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Biker Shootout; Gay Priest Fired; Clapper: Putin "Winging It" In Syria; Iran Joins Syria Peace Talks for First Time; Auburn Prepares to Battle Ole Miss; Patriots Rout Dolphins, Stay Undefeated; World Series Game 3 Tonight: Royals Vs. Mets. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired October 30, 2015 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Biker history. Nine people dead. More than 100 arrested after a shootout between rival clubs at a Waco, Texas, strip mall. Months later though, no charges in those deaths and few details are actually known thanks to a gag order on police and prosecutors. But new video, obtained by CNN, is shedding some light on the chaos as it unfolded. Ed Lavandera has more. And we want to warn you, some of the images you're about to see are graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The showdown was like the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. That's how a witness describes the biker massacre to investigators. You don't have to hear the eruption of gunfire to feel the chaos the moment rival motorcycle clubs unleash a deadly melee.

These videos take you inside the Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco, Texas, where nine bikers were killed and the parking lot was turned into a raging war zone. CNN has obtained more than 2,000 pages of document, crime scene photos, many too graphic to show, and surveillance video, giving us the most detailed accounts of what unfolded last May. Some of the very evidence that a Texas grand jury is using to possibly indict the 177 bikers arrested and charged with organized criminal activity.

Restaurant surveillance cameras show the patio area filled with members of the Cossacks club waiting for an early afternoon biker meeting to start. They had already been there for more than an hour. The Bandido crew rolls in as police and SWAT teams, anticipating violence, are watching from a distance.

John Wilson is president of the Cossacks biker club chapter in Waco. He's sitting on the patio when the Bandidos arrive.

JOHN WILSON, COSSACKS BIKER: The lead guy on that - you know, I looked out. I was watching. He deliberately steered into one of our prospects and - and hit him. You know, I mean he wasn't going real fast, but he deliberately ran into him with his motorcycle, enough to, you know, knock him down.

LAVANDERA: The man Wilson is talking about is Clifford Pierce (ph). He refused our interview requests and has not be charged. But in a police report, an investigator wrote, "Pierce said he did not get his foot run over but may not have gotten out of the way fast enough." It didn't matter. The Cossacks believed the Bandido ran into one of their guys and the fight was on.

LAVANDERA (on camera): Who fired first isn't clear. One witness told police a Bandido fired the first shot into the ground. Another witness says a Cossack fired first. And in dozens of police interviews, the rival biker clubs point the finger at each other or claim they didn't see anything.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Clifford Pierce says he hit the dirt and was shot. A bullet hits his spine, leaving Pierce paralyzed from the waist down.

WILSON: At that time it was - it was pretty horrific. There were guys getting hit and falling. And I realized that I needed to get away from where I was. And I looked to the guy to my - my right - my left, a good friend of mine, and I told him, I said, we got to get off this sidewalk or we're going to die here, you know.

LAVANDERA: Mayhem ensues. A biker running across the patio fires a gunshot caught on camera towards the fight scene in the parking lot. He then stashes the gun. A number of Cossack bikers take cover. Some slide handguns across the ground to each other. Restaurant patrons and Twin Peak waitresses are stunned and trapped.

The scene plays out in gory detail. You can see a group of bikers pummeling one man just outside the patio area. Crime scene photos later show a biker's body left dead in that exact spot. This biker runs toward the camera with a bloody face. Another group pulls a wounded man into the patio and they appear to be trying to revive him. He's then carried away.

Several defense attorneys tell CNN the videos show that most of the bikers there that day were innocent bystanders.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, y'all - y'all going to put us in jail?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, everybody's going to jail.

STEPHEN STUBBS, FORMER BANDIDO ATTORNEY: The way they handled it with just the mass incarceration of people with million dollar bonds flies in the face of justice and flies in the face of fairness. It - it's ridiculous.

LAVANDERA: After it was all over, the scene was chaos. Dozens of bikers had run inside the restaurant to hide in bathrooms, in the Twin Peaks kitchen. Police SWAT teams move in to round up the crowd. They're escorted out with their hands up, weapons litter the crime scene, knives, brass knuckles and more than 150 firearms everywhere. Some even hidden in toilets.

LAVANDERA (on camera): It's been more than five months since the Twin Peaks brawl and all of the bikers are out of jail, out on bond. They were all charged with engaging in organized criminal activity, but not one of them has been indicted by a grand jury yet and no one has been charged with murder. In fact, it's still not clear who killed whom. LAVANDERA (voice-over): One police report says at least three officers

fired into the crowd and one officer wrote he heard "suppressed fire from what I believe to be SWAT officers with suppress rifles." Several defense attorneys say it's likely some bikers were hit by police bullets. But as far as we know, ballistics reports have still not been completed to determine that conclusively. Police and prosecutors have refused to answer questions about the investigation siting a gag order, but Waco Police have defended their actions since the beginning.

[09:35:22] SGT. PATRICK SWANTON, WACO, TEXAS, POLICE: This is a criminal element that came in here yesterday and killed people. They're not here to drink beer and eat barbecue. They came with violence in mind and were ready for it.

LAVANDERA: These images of the Twin Peaks brawl tell the story of unbridled pandemonium.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And all these bikers starting shooting. They put us in a freeze.

LAVANDERA: It was a wild west style shoot out in broad daylight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Oh, it's just incredible. Ed Lavandera joins me now from Dallas.

I know autopsies have been done. Is that telling investigators anything about who shot who?

LAVANDERA: Well, in the forms that we look at, it shows that four out of the nine people that were killed that day there at the Twin Peaks restaurant were killed, according to the autopsy forms, by a single gunshot. Obviously, in the biker community, in the circles there, they are convinced that that is kind of evidence that police were involved in those - in that - those part - that part of the shooting. Many defense attorneys have told us the same thing. But at this point, we just don't know. The ballistics information we don't have. We're not sure if it's been completed or if that is something prosecutors and investigators have at this point. And it is something that the grand jury is seeing. We simply just don't know that part of it. And, obviously, the ballistics aspect here is going to be the most crucial and most important part of that investigation in determining who killed whom.

COSTELLO: All right, Ed Lavandera reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a Polish priest fired for being gay slams the Vatican for hate and violence against homosexuals.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:41:14] COSTELLO: A gay priest, fired from his job at the Vatican, is speaking out today, condemning what he calls the catholic church's violence toward homosexuals. He made the shocking decision to come out earlier this month, just as catholic bishops were gathering at the Vatican for a month long meeting. That same day he sent a lengthy letter to Pope Francis accusing the church of making life hell for gay people. Quote, "if the salvation offered by the church doesn't respect the nature of homosexual people, I refuse such salvation, I refuse it on behalf of God."

Our CNN Vatican correspondent Delia Gallagher joins me now from Rome.

Delia, has there been any response from the Vatican to this letter?

DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, the Vatican has said that they have no comment on Monsignor Charamsa's letter other than what they already said when he came out at the beginning of this month. And at that time, they called his actions very serious and irresponsible, particularly because, as you mention, for the Vatican, the timing of it they said was aimed to exert undue media pressure on their synod meeting, on this gathering of international bishops and cardinals to discuss, among other things, the church's approach to gays and lesbians. The monsignor did give an interview this morning to our CNN Espanol station, so let's take a listen to some of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MONSIGNOR KRZYSZTOF CHARAMSA, GAY PRIEST FIRED BY VATICAN (through translator): The problem is what the church has done with our normal homosexuality. When they reject it, slander it, when they label it as something inhuman or even more, presenting us as enemies of families, enemies of the church, enemies of humanity, presenting us as not human beings or people who are inferior.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: And, Carol, we've said that there has been no official response yet to the monsignor's letter. But I wouldn't rule out once the dust settles and knowing this pope that there might not be some kind of a personal meeting because clearly this is one of his priests who is distressed, who has felt excluded, and we know that Pope Francis has always wanted to reach out that those who are in that situation. So perhaps, one could imagine, somewhere down the line, a kind of personal meeting between the pope and the monsignor.

Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Delia Gallagher reporting live from Rome this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Russia's growing military foothold in Syria. Does Vladimir Putin have a long-term plan or is he just winging it?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:48:07] COSTELLO: He's just winging it. That's how the Director of National Intelligence describes Russian President Vladimir Putin's strategy in Syria. In an exclusive interview with CNN's chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto, James Clapper describes Putin as opportunistic and impulsive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES CLAPPER, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: I think he's very impulsive, very opportunistic. It is a debate, but I personally question whether he has some long-term strategy. And I think his intervention is - into Syria is another manifestation of that.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Do you think he has a plan for Syria?

CLAPPER: What his long-term plan is? I'm not sure he has one. I think he's kind of winging this day to day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Interesting. In the meantime the crisis worsens and the death toll rises in Syria. Secretary of State John Kerry holds peace talks in Vienna. And for the first time Iran will be at the table along with a dozen other Arab and European countries.

Joining me now to talk about all of this, CNN military analyst Lieutenant General Mark Hertling. Welcome, General.

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: OK so Vladimir Putin is just winging it in Syria? So one day he decided wow, what could make the United States mad? I think I'll start fighting in Syria. Is that what Clapper is talking about?

HERTLING: I'm not sure that is. And if it is, I would disagree with the Director. I think Mr. Putin has a very valid strategy which is taking - in his view, anyway - which is taking Russia from the strategic defensive into the strategic offensive. We've seen him not only do what he's doing in Syria, threaten the use of nuclear weapons, become reinvolved in some of the -- what's called frozen conflicts in Europe near Moldova and Georgia and Ukraine.

[09:49:55] And he's also tweaking at the NATO alliance by some of these overflights and just some of the comments he's making in open press. So I think he's really going on the strategic offensive. Now for individual plans and the repercussion of those, like his adventure into Syria, I don't think he's completely thought that through and I think that's what Mr. Clapper is talking about.

COSTELLO: OK. So there are these peace talks going on in Vienna. The United States is involved, Russia is involved and Iran is involved. They're talking about Syria, right? The one person not present is Bashar al Assad, so I would suppose that those leaders are talking about, do we get rid of Assad? How do we get rid of Assad? Although Russia doesn't want to do that.

HERTLING: Well potentially. And I think you're exactly. right. That is going to be one of the primary topics of conversation, of what to do with Assad. You've just named three countries that have very different approaches as to what to do with him. Iran wants Mr. Assad in as a surrogate of opening up a Shia regime throughout the Middle East. Russia wants stability so they can continue to use their naval and air bases. And the United States wants them out so we can kind of stop this outflow of refugees and the massive slaughter that has gone on in this country for several years. So, it will all center on providing better governance for the Syrian people. Each one of those countries has a different approach of how to do that.

COSTELLO: So, is there some sort of compromise? Because there's an idea being floated on Russian TV that, you know, maybe they'll change the constitution and Bashar al Assad will get to run again and the people will vote for him, and it will be a different world in Syria if that happens.

HERTLING: Well, hopefully. That's what diplomacy is all about, is trying to determine some type of compromise to eliminate the warring factions that are going on in that particular country. But the compromise is going to be tough because the three countries see it -- the three countries, Russia, Iran and the United States and Europe, let's throw them in at large, they all see this ending very differently. Some with Assad in power. Some with a power-sharing agreement and some get him out thereof and let's start anew. The problem is who takes over with him? That's one of the issues we've seen with many other countries in the Middle East when we depose brutal dictators, who takes their place? And can you generate security and stability while that transfer of power is occurring?

COSTELLO: I think many Americans are painfully aware of that. Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, thanks so much.

HERTLING: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Checking some other top stories for you at 52 minutes past.

The former prep school student convicted of sexually assaulting a fellow classmate has been sentenced to one year in jail. Owen Labrie is also ordered to register as a sex offender. Prosecutors say Labrie assaulted the victim as part of a tradition at the elite New Hampshire school. The school has denied that claim.

Shaker Aamer, the last British citizen held at Guantanamo Bay, is back in the U.K. This is his plane arriving just a short time ago. Aamer allegedly confessed to being an aide to Osama bin Laden but charges were never filed against him and he was cleared for release back in 2007. Perhaps that's why he's smiling.

A case of bubonic plague confirmed in Oregon. Health officials say a teenage girl fell ill after a hunting trip and thinks she contracted the bacteria from a flea. The teenager is recovering in a hospital. No one else is believed to have been infected.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the Royals ruling the World Series so far. Is it time for Mets fans to panic?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [09:57:59] COSTELLO: Sports fans get ready. You have lots of big games ahead of you. First the World Series returns to New York tonight, and then college football teams spend the weekend chasing a playoff berth.

CNN's Coy Wire live at Auburn University, where I wish I was. Good morning.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Good morning. I am very fortunate to be here. Look, Ole Miss looking for revenge of that loss last year. Here on the plains of Auburn, getting ready for another big weekend of college football. It's going to be outstanding, commanding, demanding. The 21st ranked Ole Miss taking on Auburn in a rivalry that dates all the way back to 1928. Now this is the last weekend to make a first impression on the college football playoff committee. They're going to unveil their first rankings of the season on Tuesday, and they're going to have a really tough job because there are 12 undefeated teams still standing. That's right. 12 total. We're about two-thirds of the way through the season already. So who's going to be in that coveted top four spot to make the playoffs? It's a big question that a lot of people have and a lot of these teams look unstoppable.

Speaking of unstoppable, how about Tom Brady and the Patriots? They beat the Dolphins like a drum last night, who remain unbeaten for the season. Brady threw for 356 yards and 4 touchdowns. He has never lost on a Thursday game. Can you believe that? From the season, he has 20 touchdowns. Just one interception. That is absurd. Last time the Patriots started the season 7-0, that was in 2007. That's the year they went 16-0 in the regular season, but remember, they lost in the Super Bowl.

Now, tonight let's flip the script and talk a little bit about baseball. It's the World Series. It shifts to New York. Game three, pretty much a must-win for the Mets. The Royals with a 2-0 lead. No team has ever come back from an 0-3 deficit. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERRY COLLINS, METS MANAGER: We got our fan base behind us now. That brings out a lot of energy in our guys. There's a lot of confidence in the (INAUDIBLE). We're down but we're not out. We fought back so many times this year that this is just another challenge that we have to meet and, so far we've met them all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Now, first pitch is just after 8:00 Eastern tonight.