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Louisiana Theater Shooting; No Obvious Motive; Two Dead After Theater Shooting; Gunman Treated For Mental Health; Gunman A Drifter And Estranged From Family; Gunman Planned To Escape with Disguise; Denied Concealed Carry Permit In 2006; Theater Owner Setting Up Fund For Victims' Families; Lives Saved Thanks To Two Teachers

Aired July 24, 2015 - 13:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Hello. I'm Wolf Blitzer, its 1:00 P.M. here in Washington, 6:00 P.M. in London 8:00 P.M. in Istanbul, wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

[12:59:59] We're searching for answers, the words of the Lafayette police chief following the tragic shooting in a movie theater.

Here is what we know right now. Police identified the gunman as 59- year-old John Russell Houser, describing him as a kind of drifter with no obvious motive. Witnesses say he opened fire just after the lights dimmed for the movie. Police say 13 rounds in all. 33-year-old Jillian Johnson was one of two victims killed. The other was 21-year- old Mayci Breaux. Police are urging people to not forget these two women.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COL. MICHAEL EDMONSON, LOUISIANA STATE POLICE DEPARTMENT: Here's a guy that was a drifter, like the chief said, that just happened to be in this theater and took two beautiful lives. Don't lose sight of the fact that these two individuals, they had a vision, they had a name, they had a future. It wasn't to die as they did horribly in this -- in this theater here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Nine people were injured. This is video taken on a cell phone right after the shooting. As you can see, people were trying to help the wounded.

Police believe Houser was trying to leave the scene as the crowds exited the building, but turned around when he saw law enforcement officials arriving and eventually turned the gun on himself.

Authorities are digging into the gunman's background. They're searching for any clues that might provide a motive. They say they owe it to the victims to answer as many questions as they can.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EDMONSON: Everything they are providing, everything that I see of the men and women that make up the Lafayette Police Department is trying to find a motive, trying to find a go, trying to find something that says why did he walk in that theater? Why did he fire at least 13 times? Why did he turn around and go back in there? Why did he leave his car outside with the keys on top of the tire? Why was he living in a Motel 8? Why did he have wigs in there and glasses and all those types of things? Any little thing, that's what those DNA scientists are doing inside that theater right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: One of our CNN Washington producers, Wes Bruer, knew the gunman, John Russell Houser, in fact. Wes is joining me right now. You live right down the street from this gunman. This must have been such a jolt to you.

WES BRUER, CNN PRODUCER: That's right, Wolf. It was -- it was alarming to realize that it was a person that lived actually just about 10 houses down from me in my hometown of Columbus, Georgia. I grew up with his daughter. I knew the family fairly well. The daughter was the same age as myself and, you know, we would see him at school functions, things like this. You see people around the neighborhood, at the grocery store. You know, it was a fairly -- you know, seemingly normal family on the surface, in terms of what you could tell about the father.

BLITZER: Did you have any indication at all that there were mental problems or anything along that line?

BRUER: There may have been indications early on. He was a very politically charged guy. He's very involved with local politics. He ran for local elections. At one point, was even in trouble with the law for tampering with another opponent's campaign sign. So, yes, very, very political and just very involved, in terms of local politics.

BLITZER: And you told me, what, he had a confederate flag on his front lawn?

BRUER: Yes, I do remember that he did have a confederate flag hanging outside of the house and possibly a Don't Tread on Me flag as well. It sort of came off as sort of very political.

BLITZER: When he was running for political office in Columbus, Georgia, do you know what he was running for? What kind of political office?

BRUER: I'm not positive. I believe it might have been tax commissioner. We know that his father used to be a tax commissioner in the area and was hopefully following in his father's footsteps for that office.

BLITZER: He supposedly went to law school. And -- but you knew him. You were telling me he sold auto parts on his front lawn or something like that?

BRUER: Correct. By the time that I sort of, you know, got to know his family, as I was growing up, his father would often sell cars in their front lawn and owned a couple of bars in the area.

BLITZER: Who, this man or this individual?

BRUER: Correct, correct. Yes, sir. So, sort of, you know, different businesses, you know, going in between different jobs here and there and that possibly the mental issues may have played a role in, you know, keeping him from being able to hold a job down, things like that.

BLITZER: But your parents knew this family obviously a lot better than you did, right?

BRUER: Correct, yes.

BLITZER: And what do your folks tell you?

BRUER: You know, everyone is pretty shocked to hear, you know, as -- you know, I -- we would see each other at the school functions and they would sort of do house mom things together at the elementary school. And everyone's just sort of shocked that the person that they knew was maybe a little bit mentally unstable and has, you know, taken off, you know, and gone and done something so violent.

BLITZER: That's a total shock even if he may have had some issues to then go ahead and take a weapon into a movie theater and start shooting like that. That's shocking.

BRUER: That's correct. We never, you know, noticed any violent tendencies, never thought that he would actually be capable of this during the time that I knew him. But, clearly, things had been unraveling for quite some time. His -- he had been estranged from the family for, you know, quite a long time.

BLITZER: And I assume that the family is in shock right now, including your friend, his daughter.

BRUER: Sure.

BLITZER: Hopefully they're OK. It's a -- it's a horrible, horrible situation. Wes, thanks very much for sharing that. If you get some more information on that, you'll let us know.

[13:05:03] BRUER: Yes, sir.

BLITZER: Wes Bruer is one of our Washington-based producers.

Joining us now from Lafayette is the mayor of that city, Joey Durel. Mr. Mayor, thanks very much for joining us. Let me get your quick reaction to what we just heard from Wes. Is that consistent with what you and your law enforcement authorities are hearing on the ground there?

JOEY DUREL, MAYOR, LAFAYETTE, LOUISIANA: Yes, I would say so. You know, he obviously had some problems and it sounds like they go much farther back than -- that I've heard so far. But, you know, he clearly is -- I don't think a normal human being can do the kind of things that happened here yesterday. So, you know, hearing what he was doing with his yard, his -- I mean, I believe he lost his home about 90 days ago, had threatened suicide. So, we knew that there was some real issues that he was having.

BLITZER: Is there anything else you could tell us about this individual, this shooter? Why he may have decided to pick your community, that movie theater of all places?

DUREL: That is the -- that's the million-dollar question right now. We can't -- we can find no connection, as of right now. The only thing I've heard so far is he had an uncle that was here many, many years ago. In fact, the uncle had died 35 years ago so it's been a long, long time. We don't see that as being any kind of connection but I think that's the piece everybody is looking for. Why Lafayette? You know, he's been here, we know of, for maybe two, maybe two and a half, three weeks. We don't know if he's been here longer than that.

We know he's been at that particular hotel for a couple weeks. And we're still trying to find out if he may have been in other hotels in Lafayette for a longer period of time. But not from Lafayette, somebody from Alabama, born in Georgia.

And how he made his way to Lafayette is very baffling to all of us. This particular theater, we know he came here two or three times in recent days. They've seen some evidence of that. We don't know if he's been coming here for a week, two weeks, what, but that's -- those are all the pieces of the puzzle that are still missing.

BLITZER: Mayor, have you spoken to the families of those two young women who were killed? The families of other theater goers who were injured? Because, clearly, our heart goes out to all of them.

DUREL: Right. Yes, and I have not talked to the families of the two deceased. I have visited with some of the wounded, the injured. And, you know, the ones I talked to were -- felt very, very fortunate to be simply injured.

BLITZER: Do you have an update on the conditions? I understand some of them are still in serious or critical condition.

DUREL: Right, right. I have talked to some of them. And, again, all thing considered, they are -- they are calling themselves lucky.

BLITZER: How is your community of Lafayette doing?

DUREL: We're good. You know, well, let me put it this way. We're not so good. I mean, obviously, this is a very hurtful thing. Our hearts are breaking. We're worried about, now, all the victims and their families and, of course, this community as a whole.

As you know, Harvard picked Lafayette as the happiest city in America. I believe we will be that again in a fairly short period of time. We're a very, very family-oriented community. This whole region of the state is. You know, we've got strong religious ties and strong faith-based communities. And I really believe that we'll bounce back from this like most communities in America would. It's just -- it's just hard to get your arms around this, wrap your brain around something that is so senseless and just so tragic. You know, what kind of a human being can stand up and just shoot an innocent person is something I don't think any of us can ever understand.

BLITZER: And, finally, Mayor, the gun. It was a handgun. I assume they're investigating how this individual with a history of mental problems managed to get a hand gun. Do you have any idea about that?

DUREL: Oh, no. No. I mean, it's -- you know, we know that there are criminals all over America. There are murders happening all over today with guns that are legal and illegal. And, you know, so, how they get the guns is multiple ways. You know, it's just -- it's a horrible tragedy that it really doesn't matter, at this stage, I don't think, how he got it. The fact that he had one and used it the way he did is the tragedy.

BLITZER: It certainly is. Mayor, our hearts go out to your entire community. Thank you very much for joining us.

DUREL: Thank you.

BLITZER: The moviegoers had gathered last night to watch a summer comedy. Instead, a horrible tragedy unfolded before them. Scared, shocked, saddened. Eyewitnesses to the shooting and its aftermath share their own accounts of what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lafayette police has the Grand 16 on Johnson Street on lockdown and it's completely barricaded off and there have been multiple people transported via ambulance.

FEMALE: We saw a lady with blood all over her leg. I just grabbed my child and, I mean, we just all ran.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We heard three shots. Not very loud but it was definitely three shots we were, like, what was that? When we walked around to the front of the theater, there was a woman on the front. She had been shot in the leg.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Heard all the sirens and people coming out and chaos, basically.

[13:10:02] GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), LOUISIANA: Last night was also a heartbreaking night. I visited with family members who would rush to the emergency room hoping and praying to god that it wasn't their loved one, wasn't their child who had been shot.

CHIEF JIM CRAFT, LAFAYETTE POLICE DEPARTMENT: This is such a senseless, tragic act. Why would you come here and do something like this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's something that we see that happened somewhere else on the national news. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hard to make sense of it, isn't it? I can see

the emotion in your face.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It sure is.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How does the happiest place in the world produce somebody so full of, you know, hate and evil to just stand up in a movie theater and start shooting people? What provokes somebody to do that?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: It's a really sad day for the people of Lafayette. Ed Lavandera is our man on the scene. He's outside the theater. He's been there for hours now. You've been tracking the developments. What's the latest you're hearing over there, Ed?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, you know, the investigators are still inside the theater, as they have been since the overnight hours and they're continuing to piece together there. But, really, one of the things that is starting to develop more quickly for investigators here in Louisiana is that, in the last few hours, they've put out a call. Since they had described Houser as a drifter, they didn't really have a lot of leads into where he has been, what he's been doing since arriving here in Lafayette.

And so, they were wanting to piece together as much of that information as possible. And investigators tell us that they're now starting to develop and dig up more leads, local businesses that say Houser had come into their stores or wherever and investigators are fanning out across the city using surveillance video, trying to piece together anyone who -- conversations that he might have had. Trying to figure out and get to the heart of the -- of the motive here for carrying out this deadly attack -- Wolf.

BLITZER: What are the -- some of the eyewitnesses who were there at the movie theater, what are they telling you?

LAVANDERA: You know, the -- in the immediate aftermath of all of this, you know, many of these people overcome with emotion. A surreal, frightening, terrifying experience. You've heard the stories of the -- of the teachers. Many of these witnesses, the ones who were directly affected, we haven't heard from yet. Many of them are still recovering in the hospital.

But we do know, from investigators in some of the interviews that they've been able to do, that Houser's demeanor inside the theater, there was never any clue or indication that this was going to happen. One investigator telling us a little while ago that Houser simply stood up as the -- as the previews of the movie had just ended and the film was about to start, "Trainwreck." That he stood up, didn't say anything and just started shooting.

So, investigators getting those kinds of accounts and those kind of details from the witnesses that were inside that theater. BLITZER: One final question, Ed. I take it, at least so far, they

haven't found any note or suicide note. We know, eventually, he put the gun and killed himself inside that movie theater. But have they found any note or anything like that that may have explained his actions?

LAVANDERA: We've asked about that. They haven't said that -- they haven't said that they found anything like. You know, the one real strong location for clues, at this point, is that motel room that's not too far away where Houser had checked in earlier this month. That's where investigators say they found the wigs and the disguises.

And that was one of the initial things that they shared, one of the disturbing details that kind of made you wonder exactly what this man was up to here. But if they have found anything else in that motel room, any other details or writings, other than what has been posted and online political forums that we've been reporting about throughout the morning, we haven't seen or heard about any other specific details like that found here in Lafayette.

BLITZER: All right. Ed Lavandera on the scene for us. Ed, thank you very much.

Up next, we're learning more new information about the gunman, his whereabouts leading up to the shooting last night. Plus, the two teachers whose quick actions at the theater are credited with saving lives. Stay with us.

[13:14:14]

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