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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Boston Suspect Charged; New Details of Bombing Revealed
Aired April 22, 2013 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. It's 10:00 here in Boston.
We're got breaking news tonight about what the surviving marathon bombing suspect is telling investigators. It is significant. If he is being truthful, authorities now have a better idea about what, if any, foreign connections there were to the alleged plot, how the two brothers became radicalized and who are the driving force behind the operation was.
Our Jake Tapper joins us momentarily with that.
Earlier today, the suspect only managing head nods and a single word as the federal charges were read to him in his hospital room. He acknowledged that he understood them and then uttered the word no when asked if he could afford counsel. According to the FBI affidavit also released today, new details of the bombing itself and the chase that followed -- 11 minutes before the bombs went off, security cameras picked up the two brothers turning on to Boylston Street.
The affidavit also said the younger brother's dorm room was searched. There investigators found "a large pyrotechnic, a black jacket and white hat that matched the same general appearance as those worn by bomber two."
We will have that as well tonight in the hour ahead, plus an exclusive interview with the SWAT team members who apprehended him.
But the hour is about more than about the suspect. It is about how the city is mourning and healing and staying strong. Late today, a week after two bombs went off there, the FBI handed control of that stretch to Boylston Street back to the city, beginning the process of turning a crime scene back into one of Boston's main arteries.
With dignitaries gathered, a bagpipe playing, the flag which has been flying at half-staff for the last week was lowered and folded. Earlier today, at 10 to 3:00, that same stretch of Boylston, all corners of Boston, Watertown and beyond fell silent. The silence fell over Washington as well, including the White House, where President Obama observed the moment. Traders on Wall Street also stood silently, silence for the three whose lives were taken in the bombing, Krystle Campbell, Martin Richard and Lingzi Lu, as well as for fallen MIT police officer Sean Collier, gunned down Thursday night allegedly during the suspects' flight to Watertown.
We honor and remember them all tonight. A short time ago, people gathered on the Boston University campus as well to remember Lingzi Lu, who came here from China to pursue a graduate degree in applied math. Her family says that while she was here, she fell in love with this great city. And tonight, this great city of Boston returned that love.
We also honor the bravery of a young woman I spoke to, a dancer who lost a foot and part of her leg in the bombings but vows tonight she will dance again. She's a dance instructor. She plans to give lessons again. You will hear from her tonight and her optimism, her seeing will inspire you.
We begin though with the breaking news and Jake Tapper. He is joining us right now here in Boston.
What are you learning about what the suspect has been saying?
JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, according to one government official -- and this is a preliminary investigation -- but Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is saying the following to investigators, first of all, that there were no foreign terrorist groups involved, that this was the two brothers acting on their own. Dzhokhar, not surprisingly, is saying he was following his older brother, Tamerlan, and that Tamerlan was the one who really was the driving force behind this.
In addition, there's an indication from the interviews that the brothers were self-radicalized online. They were getting information from videos online, from YouTube videos online, not from communication or not from e-mail, the way the Fort Hood shooter was, but they were very much self-starters, self-radicalized.
The older brother seems from preliminary investigations to have been motivated by jihadi, traditional jihadi motivations and the political religious implications that means, the idea that Islam is under attack and that jihadis need to fight back. This is the preliminary investigations. Now, this official cautions this is just from preliminary interviews with this individual, with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
COOPER: The interviews have been limited.
TAPPER: Very limited and that everything needs to be checked out. The investigators will follow up. These are individuals who knew a lot of people and had a lot of connections. They weren't shut- ins who were on their own. These were people who knew a lot of people. Everything needs to be followed up on. But this is what Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is saying in these initial preliminary investigations.
COOPER: Fascinating. Fascinating if what he is saying is true.
Many questions still remain what his brother did for the six- month period when he first flew to Moscow, then was in Dagestan, also believed to have visited Chechnya. The online component of his alleged radicalization is also interesting. The idea that this was sort of self-motivated from jihadist groups online. (CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: Yes. Quite frankly, it's not the first time and that's why these jihadi groups put videos online hoping they will motivate individuals to watch the videos and become self-radicalized.
COOPER: The other question of course -- and we don't know the answer to it -- is, did he receive any kind of bomb training overseas or again his ability with these explosives was that something he learned from the Internet as well?
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: Something that they're looking into. They don't know. It seems a little bit too -- to me as a reporter, it seems a little too complicated and complex to just do it yourself, but the investigators are looking into it right now.
COOPER: I spoke to Bob Baer two hours ago, former CIA officer with experience in the Middle East and also with explosives. He agreed with that. He said a lot of people, explosive experts he has talked to over the last several days also seem to think that a lot of this stuff is not stuff that you can just teach yourself on the Internet, though a lot of the information is out there, that you actually need somebody to kind of show you some of the tradecraft.
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: Yes. The investigators and experts say things along the lines of these were crude bombs, these were not complicated bombs and that is true within the gamut of bombs.
But to do what they did is not something that one could just pick up on the Internet and run off and do. It would take training and it would take practice.
COOPER: Jake, stay with us.
I also want to bring in former Massachusetts Homeland Security Adviser Juliette Kayyem. She's joining me here, also former White House Homeland Security Adviser Fran Townsend, who currently serves on the CIA and Department of Homeland Security external advisory boards, and also senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.
Fran, first of all, what do you make of this new information from Jake based on one government source, particularly that the suspect indicated to investigators that no foreign terrorist groups were involved?
FRANCES TOWNSEND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CONTRIBUTOR: Well, look, they have a lot of leads to follow through.
I understand from federal investigators that the cooperation with Russian authorities has been actually very good. The notion that one can self-radicalize by being exposed to extremist ideology on the Internet, that is believable. I'm sure they will check that out. But that sounds right.
It is just not conceivable to me, Anderson, that he could have successfully learned to build these bombs and have them blow up correctly simply from the Internet. Look, there are guys we know, there are terrorists in cases we have tracked that have gone overseas and been trained and still when they come back to try to build the bombs can't get it to explode.
This guy not only was he successful. He built three pressure cooker bombs, the two at the end of the Boston Marathon, the one that was thrown at police in the course of the chase in Watertown and all three successfully exploded and then three of five pipe bombs exploded.
This is a guy who not only had training, but to Jake's point, he had experience, he had actually done this before with someone who trained him how to do it.
COOPER: Also, Fran, the fact there were two devices that went off nearly simultaneously, some 12 seconds apart, that is also relatively complicated, though the devices themselves were not particularly sophisticated.
TOWNSEND: That's exactly right, Anderson.
And add to that they were sophisticated in the way they did it. You are running toward the end of the finish. The first that explodes is at the closest to the finish line and they understood the runners' natural reaction would be to turn around and run away from it and when they did that they ran back in the direction of the second explosion 12 seconds later.
The whole execution of this was very, very sophisticated.
COOPER: Jeff, I want to read a portion of the transcript of the hearing in the suspect's hospital room today.
The judge says, can you afford a lawyer. The defendant then says no. The judge then say let the record reflect that I believe the defendant has said no.
What do you make of what you heard in that transcript, the fact that he apparently can talk, at least one word, though he nodded instead of speaking at other points in the hearing?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: It means the legal process can succeed. If he were completely unable to understand, if he were essentially unconscious indefinitely, the legal process would be frozen. Now he can communicate with his lawyer. He can understand the charges against him. The case can proceed.
Now that he's been arraigned on this complaint, the case will proceed to a grand jury. Probably within the next month or so, he will be indicted. Although there will be the first indictment against him. At that point, the case will be assigned to a district court judge and maybe within a year this case will get to trial. The fact that he is communicative, even in a small way, means that the case can now go forward.
COOPER: Juliette, it will be interesting to see if he remains communicative, even if -- once he gets a lawyer.
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Right.
What's interesting is what they charged him with. As Jeff and I were talking about earlier, it's a WMD charge, a weapons of mass destruction charge. Actually, you don't have to prove he was intent in this case, that he was a terrorist or jihadist or had workings with other governments. All you need to actually do is show he used weapons of mass destruction, which generally means anything other but a firearm or fireworks and that he used them to kill people.
It seems they have that evidentiary case. While there is this debate about enemy combatant and how we should prosecute, in reality, this is just a criminal case. I think symbolically that's a really good thing, to put him through the criminal process, treat these terrorists or so-called -- these self-described terrorists as criminals within a civilian system.
It means a lot for the nation and it says something to future terrorists that we will just put you through the process. We are not going to make a big deal about it. The enemy combatant debate which is essentially closed at this stage, the Obama administration decided was a political debate more than really a legal one.
COOPER: Jeff, I mean, there was never really, at least among the Obama administration, never really a thought of having this guy being charged or treated as an enemy combatant.
TOOBIN: Nor in the Bush administration. Every terrorist arrest inside of the United States has been tried in a United States criminal court, in a federal district court.
That's what President Bush did. That's what President Obama did and this fellow is an American citizen. It's far from clear that there's any law that would allow him to be tried as an enemy combatant. This is a procedure we know works. People get tried in criminal courts every day. The enemy combatant laws, we don't even know that one can be successfully conducted.
That's lost in a morass in Guantanamo Bay. This case is now -- it will take a long time, it will be expensive and it will be complicated, but he's going to trial and there's going to be a verdict. We know that.
COOPER: Jeff, thanks very much. Fran, Juliette Kayyem, Jake Tapper, as well, appreciate it.
Follow me on Twitter right now @AndersonCooper. Let me know what you think about this. Do you think he be should be tried in a criminal court as opposed to being an enemy combatant? Let me know. Let's talk about it on Twitter during the break.
Next, we will dig deeper in this question of foreign connection, given, as we mentioned, that the older suspect spent half of last year in parts of Russia, Dagestan and even in Chechnya, that have been hotbeds of radicalism.
Also ahead, the older suspect's widow. What we know about her and their relationship and more importantly what the FBI wants to know from her tonight.
And later, my interview with a really remarkable woman. I really hope you stick around for this. She a dance instructor whose body was broken. She had to have part of her leg amputated below the knee, but her spirit is certainly not broken.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS, BOMBING SURVIVOR: I woke up and my parents were there and I hugged them and kissed them. And I said, mom, can you help me? I feel like my foot is falling asleep because it feels like my ankle is falling off of the pillow and my foot is half on.
And I realized that now that was phantom pain, because she looked at me and said, Adrianne, you don't have a foot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Welcome back.
We are getting some new photos of the moments right before the bombings. We are getting these photos. We are showing them just as I am seeing them for the first time. A photographer capturing a series images of the two suspects in the crowd, the two brothers together working their way through the crowds last Monday. You can see runners going by in some of the photographs. A short time later, the bombs went off and authorities say the two slipped away, both going back to their lives. The younger one even showing up in class at UMass Dartmouth.
Chris Lawrence talking to students UMass Dartmouth, they said he also went to the gym, living his life as if nothing had happened. As Jake Tapper reported at the top of the hour tonight, the surviving bombing suspect has been talking to law enforcement, is telling law enforcement there were no connections with former terror groups and he says his older brother was the ringleader.
This is all according to one government sources that Jake Tapper has, and that the two were motivated in part by online jihadist videos, not through online communication or direct communication or presumably with outside groups.
Some interesting questions remain tonight given the older brother, Tamerlan, as you know, spent the first half of last year inside of Russia in Dagestan, including even Chechnya.
Our Nick Paton Walsh joins us now from that region. Also joining us is former CIA officer Bob Baer with extensive experience in the Middle East and overseas.
Nick, you spoke to the suspect's father, as well as their aunt. I want to play a clip of what the aunt said about the older brother traveling to Russia last year. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATIEMAT SULIEMANA, AUNT (through translator): They haven't prayed before. He went before America. Nobody taught him. He learned everything himself. At the same time, we were happy about it because he didn't start doing drugs or alcohol. He doesn't speak to other women.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Have you been able, Nick, to really piece together a complete timeline of his six-month trip overseas, or are there still some sort of blank spots?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are definitely holes.
We know from U.S. officials he came to Russia in January. The aunt you just saw said she didn't think he turned up here in kind of their hometown, staying with her until March. The father didn't get here until May. And we know from locals that he was living with him for about a month in the summer, so definite gaps here, although signs he did visit relatives in Chechnya during that period as well.
People are not completely clear exactly where he was during that period of time or whom he met with, though there is an interesting link when he returns to the United States from his YouTube channel to a video of an extremist that shot dead in December of last year. Not proof they met, but proof certainly he was interested in some of the violence and extremism around here -- Anderson.
COOPER: Bob, the elder brother we talked about had linked to some extremist videos on his YouTube page. From your experience, does this kind of radicalization typically involve just an online component that goes together with trips overseas for potential training? You are pretty convinced he had to have some hands-on experience with explosive devices.
BOB BAER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Anderson, on the devices, I have made these and I talk to a lot of people that make these all the time.
They are difficult. You need practice. You need hands-on practice. If he went to a camp in Dagestan without any other objective other than training, that's possible. But what you have to keep in mind about this region is in the early '90s when the Soviet -- when Russia hit Grozny, the clerical leadership fled into Saudi Arabia.
There they made connections with essentially al Qaeda in Medina and Mecca and other cities in Saudi Arabia. They themselves were radicalized, the clerics. These same clerics are back in Dagestan trying to raise a resistance against Russia and Chechnya.
It would be inevitable he would run into Salafis/al Qaeda, whatever you want to call it. Now, whether they gave him instructions to go to Boston and set these two explosions up, I don't know, but he would certainly have learned more about this ideology there and I think it's a good chance he was further radicalized and decided maybe on his own, maybe with somebody's help to turn to violence.
COOPER: Bob, you were saying you have experience making these kind of devices. It is not something you can just read about on the Internet? That information is out there on the Internet, but you are saying it is not something you can just read about on the Internet and put together and maybe test here domestically?
BAER: Anderson, two years ago, I went down to Huntsville, Alabama.
The ATF sort of put me through a course down there and let me observe it and there were all these ex-explosives experts from Afghanistan and Iraq, American soldiers that came and that knew their explosives. But in order to learn the homemade devices, they had to go into a course that was several weeks long. They just had to.
They were creating their own detonators, but it's not something they could read from a manual and actually make these things go off. And they had to sit through the instruction. They were very careful about it. They needed to be mentored. And as I said, they were already experts with years of expertise. And it was the only way to make sure these that things would go off with the percentage these guys made them go off in Boston.
COOPER: Nick, in terms of other terrorist acts by Chechen militant terrorists, we have seen obviously the Beslan school incident, the taking over the movie theater in Moscow years ago. But in terms of targeting the United States, we have not seen -- we have not seen Chechen terrorists, Chechen militants targeting U.S. interests, correct?
WALSH: Absolutely.
And I covered both those incidents you referred to and they were purely targeted by pretty radical elements within the Chechen separatist extremist movement, that it was all directed their anger at Russia, who they see as the occupier in what should be an Islamist area for them.
More recently, there have been -- and it's increasingly fractured and repressed -- Islamist rebellion degrees here, groups here that are younger. Perhaps part of their manifesto occasionally makes references to the United States as well potentially being a target, particularly post-Afghanistan and Iraq. But that is on the fringe and it's more aspirational.
I think many of them still always their main target being Moscow, the seat as they perhaps regard as the occupying power, rather than across the Atlantic, the United States, Anderson. COOPER: Interesting.
Nick, appreciate all of your reporting, Bob Baer as well.
The FBI ha stalked to the widow of the older bombing suspect. Her name is Katherine Russell. She is 24 years old and she has been staying with her parents in Rhode Island. Her lawyer said she did not know anything about what her husband was allegedly planning and learned that he was is a suspect actually from news reports.
Our Chris Lawrence has spoken to the attorney. He joins us now with more of what we know about her right now.
Chris, as I said, you did talk to this young woman's attorney. What is she -- has she been speaking actively to authorities?
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: We believe so, Anderson.
The attorney says that she has been cooperating with federal authorities and we know that federal agents have been here to her parents' home off and on over the last several days. In fact, there was a federal agent car just parked down the street for several hours earlier today.
But he's basically saying that she is telling them she didn't know anything that was going on and he is saying that because of that there's not a lot she can do to try to help the investigation. He told us basically that Tamerlan, the husband, was home for much of the day by himself with the child. He was the primary one looking after their two-and-a-half-month-old daughter -- two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, I should say, whereas the wife, Katherine Russell, she worked, she said up to seven days a week, sometimes 70 hours a week as a home aid.
She was out of the house for long periods of time while Tamerlan was at home -- Anderson.
COOPER: Chris, we may not know this at this point. I know obviously there's still a lot we don't know. We haven't heard directly from her. But was she living in the same house with him full time or was she at her parents' a lot? And my question is, really, if he was allegedly making explosive devices, if he wasn't making those -- if he was making those at home, I'm just trying to figure out where he would have stored them that she couldn't have known about it.
LAWRENCE: Yes, we're trying to figure that out as well, how much time she was spending there at home. We know she was at the apartment very recently because she was photographed coming out of the apartment in Cambridge just as recently as just a few days ago.
So she was there. Again, the attorney is saying she was out of the house a lot because she was working tremendously long hours. He also says basically that she's distraught. The family is a mess, that she feels horrible about what happened to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, and she is also dealing with the loss of her husband and the father of her children. So he says, basically, that it is just a very, very tough time for her, but he contends that she did not know what was going on before all of this happened.
COOPER: All right.
Chris, I appreciate the update. Thanks very much, Chris Lawrence.
And just ahead tonight, inside the endgame, those final minutes before the suspect was taken into custody. The SWAT team that actually put the Boston bombing suspect in handcuffs describes how those final minutes of his capture played out -- their first national interview coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Welcome back. Today I spoke to members of the SWAT team who risked their own lives and actually put the suspect in handcuffs on Friday.
Here's a shot of Tsarnaev as he -- as he's leaving the boat just before he was handcuffed by the SWAT team. This is shortly -- right before he was grabbed by members of the SWAT team.
This is often the case with heroes. The SWAT team I spoke with, the members of the team, they don't want to take all the credit for catching him. They repeated this over and over again today when I spoke to them. They kept making a point that it was a team effort involving many agencies, state, local, authorities, SWAT teams, a lot of different first responders who all deserve thanks.
They're not after attention. I also want to point that out. It's the first national interview that the SWAT team, in fact, from Massachusetts, the transportation authority has even given. Here's some of what they told me today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Tell me about Friday night. When was the first indication you got that the suspect had been -- had been found?
OFFICER JEFF CAMPBELL, MBTA TRANSIT POLICE SWEAT: We gathered up the men that we had left at that point, and we started rolling to that location and to help in any way that we could.
We got out there, and several agencies were out there already. The suspect was cornered and had been hiding in this boat. Different agencies that were on the scene were trying less lethal means to get the subject to turn himself in. I believe they tried numerous flash- bang grenades. They tried some -- they tried to gas him out of the boat. It just wasn't working.
COOPER: Did you know at the time whether the suspect was conscious or not?
CAMPBELL: We were getting reports from the -- I believe it was the state police helicopter, stated reports from them that there was movement inside the boat. They were using the flair, the infrared to look through the canopy, the tarp that was on it.
COOPER: And they've released those images, so we've seen those infrared images. They could tell -- there were reports that sometimes he was moving and sometimes he wasn't moving.
CAMPBELL: Correct. Correct.
OFFICER SARO THOMPSON, MBTA TRANSIT POLICE SWAT: He was going in and out of consciousness because he was losing a lot of blood, so...
CAMPBELL: Which is how the homeowner actually found him, was from a blood trail leading up to the boat. And he saw a slice in the canopy. And he took a peek inside, and that's when he saw the suspect inside the boat and made his 911 call.
COOPER: But at that point, do you know if he was armed? Do you know if he had explosives on him?
THOMPSON: He gotten into a firefighter earlier that day with some officers that responded to that scene after the 911 call. Some of our patrol officers. And we know for sure there was -- there was a weapon there. Sol...
CAMPBELL: You have to assume with the events of the last week that there were explosives, as well.
COOPER: So you guys get together to come up with a plan? What was the plan? What was the idea?
CAMPBELL: It was basically just to get across that danger zone. There was an open area from -- from where the house was. That was the final line of cover. If he stops firing at us. We have no protection getting across that danger zone. So we had a -- we had a Kevlar shield up in front of us and we all lined up in a stack behind that shield to cross that danger zone.
COOPER: Were you thinking you're going to have to go into the boat to get him out? Or were you thinking -- was it your understanding he was going to come out?
CAMPBELL: It was our understanding that he was giving himself up. That he was -- he was sitting on the edge of the boat with one leg hanging over the side.
COOPER: When you first saw him what did you think?
CAMPBELL: This is -- this is the target. This is the job. You know? We're almost done with this, and let's do it, you know. Let's just do what we're trained to do. You know, this is the suspect. We're trained to -- to go in and apprehend him.
You could see one hand was clear of any weapons, but each time he went the other way, his hand went down inside the boat out of our view. And I know everybody here -- we've spoken about it. Each time he did that, we had to assume that he was reaching for either a weapon, a firearm, or some type of explosive ignition device to try to draw us in and then take us out in a suicide-type manner. He did that a couple of times as we're still approaching towards him.
We got close enough that, at one point where both of his hands were up because of the rocking back and forth, both of his hands were up. We could see that there were no weapons in him, no ignition devices. We broke away from the shield protective cover and just rushed him. We put hands on him. Grabbed him and pulled him off the boat, down on to the ground.
At that point, it just became a -- I don't want to say typical, but an arrest situation. You check the suspect for weapons. Of course him, we had to check him for explosives. Take his sweatshirt off because he may have been wearing a suicide vest.
At that point we still didn't know if the boat had been rigged with explosives, some kind of timed device or anything else, just because of their behavior all week long. So at that point, we needed to get him away from the boat.
As soon as he was checked and handcuffed, we just picked him up and ran like hell to get away from that boat and got him over to where the medics are and the federal agents who were taking him in to custody.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: There's a report that he was shot in the throat. Unclear whether that was self-inflicted, whether -- or at what point -- could you tell that?
CAMPBELL: I did see a throat injury. To me it looked more like a knife wound. It wasn't a puncture hole. It was a slice where it was spread open. Possibly a piece of shrapnel from one of the explosives that they were using the night before. It didn't look like a bullet wound to me. It looked more like a cut of some kind.
COOPER: What goes through your mind? You were focused for a week on finding this guy. You've seen horrible things on that Monday and, you know, you've been working around the clock. To know that he's finally apprehended, what does it feel like?
SGT. DET. SEAN D. REYNOLDS, MBTA TRANSIT POLICE SWAT: It's a relief, but we're not sure it's over yet. We're still -- we're still in that mode. We haven't had a chance to really sit down, watch the news and think about it and see what's actually going on. So we're in that heightened state, as I'm sure everybody is. And maybe in a couple of weeks we'll get a chance to sit down and reflect on what actually happened.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: They're a great group of law-enforcement professionals.
And it bears repeating the team members I talked to, they call what they did a group effort. They said they were simply in the right place at the right time doing what they were trained to do. One note about the MBTA officer who was shot during the chase last week. We understand he is still in serious condition. There is a fund set up to help him. It's OfficerRichardDonahue.com. OfficerRichardDonahue.com. We'll have that address also on our Web page, AC360.com, in case you missed it.
Just ahead tonight, the implications, the breaking news that the bombing suspect is cooperating with law enforcement to some degree, what it says about his medical condition. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is going to join me with that, along with one of the doctors who helped treat both suspects.
And later a remarkable young woman I really want you to meet and hear from. She's facing the loss of her lower leg. Her leg was amputated below the knee. She doesn't have a left foot anymore. She's a dance instructor, a dance teacher, and she vows tonight she will dance once again. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, as we reported earlier, the Boston bombing suspect was said to be mentally competent, alert and lucid during a brief hearing today in his hospital room. We know that he was able to speak at least one word. His injuries include multiple gunshot words, we're told.
When he arrived at Beth Israel Deaconess on Friday, his condition was listed as serious. Chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, joins me -- joins me now.
Sanjay, how serious is the -- do we know how serious the wounds are?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We don't know for sure. But what we can say, though, is that certainly the time that he was captured he was standing. You saw the photos of that and that he was actually able to follow commands, lift his shirt up.
He had an injury to the neck. That's been something that we've heard a few times from officials who have been helping treat him and doctors in the hospital.
In that situation, one of the things that's so important is actually being able to protect the airway. Making sure the airway doesn't close off.
I just want to show you quickly, Anderson. This is the type of tube that we've been talking so much about. This isn't the type of tube that actually goes into the mouth but rather the type of tube that would be placed into the neck over here. And that would allow his airway to stay open.
But what's important about this is that oftentimes -- it's not as uncomfortable as the type of tube that goes in the mouth. So the sedation that's necessary isn't as high. So someone can be more awake, more alert, which -- which feeds off some of the reporting Jake Tapper has been doing about how communicative he has been.
COOPER: Is it common in the hospital to kind of lower sedation so that a patient can actually respond to law enforcement?
GUPTA: Yes. You know, there's lots of reasons you will -- you will lower sedation. Medically speaking, you do it so that you can get a good exam on somebody. Make sure that they're still neurologically doing well.
But again, with this sort of operation, it's not the sort of sedation that puts one to sleep as much as it is pain medications, for example, for the operation that he had and these other injuries that he sustained. So it's more like, think of it like pain pills, as opposed to sedatives that put you actually to sleep.
COOPER: All right. I want to bring in Dr. David Schoenfeld, who works at Beth Israel Deaconess. He was part of the team that actually treated both bombing suspects.
I appreciate you being with us. I know it's been an exhausting 24-hour week period for you.
Can you -- can you kind of just describe, there's a lot of HIIPA laws that obviously you're not going to be able to talk about details about the conditions of both these -- both these suspects. Can you just talk about the sort of the situation in the emergency room when they -- each one came in?
DR. DAVID SCHOENFELD, BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS MEDICAL CENTER: So on the first -- I guess it was Thursday night into Friday morning, the department was business as usual, I guess, you know, following what happened on Monday. We had a lot of patients in the department. And I had heard the gun battle and the explosions going off in Watertown.
COOPER: You actually heard it?
SCHOENFELD: Yes. I live in Watertown and saw the police coming into Watertown and then heard the gunshots and explosion. And when I heard that, I had earlier been watching the news reports of the MIT officer who was killed, and so I knew when I heard it that this was pretty serious, given the volume of gunfire, explosions. And called the department to let them know what was going on.
Because I was worried about all those officers and other people in the area with all the gun fire and explosions. The long-fest area -- the closest level one trauma center is to Watertown, and so I knew that if there were serious trauma patients coming out on the scene they'd be coming to the hospital.
So the folks in our department did a fantastic job preparing the emergency department for any number of trauma patients that were going to come in. So by the time I got there, the trauma bays were staffed and ready; the teams were divided up. We had additional staff coming in. The OR was, you know, ramping up. The whole hospital was ramping up. I was very impressed with the team, all of my co-workers who have been involved and a lot of whom had been involved in Monday's event. To see them at work, you know, getting geared up to potentially do it again.
GUPTA: I know you can't talk specifically about what happened, but somebody who has, in this case, multiple gunshot wounds, talking an Thursday night, Friday morning, and got essentially, it sounds like, run over by a car. What is the general -- what is it like for treating a patient like that?
SCHOENFELD: So, you know, anytime you have a serious trauma patient come in, you know, the team as a whole is very focused on assessing and treating and doing everything we can to resuscitate the patient.
You know, in general terms the types of things that you would do for patients or make sure that their airway is secured with either a breathing tube or the device you were showing. Making sure that they're ventilating and breathing effectively. Putting in test tubes, giving them blood in order to make sure they haven't bled to death. And you would open the chest and assess the heart and make sure there isn't blood around the heart preventing it from pumping, and if there is a direct injury to the heart you would repair that.
So those are sort of the different things that can be done in a traumatic cardiac arrest resuscitation.
COOPER: As I've said, it's been an incredibly difficult week for everybody and I appreciate all your efforts and I appreciate you being with us tonight. Thank you.
SCHOENFELD: And I have to say it has been impressive to see all of the folks, the first responders, the off-duty health care professionals. The civilians on Monday who rushed in and made a lot of difference, saved a lot of live.
And I'm proud to live in a city of heroes with all of the police, the fire, the health care, the civilians, everybody making -- making what happened a miracle that happened as far as saving so many. As tragic as it was to lose -- lose three lives on Monday.
COOPER: So many people pitching in.
SCHOENFELD: So many people pitching in to save so many. It's really amazing. And I'm privileged to be part of the Boston community.
Appreciate you being with us. Sanjay, as well. Thank you very much.
A lot ahead. Stay tuned. One of the Boston bombing survivor. As young woman, a dance instructor, describes what it was like to come out of surgery and be told that they couldn't save her foot. In fact her leg had been cut off below the knee.
She promises she will dance again. She's got a remarkable attitude. She will inspire you ahead tonight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, today, one week after the bombings, 50 of the wounded are still hospitalized. Two remain in critical condition. At least a dozen survivors have had amputations.
Today, I met a young woman named Adrianne Haslet-Davis. She lost her lower leg. She's a dance instructor.
Adrianne was watching the marathon with her husband, Air Force Captain Adam Davis, who served in Afghanistan, in Kandahar. They were hit by the second blast. They're really an amazing couple. I spoke to them earlier. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: I hate to ask you to relive what you went through. So if you don't want to, that's completely fine.
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS, BOSTON BOMBING SURVIVOR: It's OK. I relive it every day.
COOPER: You think about it every day?
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: I do. Absolutely.
COOPER: How close were you to the second explosion?
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: I was right in front of it. Right in front of the business where it was. So I felt the direct impact, and it immediately blew off my left foot.
COOPER: How far away was the bomb, do you know?
ADAM HASLET-DAVIS: My guess was it would have been about five feet.
COOPER: Five feet.
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: Yes. We're lucky to be alive.
COOPER: Did you lose consciousness?
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: I don't think we did. I remember everything, so if it did, it was for a matter of seconds.
COOPER: You remember being blown through the air?
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: Yes.
COOPER: What happened then?
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: I landed and sort of closed my eyes and was underneath Adam and kind of covering my head and my -- and my face. It was very gray and quiet. Gray smoke and ashes and a lot of debris falling.
And I remember telling Adam, "Oh, my gosh, I'm alive."
And then he said, "I'm OK. I'm OK. Are you OK? Oh, my gosh, are you OK?"
And I said, "I think we're OK." And I couldn't believe it, couldn't believe that we survived and that we weren't hurt at all. And I didn't feel any pain. I had no idea what was -- what had happened.
And then I sat up and I tried -- he said, "We've got to get out of here."
And I sat up and tried to move and I said, "Oh, my gosh, my foot. There's something wrong with my foot."
And he lifted up my leg, and we just lost it. Adam was -- had a lot of blood all over his pants. It was hard to tell his injuries and my injuries because of the amount of blood everywhere. But I know he was hurt, as well.
COOPER: What did you do when you realized what happened to your foot?
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: I just went into survival mode. I went into "I've got to do something about this. I can't lose my foot."
COOPER: That was -- that was in your mind?
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: Yes, I can't lose my foot. I've got to get it somewhere safe and clean, and I've got to get something wrapped around it.
And then I grabbed the door open with my elbow and crawled into Forum, dragging blood and asked as many people for help and finally received it and got a couple of people to do a tourniquet. And then Adam was shortly behind me. I -- I wanted to stay with him, but my brain was just on "I've got to get somewhere clean. I'm losing so much blood."
COOPER: What did you do?
ADAM HASLET-DAVIS: I followed behind her. I mean, she jumped over me and said, "We've got to get somewhere where we can lay down a little smarter, where we can get a tourniquet around her leg, you know, start doing a little basic, like shock, triage stuff." Yes.
So we crawled into Forum, and from there it was -- I remember her legs were over mine. I had one belt and another guy come over with another belt and we're just, you know -- as much as I could, tried to put as much pressure as I can with a belt.
COOPER: Where did you find a belt from?
ADAM HASLET-DAVIS: My belt came from me. COOPER: So you took off your belt and tied it like a tourniquet?
ADAM HASLET-DAVIS: Well, I used just the loops. It's not the best tourniquet.
COOPER: And then you were -- basically just pulled it tight.
ADAM HASLET-DAVIS: Yes.
COOPER: When did you realize that -- the full extent of the injury?
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: I think when we were sitting there in the Forum I realized how bad it was. And Adam and I kept looking at each other. And we were bouncing between tie the tourniquet faster and this may be our last minutes together. I love you and I'm so sorry for everything that had ever happened and it's hard to get -- not get emotional thinking about it.
But it was we were tied between safety and helping each other and helping his injuries also. And saying what we needed to say to each other.
COOPER: In case you didn't make it.
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: In case we didn't make it. Yes.
COOPER: Tying this tourniquet on the scene at that bar, that probably saved you.
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: It probably did. I'm thankful for Adam for helping, obviously. I've thanked him a lot.
COOPER: When did you realize you didn't have a foot?
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: I was -- I woke up, and my parents were there. And I hugged and kissed them and said, "Mom, can you help me? I feel like my foot is falling asleep, because it feels like my ankle is falling off of the pillow and my foot is half on."
And I realized that now that was phantom pain because she looked at me and said, "Adrianne, you don't have a foot. Your foot is gone." And I just lost it. It's really hard to hear.
COOPER: You are determined to dance again?
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: I am, yes.
COOPER: Dancing is really important to you?
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: It is so important to me. It's my life.
COOPER: What about it?
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: Dancing is the one thing that I do. I've said this many times, but dancing is the one thing that I do that when I do it I don't think like I should be doing anything else. Ever. I feel so free and so wonderful. I'm big on music, and I feel like all of us when we share music. We kind of move to the music and I feel like...
COOPER: I don't. I stay rock solid because I'm a bad dancer.
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: We're going to change that. I told you I was going to teach you. I'm going to teach you.
COOPER: I'm a tough student.
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: That's OK. I am going to hold you to that. It is now on camera.
But I -- I feel like it's just such a freeing thing. It's such a big part of my life and part of my life also is being able to teach people how to do that.
So, not only is it big in my life for me and an outlet for me, I get to share that and see it developing in other people.
COOPER: You want to run the race next year?
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: I do. I can't believe I said that. Adam's been making fun of me the whole time. He's like, "I can't believe you said that. You're not a runner at all."
COOPER: So you're not a runner?
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: I am not a runner at all, though. But I wasn't a ballroom dancer at one point in my life either. So...
COOPER: So you're going to do it?
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: I'm going to do it, yes.
COOPER: I hope to be on the finish line watching you.
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: Yes.
COOPER: I'd like to say I hope to run with you...
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: Thank you. You should totally run with me.
COOPER: ... but I'm in such bad shape.
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: That's OK. We'll cross of dance lessons this year and do the marathon this time.
COOPER: Little by little.
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS: Little by little.
COOPER: If you can get me dancing and running I will be very amazed. ADRIANNA HASLET-DAVIS: If I can get me running I will be really amazed.
COOPER: Are you angry?
ADRIANNA HASLET-DAVIS: I'm angry. I'm not angry 100 percent of the time, but I'm angry.
I -- I think when someone tries to stop you from doing something or something happens in your life where it's not exactly what you expected, you have to conquer that and you have to find a better side of it. It's not something that -- I don't know.
I just -- I don't want that to be the end. I don't want this to be the end. I'm only 32. I don't want this to be the end. So whether it's, you know, running the marathon or walking the marathon or crawling the marathon and being the last one across. I'm OK with that. I didn't say I'd win it. But I am defiant and I want to come out stronger.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And she's going to do it, too. Adrianne Haslet-Davis, an amazing young woman. There is a fund set up in her name by her family. If you'd like to donate, go to GoFundMe.com/AdrianneFund. We're going to put that Web site on our Web site, on Anderson Cooper.com -- AC360.com. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: OK. That's it for us. I'll be anchoring from Boston live tomorrow at 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and also again tomorrow on AC 360 at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Thanks for watching. "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts now.
