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Police Identify Gunman in Theater Rampage; Teachers' Heroism Saved Lives; Friends of the Victims Speaking Out; Justice Department to Investigate State Department?; NYC Mayor Speaks on Donald Trump; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired July 24, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[10:00:37] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All we heard was behind us, the people behind us saying, get out the theater now. This is not a drill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get the ambulances over here now.

KEITH PATIN, COUNCIL MEMBER, LAFAYETTE CITY-PARISH: We're used to dealing with natural types of catastrophes, hurricanes, stuff like that. But nothing like this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We treat every day like --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Louisiana town devastated by a mass shooting at a movie theater. Gunman names John Russel Houser opening fire, killing two people, injuring nine before killing himself.

And good morning to you. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

We have new details and chilling new images from last night's shooting spree inside a Louisiana movie theater. This is exclusive video capturing the immediate aftermath shot on a cell phone. It shows a police officer and a couple of civilians rushing to help one of the victims. And police say this is the gunman. He shot and killed two women and wounded nine other people. The Lafayette police chief publicly identified the gunman just a short time ago.

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CHIEF JIM CRAFT, LAFAYETTE, LOUISIANA POLICE: The shooter is John Russel Houser. H-O-U-S-E-R. He's a white male, 59 years of age. He previously resided in the state of Alabama. He's kind of a drifter. He's been in Lafayette since early July as far as we can tell.

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COSTELLO: CNN's Ed Lavandera live in Lafayette this morning with more.

Good morning.

And also I should mention Boris Sanchez is gathering information as well on the victims and some of those victims or heroes this morning.

But I do want to start with you, Ed, and the latest on the investigation.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, here, investigators continue to do their work at a couple of different locations. Here at the theater, they're still inside going through and trying to gather as much evidence as possible and then just a couple of miles away from here at the motel where it's believed that John Russel Houser had been staying since early July.

Authorities here say that he arrived in this area from Phoenix City, Alabama, in earlier this month so they are trying to piece together his movements and his whereabouts over the course of that time and what brought him here trying to talk to as many relatives and friends as possible. They have been doing that throughout the night. But they did reveal some disturbing clues and details of Mr. Houser's movements and his arrival here at the -- at the theater.

Authorities say that he parked his car by an exit. That they believe that he was planning to try to get away alive. But it was the quick reaction of two officers who were able to get inside that theater before Houser turned the gun on himself. And also authorities talking about how they discovered wigs and disguises in the motel room where he was staying.

COSTELLO: Also, Ed --

LAVANDERA: So, Carol, that was --

COSTELLO: Are police -- are police, Ed, still searching that hotel?

LAVANDERA: That's my understanding, that that was going on and that's a short distance from this movie theater. But, you know, that's where they discovered the disguises and the wigs that was in kind of a disturbing detail that was released just a short while ago. And obviously, that's one of the reasons why I think authorities here are saying that they believe that Mr. Houser especially the way he parked his car next to an exit on the side of the theater that that's one of the reasons why they believe that he was intentioned to stand up, fire off the rounds that he was going to fire and then try to escape alive.

COSTELLO: All right. Ed Lavandera reporting live from Lafayette, Louisiana, this morning.

Emerging from the horrors of that theater attack, tales of heroism. One features these two schoolteachers enjoying their last days of summer break. Listen to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), LOUISIANA: Two teachers here on summer break, wanted to come see one final movie, come see a comedy as they were getting ready for school to start again. One teacher literally jumping over her friend, potentially saving her life. A second teacher thought that -- felt like that bullet would have hit her in the head if her friend hadn't jumped on her. The second teacher was shot anyway in the leg. Had the presence of mind to pull that fire alarm. Who knows how many lives were saved just by that presence of mind?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: An amazing story.

CNN's Boris Sanchez is here with more details on the victims of last night's shooting. Good morning.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. We're learning the names of the two deceased victims, 21-year-old Mayci Breaux and 33-year-old Jillian Johnson.

[10:05:09] Mayci was from Franklin, Louisiana. That's about an hour southwest of Fayetteville or Lafayette, I should say. Jillian was a shop owner. She owned a boutique in Lafayette with her husband Jason. And sources tell CNN Jillian was sitting directly in front of the gunman when he decided to open fire.

We're still waiting to learn about the nine other injured victims. Two of them as you can see have been released from the hospital. We know two of them were teachers, as you mentioned. Jena Meaux and Ali Martin. Witnesses tell CNN one of those women jumped in front of the other taking a bullet in the leg for her friend. Potentially saving her life. She also ran to a fire alarm pulling it hoping to alert others about what was happening. Clearly an incredible act of heroism.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. Boris Sanchez, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

Want to bring you back to Lafayette, Louisiana, right now. Police Chief Jim Craft is with me.

Good morning, sir.

CRAFT: Good morning.

COSTELLO: I want to follow up on the victims first. Any updates on those victims in the hospital?

CRAFT: We know that two of the victims have been released from the hospital. The remainder of the victims are still hospitalized and we have one in critical condition.

COSTELLO: All right. I just want to put up a picture of Mayci Breaux, one of the victims. This is the 21-year-old that was shot. We'll put up her picture momentarily. But were -- was Marcy (sic) and Jillian sitting right in front of the shooter when they were killed?

CRAFT: We think that Mayci Breaux and her boyfriend were in front of the shooter. We're not sure exactly where Jillian was located. But the shooter wounded Mayci and her boyfriend and then began to just shoot randomly into the crowd.

COSTELLO: Do you know right now -- did he stand up at some point in the movie, 20 minutes in, I think?

CRAFT: Yes. He stood up and began firing the weapon and the first two people he shot were right in front of him and then the rest of the people were seated in different areas of the theater.

COSTELLO: And then tell me a little bit more about these two teachers, the one who pulled the fire alarm. Did that stop him?

CRAFT: It did happen -- we feel like that teacher along with our immediate law enforcement response probably prevented a number of people, you know, further casualties in this event.

COSTELLO: As far as the suspect, nothing about this makes much sense. First of all, he's a 59-year-old man. It's a strange movie for him to pick to see. "Train Wreck." It's a comedy, it's geared to a female audience. What do you make of that?

CRAFT: We're not sure yet. You know, we're right in the beginning stages of the investigation. We're about 14 hours, 16 hours into this investigation. And so there's a lot of work left to do. And part of that will be to try and figure out why this city, why this movie, why those people. We haven't found any connections between the shooter or anyone who was attending that movie.

COSTELLO: Yes, he was from Alabama. Some people say that this is -- this is a copycat killing because he started shooting 20 minutes in just like the Aurora shooter did.

CRAFT: Yes. We're looking at that as a possibility. But that's not something that we've come to a conclusion on yet. It's certainly -- at the very least it's coincidental that, you know, the Aurora shooter was just tried and recently found guilty. And so that's one of the things that we're looking at to see if there's any relationship there.

COSTELLO: You said you found wigs and disguises in the hotel room where this man was staying. Can you describe, wigs and -- what kind of wigs and disguises?

CRAFT: I don't know if they were men's wigs or women's wigs. It's apparent to us that he was maybe trying to disguise his appearance, although we are told that when he purchased his ticket he was not wearing any type of disguise. And we didn't find any inside the theater. But he had changed the license plate on his vehicle. And he had parked it right outside the emergency entrance for that theater -- that particular theater.

And so we think that he intended on leaving. He did exit the theater and try and blend in with the crowd who was also leaving very quickly. We think when he spotted law enforcement he returned back inside the theater and that's when he shot himself.

[10:10:11] COSTELLO: OK. Can -- what can you tell me about the gun he was using?

CRAFT: It's a semiautomatic handgun. ATF is running a trace on it as we speak. It was a 40-caliber handgun. We think he fired approximately 13 rounds but that hasn't been confirmed yet either because the crime scene is actually still being processed.

COSTELLO: Did you find any other weapons or ammunition in the hotel room?

CRAFT: I don't know if ammunition was found. We did find a box for the weapon and some alcohol. And so we're going to try to determine if that played a role in his -- this event, as well.

COSTELLO: We heard rumors that this man has a criminal background. Can you confirm that?

CRAFT: He does have a criminal history. It's like 26 years old is what I was told. And I think he had an arrest for arson at one time. And he had an arrest on a misdemeanor charge for I think selling alcohol to a minor.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: So are you still --

CRAFT: Nothing recently that we're able to find.

COSTELLO: And just a final question. Are you still searching the hotel?

CRAFT: No. We executed a search warrant at his motel room at 4:30 this morning. That search was contained to that room. That was done with quite a number of law enforcement officers and federal and state agents and they completed that work there, seized several boxes of items and now we're sorting through that to determine if there are any clues in there that might help us determine why this took place.

COSTELLO: Thank you so much for joining me, Lafayette, Louisiana, Police Chief Jim Craft. I appreciate it.

Of course, we'll continue to bring you the latest developments on the theater shooting in Louisiana.

Up next, I'll talk with co-workers of one of the victims, Jillian Johnson.

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[10:16:44] COSTELLO: We're continuing to follow the breaking news out of Lafayette, Louisiana. Police have now identified the gunman who opened fire at that movie theater last night killing two young women and injuring nine other people. Officers say 59-year-old John Houser committed suicide after the shootings. Police called Houser a drifter saying he lived in Alabama until earlier this month. We'll have more on the investigation in just a minute.

But let's talk about one of the victims, Jillian Johnson. She owned a shop in Lafayette and I have two of her customers on the phone, Caitlin Sonnier and Kimberly Wooten. And I'd like to welcome both -- welcome both of you.

Caitlin, I'm going to start with you. Just tell me about Jillian's shop.

CAITLIN SONNIER, FRIEND OF THEATER SHOOTING VICTIM: Red Arrow is a very beloved shop in Lafayette. They sell a lot of unique and handmade goods and it's just a good place to find, you know, really cool items, and her husband also does T-shirts, as well, for parishing. And so they're a big face of Lafayette and everybody just loves them.

COSTELLO: So she's always in the store?

SONNIER: Yes. I mean, pretty much any time you go in, she is there and she's always doing work. She was very devoted to it.

COSTELLO: I know she also belonged to a band. Tell me about that.

SONNIER: Yes. She is in a band called The Figs and she played the ukulele.

COSTELLO: When you heard she was one of the victims -- I mean, I guess, you know, it would stun me. How did you react?

SONNIER: It was just -- pretty much I was shocked. I mean, Lafayette is such a small town. You pretty much -- everybody knows everybody. So it was still just extremely weird to hear that it was somebody you recognize and someone who's such a big face of Lafayette. Like, I just kind of lost it this morning and just wanted to remember her and really just show everyone how important she was to the face of Lafayette.

COSTELLO: Kimberly, did you frequent Jillian's store, as well?

KIMBERLY WOOTEN, FRIEND OF THEATER SHOOTING VICTIM: Oh, absolutely. It's hard to, you know, go around Lafayette or, you know, even outside of Lafayette and not see Jillian's presence there through, you know, what she made through the store and also her musical work. I mean, she was a creative being. She made life better from what she said, from her mouth, from her hand to what she made.

Her and, you know, her husband are just such a presence here in Lafayette and Lafayette, you know, has become such a better place just for not only Jillian but her entire family so it's just such a blow here from us. She was such a light. Such a bright light here. So she made -- she made Lafayette beautiful. And, you know, it's going to be a tough -- it's a tough pill to swallow for a while.

COSTELLO: Oh, Lafayette is a relatively small city. When you heard something like this happened in your town, what went through your mind? SONNIER: It was just -- it was shocking. It doesn't feel real. It's

too close to home for us. You always hear about it being somewhere else but for it to be so close and for, you know, people you know to be directly involved with it, it's just surreal.

[10:20:08] COSTELLO: Kimberly, you wanted to say?

WOOTEN: It's a lot of emotions rolled into one. I think -- I think everyone is still processing it. The confusion, the questions. The whys. You know? It's something you don't fathom waking up to in the morning. I mean, this is obviously been going on for, you know, since last night and, you know, waking up this morning and still actually waking up and not realizing it's a dream. It's something that, you know, our community's just, you know, going to have to, you know, handle for a very long time,

But we are -- I mean, we're tough. We're a tough community. We are a great little small town. We are a small town. But we are going to come together and pull through and we have a great group of people here. I love -- I love our city. We have a great city. We have great people. We have great food. We have great things to offer. You know? We're going to pull through and get through this. It's just like -- I said I think it's just kind of, we're still unraveling the threads.

COSTELLO: All right. Kimberly Wooten, Caitlin Sonnier, thank you so much for being with me this morning. I appreciate it.

The Justice Department is asked to open a criminal investigation into whether the State Department mishandled sensitive information, including how it's reviewing tens of thousands of e-mails that were on Hillary Clinton's e-mail server from her time as secretary of state.

Elise Labott joins me with more on this. Good morning.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORTER: Good morning, Carol. Well, this originated in a story in "The New York Times" which has changed considerably now. The "Times" originally reported the request was made for a criminal inquiry into Clinton's handling of possible classified material with her private e-mail as secretary of state. And now the story says the Justice Department was asked to investigate whether sensitive government information was handled in relations to Clinton's use of private e-mail.

Now that's quite different and that's what our sources tell us. That the inspector generals for the State Department and intelligence agencies have asked Justice to see if the handling of the e-mails was improper.

Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Clinton, said in a statement, quote, "Contrary to the initial story which has already been significantly revised she followed appropriate practices in dealing with classified materials."

Now we know Clinton exclusively used that private e-mail server during her tenure at State saying it was easier for her but those revelations have really dogged her presidential campaign. She did turn over 50,000 pages of e-mails to the State Department and asked for them to be released. The State Department has been reviewing them to make sure sensitive information is not released. They have released about 4,000 pages. But it's important to note that at least one of those e- mails in question was deemed classified after Clinton's use of the private e-mail account and became known and as the State Department has been reviewing them, the whole problem now is that the inspector- generals have found that there could be more information that should have been classified at the time.

So certainly Clinton's use of the e-mail server has been what triggered all this but now the State Department in a little bit of hot water for the way it has been classifying information. Some of it, a lot more sensitive than they treated it.

COSTELLO: All right. Elise Labott, reporting live for us this morning. Thanks so much.

Donald Trump, took his fight against illegal immigration directly to the U.S.-Mexico border, where he met with officials and spoke with law enforcement during a four-hour swing. But Trump did not offer any specifics about how he would solve the issue, aside from his much touted plan to build this massive wall on the Mexican border.

Trump also addressed that bombshell interview with "The Hill" where he said he would consider a third party bid if the Republican Party isn't, in his words, fair to him during the primaries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm a Republican. I'm a conservative. I'm running. I'm in first place by a lot. It seems. According to other polls. I want to run as a Republican. I think I'll get the nomination. We'll see soon enough. But I think I'll get the nomination. The best way to win is for me to get the nomination and run probably against Hillary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Trump went on to say that despite the controversy surrounding his remarks about Mexico, he does think he will win the Hispanic vote handily.

Trump's bid to be the next occupant of the White House drawing sharp criticism from New York City's mayor, Bill de Blasio. I sat with the mayor who pulled no punches when talking about one of New York's most famous residents. And why Mayor de Blasio doesn't want the city to do business with him anymore.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK: Well, I said, I don't think he represents the values of New York City. He is from here but he doesn't represent our values because this is the ultimate city of immigrants and a place that believes in including people in our society. [10:25:03] COSTELLO: But he says he loves Hispanics. He said

thousands who work for him.

DE BLASIO: Yes. I mean, obviously, these comments about Mexican Americans were derogatory and inappropriate, and there's been moral outrage all over the country about them. So I would simply say he's gone very far from his roots here because this is a city where we would never tolerate that kind of language.

COSTELLO: Will you do business with Donald Trump in the future?

DE BLASIO: Not if I can help it. Look. I think he has set a very negative tone. And that's even before what he said about Senator McCain and you don't have to agree with Senator McCain politically to think that that was outrageous and inappropriate. I mean, Senator McCain is a war hero. Period. There's nothing else to discuss. And he should be respected as such.

I think Donald Trump has invalidated himself as a public figure. We will not seek out business with him and his companies. You know? We'll certainly look for other options.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: All right. So let's talk about this.

Errol Louis is a CNN political commentary and politics editor for "New York One."

Good morning, Errol.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

COSTELLO: So what did you think about Mayor de Blasio's comments?

LOUIS: Well, it sounded like the kind of thing one says off the cuff and it was very harsh language. I mean, Donald Trump, the work that he does, the contracts that he has with the city, are amenities that the city couldn't manage to get right for many, many years. You know, a couple of concessions like skating rinks, carousels, most recently a golf course. Things that had been in the works for decades and had never gotten done. And Donald Trump made them done.

It's sort of semi-philanthropic. You know, so, I think that the mayor either while -- I think he wants to express his political views, and he certainly did very forcefully in your interview, the business that the city does with Donald Trump is kind of a different story, and I wouldn't expect that to change any time soon.

COSTELLO: Really? Yes. But the mayor said -- you know, he probably can't get out of contracts that are already in existence but future dealings with Trump the mayor says, no way.

LOUIS: Well, you know --

COSTELLO: Don't want to deal with him anymore. LOUIS: The way I think of it, Carol, is politics -- you know,

political season is a long time and what Donald Trump said a couple of statements I don't think invalidates the prior 30 years or maybe the next 20 months. You know? The conversation may go to a very different place and like any politician, I think Donald Trump who's new to this game or this type of game, I think it's entirely possible that his language may change, that we might even get an apology somewhere down the road. So --

COSTELLO: From Mayor de Blasio?

LOUIS: No. From Donald Trump.

COSTELLO: Donald Trump. OK, sure.

LOUIS: Yes, yes. I mean, but --

COSTELLO: I thought Mayor de Blasio.

LOUIS: Or someone unlikely I'll acknowledge that out front.

COSTELLO: Yes. I don't think so.

LOUIS: But we don't know the conversation is going to go. And you know. I'm a big free speech advocate. So I'm all for people trying to say what they mean and meaning what they say. And the mayor has taken a very strong stance. We'll see if maybe that changes somewhere down the road.

COSTELLO: Well, I'm waiting for Donald Trump to tweet something derogatory about the mayor. I did check to see if Mayor de Blasio has -- you know, Donald Trump had his cell phone number and he does not.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: And I don't think he'll be getting it.

LOUIS: Well, I mean, see, you mentioned the phone prank that Donald Trump pulled. I mean, this is sort of a silly season of politics. We haven't really gotten into the thick of the presidential campaign. We haven't had the first debate yet. We haven't had the first primary, the first caucus. So, you know, I think at this point you kind of have to relax a little bit. Let everybody kind of test the waters, see what they're thinking about.

I don't -- I wouldn't expect that Donald Trump is going to change his entire persona and his whole personal history to sort of be an anti- Mexican advocate somehow. So -- and it's sort of a mistake to sort of portray him and buttonhole him as simply that. There's a lot more going on here. And we have to kind of keep an eye on it and see where it goes.

COSTELLO: All right. Errol Louis, thanks for stopping by. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, we are learning more about the horror at a Louisiana movie theater, more details on the investigation and the victims who were killed by that lone gunman.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I could have been shot. Like, I didn't know where the shooter was. I don't know where he could have been. I don't know if he could have gone into our theater and shoot us. And I was just so afraid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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