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American Morning

Gun Battle Between California Police Officers and 20-Year-Old Man Ends with Suspect Dead

Aired September 10, 2001 - 10:05   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, the latest on an overnight gun battle between California police officers and a 20-year-old man wanted in the killings of five people. The shootout ended with one highway patrolman wounded, the suspect dead, and a search for answers well under way.

CNN's James Hattori joins us from Sacramento with the latest -- James.

JAMES HATTORI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello again, Leon.

Perhaps you can see behind me now in the light of day, that investigators are still on the scene, collecting evidence, including bullet casing. We are told that the suspect, 21-year-old Jason Ferguson, may have fired as many as 100 rounds during the gun battle last night. So it was a very tense situation for a time.

The manhunt came to an end at around 11:30 last night, here in eastern Sacramento County. A citizen tip led police to the suspect, who was driving a stolen car. A brief chase led to a shootout. One CHP officer and a bystander were wounded.

Police say Ferguson killed a fifth victim yesterday, another former coworker at Burns Security. That's after killing three other Burns' guards, including his ex-girlfriend and a city park worker Saturday night.

Now during the manhunt yesterday, police say Ferguson made a videotape, which they've obtained, in which he talked about his deadly rampage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. SAM SOMERS, SACRAMENTO POLICE: Upon seeing our units getting close to him, he immediately began a pursuit which ended into a gun battle between ourselves and him. And during that gun battle, Mr. Ferguson ultimately shot himself, which is what we believe right at this time, gave himself a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HATTORI: A search of Ferguson's house turned up some paraphernalia, which was linked to white supremacists groups, also a lot of guns.

As for a motive, police are still pursuing the leads, which indicate that he was suspended from him job as a security officer last week after an altercation with his girlfriend, who also worked for the Burns Security Company, and she of course ended up being one of the victims of the rampage -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right, James Hattori, reporting live this morning from Sacramento, thanks.

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