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Five Dead, 21 Injured in Texas Mass Shooting; Hurricane Dorian Nears Bahamas, U.S. East Coast; Hong Kong Protesters Hold Airport Rally after Violent Night. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired September 01, 2019 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John Vause. We're following two breaking news stories this hour. In a moment we'll have the very latest on the track of Hurricane Dorian.
But we begin in Texas. It has happened again and it's happened again in West Texas. A gunman opened fire, killing at least five people, sending another 21 to the hospital. According to police, it began with a routine traffic stop. The driver opened fire and sped away.
On an interstate, he took aim and randomly fired at other vehicles, at one point abandoning his car and stealing a postal truck. Police finally cornered him in a parking lot of a movie theater.
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MICHAEL GERKE, ODESSA POLICE CHIEF: This subject was contacted by law enforcement and he -- an exchange of gunfire happened and that subject is deceased.
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VAUSE: Witnesses Joey and Julia Vicknair caught it all on camera outside the theater. And a warning: their video may be disturbing for some viewers.
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JULIE VICKNAIR, WITNESS: Oh, my God, he's fixing to shoot.
(INAUDIBLE)
JOEY VICKNAIR, WITNESS: Y'all get down.
JULIE VICKNAIR: Oh, my God.
Cody, are you down?
JOEY VICKNAIR: Are you shooting at that man and lady right there?
JULIE VICKNAIR: I don't know. I don't know. I can't see.
Oh, my God. I think they got him.
That was a -- that looks like a --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Investigators believe they have identified the shooter but the only description they're giving publicly is a white male in his 30s. Also no word on a motive at this point. An emergency room doctor at one of the hospitals treating victims says he called upon his experience during the Iraq War to deal with all the injured.
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DR. SUDIP BOSE, MEDICAL CENTER HEALTH SYSTEM: Myself, personally, I'm an Iraq War veteran. I served 12 years in the military and served in the second battle of Fallujah and Baghdad. This is something that, unfortunately, I'm very experienced at, mass casualty situations.
And this is what led us to form the preparation process with hundreds and hundreds of people that you are not seeing here, that are very intricately involved in a situation like this.
So as far as for the public out there, the message for them, I think what they can do to help, you know, we always say thoughts and prayers. That's great. But go up there. Take a BLS class. Go out there, learn about how to stop bleeding. Go out there and practice safety. Don't text and drive. Don't do things where you put yourself and others in danger. And this is something that we can do as a nation.
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VAUSE: All this happened in the sister cities of Midland and Odessa. Nerves are already raw in Texas where, just four weeks ago, less than 300 miles away, a gunman opened fire at an El Paso Walmart, killing 22 people. You can hear nervousness in Alex Woods' voice as he recorded the end of the chase on his camera.
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ALEX WOODS, WITNESS: There's a shooting going on in Odessa, Texas. They're shooting right there.
Oh, he hit the barrier. The cop just hit the barrier.
Get down, get down, get down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get down, get down, get down.
WOODS: Stand still. He shoot him, he shoot him.
Oh, he's killed him. He killed him. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) the shooting?
(INAUDIBLE)?
WOODS: Oh, he's shooting him up. He hit the barrier.
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VAUSE: With us now on the line from Odessa, Texas, is the man who recorded those incredible images, Alex Woods.
Alex, thank you for being with us.
WOODS: Yes, no problem.
VAUSE: This has been a harrowing day for you and another awful day for the people of Texas.
So, first up, how are you?
Are you doing OK?
WOODS: Yes, I'm still a little shook up. You know, I'm just trying to wrap my mind around this because I never thought I would witness it.
VAUSE: And this is a whole lot worse because, just four weeks ago, there was a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas.
Have you been able to process this?
Have you taken a moment to think all of this through?
WOODS: Yes, it's just -- I'm still a little confused why, like why it happened. Like I know they had the one in El Paso. But I just never thought it would happen here. I mean, it's a pretty calm town. There's a lot of people and all. But it just seems very unreal.
VAUSE: Yes, very, very unreal indeed. What really struck me is how quickly you reacted to what was happening right there in front of you. I want to play just the first few seconds of your video, which we have. Listen to this.
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WOODS: There's a shooting going on in Odessa, Texas. They're shooting right there.
Oh, he hit the barrier. The cop hit the barrier.
Get down, get down, get down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: There seems to be no doubt, no hesitation. You just jump into action.
Can you explain where did that clarity of thought come from?
WOODS: From there it was just all adrenaline, just my brain wasn't really thinking. It was just saying, get it on camera because people need to see what is happening. Plus I'd like to hand this footage over to the police; maybe it would help in their investigation.
VAUSE: We look at the video, it appears there's quite some distance between you and the police and the gunman. But often camera phones can be deceptive.
In reality, how close were you?
Could you see the final moments, when the police opened fire on the gunman?
WOODS: Oh, yes. In the video, when I -- it's hard to see it but when I said the police officer hit the barrier, it hit the mail van that was driving and then he hit the barrier and, in that moment, the police officer jumped out of his vehicle and discharged his weapon into the driver's side of the mail van.
And in that moment I believe that was when the shooter was killed because there was no more shooting and it was a silence over there. It's not shown on the video but SWAT did show up and they threw a flash grenade into the back of the van. I was assuming they did that to make sure there were no further threats hiding in there.
VAUSE: Then also he was in his vehicle and there was someone driving and he got out.
Was he a regular garden variety police officer?
He wasn't from some sort of tactical team. He wasn't wearing Kevlar, for example. He was just sort of a regular cop who drew his sidearm?
Is that how you saw it?
WOODS: Yes, that's correct. He was just -- he might have been Highway Patrol. He was not like a SWAT or anything. He just rammed into that mail van and that mail van spun around and he jumped out of his vehicle and eliminated the threat.
VAUSE: And just with his regular sort of police issue sidearm.
WOODS: Yes, a pistol.
VAUSE: When you consider everything that this guy who was driving this mail van had done over the last couple of hours, the number of people he killed and wounded, this cop was incredibly brave.
WOODS: Yes, absolutely. We'd like to thank the first responders for the way they addressed the situation. They put their lives on the line. And this cop was very brave for just jumping out of his vehicle and going straight to the threat to eliminate it, to save lives. VAUSE: And we'd like to thank you, Alex, for capturing those images for us as well, to see those final moments. Because as you said, it's important that everyone gets to see how this all plays out in the end. We thank you for, that Alex. Thank you.
WOODS: Yes, no problem.
VAUSE: Well, for more now on the police investigation into how and a motive for all this we're joined from Middleton, New Jersey, by CNN law enforcement analyst Jonathan Wackrow.
Thank you for being with us. I want to read you our latest reporting on the moments before the gunman opened fire. The shooting appears to have begun about 3:13 pm Central time, 4:13 pm Eastern, when two Texas Department of Public Safety troopers attempted to conduct a traffic stop on a vehicle on Interstate 20 westbound.
This is coming from Elizabeth Carter, one of the spokespersons there.
Before the vehicle came to a complete stop the driver and only occupant pointed a rifle toward his rear window, fired several shots toward the DPS patrol unit, wounding one of the troopers.
Without reading way too much into too little information, the fact he opened fire before the vehicle had even stopped, it does beg the question, why did he react that way?
What was he thinking?
Was he ready for a confrontation?
Was it a spur of the moment decision?
What's your thinking on this?
JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, listen, I take a look at this situation and there's a couple of things we don't know. We don't know what caused the DPS officers to initiate that traffic stop.
Was it that there was a warning or a watch out for this individual?
And that they were looking for him?
Or was it in the routine course of enforcing a traffic violation?
What occurred or what the genesis was of that traffic stop, we don't know. What we do know is when the officers did approach the vehicle, it was not in park, it was slightly rolling forward, as it's been reported.
And the shooter actually took the rifle and was shooting out the rear of the window. I mean, this to me seems like it was premeditated in most instances. Just think about how difficult it is to -- it would be to move --
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WACKROW: -- a long-barreled weapon throughout a vehicle. I mean, just the confines of that space and then to fire. So these officers were put into a position of disadvantage right from the very beginning.
VAUSE: You know, sometimes is it easy to work out a motive for a mass shooting. Four weeks ago, a gunman in El Paso, he had a manifesto, he was taken alive, he talked to police. Still we don't know why a shooter opened fire on a country music festival in Las Vegas in 2017, killing 58 people. He didn't leave behind a note, took his own life.
Between those two examples being the extremes, where do you put this investigation?
WACKROW: Listen, this is really difficult to find an immediate motive, to answer that question why. The suspect's dead. So we can't interview him.
What can we do?
We can go through the investigative process to understand and try to ascertain that answer.
The way law enforcement is going to do that is they're going to start researching who this individual was.
Did he have any connection to a particular ideology, did he have a tendency toward violent action?
They're going to look back in his history to understand, did he have violent tendencies in the past, interaction with law enforcement?
Does he have a criminal history?
All of those things are going to start putting this together to actually answer the question why.
Why did this occur?
Why were these officers shot at?
Why are there five dead, all these people wounded on a Memorial Day weekend?
VAUSE: We're learning he was armed with a rifle, no specifics on what sort of rifle but a rifle nonetheless. The mayor of Midland, Texas, was quoted as saying, he was driving around randomly shooting at people while he was driving. One or two or more of his victims were shot while both shooter and victim were in moving vehicles.
Just think about that. Without sounding glib, that's not the easiest thing to do, is it?
WACKROW: No. For law enforcement, this is a real change in tactics by attackers in these mass shooting incidents. Normally, what we see is a mass shooter at a specific location, where law enforcement can then respond into, cordon off, set a perimeter and address the threat.
Here the threat was mobile. It was at various locations throughout the city. And then the attacker actually changed vehicles. Again, law enforcement was in a state of chaos at the very beginning because they were trying to ascertain facts as to the location of the shooting and what was going on.
And they had this really rapidly developing situation that was dynamic, with a shooter that was very unpredictable.
VAUSE: And to that point, I keep going back and forth with whether or not this was random or whether this was all planned out. The changing of the vehicle at one point, being able to actually fire at other vehicles while he was in a moving vehicle at those other vehicles and actually hitting a target.
That suggests one of two things. He got very lucky and if you shoot enough rounds you're going to hit something. Or he had some kind of training here.
WACKROW: Listen, again, we don't know what we don't know in this instance. And it's hard to speculate on a lot of these things. There's a lot of indicators that would say, based upon my experience as a criminal investigator, that, just from the initial interaction with the DPS, that initial traffic stop, not coming to a full and complete stop, launching that attack against law enforcement, that is an ambush-style attack.
With the amount of rounds that he had on him, his ability to fire and maneuver in a moving vehicle, it does show this individual may have had some sort of experience. The level of planning, I find it very hard to believe this was a spontaneous event.
But maybe this was somebody that was waiting for the right moment to inflict harm. Again, a little early, a little premature to start making some of those calls. As the facts start to develop through the investigative process, we'll learn a lot more.
VAUSE: Very quickly, it does seem to be taking a while for these details to come out, at least from my point of view.
What do you think?
WACKROW: Listen, I think that law enforcement has to take their time. If you just actually look at what's going on right now in Odessa, they have a massive crime scene.
They have possibly hundreds of witnesses to various aspects of this incident that have to be interviewed, get their perspective on what was going on, trying to go backwards into executing search warrants on the suspect's home and vehicles, to try to, again, answer that question why.
I will give law enforcement time. Unfortunately, in the age of the 24-hour news cycle and social media, we want this instant gratification on a motive. But I will -- [00:15:00]
WACKROW: -- allow the investigative process to go on just a little bit longer.
VAUSE: Yes, it's important obviously they get it right rather than satisfy the needs of the media and everyone else at this point. Jonathan, thanks so much.
WACKROW: Thanks so much.
VAUSE: As we said, the suspect was killed at the Cinergy Movie Theater in Odessa. Local news station KOSA was in the middle of all of it. Their studio is allocated at the same mall as the movie theater. And when people started running, their anchors had to leave the set. They continued to report offscreen before eventually returning to air.
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JAY HENDRICKS, KOSA ANCHOR: We just kept our microphones on so we could get you up to date because, once again, this is not something we thought would ever happen here.
There are more officers with guns in here. I just saw them. This is still active. I just saw three deputies coming by with guns drawn. So we don't know if perhaps someone is in here. Again, this is very active here in the mall. So I'm going to keep here -- let's see.
I'm being told there's more information on the Midland Facebook. So let me go back to the Midland Police Department Facebook. Bear with me because we're trying to get all the details that we can.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).
HENDRICKS: Uh-oh. OK. So we've got to disappear. Hang on. We're going to keep our mikes on so we can get you up to date. We're told to get out of here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Wow. We'll take a short break. When we come back, as you've often seen with these mass shootings, U.S. presidential candidates have decided to weigh in. When we come back, we'll have their take on what the United States should do after this.
Also ahead, wind speeds creation as parts of the Bahamas prepare to evacuate. The very latest on Hurricane Dorian.
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VAUSE: At least five people are dead, 21 injured after a mass shooting in West Texas. The gunman began shooting after a traffic stop near Midland and Odessa. The final confrontation between the shooter and police appears to have been recorded by a witness on a cell phone. And a warning, some of the images here will be disturbing to some viewers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JULIE VICKNAIR, WITNESS: Oh, my God, he's fixing to shoot.
(INAUDIBLE)
JOEY VICKNAIR, WITNESS: Y'all get down.
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JULIE VICKNAIR: Oh, my God.
Cody, are you down?
JOEY VICKNAIR: Are you shooting at that man and lady right there?
JULIE VICKNAIR: I don't know. I don't know. I can't see.
Oh, my God. I think they got him.
That was a -- that looks like a --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: After exchanging fire with police, the attacker was shot dead, it seems. Odessa is about 250 miles or 400 kilometers from the scene of the El Paso mass shooting, exactly four weeks ago. Midland mayor Jerry Morales spoke to CNN's Ana Cabrera and he discussed how the latest shooting came to an end.
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MAYOR JERRY MORALES, MIDLAND, TEXAS: The shooter was pulled over on the interstate by a DPS officer. That's when he shot the officer and then took off and started shooting randomly. And then everything happened after that.
ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: And where was it that the shooter ultimately died?
MORALES: At a theater, a movie theater called Cinergy, in between Midland and Odessa.
CABRERA: And what was the circumstance in which the police encountered that person there?
MORALES: So again, it just pursued into a chase. And between all the law enforcement, they trapped him in the parking lot of the Cinergy theater and then that's when they were able to engage the shooter.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: The White House says it's closely monitoring this latest shooting in Texas with the president being briefed on the latest information. We get more from CNN's Boris Sanchez on reaction from the White House.
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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is the third time this month that President Trump has had to be briefed on a mass shooting in the United States, the second one that span of time in the state of Texas. The president closely monitoring developments from Camp David, where he's spending the weekend and where he tweeted this.
"Just briefed by attorney general Barr about the shootings in Texas. FBI and law enforcement fully engaged. More to follow."
We also heard from vice president Mike Pence, the vice president headed to Poland to commemorate the 80th anniversary of World War II. The vice president saying the White House would work with Democrats to try to find some solution to the problem of these mass shootings. Listen to more of what he said.
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MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our hearts break for the families who have loved ones who have been injured, those who have loved ones who have lost their lives in the wake of this latest mass shooting.
And the president and I and this administration remain absolutely determined to work with leaders of both parties in the Congress to take steps that we can address and confront this scourge of mass atrocity in our country. Thank you all very much. We'll see you on the plane.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Sources indicate that officials at the White House have been working on some sort of plan to try to address these mass shootings and they have been since the back-to-back shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, but the specifics of what that plan entails still unclear.
The president routinely, after these shootings happen, speaks very ambitiously about passing some sort of gun control legislation, even talking about comprehensive background checks at times. Frequently that changes as days pass and he speaks directly to the leadership of the National Rifle Association.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Hurricane Dorian will begin whipping up winds and surf in the northern Bahamas in just a few hours. More than 70,000 people are directly in the path of this category 4 storm. Earlier they were urged to head to shelters while they still could. Dorian is forecast to stall over the Bahamas for 24 hours and
residents fear the impact from that storm could be devastating. Well, as the storm nears the Bahamas we get the very latest on what to expect.
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VAUSE: 0We'll take a short break. When we come back, police continue to piece together more details on the deadly Texas mass shooting. The very latest on the investigation in just a moment.
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VAUSE: An update now on the mass shooting in West Texas. Police say they have identified the gunman who shot at people and as well as police officers from his vehicle and then from a stolen mail truck. The gunman killed five, left 21 others injured. One of the youngest victims, a 17-month old, now listed in a satisfactory condition.
Here's how it all played out. A state trooper pulled over a gold Honda. The driver then opened fire and sped away. As he drove off, he gunned down more victims on an interstate.
Along the way he abandoned his car and hijacked that mail truck. Police caught up with him at the parking lot of a movie theater. There's a shootout. The gunman dies, bringing an end to the rampage.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are there any current active shooters going on at this time?
MICHAEL GERKE, ODESSA POLICE CHIEF: We have -- we've had calls, which is to be expected because obviously our citizens are a little jumpy after this, which is also to be expected. But once this individual was taken out of the picture, there have been no more victims.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: We get more now from CNN's Polo Sandoval, who's been following this story since the moment it broke.
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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Authorities are telling me that it all started as a traffic violation. Authorities with the Texas Department of Public Safety saying two of their state troopers were attempting a traffic stop on Interstate 20 when the lone occupant of that vehicle, before the car even came to a stop, grabbed a rifle and then aimed out his rear window and then opened fire, wounding one of those two state troopers.
Well, that gunman, authorities say, then fled and then began shooting randomly at other innocent bystanders, wounding several people and that includes three additional officers, one with the Odessa Police Department and another one with the Midland Police Department.
He was eventually cornered outside a nearby movie theater and entertainment center, which is where he was shot and killed by police. As for the injured, we can only tell you what the Medical Center Health System there locally has confirmed and that is that they treated 13 people. One of them died from their injuries. And at least 10 others remain hospitalized right now.
That includes a pediatric patient, we're told, one of the younger survivors of the shooting who had to be airlifted and is being treated at an area hospital -- rather in Dallas, Texas. And we do understand that two people have been treated and released.
As for the three officers that were injured, we're told that the state trooper is in serious but stable condition. As for the other two officers, they are expected to recover from their injuries.
Investigators now still trying to determine more about the gunman. They have not officially identified this individual, only saying that he is a white male in his 30s. Authorities still trying to investigate a possible motive and why he opened fire on those state troopers.
But it is important to point out that this shooting happened exactly four weeks after the deadly shooting in El Paso, Texas -- Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.
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VAUSE: CNN national security analyst and former assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, Juliette Kayyem, is with us this hour from West Newtown in Massachusetts. Juliette, here we go again, huh?
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes.
VAUSE: Not all mass shootings are created equal. The mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, four weeks ago, that one appeared to be born of a white nationalist with hatred for minorities, in particular Latinos.
This shooting spree began after a traffic stop. And that is a crucial difference here it seems in trying to piece together exactly what happened and why and this question about motive.
KAYYEM: Right. And motive and motivation and mental illness and all these issues that come up in every shooting are relevant. We want to know who this man was, why was he pulled over, why was his reaction not only to kill police but, of course, to go on this rampage. All very important. But if you just put the summer of you and I being on late at night on
Saturday nights together, the common theme is obviously the accessibility of weapons that can kill lots of people very quickly.
We tend to have a reaction to say El Paso and, oh, we have to make the Home Depots or the Walmarts safer and we have to secure places or a school shooting, we have to secure schools or arm teachers.
But when you -- but given the uniqueness of each attack, this one basically done from the road, almost impossible to warn people to get out of the way, we really do have to recognize that the capacity to kill very quickly is a uniquely American phenomenon.
VAUSE: Because, unlike other shootings, it appears that this guy, he hadn't been stockpiling ammunition for weeks and weeks and weeks; he wasn't wearing Kevlar or camouflage gear.
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VAUSE: It could be argued -- and this is not by any sense of the word -- but it may have almost been at random. But even so, he had an incredible amount of ammunition for a Saturday afternoon drive.
KAYYEM: That's exactly right. And he had it accessible from the driver's seat. That's the most important thing. He gets pulled over. The police officers are approaching and he's able to shoot them and then go on this rampage.
But what is unique is just, you know, based on my experience, if somebody's trying to evade law enforcement they might go after law enforcement but this sort of rampage they then did, against innocent drivers on the highway, that is unique.
That suggests someone who either sort of had some intention, some sort of motivation that that was going to be his exit out because he eventually gets killed. That is unique.
And that's what's sort of scary about this incident because, remember, the people who pushed him first were armed. So this notion that if we just arm more people, America will be safer, is just belied by the facts. If arming people made us safer, the United States would be the safest country on Earth. It's just not.
VAUSE: I'm wondering, when he was playing violent video games and listening to heavy rock metal.
But the thing is this all created so much chaos and confusion for hours. Two small American cities were sent into lockdown. A highway and an interstate were closed down. The only advice coming from officials basically was, don't go outside.
So once a lunatic like this has carried out an attack like this, is it a safe bet there will be another and another and another?
KAYYEM: Yes. And the creativity will become that much more because, you know, essentially they're just -- once you harden one thing, they're going to go to the softer thing. In this case, it's people traveling on a Saturday during the long weekend.
And the challenge from the law enforcement perspective is, of course, let's say he walks into a Walmart, someone walks into a Walmart or a big institution. Well, normally they would have communication protocols in place. They would have active shooter protocols in place. You can notify people what's going on.
If you're in a car, how are you going to know that the car coming behind you is actually someone who's armed?
So your only choice as a law enforcement -- someone trying to protect the public is, everyone off the roads. That's just not sustainable, honestly, as an open country.
VAUSE: Here's part of a statement from the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott.
"I thank the first responders who have acted swiftly and admirably under pressure and I want to remind all Texans that we will not allow the Lone Star State to be overrun by hatred and violence and we will unite as Texans always do to respond to this tragedy."
Well, here is one response from the great state of Texas. On Monday a raft of new laws come into effect, making it easier to obtain or carry a firearm. Or as the National Rifle Association noted back in June, Governor Abbott signs 10 pro-Second Amendment bills into law, adding that he signed all of the NRA-supported legislation, which the Texas legislature sent to him during the 2019 session.
They go on to say, thank you to pro-Second Amendment leaders and lawmakers in the House and the Senate, for your work to ensure passage of these measures.
This is a governor who vowed to lead on guns and safety and clearly he has not. Because states with tougher gun laws have fewer gun deaths but the dead don't get a vote.
KAYYEM: That's exactly right. I mean, it's remarkable that the Texas governor's reaction was that. And what's interesting in his statement is he said, "We will always be prepared to respond." Well, a governor's responsibility, a president's responsibility is to also make sure we do everything we can to prevent the thing from happening.
And we do note, just from the data, that states that have stricter gun laws have fewer gun deaths. Part of that is because if you control things like semi-automatic weapons, if you control things like background checks, it is harder for people to kill lots of people quickly.
That is your goal. We understand handgun deaths. We understand suicide. It's this capacity to walk into a place or drive down a highway and shoot 20, 30, 40 people in a matter of moments.
Governor Abbott is consistent in one thing, that he believes that gun ownership will make Texans safer.
And all Texans need to do is to look at the summer and what has happened in Texas and ask themselves, is that really the solution?
These new laws coming into place are going to make it easier for people to own guns, to carry guns, to open carry guns. They're going to allow things like a landlord cannot prohibit one of their tenants from having weapons.
That could be in my home, I can't prevent someone from having a weapon in my own home. So it's a philosophy governed by the NRA, of which Governor Abbott is supportive of, which is essentially more is better. The data is consistent -- no, I'm sorry. the data refutes the notion that more guns make us safer.
VAUSE: Consistently refutes it over and over and over again.
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VAUSE: And Juliette, it's a point we cannot make enough. Thank you.
KAYYEM: Thank you so much.
VAUSE: Residents and tourists in the northern Bahamas are being urged to head to shelters as Hurricane Dorian moves closer. This category 4 storm has sustained winds of 150 miles per hour, about 240 kilometers, just shy of a category 5.
The hurricane's eye is extremely well formed, an indication of just how dangerous the storm is. Dorian's impact will first be felt during the overnight hours and from there it will get worse.
Expected to stall over the Bahamas for an entire day before turning north toward the U.S. East Coast. Let's bring in Basil Dean. He is the deputy director of the Bahamas Department of Meteorology.
Basil, first up, how much water are you expecting Dorian to dump on the Bahamas over that 24-hour stall?
BASIL DEAN, BAHAMAS DEPARTMENT OF METEOROLOGY: Well, John, unfortunately, we are looking at anywhere between 10 and 15 inches of rainfall over the trek of Dorian through the extreme northwest Bahamas. As you rightly said, we anticipate it will stall and has already started to.
It's now down to 8 miles per hour in terms of its former speed and we expect that to reduce further as it continues to push towards the west.
And the problem with that is that it will continue to dump heavy rains over these islands, which have been receiving rainfalls from a troughing that has been over the Bahamas now for the past week or so. So the ground's already saturated from these rains. And Dorian will only add and exacerbate the rainfall situation.
VAUSE: So explain how much damage could something like 15 inches of rain over a very short period of time do -- and not just over that 24- hour period of time. There's a tail to this, right?
The threat continues long after Dorian has gone.
DEAN: It's mind-boggling to try to wrap your head around with the damage you can do when you take into consideration the fact that battering waves for prolonged periods of time, coupled with storm surge to islands like Grand Bahama, which are vulnerable to storm surge, we have seen numerous hurricanes pass through Grand Bahama, resulting in severe flooding as a result of storm surge.
And that coupled with prolonged rainfall means that the level is going to be devastating for that island. Abaco do have some high-rise. Unfortunately, Grand Bahama is extremely flat from east to west.
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VAUSE: But -- sorry, go on, Basil. Finish your thought, sorry.
DEAN: And that is the fear that we have. But the good news, if we can call it that, is people have been responding well to the order to evacuate from the shorelines, to move inland and to safer and higher ground. Shelters have been open to receive these persons. And they're heeding the call and we hope that they would be safer.
VAUSE: And very quickly that's my last question here, what risk are those people taking, the ones who stay, the ones who do not head to those emergency shelters?
What risk are they at?
DEAN: The prime minister, in his brief, attempted to convince them to heed the warning. But as he said to them, once the things go downhill and we are in harm's way the security forces will not be going out there. So they will simply be on their own, unfortunately.
VAUSE: And they could be on their own for days, right?
DEAN: Absolutely. This system will be around us for at least 2.5, possibly 3 days. We're looking at Tuesday afternoon before Dorian gets out of here.
VAUSE: That's a big risk to take if you're in the Bahamas, right in the path of that storm. We wish them well. We wish you well as well, Basil. Thanks for the update. Good luck.
DEAN: Thank you much.
VAUSE: Short break. When we come back, Hong Kong has been reeling after a night of fire and tear gas. Angry demonstrators battling with police on the streets and there are more protests to come. A lot more on that in just a moment.
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VAUSE: Protesters in Hong Kong are planning another major disruption at the city's airport. Big crowds are expected to gather there next hour. It comes after a night of violence, what's being described as some of the worst violence during the nearly three-month-long unrest.
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VAUSE (voice-over): Police and demonstrators clashed in a number of train stations last Saturday with police using batons and tear gas to try and disperse the protesters; 40 people were arrested in one station alone.
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VAUSE: CNN's Will Ripley reports now from amid the scenes of chaos, including water cannon, tear gas and petrol bombs.
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WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just as Hong Kong police dispersed one demonstration, down the road that way, we walked this way and found this. I thought we were walking up to some sort of a rock concert or Burning Man. There were laser beams.
You hear cheers from the crowd of possibly thousands of protesters behind this barricade of fire that they have set up in the heart of Hong Kong, one of Hong Kong's busiest streets here in Wan Chai, shut down by protesters, who burned an umbrella.
They set up barricades. And obviously there was enough propellant there because this fire's been going on for quite some time. We have seen protesters use their usual tactics today, although this is one of the more dramatic things that we've seen.
They've thrown bricks at police. They have hurled petrol bombs at officers. And officers have fired back.
OK. Not sure what that was but we'll just get a little bit further back from the fire there. Police officers have used tear gas, something that's been a mainstay this summer, and they have also been using water cannons, shooting out water with blue dye to try to identify the protesters who might get sprayed with the water because, keep in mind, all of these gatherings here are illegal.
Hong Kong police did not give a permit. Demonstrators came out anyway. Smaller numbers, not the families that --
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RIPLEY: -- we saw out at the park. These are the people who are out here ready to fight. And that's exactly what they're doing here on the streets of Hong Kong. I'm Will Ripley for CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: Thanks to Will Ripley for that report. We'll take a short break. When we come back, updates on the Texas shooting as well as Hurricane Dorian.
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VAUSE: Six minutes before the top of the hour. An update on the breaking news from the state of Texas. At least five people are dead, 21 injured after another mass shooting. A gunman went on a high speed rampage, opening fire from his car after a traffic stop near Midland and Odessa.
That's about 250 miles or 400 kilometers from the scene of the El Paso mass shooting four weeks ago. Police cornered the attacker and shot him dead outside a cinema in Odessa.
The shooter has been identifies as a white male in his 30s. But that is all police are releasing. At least three of the injured are law enforcement officers. A senior hospital official in Odessa had this update a little earlier.
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RUSSELL TIPPIN, MEDICAL CENTER HEALTH SYSTEMS CEO: Anybody that hears the sound of my voice, you need to grasp onto your loved ones and hold onto them and you need to pray for this town and all the towns and the families and the victims involved.
You need to hold onto them because this is a scary incident and nobody is guaranteed tomorrow. And if you are here, you can hear my voice, please take a minute to stop and give your thoughts and your prayers to all the families and the victims of this --
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TIPPIN: -- tragic incident.
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VAUSE: The lower Bahamas are bracing for the arrival of Hurricane Dorian. The storm is extremely powerful. Close to a category 5. Forecast to stall over the Bahamas in about 24 hours and bring heavy rain and a storm surge up to 5 meters or 15 feet.
After the Bahamas, the forecast is for it to turn north, skirt the U.S. East Coast. There is no clear idea where or when or if it will make landfall on the U.S. But coastal areas are warned it could be a prolonged and damaging event. That warning holds even if it stays over the Atlantic.
You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. Please stay with us. I'll be back with a lot more news after a very short break. (MUSIC PLAYING)
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
VAUSE: Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John Vause. We're following two breaking news stories this hour. In a moment we'll have the very latest on the track of Hurricane Dorian.
But we begin in Texas. There is much we do not know about this latest mass shooting in the United States. We especially do not know why but we do know yet again Americans and in particular Texans are dealing with the aftermath of death.
This time it all happened in Odessa, Texas. A gunman opened fire, killing at least five people, sending another 21 to hospital. According to police, it all began with a traffic stop.
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GERKE: The situation started about 3:17 this afternoon --
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