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Nation Unites to Mourn Orlando Attack Victims; Patrons: Terrorist Familiar Face at Gay Nightclub; President Obama to Visit Orlando on Thursday; Friends Remember Shooting Victim Luis Vielma. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired June 14, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to also take you into the investigation. This is a very confusing picture that we're getting about the man who did this and why. It's not fitting into the box of terror as investigators had expected.

[07:00:11] He'd been at this club a lot. He's been online in places that suggest a confusion in his own mind a lot.

We have all of this covered for you. Let's begin with CNN's Boris Sanchez -- Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chris, good morning.

As we learn more about the individuals that were lost early Sunday morning, the sons and daughters and family members that we lost, the world is standing up in solidarity with Orlando as the city begins to heal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ (voice-over): Thousands gathering in Orlando to mourn the 49 lives cut short in Sunday's terror attack at a gay nightclub. A bell tolling 49 times, for each of the victims.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Be at peace, my friends.

SANCHEZ: A community known as one of the happiest places on earth because of its world-famous theme parks, now a city grappling with being the site of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.

The Latino and gay community hard-hit by this senseless attack.

Across the nation, thousands more coming together in solidarity to remember the victims outside New York City's Stonewall Inn, the LGBT community gathering at the historic site where violence became the catalyst for the gay rights movement.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hold up your lights. Show the world we are standing together in New York City, and we are sending a message that we will not accept hate anymore.

SANCHEZ: In Los Angeles, pop star Lady Gaga read the names of all 49 victims at a candlelight vigil. LADY GAGA, SINGER/SONGWRITER: Orlando, we are united with you.

SANCHEZ: This, as we're learning more stories of heroism from survivors.

RAY RIVERA, ORLANDO SHOOTING SURVIVOR: I just heard the shots getting closer and closer, and at that point, I was like, all right. It's time to go.

SANCHEZ: Ducking behind his deejay booth, Ray Rivera survived, saving a woman's life in the process.

RIVERA: And the girl was down there panicking, so I kind of, you know, told her she needed to be quiet. And as soon as there was a break in the shots, then I kind of just pushed her and said, "Come on. Let's go."

SANCHEZ: Twenty-five-year-old Norman Casiano was shot twice in the melee, taking cover inside a bathroom. To escape, he climbed over the bodies of his friends that couldn't make it out alive.

NORMAN CASIANO, ORLANDO SHOOTING SURVIVOR: Someone starts screaming, like, "Please, please, please, don't shoot us. Don't shoot us." And he does the first round through the door.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of the stall where you were?

CASIANO: Of the stall that I was in. And he put his hand over the stall and just -- free shot.

SANCHEZ: These heart-wrenching stories having an affect around the world, landmarks from Paris to Sydney lighting up in rainbow colors to symbolically show that love wins.

British singer Adele opening up her concert in Belgium with this emotional tribute.

ADELE, SINGER/SONGWRITER: I would like to start tonight by dedicating this entire show to everybody at Orlando and at Pulse nightclub last night. The LGBTQ community, they're like soulmates since I was very young, so I'm very moved by it.

SANCHEZ: And on the streets of London's Soho district, a Mecca for the city's LGBT community, cheers as 49 balloons were released in honor of the victims.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: It's inspiring to see these outpourings of support, whether it's, you know, at vigils like that, whether it's outside of blood banks with hundreds of people lining up to donate to those who need it most.

We're still expecting more vigils and more moments like these of condolence as the president, President Obama is expected to visit Orlando on Thursday to personally offer his condolences to those affected most by the shooting -- Chris.

CUOMO: This community really coming together, Boris. You know, they had over 5,000 people volunteer to give blood.

And we're going to focus on the people who matter most in this context, which is the victims. We're trying to get answers about why this happened, as well. And investigators have a lot of details about the whereabouts of this murderer in the final hours before the attack at the nightclub behind us. Regulars say they've seen him before.

CNN's Jim Sciutto joins us now with the latest on that part of the investigation. Jim, that's a big curveball.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: No question. And a big focus now is what was he doing not only the hours before but the days and weeks before? Was he looking at other targets, for instance? And what were his motivations?

New information this morning, based on cell-phone tower information, that just in the hours before he came to the Pulse nightclub, he went to a Disney property here, Disney Springs. It's part of the Walt Disney World resort.

The question is, was that also a possible target he was scoping out? We know that he also went to Disney World in April of this year with his family. A consistent, continuing line of inquiry for investigators.

This as they learn more details as to exactly what happened inside the club during this horrific shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CALLEN, REGULAR PULSE NIGHTCLUB CUSTOMER (via phone): We said hello and everything, and he was very friendly.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Club goers recalling their interactions with the terrorist they say frequented the popular gay nightclub multiple times before carrying out the massacre.

CALLEN: I would, maybe twice a month, see him on Tuesday nights.

[07:05:10] SCIUTTO: Several regular customers telling the "The Orlando Sentinel" they've seen the terrorist on and off for a few years there.

CALLEN: He seemed like a very nice, comfortable -- he was -- he loved where he was at. He was drinking with another guy at one time. A lot of it don't make sense, and we're never going to know.

SCIUTTO: Another regular, Kevin West, telling "The Los Angeles Times" that the terrorist had messaged him on a gay dating app several times in the last year.

MOLLY HENNESSY-FISKE, REPORTER, "L.A. TIMES": He said the man had contacted him, looking for clubs to go out to. SCIUTTO: This, as we're getting our first look at the chaos inside

the Pulse nightclub as gunshots rang out. Twenty-five-year-old Amanda Alvear eventually hiding out in the club's bathroom, where the terrorist continued his carnage. She did not survive.

Investigators working to piece together clues to trace the terrorist's moves in the hours just before the attack. Using cell phone tower data, investigators now say the terrorist spent several hours at Disney Springs, a popular shopping and entertainment center in Walt Disney World resort. He was believed to be alone at the time. His exact motives there, unclear.

What is becoming more clear is that he appears to have been self- radicalized and expressed support for conflicting Islamic groups.

JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: He said he was doing this for the leader of ISIL, but he also appeared to claim solidarity with the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombing and solidarity with a Florida man who died as a suicide bomber in Syria for Al Nusra Front, a group in conflict with the so-called Islamic State.

SCIUTTO: Investigators also say his electronic devices show searches for ISIS beheading videos and videos of Anwar Al-Awlaki, the American imam who joined Al Qaeda in Yemen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: What he did online is key, because there is precedent for this. Visiting those websites, watching those videos, those have also radicalized other terrorists in previous attacks. This is a key line of inquiry here.

As the president said yesterday, yes, there may not have been ties to ISIS groups -- communications, et cetera -- overseas, but the fact is, it is enough -- and we've seen this before -- just to look on the web, to radicalize yourself, to read this stuff, to watch these videos can lead to an attack like this.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Jim, stay with us, if you would.

We also bring in CNN national security analyst and former assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, Juliette Kayyem.

Juliette, I know you're struggling with your voice, because you've been talking so much about this case, but we'll get through it.

Before we get to you, Jim, one more thing about the Disney connection. So he spent time in what is known as sort of Downtown Disney, shopping before this? Anything more that we can, we've learned about what his plans were?

SCIUTTO: Well, just -- we just know he went there, and he was there for several hours. They don't know yet whether he was scoping that or whether he was just killing time before he went down here.

One distinction, Disney Springs downtown does not have security coordinates when you come in. There's no metal detectors, whereas Disney World, the resort itself, only in recent months has installed those as a precaution. And it gets to their own concern about attacks like this.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: And that was a huge controversy when Disney did that. When they put the screens up.

CAMEROTA: And now it seems as though everybody would welcome magnetometers.

CUOMO: Well, people are going to have to get to grips, even families are going to have to get to grips with the new normal, because you've got to balance your concerns about the safety of your family. And these situations seem to pop up in more and more context all the time.

Let's talk about the desire to put this guy in a box. It makes people feel better on one level to say, terrorist, ISIS, radicalized by her, self-radicalized by him, and that's it, we're done with it. This guy is not presenting that way. He's presenting in a complicated way as someone who may have just been really disturbed, angry and had access to the weapon.

KAYYEM: It's possible that he hated everything. Right? That he hated Christians and he hated gays. He hated all of these people.

CUOMO: People are going to say you're making an excuse for Islamic radicals right now. You're trying to distract from what he really is to protect them.

KAYYEM: He -- we think he is really an Islamic -- a radical Islamic terrorist, because he said so. He's also anti-gay. He also killed 50 people. All of those are explanations. And what I want to say is, between him being an Islamic terrorist and an LGBT hater, he's probably both.

CUOMO: And it's the same thing. Right? I mean, especially ISIS. They -- they practice hate on gays as part of, like, a core belief system.

SCIUTTO: Here's the thing. Anyone who's talked -- I've interviewed a lot of these guys. I've talked to the jihadis in a number of countries. With many of them, there are multiple motivations. And the thing is it's not purely religious.

Religion is certainly a part of it, but oftentimes you have angry, young troubled men looking for a cause. This gives them a cause. It gives them an identity, something to be exciting about -- excited about, something to feel manly and masculine about. I mean, that's the profile.

[06:10:08] And Juliette knows this better than me, but that is a consistent profile for folks who go down this path.

CAMEROTA: Jim, the FBI, we know, interviewed him at least twice. He had come up in their investigations of extremism and ties to radicals. And yet, you know, as we've all discussed, he wasn't on any sort of watch list that would keep him from getting a gun.

What has the FBI said about what those interviews, if they bore any fruit?

SCIUTTO: They determined. They made a determination. And let's keep in mind, they are interviewing dozens, hundreds of people like this every year, who do -- who might express support for a terror group, who might post online, might follow someone on Twitter, et cetera. They have to make judgment calls.

They made a judgment call here. They investigated him ten months. One factor, he expressed support for conflicting groups. He made outrageous claims about being tied to these groups which weren't substantiated.

The FBI said, "You know what? This guy is a crackpot. He's not a real terror threat." As it turned out that was an incorrect...

CUOMO: And to be fair to Comey and the FBI, their hands are tied. There's so much political pressure on them to not keep cases open, to not target people at too low a bar. You know, to not villainize people for just having angry or disturbing thoughts.

So you have all that political pressure on them, and where we saw it coming to a head here, Juliette, is with the gun. I'm not talking about gun law. Let people have that conversation all they want. This is about FBI authority.

They knew this guy was in a bad place somehow. Maybe they can make a case; maybe they couldn't. Then he goes to get the gun. They don't even communicate the attachment to his past, to that -- to that application. They have no ability to even pick up the phone and ask him any questions.

KAYYEM: That's exactly right. And I think that's why I'm sort of less interested in thinking about the motivation and now talking about the guns. I honestly mean that. We may never figure out what motivated him. He got guns, and he was interviewed by the FBI. It's indefensible at this stage.

CAMEROTA: That's got to change. I mean, that -- you would submit that's got to change. They have to flag somebody if they -- if he's on their radar.

KAYYEM: And one other area is the FBI did notify his employers. I think that's odd.

CUOMO: But I get it. I mean, you get it. You're a lawyer. The -- there's so much political pressure to put all of these things in place.

CAMEROTA: Of course, if you're not guilty of anything, then you can't ...

CUOMO: ... that hamstrung them. You say it all the time. They're going to contact your employer, they can't make a case? The civil liberties people go crazy. You're going to take his ability to get a gun without a conviction and without an adjudication of mental illness? The Second Amendment people go crazy.

SCIUTTO: That's a big question, too, because we have the FBI. We have DHS. They do their job very well. The U.S. does not have a domestic intelligence service. You go to the U.K., they have MI-6. They do overseas. MI-5 does domestic.

And here's a question: the FBI wrapped up this investigation because there was nothing prosecutable. They didn't find enough information. Oftentimes in these cases, you can't prosecute, but you've got a lot of smoke around there. Can you keep him under surveillance? Can you take what seems like a simple step, prevent him from buying a gun? You can't do that.

This is America. We've got loads of protections, which make sense but they also prevent other steps.

CAMEROTA: Those are the things that are being looked at today. I mean, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton are talking about if anything it change. In terms of all that smoke, can there be an outlet for that somewhere?

CUOMO: But it's a political decision, and it can change. It was not the FBI's fault.

SCIUTTO: No.

CUOMO: Thank you very much.

All right. The politics of this. The man at the top, President Obama, is going to come here to Orlando Thursday. He's going to meet with the people who matter most: the attack victims and their families, and to pay his respects.

CNN's Athena Jones is live at the White House with more. What do we know?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

That's right. The White House says the president wants to pay his respects to the families and also stand in solidarity with this community as it begins to recover.

We're still awaiting more details on exactly what he'll do and who he'll meet with while in Orlando. But in similar trips in the past, he's met not only with the victims' families but also with first responders, with hospital staff, with law enforcement.

And we expect he'll also deliver remarks to the press. We've heard the president speak about this a number of times already since the shooting, but in his most extensive remarks yesterday in the oval office, the president described the shooting as a result of home-grown extremism, saying that the shooter was likely influenced an radicalized by extremist ideology via the Internet but that he was not specifically directed to carry out this attack by a specific terrorist organization.

We've also heard the president talk about the need to keep dangerous weapons, what he calls weapons of war, like the rifle the assailant used, out of the hands of people who are dangerous. So we could hear him touch on those themes in Orlando and also later today when he's expected to speak after he meets with his National Security Council -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK. Thank you very much for that, Athena.

Well, coming up, we want to honor the terribly short life of one of the attack victims. Luis Vielma's death getting reaction from famed author J.K. Rowling.

[06:15:02] Up next, Luis's friends will tell us what he meant to them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Forty-nine lives, innocent lives, taken from our world for no good reason by a deranged murderer at the gay nightclub behind us. And one of the youngest victims, 22-year-old Luis Vielma. He worked at a Harry Potter ride at Universal Studios, and it was a real passion for him.

Joining us now to remember their friend and co-workers Al and Kelley Mauro.

Al, Kelley, thank you for being here. I know this is not a conversation you ever wanted to have, but you recognize, Kelley, it's so important to remember the people who were taken. Not just get caught up in the man who took them from all of us.

So tell me about this young man, 22 years old. How should people remember Luis?

KELLEY MAURO, CO-WORKER OF LUIS VIELMA: He was amazingly funny. He was the coolest, happiest person you would have ever met.

CUOMO: Funny, joke teller? Funny, quick? What kind of funny was it?

AL MAURO, CO-WORKER OF LUIS VIELMA: All of it.

K. MAURO: Goofy.

CUOMO: All of it? He was the whole package?

[06:2008] K. MAURO: He was a goofy guy.

A. MAURO: Yes. He was very down to earth. He could be your best friend to anyone. He was always there for you, always had your back. Everybody loved and respected him. There was no -- nothing you could ever say bad about him, ever.

CUOMO: Now, he was just a kid, 22 years old. But he knew his passion. He knew what he wanted to be. Tell me about that. A. MAURO: Well, I think with him, he loved soccer a lot, and he loves

being with his family. He loved friends. He loved, loved, loved disaster, where we had met him through Universal. He loved Harry Potter. He loved working for the Wizarding World and he just -- it was a lot he had to look forward.

CUOMO: When you heard about this, did it even make sense to you? You hear about Luis, who had a girlfriend. It was a gay club. How could he have been there? Why would this have happened? Give us the background.

K. MAURO: Of course he was there. He -- he was friends with everybody, and he was the one that was ready to, to go and have a good time, and...

CUOMO: He'd never been there before? Is that true?

K. MAURO: No, he hadn't. No.

CUOMO: But it was going to be a great night, and he had been talking about that, I guess, on social media.

K. MAURO: Yes.

CUOMO: He was excited, why?

K. MAURO: Yes. He had a friend coming up from Miami. They were going out and ready to have a good time.

CUOMO: One of the reasons Luis's story pops out is because he represented everything that you want this to be about. You know? That, sure, gay/straight, they hang out together. They love each other, they're friends. As opposed to the person who went in there who was either confused, or angered or mad about that type of relationship and understanding and tried to destroy it. When you learned about this, how did it make sense to you?

K. MAURO: It didn't. It really didn't.

A. MAURO: He was the sweetest, kindest person you could ever, you could ever know, and anyone that knew him, or -- or came in contact with him knew that all he wanted to do was just celebrate life.

CUOMO: I don't want to upset you, but I want you to tell people why it's upsetting? What was lost about him, Kelley? That's what I want people to understand.

When you heard about it, you lost your friend. You lost someone who had so much passion for life. And what does that mean in terms of what's not here now?

K. MAURO: I -- I just don't understand why he's gone. Why -- why did this have to happen? Why -- I just don't understand it. I don't. I don't.

A. MAURO: And our prayers are with, you know, everybody. His family, and Tony and Laura, that are still in the hospital right now, and fighting and trying to come out of things, and -- you know. We just want to be kind of, you know -- they're the light and inspiration that's kind of re-birthed this. And -- and I know Luis would be happy that they're fighting and, you know, staying strong.

CUOMO: A silver lining aspect to this, for Luis's memory, is that J.K. Rowling heard about this and has come out about it.

K. MAURO: Yes.

CUOMO: Expressing concern at the loss, and congratulating his enthusiasm. What do you think that would have meant to your friend?

K. MAURO: Oh, gosh. He would have loved it.

A. MAURO: Yes.

K. MAURO: He loved Harry Potter.

CUOMO: Because it wasn't just a job for him?

K. MAURO: No.

A. MAURO: Oh, no.

K. MAURO: He liked it. He liked the series, and so I think he would have freaked out a little.

A. MAURO: Yes. In a good way.

K. MAURO: In a good way.

A. MAURO: A very good way.

CUOMO: You lost the friend. What are you going to try to hold with you going forward?

A. MAURO: Everything about him. Everything about the guy. He -- he was inspiring, inspired a lot of people. You know? He was -- you know, if you had a bad day, he always picked you up. If you -- if you were trying to get through work and just trying to move up, he was always there with the confidence behind you.

K. MAURO: Always smiling.

A. MAURO: Always smiling. Always -- always there for you. Like I said, he was everyone's best friend and not because he had to, but because he wanted to. That's the kind of person he was.

CUOMO: What does it mean to you that the community has exploded in support of the people who were in that club that night, gay or straight? So many Muslims coming forward to donate blood. There were some 5,000 people on line. You see the vigils.

A. MAURO: Yes.

CUOMO: What do you think that means?

K. MAURO: It's been overwhelming. It's really -- it's very nice to know. I saw a video of everybody around the world, you know, holding vigils, and it's just -- it's nice to know that we're not alone.

A. MAURO: Yes.

K. MAURO: We're not -- we're not trying to struggle through this on our own. We have everybody.

CUOMO: How has it been as word has spread that Luis is gone? I know the communities that were at the bar was so tight. What's the reaction been?

A. MAURO: It's been hard, you know. People are trying to smile. They're trying to, you know, remember him and everyone else that, you know, that was involved in this, and trying to just show a lot of love and support. And but it's been very emotional for everybody, especially in the Universal family and everybody.

[07:25:07] CUOMO: I was trying to get a sense of him, reading in about him. Because to me, I get stuck on 22; 22, you know, how much -- but it seems that he really knew who he was and what he wanted out of life. Did he have a big dream that people should know about, or was he just living the dream?

K. MAURO: He was living the dream. He was living it. Every time we saw him, it was like, that was like -- it's great to be here. You know? And that's -- and I think that's the thing that inspired everybody that he knew is that he didn't take anything for granted. You know? And -- like this was the destination. You know?

CUOMO: Then he had figured out what takes some of us our entire lives to figure out. And it's just a small measure of solace that someone who was taken so soon.

Thank you, Kelly, Al, for telling us about your friend Luis. We want him to be remembered for the right reasons.

A. MAURO: Absolutely.

CUOMO: Thank you. Good luck going forward. I know it gets -- I know it goes like that. So thank you for being with us. All right?

K. MAURO: Thank you.

A. MAURO: Thank you very much.

CUOMO: All right.

This situation is something that's going to reverberate on many levels. You see this community coming together. You see our politicians coming apart. The 2016 race has been reflecting what happened here in Orlando and not in the best ways. Donald Trump suggesting President Obama might have an ulterior motive when it comes to handling radical Islam. We're going to talk about that with one of Trump's top advisors, next.

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