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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Gunmen Kill 14 in California Mass Shooting. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired December 03, 2015 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:07] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning, 14 people dead, 17 wounded in a California office building massacre. The attackers killed hours later in a shootout with police. They've now been identified.

Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Michelle Kosinski.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm John Berman. It is Thursday, December 3rd. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East.

We want to welcome viewers here in the United States and around the world.

The breaking news this morning, the very latest in the shooting in San Bernardino, California, that left 14 people dead, 17 injured. Authorities say two suspects died in a gun battle with police hours after they burst into a holiday party for employees and the county health department. The city police chief identified the dead suspects as 28-year-old Syed Farook, and a woman he was in a relationship with, either his girlfriend or his wife, she is identified as 27-year-old Tashfeen Malik.

The question is why. Why did they do this?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JARROD BURGUAN, SAN BERNARDINO POLICE CHIEF: Mr. Farook is a county employee. He works with his title as an environmental specialist in the public health department, has been employed there for five years. He was at the party. He did leave the party early under some circumstances that were described as angry or something of that nature. That is the information that we were following up on when we encountered him back near this residence in Redlands which led to the pursuit and the officer-involved shooting. And it's now confirmed, he is one of the deceased.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: He was at the party. He left the party. He came back and opened fire. The initial reports had three gunmen involved in the attack, a third person was held for questioning, but at this point, police say they are fairly certain there were just two shooters, both of whom are now dead.

The bomb squad has finally disposed of a few explosive devices found at the shooting scene. They finished that up just a few hours ago.

I want to bring in CNN's John Vause live this morning in San Bernardino.

John, what's the very latest?

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Well, John, we had a lot of details overnight from authorities here, from law enforcement officials about what happened. Syed Farook was a county employee, had the confrontation at the Christmas party. Officials say he left angry, and that's when he came back with his wife, his girlfriend, shot and killed 14 people. They left in an SUV. We heard that from a number of witnesses, that black SUV.

But because they had his name, Syed Farook, that led them to this location where we are right now in Redlands. This is where they have a townhouse linked to Farook.

Now, they've been searching that, trying to get access to that with robots. No one actually has gone in there yet because of concerns of explosives. There's no tangible proof at this point that there are explosives or booby-traps inside the down house. Police are concerned, though, because they found explosives inside that community center, which they had detonated and had been trying to clear.

So, out of an abundance of caution here, they evacuated a number of homes around this townhouse, told other resident here's to stay in place. They've obviously cleared out an area that they consider safe. They are taking their time getting into the apartment. As you say, they are now confident there were just the two shooters involved, Syed Farook and his wife or girlfriend, Tashfeen Malik.

Now, as we say, this is an active investigation. There's the crime scene, where there's the townhouse here in Redlands and there's also Farook's office, because he was a county employee. These investigations are now trying to find out who else might be involved. And they're looking for a motive. At this point, they're not calling it terrorism but they're not willing to rule that out.

Everyone wants to know why, that includes Farook's family. Now, in the last couple of hours, we did hear from his brother-in-law, he told reporters that he didn't see this coming. Nobody in the family saw this coming.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FARHAN KHAN, SUSPECT SYED FAROOK'S BROTHER-IN-LAW: I have no idea. I have no idea why he would do that. Why would he do something like this? I have absolutely no idea. I'm in shock myself.

I cannot express how sad I am for, you know, what happened today. I mean, I -- my condolences to the people who lost their lives. Very sad that people lost their lives and the victims out there. I wish speedy recovery to them. I'm in shock that something like this could happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So, again, we come back to that question of why. Why did Syed Farook and his partner go on this killing spree?

[04:05:02] What was the motive? What authorities are hoping for, once they get access to the townhouse, once they look at Farook's office, they may be able to piece all of this together and come up with an idea as to why 14 people were killed here, 17 others wounded. Many of them remain in critical condition -- John.

BERMAN: John, interesting this morning, we're hearing that this couple left their child. They had after 6-month-old child, and they left the child with the kid's grandmother in the morning before leaving, they said, to go to a doctor's appointment.

VAUSE: Exactly. This is coming from a spokesperson from an Islamic center in the area, saying that the couple dropped off the little girl. The grandmother at the time didn't think anything was out of the ordinary. She was minding the baby, or the child.

And then when she started hearing these reports on television of a shooting at the Inland Regional Center, she knew that Farook worked there, she became concerned. She repeatedly tried to call, but there was no answer on the cell phones. That's when she became concerned.

Apparently the first she learned of it, we're told, is when she was contacted by a reporter asking if she was related to Syed Farook. Much like the brother-in-law we just heard from, she was left stunned by the news.

BERMAN: Four weapons, we understand, John, involved at this point. All bought legally, two long guns, two handguns?

VAUSE: Yes, this is another angle of the investigation, which officials here have been following up. The guns were all purchased legally. Two linked directly to Syed Farook. Two of them linked to somebody else who we are told officials are trying to track down, talk to them and find out how the guns were purchased legally, how they were used in this mass shooting, John.

KOSINSKI: So, what's interesting about this, it was obviously well planned out. This took some time. I mean, there are possible explosive devices involved. But at the same time there might have been some trigger at this party? What are investigators saying about those two elements of this that seem sort of opposed but somehow linked?

VAUSE: Well, we heard from San Bernardino's police chief who said this went way beyond a spur of the moment thing. He said that there was a lot of planning involved. The theory is was this pre-planned, was that argument at the holiday party the trigger which set this chain of events into motion or was it planned to happen all along? At this point, they don't know. There are interesting details about the explosives they found inside

the community center, apparently there was a bag of rudimentary explosives and a remote control car which authorities believe they were going to use somehow to detonate remotely. They did find a remote control for that vehicle, and those explosives in the black SUV, which they used to leave the scene.

So, the working theory is either they were going to detonate those explosives and they were simply out of range and that part of the plan didn't work, or they changed their mind, didn't go through with that part of the plan. But, obviously, there was a lot of planning. They will be looking to see if anyone else was involved in the planning in all of this, Michelle and John.

KOSINSKI: Wow.

BERMAN: The third person was detained for questioning, not believed to be a shooter at this point. John Vause in San Bernardino, surprising it could have been even worse with those explosives found at the scene.

KOSINSKI: Obviously, still a lot more information to come here.

And it's a profoundly traumatic day for the scores of people trapped inside the Inland Regional Center as the gunmen stalked the building. This woman was barricaded inside a room with 50 others who had no clear idea what was going on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: became all so real when we had to lock ourselves in the conference room. Not get out until law enforcement said it was okay to leave the building. From there we had to come out with our hands up, be escorted away to the golf course and stay there for hours, hours, seeing clothing of deceased ones in the street, people crying, co-workers crying, us wanting to get to our children, families and our loved ones.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: That was the shooting itself. About four hours later was the shootout when officers closed in on the suspects in the SUV. You can hear it all unfold on police radio traffic. You can hear how calm the dispatchers were as they were coordinating this effort with gunfire in the background.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, last seen in the alleyway heading towards Gould. Do we have a clothing description?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Male, dark skinned is all I have on this frequency.

(INAUDIBLE)

[04:10:07] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't need more people here unless it's a SWAT team.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 902, what is your location?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're at San Bernardino and Shedden. One guy down. One guy in the back of a car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just for the update, we have the suspect stopped. We're going ahead and extract him. Stand by, wait for the bearcat.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Copy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now we have one down outside the car. One down inside the car. From what we understand, one is on the run.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSINSKI: For hours, difficult for people to know what was going on, what kind of danger they were in, and emotional reunions happening at a community center nearby where many of the 700 inland regional center evacuees were taken. Anxious loved ones were on the edge during the rampage, getting real time updates from their loved ones as the shooting unfolded, many of them by text.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCOS AGUILERA, WIFE WAS IN BUILDING: She said the guy came into her office and started shooting. They locked themselves in her office. They seen bodies on the floor and she said right now ambulance are taking people out in stretchers. She was able to get out the building already, but there's still people inside.

MARK SCROGGINS, DAUGHTER WAS IN BUILDING: She told me she thought it was a drill. They had been practiced drills. They went outside, they were told to go back in. She was shuttled into a room. Police showed up. They were taken outside. Thank God there weren't more casualties.

REPORTER: Did she text or call?

SCROGGINS: She did. She's outside with the fire department earlier.

REPORTER: Did she text you?

SCROGGINS: She texts me right now.

REPORTER: What did she tell you about what she saw and what she heard?

SCROGGINS: Well, she wasn't too clear. She was shaken up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the way I was introduced to this today. It was emergency situation at my work, active shooter on-site. We're all locked in offices on the floor. Please pray for us. As a parent, as a father, that's the worst thing you can have come across your phone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: A long, awful day for the people of San Bernardino, California, right now. I imagine many still up watching this trying to figure out what's going on. The latest, two suspects dead at this point, 14 people dead, 17 injured.

We're going to have the latest on the breaking news of this massacre from San Bernardino, California. President Obama weighed in and plus new information about possible travels that the gunmen took.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:17:01] KOSINSKI: Returning now to our breaking news coverage of a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California. The investigation into the attack is still unfolding, but here's what we know. Police say around 11:00 a.m., two suspects, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik burst into a holiday luncheon at the Inland Regional Center and started shooting, 14 people were killed, 17 injured.

Police say they have no clear picture of the shooting's motive, only that Farook worked in the health department with many in the luncheon, for about five years. Farook left that event abruptly. That led police to go by Farook's townhouse when he sped off in a black SUV, police gave chase. Both he and Malik, who may have been his wife or girlfriend, died in a shootout with law enforcement.

Police say they are just beginning to process the inland regional center crime scene and remove the bodies of the victims.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BURGUAN: I indicated early on we have victims at the scene. Up until within the last couple of hours, we have been working on what we felt were explosive devices left at the scene. We confirmed we believe those were explosive devices. I think about an hour or two ago, the bomb squad finally disposed of those particular items, so we are just now getting in there and starting to process the crime scene per se. I don't have the identification on any of the victims at this point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Yes, among other things, they found a bag at the crime scene with some kind of remote controlled explosive device that did not go off. They're investigating that right now.

President Obama was asked about the shooting in an interview. He told CBS News that San Bernardino continues a pattern of gun violence in this country that he says is unique in the world. The president called for a bipartisan political effort to stop or at least reduce such attacks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's some steps we could take. Not to eliminate every one of these mass shootings but to improve the odds that they don't happen as frequently. Commonsense gun safety laws, stronger background checks. And, you know, for those who are concerned about terrorism, you know, some may be aware of the fact that we have a no-fly list where people can't get on planes but those same people who we don't allow to fly could go into a store right now in the United States and buy a firearm, and there is nothing we can to the stop them. That's a law that needs to be change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSINSKI: He described this issue as the most frustrating in his time as president.

And we are following news on the office party shooting all morning long -- 14 killed, 17 wounded. New details we'll have for you coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:24:17] BERMAN: We're getting back to the news out of San Bernardino, California, the mass shooting there in just a minute.

First, more breaking news a new verdict for Oscar Pistorius. The former Olympian has been found guilty of murder by the South Africa Supreme Court of appeals. They ruled that the original conviction for culpable homicide was flawed and should be adjusted to murder. Pistorius was released from prison in October after serving a year of his five-year sentence. He has been under house arrest. He will now be resentenced.

KOSINSKI: Breaking overnight: British fighter jets launching their first airstrikes against is targets in Syria. The air assault coming hours after lawmakers in Britain voted in favor now of striking ISIS strongholds in Syria.

[04:25:05] President Obama welcomed the move. Meantime, Germany's parliament is expected to back Chancellor Angela Merkel in a greater military commitment against ISIS.

BERMAN: Also breaking overnight, scathing report calls a Secret Service an agency in crisis. The report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee cites a series of high profile embarrassments for the Secret Service, including a prosecution scandal, multiple security breaches involving the president and the White House. It faults a failure of leadership at the agency and budget cuts imposed by Congress.

KOSINSKI: And we're following breaking news out of California, 14 people killed, 17 wounded in an office party shooting. The attackers killed by police hours later in another shootout. We're live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BERMAN: Breaking news this morning, 14 people dead, 17 wounded in a California office building massacre. The attackers were killed hours later. A dramatic shootout with police.