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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
New Information Emerges on Boston Bombings; More Info about Bombing Suspects' Family; Dance Instructor Wounded by Bomb Determined to Dance Again; Man Survives Two Tragedies
Aired April 23, 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, 10:00 here in Boston.
We have breaking news here on many, many fronts tonight, including where authorities say the suspects bought pressure cookers used in the two IEDs that did too much human damage too far from where I'm standing. An official tells CNN's Jessica Yellin they bought them at the department store Macy's, also telling her so far there's no hard evidence of accomplices, no extremist connections that they know of from overseas and no conclusions about what may have radicalized them.
There's that, but that's only the beginning. In a moment, you're going to meet the man who came face-to-face with the cornered younger bombing suspect in his boat. His account different from the story that we have all been hearing. Just imagine what you would do in his shoes. You go into the backyard late at night, take a look and see this, only not from a chopper, not in black and white, up close, in bloody, living color. You're going to hear from the hour ahead.
You will also hear from the Watertown man who photographed the firefight on the street outside of his house. This is the firefight that took place very early morning, in the early morning hours Friday morning, the images utterly breathtaking. This one showing the two suspects taking aim at police at the end of that chase Thursday night. Another shows the wrecked police SUV down at the bottom right there that a police officer used in a move straight out of an action film putting it in gear, letting it roll empty to draw fire and give fellow officers a moment to get in better position to take down the older suspect.
Much more on that tonight. We have other developments as well. The local DA here saying Massachusetts will not pursue state charges against the surviving suspected, leaving all prosecution to the feds. Additionally, he says the 19-year-old may soon be relocated from Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital because some families' victims being treated here object.
We're also learning that the suspect has told investigators that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were motivation for his brother and himself. That's what a government is telling us. Also under the heading of unanswered questions, some new information on a mysterious potential influence on the older suspect, Tamerlan's alleged turn to radical Islam. We learned as well that he bought a large amount of fireworks leading up to the attacks which may help explain the process by they perfected their bombs.
But again we're learning more information about that. We will tell you what we know. In addition to all of that, people who live and work on this stretch of Boylston Street were briefly allowed back today, but it's still no go for vehicles, as well as for pedestrians.
And in a private ceremony, family members held a funeral mass for 8-year-old Martin Richard. "We laid our son Martin to rest," his parents said. "And he's now at peace."
It has been quite a day, but nothing compared to the night that David Henneberry had on Friday. That's his backyard. And that is his boat. Want to show it to you. It's where he discovered the younger suspect and then quickly called police. You may have heard the story of how it happened. That story, the one we have all been hearing, is not quite true, not according to David himself.
Tonight, for the first time, Mr. Henneberry is telling it like it was, speaking to CNN affiliate WCVB.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID HENNEBERRY, BOAT OWNER: I know people say there's blood in the boat, That he saw blood when he went in. Not...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not true?
HENNEBERRY: Not true.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The word is you saw the boat, you pulled back the wrapping, you saw a body, it moved and you called 911.
HENNEBERRY: Oh, no, no, no.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No?
HENNEBERRY: No, no, no.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So he went to the garage and grabbed a stepladder.
HENNEBERRY: I got I think three steps up the ladder and I was -- I rolled it up and I can see through now the shrink-wrap. I didn't expect to see anything. And I look in the boat over here and look on the floor. And I see blood.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of blood?
HENNEBERRY: A good amount of blood.
And my eyes went to the other side of the engine box. The engine box is in the middle. There was a body.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And, at that moment, what did you do? What were you thinking at that moment?
HENNEBERRY: Oh, my God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He couldn't see suspect number tow's face. He was glad he couldn't see his face.
HENNEBERRY: Well, I know I took three steps up the ladder. I don't remember stepping down off the ladder. This hits you more afterwards when you think, my God, he probably slept last night. This guy could be -- I don't know, it's just -- it's surreal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In that instant, police responded and he and his wife were taken away.
People are calling you a national hero?
HENNEBERRY: Yes. If the people who got killed can get something from me...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, in many ways, they do.
HENNEBERRY: Then I'm at peace with it, you know?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: So earlier, the story had been that there had been blood that was visible. He said that that's not the case at all, that some of the plastic wrapping was off and that's what made him peer inside the boat and that's when he saw the blood and the alleged suspect.
Mr. Henneberry says he doesn't want to be reimbursed for the damage to his boat. He wants all money to go to the bombing survivors and families and says he has a perfectly good canoe in the garage that he can use.
As I said, we do have a lot to talk about tonight, first the latest on the investigation.
Let's get you up to speed from our Drew Griffin and our Jake Tapper who join me now.
Jake, you have more information as to what might be a motivating factor for these brothers. What are you learning?
JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, we told you yesterday about how according to a U.S. government official, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is talking to investigators, communicating with them in any case.
And one of the things that he was saying, and investigators are still making sure it's all accurate, is that they acted alone, the two brothers. There was no foreign terrorist group involved. They were self-radicalized from the Internet and, also, that their motivation was jihadist with the Islamist extremist political and religious motivations that entails.
I also learned today from the same official that part of that, part of the jihadist sentiment, the idea that they were acting because they thought in the way to defend Islam from being under attack in their view. One of the ways that came to fruition in their view was the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. So, in other words, Dzhokhar is saying that that's one of the reasons they carried out the attack.
In addition, the official says, it is likely, likely, he said, that Anwar al-Awlaki, the cleric who was killed by drones, U.S. drones a couple years ago, that his sermons were likely among those used to self-radicalize by the Tsarnaev brothers watching those videos, among others -- Anderson.
COOPER: And what have investigators been able to learn from him as to whether or not he or his brother were in contact with any foreign terrorist groups or foreign jihadist groups?
TAPPER: As of now, no investigators have found any evidence that that has happened. And Dzhokhar has claimed that there are no contact with foreign groups. But this is just the word of one guy who a lot of people don't have any trust for.
And, of course, the older brother, Tamerlan, spent all of that time abroad. So he spent all of that time abroad. And people are looking into his time in Dagestan and whether or not there was anything there. But as of now, Dzhokhar is claiming was self- radicalization from watch watching the Internet, although they are looking into, investigators, whether or not that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula magazine "Inspire" played any role.
There was an article in "Inspire" a few years ago teaching people how to make bombs in the kitchen. And so they are looking into that, but so far, nothing definitive -- Anderson.
COOPER: We're also going to check in with our correspondent Nic Robertson, who is in Dagestan. We're going to do that later on in the broadcast.
Want to bring in Drew Griffin, though.
We're also learning -- and really just in the last hour or two, after our 8:00 broadcast, more about a person here who may have influenced the older brother.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: You know, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been going on for a decade. When you see somebody who's self-radicalized, at least in the past, there's usually another turning point, somebody who influences them.
Now we're learning from Tamerlan's uncle, who says there was such a person, a person here in Cambridge back in 2009, a self-proclaimed preacher, a guy who went by a very, very common nickname of Armenian descent who was a recent convert. The uncle said that this person was really getting into Tamerlan's head and telling him all about radical Islam.
He was worried about it so much that he actually called a family friend here in Cambridge to see what it's about. Here's what the uncle told us. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUSLAN TSARNI, UNCLE OF SUSPECTS: I called one of the gentlemen living in that area who is privy to their family.
I said, listen, do you know what is going on with that family, with my brother's family? I heard that talking from Tamerlan. Where that might be coming from? And he says, oh, yes, there is a such a thing. There is a person, some new convert to Islam of Armenian descent.
Armenians, I have no intention to say anything about Armenians. It is a neighboring region with North Caucasus. And he said this person, just he took his brain. He just brainwashed him completely. Tamerlan is off now. There's no obedience and respect to his own father.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: Since that interview that was given to Shannon Travis over the weekend, ourselves and a lot of reporters from CNN and everywhere have been trying to find this mysterious person, the name Misha, red beard.
Anderson, we haven't been able to find anything about this person at all. But this, again, is coming from the uncle of the suspects. And this is what he's telling us. So, maybe there was an influence. Certainly, it's something that investigators will be looking at.
COOPER: And the family dynamics of this family are sort of fascinating. They are all over the map, all over the place.
They seem to -- there's some sort of division in the family, some members saying this is a conspiracy by the government against these young people. Clearly, this uncle seems to think this Misha was involved. Their credibility obviously is a huge open question. And there's a lot we still need to figure about that.
You also spoke to the chief of police in Watertown, who told you about that shoot-out on early Friday morning.
GRIFFIN: Which is such a much better tale to share with you tonight about the heroism of your local cop next door.
The chief sat down with us and told us some interesting fine points of terrorism that I just couldn't believe about just what happened Thursday night when these two killers come barrelling into their town, and opened fire and the police there respond without knowing anything about it. Take a look at what happens to just one sergeant.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ED DEVEAU, WATERTOWN POLICE CHIEF: Oh, yes. There's a serious gunfight going on. The second person on the scene, one of my sergeants, he pulled up and he immediately gets at least gets one shot right through his windshield.
So he's under fire as soon as he shows up. And he again just great -- they don't teach you this stuff at the police academy. You don't plan for this. You don't train for this. He has the -- I don't know even how to describe it -- the courage and determination to keep fighting. And he decides to put the car in gear because his car is taking the fire. They're shooting right at him in that car.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: The chief wouldn't tell us this sergeant's name yet. But what happens next is absolutely fascinating, Anderson.
Here's this guy, he has got a bullet through his windshield. He realizes he and all of his mates are under tremendous fire. And he's got to get out of there, but he can't figure out how. This is what he does. He takes his car and decides at that split-second. This is not a military soldier. This is a local police, decides to use that car as his own weapon. And here 's how the chief described it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEVEAU: And he puts it in gear and lets it roll down the street while he's able to get out and take up a position so he's a little bit safer. At the end, he said to my captain, I hope the chief isn't mad at me. That cruiser is a little bit damaged. I said Sarge, are you kidding me? They're going to be writing about you in the textbooks now. That was brilliant under a very difficult situation to be able to think that through and be able to do that.
GRIFFIN: Let me make sure I understand that. He gets out of the car and lets his car float on in to the dudes?
DEVEAU: Right. And so they think he's still in the car and so they're unloading on the car while he's able to take up a position to the side and start returning fire.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: It's amazing, the heroism of these officers on the scene.
Jake, you caught up with a guy who was watching some of the scene from the window of his apartment during the shoot-out and he took pictures of it. What do they show?
TAPPER: They're incredible, Anderson.
Andrew Kitzenberg took these pictures. He had the presence of mind when he heard the gunshots and he grabbed his iPhone and started taking pictures and live tweet the shoot-out. We're going to show you some of the pictures. There you go. See, here you have the two bombing suspects firing at police right outside his house in this lovely neighborhood in Watertown.
The circle there is circling the pressure cooker bomb, that third pressure cooker bomb that the brothers ignited and threw at police leaving a big, you know, ignition stain on the ground after the explosion. So that's one of the pictures. He took about 15 or 16 that we have.
The next picture I want to show you, this is after the older brother, Tamerlan, fires upon the police and then he gets taken out. And you see the car rushing towards -- the circle is where the older brother is. The car rushing towards him and the police, that's Dzhokhar. He is in the car and he is driving towards the police in the car. And then the last picture we're going to show you, this is a car that they left behind in which there are a lot of bombs and there's a robot looking for volatile substances in this car -- Anderson.
COOPER: Amazing pictures. Amazing that he had the presence of mind to do that.
Also, Drew, you're getting some information about fireworks or pyrotechnic devices that one of the brothers purchased.
GRIFFIN: Yes, another bit and piece of the investigation, February 6, Tamerlan, the older brother, goes to New Hampshire where fireworks are legal. He goes into the store and he asks for, what is the biggest and loudest thing you have?
He buys two of these that we have on your screen. They are called lock and load kits, reloadable mortar kits -- $200 cash is what he spends, easily traceable, Anderson. You have to write down your identification, your driver's license number when you buy this stuff in New Hampshire. So the guy -- after the bombings, the guy at the store just calls up law enforcement and says, hey, I have got him right here. He's buying this stuff now.
COOPER: And we don't know how these were used, if they were used at all. We don't know the purpose of them.
GRIFFIN: No, we don't, but that will all be part of the investigation, the meticulous putting together of the bombs and see what, if anything...
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Police did find, as I remember -- some sort of pyrotechnics in -- was it in the younger brother's...
GRIFFIN: Younger brother's door room. A large pyrotechnic is how they was described in the criminal complaint.
COOPER: OK. Again we don't know if it was the same one that was purchased February 6. But, interesting, February 6, it shows the level of planning. It does go back several months.
GRIFFIN: Absolutely, and driving across state lines to get it.
COOPER: Drew, appreciate the update, Jake as well.
Let us know what you think about all this. You can follow me on Twitter @AndersonCooper.
Coming up, there's a lot more ahead, more scrutiny over what Homeland Security and the FBI knew about Tamerlan Tsarnaev's possible overseas connections and when they knew it. What was he doing really over there in Dagestan for six months? He didn't have a job, he didn't have much money. He left his wife, he left his little baby here for six months to go to Russia? Why? We're trying to figure that out. Details on that ahead.
Also, a statement tonight from Tamerlan's wife, Katie Russell, what she's saying and what we learned about her today and whether or not she's really cooperating and sitting down with the FBI to answer their questions. That's still to come.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Breaking news tonight, among many late developments, a federal official telling CNN's Jessica Yellin that the suspects brought pressure cookers for the bombs at Macy's, also telling her they have yet to uncover any hard evidence of accomplices or connection to other extremists, particularly overseas.
Casting doubt on that, however, is the older suspect's trip of course last year to Russia for six months, including some hotbeds of radicalism.
But, again, there's a lot in that timeline of what he did for those six months. We don't know. There's also interest, a year earlier that Russians showed interest in his activities.
More now from our Joe Johns.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tamerlan Tsarnaev first hit the FBI's radar in 2011, when the Russian government told the agency they should check him out.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: The Russian FSB sent a letter to the FBI and other agencies that we think this guy has become radical. You need to watch him.
JOHNS: An FBI statement said the request from Russia was based on information that he was a follower of radical Islam and a strong believer that he had changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the United States for travel to the country's region to join unspecified underground groups.
The FBI says it checked U.S. government databases, telephone communications, online activity. It also actually interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev and family members. But the FBI says it did not find any terrorism activity, so it gave that information to Russia and asked for, but did not receive more specific or additional info. Case closed.
TOM FUENTES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Because additional information didn't come in, then the FBI says, well, for our purposes, under our system and with all the records and investigation we're allowed to do here, it hasn't risen to the level to warrant further investigation or full-time surveillance.
JOHNS: A federal law enforcement individual agrees and says Tamerlan was not on a terror watch list or any no-fly list because the U.S. never deemed him a threat. So there were no alarm bells when Tsarnaev came back to the U.S. six months later.
JANET NAPOLITANO, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: By the time he returned, all investigations had been -- the matter had been closed.
JOHNS: But even so, it's not clear if the Department of Homeland Security, which is charged with monitoring travel, even knew that Tsarnaev was on the FBI's radar. Feds failing to talk to each other was supposed to be a lesson learned from 9/11.
SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R), GEORGIA: We're trying to make sure that all of that information that was available was shared. If it wasn't, then there may be somebody who dropped the ball.
JOHNS: A U.S. official said even when there's a hit in the system, it doesn't prompt anyone in law enforcement to take action. It's just monitoring for suspicious travel.
Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, let's dig deeper on all of this now with national security analyst Peter Bergen, former CIA officer Bob Baer. Former Massachusetts Homeland Security Adviser and "Boston Globe" columnist Juliette Kayyem is joining me here and senior international correspondent Nic Robertson in Dagestan.
Nic, what I cannot figure out about this six-month trip this guy had to Russia is, this is a guy who has a newborn baby. He leaves for six months without his wife. I don't know how many married couples get to do that. He doesn't have much money. He doesn't have a job and yet he's able to spend six months over there. What period of time do we know about? And what period of time do we not know about in that six-month window?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's very hard to nail it down precisely, Anderson.
There have been accounts that he was helping his father renovate an apartment in the city here, that that's what kept him busy a lot of time. His aunt said that he spent two days in Chechnya. Neighbors and people who run local stores say that they have seen him around, that they saw him around, that he was there for some of the time. But trying to nail down the specifics of did he leave town, did he take a bus ride, did he take a plane ride somewhere, those details just unavailable or perhaps didn't happen so far. And the family are just not saying more of these generalities. They're still in shock. They're in a state of denial about what's happened. So it's really -- it's very unclear. And I think this is going to be a tough job for investigators to dig through that. The mosque that he reported to have attended, a radical mosque by most accounts, there, the imam says he wasn't associated with us. He wasn't coming here.
So, you get a lot of sort of denials and rebuttals by people rebutting what other neighbors and people might have already said, Anderson.
COOPER: Bob, the other thing I don't understand, if the Russians had some suspicion or concern about him enough to actually contact the FBI and ask for an interview and said he was involved in radical Islam, how closely would anyone have been monitoring him during that six-month window in Russia?
BOB BAER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, they would, but remember that Russia is an inefficient as American authorities are in terms of getting people on computer lists.
If there's a slight change in the name, or the fact that he traveled on American documentation rather than Russian, any number of ways you can get through Moscow airport or get into Dagestan. We just don't know. Normally, the Russians pull these people aside. But they do make their mistakes just as we do. He just slipped through the system. Anderson, let's go back to fact that the FBI interviewed him.
At that point, the FBI should have called immigrations, put him on a list, when he came back into the country, this is standard, interviewed him, gone through his computer, if he had one, his address books, his cell phones, asked him where he was simply to add to the files. But there's all this stovepiping and no one after all these years after 9/11 is talking to each other. It's just a fact. And this is how the guy got through.
COOPER: Peter, I try to think back to other American citizens or naturalized citizens who have become radicalized. I think back to the number of young Somalis who ended up going back to Somalia. The first suicide bombing was actually by an American in Somalia.
What did we learn from those cases in terms of how they had become radicalized that might apply to this? Are there any lessons to learn?
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, I guess in comparison to the Somalis is, you know, obviously, the parents of these Somali Americans who then went back to Somalia, their parents were fleeing and really were trying to put that behind them.
For these kids who are first-generation Americans, they're searching for identify. In the case of the Somali-Americans, a lot of them found identify identifying with the Somali civil war. In the case of the brothers in Boston, it seems to be an example of what is called being a revert. A revert is somebody who has grown up in a Muslim family who basically reverts to a much more fundamentalist form of Islam as a way of bringing more meaning and identity into his life.
That also may have been informed by the Chechen struggle as well. But that is not an uncommon reaction. And many people revert to a more fundamentalist form of Islam without necessarily going down the line to identify with jihadist violence. But that is a necessary precondition to get to that point.
The kinds of things that we have heard about, the older brother, his kind of political religious views, that is -- we have seen this pattern before. And, unfortunately, you know, it produced this result.
COOPER: Juliette, we're hearing more now from the uncle who lives in the United States who talks about this Misha character who may have been an influence on the older brother.
A lot remains unclear about, A., how believable this uncle is and some of the other relatives. But if there was sort of this character here, that is obviously something law enforcement wants to look into.
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Absolutely.
The question is, when we get to how do we figure out the motive, was it from abroad, was it through the Internet, or were there individuals here? That's relevant investigation here, if nothing more to find out whether there was an intelligence failure or not.
Before we can determine whether there's a failure, we have to figure out what the intelligence is. Where is it leading to? The more important thing for people to also understand, while this is a relevant discussion to learn how did this happen and did we fail, did the government fail in any way, is that the legal case is just going to continue.
One of the great things about charging the younger brother with a WMD case is that you don't have to prove intent. So all of the questions we have about how and why and who are actually irrelevant to the case. And so that makes that part of the investigation, the legal side advancing, even if it may take years, as Nic was suggesting, to figure out what happened in Russia.
COOPER: Juliette, appreciate you being with us, Peter Bergen, Bob Baer, Nic Robertson. All of you, thanks.
We're learning more tonight about the suspects' family members. Coming up, we're going to play you a conversation their mother had with CNN's Nick Paton Walsh in Dagestan. She has some conspiracy theories. We will show you what she is saying now.
Also, Tamerlan Tsarnaev's wife, Katie, has given a brand-new statement on the bombing through her attorneys. We will tell you what she's saying and what we have learned about her and how much she's actually cooperating with law enforcement.
Also still to come, more of my interview with a remarkable young woman, a dance instructor who lost her left foot, part of her left leg in the bombings. She's determined to dance again. We played you some of it last night. Tonight, she tells me she is not going to let what happened to kill her dreams, even though it was a nightmare that she relives every single day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS, BOMBING SURVIVOR: I looked up at a couple of people and looked up and said, can you help me, can you help me? And I was just covered in blood. And a couple of people were just in a state of shock and just looked at me like, oh, my gosh, and ran the other direction.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Welcome back. We're hearing more from the mother of the bombing suspects, in Dagestan. She says what happened was a terrible thing, but she knows her sons had nothing to do with it, and she thinks they're being framed.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh spoke with their mother on the phone and then briefly on the street in Dagestan. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZUBEIDAT TSARNAEV, MOTHER OF SUSPECTS: My sons were innocent. And I love them, and I want the whole world to hear about it. I love them. And I will love them. And I want to go -- I mean, I want to join them. If they're going to kill me today, I will be happy. Happy. OK? OK. And I will say Allahu akbar.
They killed them just because they were Muslim. Nothing else.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: We're also learning more tonight about the wife of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Her name is Catherine Russell. She goes by Katie, and her attorneys say she knew nothing about what her husband was allegedly planning and that she's doing everything she can to help with the investigation.
Chris Lawrence has more on exactly what we've learned about her.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tamerlan Tsarnaev's widow hustled out of her parents' Rhode Island home Tuesday. Investigators want her help as they piece together the alleged Boston bomber's plan.
MIRIAM WEIZENBAUM, KATIE RUSSELL'S ATTORNEY: The reports of involvement by her husband and brother-in-law came as an absolute shock to them all.
LAWRENCE: Her attorney says Catherine Russell lived with Tamerlan in a cramped Cambridge apartment. As authorities try to determine when and where he may have assembled the bombs, investigators want to find out what, if anything, she knows.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is doing everything she can to assist in the ongoing investigation.
LAWRENCE: Russell's attorneys say she didn't know anything. They say she last saw Tamerlan before she went to work Thursday before the FBI released this video. They say she worked as a home health aide, while Tamerlan stayed home with the couple's young daughter.
AMOS CHARLES PAYNE, KATIE'S HIGH-SCHOOL ART TEACHER: Very outgoing. Very friendly, very smart and very talented.
LAWRENCE: That's the Katie Russell Amos Charles Payne (ph) remembers. Her high-school art teacher says she talked a lot about earning her college degree.
(on camera): Are you surprised how her life's turned out so far.
PAYNE: I was surprised to find out that she had dropped out. And I hadn't seen any indication of a particular interest in a lot of religion.
LAWRENCE (voice-over): She moved to Boston for college, met Tamerlan and dropped out. Attorneys say she converted to Islam and was an observant Muslim who wore the hijab, or head scarf.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Chris now joins me from -- live from North Kingstown, Rhode Island. So just to be clear, her attorney says she's doing everything she can to cooperate. Has she sat down and had interviews with the FBI?
LAWRENCE: At this point, we don't think so. And if she has, then her attorneys certainly aren't saying that publicly. They keep telling us that they keep talking to authorities on her behalf. But they still haven't confirmed that she herself is ready to sit down directly and talk to investigators one-on-one, Anderson.
COOPER: So them saying she's doing everything she can to cooperate, that's kind of lawyer speak, if she actually hasn't sat down to talk to them. How much -- I mean, do we know, was she living in that apartment? I know you said she saw you on Thursday after the bombing. Was she living full time in that apartment? Or was she also spending time with her parents in Rhode Island? Do you know? Were they living together?
LAWRENCE: Well, the attorneys say that they were living together in that apartment in Cambridge. That was the apartment that the brothers' parents got when they first came to this country. So basically, she would see a lot of her mother-in-law, the brother's mother. She wouldn't see quite as much of Dzhokhar, the younger brother, because he was back and forth to college. And Anderson, I've just got to say one thing: I mean, for all the talk about Tamerlan being so isolated and not having any American friends, let's remember he married an American girl named Katie from the suburbs of Providence, Rhode Island. So not everything there squares.
COOPER: And we've talked to a number of people who considered him a friend over the last several years. So again, as you said, not everything is square. Still a lot we're learning.
Chris, I appreciate the update. More to find out on that front, certainly.
Just ahead, more on my interview with a young dance instructor. A dance teacher who will not be stopped, she says, by what she lost in the bombing. Doctors had to amputate her leg several inches below her knee. But she says she is not giving up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
I look at this as someone trained to stop me from realizing my dreams. And I thought that ballroom dancing was something that I was never going to do in dance. It just seems like it was a tough arena to be in. And I've conquered that.
And I'm not ready to stop.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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COOPER: Welcome back tonight. Eight days after the bombing, 43 remain hospitalized. At least a dozen are recovering from amputations, including a young woman, a young woman named Adrian Haslet-Davis. The second explosion destroyed her left foot. Doctors had to amputate her leg to about four or five inches below the knee.
Adrianne is a dance instructor. She says dancing is her life. She can't imagine not being able to dance. I met her in the hospital yesterday. She says she will dance again. She's determined to do that and she's getting started right away. Tonight, we want to play you more of my interview with Adrianne. It starts with her telling what she and her husband, Air Force Captain Adam Davis, who was also wounded, did to save themselves just after the explosion.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ADRIANNE HASLET-DAVIS, INJURED IN BOMBING: I crawled on my elbows to try to get into one of the nearest businesses. I believe it was Forum? I could be wrong on the name. And I looked at a couple of people and looked up and said, "Can you help me? Can you help me?" I was just covered in blood. A couple of people were just in a state of shock and just looked at me like, "Oh, my gosh" and ran the other direction. I don't believe that they were ill -- ill-intended. I just think that they were just in shock. And then I grabbed the door open with my elbow and called in to Forum dragging blood and asked a couple people for help and finally received it.
COOPER: How long were you there for?
HASLET-DAVIS: We were there -- it seems like forever.
ADAM DAVIS, HUSBAND: My guess would have been five-ten minutes.
HASLET-DAVIS: Yes, it could be 10 to 15. It's hard to tell. It seems like it crawls by. We definitely had some people there. And I just kept saying tighter and tighter. The pain was unbearable. I was asking for whisky or yelling at people, asking for whisky or vodka. Because we were in a bar, and I thought...
COOPER: Was that the reason you crawled into the bar?
HASLET-DAVIS: Yes, it is, actually. I just thought, well, I may as well get a drink now.
COOPER: Did people bring you whiskey?
HASLET-DAVIS: No, they didn't. But I thought, you know, this was going to be a long process. I knew that there were bombs going off. I didn't know if there were more; I didn't hear them, but I wasn't paying attention. I didn't know if there were more. I thought, "I'm going to be here forever. We're going to be here forever." I'm losing all this blood because it was the middle of the marathon. It would -- there were bombs going off. There were probably hundreds of thousands of people hurt. And I didn't think that they would get to us as fast as they did.
And before we knew it, a doctor came pushing his way through the crowd. He was dressed in civilian clothes and said, "I'm a doctor, I'm a doctor." And he immediately tied the tourniquet tight enough that I lost feeling in my leg, which I'm still thankful for.
COOPER: Tying these tourniquets on the scene in that bar, that probably saved you.
HASLET-DAVIS: Probably did. Yes. I would love to find those guys that were there that helped. I'm grateful to Adam for helping, obviously. I thanked him a lot, but I'd love to find those other people that I could say thank you to.
COOPER: You didn't know who they were?
HASLET-DAVIS: No, not sure; just good Samaritans.
COOPER: At what point -- I know your mom and dad were there, and you woke up.
HASLET-DAVIS: Yes.
COOPER: It was the next day? HASLET-DAVIS: They were there the next day when I woke up. When I went into the surgery, I still thought that they could save my foot. I could move my toes. I could feel them touching my toes. They said, "Wiggle your toe. Can you feel your foot?" I could still do it. So I thought that, in my forever optimism and thinking positive, that I would still have my foot. And I woke up, and I didn't.
COOPER: Do you still feel your foot?
HASLET-DAVIS: I do. Not right this second, but I do. When I have a sheet over it, I can feel that feeling of the sheet on top of your toes. I still have phantom itch, which is weird. I'm thinking I can scratch it.
COOPER: You're determined to dance again?
HASLET-DAVIS: I am.
COOPER: What's your favorite dance?
HASLET-DAVIS: It's hard to say. It's like saying what your favorite song is. It's like on Sunday mornings, I want like a waltz or the foxtrot or something. On Saturday nights I want the cha-cha or mambo. Or it depends. I do them all. So...
COOPER: What's the first dance you want to do?
HASLET-DAVIS: The Venus Waltz.
COOPER: The Venus Waltz?
HASLET-DAVIS: Yes. It's one of tougher ones, but it's fast and it's beautiful, and it's a wonderful, wonderful dance.
COOPER: How are you coping with this new reality?
HASLET-DAVIS: You know, it's minute-by-minute. Overall, I look at the challenge. I look at this as someone trained to stop me from realizing my dreams. And I thought that ballroom dancing was something that I was never going to do in dance. It just seems like it was a tough arena to be in. And I've conquered that. And I'm not ready to stop.
And so I feel like somebody has come along and said, "Oh, we're not going to let you do that anymore." And now can -- I'm going to prove them wrong.
So I take it day by day. I think it's -- I have moments where I just throw water bottles across the room and throw my walker and I just get angry and mad that someone did this to me and someone did this to Adam. And that I won't be able to have the same dancing, same movements that I had before. And dressing takes longer, and showers take longer. And I get angry. I definitely get angry. But I try and stay on the positive side.
(END VIDEOTAPE) COOPER: Just an amazing young woman. A Web site is set up to help Adrianne achieve her dream. She's going to need a prosthetic device. They're very expensive. You can find out how to help her as well as many others in need in Boston on our Web site at AC360.com. We have links to a lot of different groups. And also to the Web site that her family has set up to help her raise money.
Now, over the past eight days, we've seen just such incredible examples of resilience. "Boston Strong" has become the shorthand for it, but that strength will no doubt be tested many times in the days and months ahead.
I'm joined by the Rev. Liz Walker of Roxbury Presbyterian Church and a former longtime anchor of Boston's WBZ-TV. She also has deep ties to the city.
You know, you see somebody like Adrianne. And she says, you know, just days after the bombing, she says she's excited about the challenge of this new phase in her life.
REV. LIZ WALKER, ROXBURY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: She's amazing. She's inspirational. And that's the kind of spirit that gets the rest of us. Here's a woman who's been right in the midst of the hell, and she's surviving and not only surviving but taking on the challenge. I -- that's extraordinary.
COOPER: She's about to start rehab already. And she's already practicing walking down the halls. We've seen this time and again. And you've traveled in Sudan. You've traveled around the world. You've reported a lot of stories where people -- you see people at their worst. But you also see people at their best; in the midst of horror and pain, you find compassion and kindness.
WALKER: It's something about the human spirit. I think that's why I left television news and got into spirituality and religion, Anderson.
Because there's something about the human spirit that ascends; it wants to go up, that wants to reach up. And you see stories like this in the middle of death, where people are living and in the middle of trauma where people are striving. I don't know exactly what that is, but I think it's in all of us. And when you see something like that, she will help all of us here.
COOPER: People are saying to me, friends of mine, when I come back from a place, "Wow, it must be so hard to be there to see all that."
And I say, "Actually, it's harder to be back here." Because when you're in a place like Boston this week or overseas somewhere, where -- Haiti after the earthquake, people are loving each other. And people are talking about real things. They're looking you in the eye, and they're shaking your hand hard and they're hugging you. And --and they're talking about life and death. And they're talking about real -- nothing is fake.
WALKER: Nothing is fake.
COOPER: And I feel that in Boston this week. Nothing is fake. Everything -- people are bound together. And I wish -- I wish it was like that all the time.
WALKER: I know. I worked in Sudan for 12 years, as you know. And working with people who have nothing. Whose lives are just -- just a fight every day to survive but who have relationships that are real. And I think it's because they have nothing else.
COOPER: Right.
WALKER: If you know what I mean.
COOPER: Yes.
WALKER: I think sometimes we have the advantage of so much that we're distracted about what real is.
COOPER: Yes.
WALKER: And I think -- I don't know if we can manage this all the time, but it would be really good to try to work on having this attitude, despite it all.
COOPER: Yes.
WALKER: To remember this kind of stuff.
COOPER: To have been here in the wake of all of this and to have seen the compassion, I feel it's a blessing, for me. And I think everybody here feels the sense of Boston Strong. It's a slogan, but it's very real.
WALKER: It's very real. I mean, this city has been struck, and the people have been struck, but I think that people are holding together. People are -- are going to get through this together as a community. It will be interesting to see how long before we get back to where we were. Maybe we won't. Maybe this will change us forever. You know, the more these kind of horror situations happen. Evil hits, but good rises up.
COOPER: I kind of don't even want to go home. I want to stay here because I kind of want to make the -- I want to, you know, be part of this. It really is special.
WALKER: Well, I think you are a part of it, because you're doing these kind of stories and I think that's important. And people need to see this. They need to see that young woman.
COOPER: She's amazing.
WALKER: That was wonderful.
COOPER: Thank you so much.
WALKER: Thank you, Anderson. OK, God bless.
COOPER: The Reverend Liz Walker.
It's been a time of healing not only here in Boston, but also in the Texas of West where I was last week, also. The fertilizer plant there exploded last week, killing 14 people. An incredible story next. We're going to introduce you to a man who was an eyewitness to both tragedies. He was here in Boston and then back in West for the explosion there. We'll explain why ahead.
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COOPER: We've been talking about amazing people. Now, an amazing story with two settings: here, in Boston and in the Texas town of west where a fire and explosion at a fertilizer plant killed 14 people. You're looking at exclusive new pictures from the scene, by the way. Incredibly, and coincidentally, one man witnessed both this and the tragedy in Boston. Gary Tuchman has that story.
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GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Joe and Amy Berti look at this past week of disasters in Boston and West, Texas, from a very different vantage point than others. So unique, it's hard to even contemplate. They also look back with a deep sense of gratitude.
JOE BERTI, RAN BOSTON MARATHON: We just feel blessed that we're both OK and we're able to be sitting her, talking to you today.
TUCHMAN: Joe Berti's story begins last Monday in Boston. The Austin, Texas, resident was running his first marathon for a charity called Champions for Children. This picture of him was taken at the finish line. Just seconds after he crossed.
J. BERTI: Amy was 10 feet from the first explosion.
TUCHMAN: His wife, Amy, was so very close. But not injured.
AMY BERTI, SURVIVED BOMBING: That doesn't seem to make any sense when the person who was standing beside me in Boston was so maimed.
TUCHMAN: Meanwhile, Amy had no idea where her husband was and grew panicked when she couldn't reach him on his cell.
A. BERTI: For an hour, it was the worst hour of my life. I didn't know if he was dead or alive.
TUCHMAN: Amy went back to their hotel.
A. BERTI: All the way up the elevator, I thought dear Lord, just let him be there when I get there. And I opened the door to our hotel room and thank God, there he was.
TUCHMAN: Tell me how it felt when you saw her.
J. BERTI: Incredible. We were both very happy that we had found each other. The not knowing was the worst thing and not getting any response.
TUCHMAN: Joe and Amy flew back to Texas on Tuesday to reunite with their children. On the next day, Wednesday, Joe had a business trip, so he drove from Austin to Dallas. After a few hours there, he started heading back home. And to get back to Austin, you have to drive on the interstate through this town, the town of West, Texas.
(voice-over): Joe was minutes away from the West fertilizer plant when he was stunned to see huge plumes of smoke. He pulled his car over.
J. BERTI: Right in the middle of the black smoke came a giant explosion. I saw a fire ball and then I saw a giant cloud of smoke. It was so big and it was so loud. It shook my car when it was driving. I was worried about stuff falling out of the sky, so I kept looking up. And I heard something hit the side of my car. So I quickly jumped out and took a picture.
TUCHMAN (on camera): You must be thinking to yourself, "I just went through this on Monday."
J. BERTI: Yes, the first thought was I can't believe this. And what is it? You know, is it another terrorist attack? Is it a bomb? Is it -- what is it, this explosion? It was so massive.
TUCHMAN: And how old are you?
J. BERTI: Forty-three.
TUCHMAN: In 43 years, have you ever been near a bomb or an explosion before?
J. BERTI: No, I've never seen an explosion.
TUCHMAN: And then it happened twice in three days.
J. BERTI: Yes.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Joe got back in his car. And, in a jittery voice, called his wife, Amy, back at home.
J. BERTI: I said, "You'll never believe this. But I've seen another explosion" and started to describe it to her. And her first reaction was "just get home."
TUCHMAN: And that Joe did, returning home to a wife and children who want him to stick around for a while.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Austin, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: A very lucky man. We'll be right back.
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COOPER: That does it for us. Thanks very much for watching. "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.
