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LAX Shooting Suspect; Texans Head Coach Collapse; BlackBerry Not For Sale; Dolphins Lineman Suspended; Obama Pens Op-Ed for Workplace Equality

Aired November 04, 2013 - 09:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Hatred toward the TSA and how police missed him by just hours.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He has a bag, gets in the car. Off they go. And a short time later, a knock at the door?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

MARQUEZ: Police.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police.

COSTELLO: Plus, a car repo? Not unusual. A car recall and the replacement part doesn't come in for six months? Wait. What? Honda saying drivers should just work around the problem. Is that really safe?

Also --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The wings came off. They were on fire.

COSTELLO: Twelve thousand feet in the air, two planes full of skydivers collide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The pilot got out safely, used his emergency parachute and landed.

COSTELLO: An amazing story of survival. And soccer fans so mad they set their rival's stadium on fire during the game.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We now have a better idea of just how troubled LAX shooting suspect Paul Ciancia was days before Friday's deadly rampage. Today he is in critical condition and a source says he is unable to speak to investigators. But a woman who knows Ciancia, and his three roommates, spoke exclusively with CNN.

She says a troubled Ciancia already reclusive and socially awkward appeared to be unraveling in the days before the shooting. And said he was already making plans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He asked one of the roommates if he could have a ride to the airport. He said that.

MARQUEZ: Why did he need a ride?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because that he was going back home, either that his dad was kind of sick and he had to deal with family issues.

MARQUEZ: Did anyone ever see a ticket?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. He also didn't mention what day he had to leave. So that morning yes, he doesn't knock, just opens the door and says I need to leave. You can take me now.

MARQUEZ: Did he ever express any hatred toward the government or NSA?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All NSA findings that came out, you know, this year, that he's very upset about it, he also thought that TSA abused their power.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's Stephanie Elam is in Los Angeles this morning with more.

Good morning, Stephanie.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Our Miguel Marquez spoke exclusively with this woman who knows of these people who lived in this place with the shooter and it was very, very striking to hear how everything went down. And if you listen to a little bit more of the conversation they had, it helps to paint a picture of what they realize was happening. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At that moment that they're seeing this on the TV, their third roommate comes back and says, I just dropped off Paul at LAX. He had to go home. I think that he had just dropped off Paul to a shooting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: Absolutely disturbing to hear that, Carol. Now what we also know is where the shooter is from in the southern New Jersey. They got text messages, his family did, his younger brother, his dad saw them apparently and alerted the chief of police in their town. That police officer then reached out to Los Angeles, they did a welfare check, they got there. This all happening around 10:30 in the morning on Friday Pacific Time.

They get there just within maybe 45 minutes or so afterwards. They handcuff the roommates, they start looking for any other clues and at that point, they realize just how bad the situation was. They just missed that window -- Carol. COSTELLO: It's just awful. I know the shooter is in the hospital. He's in critical condition. Will he be able to speak to investigators at some point?

ELAM: They have not made that clear at this point. We understand that he has been shot multiple times, that he was hit in the face and the neck. And that at this point he is unresponsive. Whether or not he regains consciousness, that we don't know. But if he does, he faces two felony offenses and so he could therefore end up serving life in prison or he could end up getting the death sentence ironically.

COSTELLO: Stephanie Elam, reporting live from LAX this morning. Thank you.

A frightening moment on the football field. Houston Texan coach Gary Kubiak collapses at halftime. Watch this. Watch Kubiak. All seems perfectly normal, but then the 52-year-old simply falls to his knees, he falls to ground. He was taken off the field in a stretcher and sent to the hospital.

His team leading at halftime unraveled after that. They lost in the end to the Colts.

Ed Lavandera is in Houston this morning with more on this.

How's he doing?

ED LAVANDERA CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Carol. We're waiting to see what the latest update is on Gary Kubiak. A team executive said that he had gone through a series of tests and evaluation throughout the night and it all started with Gary Kubiak feeling dizzy and lightheaded.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA (voice-over): You can see Texans head coach Gary Kubiak on the 24 yard line when he suddenly falls to his knees during Sunday night's game. Long time colleagues rushed to his side. The teams were walking off the field for halftime during the game between the Texans and the Colts when the 52-year-old coach fell ill.

This was the scene at Reliance Stadium in Houston as he was rushed off the field on a gurney. Concerned NFL fans watching from the stands.

ANTONIO SMITH, TEXANS DEFENSIVE END: He went down to his knee and couldn't get back up, looked like he was having trouble breathing.

LAVANDERA: The ambulance rushed Kubiak to a hospital with his family by his side.

WADE PHILLIPS, TEXAN DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR: All his vital signs are good. He did not have a heart attack. But they're still checking on everything with him.

LAVANDERA: And after the game, a rival player took a moment to say they're pulling for the coach.

ANDREW LUCK, COLTS QUARTERBACK: Hopefully he's going to be all right. I know he's a great football man and a great -- a great person. You know, I think, a great win, but all our thoughts and prayers are with him.

LAVANDERA: Kubiak's health scare comes just a day after Denver Broncos head coach John Fox was hospitalized following complications from a pre-existing heart condition. Fox felt dizzy while playing golf near his North Carolina home on Saturday. The 58-year-old coach is now in the hospital awaiting surgery to replace an aortic valve and faces weeks of recovery.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: And Carol, it was all very confusing and scary time in those moments as the player were all walking off the field going to the locker room for halftime. All of this in front of more than 70,000 fans at a national television audience and team executive says they hope that Gary Kubiak will rejoin the team at some point later today. We'll see if that indeed does happen -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I hope so. Ed Lavendera reporting liver in Houston this morning.

This next story is nothing short of remarkable. Especially when you consider how tragic the ending could have been. Two small private planes collide in midair over superior, Wisconsin. And even though one plane can barely fly and the other will soon crash no one is seriously hurt. That's because both planes were carrying skydivers who jumped to safety.

CNN's George Howell has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Flying in formation some 12,000 feet in the air, two planes had just reached their targeted altitude carrying nearly a dozen skydivers when something went wrong. One of the pilots remembered hearing a lot bang. Then the windshield shattered. The moment both planes collided in midair. According to one of men who was on board the plane, it turned out to be a jump for their lives.

MIKE ROBINSON, SKYDIVER: Four jumpers in the lead plane get actually out of the airplane, they're on the step hanging on to the strap. Then they leave. Meanwhile the jumpers in the trail plane have done the same thing, they're on the step. So when they see these jumpers leave, then they leave. We're not sure exactly why they collided yet. But they did.

HOWELL: You can see from these pictures how the lead plane was left mangled.

ROBINSON: The wings came off, they were on fire. The pilot got out safely, used his emergency parachute and landed. HOWELL: The pilot of the trail plane also survived landing his aircraft safely. Firefighters say when they arrived on scene, jumpers were still making their way to the ground. Amazingly everyone made it off the planes safely. For something that is so routine for these skydivers, with hundreds or even thousands of jumps under their belts, this accident served as a reminder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can be a dangerous sport. Usually is not. Unfortunately, you know you take what you get.

HOWELL: This time they all got very lucky after a terrifying scare in the sky.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: So these two planes flying side by side as we understand it from the owner of that skydiving company, are still unclear exactly how the collision happened. And there is an investigation under way, Carol, to determine that. As for the actual plane that crashed, we understand it was insured for liability, it was not insured for collision. So the skydiving team will be grounded for at least a couple of weeks until they get another plane -- Carol.

COSTELLO: It's just unbelievable. Unbelievably lucky, I should say.

HOWELL: That is right. Yes.

George Howell reporting live from Chicago this morning. You got it.

Checking other top stories this morning at nine minutes past. President Obama pressing lawmakers to pass legislation that would make it illegal for employers to fire people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

In an op-ed Sunday, president Obama wrote this, quote, "We're all created equal and every single American deserves to be treated equally in the eye of the law. We believe that no matter who you are, if you work hard and play by the rules, you deserve the chance to follow your dream and pursue your happiness." End quote. Senate is expected to vote on the legislation later today.

A White House official says there has been no discussion about clemency for Edward Snowden and the heads of the House and Senate Intelligence committees they'll also -- also believe, rather, the NSA Lakers should return to the United States to face justice.

That joints reaction comes after a German magazine published a let from Snowed, in it is he says he's seeing a positive reaction to disclosing classified information and that he wants the United States to stop treating him like a criminal.

This just into us this morning. A major announcement from BlackBerry. It is abandoning all plans to sell the company. The company CEO will also be stepping down. Confusing, right?

Our chief business correspondent Christine Romans is in New York to explain this to us.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR: This is the demise of a once- very powerful company. The crack berry. You know, something that was ubiquitous in corporate boardrooms and we worker bees used it. In Washington, on Wall Street. And now this company has just slowly unbound. The stock is down 20 percent this morning, Carol.

They've actually halted trading of the shares. That the last four years, the CEO is now out. Thorsten Heins. He's somebody who had bet 100 percent on a new operating system and new blackberries to really invigorate this company in the midst of this, all of the competition out there. And it just didn't work. The company had been shopping itself around, trying to find a buyer, really couldn't. And now there is a new CEO will take over. Basically this is a company in the hands of private equity investors and we know what they do, if they can't sell it, they can't turn it around, they will break it apart and sell the pieces.

So this is a company right now everyone is asking is my crack berry, is my BlackBerry going away. That is a distinct possibility.

Now very recently the company, it appealed to its customers saying please stay loyal. We're not dead yet. But what you're seeing here this morning is another sign that this will be one of those companies that there will be a chapter written about it in every business manual when you go to college because what they've gun, all the mistakes they've made.

One interesting thing, Carol, the new CEO is a turnaround guy, John Chen. Used to be the CEO of Sybase Tech Company. Also Siemens. So this is someone who has a lot of credibility in the industry. We'll see what he has up his sleeves. But for now very bad news for Blackberry and for BlackBerry shareholders -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Christine Romans reporting live from New York this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a new twist in the NFL bullying investigation. One Dolphins player now suspended. And a report that a teammate was forced to pony up $15,000 for veteran players to go to Las Vegas. We'll talk about that after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The NFL is a mess at the mom. Hear me out. It's dealing with concussions, suicides, former NFL player Aaron Hernandez charged with murder, Denver's coach is in the hospital with a heart condition. And last night, Houston's coach collapsed on the field.

And this morning, you could add bullying to the list. Jonathan Martin, Miami Dolphin, left the Dolphins team after he was forced to contribute $15,000 to veteran players for a trip to Las Vegas. Local sports reporters say this kind of thing is a big problem. If rookies don't hand over large sums of cash for trips, dinners and more, there are consequences on the field.

Offensive lineman Richie Incognito has been suspended by the Dolphins and is under investigation by the NFL for being a big old bully.

Incognito is not happy. He tweeted this, "Adam Schefter, a reporter, stop slandering my name. You hide behind sources who are not man enough to put behind the BS you report."

And you thought these guys were sort of kind of grown up.

Jamal Anderson, who played for the Atlanta Falcons, is here to talk about it.

Seriously, Jamal?

JAMAL ANDERSON, FORMER ATLANTA FALCONS RUNNING BACK: Carol, come on now. It's the same game they play when they're kids.

COSTELLO: No, they're adult men.

ANDERSON: No, there is no doubt about it, most of any and all hazing that happens in football, and it happens on every level, it's harmless. Most of the time, it's harmless. Most of the time there are things that all guys have done when they first get to a football team, you go through certain things to be a part of the team. Because it happened to other rookies, it happened to other fresh men, it happened to other new guys, carrying pads, paying for lunch and certain meals.

COSTELLO: Yes, but there's a difference between putting something funky in the locker, and forcing a guy to fork over $15,000?

ANDERSON: I can't understand. I cannot relate to any of the facts -- if these are facts, any of the things that we're hearing about the story.

It's foreign to me. A player who would allow this to happen, an organization that would allow this to happen, the leadership on a football team that would allow this to continue to happen, this is all foreign to me. I've not been on a football team where the leadership was such that this could occur like this.

I mean, you know, this is not the a rookie we're talking about. This is now in his second year. This is the middle of his second season. Oh, by the way, a guy who started the majority of the games that he's appeared for the Miami Dolphins.

COSTELLO: Obviously, he has emotional issues, right?

ANDERSON: I don't know --

COSTELLO: Maybe he's someone who is easy to pick on and take advantage of?

ANDERSON: You know, it's interesting, these guys are offensive linemen. Offensive linemen are some of the toughest people on the football field on every football team. I don't care what age you play, these are the guys who hit on every single down. So, it's just -- for most people, it's a very interesting and weird story and you're trying to figure out what's the deal with Martin and is the Dolphins player that everybody is talking about, is he really responsible for all of the different things you're hearing. It's just -- it's weird. I'm like --

COSTELLO: OK. So talk a little about what consequences that Martin might face on the field if he refuses to fork over the -- because I'm thinking I'm an adult person, I'm in an organization and if somebody said to me -- I don't care if they were my superior or not -- hey, Carol, fork over 15,000 bucks, I want to go to Vegas, I'd say I don't think so.

ANDERSON: By the way, Carol, I would, too. I'm not 6'3", 320 pounds.

So I don't know what's going on with martin where he felt like he could not turn this type of thing down or he could not talk to other people. There are other guys, there are 12, 13 linemen in the group itself. Not just the other 53 guys on the football team. There are other leaders and veterans of the team. There is a position coach for the line, there is a head coach.

I just don't understand how this continues to happen and it happens to a level where we have here for an NFL team that's just all very odd to me. We talked about it last week. Bullying?

OK. I'm for the not trying to be insensitive. It most certainly occurs. It is a critical importance right now that we address this in our society. So, I'm certainly not trying to say, he'd just because he's a linemen this can't happen. I'm just trying to understand it, Carol. I'm truly perplexed.

COSTELLO: Well, the NFL apparently is trying to understand it, too, because an investigation is under way.

ANDERSON: Right.

COSTELLO: This Incognito guy has been suspended, and Miami Dolphins are looking into it. So, hopefully, we'll know much more in the days to come.

Jamal, thank you so much.

ANDERSON: It will be OK, Carol. It's OK. Football is a microcosm of society. We're just like you. Just a little bigger, sometimes tougher, sometimes not so tough.

COSTELLO: And a little more immature -- no, I know we're immature, too. What am I talking about?

ANDERSON: Right.

COSTELLO: Jamal, thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM: President Obama wants to make it illegal to fire employees based on their sexual orientation. Up next, we'll you about his new op-ed and whether legislation is expected to pass the Senate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: This morning, President Obama is pressing lawmakers to pass a bill that would make it illegal for employers to fire people based on their sexual preference or gender identity.

In an op-ed in "The Huffington Post" Sunday, he wrote this, quote, "Millions of LGBT Americans go to work every day fearing that without any warning, they could lose their jobs not because of anything they have done, but simply because of who they are. It's offensive. It's wrong. And it needs to stop", end quote.

The Senate will vote on legislation later today.

Our senior White House correspondent Brianna Keilar is here now. She's at the White House to tell us more.

Good morning, Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol.

President Obama weighing in this morning ahead of this vote in the Senate today. He says, quote, to "The Huffington Post," in an op-ed, "Americans ought to be judged by one thing only in their workplaces: their ability to get their jobs done. Does it make a difference that the firefighter who rescues you is gay? Or the accountant who does your taxes or the mechanic who fixes your car? If someone works hard every day, does everything he or she is asked, is responsible and trustworthy and a good colleague, that's all that should matter."

And the White House really feels that this is just continuing on a number of actions that the administration has taken here in the last couple of years when it comes to the rights of gay Americans.

We saw President Obama not too long before the election last year changed his personal view on gay marriage, on same-sex marriage. He'd been in favor of civil unions as he came into office and he personally decided to support same sex marriage. We've also seen recently the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell". And with the Obama administration stopping its enforcement of that federal same-sex marriage ban once the Supreme Court this year overruled that ban, we're now seeing same- sex couples a lot of them get married so that they can enjoy those federal benefits that traditional couples receive, as well, Carol.

COSTELLO: I know that Apple CEO Tim Cook is also weighing in on this, he's pushing the Senate to vote for the legislation. But do you think it will, Brianna?

KEILAR: You know, actually, the expectation, and let me just tell you this -- we just got notice from Dean Heller, a senator from Nevada, a Republican, who is saying that he will support it and that actually gives this measure 60 votes.

So, it is appearing that it is increasingly likely that this is going to pass the Senate. And, Carol, I'll tell you, it really is a lot of the business community that is driving this.

I spoke with an advocate in favor of ENDA this morning who said you look at Fortune 500 companies, more than 80 percent of them already have measures like this in place. And it's actually government they feel that's lagging behind.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Brianna Keilar, thanks so much. And that's a leaf blower behind you if you were wondering.

KEILAR: It is. Sorry.

COSTELLO: Kind of looks like a truck on fire, but it's leaf blower (ph).

KEILAR: Yes.

COSTELLO: Thanks, Brianna.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM: the Toronto mayor apologetic, but still keeping it real.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROB FORD, TORONTO MAYOR: To say I'm they ever going to drink again is not realistic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anything in moderation, Rob.

FORD: Anything in moderation is fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: We'll have more on the most serious allegations facing the mayor and some surprise poll results in the wake of his controversy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)