Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Interview With FBI Special Agaent Ken McCabe

Aired September 01, 2003 - 08:06   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Police and the FBI are investigating the mysterious death of a pizza delivery man in Erie, Pennsylvania. Forty-six-year-old Brian Wells was killed on Thursday when a bomb strapped to his body exploded. Before the blast, he told police he'd been assaulted during a delivery. He'd been chained to the bomb, and then forced to rob a bank. Yesterday, a friend and co- worker of Wells was found dead in his home. Now place are downplaying the possibility that the deaths are linked.
Ken McCabe is the FBI's lead investigator. He joins us from Charleston, West Virginia, this morning. Good morning. Nice to see you. Thanks for joining us.

KEN MCCABE, FBI SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: This is such a confusing story. This is being investigated as a homicide. This is the bombing death of Brian Wells. Do you believe his story that he made a delivery, that he was strapped with a bomb to his body and that he was sent to rob a bank?

MCCABE: Well, that's one of the theories that we're looking into. We have approximately five different theories that we're currently investigating surrounding these circumstances.

O'BRIEN: Give me a little insight into the other four theories then.

MCCABE: Well, I'd be tipping our hand then. But we have a lot of productive leads. Agents have been working all weekend long. Our FBI laboratory at Quantico, Virginia, has been doing an outstanding job working all weekend to help give us leads, and developing evidence that we can then go out and do more interviews. And we're progressing pretty well on this investigation.

O'BRIEN: Mr. Wells' boss at the pizzeria said that he got a phone call, and then the pizza was delivered to a relatively remote location. There was about an hour between when the pizza was delivered, and when Mr. Wells then showed up at the bank, strapped with a bomb, and handing over a note to a teller. So first tell me a little bit about the information that you got from the note. It's described as a lengthy note. What did it say?

MCCABE: Right. I'm not going to be able to go into the details of the note. But what the note did was it gave instructions to the bank employees on what they were supposed to do. And the bank employees complied with that.

That note also contained instructions for what Mr. Wells was supposed to do. And he was in the process of following those instructions when the Pennsylvania state police stopped him and placed him under arrest. And they were able to do this because of the involvement of citizens that were observing the bank robbery. And they on their cell phones called 911. And then the FBI and the Pennsylvania state police responded to this bank robbery.

O'BRIEN: They responded. They surrounded him. They put him in cuffs. They sat him on the ground. All the while he is saying I have a bomb strapped to me, it's going to go off. There he is. This is videotape from one of the local affiliates there. And he was pleading for help for someone to please take the bomb off of him. Did police not believe him? Were they too afraid to get close to try to assist him in any way?

MCCABE: Oh, no. The police did everything perfectly. As soon as they confirmed that he, in fact, had a bomb on him, they backed off, did a perimeter of at least 300 yards around him. They protected innocent lives.

The police and agents are not trained to go and defuse a bomb. It's not like TV shows where we go up and try to guess, do we cut the red wire or the green wire? It's too dangerous. We have specialized training for police officers and agents that are bomb techs. And they go through a long process at a school and hazardous devices school in Alabama, where they learn how to defuse bombs.

And this bomb that was wrapped around the -- Mr. Wells' neck is the most dangerous type of bomb, meaning that a bomb tech has to respond to, because it entails actually approaching, and doing a hand entry into the device to render it safe.

O'BRIEN: Ken, then we have to add in the mysterious death of a co-worker of Mr. Wells, who died on Sunday, a couple of days after Mr. Wells blew himself up. He apparently died of natural causes, but 911 was summoned to the home and then was turned away. Do you think that there's some kind of link between these two men? Both of them dying in sort of unusual circumstances?

MCCABE: I'm not going to comment on the death of this individual yesterday. The county coroner, Pennsylvania state police, Erie police, are investigating that. An autopsy will be performed today. If there's any information that's derived through their investigation, that links to our investigation, because of our outstanding relationship with them, they will share that information with us.

O'BRIEN: Incredibly bizarre story. Brian Wells, of course, blowing himself up. Ken McCabe, nice to see you as always. Thanks so much. Appreciate your time.

MCCABE: Thanks.

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 September 1, 2003 - 08:06   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Police and the FBI are investigating the mysterious death of a pizza delivery man in Erie, Pennsylvania. Forty-six-year-old Brian Wells was killed on Thursday when a bomb strapped to his body exploded. Before the blast, he told police he'd been assaulted during a delivery. He'd been chained to the bomb, and then forced to rob a bank. Yesterday, a friend and co- worker of Wells was found dead in his home. Now place are downplaying the possibility that the deaths are linked.
Ken McCabe is the FBI's lead investigator. He joins us from Charleston, West Virginia, this morning. Good morning. Nice to see you. Thanks for joining us.

KEN MCCABE, FBI SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: This is such a confusing story. This is being investigated as a homicide. This is the bombing death of Brian Wells. Do you believe his story that he made a delivery, that he was strapped with a bomb to his body and that he was sent to rob a bank?

MCCABE: Well, that's one of the theories that we're looking into. We have approximately five different theories that we're currently investigating surrounding these circumstances.

O'BRIEN: Give me a little insight into the other four theories then.

MCCABE: Well, I'd be tipping our hand then. But we have a lot of productive leads. Agents have been working all weekend long. Our FBI laboratory at Quantico, Virginia, has been doing an outstanding job working all weekend to help give us leads, and developing evidence that we can then go out and do more interviews. And we're progressing pretty well on this investigation.

O'BRIEN: Mr. Wells' boss at the pizzeria said that he got a phone call, and then the pizza was delivered to a relatively remote location. There was about an hour between when the pizza was delivered, and when Mr. Wells then showed up at the bank, strapped with a bomb, and handing over a note to a teller. So first tell me a little bit about the information that you got from the note. It's described as a lengthy note. What did it say?

MCCABE: Right. I'm not going to be able to go into the details of the note. But what the note did was it gave instructions to the bank employees on what they were supposed to do. And the bank employees complied with that.

That note also contained instructions for what Mr. Wells was supposed to do. And he was in the process of following those instructions when the Pennsylvania state police stopped him and placed him under arrest. And they were able to do this because of the involvement of citizens that were observing the bank robbery. And they on their cell phones called 911. And then the FBI and the Pennsylvania state police responded to this bank robbery.

O'BRIEN: They responded. They surrounded him. They put him in cuffs. They sat him on the ground. All the while he is saying I have a bomb strapped to me, it's going to go off. There he is. This is videotape from one of the local affiliates there. And he was pleading for help for someone to please take the bomb off of him. Did police not believe him? Were they too afraid to get close to try to assist him in any way?

MCCABE: Oh, no. The police did everything perfectly. As soon as they confirmed that he, in fact, had a bomb on him, they backed off, did a perimeter of at least 300 yards around him. They protected innocent lives.

The police and agents are not trained to go and defuse a bomb. It's not like TV shows where we go up and try to guess, do we cut the red wire or the green wire? It's too dangerous. We have specialized training for police officers and agents that are bomb techs. And they go through a long process at a school and hazardous devices school in Alabama, where they learn how to defuse bombs.

And this bomb that was wrapped around the -- Mr. Wells' neck is the most dangerous type of bomb, meaning that a bomb tech has to respond to, because it entails actually approaching, and doing a hand entry into the device to render it safe.

O'BRIEN: Ken, then we have to add in the mysterious death of a co-worker of Mr. Wells, who died on Sunday, a couple of days after Mr. Wells blew himself up. He apparently died of natural causes, but 911 was summoned to the home and then was turned away. Do you think that there's some kind of link between these two men? Both of them dying in sort of unusual circumstances?

MCCABE: I'm not going to comment on the death of this individual yesterday. The county coroner, Pennsylvania state police, Erie police, are investigating that. An autopsy will be performed today. If there's any information that's derived through their investigation, that links to our investigation, because of our outstanding relationship with them, they will share that information with us.

O'BRIEN: Incredibly bizarre story. Brian Wells, of course, blowing himself up. Ken McCabe, nice to see you as always. Thanks so much. Appreciate your time.

MCCABE: Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com