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Police: Men Taken into Custody Without Incident

Aired October 24, 2002 - 08:52   ET

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

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


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: You raised a question about what might be of interest to find out what was in the car. Let's turn to Bob Franken who is standing across the street from that rest stop. I know we reported earlier this morning that there was an initial search of the car. Has the official search warrant been executed yet?
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As a matter of fact, yes, Paula. We are now on tow truck alert here. We are looking for the car to be towed from here. We had information it was going to be taken to an impound area in Montgomery County, which, as you know, is the center of the investigation, as you know. So we are all waiting for that. As you did point out, there was a more than a cursory research made this morning. Some reports have it that weapons were found. We have not been able to confirm that. But obviously, they are going to be looking for weapons and looking for ammunition, DNA evidence, fingerprints, all of that type of thing that you would expect that they would be looking for.

You can see, as a matter of fact over my shoulder, that there is a state police evidence wagon there. That was obviously very big throughout the evening. As you can see, there is another state police car, one of many that has kept the area closed off, closed off since the arrests were made, since the initial calls came. The initial call coming at 1:00 this morning Eastern Time in this area, that is about 50 miles north of Washington, 40 miles or so from the Pennsylvania border, north of Frederick, Maryland.

Of course, it's quite a distance from where the shootings sprees occurred in the Washington area and points south -- Paula.

ZAHN: It is quite a story you heard from a Mr. Blank (ph) early this morning, Bob, when he talked about being on duty. He had been listening to the scanners. He had picked up very unusual traffic on the scanners, and he told a story, and I want you to retell it, about how he ultimately ended up in the car -- there was the van of the guy who ultimately called police, and they were told to lock themselves in the van and wait until police got there.

FRANKEN: Right. Can you imagine that?

ZAHN: No.

FRANKEN: Being told to stay there, not being allowed to leave? Because, obviously, one of the things they didn't want to do is cause any hubbub or anything like that, so they were kept there. This would not be what I consider a comfortable way to spend an evening. ZAHN: Yes. I asked Mr. Blank (ph) if he was armed or the other guy was armed, and he said absolutely not. So I guess as they look back on it, it may be a lot more intimidating at the time. They couldn't see the two men in the car as they were sleeping. Bob Franken, thanks. We will be checking in with you throughout the morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired October 24, 2002 - 08:52   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: You raised a question about what might be of interest to find out what was in the car. Let's turn to Bob Franken who is standing across the street from that rest stop. I know we reported earlier this morning that there was an initial search of the car. Has the official search warrant been executed yet?
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As a matter of fact, yes, Paula. We are now on tow truck alert here. We are looking for the car to be towed from here. We had information it was going to be taken to an impound area in Montgomery County, which, as you know, is the center of the investigation, as you know. So we are all waiting for that. As you did point out, there was a more than a cursory research made this morning. Some reports have it that weapons were found. We have not been able to confirm that. But obviously, they are going to be looking for weapons and looking for ammunition, DNA evidence, fingerprints, all of that type of thing that you would expect that they would be looking for.

You can see, as a matter of fact over my shoulder, that there is a state police evidence wagon there. That was obviously very big throughout the evening. As you can see, there is another state police car, one of many that has kept the area closed off, closed off since the arrests were made, since the initial calls came. The initial call coming at 1:00 this morning Eastern Time in this area, that is about 50 miles north of Washington, 40 miles or so from the Pennsylvania border, north of Frederick, Maryland.

Of course, it's quite a distance from where the shootings sprees occurred in the Washington area and points south -- Paula.

ZAHN: It is quite a story you heard from a Mr. Blank (ph) early this morning, Bob, when he talked about being on duty. He had been listening to the scanners. He had picked up very unusual traffic on the scanners, and he told a story, and I want you to retell it, about how he ultimately ended up in the car -- there was the van of the guy who ultimately called police, and they were told to lock themselves in the van and wait until police got there.

FRANKEN: Right. Can you imagine that?

ZAHN: No.

FRANKEN: Being told to stay there, not being allowed to leave? Because, obviously, one of the things they didn't want to do is cause any hubbub or anything like that, so they were kept there. This would not be what I consider a comfortable way to spend an evening. ZAHN: Yes. I asked Mr. Blank (ph) if he was armed or the other guy was armed, and he said absolutely not. So I guess as they look back on it, it may be a lot more intimidating at the time. They couldn't see the two men in the car as they were sleeping. Bob Franken, thanks. We will be checking in with you throughout the morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com