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Coverage Of Shooting in Isla Vista, California; Six People, Plus Gunman Dead in Mass Shooting

Aired May 24, 2014 - 16:00   ET

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

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks so much.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

FEYERICK: Thanks so much, Fredricka.

Well, you are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Deborah Feyerick in for Don Lemon. The news this weekend dominated again by senseless acts of violence, a man with the gun and sadly a number of people have died.

West Coast near Santa Barbara, California police, still trying to condemn the timeline and details of last night's mass shooting. Witnesses a man opened fire from behind the wheel of a moving car. Six people are dead. The gunman also dead. At least seven other people are hurt. CNN's Kyung Lah and Sara Sidner, both in Isla Vista, California right now. Kyung, you first.

First of all, what have you found since we saw you last? You've been at the crime scene, piecing everything together.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What you're seeing the second of multiple crime scenes. Police officers still gathering all the ballistics evidence. Trying to figure out exactly how all of this went down. The timeline as well as who the suspect is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAH (voice-over): The eve of the Memorial Day holiday weekend turns deadly after multiple drive-by shootings in the small college town of Isla Vista, just minutes from the University of California Santa Barbara campus.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He shot and I just felt the wind like pass right by my face. So I started running the opposite way, and then I heard it again, like two times. And I was just sprinting.

LAH: In all, authorities say seven people were killed, including the gunman. Seven others injured. Those hurt sent to a local hospital for gunshot or traumatic injuries.

SHERIFF BILL BROWN, SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: We've identified nine separate crime scenes within the area. And multiple victims.

LAH: 19-year-old Summer Young says she was almost run over by the black BMW and witnessed the shooting.

SUMMER YOUNG, EYEWITNESS: I saw the car run down here and he was just firing off shots. Then we just ran inside the nearest restaurant and waited until some stuff calmed down. It was really hectic.

LAH: Federal and local authorities continued to dig on the gunman's past, who was found dead with an apparent gunshot wound. Investigators are now trying to trace the handgun used and where the suspect obtained it. Authorities say they are now analyzing both written and video evidence that suggests this was a premeditated mass murder.

BROWN: The problem with an incident like this is it's obviously the work of a madman, and you are - you know, it's just unfortunate that these kinds of circumstances occur, but there are very, very limited ways in which they can be prevented.

LAH: Shock and disbelief today in this small college town, with many questions including the big one, why.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAH: We are standing at the beginning part of where all of this happened. The BMW is actually just several blocks away, and you can see that it has a shattered window. But you also found a really compelling element of how all of this went down. You spoke with someone who saw a shooting victim.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This young man is a first-year student at Santa Barbara City college. He's 19 years old, came from Hawaii. Said he was in his room. He could hear shots going off, and suddenly he went downstairs, he heard one barrage of shots and then he heard another. Then he went down to the scene, and could not believe his eyes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER (on camera): Can you tell me, what did you see?

KYLE SULLIVAN, STUDENT AT SANTA BARBARA CITY COLLEGE: Well, I was leaving the fraternity right there, and I heard the gunshots and I recognized the sound of a gun. I've shot a gun before. So I waited and then I heard more gunshots and then after about like 30 seconds, I came around the corner right here.

SIDNER: So you're there at the fraternity.

SULLIVAN: Yes.

SIDNER: You're just down the street.

SULLIVAN: Yes.

SIDNER: And you come around the corner after hearing gunshots, what did you see? SULLIVAN: OK. So I came up and basically, there was a young girl laying right here. And she was - I could just tell immediately that she was gone. I saw a gunshot wound to her abdomen and like on her side, and also one to her head. So you could tell that she wasn't bleeding anymore, that she was gone. There was another girl right here.

SIDNER: My god, there were more than one?

SULLIVAN: There was three girls, yes

SIDNER: Three girls.

SULLIVAN: There was a girl right here. She was really, really struggling. You could tell she was just barely able to move her eyes. And just moving her arms slightly. And then there was another girl right here. And she was kind of laying down crouched. She was still conscious. She was talking. She immediately got on the phone with her mother. And was telling her mother about how much she loved her and she wasn't sure that she was going to make it. And then it probably took about a minute or two and the one right here passed away.

SIDNER: What were you doing right here this whole time as you were looking at this terribly grizzly scene?

SULLIVAN: I was in complete shock. I walked up and about three other people came from this angle. I didn't realize that this was real life at all.

SIDNER: Were you trying to talk to them? Did they say anything to you? Did you hear?

SULLIVAN: Yes, I was talking to the one on the phone because I could tell she said that she got shot in the kidney. And I could see that she had shots to her arm. So I could tell that she was probably going to make it. So i was telling her that she was going to be OK. I spoke to her mother real quick. I told her mother that she was probably going to make it.

We saw a police officer right down there by free birds, so we brought him over here immediately and he held her and was holding her wounds to stop the bleeding. And then I asked the police officer if we were safe staying here. Just because of, you know - that there was a person driving around shooting people, and he said that we should - yes, that we were OK, and literally like 20 seconds after that, we heard the next shots at the market over there.

And that's when he basically yelled at everyone and told them to run indoors and I ran back to the fraternity, and I, like, ran down the street and told everyone to go indoors, and people were just locking themselves in.

SIDNER: I noticed that your voice is still shaking. You're still trying to process all this. SULLIVAN: Yes, it was a huge shock last night. I really wasn't able to sleep at all. It was heartbreaking. That something would happen in our community like this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: That 19-year-old city college student, I mean, he was completely shaken up. He said he stayed up all night long trying to get more details as to what happened, but imagine, he's there and he did what he could. He tried to help. The one victim that he said was still alive. But he also witnessed two victims die.

FEYERICK: And Sara, Kyung, a question here. Authorities seemed to know who may be responsible for this. Like they have the person who was driving the car. The alleged gunman. He is dead. Why have they been slow in identifying the person responsible for these shootings?

LAH: Well, they want to make sure - what we've heard from authorities is they want to make sure that everyone who's involved gets in touch with their families. Remember who we're talking about here. The victims who are in the hospital, even the perpetrator, these are younger people. This is a college town. What we're hearing again and again from the number of students who keep coming up to us is that they're still trying to reach their parents. A lot of their parents are very concerned just like that young man that you spoke with. They've gone through an intense amount of trauma. So the authorities are being very cautious in naming anyone who's connected to this, Deb.

SIDNER: Yes. I want to quickly add that they're being cautious, but already it's all over the internet. People are making assumptions as to who this was, and this gentleman actually told us that he stayed up all night watching videos, looking at Twitter, trying to figure out who this person was and that is what has made him so shaky in looking through some of what some people are saying is the suspect's words.

FEYERICK: Yes, absolutely. We're not going to name the suspect until we do get that official confirmation, although there's an idea out there and a lot of these young people who are there have been following this on social media and putting the pieces together.

Kyung Lah, Sara Sidner, thank you so much. We'll be checking back in with you in just a little while. We appreciate it.

And now officials in Washington are also keeping a closing eye on what's going on in Southern California. CNN's Justice reporter Evan Perez standing by for us in DC.

And Evan, again, I asked Kyung and also Sara why officials are hesitating right now to release the name, because clearly there's some video, they're looking at various tapes that are giving them insights into the possible gunman. What are you hearing from your sources about the individual who may have done this?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Right, Deb. I think one of the things that happens, especially in these types of situations, is they want to be absolutely sure. Now, we do know that obviously they've identified the BMW, the black BMW that was at the scene there and where the gunman was pulled out of.

We also know that obviously they've retrieved his driver's license and that is just part of the process that they're going through. Now, U.S. law enforcement, federal law enforcement is now on the scene. The ATF is there to help the Santa Barbara sheriff's office do the gun trace. We know that they're heading to the gun shop perhaps where they believe he bought this firearm, so these are things that they're going to have to work through over the next few hours before they can make any public announcement.

We know that in the next few hours, the Santa Barbara sheriff's office is going to do another press conference, and from the part of federal law enforcement, they want to give the local police the chance to be able to do this. They're in charge of the scene. They're the ones that are going to be leading the investigation.

And the federal law enforcement is just there to help. Obviously there's been a number of these types of shootings all over the country in the last few months, and so unfortunately they have a lot of experience with these things, and so they're just trying to help out with the Santa Barbara sheriffs as much as they can, Deb.

FEYERICK: And clearly, obviously, when we find out exactly how this person got the gun and clearly from what he - what was done was not in a right state of mind. That's going to lead to a whole other host of questions.

All right. Evan Perez, any word on how the Justice Department - are they going to look into this, or right now is this really just a local matter with federal supporting them in whatever way possible? It seems like that's what you said effectively.

PEREZ: Right, right, that's exactly right. I think right now the suspect is believed to be dead. They believe that there was nobody else who was involved. Obviously in the next few days, they're going to double check to make sure that there was nobody involved and perhaps knew about this or had any inkling about what might have been going down.

But at this point, if the suspect is indeed dead and everything is finished, then there's really nothing more for the federal government to help on here. We do know that the sheriff's office is relying on the California Department of Justice crime lab to help them do some of the analysis work that they're going to be doing over the next few days. Deb.

FEYERICK: OK. We're going to be getting a lot more information and there is going to be a press conference coming up later today. That's going to be at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time. Much more on this story. After a very quick break, we will talk live with another witness to last night's tragedy, and later this hour, saluting our veterans on Memorial Day.

We're joined live by actor and huge military supporter Gary Sinise to talk about how he's helping remember our men and women in uniform. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: And CNN is getting some new details about the shooter. We're going to be bringing that to you in just a little while.

We are told that police say the shooter also hit a person riding a skateboard with his car. That man tells Nick (INAUDIBLE) CNN he's got two broken legs and that he is going to need surgery. Nick says officers told him that the impact of that vehicle hitting him sent him flying 50 feet into a very busy intersection.

Earlier I talked with one of Nick's friends, Marissa Neel, about how he's doing and what she heard last night, and she is re-joining us and we're very grateful for that. And Marissa, you and I spoke a little earlier ago. You were in your home with your friends when you heard this gunfire. Tell me specifically what you experienced.

MARISSA NEEL, HEARD SHOOTING OUTSIDE APARTMENT: I was with my friends in my house. We were watching a movie. There were about five of us. All my housemates. We heard - I think it was six gunshots. And at first we didn't realize it was gunshots. We just heard really loud noises. We thought maybe it was our neighbors, like, playing a prank on us, banging on our door or something. But we kept hearing more gunshots and then realized that it was gunshots, and so we called our next door neighbors and they happened to have one of the victims that was being shot at, who had run away from the bullets and ran into their house.

And so they were keeping us updated on everything that was happening. So that's where we got most of our information, was our next door neighbors. And we live pretty close to 7-11 where some of the shootings happened, so that's why the shootings were so loud for us, and so our first response was to lock all of our doors and we all stayed in one room, turned the lights off and just sort of hid in there in case there was somebody with a gun on the loose or whatnot, because we didn't know exactly what was going on.

And then as time went on, we heard more distant gunshots, and we texted our friends that were in other places in Isla Vista to figure out what they were hearing, what was happening for them. So that's where we got most of our information from.

FEYERICK: So you began to hear the gunman apparently moving away from your location and going down the street, if I understand you correctly. Correct? So he was moving?

NEEL: Yes.

FEYERICK: OK. This area of Isla Vista, for people who don't know it. Is it generally a safe area?

NEEL: I'd say with the exception of some recent events, it is a generally safe area. But the town is definitely getting more dangerous, and that's very scary being a UC student here. Because I really love my school here, and I think we have a great community. But it's such a shame that so much violence has happened lately. FEYERICK: Now, we are not -- we at CNN are not yet naming the gunman, though I know that a lot of students have been on social media looking and following who they believe that this person might be. Without mentioning his name, though, is this somebody who you were familiar with, who you saw in that area, ever ran into at the 7-11? Somebody who was known in that area of Isla Vista, especially since this is really a college town?

NEEL: No, I had never seen him or heard of him. From what I know, he didn't even go to school here. He was from near the Montecito area. I think he went to Santa Barbara City College. But I had never seen him. None of my friends had ever seen him before.

FEYERICK: All right. In terms of the sounds that you heard, how long would you say this whole thing lasted for, best guess?

NEEL: About 20 minutes, I'd say, from the first gunshots.

FEYERICK: OK. You know the young man who we introduced, Nick Pasecec. He's in the hospital. He's waiting for surgery. What do you know of him, just sort of a regular California kid?

NEEL: Yes. He went to my high school. We were really good friends. We were on the same swim team back in high school. It was definitely a shock to hear that he was involved in it.

FEYERICK: OK. The people who were there, you guys have been speaking about it a lot. You've been talking about what's going on. Is there anything else that jumps out to you about the shooting itself? The things that you may have heard and now that you've been able to process all the information, does anything strike you as to what was happening last night?

NEEL: At first, it was really difficult to know who was the shooter, what were their motives and whatnot, but as we heard more through social media, my thoughts were just that this is absolutely insane and it's really scary that there could be a shooter that's just sort of an everyday person that you wouldn't really notice most of the time. I think based on what I've heard, the motives are pretty scary, that he was aiming for sorority girls or whatnot.

FEYERICK: Yes. That's another thing we're looking into as well. How are you and your friends handling this? Because you were really very close to all the action that was going on.

NEEL: Yes. We're very shaken up from it all. I mean, the shootings happened, they started at around 9:30, and we were just up all night worried about it and we couldn't get to sleep until around 4:00 in the morning. It's definitely really disruptive and really tragic.

FEYERICK: And, you know, obviously at issue here, there are six people who were out last night just sort of enjoying the Memorial Day weekend, and they are now dead. Has there been talk about who these young people are? Do you -- without mentioning names, are you aware of who they are? Were they students at UC Santa Barbara or even at the community college? NEEL: Honestly, I'm not sure. I haven't heard anything about the specific people that were killed.

FEYERICK: OK.

NEEL: But the very scary part of it is that my friends and I had just been at 7-11 10 minutes earlier, so it's really scary to think if we had gone 10 minutes later, we would have been at the scene of the shootings and on the streets and not safe in our homes. So that's definitely making us count our blessings.

FEYERICK: Yes. There's no question about it. All right, Marissa Neel, we are so grateful that you and your friends are safe. Clearly, just a tragedy for this college community and everyone else. Our coverage of this breaking news story will continue right after a quick break.

We're going to talk to the congresswoman who represents this district to find out what she's hearing from law enforcement sources. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

FEYERICK: And CNN is now prepared to name the alleged gunman. His name, Elliot Rodger. He is 22 years old, and based on what police have told his family, the family does believe that the gunman was their son, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger. Before the shooting, he left a YouTube message. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELLIOT RODGER, ALLEGED GUNMAN: Tomorrow is the day of retribution, the day in which I will have my revenge against humanity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: And he left a much longer video. In it he rambles about being treated unfairly, about how the girls were not paying attention to him, how he was a gentleman, but in fact, they were only interested in others. He complains about not having a girlfriend, not finding love.

Right now, we want to go to Evan Perez, who's also been following this. Evan, now that we know the identity, what can we say?

PEREZ: Well, Deb, this video and my understanding is the authorities are still looking at some blogs, some blog postings he made. There are a number of videos that he left behind. This is going to be something that's going to keep some of the investigators busy for several days, for months perhaps. The FBI has a team of behavioral scientists who have been looking at some of these suspects behind the series of shootings that we've had in this country in the last few months. And, you know, they're trying to understand a little bit more about what makes these things happen. It's impossible, really, to prevent them. I mean, this kid apparently drove his BMW and this all was done in like 10 minutes. He managed to kill a number of people, according to the authorities, so it's not something that authorities believe they can really prevent, but it does - it is something that they're beginning to be studying in order to try to understand this better and see if there's anything at all that can be done.

Perhaps we can see some early indications, some early signs to try to do anything to prevent these types of events. Now, we know that the ATF is on the scene. They're going to be looking through their records, the ballistics records to try to trace the handgun to see if there's anything else that they can learn perhaps that explains the motivation, when this was done, and so on.

But really, the trove here that this suspect apparently left behind, the suspected shooter, is really what is going to occupy the attention of law enforcement, both in Santa Barbara and over here in Washington and the FBI, that are going to be looking at this, to try to see what they can understand more about this shooter, Deb.

FEYERICK: And Evan, there is some suggestion that the family knew that this young man, Elliot Rodger, had some mental illness, and they may have even reached out to authorities at one point. That's how significant their concern was. Are any of your investigators telling you anything to that effect?

PEREZ: No. I have not heard that yet from our law enforcement investigators here. We do know - I've seen those reports. It is one of those things that every time after one of these shootings, you hear from family members where there was some indication - you know, it is one of the more difficult parts of these types of situations, because even if someone has signs of mental illness, it's really difficult to do anything about it per se. You can't really just pluck someone off the streets if you don't know that they have any intent to do something.

And there's a lot of people who have mental illness and never do anything like this. So it's really not fair to sort of just point the finger at that. But it is something obviously that they're going to take a look at, is there anything that was - that came to the attention of law enforcement perhaps that maybe could have been done. We don't know. We're expecting to hear more from the Santa Barbara sheriff's office when they have their press conference in a couple of hours, Deb.

FEYERICK: OK. Evan Perez. Thank you so much. And from what we understand based on a records search, the father, Peter Rodger, apparently is - worked in commercials and may have had some ties to developing "The Hunger Games" as well. We're looking into all of that.

Right now, again, a spokesperson for the family of Elliot Rodger saying that the parents do believe the gunman is their son, Elliot Rodger, 22 years old. He went to a local community college in Santa Barbara. We're now joined by retired law enforcement agent Lou Palumbo.

Lou, I don't know whether you've had a chance to look at this video, but he talks about annihilation, he talks about destruction, he talks about humanity being disgusting. Listen to it, to me it just sounded as if his tone was filled with self-pity and jealousy. Here's this sort of wealthy kid driving a BMW, and yet for some reason, he can't get a girl. What is your assessment?

LOU PALUMBO, RETIRED LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENT (on the phone): Well, I think we spoke just briefly again, there's a consistent denominator in these shootings that has to do with mental illness. Until we take a different approach on how we're going to address this particular phenomenon in our culture, we should anticipate more of these incidents. I've spoken to you before, Deborah, regarding the acquisition of these firearms. We need to put some type of mechanism in place that tries to stem the flow of firearms to people who are not mentally stable.

We first have to address this mental health issue, but I think simultaneously, we need to start to figure out what we're going to do to prevent people who are not mentally stable from having access to weapons in general.

FEYERICK: Let's talk about that, first of all, Lou. In terms of that, the mental health, when somebody goes to buy a gun, are there mental health checks that they have to undergo so that they can acquire that weapon? We don't know what background checks he had, as Evan Perez reported.

ATF is doing a forensic analysis on the gun and where it was purchased. But are there psychological background checks that people have to undergo, whether in California, New York, or elsewhere in order to purchase a firearm?

PALUMBO: There isn't, Deborah, and the interesting thing is that the only thing you are required to do is to check and make sure they're not convicted of a felony. I've spoken to you again about this. For some reason, we seem to be living with two standards. One standard that applies to our law enforcement community in which we go through a very thorough vetting process psychologically. They subject us to multi-phase screening tests, Rorschach, word association, interviews.

The general public walks off the street in the state of California with a driver's license, they present it, select the handgun, which can hold 10 rounds, which is more than a sufficient amount of ammunition to inflict a lot of harm. As long as they have no felony conviction, they give them that weapon. We need to address this deficiency in this culture, and that does not subscribe to the notion that we're going to deny anyone their Second Amendment rights. If anything, it could create an atmosphere that is a bit more liberal for people who are deserving of having these weapons.

It isn't just an issue of making sure psychologically they're sound, and criminally that they don't have felonies, they need training, they need classroom understanding. I mean, there's a whole problem attached to this. But once again, I don't see this society in this mode of problem-solving. You know, we're head-banging and politicizing everything.

FEYERICK: Before we move to the larger issue, Lou, let me ask you. In terms of what you tell from this shooting, it appears -- you just mentioned something that the handgun, the semiautomatic handgun that he had apparently had about 10 bullets in it. Is there the suggestion that, in fact, he was able to reload and fire multiple clips given that we know six people died, given that we know he was shooting and that we have witnesses saying that the bullets missed some of the people who are running away from the black BMW?

If you can draw us -- without speculating, but if you can draw us a picture of what you know based on the gun, the number of shots it's likely he got off and what we can talk about in terms of reloading. Let's stick to that.

PALUMBO: Well, reloading a semiautomatic weapon is at the issue. In order facilitate that process, you really have to press what we call a magazine release, which is a split second. And then insert a fully loaded magazine, which takes about another split second. You know, the efficiency of these weapons to inflict harm is just unquestioned.

But again, Deborah, you know, I don't think that the mechanics of the weapon is as critical an issue as the mental and emotional state of this individual, and more importantly, how he was able to get his hands on the weapon of this nature. You know, through the investigation, we're going to find out where that weapon came from, literally -- a whole trace or track of its life, from the manufacturer to distributors to retailers, and to who finally purchased it, for example -- if it was purchased legally, or how he acquired it.

In other words, if the weapon comes up and it was reported stolen, the authorities will have that information. If for some reason they find out the family member bought the weapon -- I don't even know what to say. We're at a point here that for some reason, we just can't wrap our arms around fixing this problem, and it's not through any means of addressing that is extreme in nature. We need to come up with some fort of compromise that everyone can live with and that will ultimately result in the elimination of people who are mentally unstable from getting their hands on this firearm.

FEYERICK: Yes, there's no question about that.

All right. Lou Palumbo, thank you so much. Stay with us. We're going to be checking in with you a little later on.

Our breaking news coverage continues after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: And it's our breaking news right now.

Police and sheriff's deputies calling it a mass murder in Santa Barbara, California. Now, we have learned that the family of a 22- year-old man named Elliot Rodger believe he was the person who killed six people last night in a shooting spree. He then either turned the gun on himself or was hit by the returning fire of a sheriff's deputy. Witnesses are telling their stories. The gunman in a moving car shooting from the driver's side window. Police found him in the car with a bullet wound. They don't know if he killed himself or if he was shot in a firefight with deputies. The sheriff's office is going through a video that the alleged gunman made along with several others that were online where he says he's going to get revenge on the women who rejected him.

Again, family of 22-year-old Elliot Rodger believe that, in fact, he was the shooter.

Here's how police responded last night.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A white male pointing a gun.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Respond for multiple gunshot victims in front of the I.V. Deli.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: According to a witness, there was a dark colored BMW, one occupant, a male wearing a white shirt, who was firing as he drove by.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eleven responding.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need a second ambulance for another gunshot wound at 6553 I.V. Dell Mart, code three.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Copy. Another ambulance at 6553 Pardell, I.V. Deli.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Might be another, another gunshot to the chest.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

FEYERICK: And the gunman drove along that street, that's why you're hearing different locations. Three people were killed, another seriously injured. Switching gears, another shooting, unfortunately, one in Belgium at a Jewish museum in Belgium. The shooter still at large.

Belgium's interior minister says the attack may have been a hate crime. The nation's terror threat level was raised and it is highest in locations frequented by the Jewish community.

Well, it's Memorial Day weekend, a time when most people are out enjoying themselves because they've got an extra day off, a special day for one of the war memorials on the National Mall. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke at the ceremony today, marking 10 years sense the World War II memorial opened for visitors. It is a beautiful memorial. Former U.S. senator and World War II veteran Bob Dole was also there.

Hagel said that special place exists in hopes that we never see this kind of a global conflict ever again. All the states represented there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHUCK HAGEL, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: That's why the memorial is so important. Like all memorials, it was built to honor the sacrifices of those who have gone before us, but also do instruct future generations that war is not an abstraction. War is real, with real consequences.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: And tomorrow night, the National Mall will be packed with people honoring our war heroes at the annual Memorial Day concert. A lot of people come on motorcycles. A friend of the military Gary Sinise will co-host. Sinise has been doing USO tours with the Lieutenant Dan Band, which we all know from the very famous movie, he's been doing that for years since his Oscar-nominated role in "Forrest Gump." He started the Gary Sinise Foundation in 2010 to bring even more support to the troops. And he joins me now live from Washington.

And, Gary, it is such an incredible thing that you do every single year, and all these veterans who come out, it's almost hard to describe the feeling on the mall of all these people coming together.

What is it about it that just gives you that kind of hope, that fire to do this?

GARY SINISE, ACTOR: Oh, it's a remarkable event. Good afternoon.

This is my 10th year here for the national Memorial Day concert. The first year I did it, I actually came here with The Lieutenant Dan Band and played on this stage that's right over here. And the following year 2006, they asked me to come back as co-host, 200,000 people here. All the steps are covered with people and all the way down to the stage.

It's a remarkable show on PBS. This is our 25th anniversary year. It's a remarkable way to honor those who have fallen, and to pay tribute to those who serve our country.

FEYERICK: And having gone to your Web site, you say we've got to do something. There's got to be something for these people who have given so much. When you look at the overall situation, what still has -- in your opinion, what still has to be done? What's not being done for these men and women?

SINISE: I think one of the issues that I always talk about is community support for our veterans. Unfortunately, there's a pretty big disconnect between the American people and its military, because unless you have a personal relationship with someone, a family member who's serving or a veteran in your family or a friend or something like that, a lot of the American people don't really understand what the military does. There's a statistic that talks about almost 70 percent of the American people are disconnected to its military and really don't know what our military and our military families go through.

What's wonderful about this concert, it kind of highlights that and points up stories of sacrifice and service. The current sacrifice and sacrifice years past.

It really highlights what Memorial Day is all about. It's more than hot dogs and ball games and barbecues and that kind of thing. It's really a day that's set aside to honor all those who have paid the cost of freedom, and we all know that without them, we wouldn't be free in this country.

So, I urge everybody to tune in to the national Memorial Day concert tomorrow night.

FEYERICK: And it's really amazing, because it really does celebrate the strength of the human soul. It's not just veterans, but it's their entire families. When CNN first broke the scandal of delayed care V.A. hospitals, what went through your mind? Because my guess is it probably wasn't a great surprise to you.

SINISE: No, not a great surprise. I mean, this is -- we all know the issues that plague government bureaucracies and that kind of thing. The V.A. is one of the largest departments in the government. There's going to be people that fall through the cracks and we've heard those stories for years and years. I hope that some of these things that are brought to light now will actually do something, that action will be taken to address this issue that has been ongoing.

FEYERICK: All right. Well, we all remember the movie "Forrest Gump." Lieutenant Dan and the Lieutenant Dan Band, thank you so much. Gary Sinise, that concert is going to air tomorrow night, 8:00 Eastern on PBS.

If you're in the area, you've got to get down there. It is going to be so worthwhile. We really appreciate it. Gary, thanks so much.

SINISE: Thank you.

FEYERICK: And we're going to switch gears a little bit right now. Back to our coverage of breaking news in California. A mass murder near Santa Barbara, California, in a college town.

Next, we're going to talk with a congresswoman who represents the district to find out what she's hearing from law enforcement sources. Stay with us.

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FEYERICK: Police are calling it a mass murder. A California college town ripped apart after a gunman sprayed bullets from his car last night. Seven people were killed including the gunman.

Based on what police are told, the family, the parents of 22-year-old Elliot Rodger believe that, in fact, he was the shooter.

Congresswoman Lois Capps represents California's 24th district, she joins me now on the phone.

Congresswoman, you've been speaking to law enforcement, I'm sure you've been getting brief by them. What are they telling you? What do you know?

REP. LOIS CAPPS (D), CALIFORNIA: You know, Deborah, my heart is broken over the shootings in L.A. last night, and each of the lives that is claimed. Our entire community is grieving because so many people are hurting since this tragedy.

FEYERICK: In terms of the constituents that you have spoken to, the people there, I spoke to one young woman who said last year when she was a freshman at UC-Santa Barbara, she felt very safe, but this year, she feels less safe in that area. Given this is an aberration. But still, what is your sense of that area?

CAPPS: Well, I've lived in this area for many years. And Isla Vista is a wonderful place. It's a very special place. It's right next door to the bustling university of California at Santa Barbara. It's really an important part of our central coast community.

And, you know, this tragedy has touched each of the students' it's right next door to the bustling University of California at Santa Barbara. It's really an important part of our central coast community. And, you know, this tragedy has touched each of the students' lives and all of the people who live in the community, and now we've got to go through the process of healing.

FEYERICK: Right. And as far as you know, were classes still in session at UC-Santa Barbara, or at the community college, or had most people sort of gone home for the summer?

CAPPS: Well, it's the weekend, but actually, the quarter is still going on. In fact, we're getting ready for finals on the campus. I was just on the campus yesterday meeting with the incoming student officers, student body president and so forth. And it's a very thriving, positive community and campus that has added so much to the central coast of California, very wonderful place. So, our hearts -- I mean, this is a tragedy that is hard to comprehend.

FEYERICK: Yes, for sure. All right, Congresswoman Lois Capps, thank you so much for joining us. It is going to be a tough week for those students, not only going into finals, but also trying to cope with the devastation that they're now learning about or may have even witnessed themselves.

Well, we are learning more about the alleged shooter behind the mass murder. Next, we're going to talk to clinical psychologist Dr. Jeff Gardere to find out what we can learn about this young man from the videos that he left behind.

Stay with us.

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FEYERICK: The gunman of a Santa Barbara, California, shooting spree is being described as mentally disturbed and possibly bent on retribution. Police have not released any kind of motive just yet, but an attorney told reporters that based on what police have told the family, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger is believed to be the gunman.

Clinical and forensic psychologist Jeff Gardere is back with me.

Jeff, we don't know too much about the alleged shooter, but he did record what appears to be a video right before the shooting. Let's take a quick listen.

DR. JEFF GARDERE, CLINICAL AND FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGIST: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tomorrow is the day of retribution -- the day in which I will have my revenge against humanity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: Just based on that very short video clip, what is it telling you in terms of his mind, his -- he seems like he's trying to control what's going on. What does it tell you?

GARDERE: What we've seen in the classic profile. Someone who has anger, rage, wants revenge, blames society for every ill that they have. Isolate themselves and are feeling so insignificant they feel now this is the way that they can become a god, omnipotent by randomly taking out people's lives. Hell-bent on destruction, but also his own destruction, because you know that he's not coming back from this thing.

FEYERICK: Yes, there's no question. He almost had to know that he was going to die by doing this. Do you feel that somebody like this -- do you feel that there may have been help he could have gotten, or was this so ingrained psychologically that once he committed, he was in?

GARDERE: Well, obviously mentally ill. We don't know whether it fits the level of insanity by law not knowing right from wrong, but certainly when we see people this young, around age 22, this is the most difficult population to treat and quite often they fall through the safety net of mental health. We can't hospitalize because they may not be dangerous enough at the time. So, we see this over and over again.

FEYERICK: All right. And all of that is going to be out. Jeff Gardere, we're going to have you stand by with us. We're going to be coming to you in the next hour.

Our breaking news coverage continues after a very quick break.

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