Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
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 2-3a ET
Aired September 01, 2019 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[02:00:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello again and welcome to the viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John Vause and we are following two breaking stories this hour.
And in a moment, we will get the latest on the Hurricane Dorian track but we begin this Texas.
It takes a lot to shock a country left numb by mass shootings that have almost become routine but on Saturday a gunman in West Texas managed to do just that, not by the number of dead -- five killed, 21 hurt -- but rather how he killed them.
According to police, what started as a traffic stop quickly escalated into a high-speed shooting rampage on a highway and interstate, the gunman randomly firing at vehicles.
The police say they know who he is but not why he did it and for now they are not releasing his name. The mayor of Midland, Texas, has details of how it began.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And from there the gunman continued to fire; his targets were apparently random. And after ditching the car, a gold-colored Honda, he stole a mail truck and the shooting rampage continued.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY SHORES, SHOOTING VICTIM: Just driving around, a normal day. And then I hear the gunshots. It was at least 10 shots. I got one on the door and one went through and ricocheted right here through my wrist and I can't get it out because it is a piece of metal.
That is where my legs normally are when I am driving and I am just thankful that both shots had missed me. That's all I'm thankful for. That's all I got to say now. That's all I'm thankful for, that all I got is a scratch with a metal piece in me and that's it instead of a bullet hole.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And it all ended in the parking lot of a movie cinema. After exchanged gunfire with police, the suspect was shot dead. This all played out about 300 miles from El Paso where four weeks ago a gunman killed 22 people in a Walmart.
Witnesses Joey and Julie Vicknair were driving when they pulled over to allow emergency vehicles to pass and it was then this mass shooting unfolded before their eyes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: They were not the only ones who caught the end of this chase on camera. Alex Woods was right behind the movie theater when shots rang out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
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.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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 -- [02:05:00]
WOODS: -- 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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: And the White House says it is closely monitoring developments from Texas and the U.S. president tweeted this, "Just briefed by attorney general Barr about the shootings in Texas. FBI and law enforcement fully engaged. More to follow."
That tweet was posted more than seven hours ago. There has been nothing since. Vice president Pence spoke to reporters before leaving for Poland, a
trip the president was meant to take but decided to skip because of the threat from Hurricane Dorian. Here's Mike Pence on the shootings in Texas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I just spoke to the president and he is at Camp David and he is closely monitoring the developments and the investigation in the mass shooting in Odessa.
Our hearts go out to all the victims, the families who had loved ones lose their lives. We commend the law enforcement in Odessa for their swift and courageous response. But at the president's direction, we've deployed the full resources of the federal government. They are on site.
The president spoke to the attorney general. The FBI is already assisting local law enforcement in the investigation going forward. But we will continue to monitor those events. But the president is fully engaged.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The governor of New York, a state with some of the toughest gun laws in the country, is demanding the president to do something after the second mass shooting in Texas in less than a month.
Andrew Cuomo tweeted this at the president.
"How many more families will lose loved ones? How many more communities will be torn apart, how many more tragedies will it take before leaders act?
"The bloodshed must end now, do something."
CNN law enforcement contributor Steven Moore is a retired FBI special agent and joining us from Vancouver, Canada.
And Steve, it is good to see you. And thank you for being with us.
STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sorry about the occasion.
VAUSE: OK. Here is the reporting that we have on the moments before this guy opened fire. The shooting spree appears to be around 3:13 Central and 4:13 Eastern when two Texas Department of Public Safety troopers attempted to stop a vehicle on Interstate 20 westbound.
Before that vehicle came to a complete stop, the driver and only occupant pointed a rifle toward his rear window and fired several shots toward the unit, wounding one of the troopers.
And so without reading too much into too little, the fact that he was firing before the vehicle stopped, begs the question about why he acted that way, was he thinking, ready for a confrontation or was it a spur of the moment thing?
MOORE: Well, yes. I think that those are excellent questions.
What the police don't say the word routine. You didn't hear them say "routine traffic stop." They were conducting a traffic stop. That could mean something very significant.
The fact that this person was shooting out the back indicates to me that maybe desperation but certainly not a plan to ambush these officers, because he could have done better if he had planned it. I hate to say it that way. But it is kind of where I am going with that.
[02:10:00]
MOORE: So I think that it was some reason that they were stopping him besides a broken taillight.
VAUSE: Yes. And the routine and we were talking about that earlier in the NEWSROOM of why that was not in there.
And also something that is standing out and doesn't seem right, it is not easy to shoot people from a moving vehicle into another moving vehicle and actually hit something. And this guy managed to do that and ditch his car and steal a mail vehicle, a postal vehicle. And again, that is sort of implies that this guy has had some experience.
MOORE: May or may not and he may have trained, you know, a lot of these self-styled survivalists and stuff, they go out and train but believe it or not, back in my old FBI days, we had a mass shooting in the Los Angeles area. The guy at that point changed all of the plans. He thought that he would die by police.
But he carjacked somebody just like this happened and then once he carjacked the person he went out and shot somebody, because of their race. And the person happened to be a postal carrier.
So I mean, there is too many ironies in this for me. But I think that what happens is that you are going into the rampage thing. No matter what started this, he decided, at the point where he -- right before he fired at the officers, that this is going to be his final, final act and he was going to make it big.
And I think that is what we are seeing, John, you know, taking all of the politics and taking anything else out of it, I believe that one of the things that we are seeing is a -- almost like a cluster suicides.
We are seeing something happening a phenomenon where the people who are on the edge are taking strength from the people before them and, saying, hey, if they can go out big, I can go out big.
VAUSE: Well, the suicide cluster theory is one that is valid and holds true when there is a number of suicides amongst a group of people and encourages more and it is not a bad theory in some ways.
But when it is coming to working out motive, sometimes it is easy. When a gunman leaves a manifesto and he's taken a live and he answers questions. Sometimes it's impossible; in Vegas, no note, no manifesto and killed 58 people and took his own life and we have no idea why.
Where is this investigation in there, somewhere between the two points?
MOORE: All I will give you is my blink and I think you're going to find it is closer to the police knowing what was going on. If he was is the vehicle that was registered to him or the vehicle they expected him to be in, they already knew who he was. They knew who he was while the shooting rampage was going on. And even if he, even if they didn't know, all you have to do is to pop his fingerprints into an email and send it to the FBI and they will have him within minutes.
So the police have known who he is since, at worst, minutes after the shootings and, once that happens, they are going to begin a -- basically writing his biography and they are going to start from the day he was born, all of the way to the minutes leading up to the shooting.
And they are going to find out his motives, his friendships, his online personality, all of these things that really make a difference now in investigating these cases. And I think that somebody like this, who is 30 years old, I'll bet you he has left something and that is my blink on this.
VAUSE: And so quickly, from my understanding, and correct me if I am wrong, the same FBI field office who is dealing with the El Paso shooting is also dealing with this one and that is a heavy lift, given all of the details of these two incidents put together.
We know that the FBI guys are tough but they are human, after all, and what impact does this have?
MOORE: This is going to be very difficult and I would expect that the FBI is going to reinforce it with the agents from other offices.
VAUSE: OK. We hope so. Steve, thanks. We appreciate it, man.
MOORE: Thank you, John.
VAUSE: And when we come back two mass shootings in Texas in less than a month, and once again politicians are calling for change. And when we come back we will have the latest on the shooting rampage.
And also, wind speeds increasing in the Bahamas as they are preparing to evacuate. The very latest on Hurricane Dorian.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:15:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. We are continuing to follow breaking news here in the United States. At least five people are dead and 21 injured after another mass shooting in West Texas.
The gunman went on a drive-by rampage, opening fire from his car after a traffic stop in Midland-Odessa in Texas and it is about 400 kilometers from the scene of the El Paso mass shooting four weeks ago.
The attacker is identified a white male in his 30s. He eventually abandoned his vehicle and hijacked a mail truck. After a gun battle with police, he was shot dead outside of a cinema.
To other breaking news, Hurricane Dorian is whipping up winds and surf in the Bahamas in the coming hours. More than 70,000 residents and tourists are in the path of this monster category 4. The greatest threat is the deadly storm surge as well as flooding.
Basil Dean is the deputy director of the Bahamas Department of Meteorology. I spoke to him by phone a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BASIL DEAN, BAHAMAS DEPARTMENT OF METEOROLOGY: 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Well, after the Bahamas, there is no clear idea where or if it is going to make the landfall in the U.S. but coastal areas from Florida to the Carolinas have been warned it could be prolonged and damaging event even if Dorian stays out over the Atlantic.
(WEATHER REPORT)
[02:20:00]
VAUSE: The Bahamas is going to find out very soon how bad Hurricane Dorian is going to be and if the residents are not in a safe place already, it could be too late. CNN's Patrick Oppmann is reporting from Freeport.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bahamian officials have told people the time has pretty much passed if Bahamians in the area where the hurricane is going to hit were hoping to evacuate or seek refuge as we get into the night hours and early morning Saturdays. That's when we will begin to feel the effects of this incredibly powerful and slow-moving hurricane and that is particularly dangerous, because the Bahamian officials said that we could experience category 4 winds for up to 48 hours in this area.
And that is going to bring devastating wind damage and storm surge of up to 15 feet. Remember, we are in the area of the island of the Grand Bahamas and the highest point of land is only 30 feet high and other islands are much more low-lying and talking about a 15-foot storm surge, you are talking about homes washed away and incredible damage and danger to people who live in this area.
So the prime minister of the Bahamas on Friday implored people to listen to the government warnings and get out of the path of the hurricane. But that window is basically closed at this point. People will have to shelter in place if they are not already in a refuge.
Certainly the time to buy supplies and to get gas and water has passed, because this hurricane is coming here and if you are an island like this one, where the airport has been closed and it's now too dangerous the leave, there is no escaping Dorian -- Patrick Oppmann reporting from Freeport, Bahamas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: And the best guess now is that Dorian is going to make a northern turn and avoid making a direct hit on the Florida coast but there's still a threat of coastal flooding from the rain and storm surge. Here's CNN's Nadia Romero reporting from West Palm Beach.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NADIA ROMERO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are now under a tropical storm watch here in Palm Beach, Florida, and we can feel the winds picking up and we have --
[02:25:00]
ROMERO: -- just had a rain shower. That is why the hotels are passing out fliers with evacuation maps and shelters nearby.
REP. RON DESANTIS (R), FLA.: Floridians on the East Coast need to be prepared. If you have a plan, stick to your plan.
ROMERO (voice-over): People in Florida bracing for Hurricane Dorian.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Taking care of 23 now (ph).
ROMERO (voice-over): Dangerous Dorian is set to pummel the northwest Bahamas and then the path becomes more murky, because the hurricane can make landfall in the United States anywhere from Florida through the Carolinas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we all have to take this very seriously.
ROMERO (voice-over): The Sunshine State's eastern seaboard could still feel the impacts of the large and powerful storm.
MAYOR MARK BOGEN, BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA: Let's not forget what happened two years ago in 2017, when Hurricane Irma was predicted to go up the east coast and at the last minute it cut to the west coast and cut through Orlando to Jacksonville.
ROMERO (voice-over): Even if it stays offshore, Dorian can bring life-threatening wind and storm surge and flooding to Florida as early as next week.
BOGEN: So while we are told today it is looking more favorable of a northerly trend, we need to be prepared.
ROMERO (voice-over): Making these kinds of preparations necessary to protect property and potentially save lives.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are ready for it, you know. Been here and done this, so, you know. Hope we will get through it again with everybody else. So everybody be safe.
ROMERO: Thousands of people are expected to evacuate Florida and many of them usually head north to Georgia. But we now know that Georgia is now in Dorian's path and so FEMA says they are sending urban search and rescue teams to both states -- in West Palm Beach, Florida, I'm Nadia Romero, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: As we continue to watch Hurricane Dorian, we are also following breaking news in Texas, who is once again feeling the pain of a mass shooting. After the break, more updates and reactions from presidential candidates.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:30:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
VAUSE: Just half past the hour and welcome back. We are following the breaking news out of Texas, where there has been another mass shooting. The police say they have identified the gunman, who fired at random from his car while speeding on the interstate as well as a highway.
In all five people killed and 21 others injured. One of the youngest victims is a 17-month-old girl, listed in satisfactory condition. This is how the shooting played out.
After the state troopers pulled over a gold Honda, the driver opened fire and sped away and he continued to shoot at other vehicles and at one point he ditched his car and stole a mail truck.
Then the ending came at a parking lot of the movie theater, after a shootout with police. The gunman was killed.
Well, 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are taking to Twitter to weigh in.
Andrew Yang says, "We are the only country that struggles with gun violence at this level. Other countries respond to tragedy. We must as well. Our people deserve better than to live in fear and be struck down at random. We are better than this. We will do better for our children."
Kamala Harris says, "Keeping the Midland-Odessa community and the victims in my thoughts and prayers. Grateful to first responders, who ran into harm's way. I'm sick of this. Americans are sick of this. We need to act."
And from Elizabeth Warren, saying, "I'm heartsick for the victims of this latest mass shooting in Odessa and Midland. We should not have to live with this near daily fear and horror. We have already lost far too many to gun violence. Congress must act now."
Earlier, CNN's Ana Cabrera spoke to Democratic presidential candidate, Julian Castro, who says this and every other mass shooting that has happened in the United States shows it is way past time for sensible and serious gun control.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JULIAN CASTRO (D-TX), FORMER HUD SECRETARY, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our hearts go out to the victims of the shooting tonight and their families. All of us have heavy hearts. We're thinking about them.
It is also another very powerful reminder that we have to act. We have to act to stop these kinds of incidents. The most powerful moment of the last three weeks, after what happened in El Paso and in Dayton, to me, came one or two days after Dayton.
The governor of Ohio was giving remarks about what had happened. And the crowd that was listening to him, people from every walk of life, people, I'm sure, of different political backgrounds, began to chant, "Do something. Do something. Do something."
(INAUDIBLE) do something to ensure that people who shouldn't have weapons don't get them and that certain types of weapons never get on the street.
And we don't know all the details of what happened today. But we certainly know what happened in El Paso and Dayton and at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, where I was yesterday. And we know that we have to do something.
CABRERA: Let me read you a part of the statement from Governor Greg Abbott, who writes, "The first lady and I are heartbroken over the senseless and cowardly attack and we offer our unwavering support to the victims, their families and all the people of Midland and Odessa,"
And he goes on to say, "We will remind all Texans that we will not allow the Lone Star State to be overrun by hatred and violence."
When you talk about do something, when you talk about taking action, what is it you're proposing specifically?
CASTRO: What we need to do is twofold.
Number one, although we don't know the details of this incident, what we do know is that extremism -- and particularly white supremacy has been on the rise -- and that's turned into violence in places like El Paso and Charleston and other places.
So we need to give our Department of Justice, of Homeland Security and our FBI the tools that they need to root out that extremism before it turns into violence.
Secondly, we need common sense gun safety legislation, universal background checks, limiting the capacity of magazines, a renewed assault weapons ban.
As your viewers know, the AR-15 especially has been, unfortunately --
[02:35:00]
CASTRO: -- the weapon of choice of many of these shooters. Those are weapons of war and don't belong on the streets.
In addition to that, we need to do things like institute a seven-day waiting period for the purchase a firearm and I would actually raise the excise tax on guns and on ammunition from 10 percent to 20 percent and then use the $600 million to $700 million that that would garner in revenue every year to invest in gun violence prevention programs in local communities.
We know what we have to do. The issue is who's going to have the political courage, the political will to do it. And I think Republicans and Democrats need to work together on this.
That's true. It's also true, as much as I'd like to believe Governor Abbott's words, this is a governor that championed and signed legislation that takes effect tomorrow, eight new pieces of legislation that are going to make it easier for people to carry weapons in Texas.
So this time of reckoning has come and I really believe it's a new era in the United States, where people of different backgrounds are saying, do something, do something, do something and I hope that we will and I'm going to work like others will.
CABRERA: So as you argue on gun control -- and I'll quote directly from you -- that "it's possible to have common sense gun reform and still have the Second Amendment in place," what do you say to your fellow Texans, who believe a moment like this is exactly why lawful gun owners should be allowed to keep them ready and in more public places?
CASTRO: The answer is not more guns. Think about what happened in El Paso three weeks ago, for instance. You had a shooter that drove 10 hours to El Paso, knowing that he was going to go into a Walmart that had 2,000 to 3,000 people there in the state of Texas, that has concealed carry, that has open carry. It allows campus carry.
It has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the United States and people who are carrying with them. He knew that he was going into a situation where many, many people were armed and ready. And that didn't stop him. It didn't make a single difference.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Castro mentioned that those new Texas gun laws take effect Sunday, September 1st. And that means that licensed handgun owners can now legally carry weapons in places of worships. Schools can no longer prevent licensed gun owners from storing a firearm in a locked vehicle on the school parking lot. But the weapon and the ammunition must be kept out of plain sight.
Landlords can't stop residents from lawfully possessing or carrying a firearm on their property. Overall, the laws make it easier to obtain firearms and carry a concealed weapon.
And when the state governor Greg Abbott signed the bill earlier this year and made it law, the NRA boasted about the success it had in pushing through these measure, telling its members all of them were to protect your Second Amendment rights.
When we come back, Hong Kong is still reeling after a night of fire and tear gas and now crowds are gathering at the city's airport. We will have the latest in a moment.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:40:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. We are following live developments out of Hong Kong. These are live images at 2:41 on a Sunday afternoon and the protesters are holding a rally at the city's international airport, organizers asking people to block the transfer routes to the airport.
Earlier protesters there drew thousands of people. And so what we have seen so far at the airport is hundreds of protesters turning up to answer the call and actually they are building barricades and this is a scene a short time ago.
This is essentially what the protesters have been doing on a number of occasions at the international airport, building the barricades and staging sit-ins and causing major disruptions.
Flights have been canceled for a number of days because of protests like this and, again, these are live images coming to us from Hong Kong and from the airport at 2:42 Eastern time here in morning which is 2:42 in the afternoon there in Hong Kong.
And so, how this develops remains to be seen, whether or not the officials or the authorities there will allow the sit-in to continue.
They took a hard line a week or so ago to end these sit-ins at the airport because of the disruption that it caused but also we are told that the train services into the airport have been suspended because of safety reasons and the disruption by the protesters as well.
It is seems they are chanting and they are also getting ready for a long day and possibly a long night as well.
This is coming after some of the worst violence in nearly three months of the unrest which happened last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE (voice-over): The police and the demonstrators clashed in a number of train stations late Saturday and at least 40 people were arrested in one train station alone and the police were using batons and tear gas to try to clear the crowds.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: CNN's Will Ripley has the latest of reporting on the chaotic scenes of the burning barricades and tear gas.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
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 --
[02:45:00]
RIPLEY: -- 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 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: The latest rounds of the U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports is in effect. Starting Sunday at midnight Eastern time, the U.S. began collecting a new 15 percent tax on Chinese goods, things like sneakers, clothing and televisions. And Beijing has countered with tariffs on $75 billion of U.S. goods and this tit-for-tat trade war continues with no sign of ending.
Still to come, police are piecing together more detail on the deadly Texas mass shooting. And we will have the very latest on that investigation when we come back.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
VAUSE: Police in Odessa, Texas, say they have identified the shooter who killed five people and injured 21 others. They are not releasing his name, only saying he is a white male in his 30s. According to police, the shooting started with a traffic stop. The gun opened fire on two state troopers who pulled him over and --
[02:50:00]
VAUSE: -- then sped away. At one point he abandoned his car and stole a postal vehicle. He was eventually cornered in the parking lot of a movie theater.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GERKE: This subject was contacted by law enforcement. And an exchange of gunfire happened and that subject is deceased.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And witness Alex Woods caught the end of the rampage on his cell phone camera.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
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.
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 --
[02:55:00]
KAYYEM: -- as an open country.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Our thanks to Juliette Kayyem there.
We have the very latest on Hurricane Dorian. This category 4 storm continues to whip up winds and surge near the Bahamas. More than 70,000 people there are directly in the path of the storm. Earlier they were urged to go to shelters while they still could, while it was still safe. Dorian is scheduled to stall there for 24 hours.
Residents fear the prolonged impact from the storm surge as well as the rain could be devastating. Now predicting Dorian's precise path has been extremely difficult. Right now it's still not known for certain when, where or even if Dorian will make landfall on the mainland United States.
Residents across Florida and on the East Coast have been told to prepare for the worst. Even if the storm makes a sudden turn to the north and does not make landfall, the storm could still bring major damage from flooding as well as storm surges. So everyone there is being told to prepare for the worst, regardless of where this storm ends up, crossing or not crossing onto the U.S.
You've been watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. We've had major news for the last couple of hours. It will continue with George Howell joining you at the top of the hour. Thanks for the company. I'm John Vause.
[04:00:00]
