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Search Continues for Flight 370; Fort Hood Investigation

Aired April 03, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY: He finished a half-marathon in a wheelchair four months after the explosion.

On the one-year anniversary of his injury, he ran a mile on his prosthetics. Over the next few years, Dan stayed on active duty while in the Navy, earning medals in swimming and running events at the Warrior Games and completing the New York City Marathon.

And today, four-and-a-half years after his injury, Dan is proud to wear another one of our nation's uniforms, and that is of TEAM USA.

Yes.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

M. OBAMA: There is Dan.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Dan -- Dan is in the back there.

M. OBAMA: Dan is in the back.

B. OBAMA: Wave again, Dan. There is Dan.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

M. OBAMA: And I also got to meet Dan's sister, who stayed by his side every single minute of his recovery. And she was an important part of that recovery. And she is a terrific woman and nurse herself. And I am glad to hear she is doing well.

In Sochi, Dan inspired us all again by competing in the 15K biathlon and the one-kilometer sitting cross-country sprint. So, Dan has come a long way in the four years that we met. And I know that his story and the stories of all our Olympians and Paralympians are nowhere near finished.

So keep it up. This is only the beginning. Many of you were here four years ago, and you told us you would be back, and you are back. So, I know you are already getting ready for that next four years, but in the meantime, we look forward to all that you are going to do in this country and around the world to keep inspiring particularly young people to just live a little more like you all live and to show them that spirit of persistence. So, thank you all again for everything that you do. And I can't wait to hear about everything that you will do in the years to come.

And with that, I am going to turn it over to this guy next to me...

(LAUGHTER)

M. OBAMA: ... who happens to be my husband, but more importantly is the president of the United States, Barack Obama.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

B. OBAMA: All right. Now, let's first of all be clear. It is more important that I'm Michelle's husband than that I'm president of the United States.

(LAUGHTER)

B. OBAMA: I just want you to -- I don't want anybody to -- I don't want anybody to be confused.

Many of you young people out there are not married yet. So, I just wanted you to know I'm giving you tips in terms of how to prioritize.

(LAUGHTER)

B. OBAMA: Obviously, as Michelle mentioned, our thoughts right now in many ways are with the families at Fort Hood.

These are folks who make such extraordinary sacrifices for us each and every day for our freedom. During the course of a decade of war, many of them have been on multiple tours of duty. To see unspeakable, senseless violence happen in a place where they are supposed to feel safe, home base, is tragic.

And, obviously, this is the second time that the Fort Hood community has been affected this way. So, we join that entire community in honoring those who lost their lives. Every single one of them was an American patriot. We stand with the families and their loved ones as they grieve. We are thinking about those who are wounded. We're there to support them.

And as we learn more about what happened and why, we're going to make sure that we're doing everything in our power to keep our troops safe and to keep our troops strong, not just on the battlefield, but also when they come home.

They have done their duty and they're an inspiration. They have made us proud. They put on their uniform and then they take care of us, and we have got to make sure that, when they come home, we take care of them.

And that spirit of unity is what brings us here today, because we could not be prouder of Team USA, Team USA.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) B. OBAMA: I hope all of you made yourself at home. We double-checked to make sure all that the bathroom looks were working in case Johnny Quinn tried to bust down some of these antique doors. We didn't want that to happen.

(LAUGHTER)

B. OBAMA: I want to recognize the members of Congress here with us, as well as Scott Blackmun and Larry Probst from the USOC.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: The president and Mrs. Obama hosting members of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams at the White House. This is their way to honor and recognize all the hard work that they did.

And, of course, you heard the president mentioned Fort Hood and that he also recognized the people there, those who lost their lives and the families who are dealing with that today, Brooke.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Right. Don Lemon, thank you so much.

Good afternoon, everyone, just sort of springboarding off the president's remarks there at the White House, pausing to really share thoughts and prayers with people here, this military family grieving today at Fort Hood.

You are watching CNN's special coverage. Just checking over my shoulder here, they are getting set up for another news conference in less than an hour here. The commander at Fort Hood will give this news conference on the second mass shooting this post has seen in fewer than five years.

From sources, we now know the name and face of Wednesday's afternoon shooting. It is that of 34-year-old Ivan Lopez, who investigators are honing in on. The big question is why. What motivated this Iraq war veteran to, according to these sources, open fire, killing three people and wound some 16 others and then turning the gun on himself, killing himself?

A sergeant major who served with Lopez during his nine years in the Puerto Rico National Guard, before for this man joined the U.S. Army, he said -- quote -- "Lopez was the best soldiers we had in our infantry," but recently Lopez seemed troubled.

He was receiving treatment for anxiety and depression and believing -- this is according to him and reports -- that he suffered a traumatic brain injury. But we learned from the Armed Services Senate hearing that that was not the case. This is according to the secretary of the Army.

Sources tell CNN that investigators say it appears there was some purpose to the locations where these shootings happened here at two different buildings on post here at Fort Hood. And CNN has learned from officials briefed on this investigation that Lopez, the father of a 3-year-old girl here, purchased this gun, this .45 semiautomatic pistol, on March 1. But they say it doesn't appear it was with the specific intent of using it in the shooting as they witnessed on post yesterday afternoon.

Lopez's wife reportedly is cooperating with investigators questioning her. Obviously, she told investigators that she had absolutely no idea what brought about his sudden actions yesterday. And neighbors say they were absolutely shocked. This wife was shocked and they were shocked to hear it was this man who was involved in the shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

XANDERIA MORRIS, NEIGHBOR: We had no clue. No one had a clue. She didn't even have a clue until a few hours had passed and we all heard it over the news.

When they repeated the name, everybody just broke down in tears. From what I can see, it seems like it was disbelief and it was a lot of hurt at the same time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: As investigators are trying to determine the motive, the answer to why here, the family here at Fort Hood, this tight-knit community, they have to once again come to grips with another mass shooting.

And let's go to the Pentagon, to Barbara Starr.

Barbara, in terms of this Army specialist, 34 years of age, what more do you know about him?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, the details are coming out very slowly. And I think we expect to hear a lot more at that press conference being set up right behind you, Brooke.

Ivan Lopez did serve in the National Guard and then joined the active- duty U.S. Army. Just before coming to Fort Hood, he served at Fort Bliss. We now know that. The question really on the table of course is his state of mental and behavioral health.

The Army says he was being treated for anxiety, depression, psychiatric treatment for a number of issues, also sleep issues. He had a number of prescription drug medications, including Ambien. All of this is going to be looked at.

One of the key questions is whether his mental health provider at the Army potentially missed something. Were there signs? Was there any indication this might be such a very troubled human being? Because in military law, rules and regulations, if there is any indication someone undergoing treatment might be a harm to themselves or to others, that needs to be reported to a commander.

No indication that this was reported. The question is going center around, was there any reason to believe he was a threat? Was there any reason to believe he was a threat when he purchased that weapon? These are all just some of the questions we have no answers to yet, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Let me follow up, Barbara, with this, because you and I both were listening to the General Ray Odierno testifying this morning.

I talk to an Army major this morning, and he corroborated what General Ray Odierno said, which was basically kudos to Fort Hood for acting as quickly as they did. And I'm just curious, since that shooting in 2009, what changed on post, protocol, rescue crews, et cetera, to handle this so well yesterday?

STARR: Well, we even saw it, sadly, tragically, at the Washington Navy Yard shooting here in Washington, D.C., just a few months ago.

At these major installations now, there is much improved training, coordination, practicing, sadly, very sadly, practicing from mass attacks. The feeling is that the part that worked yesterday is once the situation erupted, they were able to get emergency personnel on scene very quickly, able to deal with it, and tell people to shelter in place, keep everyone as safe as they could until they could resolve this entire situation.

The thing about military bases, though, we have seen so many of these incidents, you are never going to have perfect security. Fort Hood, Brooke, you see it right there at the gate, tens of thousands of people coming in and out all day long. It is not practical to search all of those cars. There is actually no way of knowing if someone is bent on criminal intent what they might be bringing in, even though they have that permit sticker in the window that allows them to go right through the gate.

BALDWIN: That's exactly right. To the civilian eye, many people wondering, well, why not just search single every car, why not just see if anyone is armed, why not just if anyone has any sort of mark on their mental history evaluation forms?

But from everything I have gained here, that seems virtually impossible. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thank you so much, Barbara.

Just want to let you know, Don Lemon, and to our crew in the control room, I am spotting now the mayor of Killeen, Texas, now getting miked up. In a matter of minutes, we will talk to the mayor, who clearly has had a pretty busy past 24 hours. And he can help understand really just this little community, this little city behind me here at Fort Hood, and how this has impacted people here, again, fewer than five years later.

LEMON: So many questions, Brooke, so many questions. Thank you very much.

And so many questions surrounding the hunt for Malaysia Flight 370. It may be on the verge of a new chapter. This is what CNN is learning. The man leading the search will hold a big operations news conference in the coming hours, this as a British ship zeros in on a specific search area, big, big developments next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Welcome back . Let's talk now about the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. It may be on the verge of a new chapter.

CNN has learned that the man leading the search will hold a big operations news conference in a few hours. And we're waiting to hear what time Australia's Angus Houston will speak. Plus, we have learned a British navy ship, the HMS Echo, will conduct a very specific ocean search today. The Echo has been searching for any sonar transmissions from the flight data recorder. Australia's prime minister says the hunt for Flight 370 is the most difficult in human history.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY ABBOTT, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: This is probably the most difficult search ever undertaken, the most difficult search ever undertaken.

Even though we are constantly refining the search area, even though the search area is moving north, it is still an extraordinarily remote and inaccessible spot, at times subject to very difficult sea conditions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, here's what else we know now as well, that search crews are in the newly defined area. They will get more high-tech help.

The Australia Ocean Shield expected to arrive soon carrying a special U.S. pinger locator. It is basically a giant underwater microphone, a giant underwater microphone used to help find the plane's data and voice recorders commonly known as black boxes. The batteries on the boxes' pingers expected to run out within days.

So, we want to focus on the British Navy ship set to make a specific, a specific ocean search for Flight 370 somewhere in the Southern Indian Ocean.

Joining me now to discuss this is Georgia Aquarium's director of research, Alistair Dove. He has been on CNN helping us through this.

Thank you so much. Appreciate you joining us. First question to you, we know the British ship HMS Echo previously searched for sonic transmissions from the flight data recorder. What else could it be looking for if not the all-important pinger sound?

ALISTAIR DOVE, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, DEEPSEANEWS.COM: Well, my guess is, is that is exactly what they are looking for.

And I'm encouraged to hear the Australian prime minister saying that this is possibly the most difficult search ever undertaken, because we shouldn't really diminish the technical challenges of trying to find this pinger box or indeed any wreckage that might be there from Flight 370. So, it's really interesting to hear the prime minister say that, and if indeed they have made a breakthrough today, then that's tremendously exciting news. LEMON: Alistair, you know, authorities have said that pinger false alert can be triggered by whales or shipping noises. How are false alerts caused by whale sounds?

DOVE: So, whales emit noises in a number of different frequency ranges. And if those frequency ranges should happen to overlap with the frequency of the pinger, it's possible that you could get a false positive.

The ocean is a really noisy place, more so now than ever. In fact, noise pollution is a great concern for ocean conservationists. So, there are a number of other sources of noise in the ocean that could confound efforts to listen for the pinger.

LEMON: Why more so now than ever?

DOVE: There's a number of other sources, seismic surveys. The navy -- various navies actually do a number of sonar activities that are disturbing to marine life. And the ocean noise is just another type of pollution, along with pollution and the debris that has hampered the search so far at the surface.

LEMON: We are learning so much about the ocean from this particular story. Listen, we know that the Ocean Shield carrying a U.S. towed pinger locator will soon be inside the box. And that is meaning -- the box means the search area.

What kind of ocean conditions do searchers need in the coming hours to position this for the best success possible?

DOVE: Well, typically, you need pretty calm ocean surface conditions in order to be able to deploy assets like an ocean pinger locator. This one might be a little bit more robust to waves, for example, than an ROV, a remotely operated vehicle, and certainly much more robust than a human occupied vehicle or a submersible. Those sorts of vehicles really require pretty flat conditions in order to deploy.

But I think it's likely that this one is able to be deployed under slightly rougher conditions, but still you do need the ocean to cooperate with you a little bit in order to effectively deploy assets of this sort.

LEMON: We always appreciate you, Alistair Dove of the Georgia Aquarium.

And coming up, they could hold the key to figuring out what happened to the missing plane. You have heard a lot about the so-called black boxes. Well, CNN got a behind-the-scenes look at exactly what happens when a flight data recorder is sent to a lab. We're going to show you what information it holds and how it is processed -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Also ahead, Don, on the other side of the break, I have got the mayor of Killeen standing next to me here. And he has just walked out of a briefing with General Milley here at Fort Hood and a number of community leaders. We are waiting for this news conference happening in just about 40 minutes from now. We will get a heads-up as far as what we should be hearing and talk about this tight-knit community, talk about how these families are affected and really the strength that they are able to tap into to continue on here in Killeen, Texas.

More news, special coverage -- right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You are watching special coverage here on CNN of the tragedy that unfolded just about 24 hours ago on post here at Fort Hood in Texas.

We know a little bit about the shooter, 34-year-old Ivan Lopez, a father, a husband, four dead, including the shooter, 16 or so injured.

And as we learn and as investigators are clearly working today 24 hours out, we are learning a little bit more about the community and more about the investigation.

Let me bring in the mayor of Killeen, Mr. Dan Corbin.

Mr. Mayor, nice to meet you. Thank you for coming by.

I can't imagine the last 24 hours you and this community have endured.

DAN CORBIN, MAYOR OF KILLEEN, TEXAS: It was quite a shock, and we have all been stunned by the developments. And we were first full of hope, and then as the casualties became apparent, naturally, we were overcome by grief.

And we reach out to the soldiers. These -- there's 41,000 soldiers stationed at Fort Hood.

BALDWIN: Massive.

CORBIN: And they're -- those are active soldiers that deploy back and forth from combat. They're really great people and they are well-led.

And when something like this happens, over -- several hundred of them have been killed out of Fort Hood in these wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. So, we not only mourn these three victims who died, but also many hundreds who have given their lives and their families.

BALDWIN: We are waiting. I can see people getting ready to set up for this news conference about a half-an-hour from now.

You just stepped out of a meeting with community leaders, General Milley. What will he be telling us?

CORBIN: General Milley briefed us for over an hour and told us about the latest developments as they know that, and kind of asked us to let him be the spokesman on those facts.

But he did allow us to share some of the things. He had just got back from a visit to Scott & White Hospital, where he had visited but all but one of the people (INAUDIBLE) surgery. But he said that -- the three critical are improving. They have not officially upgraded their condition, but we were all pleased to hear it through that.

BALDWIN: Excellent. Excellent. This is emotional for you.

CORBIN: Well, it's emotional for all of us. These are members of our community. And whenever things happen, it hurts us all, just like they're family.

BALDWIN: What about this community? Because I know that the soldiers are not supposed to be talking to members of the media, so it's tough to really get a perfect picture as to how they are feeling and how they're reacting.

I talked to a very young soldier who has never deployed a little while ago. And she said Fort Hood is a tough place. She told it to me straight, just her perspective. But you tell a much different story about a group of people and families who live together and eat together and Pray together and mourn together.

CORBIN: That's correct.

That's the kind of community we are. Everybody brings their own -- you could go into any new community, as many young soldiers do, and they don't ever get to really know the community. They go out and participate in things. If you just stay in the barracks, then you are going to have a totally different view of what the community is like.

But for those who live in our community and work in our community, and I think that they will tell you that it's a community that really respects and really appreciates so much the sacrifices the soldiers make for us.

BALDWIN: Let me ask you this, though, as we are trying to understand, you, this community trying to understand why this man took these lives, the fact that he had this gun that he legally bought and came on post, which he should not have done, with that gun, it wasn't registered, and began shooting, clearly, that seems to me that something -- there are gaps. There holes here in some of the security.

I know it's impossible to check everyone's cars. This is a massive place.

CORBIN: It is, tens of thousands of cars going through the gate every day. There's roughly 100,000 people who work here.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: What do you do? How do you stop this?

CORBIN: Well, how do you stop it in all of America? How do we stop it in our country?

It goes back to whether or not people have values, whether or not they respect authority, whether or not they follow rules. A lot of it has to do with how they were raised. I think, as a nation, we need to think not just to look at what we could do to regulate guns, but what we could do.

BALDWIN: Mental health.

CORBIN: Not everybody is a good person anymore. That's a shame. But when you see video of people just walking down the street and just sucker punching somebody, so they could knock them out in one blow, what kind of a person would do that? And we see so many examples of that kind of unacceptable behavior.

BALDWIN: Yes, it's a national conversation that we have had sadly before. I have covered too many of these shooting incidents. But it's a conversation we have to keep having, not just maybe when it comes to guns, but when it comes to mental health in this country.

Mayor, thank you.

CORBIN: Thank you for your...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Really appreciate it.

And, so, Don, you and I have both covered tragic stories like this and the conversations continue to percolate over mental health, what can be done. And it just seems here, at least coming on post at Fort Hood, it's impossible to check everyone what is coming on.

LEMON: Yes, it is. And we keep talking and talking. The stories keep happening. We need some resolution, some type of solution.

Thank you, Brooke. We will get back to you in moments.

It is the boat that could be the key to finding the black boxes, the Ocean Shield set to arrive at the search area just a couple of hours from now. It's carrying a high-tech equipment -- high-tech equipment from the U.S. Navy that is designed to find black boxes.

We have a crew on the Indian Ocean tracking its progress. That report is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)