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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Remembering The Pulse Nightclub Victims; Vigils Tonight To Honor The Orlando Victims; FBI "Highly Confident" Gunman Was Self- Radicalized; Clinton And Trump On Shooting Massacre; I: No Sign Gunman Was Part Of Terror Network; Guns Used In Terror Attack Purchased Legally; FBI: Terrorist Interviewed Three Times In Prior Cases. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired June 13, 2016 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:12] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Erin, thanks very much.
Good evening, everyone. Thanks for joining us.
We begin tonight with their names, the names of the 48 out of 49 people that have so far been identified. Victims of the deadliest mass shooting in American history, a massacre that happened in a gay nightclub just a block from where I'm standing just down that road two nights ago.
There is one name I want to tell you that you will not hear in the broadcast tonight, one picture of a person you won't see. We will not say the gunman's name or show his photographer. It has been shown far too much already. Over the next two hours, we will certainly tell you about the investigation, all the latest, and what we know about drove the shooter to do the unthinkable. But in the next two hours, we want to try to keep the focus where it belongs, on people whose lives were cut short. And we are going to start by honoring them.
There are more than a list of names. They are a people who loved and were loved. There are people with families, with friends, and dreams. And the truth is we don't know much about some of them. We want you to hear their names in a little bit about who they were.
Edward Sotomayor Jr., he worked in a travel agency that cater to the gay community. His family says he was witty, charming. And he always left things better than he found them. He was 34 years old.
Stanley Almodovar III. He was a pharmacy technician. It was last video that we saw of him laughing. It was post on social media. It showed him laughing and singing on the way to that nightclub. He was just 23.
Luis Omar Ocasio-Capo. He was a dancer and a barista. He was just 20 years old.
Luis Vielma who worked at that Harry Potter ride at universal Orlando. He was just 22.
Juan Ramon Guerrero. His cousin said Juan came out to his family just this year, was afraid they might not accept him but they did and embraced his boyfriend as well. He was 22.
Christopher Andrew Lenonen, known as Drew. He was Juan's boyfriend. And his mom says he established the gay straight alliance at his high school. He was 32 years old.
Eric Ivan Ortiz-Rivera. A friend says he was always willing to help everybody and sacrificed a lot for his family. He was 36.
Peter O. Gonzales Cruz worked at a UPS store, memorized apparently all of the regular customers' names. He can make anyone smile, his friend said. He was just 22.
Kimberly KJ Morris moved from Hawaii to Florida just a few months ago to help her mother and grandmother. She was a bouncer at Paul's nightclub. She was 37.
Eddie Justice was an accountant who texted his mother from the club. Texted his mother saying mommy, I love you. He was 30.
Enrique Rios. A friend says he was cool and a funny dude who could tell people don't let the world hold you back from your dreams. He was 25.
Anthony Luis, Laoreanodisla. A talented dancer born in Puerto Rico. He was 25.
Jonathan Antonio Vega who worked for Telemundo first in Puerto Rico and then in Orlando. He was just about to turn 25.
Cory James Connell, the student at Valencia community college and hoped to become a firefighter. He was 21.
Mercedes Marisol Flores. Her father says she was a happy girl with so many dreams. She was 26.
Deonka Deidra Drayton. Her family called her Didi. She was a bartender at Pulse. She was just 32.
Miguel Angel Honorato manage a Mexican restaurant. A colleague says he was an excellent boss and a good friend. He was 30.
Jason Benjamin Josaphat, student at southern technical college, who were faculty member. Calls in a sweet kid with a bright future. He was 19.
Daryl Roman Burt II was a financial aid officer at (INAUDIBLE) university. He was passionate about volunteer work. He was 29.
Jean Carlos Mendez Perez was a perfume salesman, apparently hit the gym almost every day and his friends say he was always happy. HE was 35.
Perez' longtime partner Luis Daniel-Wilson Leon grew up in a small town in Puerto Rico and was a shoe store manager. He was 37. They died together.
Franky Jimmy DeJesus Velazquez, a professional dancer, specializing in a traditional folk dance. He is native Puerto Rico. He was 50.
Amanda Alvear, she was nursing student at university of south Florida, with 25.
Martin Benitez Torrez. He was a college student at Puerto Rico visiting family in Orlando. He was 33.
Juan Chavez-Martinez. His coworker said at a hotel say he was a kind, a loving person. He was just 25.
Gerald Arthur Wright, worked at Disneyworld. Co-worker said he was wonderful with guests. He was always smiling. He was 31.
Leroy Valentin Fernandez work for leasing apartments. A coworker said he sang Adele in the office until they couldn't take it anymore. He was 25.
Tevin Eugene Crosby. Dedicated hard working business owner from Michigan. HE was just 25.
Brenda Lee Marquez McCool. She had 11 kids, beat cancer twice and also went dancing at Pulse with her gay son. She supported him that much. She was 49. Her son survived the shooting.
Angel L. Candellaro-Padro recently moved to Orlando. He was new here and he just started a new job as a technician at the Florida Retina Institute. He was 28.
Gilberto Ramon Silva-Menendez was studying a healthcare management. His family says that he was the light and life of all family gatherings. She was 25.
Javier Jorge-Reyes was a salesman at Gucci. He was always positive. He was humble, a lovely friend. He was 40.
Shane Evan Tomlinson was a gifted singer who performed at weddings and clubs. He was 33.
Simon Adrian Carrillo Fernandez, worked at McDonald's where brought in birthday cakes for his co-workers, and just got back from a trip to Niagara Falls with his partner. He was 31.
Oscar A. Aracena-Montero was the Simon's partner. He was 26. They also died together.
(INAUDIBLE). Ayala worked in a blood donation center, was a Puerto Rican native. Loved to dance. He was 33 years old.
Frank Hernandez, he worked at A Calvin Klein store, was a great brother, and haven't loved, had no gender tattooed on his arm. He was 27.
Xavier Emanuel Sorano (ph) was a dancer described as hardworking and friendly dancer, proud of his son. He was 33.
Akyra Monei Murray (ph), he recently graduated from high school, was planning to go to university Mercy University (ph) and play basketball. She was just 18.
And Christopher Joseph San Feliz worked at a bank, said to be the most positive guy around. HE was just 24 years old.
Luis Daniel Conde was a makeup artist, (INAUDIBLE) with his partner. He was 39.
(INAUDIBLE) Velazquez. He was partner to Luis. He was 37.
Antonio Devon Brown, was a captain in the U.S. army reserve, graduate of Florida A&M. He was 29.
Alejandra Barrios Martinez (ph) was 21.
(INAUDIBLE) was 32.
Jean Nieves Rodriguez, just 27. We don't have pictures of these.
Phil Marie Rodriguez Sullivan was 24.
And Paul Torrel henry was 41 years old.
We think it is important that you hear their names.
There are other people's stories to tell tonight. There are Stories of survival. I spent much of the day talking to people that survived, people who have lost partners and loved ones.
Joshua Lewis, Richard Aiken were at Pulse Saturday night. Joshua actually managed to get out of the club while his friend Richard was held hostage in a bathroom stall with several other people and could hear the shooter talking. The two friends were texting through the ordeal. I spoke to them both a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[20:08:20] COOPER: You are in the bathroom, are you?
RICHARD AIKEN, ORLANDO SHOOTING SURVIVOR: We are in the stall. I was inside the handicap part. So it was basically at the first part of the bathroom which is the entrance, then the urinals, the stink, then you have the big handicap. And that's where I was at. And then we started hearing pop, pop, pop. And then me and my best friend we went in the stall.
COOPER: Do you know it was gunshots?
AIKEN: I knew it was gunshot only because I fired weapons before, so I can distinguish between, you know, this music and actual gunshots. So my best friend Kevin, he was just saying like is this for real, is somebody really shooting. And lie we just -- people kept coming inside the bathroom, like running inside. And you know, made us kind of crammed in there. I got on the floor. We got on the floor and people just came, just kept coming in. And pretty much the got on top of me.
COOPER: How many people were in there?
AIKEN: There were nine of us in there. It was nine of us in there. We were just all in there and crammed up. And my best friend, he was just at the door, trying to see if the gunman was coming. And obviously when the man -- gunman came I the entrance, he fire some shots. My best friend Tevin, he closed the door.
COOPER: So the door to the bathroom was open.
AIKEN: Yes. The main entrance of the bathroom door is open. But the stall that we were in had a door. And the lock was broke. The gunman could still come in, he has a gun, so could still come in. But once he came in the bathroom, fired some shots. I'm not sure --.
COOPER: So how long had the shooting been going on before you have the gunman actually came to the bathroom.
[20:10:02] AIKEN: So since we was in the bathroom, was getting ready to walk out, there were like two sets of rapid, five rapid gunshots, and two different sets. So it was pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, and then that's when we saw it. They are wondering, you know, is this for real, and people continued to come in. People kept coming in. We kept this hearing this continuously rapidly gunfire and it got closer and closer.
COOPER: You could actually hear the gunfire getting closer?
AIKEN: Yes, getting closer. When the guy came in, he fired some shots. I want to say I am not 100 percent sure, that's when maybe that's when Tevin got shot. My best friend. Because when he came in, Obviously, Tevin, he heard it shot the door and the guy fired some shots. People was on the other side of the stall that wasn't in with us, I know that they got hit.
COOPER: While you're in the stall, when did you start to texting Joshua?
AIKEN: I called my mom first to tell her what was going on.
AIKEN: Before the gunman came to the bathroom.
AIKEN: Right. Before he came in the bathroom, and while he was in there, I was on the phone with my mom telling her everything that was going on. My phone was at 20 percent. I didn't want to be without a phone. So I continued to text her through the whole time.
COOPER: What were you saying to her?
AIKEN: I was just telling her that, you know, I am at the - the guy, you know, there shooting and I really wanted for her to pray. And I kept telling her to pray with me. And she started saying some prayers. And after the prayer told her I wanted to get off the phone, and I would text her. So we just texted the remaining of the night. But when the gunman came inside the bathroom, people's phone was going off, they will do ringing, texting, the gunman said please, no texting, no talking on the phone. COOPER: So he was saying that to everybody.
AIKEN: He was telling please no texting, no talking. He was a calm person.
COOPER: He wasn't yelling.
AIKEN: Right. He wasn't yelling or screaming or, you know, being combative with anyone, just say it, you know, please no texting, no talking.
COOPER: Did he actually say please?
AIKEN: Yes. Please no texting, no talking. People's phones were going off ringing. At that point he would say whose phone is it, give me the phone, and they would slide it under the door.
COOPER: So could you see actually him at this point or he is outside the stall.
AIKEN: We couldn't see him because he never actually came inside. And if he did, I couldn't see because my head, I am turned around with my head, you know, to the wall so I didn't see anything. And people kind of on top of me, so I wasn't really trying to look. I was pretty much hiding. But he was saying like just give me the phones whenever they ring. They would give him the phone, at one point I could hear him reloading his weapon. I could hear him dropping the bullets, picking them back up, and reloading his clip to his weapon. At one point he did get on the phone, was speaking to obviously the police. He called 911, that I was told.
COOPER: But you didn't hear him talk to 911.
AIKEN: I did hear. My mother told me later that he actually called 911 because I thought someone called him. But my mom told me later he called 911.
COOPER: So you heard him talking to authorities, but you didn't know he had called 911.
AIKEN: Right. So I heard him talking to people. I was talking to the people and he was saying his name was Omar. I forgot his last name, that he pledged allegiance to ISIS. And that --.
COOPER: You heard that.
AIKEN: Yes. That he pledges allegiance to ISIS. And that we were bombing his people. That we need to stop bombing his people. After the telephone call he hung up. He told everyone in the stall that he had no problem with black people. He had no problem with black people and he referenced the South Carolina shooting at the church.
COOPER: He talked about that.
AIKEN: Yes.
COOPER: Do you remember what he said?
AIKEN: He didn't say much about it. He just said do you remember the shooting in South Carolina at the church? He said I don't have a problem with black people and that was the end of the subject. He did say there are four of us left. There were four of us left, and they were positioned north, east, south locations like snipers. That there was four of us left. And I text that to him. I am like get this to his people like now, and let them know exactly where we are.
COOPER: So the gunmen said there were four of --.
AIKEN: Four of them left.
COOPER: Four survivors?
AIKEN: Four of them left.
COOPER: So he was acting as if there were more people.
AIKEN: There were more people. Yes. Yes. He did say something about a vest like he had like he was strapped with a vest, and then, you know, I'm just like oh, my God.
COOPER: What do you want people to know?
JOSHUA LEWIS, ORLANDO SHOOTING SURVIVOR: You never know (INAUDIBLE) petty arguments, situations where people, lot of families go a long time without speaking to people, and when things like this happen, you regret I stopped talking to them because this happened. You feel bad because you have a grudge that you shouldn't have held, you should always show love.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[20:15:25] COOPER: Well sources, including the hometown newspaper here, the "Orlando Sentinel" are nor reporting that say this was not the shooter's first time at the Pulse nightclub. The sentinel reports that at least four regular customers had seen him there before. One of them said he would sit in the corner by himself drinking, sometimes get very drunk, loud, and belligerent. There is also new reporting tonight from the "L.A. Times."
And joining me now on the phone is "L.A. Times" reporter Molly Hennessy Fiske.
Molly, thanks for joining us. What are you learning about this gunman, this killer?
MOLLY HENNESSY-FISKE, REPORTER, L.A. TIMES (on the phone): Thanks for having me. So I spoke with Kevin West who said that he had been chatting with me and his believed was the shooter for months or about a year off and on, he said the man has contacted him looking for clubs to go out. So he contacted him on a dating app, a gay dating app and was looking for places to hang out. But they hadn't met in person until the night of the shooting.
COOPER: So they actually met at the club that night?
HENNESSY-FISKE: That's what Kevin West told me he said. He was dropping a friend off there and he said his friend is among those killed in the shooting. As he was dropping his friend off, he looked out, and he saw a man he believed was the gunman. Looked at him, he said hey, the guy said hey back, and as he said appeared to recognize him. And then across the street, and entered the nightclub.
COOPER: And is your understanding, you say he was on the gay dating or chat app on and off for a year, was it your understanding he was actually trying to meet up with people in order to date them or have some sort of relationship with them or was he trying to kind of scope out, you know, gay bars, understand how gay bars work more to commit this act, do we know?
HENNESSY-FISKE: Well, the man I talked to said it wasn't clear to him. He said that the man who he was chatting with he believes was the shooter didn't mention having a wife or a child and repeatedly said that he wanted to meet in person, that he wanted to meet up, and Kevin, the guy I was talking to just sort of impatient with him and said quote "you know, I am not going to sit around waiting for you."
And he would sort of track the guy he was chatting with. You can track people through this app and see how far away they are. And he said sometimes he was right in downtown Orlando, so he could tell if the guy was there, but he said Kevin, the guy I talked to said he goes to Pulse. He is a regular there. Has friends there, and he had never actually seen him there, although the Orlando Sentinel as reported other people have said they did see him there and heard him making comments.
COOPER: Right. I'm still not clear from the "Orlando Sentinel" report, Molly, and maybe you can clarify this, whether he was going - if he went repeatedly to Pulse before, whether that was to scope out, you know, what it was like, where he might actually commit this kind of a crime or if there were some other reason he was going there to actually meet people because he was had feelings or whatever.
HENNESSY-FISKE: I think that's still unclear, Anderson. I mean, Kevin was telling me that it seemed like he did want to meet him. Kevin said the pictures that he posted on the app were not -- that Kevin has posted were not provocative, you know, pictures, per se, that it was clear that, you know, he is gay and it is a gay club and so that, you know, the man he believes was a shooter was contacting him trying to find out where he hung out, which would be, you know, a gay club that he told him about.
COOPER: Yes. Molly Hennessy-Fiske, I appreciate your reporting. I appreciate you talking with us.
Again, we are trying to piece together the pieces of what we know at this point.
Coming up, more survivor stories as we also honor and remember others those who helped saved others inside that club and those who lost their lives. Next, we are going to take you through what we know about how the
scene unfolded inside the nightclub, a tragic story told through text messages and social media. We will also tell you what we know about the shooter and the new information we are just getting about his visits to Disneyworld before the shooting.
You're looking right now at pictures, we are about to show pictures from a vigil going on right now that starts stone wall in New York City. We will be right back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our final speaker before we go into the final part of our night is no stranger to the LGBT community.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:23:07] COOPER: Welcome back. A horrific scene played out at the Pulse nightclub here in Orlando. A time line has begun to emerge. The story told by text messages, by social media, as the club sent out a warning and the people inside communicated with love ones outside or called up their mothers and their fathers.
Randi Kaye tonight takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The online warning came in the form of a message posted on Facebook by Pulse nightclub. Everyone get out and keep running. But that was too late for some.
Inside one of the club's bathrooms, a heartbreaking conversation had started to unfold. 30-year-old Eddie Justice was trapped and desperately texting his mother.
2:06 a.m., mommy, I love you. In club, a shooting.
At his mommy, Mina Justice's messages back. You, OK?
2:07 a.m., Eddie responds, trapped in bathroom. Pulse downtown. Call police.
One minute later, three terrifying words, I'm going to die.
His mother calls 911. Then more text messages. He is coming, Eddie texts, then again, I'm going to die.
She asked her son if anyone was hurt. Lots. Yes.
He texted back at 2:42 a.m., then still here in the bathroom. He has us. They need to come get us.
At 2:49 a.m., hurry. He is in the bathroom with us.
She asked is the man in the bathroom with you?
His last response came at 2:50 a.m. He is a terror. Then, yes.
Eddie Justice died in the nightclub bathroom.
While Eddie was texting for help, another man Brandon Wolf was tweeting.
2:17 a.m.. OMG, shooting at Pulse. We hid in the bathroom and we can't find our friends.
He later tweeted he made a run for the door. Neither of his two friends survived.
The calls for help kept coming. This woman who didn't want to be identified got text messages from her daughter and two nieces who were inside the club. Her daughter had been shot in the arm.
[20:25:10] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please come and get us. Please come and get us now. They're shooting.
KAYE: 25-year-old Amanda Alvear was snap chatting when the gunfire started. A friend captured Alvear's snap chat video and posted it on Facebook. What you're about to hear in the background is the gunman's rapid fire. Amanda did not survive.
Jeff Rodriguez texted his brother while the shooter was firing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got shot. I am bleeding out. I think I am dying. I love you guys. Tell mom and dad and everyone how much I love them.
KAYE: His brother's fate remains unclear, even the shootout between the suspect and police was posted on Facebook.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God. They're all shooting back and forth.
KAYE: The poster, Anthony Torres, wrote online people are screaming that people are dead, adding crazy.
At 5:53 a.m., Orlando police tweet confirmation the attack was over. Pulse shooting, the shooter inside the club is dead.
Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Our justice correspondent Pamela Brown joins me now with the latest on the investigation.
So where do things stand? What do we know?
PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Investigators have already gone through more than 100 leads, Anderson. And there's still a lot of work to be done. But the initial indications are that this gunman actually did do some reconnaissance, scoping out some possible sites leading up to the mass shooting. We know according to "Orlando Sentinel" that he visited this nightclub a dozen times. And does appear that perhaps he was looking at other areas. Some of these tips coming in are people saying that they saw him around town, different places. Well, of course, the FBI has to corroborate that.
We know back in April that the gunman visited Disneyworld with his family, but at this stage it is unclear if he was casing or just a family trip.
COOPER: One of the survivors I talked to heard him on the phone apparently talking to 911, pledging support to ISIS. What's known about that? Because the FBI had investigated him before. They had interviewed him previously.
BROWN: That's right. And there was conflicting signals to investigators. Because not only did he pledge allegiance to ISIS but he also did to al-Nusra front which is ISIS' enemy. And also to the Tsarnaev brothers, the Boston bombings. So, sort of contradictory statements here over the phone. It is unclear what exactly which terrorist group he aligned with most. But we know about --.
COOPER: And we don't know whether there were actual connections to one of these radical jihadist groups or if it was just aspirational that he just saying he was connected.
BROWN: Right. And we know some of the radicalization, the investigators believed came online, that would suggest that this was, you know, self-radicalization at the very least.
Now, at this point, we are told that there is no indication there was direction by any terrorist group. But of course, it is so early. They don't have confirmation of that. But I will say in 2013 they looked at him, because he talked about familiar associations with Al- Qaeda to his co-workers. That set up alarm bell. The FBI looked in to those comment. They interviewed him twice. He said he did actually make those comments but that he said it because his co- workers were taunting him because he was Muslim. And of course, it didn't pan out. It wasn't true. And so the FBI felt like there was no derogatory information. Closed that case. At that point he was taken off the watch list. The next year he was interviewed in a case surrounding an American suicide bomber. He wasn't the subject but he was interviewed again.
COOPER: Right. There was a guy who blew himself up, I guess, in Syria who was actually from this area, went to the same mosque.
BROWN: It was the same mosque like they had some interaction along the way. But ultimately the FBI found that they didn't have a substantive relationship. But he did mention him, Abu-Salha (ph), in that call to 911 during the whole shooting. And so, of course, investigators want to know what their connection was. Did they miss something? I mean, that is the big part of the story, too, whether back then in 2013 or 2014, if they should have uncovered something or if his radicalization really did happened after that and he was just under the radar as we have seen him from any other cases.
COOPER: All right, Pamela will continue to work her sources. Thanks very much, Pamela Brown.
Just ahead, after the shooting it stop, a desperate rush to save the wounded. Dozens of victims were taken to a trauma center, just a block from a massacre. Surgeons have been working nonstop to save lives. What they faced in the early hours next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:33:21] COOPER: We're coming to you tonight from Orlando, we're about a block away from Pulse, popular gay nightclub where 49 people were murdered in cold blood early Sunday morning. As we've said, the club was packed when the killer went inside before police actually killed him.
He shot nearly one of every three people inside the nightclub. The wounded were rushed to nearby hospitals, including Orlando Regional Medical Center, which is a level one trauma center.
Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and his team got exclusive access inside the hospital where staffs have been working around the clock to try to keep survivors alive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. CHADWICK SMITH, ORLANDO REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER: He said that there was a gunshot wound coming in, and I said there were maybe a few more, the initial report was 20 gunshot wounds that are coming our way and one patient came in, another patient came in, and then I realized this was not a drill.
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Trauma surgeon Smith, Cheatham, Abraham had been operating almost nonstop since the shooting at Pulse Nightclub.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The rear up to six rooms within about in about 90 minutes, they 44 gunshot wounds victims come in all within a space of an hour and a half, two hours. Certainly exceeded anything that we've ever seen before.
GUPTA: 26 operations were performed in the first few hours. Injuries so devastating one patient alone requiring four separate operations. 90 units of blood and counting.
The patients were being wheeled into the area, they had about a dozen people surrounding them, physicians, and nurses, pharmacists, anybody who could lend a hand, they'd make a decision really quickly in terms of was the patient going to survive, or this patient going to need surgery, and how quickly was that operation going to be necessary. How much blood was the patient going to get.
[20:35:06] This imagine 44 patients just within a short time coming in, bed after bed after bed and these doctors having to make those decisions. That's what's been going here for quite some time. They finally feel like they've gotten a handle on the situation, but they still have many, many patients upstairs that need their care.
And then in the midst of all that, a rumor that the hospital had become a target.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is ORMC, we have the shooter currently inside ORMC. We cannot take it anymore, we're on lockdown.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We actually barricaded the two doors to our trauma bay with x-ray machines and went back to focusing on the patients.
GUPTA: Patients, many of whom were still conscious, trying desperately to communicate until the very end.
SMITH: Several people asked if they were going to die where their friends were, where their loved ones were, and, you know, just everybody kind of came together, tried to reassure them at the same time. There were some patients unfortunately that due to their injuries, you know, they were unable to be saved and we tried to make them as comfortable as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Sanjay Gupta joins us. Now, I mean in the video, we saw people being loaded into pickups that were just driving by to get them to the hospital as quick as possible.
GUPTA: You know, people don't realize that the level one trauma center, only one in this particular area, just about a couple of blocks from this particular nightclub. So, you know, people literally walking down the street, going into just regular citizen vehicles. Police officers throwing them in their car to get over there. I think that made a big difference in terms of speed of care of us.
COOPER: And the kind of entries, I mean they require heavy attention from medical personnel.
GUPTA: You know, it's interesting, Anderson, all of these various with cover now San Bernardino, Rustberg, Oregon, obviously Newtown, they do these drills now, these hospitals, so they have been doing drills at the hospital I work trying to plan for mass casualty.
But the doctors here and every other doctor we've spoken to says, look it's hard to practice for something like this in part because you have patients with so many injuries, so many.
COOPER: So -- I mean if there was an AR-15 a gun like or -- and the bullet enters, then the bullet actually spins once its inside and causes massive injuries inside.
GUPTA: And yeah -- and it is unpredictable, how is going to behave, so sometimes it will go through and through, sometimes it actually spins, so it enters one part of the body but causes damages and then entirely different part of the body, and you have, that's an investigation. So, you triage and 44 patients simultaneously ...
COOPER: Right.
GUPTA: ... looks like the injury is over here but in fact it's way up here. So.
COOPER: I talked -- I interviewed a guy, and we're going to play that later on in the broadcast, who got shot twice, but have four wounds because the bullets came in and entered through different areas, and the very strange sort of trajectories just as, as you said. It's incredible the work that doctors do. And Sanjay thank you very much.
Up next, more about what we know about the shooter, the latest information that we have. The, FBI gathering new information. You're also -- we're going to show you some live pictures right now from a vigil in Orlando, Florida happening right now.
Also, let show you what's happening in New York, the Stonewall Inn, many site that as the site of the modern day fight for equality for gays and lesbians in this country. A rally of vigil taking place right now in New York City.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You and me. Louis Omar Oasio O'cafo (ph).
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:42:19] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, 35 years old
COOPER: Reading of the names of the dead outside the Stonewall Inn in New York, live pictures.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gilberto Ramon Silva Menendez, 25 years old
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Simon Adrian Carillo Fernandez, 31 years old.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oscar A. Aracena-Montero, 26 years old.
COOPER: As I mentioned at the top of this broadcast, we are not saying the name of the shooter or showing his picture, others will, others have and will continue to, but we won't. The focus is on those who are killed and injured, those who survived as well.
We do want to update you on what we're learning about the shooter, the Orlando Sentinel, the "L.A. Times" are both reporting tonight that this was not the first time the shooter was at Pulse Nightclub. They say regulars had seen him there before.
The "Times" also reports the shooter had used a gay chat and dating app or the several of them perhaps messaging a Pulse Nightclub regular on and off for a year.
Drew Griffin has more on what we know about this killer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: It was 2007, the shooter here in the back row in a baseball cap was attending the Indian River State College law enforcement training academy and about to attend a post practice barbecue. That's when he took one look at all the meat being grilled and walked away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of the guys, you know, said oh, it's because probably a religious thing. And so I said, "What are you, a Muslim?" And he says, you know, "Yeah." And I said, "OK." And I, you know, and we just left it at that, you know. He didn't seem mad. He turned around and, you know, walked away, didn't talk to anybody, kind of sat by himself.
GRIFFIN: According to this fellow student who does not want us to use his name, it was the first time anyone new the shooter was even a Muslim. A day later he says, the shooter failed to show up for class, instead administrators came and he says chastised the academy cadets for teasing someone about religion.
Several days later he says, the shooter did pull up to the academy parking lot and was met immediately by administrators before he could even leave his car, as if he says school officials were waiting for him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His car comes in the parking lot and like they rush his car. We didn't see him or hear from him after that incident, so we have no idea of what happened.
GRIFFIN: Details of what happen next have not been confirmed by the school, but a source tells CNN, the Orlando shooter for some reason was removed from the class and around the same time fired from his job at the Florida Department of Corrections.
[20:45:06] One thing we do know before he left or was kicked out of the school, the shooter had extensive training in firearms, spending nearly a month in the classroom and on the firing range. Instead of graduating in law enforcement, the would be Corrections Officer became a security guard. And in 2013 while guarding the St. Lucie County Courthouse, it was the FBI that became interested in his actions.
JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: He said he hoped that law enforcement would raid his apartment and assault his wife and child so he could murder himself. After 10 months of investigation we closed the preliminary investigation.
GRIFFIN: Two months later as CNN first reported, the FBI found another concern, another possible terror connection. An American suicide bomber killed in Syria had been attending the same tiny Florida mosque as the Orlando shooter. Again, the FBI investigated and again found nothing to make an arrest.
According to the shooter's father, his son did become upset after witnessing two men kissing in Miami. And in his bizarre announcement of his son's death, the father apologized to the people of Afghanistan saying, homosexuality is something that those that do it are accountable to God, it is not up to human beings to punish them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Drew joins me now along with CNN Counterterrorism Analyst Philip Mudd, who is also a former Senior Official with the FBI and with the CIA.
First of all Phil let's talk about what the FBI did. I mean what is -- the obvious question is was something missed? Was the ball dropped?
PHILIP MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: I don't think so, I mean, if you look at this, I think we have to frame this differently. We're looking at one case and trying to build out what should the FBI have done. I would go the opposite direction, what a day looks like at the Bureau.
You're looking at kids who are going over to Syria, hundreds of them maybe. There's more than 100 who come back, so that's a batch of people to look at across United States.
You look at people who are communicating with ISIS via Twitter or Al- Qaeda and Yemen. And then you add into that, cases like this where someone calls, a friend, a family member and says, "I think somebody might be radicalized."
So before we jump to judgment about a gap, I think you need to look at this from a different perspective and say, how would you weigh it if you were the investigator against these other priorities.
COOPER: Drew. I mean there's obviously the question how effective the job the U.S. is doing even you know, when these kinds of individuals are on their radar?
GRIFFIN: Yeah, I think Phil is correct, but I think we also have to look at what is being done to make this better. I mean we've seen this same scenario with the it with the Tsarnaev brothers in Boston, Nidal Hasan at Fort Hood, now this guy here on the radar, investigated, we know there's some kind of problem. But the FBI, I mean they're kind of stuck. They can't just glue an agent onto these people for the rest of their lives. So what do you do? I think that is a big, big dilemma that law enforcement is facing.
COOPER: You know, Phil, in terms of motivation, I mean it's not by chance he picked the gay club. And now there's reporting he had been there many times, he's actually talked to people on gay hook up apps and stuff like that.
MUDD: Yeah.
COOPER: How much of that you think is inspired by his radical Islamist beliefs and how much by hatred of gays because if his dad said he saw two men kissing and that angered him and infuriated him.
MUDD: I think we're making a basic mistake here and that is we are living in the past. We're remembering for example the 9/11 attack where you have an organization ideologically, Al-Qaeda, who not only trains people, it selects a target for them.
Transition 15 years ahead, you have people self radicalizing who are looking for an excuse. I am angry at gay people. I'm angry at tourists. I'm angry in Paris, at rock venues because that's western culture.
So whatever I'm angry about, ISIS gives me validation. I don't think we should think about this as a target selected because someone was radicalized by ISIS. I think it's someone who thought he was angry about something and ISIS gave him the validation to act. COOPER: Well it's also interesting, Drew, I mean you played that video of his dad saying, you know, gay people will be punished, it's heaven's job to punish people. I mean -- and yet his father is saying, well I don't know where he got these ideas. If his father is spouting those kind of ideas at home, it's not that big a stretch to imagine his son might go to a club and do something like this.
GRIFFIN: Yeah and there might be a major mental internal struggle going on inside this guy's head. At one point, he is visiting these clubs supposedly, attending these clubs. And at the next point, he's shooting them up. You know, he might be struggling between his view of his faith and what his personal urges are.
You never know what's going on in these people's heads. That's why these lone wolves are so hard to nail down.
COOPER: All right, Drew Griffin. Thanks Philip Mudd as well. Lot's more on scale, just ahead, what Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump said today about the massacre at the Pulse nightclub and how their words hold up to the facts. We'll be right back.
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[20:53:35] COOPER: Welcome back, we're continuing coverage of this massacre at a gay nightclub here in Orlando.
We've just learned that President Obama will travel for Orlando on Thursday. Not clear of his schedule but again he'll be here Thursday. There are early -- these are very early days in Orlando's nightmare, early days in the investigation.
The worst mass shooting as you know in U.S. history. It's not even 48 hours since it all happened.
But on the campaign trail, it is already making a mark. Both presumptive nominees address the massacre on talk shows today and in dueling speeches. Here's what Hillary Clinton said on CNN's "New Day."
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: From my perspective, it matters what we do more than what we say. And, you know, it mattered we got Bin Laden, not what name we called him.
And I have clearly said that we face terrorist enemies who use Islam to justify slaughtering innocent people. And, you know, whether you call it radical Jihadism or radical Islamism, I think they mean the same thing. I'm happy to say either.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
COOPER: But later in Cleveland, Secretary Clinton laid out a plan to prevent future attacks by ISIS inspired so-called lone wolves and also called for a ban on assault weapons.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: In Orlando and San Bernardino, terrorists used assault weapons. The AR-15 and they used it to kill Americans. That was the same assault weapon used to kill those little children in Sandy Hook. We have to make it harder for people who should not have those weapons of war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:55:06] COOPER: Just to be clear, factually the AR-15 is not actually an assault weapon. It's a semi-automatic assault style rifle that fires just one round each time the trigger is pulled. Most gun experts consider it a tactical weapon.
In her speech Secretary Clinton did not mention Donald Trump once by name. Trump though had a lot to say about her when he took the stage in New Hampshire and renewed his call for a ban on Muslim immigrants and that's not all he said. Dana Bash has been checking the facts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Thank you for joining me ...
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump's 34 minute speech was brimming with the kind of nativist rhetoric that helped him win the GOP nomination.
TRUMP: They are pouring in and we don't know what we are doing.
BASH: But as he doubled down on the solution to Americans' fear of attacks at home, limiting immigration into the U.S., Trump made lots of claims, some true, some not true. In the category of not true, this.
TRUMP: The killer whose name I will not use or ever say was born in Afghan, of Afghan parents who immigrated to the United States.
BASH: His parents did emigrate from Afghanistan, but the killer himself was born in New York. Which is why U.S. officials are calling it an act of home grown terrorism.
Still, regardless of the Orlando killer being American, the thrust of Trump's response to the attack is focused on concerns about immigrants. He drilled down on Hillary Clinton's plan to let Syrian refugees into the U.S.
TRUMP: A 500 percent increase in Syrian refugees coming into our country. Tell me, tell me how stupid is that? This could be a better, bigger, more horrible version than the legendary Trojan horse ever was.
BASH: That said, that Clinton's refugees proposal would be a 500 percent increase over President Obama's plan is true.
To be specific, Obama's plan allows for 10,000 refugees. Clinton's is 65,000. That would be a 550 percent increase, about what Trump claims. But he also argues there's no vetting.
TRUMP: Having learned nothing from these attacks, she now plans to massively increase admissions without a screening plan.
BASH: The reality is, refugees now go through months of processing and paperwork before being admitted into the U.S., so that is false. Then there's the question of how many Syrian refugees are coming in now.
TRUMP: We have to stop the tremendous flow of Syrian refugees into the United States.
BASH: On CNN's "New Day", Trump was more specific.
TRUMP: We have, by the way, thousands and thousands of people pouring into our country right now who have the same kind of hate and probably even more than he has.
BASH: On the numbers, what he said Trump said is true. According to the State Department, 3,387 Syrian refugees have been admitted to the U.S. since last October. More than 2,000 of them in the last month alone, though that's far fewer so far than the 10,000 President Obama said he'd allow.
And on the issue of guns.
TRUMP: Her plan is to disarm law abiding Americans, abolishing the Second Amendment and leaving only the bad guys and terrorists with guns. No good. Not going to happen, folks. Not going to happen.
BASH: Trump repeated the claim that Hillary Clinton wants to do away with America's right to bear arms but that is false. Clinton does want to restrict access to guns but not abolish the Second A.
CLINTON: If the FBI is watching you for suspect terrorist links, you shouldn't be able to just go buy a gun with no questions asked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And Dana joins us now. So, Dana, Trump also seemed to paint the Muslim community and their religion in general with a very broad brush.
BASH: You know, that's right, beyond those specific statements for Muslims in America, his overall tone was probably alarming because even as he said very clearly some American-Muslim communities are great, he called for a partnership.
He also said they know what's going on and he also said of the killer in Orlando, they know that he was bad. But Anderson, he didn't offer any evidence that the killer's fellow American-Muslims knew about his intentions.
COOPER: All right, Dana thanks very much.
Much more ahead on this two hour edition of "360", we remember the victims, we continue to do that all 49 lives lost. Their dreams cut short so many young people.
Plus the latest on the investigation claim new reports, that the gunman had visited the Pulse Nightclub several times before. And that he used at least one gay dating app, in that more.
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