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Gun Violence Shocks the World; Orlando Shooter Posted on Facebook During the Massacre; Popular Labour MP Shot Fatally Shot and Stabbed; Orlando Gunman Shows Violent Tendencies Since Elementary Days; Russia's Track and Field Athletes Banned in Olympics. Aired 12- 1a ET
Aired June 17, 2016 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm John Vause.
AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Amara Walker.
Gun violence is once again grabbing the world's attention.
VAUSE (voice-over): This time, though, it happened in the U.K., where guns are not commonplace.
WALKER: Making it all the more shocking, the victim was a member of Parliament. And Thursday night Londoners came to the Palace of Westminster to pay tribute to Jo Cox.
VAUSE: The 41-year-old Labour Party MP was stabbed and shot Thursday after meeting with constituents. She died a short time later.
WALKER: Police have detained a suspect, 52-year-old Tommy Mair. They are searching his home for clues and a possible motive.
VAUSE: CNN's senior diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, has more.
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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It was a brazen attack in broad daylight, a peaceful suburban street turned into a scene of horror.
British MP Jo Cox stabbed and shot outside a library in Birstall, Northern England. Her attacker, a 52-year-old man, arrested nearby, several weapons recovered. Another man also injured at the scene.
Cox had been meeting constituents before eyewitnesses describe hearing screams in the street.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They weren't normal screams. They were like panicking. And then when I looked down the road, there were a woman laid on the floor.
ROBERTSON: Cox was taken to a nearby hospital but doctors couldn't save her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am now very sad to have to report that she has died as a result of her injuries. Before going into further detail, I would like to express our deepest sympathies to her family and friends at this tragic time.
ROBERTSON: She has been an MP since last May, a member of the opposition Labour Party. Her party described her deep commitment to humanity and a strong sense of public duty.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The thing that surprises me time and time again as I travel around the constituency is that we are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us.
ROBERTSON: That community is now reeling at her loss.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You struggle for words. You know, expect it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With it being a public figure, well, with anyone being shot in a town center, it's quite saddening.
ROBERTSON: This whole community is in shock. And none of course in more shock and deeper mourning than Jo Cox's husband, Brandon Cox. He's released a statement. It's powerful and it's poignant. I'm going to read it to you.
"Jo believed in a better world. And she fought for it every day of her life with an energy and a zest for life that would exhaust most people.
"She would have wanted two things, above all else, to happen now: one, that our precious children are bathed in love and, two, that we all unite against the fight against the hatred that killed her.
"Hate doesn't have a creed, race or religion. It is poisonous."
Cox was a vocal advocate of Britain remaining in the E.U. She and her family had been involved in campaigning ahead of next week's referendum. Both the Leave and Remain camps have now suspended their campaigns as a mark of respect.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was an MP, great campaigning MP, with huge compassion, with a big heart. And people are going to be very, very sad at what has happened.
ROBERTSON: A moment for the country to pause and remember the service of one of its youngest and most promising lawmakers as police try to establish a motive for this vicious killing -- Nic Robertson, CNN, Birstall, England.
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VAUSE: CNN's Max Foster joins us now live from London. So, Max, what's the latest on the investigation?
And what else do we know about the suspect?
MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, very little. Overnight really, we have had no update from the police at all. And everyone asking the same question, why did she die?
What was the motive?
Nic was talking there to that. And there's no sense of that whatsoever. There is this constant talk around what this alleged attacker said, as he went in for the kill, as we now know it to be.
And a lot of people suggesting that he was from Britain First, which is a nationalist group which, of course, plays into this wider Brexit debate that we have got in this country right now. That campaign has stopped for a day. We don't know that it was directly linked in any way at all.
But it's -- this killing is affecting that huge political campaign carrying on right now. And as we know from Nic's reporting there, she was standing for a Remain within the European Union for the U.K.
So a huge, huge story here, not just because we have learned so much about her as an MP, a fantastically popular campaigning MP, very young in her career; only been in Parliament for a year, had so much potential. And the horrific nature of the attack as well. But what it means for wider politics, what it means for this wider campaign playing up to the vote --
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FOSTER: -- next week. It's really taken the country by surprise and it has shocked people in this part of the country. It was described to me yesterday by a local counselor who knew her very well, who went to school with her, as "a sleepy area." And I think people are really affected locally but also nationally by this -- John.
WALKER: And, Max, I would imagine, because this was such a shocking and brazen attack, I wonder how the other MPs are feeling in terms of their security, because, in the U.K., it is common, right, that the public does have pretty easy face-to-face access to a member of Parliament.
Do you think security around MPs will change now?
FOSTER: Well, certainly, some MPs are saying they're not going to carry out their surgeries today -- they call them surgeries, these meeting with constituents.
And yes, Jo Cox had a weekly one. And she was famous for being a very strong MP in London but also going back every week and holding these surgeries, meeting her constituents and talking to them about their problems and taking them down to London and trying to address them there. So these are these weekly meetings that they have. And typically, she
was in the library. So she just met with people locally and discussed their issues. And they don't have security at these events.
But MPs recently have been expressing their concerns about the security and how some of them have faced stalkers. And she was under a lot of pressure as well from people that didn't agree with her views locally, either.
So certainly, other members of Parliament are saying that they're not going to continue with these meetings and there should have been security early on. But this is a liberal democracy and the whole idea of that is that their MPs do meet locally with people face-to-face and take their problems to London.
So they're a wider issue of -- can you afford the security for members of Parliament as they go into these meetings?
And do you want to stop them in an way?
How would that affect wider politics?
A lot of her friends suggesting that she wouldn't want these meetings to stop. We of course don't know how she would feel about that. But her husband certainly very clear that this was a campaigning MP and she would have wanted to continue that relationship with her constituents. But it's so much to digest right now; that's just one of the elements.
VAUSE: Max, you touched on before there are multiple reports out there of a number of witnesses who apparently heard the suspect yelling, "Britain first," during this attack. That's a far-right nationalist political party.
Their leader, Paul Golding, released a video statement on Facebook, condemned this killing. But he also said all those reports of the alleged attacker yelling "Britain first" is simply hearsay. Listen to this.
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PAUL GOLDING, LEADER, BRITAIN FIRST: The media are acting grossly irresponsible to try and incriminate our organization, Britain First, in this heinous crime because we have nothing to do with it. We would not condone actions like that.
We carry out protests and we stand in elections. I recently stood in a London election, received over 100,000 votes. So that's the kind of political activities that we carry out.
Yes we do direct actions sometimes; we invaded a Halal slaughterhouse because we disagree with halal slaughter, but this kind of thing is disgusting. It's an outrage. And I hope that the person who carried out this heinous crime will get what he deserves, probably not in this country.
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VAUSE: So, Max, just explain to our viewers exactly what could be any possible connection here between British First and Jo Cox.
FOSTER: Well, it's simply that we were told that those words were called out. But we haven't had that confirmed. And the police, when they were pointedly asked about that, are saying, we are speaking to witnesses. We're trying to find out if anything was said or heard.
So we just don't have any confirmation of that. And Britain First obviously distancing themselves from this incident. But they're very strong against immigration, about -- against multi-culturalism, the sort of issues that Jo Cox campaigned on.
And she was completely from the opposite end of the spectrum. And we have got this referendum debate currently sort of fighting out, really, in the U.K. right now. It has become very, very fierce.
And Britain First is at one extreme of that debate. They pretty much just on immigration is where that debate has been. And she was pro- immigration. She certainly wasn't fighting against immigration.
So -- and this is a part of the world where Britain First does have some members. It's not a particularly strong movement. But certainly people feel strongly about immigration in her constituency. It's one of the subjects of the debate that plays very highly there.
So people in this vacuum of information, that we don't have on what the motive was, are filling it with this sort of debate around immigration, about Britain First, about how she viewed that.
VAUSE: OK, Max, thank you. We will speak to you again later this hour.
Max Foster live in London.
WALKER: And as would you imagine, the British MP's murder has grabbed attention worldwide. U.S. State Department spokesperson John Kirby.
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JOHN KIRBY, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT: We are shocked and appalled that a member of the U.K. Parliament, Ms. Jo Cox, was murdered today in Birstall, near Leeds in Northern England while doing her public duty. Of course, we offer our sincere condolences to Ms. Cox's family and friends and all the British people.
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VAUSE: Of particular significance, the reaction from former U.S. congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords. She was shot and badly wounded while meeting with her constituents in 2011.
On Thursday, she tweeted this, "Absolutely sickened to hear of the assassination of Jo Cox. She was young, courageous and hard-working, a rising star, mother and wife."
WALKER: And we spoke earlier with a number of people who worked alongside Cox.
VAUSE: And from all of them, abundantly clear that she will be missed.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Most people of all parties going to politics with a good heart to do things, to change things. And Jo had chose through her working life before an MP how much she thought about others. And she was thinking about others today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think anyone could have imagined that something like this could have happened to such an incredible, courageous, kind and committed member of Parliament. She was killed in the line of duty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think no matter who you speak to, from whatever the political divide, people have a lot of respect and time for Jo. A great MP and a good campaigner and making a mark at Westminster and, indeed, lovely. At the end of the day, this is a local person, a mother who has a family, young children. And that's got to take precedence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have lost a wonderful woman. We've lost a wonderful member of Parliament. But our democracy will go on. Her work will go on. As we mourn her memory, we will work in her memory to achieve that better world she spent her life trying to achieve.
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WALKER: Welcome back, everyone. We are getting new details about the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida. A law enforcement source says the shooter texted his wife during the massacre.
VAUSE: And we have also learned he was posting threats on Facebook from inside the nightclub. Pamela Brown has more, including some terrifying images of people trying to survive during this mass shooting.
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PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, chilling new video captured inside Pulse nightclub, clubgoers hiding in the bathroom, trying to keep quiet as the shooting was taking place. In the middle of the chaos, CNN has learned the gunman and his wife
communicated. According to law enforcement sources, she was frantically calling him after news broke of the shooting.
At around 4:00 am, he texted her, asking if she saw the news.
She responded, "I love you."
She has told investigates she had a suspicion when he left the house on Saturday he was going to launch an attack, even though he told her he was going to visit a friend.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody just get out to get aid --
BROWN (voice-over): And we are now hearing from Omar Mateen for the first time. This documentary from Big Picture Ranch about the BP oil spill shows Mateen working as a security guard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once people get laid off here, it's going to suck. And they want more disaster to happen because that's where the moneymaking is.
BROWN (voice-over): Sources tell CNN the in the weeks leading up to the attack, Mateen began spending a significant amount of money, including to buy weapons used for the attack.
A letter from Senator Ron Johnson to Facebook says Mateen searched the site during the rampage for news on the shooting and even allegedly posted, "In the next few days, you will see attacks from the Islamic State in the USA."
While the gunman was holed up in the bathroom, officers were pulling victims out as fast as they could. Hostage negotiators were able to make contact with him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, there was kind of suspected that maybe he did have some explosives and that he was going to (INAUDIBLE) come out of the bathroom with explosives.
BROWN: And what was running through your mind during that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is the breach going to work?
Are we going to be able to get everybody out?
Is the see -- what is he going to start doing?
You know, that kind. So but our main concern is always trying to get those people out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I arrived on scene --
BROWN (voice-over): A first responder telling CNN about the harrowing experience.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- it was kind of dark. You know, had this disco light still going.
And I just began yelling, "Hey, guys, come on out. Come on out. Come on out. You know, we got you. We got you."
And just unfortunately, it took a minute but realized that they weren't faking. It's just they couldn't get up.
BROWN (voice-over): Investigators are still trying to determine the motive for the night club attack and if anyone, including his wife, could have done anything to stop it.
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WALKER: U.S. Senator Republican John McCain is now walking back a statement that he made earlier Thursday, blaming President Barack Obama for the attack. Here is what he said.
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SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZ.: Is that Barack Obama is directly responsible for it because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, Al Qaeda went to Syria, became ISIS. And ISIS is what it is today, thanks to Barack Obama's failures.
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WALKER: Well, McCain now says that he misspoke and that meant to say it is the president's security decisions that are to blame.
VAUSE: Mr. Obama has addressed at least 12 other mass shootings since taking office. Here they are: an army psychiatrist killed 13 at Ft. Hood, a military base in Texas in 2009.
In 2011, six were killed at an event in Arizona with Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Twelve died at a movie theater in Colorado July 2012.
A month after that, a man shot and killed six at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.
WALKER: And it doesn't end there.
Then in 2012, in December, a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
In 2013, 12 died in a shooting at the Washington Navy Yard.
And then the next year, another shooting at Ft. Hood left three dead.
Also, in 2014, three were killed at a Jewish --
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ALLEN: -- community center in Kansas. VAUSE: Then that brings us to the last 12 months, when people were killed at a church in Charleston, South Carolina; a military recruiting center in Tennessee; a community center in Oregon and a workplace party in San Bernardino, California. That happened just this past December.
WALKER: If the sheer number of mass shootings in the U.S. seems overwhelming, well, President Obama shares that feeling. And you can hear him getting more upset each time he has to talk about yet another deadly attack.
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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy but this much we do know.
No faith justifies these murderous and craven acts.
Our hearts go out to the family members of those who have been slain. We are going to get to the bottom of this. And we're going to get through this.
Since I've been president, this is the fourth time we have come together to comfort a grieving community torn apart by mass shootings. These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change.
We are confronting yet another mass shooting. And today it happened on a military installation in our nation's Capitol.
Any shooting is troubling. Obviously, this reopens the pain of what happened at Ft. Hood five years ago.
And to say our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families and their community doesn't say enough to convey the heartache and the sadness and the anger that we feel.
As I said, just a few months ago and I said a few months before that and I said each time we see one of these mass shootings, our thoughts and prayers are not enough.
We see the prevalence of these kinds of mass shootings in this country. And I think so many Americans sometimes feel as if there's nothing we can do about it.
Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad. And by the way, it happens on the streets of Chicago every day.
I held and hugged grieving family members and parents.
And they asked, why does this keep happening?
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VAUSE: Well, the Orlando shooting brings back the horror of another mass shooting at a Colorado movie theater nearly four years ago. WALKER: And in both cases, people were gunned down while simply out enjoying their lives. Mr. Obama talked about that shortly after the attack.
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OBAMA: I'm sure that many of you who are parents here have the same reaction that I did when I heard this news. My daughters go to the movies.
What if Malia and Sasha had been at the theater?
As so many of our kids do every day. Michelle and I will be fortunate enough to hug our girls a little tighter tonight. And I'm sure you will do the same with your children.
But for those parents who may not be so lucky, we have to embrace them and let them know we will be there for them as a nation.
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VAUSE: Lonnie and Sandy Phillips join us now live from Denver, Colorado. Their daughter, 24-year-old Jessica, was killed in that rampage in Aurora along with 11 others.
It must be a really difficult week for you guys, reliving everything that you went through, hearing what happened in Orlando.
How are you coping?
SANDY PHILLIPS, MOTHER OF JESSICA GHAWI: I think we're doing OK. It took the first two or three days to kind of collect ourselves again.
You know, it's devastating every time you hear about one of these mass shootings in this country, because they're so common now. But he sheer number was absolutely astonishing. And anger rose up because we continue to allow it to happen.
WALKER: I can only understand that anger. I know that both of you have been pushing for change for gun laws in the United States.
And after every massacre we have seen, Congress try to bring some measures to a vote. And they have all been rejected, including the ones that will be voted on now after that 15-hour filibuster by the Senate Democrats, one that would prevent terrorists from getting a gun and one that would expand background checks.
Are you hopeful at all this time around, realistically?
LONNIE PHILLIPS, FATHER OF JESSICA GHAWI: We're hopeful, not realistically. We know what we're up against right now in Congress.
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LONNIE PHILLIPS: And it's a Congress that's bought and paid for by the NRA. And they have a powerful stranglehold on our Congress right now.
We are hopeful that these elections coming up, we're going to clean house and get the Congress in a place where they will pass some reasonable legislation. That's what we're hopeful for.
And this last mass killing, I think it sent a shock wave through this country that we haven't really seen before. We thought so after Newtown. It fizzled out when they took the vote. We got 54 votes. We needed 60 in a super majority, which, to me, is not a democracy. You get 54 votes; you should have it passed. But it didn't happen here because of our laws.
So yes, we're very disappointed and very hopeful.
VAUSE: So Lonnie and Sandy, the "USA Today" had this -- did a count. And since Jessica was killed, there have been 78 mass shootings; almost 400 people have been killed in those shootings and yet nothing ever changes.
Twenty children were shot dead at Sandy Hook. Nothing ever changes.
Why?
SANDY PHILLIPS: Well, like my husband said, the NRA has a stranglehold on our Congress. And it's changing. I see a change. And the White House sees a change, that people are beginning to speak up and say, what's going on, what can we do?
And it's not just the mass shootings. They are -- they get the attention because they are so shocking. But we lose 91 people every day in America and eight of those are children. And that doesn't count how many are wounded. There are over 200 wounded every day in this country. It's just short of a war zone.
And we have to get our heads around this in this country or we're going to disintegrate into perhaps a civil war or we're going to disintegrate into a society that I certainly don't want to be a part of.
WALKER: Yes, you raise a good point, though, about the NRA having a stranglehold on Congress. I mean, the NRA is a very powerful lobby group that spends millions and millions of dollars on campaigns and contributing to Congress.
But you know, the NRA also has been very outspoken about being opposed to closing this terror gap. They don't want to -- they want to allow some people to get guns, even if they were on a terror watch list at some point.
I guess they are most concerned about innocent people mistakenly getting on a watch list and mistakenly getting their Second Amendment rights revoked.
What do you say to that argument?
(CROSSTALK) LONNIE PHILLIPS: Well, how inconvenient is that?
Oh, that's really inconvenient. We have to take our shoes off now because somebody tried to bomb an airplane. But you have somebody that's on a terror watch list and you have two lines getting on a plane; 40 percent of them go in one line and have no checks at all; 60 percent in the other line.
Would you get on that plane?
I don't think so.
VAUSE: That's a good point.
Lonnie and Sandy, we have spoken in the past. It is always so sad when we get to speak. And let's hope we don't have to talk again. Thank you so much.
SANDY PHILLIPS: Thank you for having us.
WALKER: Thank you.
LONNIE PHILLIPS; Thank you.
VAUSE: We'll be back to our top story in a moment with a look at how the deadly attack on a British MP might affect the upcoming Brexit referendum.
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[00:32:00] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.
I'm John Vause.
WALKER: And I'm Amara Walker. The headlines this hour.
In the U.K., Britains are shocked and saddened after a popular member of parliament was fatally shot and then stabbed. 41-year-old Jo Cox had been meeting with constituents in Northern England. Police have detained a suspect, 52-year-old, Tommy Mair, in connection with the attack.
VAUSE: The U.S. president is again calling for action on gun violence. His latest remarks came on Thursday after meeting with grieving families of the victims of the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando.
WALKER: Egypt says it's found the cockpit voice recorder of EgyptAir flight 804, one of the plane's so called black boxes. The government said the device was damaged but its memory unit was recovered. EgyptAir flight 804 crashed in the Mediterranean on a flight from Paris to Cairo last month.
VAUSE: Northwest to Santa Barbara, California. Firefighters are trying to control a wildfire, which has drawn for more than 500 hectares. The so called Sherpa fire has spread quickly due to strong winds and high temperatures. Hundreds have been forced to evacuate.
More now on our top story.
British investigators are yet to comment on a motive for the murder of a member of parliament. Jo Cox was a rising young star in the opposition labor party. She died after an attacker stabbed and shot her on Thursday.
WALKER: Police have detained 52-year-old Tommy Mair. He was apprehended just a few blocks away with weapons, including a firearm. The attack comes just one week before the UK'S historic vote on whether to leave the European Union. Both sides have suspended campaign operations for now.
VAUSE: Now this murder is all the more shocking because England is known for its tight gun laws and very low rates of gun violence.
England and Wales have something of a gun free zone with just 6.2 guns per 100 people according to the small arms survey. England's low rates of gun ownership due to the country's strict gun laws, which empowered local law enforcement to deny gun licenses to citizens at their discretion.
And because of the tight laws, the United Kingdom also enjoys a very low rate of gun homicide.
WALKER: CNN's Max Foster is following the story, has more now from London.
And, Max, let's talk more about the gun laws and the fact that this is so shocking that it happened in the UK. Britain, again, has some of the strictest gun laws in the world, including the fact that police, most of them, don't even -- are not armed. Right?
MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And that's the principal in the country. It does sometimes come up as a debate whether or not the police should be armed. There are armed police, but they are very highly trained. And they're not armed routinely. So not all police are allowed to carry guns.
And, certainly, there's gun crime in urban areas, particularly here in London. But this was a rural area described to me by local councillor as sleepy, an absolute shock that something like this could happen in an area of northern England, which just isn't known for crime at all, let alone a shooting, a stabbing incident in broad daylight.
People absolutely shocked that this sort of thing could happen.
There is no general debate really about whether the police should be armed. I think there's a principal here. And certainly, a lot of the coverage here on U.S. crime is based around the idea that there are so many guns there and that might play into what happens in the U.S. That's the debate here.
And, certainly, I don't think there's any sort of major movement towards arming police more widely. There is a concern about the amount of highly qualified police perhaps not having -- not being quite enough armed police in London. I don't think outside the capital, there's really that big debate.
There is concern about security. But I don't think people are suggesting the police should start carrying guns at any point now, because there's certainly a feeling here that it does feed into the idea that arming lots of people would encourage gun violence rather than discourage it here.
Amara?
VAUSE: And, Max, Jo Cox, she is very much in favor of immigration. She talked about that during her maiden speech to parliament last year. She spoke with pride about the diversity of her electorate. She also said that she was in favor of Britain staying within the EU.
FOSTER: Oh yes. She's very strong on --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JO COX, LABOUR M: Shall also want the security and stability of Britain's continued membership of the European Union. A cause I look forward to passionately championing in this place and elsewhere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Now it's not entirely clear yet what in fact her murder is linked in anyway to the Brexit debate. But what impact is her death now having on the referendum which is scheduled for next week?
FOSTER: All campaigning has been suspended at least until Saturday. So, inevitably, it's going to be part of that debate. And part of whether or not Britain should stay within the European Union.
Her death will play on people's minds as they go in to vote next week. It's a huge shock. And her husband saying -- I'm just looking -- he issued a statement yesterday.
He was a campaigner. Talking about the hatred that killed her. We have comments that Britain First was called out during the incident. So, inevitably, it plays into the debate. And it's going to affect the tone, I think.
And I'm joined now by Julia Ebner. She co-authored the report by Quilliam Foundation on the EU and terrorism.
And she's also a political analyst with a London-based think tank as well.
It's going to affect the tone of this debate. This has become very angry. Hasn't it? And she as we now learn was very measured politician, campaigning for Remain. But she wasn't involved in all the back stabbing that was seen in the last couple of weeks.
JULIA EBNER, POLICY ANALYST, QUILLIAM FOUNDATION: Absolutely. I think the problem was really she was focusing on one of the most divisive and emotional topics in the debate.
FOSTER: Which was immigration.
EBNER: Which was immigration, exactly. And she was a very eloquent campaigner for the Remain campaign. And I think it is a big loss, I mean, for her family as well as for the campaign and for her constituency.
It seems right now all the indications point to far right extremism also because of her campaigning for Syrian refugees, for all these topics that are -- that have divided the country within the last few months really in this whole Brexit debate.
FOSTER: When it comes to the immigration debate, it's probably worth pointing out, isn't it, that within London, immigration isn't a sensitive issue than it is in some of these rural areas. And the sort of area that she operates in is an area where there is huge concern about immigrants taking jobs. These are often the sort of things that were thrown out to her. And she very bravely stood up against that, didn't she?
EBNER: Right. She stood up to that, but against that. But she also referred to the fear -- she addressed the fears of her constituency and the migration fears that have driven the debate in her article which she publish last Friday.
In fact, when you look at her Twitter page, the last tweet was on this, that she said it's legitimate to have concerns but that leaving the EU will not change anything.
And she's right in that. We found in our report that most of the threats that we're facing come from within the UK and not from the outside and terrorism is the best example. And I think her death really proves this very point that she was trying to make, that it's often home grown.
FOSTER: Yes. Well, we just don't know the motivations in this attack at the moment.
EBNER: Right.
FOSTER: Because the police aren't giving us any details about the motive at all. But within -- because of that, and people are speculating, and this idea that this was politically motivated is growing. So, inevitably, whether or not it was part of the motivation. It's playing into the debate.
EBNER: Right. Exactly. And it will probably shape the last few days -- the last few days before the referendum takes place. So now both campaigns have stopped their campaigns for a day. And, yes, we will see how this plays out in the next few days.
[00:40:03] FOSTER: OK, Julia, thank you very much, indeed.
And, John and Amara, it is certainly playing into the tone of the debate right now. And it did get very rancorous. People suggesting if anything good come out of this is that at least it could become a more measured debate after this in memory of Jo Cox.
VAUSE: OK, Max, thank you. Max Foster live in London.
WALKER: We're going to take a short break here. When we come back, days after the Orlando nightclub massacre, we are learning about warning signs of the killer's violent tendencies dating back to his elementary school years. We will have that for you next.
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WALKER: Welcome back, everyone. We are learning more disturbing details about the Orlando nightclub gunman. It turns out that Omar Mateen had shown violent tendencies since he was in elementary school.
VAUSE: CNN's Brian Todd went to his hometown to find out more about his troubled past.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Alarming new information tonight that this killer's pattern of disturbing behavior extended back to his childhood. Even as a young boy, Omar Mateen was troubled and disruptive.
A former classmate at Mariposa Elementary School in Port St. Lucie, Florida tells CNN, Mateen once threatened to bring a gun to school and kill everyone. That was in fourth or fifth grade. He was 9 or 10 years old. The classmate could not recall what punishment Mateen received, but said it was, quote, "A very big deal at the time."
Documents obtained by CNN from the St. Lucie county schools show Mateen was disciplined 31 times between 1992 and 1999. These school records describe Mateen as, quote, "rude and aggressive," and note he talks frequently about violence and sex.
ROBERT ZIRKLE, RODE BUS WITH MATEEN: He was always a little out there. Didn't really have too many friends.
TODD: Robert Zirkle rode the same bus route as Mateen during high school. Circle and other former classmates tell CNN, in the days following September 11th, Mateen claimed Osama Bin Laden was his uncle and made light of the attacks.
[00:45:11] ZIRKLE: He was acting like a plane, like he had his arms out. He was like making a plane noise and like -- he made like a boom sound, or like an explosion type of sound, throwing his seat. He was like, laughing about it like it was a joke or something. My friends and I were like were like, if you don't stop, man, it's going to be a problem.
TODD: As a teenage employee at Gold's Gym in Port St. Lucie, Omar Mateen was to be avoided.
STEFAN COMVALIUS, ACQUAINTANCE OF ORLANDO GUNMAN: He had that kind of aura that I don't people really wanted to engage him because they don't know where they would go.
TODD: Stephan Comvalius has held personal training sessions at Gold's Gym.
COMVALIUS: One of my clients, she was completing her set on the spot rack. And she, you know, was in full stride all the way down. And he made a derogatory statement about her anatomy which, I mean, it was just completely unacceptable, and loud at that. Like he wanted her to hear it.
TODD: Staff members at Gold's Gym could not recall any disciplinary issues with Mateen.
A few years later, he was transferred from a job as a security guard at a courthouse after making inflammatory comments about terrorism. That's when the FBI started investigating him.
JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: He said he hoped that law enforcement would raid his apartment and assault his wife and child so that he could martyr himself.
TODD: Mateen's first wife said he verbally and physically abused her to the point that her family had to rescue her to get her out of the marriage.
SITORA YUSUFIY, EX-WIFE OF OMAR MATEEN: Emotional instability, sickness, mentally -- he was mentally unstable and mentally ill. That's the only explanation that I could give. And he was obviously disturbed.
TODD: These documents from the St. Lucie County school show that Omar Mateen had repeated interventions with school counselors, psychologists and others. But since the shootings, his father has repeatedly said he thought his son was normal.
Brian Todd, CNN, Port St. Lucie, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Joining us now, Brian Claypool, civil rights and criminal defense attorney.
So, Brian, a lot of folks said the investigation is now on the wife, Noor Salman, and her alleged role in all of this.
Did she drive him to the club? Was she aware of it? Did she know what was going on? What charges could she be facing?
BRIAN CLAYPOOL, CIVIL RIGHTS LITIGATOR: She could face possibly two charges. One is called accessory before the fact. And in order to prove that up, the prosecutor needs evidence that she actually independently contributed to the crime being carried out. And I don't think there's any evidence of that. Encouraging a crime is not good enough to prove accessory before the fact.
The other possible crime is aiding and abetting the commission of murder by Omar Mateen.
Aiding and abetting means that she actually would have had to have done something material to help cause the crime.
For example, examples of aiding and abetting would be actually driving him to Pulse nightclub. Waiting for him. Possibly driving him home if he wasn't shot or buying ammunition.
VAUSE: Scouting it out before hand.
CLAYPOOL: Scouting it out is not good enough, John. Not good enough. In my opinion, I don't think there's going to be an indictment of Mateen's wife. And if there is, I don't think the prosecution is going to be able to prove the case.
WALKER: You know, there's so many calls now for changes to the gun control laws, stricter gun control. I'm wondering, what kind of laws could have prevented Omar Mateen from carrying out this massacre? Because if you look at his past, he didn't really have a criminal history. So expanded background checks may not have helped. He was on the no fly list at some point, but he was taken off. So what laws would have stopped this from happening?
CLAYPOOL: Well, unfortunately, in the United States, I don't think we have any laws that are in place to prevent mass terror from the inside. You've got to attack from the inside. You've got to get family members, friends, psychologists to alert law enforcement that there's a potential for mass terror.
And I think we need in place what's called a Mandated Reporter Law, where you create a legal duty on the part of, for example, the wife of Mateen. She would now have a legal duty to report an impending mass terror. If she doesn't, then she faces criminal prosecution.
VAUSE: So you say, it's like a Good Samaritan Law, that you had to, you know, where you have to help somebody? In this case, you have to report somebody.
CLAYPOOL: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Think about it, if there's no legal duty to report anything, most folks in the United States, they turn their head.
VAUSE: Brian, we will talk to you next hour.
We appreciate you being with us. There's a lot to talk about with this. So stick around.
WALKER: Yes, thanks for that.
VAUSE: OK. We'll take a short break.
When we come back, it's the road to Rio for everyone but the Russians. We'll have more on why the Olympic dreams for Russia's track and field team may be already over.
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[00:53:20] WALKER: Welcome back, everyone.
20 Russian football fans attending the Euro 2016 championship are set to be deported from France. Authorities say they were part of the bloody clashes in Marseilles over the weekend. The union of Russian fans says that the head of their group is among those to be deported.
VAUSE: Separately, three other Russians are being sentenced to jail for up to two years over the Marseilles clashes. The three fans are banned from entering France for two years.
WALKER: Now Russia's track and field athletes are hoping for a chance to compete at the Rio Olympics. The team is banned from international competition after allegations that Russia sponsored widespread doping.
And on Friday, the world athletics governing body is set to decide whether to lift the suspension. But a new report from the world anti- doping agency alleges that Russia has continued to obstruct the drug testing of its athletes.
VAUSE: And now Fareed Zakaria is interviewing Russian President Vladimir Putin. See the entire interview on Sunday, 9:00 a.m. in Hong Kong, that is noon in London.
We'll finish this hour out with the NBA finals for Cleveland Cavaliers have won game six in Cleveland tying the series 3-3 against the Golden State warriors.
Lebron James gave the Cavs domination from early on, leaving Steph Curry's score by 16 at halftime. The score 115 to 101. The starting game, best of seven series is set for Oakland on Sunday.
When we come back here next hour, we'll look at the politics of gun control. Why it is so difficult for our President Obama to try and get any kind of gun control measures through Congress. We'll also be looking at Bernie Sanders who made a very important statement, kind of, tonight.
WALKER: Lots to talk about regarding the political rhetoric after the Orlando massacre.
For now, thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM, live, from Los Angeles. I'm Amara Walker.
VAUSE: I'm John Vause. Back in just a moment. Stay with us.
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VAUSE: Hello, I would like to welcome our viewers all around the world, I'm John Vause.
WALKER: And I'm Amara Walker.
Many in Britain have been left in disbelief by the murder of Jo Cox, a popular member of parliament. Memorials, the flowers and pictures are growing across the country as people express their sorrow.
Cox was fatally stab and shot as she met with constituents in her Yorkshire District.
VAUSE: Police have detained a local resident, 52-year-old Tommy Mair for questioning. They are searching his house in Bristol, where the attack took place.
Jo Cox was 41 years old, married with two children. British Prime Minister David Cameron says, quote, "We have lost a great star."
CNN's Max Foster joins us now from London.
So, Max, bring us up-to-date about the investigation.
