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Police Kill Gunman Threatening Children; Obama, Jobs and the CBC; Bake Sale Bias?; A Soldier's Story

Aired September 24, 2011 - 22:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I'm Don Lemon. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

We're going to begin tonight with a developing story. It's out of suburban Seattle. A horrifying shootout between police and a gunman near a high school sporting event crowded with children.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUN FIRES

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jesus Christ. The high school --

GUN FIRES

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Now imagine that. The gunman was killed, and as far as we know, no one else was hurt. The drama unfolded near Issaquah High School. Issaquah is a town of 30,000 people, that's east of Seattle.

Eric Wilkinson of our affiliate KING or KING describes the terrifying minutes before the police finally stop the man in a hail of bullets.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that is a shoot-out.

ERIC WILKINSON, KING REPORTER (voice-over): This amateur video captures the gunfire as it rips through Issaquah today.

Dozens of shots fired as people scrambled for cover.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They started shooting at us, and the bullet went between me and my friend, Tony. And then we turn around and started running, and like we could hear the bullets like bouncing off the concrete behind us.

WILKINSON: It started when the suspect described only as a 51- year-old Maple Valley man stopped his car in traffic in Front Street in downtown Issaquah, and started confronting people with an assault rifle. Eventually opening fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we were about alongside the elementary school, we got shot at nine times.

WILKINSON: Police swarmed the city crowded with shoppers and people enjoying the warm fall day. He fired randomly for about half a mile.

At one point, a sheriff's department sniper took to the air to take him out with reports of him shooting at police. He was moving toward Issaquah High School where a little league football game was going on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He said do not come to the game now, there's a shooting.

WILKINSON: Outside the high school.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police just told us they have the suspect pinned down.

WILKINSON: Parents texted their kids hiding, hoping to escape the gunman.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm just worried. I want to make sure he's OK.

WILKINSON: Police emptied the field and evacuated the stands filled with young football players and their families.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're huddled under the bleachers, staying close together and scared out of their minds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody's terrified out there, and they are very scared.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All my life, I've never seen anything like this.

WILKINSON: But before the gunman made it that far, a cop on the ground shot him dead before he harm a single person.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our priority was to stop him from moving, number one, and get him a quick shooting, number two. And we were able to do both of those.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To have something like this happen on a beautiful Saturday, it's shocking.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: As you're able to see in Eric Wilkinson's story, they are from our affiliate KING. Police apparently prevented what almost certainly would have been a massacre by the gunman. Make sure you stay tuned to CNN for details on this developing story.

We want to go to Florida now where the high profile murder trial of millionaire developer Bob Ward has ended in a conviction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We the jury find the defendant guilty of second degree murder as charged in the information.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: The trial lasted about a week. Ward's defense argued that Diane Ward died in 2009 of accidental gunshot and accidental gunshot to the face, but the jury wasn't convinced. Ward's daughters sobbed at the verdict. Prosecutors had hammered away at inconsistencies in Ward's story.

And then there was this bizarre jailhouse video just days after his wife died. Ward apparently performing a striptease for his daughter and sister-in-law. All three acted like him being arrested was a big joke.

Our legal expert Holly Hughes says Ward presented his defense team with an uphill battle in trying to get an acquittal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOLLY HUGHES, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: When you very calmly say five times, I shot my wife and you don't at the time, you're not hysterical --

LEMON: There's no urgency, nothing in his voice.

HUGHES: Right, and he's not hysterical, he's not saying get here and help her. So they are stuck with a statement that their client made. So the best they could do is say, well, yes he already admitted firing the gun but what we can do is now say it accidentally went off. He didn't intend to fire the gun. She was trying to kill herself. So unfortunately, sometimes by the time a lawyer gets a case, client's already put them in a bad position.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: The defense is expected to file an appeal.

President Obama took his jobs message to the congressional black caucus tonight, an audience that's sympathetic to his cause but worried that his policies aren't getting through to their constituents. African-Americans hit hard by unemployment. The president used his remarks to make a strong push for his plan and he went after Republicans who have opposed his efforts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These Republicans in Congress like to talk about job creators. How about doing something real for job creators? Pass this jobs bill and every small business owner in America, including 100,000 black-owned businesses will get a tax cut. You say you're the party of tax cuts? Pass this jobs bill. And every worker in America, including nearly 20 million African-American workers will get a tax cut. Pass this jobs bill and prove you'll fight just as hard for a tax cut for ordinary folks as you do for all your contributors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Pass this bill. We've been hearing that a lot from the president lately. A little bit earlier, we previewed the president's speech with a member of the Congressional Black Caucus Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas. And she graciously agreed to join us again.

Congresswoman, thank you very much for joining us again. So what did you think?

REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D), TEXAS: Don, thank you for having me.

LEMON: What did you think?

JACKSON LEE: Well, the president, remember in the earlier interview I said determined, persistent. But the president reached in his heart, heard the American people. Really heard the Congressional Black Caucus. And tonight, Don, he took his gloves off. He took those gloves off and he simply said, I'm going to lead. I'm the captain of the ship. I'm not going to let the American ship, the American boat where our people are sinking sink under my leadership and I'm going to demand of the Republicans to stand for the American people and not for selfish interests.

I hope they heard him. We heard him. We're prepared to in essence, be ready for this fight and recognize the devastation in the African-American community. I'm very glad he highlighted the plight of African-Americans along with Americans...

LEMON: Hey, congresswoman --

JACKSON LEE: ...And let everybody know we're in the same leaking both together.

LEMON: Let me get in on this--

JACKSON LEE: Yes, Don?

LEMON: Because I want to know if you think -- you said he took the gloves off. Almost he had sort of a final. Is this something you would like to see more of from him?

JACKSON LEE: Well, Don, I said earlier that the president has a way of interacting. He respects the institution of the presidency and the congress. He wanted to work in a collaborative cooperative way. Knew there would be conflict but he still wanted to be able to resolve a problem.

LEMON: OK.

JACKSON LEE: One of the points he made tonight is that we came out of this -- or came in to this recession not on what we have Democrats did, but it's been coming on for a long time through the last administration, trying to come out of it, he has faces fierce opposition. Republicans have not agreed to anything.

So I think to answer the question, yes, I want to see him represent the American people. If one group doesn't want to represent them, then I want the president to do so. And I think that's what he announced tonight.

LEMON: If you're listening to the clips that we played, he said, you know, pass this bill. We've heard him say that. And there were other parts of the speech that if you're just the casual observer, I wasn't there, I don't know, it sounded like a campaign speech. It sounded like a campaign speech and that there was nothing new from this except what he had been saying before.

Can you were there, is that true? Tell us what you thought.

JACKSON LEE: Well, I really do think there is a recommitment and an energized commitment to finding a way to empowering parts of this legislation. You know, we've heard words like dead on arrival. We heard that it won't pass. But I think the president in his heart knows that the federal government cannot do it all but they have to do something.

He asked the question, the Republican Party is the party of tax cuts. Why won't they do it now? They are the party of building roads. Why won't they join in building roads? So I think if I saw a difference tonight, I really saw the president rolling up his sleeves, using a lot of elbow grease and really getting in their face, getting in their face and asking the question, why.

LEMON: We're going to have to leave it there just for time purposes. And we appreciate you joining us again.

Thank you, Congresswoman Shield Jackson Lee. Appreciate it.

JACKSON LEE: Thank you. It's got to be all of us, Don. Thank you so very much. Bye-bye.

LEMON: All right. Have a good night. We want to turn now to the candidates who want to defeat Barack Obama in next year's election.

A huge political upset Saturday in Florida where Herman Cain, that's right, Herman Cain won a straw poll of Republican activists. Florida Governor Rick Scott made the big announcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA: Tonight's winner with 986 votes, 37.1 percent, Herman Cain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: And guess what, it wasn't even close. Cain got 37 percent of the votes. Rick Perry was second but far behind with 15 percent. And then Mitt Romney was third with 14 percent. It was a major blow to Perry who was favored to win. He had quoted activists for weeks and paid for glossy flyers to be distributed throughout the convention hall.

Herman Cain issued a statement calling his win, quote, "A sign of our growing momentum and my candidacy that cannot be ignored."

Up next here on CNN, a bake sale that's leaving a bad taste in the mouths of many -- a cookie, a brownie, whatever you like. The cost? Well, it depends on the color of your skin.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Bake sales are about the least controversial event that you can think of. But there's going to be one in California where what you pay depends on the color of your skin and also your gender.

Here are the prices. $2 for white people. $1.50 for Asians, a dollar for Latinos, 75 cents for blacks, a quarter for Native Americans and all women get an extra quarter off.

College Republicans are putting on the sale at the University of California-Berkeley on Tuesday. It's actually a protest of sorts against legislation that would allow UC to consider race or national origin in its admission process.

For tonight's "What Matters," our partnership with "Essence" magazine, I spoke with the president of the Berkeley College Republicans. His name is Sean Lewis. And Tim Wise, activist and author of "White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son."

Lewis says he knows this bake sale is pushing buttons for a lot of people.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHAWN LEWIS, PRES. UC-BERKELEY COLLEGE REPUBLICANS: We did expect opposition. We expected a lot of outrage from this event. What we didn't expect first the volume, the amount of response that we got in the first few hours, hundreds of posts on our Facebook page. And then secondly, the tone of some of the responses. We expected people to be upset. We didn't expect personal threats to be made. There were implicit and explicit threats made to the organizers to the event, to burning down the table, to throwing our baked goods at us and other kinds of physical threats.

LEMON: You have no plans on canceling this bake sale on Tuesday, right?

LEWIS: No, the bake sale will go on with the pricing structure.

LEMON: So Tim Wise, do the Berkeley College Republicans have a point?

TIM WISE, AUTHOR, "WHITE LIKE ME": Well, I'm not sure. I mean, you know, it seems like there are a lot of ways to make a point about your disagreement with affirmative action, for instance, without doing a sarcastic rather smarmy slap at people of color.

I mean, I get the joke here. Their joke is, you know, they believe that affirmative action holds people of color to a lower standard and they are going to also hold them to a different pricing structure for their brownies. How very original. It's been done for 15 years. It's not an original joke.

The point that I think needs to be made, and which they often ignore and conservative students generally ignore, is that by the time anyone steps on a college campus whether it's Berkeley or any other school in the UC system or any college in this country, there has already been 12 to 13 years of institutionalized affirmative action for white folks.

That is to say racially-embedded inequality which has benefited those of us who are white, and it's only at the point of college admission that these folks seem to get concerned with color consciousness, with thinking about race. But there's been 13 years.

I mean, right now in the State of California and all across the country, schools that serve students of color mostly, are ten times more likely to be places of concentrated poverty than the schools that white students went to. But I don't see the Berkeley Republicans rising up in arms about that inequality.

LEMON: And so do you understand what Tim Wise -- you may not agree with it or what have you, but do you understand what he's saying about historically -- about the history of racism in this country, college admissions and all of that? Do you get what he's saying? And do you agree?

LEWIS: Certainly. The two points that he makes are both valid points. But the first one about why make a sarcastic event? Why make something that seems to be making a joke of a very serious issue.

And so my response to that, first of all, is as you mentioned before, Berkeley is very liberal campus. In fact our student government is sponsoring this phone bank which is taking a position on policy. And it's telling Governor Brown that Berkeley students support this bill.

So the reason for the tone of our event, for possible sarcasm of the event is certainly to draw an attention. It's not an original idea. The forum is slightly original because previously over the past 10, 15 years, bake sales have been had on a random day of the week or just to get some, you know, controversy started. Ours is at the same time and location of this phone bank. It's to make a point that we don't have one political view here at Berkeley.

LEMON: Because he said what about working towards -- you're not holding a bake sale for socioeconomic issues. You're holding a bake sale about admissions. So he says --

LEWIS: Exactly.

LEMON: Yes, so you want to address that part, as well? LEWIS: The reason that we're having a bake sale strictly on race and gender is because that's what the bill does. That's the bill that Governor Brown is deciding on. It's not affirmative action because it doesn't have a quota system because that's unconstitutional right now. But what Governor Brown is deciding is whether to let universities consider race in the admissions process. That's why our bake sale is focusing on that issue.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Go ahead, Tim.

WISE: It's not really accurate. What the bill would allow would be for Governor Brown, and this is what affirmative action in the post quota era, which quotas have been illegal essentially for 25 years or more, would allow him to consider race in the same way that what I'm discussing.

You know, if race has played a role in the dispensation of educational access and opportunity. If race has mattered in other words in terms of opportunity, it would allow him to consider that and allow the admissions officers, let's say in the UC system, to consider that when they're examining applications.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: My thanks to Tim and Shawn.

You know, the bake sale is scheduled for Tuesday, and we'll check back on the story for you. Make sure you keep attune to CNN.

You know, the satellite breaks up. A satellite breaks up as it enters the atmosphere, scattering debris across the world. That and other top stories straight ahead here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: This year is the fifth anniversary of "CNN Heroes."

And over the years, we have received more than 40,000 nominations from you, our viewers, in more than 100 countries. This week we reveal our top-10 "CNN Heroes of 2011." Each will receive $50,000 and a shot at "CNN Hero of the Year," which will earn one of them an additional $250,000. And you get to decide who that person will be.

Here's CNN's Anderson Cooper with the top-10 "CNN Heroes of 2011."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Anderson Cooper. All year we've been introducing you to every-day people changing the word. We call them "CNN Heroes." Now we announce the top-10 "CNN Heroes for 2011."

The honorees are, in alphabetical order by first name, Amy Stokes, she uses the Internet to match teens lacking role models with adults around the world. Bruno Serato is serving up a solution so motels kids don't go to bed hungry. Derreck Kayongo collects discarded hotel soaps and reprocesses them to save lives. Diane Latiker in a violent neighborhood, she opened her door, inviting gang members in. Eddie Canales helps young football players sidelined by spinal cord injuries. Elena Duron Miranda offers poor children a way out of the trash dump and into school. Patrice Millet, diagnosed with incurable cancer, started feeding and coaching children from Haiti's slums. Robin Lim helps poor women have healthy pregnancies and safe deliveries. Sal Dimiceli pays for rent, food and basic necessities to keep the working poor afloat. And Taryn Davis, who built a sisterhood of healing for a new general for American war widows.

Congratulations to the top-10 "CNN Heroes of 2011."

Which one inspires you the most? Go to CNNheroes.com online or on your mobile device, vote for "CNN Hero of the Year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right, thank you, Anderson.

Protests and arrests. This wasn't a scene from the Middle East today. Try Wall Street. Your top stories are next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Let's check your headlines right now.

A massive shoot-out, Saturday, near a crowded high school sports event in suburban Seattle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUN FIRES

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jesus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Police were confronted by a gunman who was approaching a youth football game in a stadium crowded with students and parents. Police say the gunman had been menacing and shooting at people with automatic weapons for about half a mile, for about half a mile before police arrived. Well, the 51-year-old gunman was killed. No one else was hurt.

New York police arrested about 80 people today as they marched near the New York Stock Exchange. Most were charged with disorderly conduct, but also resisting arrest and in one case, assaulting a police officer. Those arrested were part of a demonstration dubbed "Occupy Wall Street" that began a week ago. Demonstrators said they were protesting bank bailouts and the mortgage crisis.

A shocking finish in a battle of Republican presidential candidates in Orlando, Florida, this evening. Herman Cain surprised many by winning the straw poll at the GOP's Presidency Five event. It wasn't even close. Cain received 37 percent of the vote, more than twice as much as Texas Governor Rick Perry considered by many to be the front-runner in this race. Perry received 15 percent and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney was third with 14 percent.

Two American hikers are on their way home after being locked up in Iran for more than two years. Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal flew out of Oman Saturday and are expected to arrive in the U.S. Sunday afternoon. Iran arrested them for allegedly straying over the border from Iraq in July 2009. They were accused of being spies and sentenced to eight years in prison. The two were freed Wednesday under a million dollar bail deal.

NASA says a dead satellite broke apart and likely landed in the Pacific Ocean today far off the U.S. Coast. The space agency says it isn't aware of any reports of injury or property damage. But it said 26 satellite components weighing a total of about 1200 pounds could have survived the fiery re-entry. The upper atmosphere research satellite was launched 20 years ago this month.

You know, CNN was recently provided with unprecedented, exclusive access to the journey taken by some members of the U.S. Army from the decision to enlist, to boot camp, to deployment. Now the journey comes full circle with upcoming drawdown of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

It's part of our on going series "A Soldier's Story," and you're going to see it in two minutes from now.

I'm Don Lemon at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. I'll see you back here Sunday night, 6:00, 7:00, and 10:00 p.m. Eastern. Good night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ten years after 9/11, American troops finally are leaving Afghanistan. Another fallen soldier, a sergeant from North Carolina, returns home with honor.

700 miles away --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Daddy!

CARROLL: A sergeant from California returns. To a wife and two daughters. It is a moment 12 months in the making.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is your last time in the states. Let's go execute rendezvous with destiny, all right?

CARROLL: Back in August 2010, more than a full year ago, Sergeant Randy Shorter and his platoon got their marching orders.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trust your training. Trust yourselves. Trust your buddy next to you.

CARROLL: Engage the people, turn back the Taliban, and turn over the job of fighting them to the Afghan forces. The Shorter platoon was part of the president's surge of 30,000 additional troops.

(on camera): Does it feel more real now, when you're boarding, or when you finally get there?

RANDY SHORTER, SERGEANT, US ARMY: Now.

CARROLL: Now?

SHORTER: You look back and -- once you look back, that's it.

CARROLL (voice-over): At the very start of his mission, we spent a week with Shorter to see just how he and his men planned to turn the tide of war.

SHORTER: If you haven't done so, lock and load. It's game time now.

CARROLL: Now after hundreds of patrols, endless training sessions with Afghan troops --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

CARROLL: And often contentious meetings with Afghan elders, now the time has come to ask, how did they do?

Pundits and politicians will have their say, but it's the troops on the ground who know more than anyone if this war has succeeded. So we went back to Afghanistan to talk to them, to find out if this is the right moment to pull back. Are the Afghans ready to take over? And most importantly, has all of this been worth the sacrifice of so many?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go.

CARROLL: Up next, ready or not. Americans hand over the fighting to Afghan forces.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHORTER: The enemy knows you're out there. They know you're conducting operations.

CARROLL: 11 months into his year-long deployment.

SHORTER: Any Intel regarding Taliban, go ahead and push it up.

CARROLL: Sergeant Randy Shorter prepares his men for yet another combat mission. SHORTER: You mind if I TC?

CARROLL: After more than 200 missions --

SPEC. ADAM BOYETTE, U.S. ARMY: Oh, yes. Full hour and a half.

CARROLL: Everyone is weary of war. Ready to come home. As the drawdown of U.S. troops expands, it will soon be up to the Afghans to finish the job.

(on camera): The last time we were here, this is an area where we used to meet before leaving on missions. There used to be a police building here, but a few months after we left, it was destroyed by a suicide bomber. Many Afghan police were killed on that day. This is all that's left at this point.

SHORTER: You can see the ball bearings from the suicide vest. All over the walls. Right now, we're just waiting for our Afghan counterparts.

What's up, man? How are you?

CARROLL: Here in Paktika Province in southern Afghanistan, Shorter's counterpart is Sahid, a platoon leader with the AUP, the Afghan Uniformed Police. If Afghans are to take the lead in this war, it will be up to the AUP along with the Afghan Army.

SHORTER: I'm glad you're okay, man.

CARROLL: The day before, Sahid's men on patrol with Shorter's troops hit a roadside bomb. They were lucky to escape with only minor injuries.

SAHID: I thought I lost my friend. I was very worried.

CARROLL: Just 24 hours from now Sahid and his fellow policemen face a major test. They're expected to take the lead in a door-to- door search for suspected Taliban and weapons in one of the most dangerous villages in their province.

SAHID: So we come in one probably go that way, another one go that way.

SPEC. ROBERT BLACKBURN, U.S. ARMY: We're talking about how we're going to clear these compounds that we're getting ready to head into right now.

SHORTER: We're going to go with AUP today, and AUP is going to take responsibility there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: AUP.

SHORTER: The Afghan Uniformed Police. They're going to take the lead in this. They're going to clear the village.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the area we took contact in the last time we came through this route. Looks like three RPGs or rockets and small arms fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Armstrong, come over here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sahid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to do it two teams, one, two.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, go, go.

CARROLL: Time after time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You ready?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, hey, hey.

CARROLL: -- American soldiers take the lead. Not the Afghan Police.

SHORTER: Hey, tell them knuckle heads to stay together and with the AUP.

CARROLL: Shorter's orders are not being followed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where did the AUP go?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys ready?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Women and children in that room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right left. Go right left.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's children in here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Control these (EXPLETIVE DELETED) and tell them to slow down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, slow down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From now on, always have (EXPLETIVE DELETED) AUP. Tell your boys to (EXPLETIVE DELETED) slow down.

CARROLL: Finally more than an hour after they started.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mission, I got AUP switch off. Let them go in first. Let them lead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Afghans take the lead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How about the kids.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good job AUP, but we're clear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's pretty tense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes, it is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trying to get the AUP. As you can see, you know, there's little rough spots in the beginning but, you know, they're coming along.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Afghan Uniform police take the lead. Sometimes they're a little disoriented.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I collect up all the mail.

CARROLL: We're you doing the same thing here, the fingerprinting?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, and that's what they're doing here. They're separating, and the military each males from this clot and the ones from that clot.

CARROLL: No weapons showed up in the search. But testing the hands of some of the villagers reveals some of the men may have handled IEDs. Roadside bombs that have killed so many coalition soldiers.

(on camera): So what do you think this means?

LT. PAUL BILLY, U.S. ARMY: He's definitely handled some sort of residual explosive.

CARROLL (on camera): All four tests turned up positive.

BILLY: As you can see, you've got positive, positive, positive. Shoes, clothes, back and top of his hands. You can see that it's all over his hands. More likely than not, this guy's been handling some sort of explosive.

Up next, the hunt for the Taliban continues. And another test for Afghan Security Forces.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (voice-over): Few places on the planet are more remote and isolated than Afghanistan. But after 10 years of war, some of that is changing. America alone has built or reconstructed more than 1,000 miles of highways and roads. At the same time, the Taliban has turned these very same roads into a battlefield.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see that right there? That's an IED. CARROLL: Last year alone, IEDs killed more than 250 U.S. troops and injured another 3400.

After a week with Sergeant Shorter, we head further south to meet up with the army's combat engineers, the 36th Brigade. It's their job along with their Afghan counterparts to find and remove IEDs before they do harm.

CAP. ALBERT BUTLER, U.S. ARMY: I need another two inches on the map to do as far as off as we've gone.

CARROLL: Captain Albert Butler is the company commander. He is responsible for keeping an area about the size of Alabama safe from roadside bombs.

BUTLER: The guys that were hit last night were the hit right here.

CARROLL: In the two weeks before we arrive, his men fought the enemy ten separate times.

BUTLER: As soon as you leave the fob and you head north, it is game on. That's what -- that's where the danger starts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Left at 05 yesterday. Don't get back till 10:00 today.

CARROLL (on camera): How many hours exactly you were gone?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 29.

CARROLL: 29 hours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 29 straight hours on a mission.

STAFF SGT. ROBERT WHITE, U.S. ARMY: They were able to hide those IEDs a lot better than I could find them.

BUTLER: We are hit by one that was -- I mean, I don't know what more I could have done. You know, we swept it, we rolled it, we proof it, came back up and it went off.

CARROLL: How many times have you been hit?

WHITE: Too many. Too many times to count.

CARROLL: But you still keep doing it.

WHITE: Just keep doing it.

You know, engineers we're stubborn. So we're going to continue to find them.

CARROLL: Is that what it is?

WHITE: That's what it is. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to 18 bravo today. Basic enemy composition is usually three to five guys. That's what we're working with, all right? These guys like to run in small packs, especially for IEDs. Gear up. Final context Red con and then we're out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Great.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wohoo.

CARROLL: Right now, we're heading out on a route-clearing mission. This is where the combat engineers look for those roadside bombs, the IEDs.

LT. NIC CHRISTIAN, U.S. ARMY: Worst case scenario, maybe there's pressure plate IEDs out here or even a command wire that they've strung all the way out to the village.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's keep pushing forward. Seven, keep your eyes on it, please. Break.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Direct them through here, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That looks like it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kind of hard to see from my perspective. I just wanted my hand on it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All cleared.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We still have a lot of ground to cover.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 150 kilometers. At least.

CARROLL (voice-over): With the adjacent fields clear at least for now, Lieutenant Nic Christian and his Afghan counterparts work the highway checkpoint for suspicious vehicles.

FIRST SGT. VALENTE ORTIZ, U.S. ARMY: This route right here, this is the main route which we keep it clear from two major cities. Kandahar and Kabul.

CARROLL (on camera): We've just heard word that behind us now, you've gotten word that there might be something suspicious going on.

ORTIZ: Yes, we moved down the road. We actually came from that direction. We passed maybe a mile, maybe two past the area. Then they'll go ahead and plant in a bomb behind us.

CARROLL: So the Afghan National Army actually found a suspicious device or something that seems to be suspicious down this way from where we just came. So what you're basically saying is, theoretically, someone knew we were going to be turning around coming back that direction and planted a bomb so we would hit it on our way back? ORTIZ: Yes, it's very lucky today because now that they found suspicious bomb material behind us, that prevents us from going back over it and getting exploded on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was six jugs of homemade explosives, which roughly 300 pounds of explosives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just so you know like 300 pounds is like a typical SUV, like say a Tahoe. Breaking into about 2 million pieces and kill everybody inside the vehicle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger. Bush Whacker seven.

CARROLL: Now with one IED found and neutralized, the combat engineers catch another break.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We find one vehicle and we happened to stop the right one with five personnel that tested positive on bomb making materials.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This one is military grade plastic explosives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We caught the guys that potentially could have making the (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Search these guys. Make sure it's all good to go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's one of them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He didn't have an ID on him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, he said he left it at home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which is probably (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

STAFF SGT. DANNY MCCRITE, U.S. ARMY: This is the second passport we've pulled off a guy. He had a passport that said the reason for passport was travel in Asia, Europe and America. And it was the first guy we detain.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not going to America, buddy. Sorry about delays.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) that come from?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That dude right there.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Americans don't pay in Pakistani, home boy. This is a lot of Pakistani to be carrying around.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are thousand dollar bills. CARROLL (voice-over): All that Pakistani cash persuades Lt. Christian to believe the five suspects may have been paid to plant the IED found earlier by Afghan troops.

CHRISTIAN: Getting paid for something. It's hard to believe that we found an IED behind us, five guys that came up with explosive residues on their hand and they're walking around with millions in Pakistani.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two million Pakistani rupees.

MCCRITE: The driver said that first man we talk to was his son. But the first man spoke only Farsi and the driver spoke Pashtun only.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

MCCRITE: But he said it was his son. And usually I know the same language as my father.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to get some more fingerprints from you.

CARROLL (voice-over): All five suspects are fingerprinted.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sierra, Alpha, Yankee.

CARROLL: Identified. Photographed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hands behind your back.

CARROLL: Cuffed and handed over to Afghan police for interrogation.

(on camera): Do you think it was luck or do you think it was just that there are a lot of them out there so it's easier to sort of grab.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today might have been a lucky day. Today might have been a lucky day.

CARROLL (voice-over): Coming up, Sergeant Shorter and his platoon bluntly assess the future of Afghan along with their fears and hopes on returning home.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh.

CARROLL (voice-over): The drawdown is under way. And the Shorter platoon is feeling it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ace, king.

CARROLL: A last card game. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why did I listen to you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pick them up.

CARROLL: A unit photo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From the bottom of my heart, I really appreciate all the hard work and sacrifice you guys put in.

CARROLL: A final thank you from their sergeant and some final thoughts as their 12-month mission winds down.

(on camera): Do you feel comfortable about leaving now in a few weeks or no?

SHORTER: Ten years, ten years of war, you know? Still no tangible solution. We can sit here and debate all day whether or not the Afghans are ready, but you know what? It's about time to put their feet to the fire. We paid a great cost.

SGT. JONATHAN NUNNALLY, U.S. ARMY: We've all lost somebody over here. And if we think we're pulling out too early, it's almost like those guys gave their life for nothing, you know?

SHORTER: Some people may feel it's dishonoring the memories of people that sacrificed. It's not. You know, because we have made progress.

NUNNALLY: I don't mind staying over here until the mission is complete where I know this government and the police and army can take care of it.

LT. GEORGE KANE, U.S. ARMY: Tactically, they're unbelievable. They are aggressive, they are go getters, their key developmental needs is on a leadership, planning, administrative logistics level. I mean, we'll be on missions and will show up and going to say, OK, you know, I'll give them the plan. We'll talk about it. They'll ask few questions and on the final, OK, you guys good to go?

And then they'll say, oh, yes, we're good. Can we have some gas? You guys didn't bring any gas?

PVT. ROBERT EDWARDS, U.S. ARMY: Are they ready? Are they not ready? You know, at some point, though, we're going to have to leave.

SHORTER: I complete drawdown, I absolutely support it. Complete withdrawal of troops, I support it, as well.

CARROLL (voice-over): Back home in Kentucky at Ft. Campbell, the families wait.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is it straight?

CARROLL: At the Shorter home, Sheryll and daughters Maylane and Ariana ready yet another homecoming. Within hours, Sergeant Shorter returns from his fourth deployment. SHERYLL SHORTER, SGT. SHORTER'S WIFE: The tears still come streaming through. And I mean it's all renewed emotion. But the act of getting everything set does get old because you're doing different things. You're doing the same thing. You're putting a banner up. You're decorating. That part may get old but the emotions behind it, no.

CARROLL: The other side of the war. The toll on families.

KANE: We have financial issues back home, dealing with divorce, relationship issues. First-time fathers that have never seen their children.

NUNNALLY: Life goes on without us. And then we go back and there's a lot of changes, you know. It might be something small like your wife has a different hairstyle. It might be something huge. And it's kind of a shock. It hurts almost. You know? It's like how dare you go on with your life when I was over there fighting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Uh-huh.

NUNNALLY: I mean, that's how I felt personally.

CARROLL: Do you remember how you were able to deal with it the first time?

NUNNALLY: The first time I didn't deal with it too well.

CARROLL: What does that mean?

NUNNALLY: I got pretty good at drinking.

CARROLL: OK.

NUNNALLY: And I held a lot of it in. You know? Everything I saw that first tour. Everything we went through.

PVT. JAMEY CARLILE, U.S. ARMY: When I got here, there's things you have to pick up. Certain things like you have to watch people's hands because they could have a weapon under the man dress, for all you know. So when I went home, like I went to the mall, being around all those people kind of freaked me out because watching everybody's hands and stuff like that, I freaked out.

SHORTER: I can't expect pity or sympathy from others. You know, yes, I went through what I went through. I've seen what I seen. But I can't fault my family members for that for not understanding. You know, the first time I almost lost my marriage because of that.

SHERYLL SHORTER: The physical part of coming back home is easy. It's the emotional part. People's personalities change. You know, your wife changes. Your kids change. It's a year. They learn new things. And soldiers are still stuck in that same mentality a year ago.

SHORTER: I take my job very seriously. I enjoy training the men. I enjoy being with them, but at the same time, on the other hand, I have a family. You know? You sacrifice so much. The little things you miss, the birthdays, the anniversaries, the graduations. You know? And we deal with it.

SHERYLL SHORTER: He hurts a lot. He realizes a lot of things that he's missed out on. Her getting a permit, I mean the day it happened we were on Facebook. You could feel in his words when he would type back, you know, I'm done. I can't do this anymore. She's going to be going off to college in two years. I have two years. And his fear is his daughters will forget him.

ARIANA SHORTER, SGT. SHORTER'S DAUGHTER: Excited.

CARROLL (on camera): Excited?

MAYLANE SHORTER, SGT. SHORTER'S DAUGHTER: Yes.

ARIANA SHORTER: I can't wait to hug him.

CARROLL: Can't wait to hug him.

MAYLANE SHORTER: It's been forever. I've only seen him on Web cam or like chatting with him on Facebook, but now I get to actually see him and give him a big nice hug.

SHERYLL SHORTER: Welcome home, daddy. For Ariana's poster and Maylane.

MAYLANE SHORTER: Mine says we've missed you. And at the bottom it has a turtle on it that says, no more waiting, bring my daddy home.

MAYLANE SHORTER: Daddy!

ARIANA SHORTER: Daddy!

SHERYLL SHORTER: I think this welcome home ceremony is going to be a very emotional one. With the kids there and you know us being able to finally hold him in our arms.

I love you. Where you been all my life?

SHORTER: As far as, you know, honoring the memories of our fallen comrades, how we deal and mourn for them, we go out there and we honor them in every way. But continuing our way forward, finishing But continuing our way forward, finishing our mission here in Afghanistan, allowing the opportunity for the Afghans to take over the country and that's how we honor their memory.

(END VIDEOTAPE)