking extra precautions to ensure that Canadians remain safe.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, so a lot of new information.

Let me just pass this all off to my colleague, Jake Tapper. He will start with this.

THE LEAD starts right now.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, I'm Jake Tapper. This is THE LEAD.

Moments ago, as you heard, Canadian law enforcement officials were revealing some new details about yesterday's horrific attack in Ottawa.

I'm joined now by CNN justice correspondent Pamela Brown, who's been monitoring this for us.

Pamela, we saw lots of closed-circuit TV of the shooter running from the war memorial to the Parliament. They gave information that he had just bought a car on October 21. And, interestingly, they said they had discovered an association that the shooter had with some individuals with radical views. You have more on that.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: We do.

We're learning, Jake, that he did have connections, interactions with other individuals who had Islamic extremist views online, that he interacted with these individuals on extremist Web sites and through social media.

But at this point, it's unclear how far his connections with these individuals went. In other words, it doesn't appear at this point in the investigation that there were any operational links between the gunman and these extremists, but that they were just engaging online, including one who is a Canadian man who is believed to be fighting overseas in Syria with militants.

We have learned from sources that Bibeau, the gunman, had been in correspondence with this man. But seeing this video right here is really significant, Jake, because it's the first time that we're seeing surveillance video. We have seen dash-cam video. This is first time that we're seeing surveillance of it all play out.

We see the massive chase ensue. We see people running and the police officers right on his tail as he drives the car, as we see right here, up to Parliament and then gets out with all these police officers following him into Parliament.

But he still somehow makes his way inside and there's a gun battle that ensues. That really, Jake, is at the heart of the investigation today. How was it that he was able to get through security, get through all of these security agents and still make his way inside injuring three people in a hail of gunfire, Jake?

TAPPER: And, as we know, it could have been -- it's obviously horrific, especially for the victim, the Canadian soldier Nathan Cirillo, but obviously getting so close into the Parliament, and close, close to the actual chambers where Prime Minister Harper just spoke earlier today.

There is actually a bullet hole right outside that room. It could have been horrific. And the idea that there are now questions, serious questions about whether Canada needs to rethink how much security it has in places such as this.

BROWN: I think that's sort of the sense that you're getting in Canada today. There's sort of a sense of shock. As someone said, Canada lost its innocence, because we have had two serious attacks in Canada just this week, two soldiers killed.

And we actually learned in this press conference that he fired at another soldier and the bullet missed. But we're learning that the fact that he was in communication with other extremists who are still living in Canada, you can imagine that this has intelligence officials very concerned in light of that, in light of what we have seen this week.

TAPPER: And we will have more on this later in the show. Pamela Brown, thank you so much.

Initial interviews with Bibeau's family and friends paint a picture of a man who was somehow adrift. Zehaf's own mother, Susan, she's a deputy chairwoman for Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board. She told the Associated Press: "I'm mad at our son. I don't understand and part of me wants to hate him." CNN's Ana Cabrera is in Ottawa, right in front of the war memorial where Corporal Nathan Cirillo was killed.

Ana, we just learned that Bibeau had connections to jihadists in Canada. That's according to the briefing we just heard. What else can you tell us?

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We understand those were online interactions with jihadists.

But according to U.S. officials, at least, it seemed that he was able to maintain a fairly low profile. We know he did have a criminal history here in Canada. He'd raised some suspicion among Canadian authorities. But we also learned at that press conference that he was not one of the 90 people who were on this important threat list who was being actively investigated.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA (voice-over): CNN has learned the suspect, Michael Zehaf- Bibeau, had connections to other radical jihadists in Canada, including this man, Hasibullah Yusufzai, who was wanted by Canadian authorities for traveling overseas to fight alongside ISIS fighters in Syria.

Zehaf-Bibeau, who was born in 1982, was an Islamic convert, according to Canadian authorities. It's not yet clear whether he had accomplices in planning the attack.

Video provided to the CBC by a viewer appears to show the shooter getting in a car not far from the war memorial shortly after the time of the initial attack.

STEPHEN HARPER, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: When faced with attacks on the country we all love and the things we all stand for, I know we will always stand together.

CABRERA: Canada lawmakers returned to work one day after those shootings that killed a soldier and rattled a government and a nation. Sergeant at Arms Kevin Michael Vickers received a hero's welcome as he led the daily procession into Parliament.

He is credited for saving lives by taking down the gunman who minutes before had shot and killed Corporal Nathan Cirillo while he guarded Canada's National War Memorial. Members of Parliament recount the chaos.

ANDREW CASH, CANADIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: Suddenly, the door barged open, this one. And it was a security guard who is usually manning the door. And he runs in and he shuts the door and locks it and starting to tell everybody to get down. But as he opens that door to come into our room, the gunshots fire.

CABRERA (on camera): When you first heard those gunshots, what went through your mind? LAURIN LIU, CANADIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: It took us a few seconds to

realize what they were and I think what kicks in there is just panic and instinct, and so we all kind of went in all different directions. It was very scary.

CABRERA (voice-over): And scary as it was, it could have been worse.

(on camera): The gunman entered through this door just behind me and came running down this hallway.

He ended up all the way at the end just outside the library where ultimately he was shot by the Sergeant at Arms Kevin Vickers. Now, had he come into the hallway left or right, where the two parties were caucusing at the time, the prime minister, we're told, was even in this room, the outcome could have been much different.

(voice-over): The gunman proceeded down the Hall of Honor, firing shots.

(on camera): We're told the suspect tucked himself behind this archway. Sergeant at Arms Kevin Vickers was in his office right over here. He grabbed his gun. We're told he came out, crawled along the wall to be in a position to get a shot.

(voice-over): And it is here where Vickers took his shots and killed Zehaf-Bibeau.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: There are still bullet holes, in fact, inside that Hall of Honor. We saw broken windows from the bullet holes.

And despite all of that, members of Parliament told me today that it's pretty much back to business as usual. They are determined to move forward, not with a sense of fear, but really with courage and with a steadfast resolve to ensure that the bad guy here, Jake, does not win.

TAPPER: Ana Cabrera in Ottawa today, thank you so much.

For more on this, I want to bring in a member of Canada's Parliament, Chrystia Freeland, who was locked down and heard the shots. She's a former journalist, so I know her.

Chrystia, good to see you.

There's lots of new information out of this press...

(CROSSTALK)

CHRYSTIA FREELAND, CANADIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: Nice to see you, Jake. Sad circumstances.

TAPPER: Lots of new information out of this press conference, including the fact that Zehaf-Bibeau may have had dual citizenship with Libya. What have you been told about him that you can share with us? FREELAND: Well, look, I think the most important thing is all of us

are being very careful not to rush to judgment.

I thought that that was very useful information that we got from the RCMP just now. Yesterday, there was a lot of concern -- and part of the reason that we were all under lockdown for so long was that there was concern there was an accomplice, that there were other shooters in Ottawa.

It's seeming more and more as if he acted alone. And I think that should be reassuring to all of us. The other thing that I would say is really the mood in Ottawa today and the mood in the country is, keep calm and carry on. This is very serious for us. But we're not going to let it change Canada and we're not going to overdramatize.

TAPPER: Zehaf-Bibeau was living in a homeless shelter before the attack. He bought the car he used just the day before the attack. We know that his mother worked in Canada's government for the Immigration and Refugee Board. She had reportedly not spoken with her son for five years.

What can you tell us about the shooter, especially in terms of just those final hours of his life as he was plotting the attack?

FREELAND: Look, I think the important thing here is that this was a criminal act. It was an act with tragic consequences for Corporal Nathan Cirillo, who was the Reservist standing as our honor guard at the war memorial.

And I think, beyond that, we really don't know yet what was going on in this criminal's mind. We will probably never know. And I'm really waiting to find out more from the RCMP what they find out about him. We do know that he was refused a passport. So he had registered as being a dangerous person.

TAPPER: There seems to be just an odd gap or disconnect in this man, Zehaf-Bibeau, and also the man who attacked Canadian soldiers earlier in the week with his car.

Both of them were known to government authorities, to agree -- to a degree. Zehaf-Bibeau applied for a visa to go to Libya. He was denied. The other man earlier this week had had his passport confiscated. He said we wanted to go to Syria to fight.

And yet, even though the government seemed to know something about each one of them, have concerns about them, they still ultimately launched attacks in both cases against Canadian soldiers.

Does this gap need to be plugged somehow?

FREELAND: Look, I think that's a really good question to ask. This is a week when we're very grateful to very many of Canadian security forces, our first responders, particularly to Kevin Vickers, that heroic sergeant-at-arms who ultimately killed the shooter. But there are questions that we're asking in parliament about why these men who had registered as being dangerous weren't under closer surveillance and we'll be asking those questions in the days to come.

TAPPER: All right. Chrystia Freeland, thank you so much. We're so relieved you came out of this unharmed. But we appreciate you joining us today.

Our other breaking story this hour: a doctor who recently returned from West Africa rushed to the hospital in New York City after experiencing fever, nausea, fatigue. He is now in isolation and, of course, he is being tested for Ebola. We'll have more on that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

Breaking in our national lead now -- a New York City physician is sitting in an isolation unit after showing possible -- I repeat -- possible symptoms of Ebola. He's been back in the country for 10 days. The 33-year-old was in West Africa working for the group Doctors Without Borders.

The group put out a statement moments ago saying the doctor, quote, "engaged in regular health monitoring and reported this development immediately."

CNN's Poppy Harlow is in New York on the phone on the way to Bellevue.

Poppy, what can you tell us about this case?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): As you said, Jake, he's a 33-year-old doctor at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital here in Manhattan. He was working in West Africa with Doctors Without Borders.

He self-reported. This morning, he woke up with a fever, called the FDNY. They went to his apartment and they took him with all the necessary precautions, hazmat suit, et cetera, to Bellevue Hospital.

Why Bellevue? Well, this is the New York City hospital that has been designated for any potential Ebola cases. Back on October 8th, they ran a drill, a full emergency drill to be ready for a situation like this.

We do not know which country this doctor was working in, whether it was Guinea, Sierra Leone or Liberia. We do know that his symptoms include a very high fever, nausea, pain and fatigue.

But it's also important to note, Jake, symptoms like that are also consistent, according to the New York City Health Department, with malaria. You can have symptoms of that after returning from Africa. Also with salmonella or a very severe stomach flu.

So, I just want to emphasize, we don't know if this is Ebola. We know that they consulted with the CDC immediately. They decided to do an Ebola test. And we know that within 12 hours from now, we will know if this is a positive case of Ebola or not. TAPPER: You're looking at pictures right now of the Ebola unit at

Bellevue. They are prepared for any incident like this. And as you state and we can't state enough, this is just somebody who might have Ebola. He could have something else entirely. He took the step of self-reporting.

What do we know about his movements in recent days? We know he got back to the United States about 10 days ago. What did he do, say, yesterday?

HARLOW: It's a good question, because that is part of why investigators, law enforcement officials briefed on the matter say investigators are taking this very seriously because they're concerned he did not self-quarantine.

We know that last night, he took an Uber cab to a bowling alley in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. We know that he was out in public and we know that officials are considering quarantining his girlfriend because he spent time with her since he's been back.

Again, you saw that statement from Doctors Without Borders saying he followed all the necessary precautions. You're not mandated to self- quarantine when you return from West Africa. And they think he was following all the necessary steps and immediately reported.

But, Jake, they are concerned, investigators are, because he was out in public as late as yesterday and we know that he started getting these symptoms either overnight or early in the morning. But the statement from the New York City department of health says they're taking this seriously and they've actively tried to contact anyone that this doctor was in contact with within the last ten days that he was here. They also said and I can't reiterate it enough, the chances of an average New Yorker contracting Ebola are extremely slim.

TAPPER: That's right. Of course, this doctor has not yet tested positive for Ebola. It's possible he doesn't have it.

The only way one can get Ebola is from the bodily fluids of somebody who has Ebola, who has symptoms of Ebola. So, people should not become alarmed by this.

One last question, Poppy, his apartment, is the fire department doing anything with it?

HARLOW: It's a good question. They immediately were told, seal it off, seal his apartment building off. So, as you can imagine, neighbors might be concerned. There really shouldn't be reason for that at this point because they sealed it off immediately when they removed him from the apartment in the ambulance using the hazmat gear, brought him to the hospital that just in the last two weeks gone these drills.

So, I think good lessons are being learned, frankly, from Texas.

TAPPER: All right. Poppy Harlow on her way to Bellevue hospital in Manhattan -- thank you so much, Poppy. Coming up, a cheating scandal first exposed right here on THE LEAD.

Major college athletes, some of who could barely lead, given passing grades. Now, the University of North-Carolina Chapel hill is coming clean and admitting what we reported months ago. Well, it's just the tip of the iceberg.

Plus, new polls in one of the closest Senate races in the country. Will the New Hampshire Democrat be hold to onto her Senate seat?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

Our sports lead now, the level of academic fraud is nothing short of stunning -- 3,000 students, many of them big-time college athletes, over the course of almost 20 years, getting the grades in classes that didn't exist to stay on the field.

We hear at THE LEAD were attacked by loyal Tar Heel fans when we first reported this scandal months ago. And I should note, I love the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. My grandfather was vice chancellor there. My mom graduated from there. My parents met there.

But facts are facts, and the truth is the truth no matter how uncomfortable. And now, a new investigation with staggering numbers is forcing the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill with a day of reckoning.