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American Morning

Prison Standoff Ends

Aired February 02, 2004 - 09:33   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: The female prison guard who was held hostage 15 days at an Arizona prison is free now and getting an extensive medical checkup today. Her two captors are in custody. One of them explained how the standoff started in a radio interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICKEY WASSENAAR, INMATE: Well, it was initially an escape attempt. We were on a way out. This was a stopping point, to get some arms, to get some firearms to get out of here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Andrew McKinney of news radio 620 KTAR is the reporter who got the interview. He joins us this morning from Buckeye, Arizona.

Nice to see you Andrew. Thanks for being with us.

ANDREW MCKINNEY, REPORTER, NEWS RADIO 620 KTAR: You bet.

O'BRIEN: Give me a sense of why you? Why did these two prison inmates pick you to be the one who they wanted to talk to?

MCKINNEY: Well, shortly after the standoff began, there was a small table radio up in that guard tower behind me. That was their only link to the outside world. They began monitoring our reports that we were running hourly, and sometimes twice hourly, 24 hours a day. They became accustomed to hearing what was going on and how it was being portrayed and played out in the news media in the greater Phoenix area. They had asked for an interview with media representative, and they picked the guy on the radio, and that was me.

O'BRIEN: Which inmate did you talk to? Or did you talk to both of them? And give me a little more detail about the interview.

MCKINNEY: Right, I talked to the inmate Rickey Wassenaar, and he was the only one that was acting as a spokesperson. The other inmate decided not to talk with us.

About the interview, it was a roller coaster of an interview. I was dealing with an individual who portrayed himself as a victim at times. Other times he was the convict prison house tough talk that, well, we're all going to die some day, and that, well, it's all up to the prison officials whether they meet our negotiations, it's up to them, and I have no problem -- paraphrasing now -- I have no problem putting a bullet in this person's head or anyone's head, we're all going to die. So it was chilling at times, other times it was a person who was trying characterize himself as a victim.

O'BRIEN: I know you were briefed a little bit by the negotiators, who've been really working around the clock for the 15 days until the standoff ended. What did they tell you? There had to be a lot of pressure on you not to say or infer the wrong thing in this interview and set this guy off.

MCKINNEY: Of course. One misstep, one misplaced word, might jeopardize the ongoing negotiations, compromise the negotiations in some fashion that I might not have been aware of. But there are words that you don't use when you talk to a person in this situation, a hostage situation, such as surrender -- when are you going to surrender? When are you going to give up? What will it take for you to give up? By saying those type of word, it takes away their power. They would prefer that words like, when can we settle this? How can we settle this? Giving them power, if you will -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: One of the interviews -- the interview was one of the demands of the inmates. Do you feel pretty good about the role you played? The woman said to be in good condition. Everyone's pretty thrilled about how it turned out in the end. Do you feel pretty good about the role you played in this?

MCKINNEY: Yes, we did. We were granted their request for an interview on -- contingent upon the basis that they let this woman go. At such time as they didn't let the female corrections officer go at the end of this interview, we decided not to air the interview, because 15 minutes of fame can turn into 35 or 45 minutes of fame. So we held off until she was released. But again, it was part of a negotiated settlement.

I do want to point out that as a journalist in this type of situation that we are not, and I was not, a negotiator. I acted more as an observer in this interview.

O'BRIEN: Andrew McKinney of News Radio 260 KTR. Job well done, I think it's fair to say this morning. Thanks for being with to us talk about the interview, really remarkable.

MCKINNEY: Thank you very much.

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 February 2, 2004 - 09:33   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The female prison guard who was held hostage 15 days at an Arizona prison is free now and getting an extensive medical checkup today. Her two captors are in custody. One of them explained how the standoff started in a radio interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICKEY WASSENAAR, INMATE: Well, it was initially an escape attempt. We were on a way out. This was a stopping point, to get some arms, to get some firearms to get out of here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Andrew McKinney of news radio 620 KTAR is the reporter who got the interview. He joins us this morning from Buckeye, Arizona.

Nice to see you Andrew. Thanks for being with us.

ANDREW MCKINNEY, REPORTER, NEWS RADIO 620 KTAR: You bet.

O'BRIEN: Give me a sense of why you? Why did these two prison inmates pick you to be the one who they wanted to talk to?

MCKINNEY: Well, shortly after the standoff began, there was a small table radio up in that guard tower behind me. That was their only link to the outside world. They began monitoring our reports that we were running hourly, and sometimes twice hourly, 24 hours a day. They became accustomed to hearing what was going on and how it was being portrayed and played out in the news media in the greater Phoenix area. They had asked for an interview with media representative, and they picked the guy on the radio, and that was me.

O'BRIEN: Which inmate did you talk to? Or did you talk to both of them? And give me a little more detail about the interview.

MCKINNEY: Right, I talked to the inmate Rickey Wassenaar, and he was the only one that was acting as a spokesperson. The other inmate decided not to talk with us.

About the interview, it was a roller coaster of an interview. I was dealing with an individual who portrayed himself as a victim at times. Other times he was the convict prison house tough talk that, well, we're all going to die some day, and that, well, it's all up to the prison officials whether they meet our negotiations, it's up to them, and I have no problem -- paraphrasing now -- I have no problem putting a bullet in this person's head or anyone's head, we're all going to die. So it was chilling at times, other times it was a person who was trying characterize himself as a victim.

O'BRIEN: I know you were briefed a little bit by the negotiators, who've been really working around the clock for the 15 days until the standoff ended. What did they tell you? There had to be a lot of pressure on you not to say or infer the wrong thing in this interview and set this guy off.

MCKINNEY: Of course. One misstep, one misplaced word, might jeopardize the ongoing negotiations, compromise the negotiations in some fashion that I might not have been aware of. But there are words that you don't use when you talk to a person in this situation, a hostage situation, such as surrender -- when are you going to surrender? When are you going to give up? What will it take for you to give up? By saying those type of word, it takes away their power. They would prefer that words like, when can we settle this? How can we settle this? Giving them power, if you will -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: One of the interviews -- the interview was one of the demands of the inmates. Do you feel pretty good about the role you played? The woman said to be in good condition. Everyone's pretty thrilled about how it turned out in the end. Do you feel pretty good about the role you played in this?

MCKINNEY: Yes, we did. We were granted their request for an interview on -- contingent upon the basis that they let this woman go. At such time as they didn't let the female corrections officer go at the end of this interview, we decided not to air the interview, because 15 minutes of fame can turn into 35 or 45 minutes of fame. So we held off until she was released. But again, it was part of a negotiated settlement.

I do want to point out that as a journalist in this type of situation that we are not, and I was not, a negotiator. I acted more as an observer in this interview.

O'BRIEN: Andrew McKinney of News Radio 260 KTR. Job well done, I think it's fair to say this morning. Thanks for being with to us talk about the interview, really remarkable.

MCKINNEY: Thank you very much.

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