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CNN Sunday Morning
Eric Rudolph Captured
Aired June 01, 2003 - 07:00 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.
ARTHEL NEVILLE, CNN ANCHOR: You learned about it first here on "CNN SATURDAY MORNING," the capture of suspected serial bomber Eric Robert Rudolph. His arrest in the early morning hours behind a Murphy, North Carolina supermarket by a rookie cop is remarkable, especially considering the massive manhunt that federal authorities conducted for years to try to find him.
Here's a look at how Rudolph was captured. At about 4:00 a.m. Saturday, Murphy police officer Jeffrey Postell spotted a man behind a supermarket in Murphy, North Carolina. The man ran behind some milk crates, but complied with when the officer drew his weapon and ordered him to come out. The man gave Officer Postell a false name and date of birth, saying he was Jerry Wilson. The officer arrested the man and took him to Cherokee County Jail in Murphy.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, and that is where officers had their suspicions confirmed that they had one of America's most wanted in custody.
CNN's Mike Brooks, formerly with the Terrorism Task Force, joins us live from Murphy, North Carolina.
Good morning, Mike. It has just been a remarkable 24 hours.
MIKE BROOKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really has, Anderson. I still can't believe it, driving up here this morning from the hotel. I said in all the years that they were looking for him, five years on the lamb, and they now have him. And he sits in the Cherokee County Jail, right behind me in the brick building you can see. The jail takes up the first two floors of that.
Now he's expected to be moved to Ashville, North Carolina sometime today. The FBI yesterday, after the press conference, told me that most likely he will be flown there. I asked him how are they going to get him there? Are they going to use FBI helicopters? He said there's a possibility they may use a National Guard helicopter to fly him to Ashville, North Carolina.
He's due in court at 10:00 on Monday, tomorrow morning, to face his charges and his initial appearance. Now I also spoke with Jill Rhodes. She's the assisting United States Attorney for the Western district of North Carolina. She is going to be the one who's going to be in court to present the prosecution's charges, the 21 count indictment against him in court.
Now I also asked her what they planned for today. She says that the FBI's evidence response teams have targeted locations in and around Murphy, that they're going to go there today and look for additional evidence. So -- and the FBI also said that it's going to be about 20 to 30 FBI -- additional FBI agents joining them here in Murphy as well as we agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms -- Anderson?
COOPER: Mike, the million dollar question, of course, did anyone give aid to this man over the last five years? And I asked that question because when you look at the photograph of him that we got yesterday, his hair is short and his mustache is trimmed. He doesn't look like Grizzly Adams. He doesn't look like a guy who's been, you know, living off nuts and berries for the last five years in a forest somewhere. That's got to have people talking to Murphy?
BROOKS: It does have people talking quite a bit. At the time of his arrest, he had on work shirt, a work pants. He had on running shoes. And the officer said he had a large flashlight. And as far as I know, batteries don't last five years in a flashlight. So either it was either coming into town getting supplies for his flashlight for himself, or he had someone helping him.
Talking to the people here in Murphy, a lot of them feel that he did have help. And we know that early on in the investigation, it was thought that there was a lot of people here who were, you know, sympathetic towards him on marquis. And some of the businesses around town here and in Andrews, it would have "run, Eric, run." So you know, if there is some sympathy towards him here in the community, I'm sure that the FBI will find that out because there is a federal charge of harboring a fugitive. And if they find out that anyone has been doing that, those people will also be brought to the bar of justice.
COOPER: Yes, I talked to the mayor of the town last night. He said he didn't think that he had help, but you know, who knows? Everyone has their own opinion. The other, I guess, possibility out there is that apparently there are a lot of, you know, cabins in the woods, a lot of weekend homes for people or summer homes during much of the year lie empty. I guess that's another possibility that he was hiding out in one of these homes.
BROOKS: That's a very good possibility, Anderson. And yesterday, I was asking the chief of police here in Murphy if they're actually going to go back and look at all of the pending burglaries and largely that they had at some of these homes and these cabins in the mountains. And he said they had done that before years ago, but they're going to go back now and look over the last three weeks to a month to see if there had been any burglaries that are open right now -- Anderson?
COOPER: All right, Mike Brooks, thanks very much. Working the story for us. We'll check in with you a little bit later on.
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 June 1, 2003 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ARTHEL NEVILLE, CNN ANCHOR: You learned about it first here on "CNN SATURDAY MORNING," the capture of suspected serial bomber Eric Robert Rudolph. His arrest in the early morning hours behind a Murphy, North Carolina supermarket by a rookie cop is remarkable, especially considering the massive manhunt that federal authorities conducted for years to try to find him.
Here's a look at how Rudolph was captured. At about 4:00 a.m. Saturday, Murphy police officer Jeffrey Postell spotted a man behind a supermarket in Murphy, North Carolina. The man ran behind some milk crates, but complied with when the officer drew his weapon and ordered him to come out. The man gave Officer Postell a false name and date of birth, saying he was Jerry Wilson. The officer arrested the man and took him to Cherokee County Jail in Murphy.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, and that is where officers had their suspicions confirmed that they had one of America's most wanted in custody.
CNN's Mike Brooks, formerly with the Terrorism Task Force, joins us live from Murphy, North Carolina.
Good morning, Mike. It has just been a remarkable 24 hours.
MIKE BROOKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really has, Anderson. I still can't believe it, driving up here this morning from the hotel. I said in all the years that they were looking for him, five years on the lamb, and they now have him. And he sits in the Cherokee County Jail, right behind me in the brick building you can see. The jail takes up the first two floors of that.
Now he's expected to be moved to Ashville, North Carolina sometime today. The FBI yesterday, after the press conference, told me that most likely he will be flown there. I asked him how are they going to get him there? Are they going to use FBI helicopters? He said there's a possibility they may use a National Guard helicopter to fly him to Ashville, North Carolina.
He's due in court at 10:00 on Monday, tomorrow morning, to face his charges and his initial appearance. Now I also spoke with Jill Rhodes. She's the assisting United States Attorney for the Western district of North Carolina. She is going to be the one who's going to be in court to present the prosecution's charges, the 21 count indictment against him in court.
Now I also asked her what they planned for today. She says that the FBI's evidence response teams have targeted locations in and around Murphy, that they're going to go there today and look for additional evidence. So -- and the FBI also said that it's going to be about 20 to 30 FBI -- additional FBI agents joining them here in Murphy as well as we agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms -- Anderson?
COOPER: Mike, the million dollar question, of course, did anyone give aid to this man over the last five years? And I asked that question because when you look at the photograph of him that we got yesterday, his hair is short and his mustache is trimmed. He doesn't look like Grizzly Adams. He doesn't look like a guy who's been, you know, living off nuts and berries for the last five years in a forest somewhere. That's got to have people talking to Murphy?
BROOKS: It does have people talking quite a bit. At the time of his arrest, he had on work shirt, a work pants. He had on running shoes. And the officer said he had a large flashlight. And as far as I know, batteries don't last five years in a flashlight. So either it was either coming into town getting supplies for his flashlight for himself, or he had someone helping him.
Talking to the people here in Murphy, a lot of them feel that he did have help. And we know that early on in the investigation, it was thought that there was a lot of people here who were, you know, sympathetic towards him on marquis. And some of the businesses around town here and in Andrews, it would have "run, Eric, run." So you know, if there is some sympathy towards him here in the community, I'm sure that the FBI will find that out because there is a federal charge of harboring a fugitive. And if they find out that anyone has been doing that, those people will also be brought to the bar of justice.
COOPER: Yes, I talked to the mayor of the town last night. He said he didn't think that he had help, but you know, who knows? Everyone has their own opinion. The other, I guess, possibility out there is that apparently there are a lot of, you know, cabins in the woods, a lot of weekend homes for people or summer homes during much of the year lie empty. I guess that's another possibility that he was hiding out in one of these homes.
BROOKS: That's a very good possibility, Anderson. And yesterday, I was asking the chief of police here in Murphy if they're actually going to go back and look at all of the pending burglaries and largely that they had at some of these homes and these cabins in the mountains. And he said they had done that before years ago, but they're going to go back now and look over the last three weeks to a month to see if there had been any burglaries that are open right now -- Anderson?
COOPER: All right, Mike Brooks, thanks very much. Working the story for us. We'll check in with you a little bit later on.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
