Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Arrest Made in Louisiana Serial Killings
Aired May 28, 2003 - 07:03 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: Let's go back to that story of the capture of the suspect in the Louisiana serial killings. Police in Atlanta arrested 34-year-old Derrick Todd Lee. Now, he was a fugitive linked by DNA evidence to the Baton Rouge-area killings of five women over two years.
Joining us now from Atlanta with more on the capture is Martin Savidge. He's standing by at the Fulton County jail.
Good morning -- Marty.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, Leon.
You're right, Derrick Lee is here in the Fulton County jail, but he is expected to be in a courtroom in about two hours from now for an extradition hearing that could soon get him back on the road to Louisiana, where he is facing charges in the five murders of women that took place there over a two-year span.
He was arrested last night in Atlanta around 8:30 p.m. following a tip from the public. Yesterday, there was a massive media campaign on the part of authorities. They knew that he was in the Atlanta area. They just did not know exactly where.
Following that tip that came in, they arrested him behind a tire shop in the southwestern part of the city. They say that there was no incident in bringing him into custody. He has now been charged with murder and also with aggravated rape. And, as we say, he's got that extradition hearing.
Here is the police chief, Richard Pennington, of Atlanta, talking about how he was apprehended.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF RICHARD PENNINGTON, ATLANTA POLICE: We can only surmise or theorize that he probably was still running. He knew that we were looking for him. Once his photograph went on the news media, throughout the news media, he knew that he was a wanted person in this area, this metropolitan area, and we were going to work extremely hard until we apprehended him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: Now, Lee became a prime suspect in this case on May 5, when he was brought in for questioning in Louisiana, again, following a tip from the public, and he was asked to submit a DNA sample, which he did. Authorities say shortly after that, though, he became nervous, and then fled the area.
In the meantime, they matched up his DNA with the DNA collected from five murder scenes that were all occurring in and around the Baton Rouge area.
So, he has been brought into custody, a sigh of relief certainly for Atlanta authorities here, maybe a beginning of the road of healing for the victims' families. But, of course, there is the court case that still lies ahead -- Leon.
HARRIS: All right, that's right, Marty, the story is not quite over yet. Thank you very much, Marty -- Martin Savidge reporting live there from the Fulton County jail in Atlanta.
Let's get some more now directly from the source there, the man you just saw there on videotape, the city's police chief -- that is the city of Atlanta's police chief, Richard Pennington.
Chief, thank you for talking with us this morning about it.
PENNINGTON: Good morning.
HARRIS: First of all, well, how was it you were led to this tire shop? And I understand you basically got a tip from the public on this one?
PENNINGTON: Yes, actually what happened is that one of the members of the FBI task force received a call from a citizen indicating that they believed that a person fitting Derrick Lee's description was at this tire shop. Three members of my fugitive task squad responded to that location. First of all, identified him, saw him, approached him, and ascertained identification. Derrick Lee presented a state of Louisiana form of ID, and he was arrested, very non-combative. And he was transported to the Atlanta police department headquarters.
HARRIS: Now, one of the stories I read this morning, Chief, was that he was in the back of that tire shop, but he was with a woman. He was talking to a woman back there. What was going on with that situation? Was this a woman that he knew, or was this a case where he might have been stalking someone else? What do you know about that?
PENNINGTON: Well, actually what we were able to find out is that he had approached the female somewhere in that vicinity, but when my officers arrived, there were no females in the rear of the tire shop. But according to some witnesses in the area, we understand that he had a conversation with a female somewhere around that tire shop, and so we still are trying to confirm that. We have not been able to confirm it, but it's based on just talk in the neighborhood and some witnesses indicated that earlier they had seen that same suspect talking to a female.
HARRIS: Do you know why he was in Atlanta? Did he go to Atlanta for a reason? Was there a connection there? Are you concerned that he may be connected to some other unsolved killings in that area? PENNINGTON: Well, we still don't know why he came to Atlanta, and we know -- we believe that he's been here before. So, this morning, members of my homicide squad are going to go back and pull some of the unsolved murders relating to females back in the early '90s -- '93 and '94. We had several females that were killed along Metropolitan Parkway, so we're going to go back and kind of look at those cases and see if we can match some of the DNA samples.
So, it's not over with yet. I think that we're going to have to work very hard to make sure that he has not been here on previous occasions and done the same thing in this city that he's done in Baton Rouge and that metropolitan area.
HARRIS: I've got to think this gives you special satisfaction knowing that you were superintendent of the police in New Orleans, so with being, I guess, a colleague of the police and throughout the state and Baton Rouge as well they have been looking for this man. Congratulations on the good work there.
PENNINGTON: Yes, thank you so much.
HARRIS: All right, congratulations. Chief Pennington in Atlanta, thank you very much. We'll continue to follow this story, folks, and bring you any developments as we get them.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired May 28, 2003 - 07:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go back to that story of the capture of the suspect in the Louisiana serial killings. Police in Atlanta arrested 34-year-old Derrick Todd Lee. Now, he was a fugitive linked by DNA evidence to the Baton Rouge-area killings of five women over two years.
Joining us now from Atlanta with more on the capture is Martin Savidge. He's standing by at the Fulton County jail.
Good morning -- Marty.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, Leon.
You're right, Derrick Lee is here in the Fulton County jail, but he is expected to be in a courtroom in about two hours from now for an extradition hearing that could soon get him back on the road to Louisiana, where he is facing charges in the five murders of women that took place there over a two-year span.
He was arrested last night in Atlanta around 8:30 p.m. following a tip from the public. Yesterday, there was a massive media campaign on the part of authorities. They knew that he was in the Atlanta area. They just did not know exactly where.
Following that tip that came in, they arrested him behind a tire shop in the southwestern part of the city. They say that there was no incident in bringing him into custody. He has now been charged with murder and also with aggravated rape. And, as we say, he's got that extradition hearing.
Here is the police chief, Richard Pennington, of Atlanta, talking about how he was apprehended.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF RICHARD PENNINGTON, ATLANTA POLICE: We can only surmise or theorize that he probably was still running. He knew that we were looking for him. Once his photograph went on the news media, throughout the news media, he knew that he was a wanted person in this area, this metropolitan area, and we were going to work extremely hard until we apprehended him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: Now, Lee became a prime suspect in this case on May 5, when he was brought in for questioning in Louisiana, again, following a tip from the public, and he was asked to submit a DNA sample, which he did. Authorities say shortly after that, though, he became nervous, and then fled the area.
In the meantime, they matched up his DNA with the DNA collected from five murder scenes that were all occurring in and around the Baton Rouge area.
So, he has been brought into custody, a sigh of relief certainly for Atlanta authorities here, maybe a beginning of the road of healing for the victims' families. But, of course, there is the court case that still lies ahead -- Leon.
HARRIS: All right, that's right, Marty, the story is not quite over yet. Thank you very much, Marty -- Martin Savidge reporting live there from the Fulton County jail in Atlanta.
Let's get some more now directly from the source there, the man you just saw there on videotape, the city's police chief -- that is the city of Atlanta's police chief, Richard Pennington.
Chief, thank you for talking with us this morning about it.
PENNINGTON: Good morning.
HARRIS: First of all, well, how was it you were led to this tire shop? And I understand you basically got a tip from the public on this one?
PENNINGTON: Yes, actually what happened is that one of the members of the FBI task force received a call from a citizen indicating that they believed that a person fitting Derrick Lee's description was at this tire shop. Three members of my fugitive task squad responded to that location. First of all, identified him, saw him, approached him, and ascertained identification. Derrick Lee presented a state of Louisiana form of ID, and he was arrested, very non-combative. And he was transported to the Atlanta police department headquarters.
HARRIS: Now, one of the stories I read this morning, Chief, was that he was in the back of that tire shop, but he was with a woman. He was talking to a woman back there. What was going on with that situation? Was this a woman that he knew, or was this a case where he might have been stalking someone else? What do you know about that?
PENNINGTON: Well, actually what we were able to find out is that he had approached the female somewhere in that vicinity, but when my officers arrived, there were no females in the rear of the tire shop. But according to some witnesses in the area, we understand that he had a conversation with a female somewhere around that tire shop, and so we still are trying to confirm that. We have not been able to confirm it, but it's based on just talk in the neighborhood and some witnesses indicated that earlier they had seen that same suspect talking to a female.
HARRIS: Do you know why he was in Atlanta? Did he go to Atlanta for a reason? Was there a connection there? Are you concerned that he may be connected to some other unsolved killings in that area? PENNINGTON: Well, we still don't know why he came to Atlanta, and we know -- we believe that he's been here before. So, this morning, members of my homicide squad are going to go back and pull some of the unsolved murders relating to females back in the early '90s -- '93 and '94. We had several females that were killed along Metropolitan Parkway, so we're going to go back and kind of look at those cases and see if we can match some of the DNA samples.
So, it's not over with yet. I think that we're going to have to work very hard to make sure that he has not been here on previous occasions and done the same thing in this city that he's done in Baton Rouge and that metropolitan area.
HARRIS: I've got to think this gives you special satisfaction knowing that you were superintendent of the police in New Orleans, so with being, I guess, a colleague of the police and throughout the state and Baton Rouge as well they have been looking for this man. Congratulations on the good work there.
PENNINGTON: Yes, thank you so much.
HARRIS: All right, congratulations. Chief Pennington in Atlanta, thank you very much. We'll continue to follow this story, folks, and bring you any developments as we get them.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
