Return to Transcripts main page
CNN News Central
Iowa Shooter Believed To Have Posted TikTok Video From School Bathroom; NY AG Seeks $370M From Trump, Co-Defendants In Civil Fraud Trial; Woman Forced To Fake Illnesses Tells Why She Helped Kill Mother. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired January 05, 2024 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:33:26]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We're learning more about the shooting at Perry High School in Iowa. We've learned that one of the five victims hospitalized after that shooting has now actually been released and they are headed home. The four others wounded are still being treated at a hospital in Des Moines.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: This, of course, happened when a 17-year-old opened fire at Perry High School yesterday and killed a sixth grader.
Friends of the victims (sic) describing him as the sweetest boy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JESSICA CONRAD, PERRY RESIDENT: A friend of ours. He was like my second kid. We're friends. Had heard that he was missing, and he lives in our neighborhood. So I went to ask and heard from the family themselves. And he really was the sweetest boy. The one you want your kids to be friends with.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: It's heartbreaking.
Investigators are looking into a TikTok post that is being shared on social media, they believe by the gunman.
I want to go now to CNN correspondent, Veronica Miracle, in Perry, Iowa.
What do we know, Veronica, about the victims and how they are doing, how they are recovering?
VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Boris and Brianna, all five of the victims are expected to survive from their physical injuries.
Four of those victims were students, one of them a staff member. A principal here at Perry High School, who was identified as Dan Marburger by his daughter on Facebook.
She said her father went into surgery, came out, is in stable condition, and is expected to recover.
[13:34:58]
She also said that he actually tried to stop the shooter from going after other students, saying, quote, "He tried to approach and talk to Dylan" -- the shooter -- "down, and distract him long enough for some students to get out. As many of you know Dad, that is a gentle giant, an amazing dad, and just an amazing person."
This is a very small community. Everyone knows everyone here. The entire school district only has about 1,800 students.
And so at a vigil last night, there were so many people who already knew that the sixth-grade boy had died -- the sixth grader had died, as well as the other victims -- Boris, Brianna?
SANCHEZ: Vernonica, we know investigators are still looking into a possible motive. That part of this remains unclear.
But friends of the shooter are speaking out, claiming that he was bullied. Do we have any word on that?
MIRCALE: Definitely, a main part of the investigation is figuring out why this happened. Authorities say they're looking at social media posts, including that TikTok video that you referenced that was taken, apparently, inside the school, in the bathroom.
They're also looking at social media posts from before the shooting.
And then we are hearing from potential friends who say that, potentially, bullying could have played a factor.
Take a listen to what they had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He got tired of the bullying. He got tired of the harassment.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We tried to be there when he needed us. We weren't there for him, and now --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MIRACLE: Just like any school shooting, this is just devastating all around. So many families are going to be feeling the effects of this. The grieving process has just begun -- Boris, Brianna?
SANCHEZ: Veronica Miracle, from Perry, Iowa, thank you so much.
Let's get some perspective on this with former FBI deputy director and CNN senior law enforcement analyst, Andrew McCabe.
Andy, great to see you as always.
I'm curious to get your perspective on this TikTok post. It's an M.O. that we've seen from these kinds of shooters before. This desire to show what they're doing to the world.
Does it give you any insight as of potential motive?
ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, I don't think there's any real clear insight on motive. But the use of video and social media, either immediately before an attack, or during the attack, is something that we've seen across multiple mass shooters.
It really started with the Christchurch shooter, who broadcast his attacks on social media. And others have done that progressively. I think the shooter in Buffalo did the same thing. There have been many others. So this is a bit of a hallmark of mass shooters.
And I think that's important, because it does reveal to us, if not motive, it shows us that this shooter was very aware of other shooters. Had probably spent time reading about and researching about other mass shootings and how other mass shooters had done it.
And he's left us some other clues about inspiration, if you will. The use of the IED in addition to the firearms. We see that in other mass shootings. Certainly, became a major issue in the Columbine shooting in 1999.
And now, of course, we have this connection between the music that he attached to that TikTok video, the same song that Eric Harris, who was a Columbine shooter, allegedly used in the background of his own personal Web site.
So we do know that he was very acutely aware of other shooters, and likely spent time studying and maybe obsessing over those events.
SANCHEZ: Would you say, Andrew, that it's fair to assess that phenomenon as a sort of shooter culture?
If somebody is idolizing the two guys that carried out Columbine, and researching their methods, and then emulating them, does that speak to a broader problem where there's now a second generation of folks that seek to make a name for themselves by carrying out these kinds of attacks?
MCCABE: Yes, Boris, there's no question that, particularly Columbine, looms large in the minds of these particularly alienated, likely bullied, students, troubled young students who think about mass shootings.
We know that Columbine remains a highly researched and read about issue among many young people. There are people who make pilgrimages almost to Columbine to see the school where these things happened.
So it is a highly significant event in the minds, certainly, of people who decide to become mass shooters.
The question is, how much more broadly in that age group and that culture? That's very hard to say.
But it's important to know that if you know someone who is obsessing on those sorts of stories and that history and that legend, and really buying into it in kind of an inspired sort of way, that's someone who you need to bring to the attention of mental health professionals, maybe law enforcement, school professionals.
[13:40:13]
Because it seems to be an indicator that they might be going down a very bad path.
SANCHEZ: Yes. On the question of the weapons used, the shooter reportedly entered the school with a pump-action shotgun and a small- caliber handgun. Iowa law has it that a person has to be 21 or older to acquire a handgun or even a permit to carry a weapon.
He likely didn't purchase them himself at a store. So what do you make of that? How does law enforcement go about, then, tracking the weapons that he used?
MCCABE: I would expect that -- especially with the presence of ATF in the response, I would expect that law enforcement knows at this point the complicated history of those weapons, and who was the last lawful owner.
It is likely that those weapons were simply the ones that he was able to access, and typically that happens at home.
They're not the sort of weapons we typically see in mass shootings. It's not an A.R.-15 or a high-capacity magazine pistol with larger caliber pistols. They were probably just the ones he could get.
And it points out yet another gap in our gun laws, which is there's really no requirements on individuals or families to secure weapons in a consistent and safe way.
And to keep them out of the hands of young people who should not be carrying weapons, certainly not be carrying weapons in an unsupervised manner.
So here we are with yet another problem in the way that we think about gun safety.
SANCHEZ: Andrew McCabe, we've got to leave the conversation there. Thank you so much for being with us.
MCCABE: Thanks, Boris.
SANCHEZ: Stay with CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We are back in just moments.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:46:03]
KEILAR: This just into CNN. The New York attorney general seeking more than $370 million from former President Trump and his co-defendants in the civil fraud trial. Letitia James also looking to bar the former president from doing business in the state. SANCHEZ: Let's bring in CNN's Kara Scannell.
Kara, what are you learning about this filing?
KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, these are the closing argument breeds due today in the civil fraud trial. The attorney general's team is saying they are not seeking more than $370 million.
When they sued Donald Trump, they initially sought $250 million. They are significantly increasing the amount of money that they want to recover. That was from improper gains that Trump had received. They prove this, they allege, to the evidence proceeded at the trial.
Now in addition from seeking to bar the former president from serving in a business in New York for life, they are also seeking a five-year ban on his sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump.
And what the attorney general's office argued is that their intent to defraud was inescapable. They say that the myriad deceptive schemes they deployed to inflate assets values and conceal facts were so outrageous that they belie innocent explanations.
Now Trump's team argues -- has argued that their financial statements were accurate, that there's no evidence presented in this case that the bank would've given them different interest rate terms had they gotten different financial statements, or the values, the attorney general's office argues, were they accurate values.
The judge has already ruled in this case in a summary judgment motion that the financial statements were persistent and fraudulent.
The issue now for him is to decide how much money the Trumps would have to pay and whether there is a ban.
But there are also six other claims that the attorney general's office is pursuing. That is why it went to trial.
That is a conspiracy claim, insurance fraud, falsifying business records and issuing false financial statements. That is up for the judge to decide.
Trump's team, again, arguing that there was no intent to defraud here either.
Depending on how this plays out -- the judge has issued a scathing opinion just a few weeks ago rejecting Trump's argument for a directed verdict in which he rejected a lot of their testimony and a lot of their legal arguments -- Boris, Brianna?
KEILAR: Kara, what is next here?
SCANNELL: Next Thursday will be what is, essentially, the closing arguments. These paper arguments that will be argued in court before the judge with both parties making their case.
After that, the judge said he would issue a written opinion. That he said he hoped to do that by the end of the month, or at least into February. So then he will then write a written opinion on this.
Trump's team has already signaled that they intend to appeal. In fact, a lot of their arguments during the trial, they said to the judge, they had to put it on the record because they intend to appeal this decision. They did not expect him to rule in their favor.
So this is far from over, even once the judge's decision is rendered -- Boris, Brianna?
SANCHEZ: Kara Scannell, thank you so much for keeping an eye on it for us.
So her story has been a subject of TV shows and documentaries for years. But now we are hearing directly from Gypsy Rose Blanchard, the woman who helped kill her abusive mother. She is now out of prison and speaking to CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:50:06]
SANCHEZ: Admitted accomplice and tabloid obsession, Gypsy Rose Blanchard says she would still be abused if her mother was alive.
She finished her first week of parole after serving eight years in a Missouri prison. Of course, in 2015, her story gained worldwide notoriety.
KEILAR: For years her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, had forced Gypsy Rose to fake multiple illnesses, from leukemia to asthma, suffering from the rare mental illness of what has previously been known, widely known as Munchausen By Proxy Syndrome.
Gypsy Rose says, after being brought to the breaking point, she helped her boyfriend stab her mother to death.
CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister sat down with Gypsy Rose Blanchard.
Elizabeth, what did she tell you?
ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: I did sit down with Gypsy yesterday. She has a documentary coming out on Lifetime where she tells her harrowing fascinating story. And I spoke to her about that.
As you said, this is a girl who says that she was abused her entire childhood. Her mother said that she had leukemia and made her believe that. Her mother made her use a wheelchair when, in reality, she was perfectly healthy and could walk.
One of the big questions here is, how did this get by doctors, right? Gypsy road was bought into various medical offices with her mother. They never caught this.
I asked her about that. This is what she told me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GYPSY ROSE BLANCHARD, RELEASED ON PAROLE AFTER SERVING EIGHT YEARS FOR SECOND-DEGREE MURDER: Yes, I do feel like the system failed me. I realize that there are resources and things that are put in place to protect kids from going through what I went through.
Unfortunately, I just fell through the cracks of all of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WAGMEISTER: As you hear her say there, she does feel like the medical system failed her.
However, she told me that after serving over eight years of time in prison, she feels like she came out a better person.
[13:55:03]
She received intense therapy. She learned about the abuse that she says she endured. She got an education. So the prison system really did work on Gypsy Rose.
Now, I asked her, does she forgive her mother? Obviously, she played a large role in the murder of her mother. Here is what she told me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLANCHARD: I would tell her that I'm sorry and I forgive her. I am coming to a place of forgiveness. It is going to take time.
I would say that I understand, I see her. I see her in the way that she was not an evil woman. She was not a monster. She was just a sick woman. She would've needed a lot of mental health care. I see her for who she is now, or who she was.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WAGMEISTER: With that said, Gypsy does say that if her mother was still alive today, she does believe that she would still be enduring this abuse.
KEILAR: All right, Elizabeth Wagmeister, thank you so much for that report.
And this just in, a third round of documents from a lawsuit connected to Jeffrey Epstein just released publicly. CNN looking through the documents as we speak. We will bring you any news from this latest batch ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
