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CNN Live Sunday

Police Officers Shot in Standoff in Texas; John Mark Karr Not Expected in Boulder for Several Days; Saddam Hussein To Face Second Trial Monday

Aired August 20, 2006 - 18:59   ET

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

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: It looks like we're going to go directly to the breaking news. I'm Carol Lin at the CNN Center. We have a shootout situation in Midlothian, Texas. That's about 25 miles southwest of Dallas. Four police officers or law enforcement officers have been shot. We don't know how severely injured they are. But on the telephone with me right now is the public information officer for the Midlothian police, Britton Snipes. Britton, do you hear me?
BRITTON SNIPES, PIO, MIDLOTHIAN POLICE (on phone): Yes I do, Carol.

LIN: All right. Give me the situation. What happened here and how are the officers doing?

SNIPES: At this point, they're all at Methodist Central Hospital in Dallas. They all are conscious and awake and speaking. Some of them will undergo surgery. We received a call about 2:50 this afternoon from a lady who had her window just suddenly break and didn't have an explanation for it.

And we investigated, the officers found that it had been shot. So they traced the trajectory of that shot, went to that apartment and on entry into that apartment, they were immediately fired upon.

LIN: All right. So there were three police officers that responded and then another that was coming in response to that shooting, is that correct?

SNIPES: I'm not sure how many officers responded initially to the call, but I know backup was asked for and a total of three Midlothian officers and one Texas state trooper.

LIN: OK, the suspect is still inside, barricaded?

SNIPES: At this point, we are negotiations with the barricaded suspect, yes, ma'am.

LIN: What does he want? Is it a he, first of all?

SNIPES: It is a he, 25-year-old male.

LIN: And what does he want?

SNIPES: We have no idea at this point or at least I don't have an idea at this point. We are negotiating with him by passing notes back and forth. He doesn't have telephone service.

LIN: All right, so why not just go in? Does he have hostages?

SNIPES: We don't believe he has hostages, no, ma'am.

LIN: All right, but you know he is armed. Do you know how heavily?

SNIPES: No, ma'am, we don't.

LIN: Or any history on the man?

SNIPES: No history at this point, no, ma'am.

LIN: No history at this point. Does he seem lucid? Is he under the influence of drugs or alcohol? Do you have any idea?

SNIPES: I'm sorry, I don't have any information on that at this point.

LIN: All right, so how are the police officers going to play this out right now?

SNIPES: Well, it's going to be handled as a crisis situation. We're in negotiations. We have a crisis negotiator and a tactical team at the scene.

LIN: Now we're looking at a live aerial picture, sir, and we see a residential street to the right of the screen that appears to be filled with police vehicles.

SNIPES: Correct. We have assistance from several neighboring police departments, Duncanville, Cedar Hill, Department of Public Safety Ellis County, Johnson County, Ovilla, all officers have responded on a mutual aid situation.

LIN: Sir, I want to say, that it is taped, it's not live, just in case the suspect is looking at it right now.

SNIPES: Thank you.

LIN: All right, so that's the situation as it's unfolding right now. Have there been evacuations in that neighborhood?

SNIPES: We have isolated and evacuated to the point that we can in that apartment complex.

LIN: OK, thank you very much, sir. Britton Snipes, public information officer for Midlothian police department. A dramatic situation unfolding as a gunman inside one of those apartment complexes shot four law enforcement officers. They are being treated at local hospitals. We are going to stay on top of this situation and as soon as there are any developments, we are going to bring them to you.

In the meantime, our other top story tonight. The accused killer of JonBenet Ramsey should be back on U.S. soil in less than five hours. John Mark Karr arrested in Thailand last week. In Bangkok this morning, he was placed onboard a commercial flight headed for Los Angeles. CNN's Atika Shubert has this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Murder suspect John Mark Karr was escorted out of Thailand's immigration detention center to the flash of cameras and a barrage of questions from reporters. He answered none of them. With a blank expression on his face, officials led him to a waiting car.

Arriving at the airport the scene was a media frenzy as Karr was pushed through to check-in and immigration. He is flying business class bound on a Thai Airways flight bound for Los Angeles. But even as Karr leaves Thailand, many questions remain: what was he doing here for the last two years?

He lived a lonely life on the 9th floor of this Bangkok guest house staff and neighbors say, and was never seen with anyone. CNN obtained a copy of his hotel bill with several phone numbers. Among the calls a tour agency that says he traveled to Cambodia and a medical clinic specializing in cosmetic surgery including sex change operations. Doctors there say Karr had several appointments, but refused to divulge what treatments he received.

Karr taught in at least two Bangkok international schools for several weeks, both refused to hire him full-time. One reported inappropriate behavior with young girls, another said he was too intimidating to his students.

CNN also obtained a copy of his application to another school that declined to hire him. According to a school official that interviewed him for the job, Karr seemed, quote, "overly eager to work with elementary schoolgirls, refusing any supervision or assistance in the classroom."

The school official also told CNN, "Karr sent the school a series of pornographic and sexually explicit e-mails."

Once in detention, Karr was monitored 24 hours a day by English speaking guards. He ate little, only asking for the occasional bottle of water. Immigration officials say he passed the days watching television including news reports of his arrest and reading one book "The Secret Garden," a children's story about an orphaned young girl who goes to live with her reclusive uncle in the English country side.

(on camera): This detention center was John Mark Karr's home for the last four days. Immigration officials tell us he made one last request before leaving, he said he wanted to dress well, asking for a silk shirt and tie. He told them he wanted to be dressed like a schoolteacher for his final departure.

Atika Shubert, CNN, Bangkok.

(END VIDEOTAPE) LIN: CNN's Drew Griffin is on that flight that's bringing John Mark Karr back to America. If and when he calls in, we're going to have him on the air.

In the meantime, JonBenet Ramsey was murdered in her home in Boulder, Colorado on the day after Christmas in 1996. CNN's Ed Lavandera in Boulder. Ed, have boulder Officials actually arranged for Karr to come home to Colorado or are they ready to charge him even?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well that's what they're working out right now. And I should preface what we're about to tell you is that we're sensing a lot of confusion in trying to straighten out exactly what's going to happen when he touches down on the ground in Los Angeles.

But, let me tell you what the spokeswoman here from the district attorney's office is saying. They expect when he touches down in L.A. he will be arrested with the charges, with the murder charges of JonBenet Ramsey. Technically he hasn't been arrested on that charge yet. He was being deported as an undesirable and hasn't been arrested on that.

Officials here believe what will happen next is that there will need to be a need for an extradition hearing, which could delay his arrival here by several days. However, officials that district attorney's office in Los Angeles say they aren't expecting, they don't know anything about an extradition hearing, so there are some people who believe that he might just come straight through to Colorado at some point.

Of course, officials here, though, in Boulder, are saying they don't expect him here for at least several days. And in terms of the charges, that they do tell us that once he is here in Boulder, they will have 72 hours to charge him based on what the D.A. said on Thursday, which is the last time she spoke publicly about this case.

She said there were a lot of work, a lot of investigation that needed to be done to move forward in this case. So whether or not they're ready to file those charges is still a question we have.

LIN: Ed Lavandera, live in Boulder, Colorado, thank you very much. We're going to be tracking that flight with John Mark Karr on board. And also on Monday, Larry King is going to have an exclusive interview with the Ramsey family attorney, Lin Wood. All right, that's a shot of the set, I'm over here. And the Colorado professor who led police to Karr. That is Monday at 9:00 Eastern.

All right, we want to hear from you, as well. Do you think John Karr played a role in JonBenet Ramsey's death?

Meantime, we also want to bring you the latest out of Iraq. Guys, let's go to the Iraq story. That's the e-mail information in case you want to e-mail us. In the meantime, it was a violent day in Iraq. You're looking at the aftermath of a shooting actually, sectarian massacre in Iraq. Snipers were spraying a series of Shia pilgrims in Baghdad with bullets. The religious procession was on its way to a holy shrine. And at least 20 people were killed. More than 300 people were wounded.

Now, the attack came despite tight security in Baghdad. Perimeters were set up outside the shrine and intervals around the capital, yet, the gunman managed to get through. This report from our Michael Holmes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Violence had been expected, and insurgents obliged: gunfire and panic.

Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims marched on the streets of northern and central Baghdad Sunday to mark the anniversary of the death of the revered 8th Century imam, Musa al-Kadhim.

Last year, rumors of a suicide bomber in the crowd sparked a stampede that killed nearly a 1,000 people.

This time, the threat was no rumor. Despite high security and a total vehicle ban, gunmen struck from at least half a dozen locations, many firing on the crowd from rooftops and inside houses, even from a cemetery.

U.S. helicopters were in the air, but ground troops stayed back leaving security to Iraqi forces and in some cases, Shia militiamen who fought insurgents in often prolonged gun battles.

Among the dead, some of those militiamen and several insurgents, several police officers among the wounded.

But the pilgrims were determined to proceed. And by the time they had reached their destination, the biggest Shia mosque in Baghdad, many of their fellow marchers were dead, hundreds wounded.

Violence had been anticipated by authorities in part because the Shia march wound its way through several Sunni neighborhoods. And that's where most of the ambushes took place.

(on camera): The march took place during a major U.S.-Iraqi security operation aimed at curbing Shia/Sunni violence as well as attacks by foreign fighters. But at the end of the day, the toll of dead Iraqis had risen yet again.

Michael Holmes, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: Coming up, war games in the Iranian desert. Tehran flexes its military muscles and CNN has the only American correspondent there.

Also, we're going to be following this late-breaking story out of Texas. Shanon Cook also has the latest around the world. SHANON COOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, coming up ahead, a fireman in Britain takes a tumble in a dryer and now he's feeling the heat. You have to see it to believe it though. I'll show you, coming up.

LIN: And love her or hate her either way, get ready for Hillary and more speculation. You're watching CNN, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: All right. These are pictures just into the CNN Center of a standoff happening at an apartment complex where four law enforcement officers were shot, one in the face. The situation, according to the Midlothian police department. This is about 25 miles southwest of Dallas.

He said that officers responding to a window being blown out, it turned out it was a shot fired from a neighbor's apartment. When officers responded over there, the officer was shot in the face. Another officer responded to the scene. He was shot, as well. A total of four injured, being treated at a local hospital. As soon as we get more on this developing situation, we're going to bring it to you.

Iran. Under its new president, Iran cast a big shadow across the Middle East and the world. Accused of providing arms to Hezbollah, Iran remains defiant in defending its nuclear program. And now this. Over the weekend, Iran launched a massive series of war games. The huge military exercise is described as defensive in nature but its purpose may be more far reaching. Aneesh Raman has more from Tehran. Aneesh?

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, new signs that Iran sees itself as a growing force in the region. And that there is no letup in its defiance against the west.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAMAN: It is meant to leave little doubt. In Iran there is a readiness for war, over the weekend the armed forces launched massive military exercises set to continue over the next five weeks in half of the country's provinces and set to showcase key assets, including this surface-to-surface missile dubbed in Farsi, thunder. Iranian military officials say it can travel up to 155 miles.

Short range perhaps but this is all they say part of a new defensive doctrine. The war games are in operation across the country in a large scale says the chief commander of the Iranian army and they are aimed at encountering all sudden attacks from enemies. The threat of sudden attacks is a not so veiled reference to potential air strikes Iran could face from the west against its nuclear facilities, a prospect being urgently planned for here ahead of a U.N. deadline for Iran to suspend its nuclear program.

As early as Tuesday Iran could officially give its decision on that, but on Sunday came a preview. Suspension is moving back to the past said Iran's foreign ministry spokesman and it is not on Iran's agenda and we will not suspend our nuclear activities. Iranian officials have from the start maintained theirs is a peaceful civilian nuclear program that they have the right to pursue it.

But with suspension off the negotiating table, Iran will almost certainly face action by the U.N., Iranian officials say they are ready for sanctions and as these scenes are meant to reinforce, ready for any military strike by the west.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAMAN: U.S. officials have said military action against Iran is an option but have seriously downplayed that any detailed plans are in the works. That matters little to Iran's government, who sees the U.S. through this nuclear issue as seeking nothing less than regime change -- Carol?

LIN: All right. Let's get a look at more of the global headlines. Saddam Hussein going to trial again tomorrow. Shanon Cook following that.

COOK: Hey, there, that's right. Of course in October, Hussein is expected to hear the verdict of his current trial and in the meantime, he must face an entirely new trial for an entirely different crime.

This second case focuses on the Anfal campaign of 1988 in which an estimated 100,000 Kurds were killed. Hussein is charged with genocide and crimes against humanity and one of his co-defendants is a former general known as Chemical Ali, named for the use of poisonous gas used during the campaign.

And it's not just here in the U.S. where people are frustrated with gas prices. In Nepal, price hikes by as much as 25 percent have sparked scenes like this. Yikes. Today demonstrators blocked roads, they burned tires and threw rocks at passing vehicles. All this for a second day. It's been going on since Friday. The chaos forced the government to back down. Today Nepal's cabinet withdrew the price hikes.

And, finally, it was intended as a harmless bit of fun, but those involved probably weren't laughing after they got suspended from work. You're looking at a fireman in a dryer here, an industrial clothes dryer here. One of his co-workers apparently videoed this with his cell phone and it ended up online. We're watching it on the popular site, YouTube. This is actually at the fire station, Carol, in Manchester, England, where they work. And the fireman inside went for a few spins, as you can see, before getting out and feeling dizzy. Imagine that, feeling dizzy after being in a dryer.

LIN: It's hot.

COOK: Right, of course. He's all right. But the four who were in on the joke have been suspended pending an internal investigation. It just goes to show having a dry sense of humor at work isn't always a good thing.

LIN: A dry sense of humor. So how did the boss find out?

COOK: Well it looks like somebody e-mailed this footage to him, perhaps thinking that he might find it humorous but he wasn't amused at all. And neither are a lot of bloggers actually who have said, "You know, we're paying taxes for this? And what if there's an emergency and this guy's holed up in a dryer."

LIN: A lot of explaining to do. Shanon, great pictures, thank you.

All right, speaking of pictures, real or fake? Photographs all over the Web or war, people, situations. Up next, living in a new digital age that's making it near impossible to separate fact from fiction.

Did you see it this weekend? "Snakes on a Plane?" The film slithering up spines across the nation. Find out how its buzz -- the buzz -- it's all online and it's made a major impact on the screen -- the outcome.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LIN: As you probably know by now, the British based newswire Reuters apologized recently for issuing a doctored photograph.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIN (voice-over): The August 5th photo shows smoke billowing over Beirut after an Israeli air strike. Sharp-eyed readers noticed that the two plumes of smoke look suspiciously alike. Was one perhaps a copy of the another? In its apology, Reuters conceded that the photographer had altered the photo without its knowledge, apparently to make it more dramatic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Well, as if it need more drama in the Middle East. Now, is it disturbing? Maybe. Unusual? Not completely. This week the Web site CNET published a series of doctored photographs that have made it into print.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIN (voice-over): Most people remember this one, the magazine cover that darkened the image of O.J. Simpson. This one sought to show that presidential hopeful John Kerry once appeared at an anti-war rally with Jane Fonda. It's a composite, two separate photos put together that tries to paint Kerry as a radical. As for the shark that snapped at the chopper, didn't happen. This ones made the rounds of the Internet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: To walk us through some of the other infamous photos, CNETnews.com's Michael Kanellos. He is the Web site's editor-at-large and he's in San Francisco. Hey, Michael. MICHAEL KANELLOS, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, CNETNEWS.COM: Hi, Carol, thank you.

LIN: One of the picture on the Web site, Ann Richards, former governor of Texas. You know, she's all in white, sitting on the motorcycle, hopefully the picture can come up shortly. There you go. Now, you're saying that this was doctored, right? Because she was never actually sitting on a motorcycle, but it's conceivable that she would. So, is there anything really wrong in posing her that way?

KANELLOS: Well, yes and no. I mean, in a way, Ann Richards didn't complain about it. She said, "I look fabulous in that shot."

LIN: She does, yes.

KANELLOS: It's really not her. To some people it does project an incorrect image and worse, though, is when you go beyond that. Where does it stop? So once you start, there is really no line against doing it in a lot of places.

SIMPSON: Do you find that there's also an agenda attached? I mean, when we looked at the O.J. Simpson on "Time" magazine's cover, the implications of that when the race card was being played out in the courtrooms, was the need to darken his image. And then you take a look at the University of Wisconsin photo, they wanted to express, right, a diverse picture, right? So they inserted that African- American student just on the left-hand side, he wasn't sitting actually sitting there, was he?

KANELLOS: Right, and it was also -- no, in fact those two photos were taken a year apart, actually. And it was on the cover of their admission's application, so it wasn't just inside a catalog or anything like that, it was their front face to people coming in.

So there is definitely an agenda always going on. One of my favorites was Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan when they had the dispute back in the Olympics. They doctored a photograph to show them both on the ice at the same time and "Newsday" sold a lot of newspapers on that, because the photo was so dramatic.

LIN: OK, when you say "Newsday," I mean the essence of it is it is implying journalism. Is it becoming more accepted then to doctor photos if it's just more of an artistic expression for a cover?

KANELLOS: The sad part, it's not more accepted, but it's happening more often. And it's happening in more and more dangerous ways. For instance, I talked to the editor of the "Journal of Cell Biology" a while ago, it's an academic publication and 25 percent of the photos they're getting now have been doctored slightly.

LIN: Really?

KANELLOS: Now most of the doctors is just to take out artifacts in the background and things like that. But they found that one percent of all the photographs are doctored in a material way, which could affect the results. That is really starting to get into a dangerous area.

LIN: I wonder how you can tell the difference between real and fake. Look, Martha Stewart on the cover of "Newsweek." But that's not her body.

KANELLOS: And if you look at it closely, you start getting that bob and head doll sort of head. Martha's head is a bit too large for the body and same thing with Ann Richards. But most of the time you can't -- what a lot of academics and people researching this have realized, that humans don't look at the light source. They either didn't evolve to figure this out or they don't pay attention to it, but if you look at the photo quick, you'll accept it as real and that's it.

LIN: Until hopefully the brain kicks in like the picture of the jackelope? A cross between an antelope and a jack rabbit? OK, this was circulating through the Internet. And that's how a lot of this stuff gets out. I mean, it starts as something funny and then it becomes legend. Look at that.

KANELLOS: Souvenirs in South Dakota. Souvenir stands in South Dakota love that one, though.

LIN: The jackelope, a species of antlered rabbits said to be highly aggressive. That's how it's been described, willing to use its antlers to fight. All right, sometimes, called the warrior rabbit. OK, beware out there, just an image on the Internet. Michael, thank you so much -- fun pictures.

KANELLOS: Thank you.

LIN: Well coming up, high school friend and foe. One of John Karr's former classmates is going to speak out. And wait until you hear why he once screamed at her in school.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hillary Clinton, "Time" magazine, love her or hate her?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Love her, love her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, I'd never support her, hate her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: What do you think, could Hillary Clinton be the nation's next president? CNN hit the streets to find out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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