Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Canadian Bus Collides With Train; Mother of Navy Yard Shooter Speaks Out

Aired September 18, 2013 - 15:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Brooke Baldwin. Here we go, hour two.

We begin with huge news, good news for a change. After 36 hours on edge, a Georgia teenager and her family are right now, they are reuniting after she was kidnapped from her very own home, in what really started as this home break-in. Police confirmed just a short time ago they have found her. She's 14-year-old Ayvani Perez. We're told this afternoon she is doing just fine. She is being checked out. Two suspects, according to FBI and police, are in custody.

But, as they told reporters last hour, there are additional suspects who are still as large.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. MARK RICHARDS, CLAYTON COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT: I must stress that this investigation is still active. We have suspects, potential suspects at large, and the information that you all are asking for would potentially jeopardize our investigation.

So we ask you again to please be patient with us as we provide information to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So here's what we do know. We do know that two men broke into the family home right around 2:00 in the morning Tuesday.

They demanded money. They wanted jewelry from Ayvani's mother. When she couldn't give it to them, the men got violent. They shot the family dog and then they took off with Ayvani.

Joining me now is Marc Klaas, founder of the Klaas Kids Foundation. His 12-year-old daughter Polly was tragically kidnapped and killed in 1993. She was taken from a slumber party at her home in California, and so Marc has since created the Klaas Foundation to keep Polly's legacy alive and to stop crimes against children.

Marc, welcome back.

At least in this case, it, so far, has this happy ending. But when you have these, we said 36, 48 hours after an abduction, it has to be pretty critical, is it not? MARC KLAAS, PRESIDENT, BEYOND MISSING: Well, this was critical from the get-go. These were violent men. They shot the dog. They stole this girl. There were rumors of a ransom demand.

This was a very difficult situation, but I think it's a great testament to the marvelous work of law enforcement and how they can bring multiple jurisdictions and multiple agencies together for one common goal, and ultimately recover and return this girl home to her family safely. It's fantastic.

BALDWIN: Marc, how often, though, do you hear about things like this where you have these two gunmen? Seems like initially they just wanted cash or jewelry. When they couldn't get it, when the mom says, hey, I don't have this, they take a teenager. Is that rare?

KLAAS: Yes, this is very rare. And particularly if the ransom demand was a real demand, that's even more rare in the United States. That's something that occurs -- it occurs in movies, on TV, and in places like South America, and Third World countries. But in the United States, taking children for ransom hardly ever occurs.

BALDWIN: We haven't been able to confirm, you know, the ransom reports, but certainly that could be one thing. Can you imagine if it's just been 36 hours and she was returned to a location in Georgia, would that mean that these abductors would be, I don't know, watching television? What would spark them to return her so quickly?

KLAAS: Well, we don't know that they did return her. We don't know...

BALDWIN: You're right.

KLAAS: ... yes, how she was recovered. Everything is very, very vague at this point. But what we do know is that if children are going to be murdered as a result of a kidnapping, that 75 percent of them or thereabouts will be dead within the first 24 hours.

So time is an incredibly critical factor in these types of situations. And, again, it's a testament to law enforcement and the public and the media how far we have come in understanding these issues and dealing with them.

BALDWIN: Thank goodness. It's a good day as the police chief said for this family. Marc Klaas, thank you so much.

And now to some more good news for you, a big day on Wall Street right now after a huge announcement from the Federal Reserve. It's keeping the pedal to the metal when it comes to the stimulus program that's really kept all our interest rates so incredibly low. The Fed says the economy is still too weak, so, to quote Christine Romans, keeping those training wheels on, will not start the tapering that you have read about, the tapering of the bond purchases for at least another month.

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE) BALDWIN: And for the first time since her son went on a rampage at the Washington Navy Yard, the mother of 34-year-old Aaron Alexis spoke out this morning; 12 people were killed in that mass shooting. Eight others were hurt.

President Obama will attend a memorial for the victims this coming Sunday.

I want to take you to New York. That's where we have CNN's Deborah Feyerick, who joins us because she spoke to the mother. She spoke to Cathleen Alexis, who was very clear didn't want to show her face, so we will hear from her. She was pretty emotional, was she not?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Brooke, we can tell you this much about her. And that is she returned to her home here in Bed-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Monday afternoon. She has not left her home since then.

She's clearly been struck by this tragedy. You know, she's putting the focus on the victims, but, really, she understands the shame and horror of what her son has done. Meantime, she's also lost her son. She set very clear ground rules. She said she would give one statement. She had it printed out on a white sheet of paper. She stood flanked by clergymen on both sides of her and here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CATHLEEN ALEXIS, MOTHER OF AARON ALEXIS: Our son Aaron Alexis has murdered 12 people and wounded several others. His actions have had a profound and everlasting effect on the families of the victims.

I don't know why he did what he did, and I will never be able to ask him why. Aaron is now in a place where he can no longer do harm to anyone, and for that, I am glad.

To the families of the victims, I am so, so very sorry that this has happened. My heart is broken.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

FEYERICK: Now, she did say that she is concerned about returning to work. She did get some calls from a couple of her colleagues, would not tell us where she worked or what she did, but she says clearly this is going to affect her and her family and how they continue on with their lives as well.

But, again, she's very clear, she was very dignified, very elegant in terms of only wanting to speak for the victims. And, Brooke, that only sentence that was so cryptic is the one where she says now he can't harm anyone else, and for that she's glad.

That obviously makes you want to ask a whole bunch of questions, but she simply wasn't answering any of them -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Deborah Feyerick, thank you so much for us in Brooklyn with that.

No doubt, this is a time of deep sorrow for the loved ones of the 12 people killed in the Navy Yard shootings. And 10 of them are pictured right here. They were 46 to 73 years of age, include a pilot, a grandfather of nine, a church deaconess, all deeply loved. Friends and family of two of the victims spoke about their loved ones.

John Johnson was an avid fisherman, a Redskins fan, and a father of four daughters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he always said goodbye, beautiful. I love you so much. You have a good day, and God bless you.

He's going to be greatly missed by a lot of people. He was a great father, a great grandfather, and just -- just an awesome human being.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Martin Bodrog was also a father of three girls, a Naval Academy graduate. He taught Sunday school.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON EARLEY, FRIEND OF SHOOTING VICTIM: My knees just got weak, you know. Everything about Marty, just a great guy, you know, wonderful husband, father.

SELMA NUNES, FRIEND OF SHOOTING VICTIM: I think many of us are definitely in shock, but we're also happy that his life was so fulfilled. You know, so many people have regrets. And I can say with confidence that he lived the American dream, the fulfilled life. He has an amazing family. He had a great job. He was part of the community in so many ways.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: In addition to the tragic deaths, eight people were injured in the shootings. One of those who was shot, a woman hit in the head and hands, left the hospital yesterday.

Now, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, he is not wasting any time opening an investigation into the warning signs missed here in this case, as well as how security clearances are granted. Just a short time ago, Secretary Hagel announced a plan to review Defense Department procedures for granting and renewing the security clearances, including those for contractors.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHUCK HAGEL, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Obviously, there were a lot of red flags, as you noted. Why they didn't get picked up, why they didn't get incorporated into the clearance process, what he was doing, those are all legitimate questions that we're going to be dealing with. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Want to go to D.C. to Brian Todd.

Brian, you and I were talking about this just yesterday in Washington. So now you have an update. You were giving some significant information about how well-staffed security was on Monday.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brooke.

I spoke to a police officer with the Navy Yard Police. His name is Anthony Meely. He's speaking to me in his capacity as an official with the Fraternal Order of Police for the Naval District of Washington. That's essentially the police union for the Naval District of Washington. He spoke to me in that capacity.

He said they were very much undermanned on Monday before the shooting started. He said they only had five police officers deployed, five of them deployed throughout the base. And most of them were at the gates before the shooting started. He said they needed at least twice that many if not more to respond adequately to the shooting when it occurred.

Meely said they had five officers plus one who came back from a midnight shift to help them out when he was off-duty. He also said they -- as a result -- and he says this is as a result of them cutting resources to the Navy Yard Police and to other Naval police departments in this area. He said that as a result, they didn't have enough cars. Some officers, he said, had to run from the east side of the base to the west side of the base to respond to this, and they just, again, that, he said, just delayed the response.

He said if they had more officers deployed, if they had more resources, he believes they could have prevented some of the loss of life. We ran that by some Naval District of Washington residents and we have this from a Navy official saying only that the secretary has ordered a review of physical security and we will support it fully, that from a Navy official in response to the complaint from the Navy Yard police officer.

We also have to say it wasn't just the Navy Yard Police on the scene at that time. The Metropolitan Washington Police also responded very quickly. They were on scene within about seven minutes and engaging the shooter. But as far as the immediate police on the base, there is this complaint that they were undermanned.

BALDWIN: Brian Todd for us in Washington, Brian, thank you.

And coming up, we will have a little bit more, looking into the mind- set of this 34-year-old shooter.

Coming up, video that will give you the chills, a man dangling from a window -- look at this -- of a high-rise building. You are going to see how this ends.

Also, this: (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was texting my friend on the bus and then everyone had shouted, stop, stop. And then as I looked up, the bus was coming into contact with the gate and the front of the bus...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Right now, bus passengers fighting for their lives after a train collides with a double-decker. You will hear what crews encountered on the scene coming up next right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: At least six people are dead after a train and double- decking bus collided this morning. This happened in the Canadian capital of Ottawa; 30 people were injured, 10 of whom critically. Want you to listen to a young mother who was on board that bus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone had shouted, stop, stop. And then as I looked up, the bus was coming into contact with the gate and the front of the bus, it like all impacted at once.

And everyone flew, and there was just dust everywhere, and all I just remember is I just grabbed my son and ran off the bus. Someone had the door open. I don't know what happened. I don't know if the bus driver, like, blacked out. I don't know what happened, but it was just -- he didn't slow down, and it just impacted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Paula Newton joins us now live from the scene of this crash.

And, Paula, the woman who was on the bus says the bus went through a gate, hit the train. What are officials saying?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right now, they're saying they don't know how this could have happened. Imagine the panic on that bus. They had enough time to even brace for that impact, Brooke, and they kept yelling, stop the bus.

It instead barreled through the railway crossing. As you can see, the entire train derailed as a result. No idea why that bus driver went through the rail crossing, Brooke. He died along with five others on the bus. We can say still 10 in critical condition. And, you know, chilling, chilling witness accounts of what they saw. People flying, being flown, meters, feet out of that bus, certainly people enduring very, very serious injuries through this crash.

People waiting on the platform that I am on right now, waiting for this train, also incredibly shocked by the events. All they heard was a thud and a loud screech. It's incredibly rare for some of these things to happen. When you're on a railway crossing, Brooke, we all know that many times the train may be unfortunately be hitting the car. But in this case, it was the double-decker bus filled with commuters smashing into the side of the train -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: So, you mentioned the deaths, you mentioned those in critical condition. Were, Paula, all of the victims on that bus?

NEWTON: Yes, and in fact, I spoke to some of the people getting off the train. Some of them felt it. Some of them didn't. They were incredibly horrified when they found out what happened, but there were hundreds of people on that train. We have no reports of any injuries on the train, but the injuries sustained, Brooke, the entire front end of that bus was sheered right off, and that's why people tonight are very frantic.

Some people still this afternoon can't find their loved ones and don't know if they were actually on that bus. City officials still trying to get people reunited with their loved ones.

BALDWIN: Paula Newton for us in Ottawa. Paula, thank you. Coming up next, a firsthand look at the devastation in Colorado through the eyes of a homeowner. We're there, as some people go home for the very first time since being told to evacuate to see the damage that the heavy flooding and the rain has caused to their homes. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The Ohio man who posted that video online confessing to killing a man while driving drunk finally made good on that promise today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW CORDLE, CONFESSED TO DRUNK DRIVING: I was out with some friends. We were all drinking really heavily just hopping from bar to bar, just trying to have a good time, and I lost control.

My name is Matthew Cordle. And on June 22, 2013, I hit and killed Vincent Canzani.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Twenty-two-year-old Matthew Cordle did plead guilty this morning to driving the wrong way on an interstate while drunk and hitting 61-year-old Vincent Canzani's car head on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you entering a plea of guilty to these two counts, counts one and two, knowing, intelligently, voluntarily, without any threat or promise, in other words, you're doing this on your own free will?

CORDLE: Yes, Your Honor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Cordle will be sentenced on October 10. He faces up to eight years in prison.

And do you remember hiccup girl? Six years after this Florida teenager was all over the news because she couldn't stop hiccupping, Jennifer Mee is back in the headlines. She's now 22 years of age and she's on trial, charged with murder. Mee is accused of luring a man she befriended online to a home where two men tried to rob him with a gun. A struggle broke out. The man was shot and killed. Mee could get life in prison if she's convicted. Her trial got under way today.

Now to Colorado, where some of the flood victims are getting a chance to go back home. That doesn't mean this crisis is over by any means. Some 300 people are still unaccounted for. State officials say they believe most of them are alive, just not able to contact authorities. Nearly 18,000 homes were washed out or destroyed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLY HUNT, COLORADO FLOOD VICTIM: Today is our first day up here since we have been evacuated. And I feel like it's worse than I thought it would be. We lost absolutely everything we own.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Officials say they have rescued nearly 2,000 people so far. And those rescue missions, they continue today.

And I just want to remind you because so many of you want to help, you can help these people affected by the disasters like the floods in Colorado. You can make a donation to the Red Cross. Call 1-800-RED- CROSS, or simply text RedCross just one word, no space, RedCross, to 90999. That's 90999 to make a $10 donation.

Coming up, one question we're asking, were warning signs ignored? The Navy Yard shooter said he heard voices. And that's not all. More on the alarming admissions he made just before this mass shooting.

Plus, a man helpless. He's four stories up, trapped in a burning building, nowhere to go but down, until quick-thinking neighbors swoop in. We will show you this remarkable rescue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We are near the bottom of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And about a month ago, 34-year-old Aaron Alexis told police he heard voices in his head, people talking through the walls, floors, even using microwaves to send vibrations through his body, keeping him awake, rendering him speechless. We have also learned that he had been involved in several gun incidents. Back in 2004, he shot out the tires of a construction worker's car, telling police he thought the victims had disrespected him, his words.

Then, 2010, he shot through his own ceiling into his neighbor's floor. And then there were the mood swings. CNN talked to a woman who met Alexis at a D.C. hotel one week before he went on that shooting spree, and she said he had been friendly the first day, but the following day, something changed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENITA BELL, MET SHOOTER: I ran into him again on Wednesday. And his countenance was markedly different on Wednesday.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: How so?

BELL: He was very hurried. He said that he was extremely tired. He said, I'm tired. I'm exhausted. I got to go. I got to go. I'm going to take my food up to the room. And...

JOHNS: Did you get a sense that he was troubled?

BELL: His demeanor on Wednesday was, as I say, the antithesis of Tuesday. And so he did appear troubled. He appeared stressed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, while some people noticed his erratic behavior, his friend, she says that she never saw any signs of any kind of mental illness.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELINDA DOWNS, FRIEND OF AARON ALEXIS: It's like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Who was this guy?

Is there something I could have saw that -- is there some type of behavior that I ignored or didn't see that