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Father of Slain Journalist Fighting For Gun Laws; Virginia Gunman Complained Of Racial Harassment; Shooter Left Ranting And Rambling Suicide Note; Roanoke Community Mourns Slain Journalists. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired August 27, 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. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 6:00 p.m. in London, 8:00 p.m. in Baghdad. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Up first, new details about a gunman's very troubled history and a grief stricken father's push for tougher gun laws here in the United States. Those are among the latest developments of the journalist killings in Virginia.

We're digging deeper also into that 23-page document that Vester Flanagan who went by the name on T.V., Bryce Williams, left behind after killing journalists Alison Parker and Adam Ward. In one chilling passage, he says this, and I'm quoting, "Hell, I am surprised I didn't do this before now."

We are also, by the way, getting new information about complaints and grievances that he filed, Flanagan filed, against former employers. They include allegations of racial harassment. We've learned that Flanagan purchased two Glock 19 pistols legally at the same gun store and at the same time. This was 47 days ago in the Roanoke, Virginia area, according to a federal law enforcement source.

Also, Alison Parker's father vows to fight for laws to keep mentally ill people from getting access to guns. He says he owes it to the memory of his daughter, a daughter he spoke to every day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY PARKER, ALISON PARKER'S FATHER: She would be texting me right now, saying, dad, what did you think of my story? What did you think of it? And I'm never going to hear that again. She was -- she was so loved by all. And I know my heart is broken.

But I want to try and do something that will change that and make her life -- will do something meaningful for her life so that this doesn't happen to someone else again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Alison Parker's boyfriend is an anchor at the same station where she worked. On CNN's "NEW DAY," earlier today, he showed our own Chris Cuomo a scrapbook chronicling their relationship. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS HUNT: It's something that was supposed to be for us but now that she was taken from this world, I think it's for everyone. Some of the pictures that we had together. We made it for our six-month anniversary. She made it for me and wrote love notes to me saying that, for the next six months, it was my turn to fill in all of the pictures in here. And it's just a love story that I think is something that I was privileged and honored to have had for only nine months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: While family members grieve, the search for answers continue. The gunman, Vester Flanagan, had a long history of filing complaints against employers that he accused of discrimination. Our senior investigative correspondent Drew Griffin has been working this part of the story for us. Are you getting new information, Drew? What are you learning?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: That this guy had a very, very tumultuous year at the station, WDBJ T.V. He was reprimanded several times for his harassment of other employees, making employees feel threatened. And he was also reprimanded, Wolf, for some very, very poor journalism that was outlined. The station tried to get him coaching, tried to get him help, also tried to get him mental health help. But, in the end, they actually let him go in that tumultuous firing that took place in February of 2013.

Of course, he sued the station for, among other things, racial harassment. But finding no evidence, it was pretty much dismissed out of hand. None of this points to any kind of actual harm done to this person that would lead to any rage. It just seems like it has been building up, the hatred and the violence inside this person's mind, for two-and-a-half years since he left that station, until it finally exploded yesterday morning at 6:45 -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Like a powder keg, in his own words in that document. And in one complaint, as you know, Drew, Flanagan writes a letter to a judge about --

GRIFFIN: Right.

BLITZER: -- a watermelon. Tell us about that.

GRIFFIN: Well, if you look at what he actually wrote to the judge, this is about a watermelon that he's describing would appear in the station. And I think we can even show you that graphic. I have photos of the watermelon that appeared following the meeting with photographers. The watermelon would appear, then disappear, then appear and disappear again only to appear yet again.

He goes on to tell the judge, this is a letter to the judge, that it was visible where he was and entering and exiting the building and that he has proof of it. He has pictures of it, et cetera. The problem is the proof never showed up. There was no evidence of this in the court document that he could prove this happened.

There was other things that he would write. He wrote about an intern named Alison (ph), and Alison Bailey (ph) now, not Alison Parker. But an intern names Alison who he said made racial comments to him. And one of the comments that he detailed, Wolf, was Allison told me, where was I going to swing by for lunch? He thought that was a racial comment. Hard to say, on first glance, why that would be a racial comment.

[13:05:14] But in a previous lawsuit against a previous employer, he talked about being called a monkey by other workers at that station. That was in the year 2000 back in Tallahassee. So, he is very hypersensitive to race. In his diatribe, he talks about hating white women and black men. It's a very rambling statement and, quite frankly, it comes across as a person who is mentally disturbed, although perhaps undiagnosed -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And so, you think this is a different intern because Alison Parker, her middle name is Bailey. So, Alison Bailey Parker.

GRIFFIN: Right.

BLITZER: Maybe he was referring to her, right?

GRIFFIN: He may have just gotten the name wrong. There is -- it's unclear whether they even knew each other. There was some time when they overlapped at the station when he was a reporter and she was an intern. But, again, it was just a brief comment that he was trying to say this proves the racial harassment that I endured at the station and it was a comment that, specifically, where are you going to swing by for lunch? He took that to be very offensive.

BLITZER: Do we know, Drew, the outcome of any of these complaints?

GRIFFIN: Yes, they were all pretty much dismissed. The one in Florida, there was some kind of a settlement, a quick settlement, and dismissed. The one in WDBJ, that was pretty much dismissed. The complaint -- the counter complaint was filed saying where's the -- where's the evidence that any of this happened? It was dismissed within just a couple of months. And that, itself, took place a year ago. So, all of this, what we're dealing with, is far in the past. And it just seems like he has been stewing, if you will, for the last two years --

BLITZER: Yes, it does.

GRIFFIN: -- in Roanoke, Virginia.

BLITZER: It certainly does. All right, Drew, good work. Thanks very much.

There are still many questions about this guy, Vester Flanagan. Why he shot the T.V. reporter, Alison Parker, her cameraman, Adam Ward, in cold blood. But a 23-page document faxed by Flanagan to ABC News has provided at least some clues. One passage reads, OK, so the big question is why? Well, after I compiled well over 100 pages chronicling the hurt in my life, I asked myself, why not? Hell, I am surprised I didn't do this before now. Another passage, my anger has been building steadily. I've been a human powder keg for a while just waiting to go boom at any moment. And this, I have been targeted my whole life, mostly by white females but also by black males.

With us now is our Law Enforcement Analyst, the former FBI assistant director, Tom Fuentes. Also joining us, the clinical psychologist, Ramani Durvasula. She's joining us as well.

Ramani, in this 23-page suicide note, as it's called, Flanagan talks about his past, including claims he was a teen model, claims he was a male escort, in addition to working in T.V. news. He discusses his personal life being a gay black man. He rants about his perceived injustices, the bullying that was going on in his life. He also praised -- offered praise for some other killers, mass murders, if you will. He also referenced past family episodes of mental health issues, more praise for other killers. What does all this say to you in your analysis?

RAMANI DURVASULA, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: You know, in my analysis -- obviously, I never met him. But it really feels like it lines up to feel like a paranoid personality disorder. A lot of hyper sensitivity, a lot of suspiciousness, combativeness, this sort of buying into this conspiracy that almost feels like it's against him. He has a tremendous amount of contempt for others.

And so, what's interesting is how much insight he has into the fact that he was becoming a powder keg. But the fact of the matter is these are not good candidates for treatment. That insight, often, doesn't translate into change because that belief system that everyone and everything is out to get them. And that they really weave their lives, almost tirelessly, it's a preoccupation that everyone and everything is a block to what they want to get. And it is a chronic disillusionment and that's what this feels to me.

So, this is a guy who, more days than not, looked like he had it together, though he probably felt like a very, very difficult co- worker. You're not exactly going to drop a dime on someone for just being difficult. And that's why this guy may not have every really gotten the help that he really needed. And even if he got it, Wolf, I'm not convinced that it would have -- it would have made that much of a difference.

BLITZER: And Ramani, those who were close to him, whether family members, close friends, presumably, they would have noticed some extremely bizarre, strange behavior, right?

DURVASULA: I -- the thing is, I think this has been building up over time, Wolf. I think this has been his style. He's just this difficult, combative guy who is sort of angry at the world. And I think people probably just started seeing him as that guy. If you look at the complaints from the work place, he was often difficult with co-workers. And when he was going from job to job to job, he was probably just getting into trouble everywhere he went because of this behavior. [13:10:07] But I think people wrote him off as difficult, not -- and, typically, this disorder does not culminate in this kind of violence. So, that's the problem, that even if we find someone with this disorder, the probability that this is what's going to happen is very, very low. So, this idea of even if we diagnose, then what? Then we can try to treat them but we're probably not going to be able to predict the dangerousness element. And that's what's frustrating everyone. Even if we diagnose, if we can't predict, that's where we feel helpless and where we feel frustrated.

BLITZER: Yes, it's so frustrating. Tom, in this note that Flanagan wrote, he says he was unemployed for five months, that he purchased a gun after being unemployed for three months. We're also learning Flanagan purchased his two Glock 19 pistols legally at the same store. Would any of this raise red flags to you?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, sure, in hindsight. But at the time, it wouldn't have raised too many red flags other than the ones that were already there. And I really appreciate what your other guest has just said that even with everybody seeing this kind of behavior, there's not much that can be done. And even if it was done and even if we had the world's greatest mental health system, which we don't, but if we did, would it do any good in somebody that -- in his case, this extreme narcissism. This extreme it's all about me. It's me against the world. Everybody's against me. Everybody's picking on me. And he even says it started since childhood.

So, every one of these small grievances is another brick in the wall that finally just gets built up and up and up. And, you know, it's just something that's been coming for a long time. Nobody knows exactly -- this is similar to predicting when a volcano is going to erupt. You can see it. You can see the rumbling but you don't know it's going to happen. And in our system, until it happens, there's not a lot you can do about it.

BLITZER: Ramani, let me read another passage from this suicide note. Around town, I told some random strangers or people I interacted with at various businesses how I hated people. But I would often say it with a smile on my face. And later in the note, he writes this, I want to say I am so, so, so, so, so sorry for anything and everything that I have ever done and everything that I have ever done or said to offend or hurt anyone. Is -- that sounds like someone who is seething, right?

DURVASULA: It is, again, that mix of the taunts, the vulnerabilities, the apologies. You can see that even the inconsistency in this suicide note is very hard to follow. So, you can imagine, then, it's very hard to target this guy and put him into an easy box and say, oh, this is a guy who is dangerous.

And so, I -- again, it's this idea that -- is there any system that can adequately address this? One thing I would say, though, and this is where our system fails, is this is somebody who could have been monitored and managed over a lifetime. That's where we know this shifts (ph) and even he acknowledges that this kind of thinking and acting and behaving has been around since he was a kid. But we -- but the system often doesn't pass information from one state

to the next, so we don't have that continuity, that chain of information that could inform earlier intervention in a case like this. But even then, we cannot predict that moment when someone is going to break. This was clearly quite methodical. And folks with this kind of personality are so preoccupied. They put 24-7 in thinking about how they're going to see through this grudge that they can hold for years and years.

BLITZER: Which leads me to the next question, Tom. It was so meticulously planned. He prepped his Twitter page. He taped. He posted video of the killing, even after he committed it, even as he was being chased and hunted down by police in Virginia. I don't know what to make of it other than he wanted to get a lot of publicity, presumably. He had nothing to do with ISIS or any terrorism. But he seemed to be copying one of their modes. They want -- they have these martyr videos that they release. They want a lot of media -- social media attention. He did as well.

FUENTES: Certainly, Wolf. And just what you're saying, the coverage of ISIS would be, certainly, a model for him to follow, that the more gruesome the act and the more angles you video it from and the more things you post about it and the more threats you issue on social media and issue a manifesto, all of that's going to ensure maximum coverage.

And he is a professional in the media. I mean, even though he was fired from several T.V. stations, he understood the media. He understood the power of it. He understood how to use it, how to manipulate it. And, in this case, he's using both, a combination of mainstream live media coupled with social media on top of it. So, he played the game completely and it worked, as far as that effect. If that's what he wanted to achieve, he succeeded.

BLITZER: Yes. And he -- as we pointed out, he certainly tried to copy what happened at Virginia Tech University 10 years earlier. The same kind of gun, that Glock that Virginia Tech massacre killed 32 people. He's praised these mass killers in that document that he released. It's very chilling when you think about it.

[13:15:10] And that Virginia Tech killer also released a suicide manifesto, if you will, at that time. All very shocking stuff, only about 40 miles, Virginia Tech University from Roanoke, from where this incident occurred.

All right, guys, thanks very, very much. We'll stay in close touch with all of you. Ramani (ph) and Tom.

Coming up, we're taking a closer look at how the shooting is affecting a very, very tight-knit community in Virginia. The mayor of Roanoke is standing by to join us live.

And, later, brand-new polls with some surprising results for Donald Trump, for Joe Biden and for Marco Rubio. We're digging deeper.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [13:20:12] BLITZER: There were familiar faces on morning TV. They were the faces people watched while they were getting ready for work or getting the kids ready for school. Now the community in Roanoke, Virginia, is in mourning for Alison Parker and Adam Ward, the two young journalists shot and killed during a live broadcast. David Bowers is the mayor of Roanoke. He's joining us live right now.

Mayor, thanks very much for joining us. I know this is a very difficult time for your community. How are the folks there coping with all of this?

MAYOR DAVID BOWERS, ROANOKE, VIRGINIA: You know, the sun's been trying to come through all day long. I guess that's been -- I've been watching that, Wolf, because the mood of our public is just -- it's gloomy. It -- we're -- we're in mourning. I think we're all saddened and sickened by what we saw and heard about these two very wonderful young people and what happened here in our part of Virginia.

BLITZER: And what makes it so much more difficult is that so many people knew them. You knew them as well, right?

BOWERS: I did. Yes, Alison interviewed me just a couple -- three weeks ago and I never really had a chance to talk to Adam, but I always saw him, of course, behind the camera. Alison was a very bright -- and not only bright, intelligently bright. She just -- she just had that energy. In the mornings I would sometimes wake up not fully awake and she'd just be ready to go. And she could always perk you up, I think. So she was a great journalist.

WDBJ, right behind me here, is one of the great CBS affiliates here in our nation and it's a big station here in western Virginia. They're the ones, these journalists, these local journalists are the ones that cover us. They cover our snowstorms and they cover our political battles and they cover our fairs and our festivals. And -- so we get to know them. And we invite them into our homes and we get to know them as -- as if they're our friends. And so this isn't just a loss for the WDBJ employee family, this is the loss that people throughout this region feel.

BLITZER: And WDBJ, by the way, is also a CNN affiliate as well. So it hits especially hard for all of us who have worked with WDBJ over the years. They've relied on us for material. We've relied on them over the years. And Alison Parker, about a year or so ago when you had a bad snowstorm, she was doing live reports for CNN. A very moving report that she did with our own Carol Costello at the time.

This killer, Vester Flanagan, went by the name Bryce Williams. He spent, what, a year at thtat station. Did you ever get to meet him?

BOWERS: I don't recall him at all. No.

BLITZER: You know people -- I'm sure you've asked your friends --

BOWERS: I will say --

BLITZER: Your colleagues about him. I wonder what folks have -- BOWERS: No, I don't --

BLITZER: Have been saying about him.

BOWERS: I don't -- I don't care to know -- I don't -- I don't care to know anything about him.

BLITZER: We should learn lessons, though, from all of this, what has happened --

BOWERS: You know, I don't want to -- you know what -- my -- what I'm trying to do is help to heal our community. We feel this loss. These are two young folks that had the whole world ahead of them and so my whole thought for the next several days are -- is to hold those two folks in the more -- inmemoriam and to offer our prayers also don't -- I've not heard lately the condition of Ms. Gardner, the chamber of commerce lady from down at the lake. We want to concentrate on them and their lives and then bring our community -- we're an all-time, you know, all-American city community and it's important for us to be resilient and to heal and to move on.

BLITZER: Yes, that's well said. We know -- we just learned, by the way, that there's going to be a vigil in your community later tonight. A so-called stop the violence vigil. Are there more plans? What are you planning on doing as far as memorials, vigils, as a result of what happened yesterday?

BOWERS: Yes, I think we were all in such a shock that we're just now beginning to formulate some of these plans. I understand there is a vigil here out in front of WDBJ at 8:00 tonight. I've heard but can't confirm that the help of the next -- Help Save the Next Girl Foundation will have a vigil here tomorrow night. I've also heard there will be a prayer service at 11:00 on Sunday. I can't confirm those things. Our city website at roanokeva.gov is trying to get all of this information. I'm sure WDBJ's website as well will try and collate all this information about the memorial services, the funeral plans and what have you.

In addition, I'm told that the station will be announcing scholarships at JMU for Alison Parker, James Madison University, and at Virginia Tech for Adam Ward.

[13:25:10] BLITZER: Adam's a graduate of Virginia Tech. Alison's a graduate of James Madison University.

One final question. Did you happen to -- were you watching her live report yesterday morning when that killer came up there and shot and killed these two young people?

BOWERS: No. No, I was walking my dogs around the street. But I saw it later, and it is absolutely shocking and horrifying. Horrifying.

BLITZER: And the thousands of people who were probably watching, they're still in a state of shock as well. It's just so, so awful.

BOWERS: Yes. BLITZER: That words can't describe these feelings for all of us.

BOWERS: Yes.

BLITZER: All right, thanks very much, mayor. Good luck to you. Good luck to all the folks in Roanoke and the area in Virginia.

BOWERS: Sure.

BLITZER: It's a beautiful part of the Commonwealth of Virginia. And our hearts and prayers go out to all of you. Thank you very much.

BOWERS: Thank you.

BLITZER: Just ahead, a former co-worker of this killer, Vester Flanagan, describes first hand his deals with the man who gunned down these two young people.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)