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Two of Four Slain Marines Identified; Details Emerge on Gunman Who Killed Four Marines; Teen Shares Plane Crash Survival Story; Witness Describes Rampage That Killed Four; Police Chief Talks About Injured Cop; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired July 17, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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


[10:00:07] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, four Marines killed in a hail of gunfire by a lone shooter.

LANEESHA LEWIS, WITNESS: He took a shot, and then it was a pause for about two seconds and then it was just shot, shot, shot, shot.

COSTELLO: The feds investigating the rampage as an act of terror.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is a heartbreaking circumstance.

COSTELLO: So who was the gunman?

ALMIR DIZDAREVIC, SUSPECT'S FORMER COACH: He was smiling, he was courteous, he was polite. Never raised his voice.

COSTELLO: What we're learning about the man who brought this nightmare to Tennessee.

Also, guilty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was just what we needed to hear.

COSTELLO: After 13 hours a jury convicts the Colorado theater shooter of murdering 12 people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're very happy that this animal, this monster will never see the light of day.

COSTELLO: But one question remains. Will James Holmes live or die?

Plus, a miraculous story of survival.

AUTUMN VEATCH, PLANE CRASH SURVIVOR: There was a light and then it was all trees and then it was all fire.

COSTELLO: The teen who lived through a fiery plane crash in the wilderness tells CNN how she not only lived but navigated her way back to civilization.

VEATCH: Scared to be alone in the middle of absolutely nowhere.

COSTELLO: Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM. (END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. New this morning, we have learned the identity of another one of those four U.S. Marines killed in yesterday's shooting rampage. His name is Skip Wells. He's from suburban Atlanta. According to friends of his family, he graduated from high school just three years ago.

Also identified this morning, Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Sullivan. He survived two tours of duty in Iraq but he was killed on U.S. soil when that gunman sprayed bullets into two military facilities in Chattanooga.

The first, a military recruiting center inside a suburban shopping mall. Despite the shattered windows, no one here died but a much different story seven miles away on the killer's final stop. All four fatalities at the Naval and Marine Center. The killer also wounded a police officer in the shootout that would leave him dead.

The gunman Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez was 24 years old and a Tennessee grad. He was not on any American databases for suspected terrorists. In fact a drunk driving charge just a few months ago was his lone brush with the law.

So was this an act of a criminal or a domestic terrorist?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED REINHOLD, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: We have not determined whether it was an act of terrorism or whether it was a criminal act. We are looking at every possible avenue, whether it was terrorism, whether it was domestic, international, or whether it was a simple criminal act.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The feds are not taking any chances, ratcheting up security at some facilities. This is a military recruiting center in the heart of New York's Times Square. As you can see police are standing guard. Emergency response vehicles at the ready.

Also this morning the military community as well as the city of Chattanooga is grieving, of course. The big question, how four Marines who served their nation with distinction could have been gunned down on American soil.

Let's bring in CNN's Alexandra Field. You have new details on one of the victims.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are learning more about these men this morning. These four marines killed, two of them now publicly identified. Friends and family members telling CNN that Skip Wells was among those killed. A 2012 graduate of Sprayberry High School in Marietta, Georgia. According to his Facebook page, he was also a student at Georgia Southern University, studying history. And family and friends are also telling CNN that he had recently returned from a trip to Disney World with his mother.

Carol, we also know about another Marine killed, this is Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Sullivan. He reportedly did two tours of duty in Iraq. He reportedly earned a Purple Heart. He is being mourned and grieved by friends and family in Massachusetts. He's a native of Springfield. The loss hitting that city very hard this morning. They have lowered a flag to half-staff in his honor. Communications director for that city says the family is just trying to come to terms with all of this, but we are seeing some of the outpouring of their emotions this morning.

Loved ones posting on a Facebook page this about Tommy. They say, "He was our hero and he will never be forgotten. Please keep his family and friends in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you, Tommy, for protecting us."

I know that's a sentiment that so many people are sharing this morning.

COSTELLO: Just awful. Alexandra Field, thank you so much.

All right. We have to focus on the suspect now in an attempt to understand this. I don't know if we'll ever understand it but let's try this morning together.

CNN's Victor Blackwell is in Chattanooga with more details. Good morning, Victor.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning to you. And as we are trying to understand this and learn about Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, so are investigators obviously and this is their first introduction.

[10:05:04] I mean, from what we're told from law enforcement sources that Abdulazeez, his name was not in any U.S. database of suspected terrorists, but I will say this, what we're hearing from the FBI is that, although it has not been determined if this was domestic terror or international terror or just a criminal act, they are approaching this as a terror investigation. But when you put those words together, the name Abdulazeez and terror in a sentence together and you go to ask questions of friends and former classmates, they see no correlation.

I mean, they describe someone who was smart and humorous. There was a former wrestling coach who was an MMA fighter, who said that Abdulazeez was a devout Muslim but not overly religious. I mean, take on one hand you have these blog posts, two of them on July 13th, in which he talks about how seriously he takes his faith. But then in April you have a DUI arrest and, you know, the most devout Muslims don't consume alcohol.

We know biographically that he was born in -- Kuwait, rather, was a Jordanian citizen and recently a U.S. naturalized -- naturalized, rather, U.S. citizen and recently returned to the Middle East. And now investigators, of course, and friends and former coaches are looking to that time hopefully to find out if there is a motive connected to that travel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIZDAREVIC: His demeanor -- it was obviously nothing on him that would show me that he was upset about something. You know. And I know that he moved out of the country about a year or two ago. He went back home and he stayed overseas. And I asked his dad about where's Mohammad. You know, I haven't seen him in a while. He said he moved back home. But I saw him a couple of times when he visited.

Now I'm not going to speculate, but what happens overseas in a certain different environments, I don't know.

SCOTT SCHRAEDER, SUSPECT'S FORMER MIXED MARTIAL ARTS COACH: I mean, he seemed like the all American kid. I mean, he, you know, never loud, never boisterous, never got out of line, hard worker. You know, seemed to enjoy, you know, the training and, you know, got along with everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: And look at this yearbook caption from 2008. This is from high school in which he writes, "My name causes national security alerts. What does yours do?" Probably an attempt at humor then, but, of course, in context of what happened here yesterday not so funny now.

I can tell you that federal officials, the ATF, the FBI searched, raided his home in a community there in Chattanooga, the Hickson community. They even took in dogs, of course, having to be aware of possibly booby traps in the home. Of course, searching for evidence pointing to a motive in this situation -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So we see a woman there in handcuffs. Do you know who that woman is, Victor?

BLACKWELL: Well, the FBI, the special agent in charge out here says that, although we see that woman in handcuffs and they've not released her name or identity or connection, that when they go for these searches, they try to clear out the house and she was part of that clearing out of the house but they tell us that no one else was taken into custody in connection to the attack that happened here in Chattanooga.

COSTELLO: And just to be clear, this was the family home.

BLACKWELL: Yes. It was the home there where he lived as part of this wide-ranging search for evidence.

COSTELLO: All right, Victor Blackwell reporting live from Chattanooga. Thanks so much.

So many unanswered questions. The most glaring, why? What happened? The gunmen went from what friends describe as an all-American kid to someone they didn't know.

Take a look at these pictures, the first picture you see is of Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez. It's from high school. The second is from college. Right? Now the last one is a mug shot taken after Abdulazeez was arrested for DUI just a few years later. He was only 24 years old, right?

With me now is Matthew Fogg, he's a former chief deputy for the U.S. Marshal Special Operation Group, and Jonathan Gilliam, former Navy SEAL and a former FBI special agent and a former police officer.

Welcome to both of you. I'm glad you're here.

So not that the pictures necessarily tell us anything, Jonathan, but as you look at those pictures, do you get anything out of them at all?

JONATHAN GILLIAM, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Well, I do, but I'm not looking at it as just somebody who, you know, was a neighbor or a normal citizen. Having the training expertise that I have, what I'm looking at is all these things that they're pointing out that he -- you know, he didn't pop on the radar, that he was kind of an all- American kid. He was quiet, he was unassuming, he learned to fight, and that quote that was in his yearbook, all those things to me are pointing out suspicion. They don't to other people but they point out suspicion to me.

COSTELLO: Even his yearbook post when he was 18 years old and this was the post. I just want to read it for our viewers. I know Victor did. I'll read it again. He says, "My name causes national security alerts. What does yours do?" And there it is. A fellow student said that they took it as a joke.

[10:10:03] GILLIAM: It could be a joke. Could have just been a joke but it's very telling now, and if you look at the pattern of who this person was, unassuming. If I'm going to teach you to be an operative inside another country, I'm going to teach you, you need to be unassuming, don't go out there and be boisterous. You know, be the all-American. That's the ultimate operative. And then go out and, you know, prepare yourself physically. Learn to fight because he's learning to defend himself or go into the jihad.

So he's going -- he's not somebody who's just going to go out there and live recklessly. This is a religious thing. This is what we've got to remember. This kid was on his way to stardom as far as being a complete person or he was preparing himself for the ultimate jihad and not wasting his life in his eyes. It's one of those two things.

COSTELLO: Matthew, do you agree?

MATTHEW FOGG, CHIEF DEPUTY U.S. MARSHAL SERVICE: Somewhat, but then I -- when you really talk about someone that is under the radar, never been arrested, all-American kid, for law enforcement that's a real dilemma because again you just don't know when it comes down. And I have tracked down a lot of folks and looked at a lot of profiles. With the profile this guy had, the best security operation would have been had those places been more secure than they were when this guy came onto the scene.

But as far as looking at somebody like this, it is -- like I heard somebody say like finding a needle amongst needles. It's very difficult and it's one of those things that we just as Americans we have to understand with security, we got to understand we don't know who might be the person that might decide that they want to go on this route.

COSTELLO: And one of the things that's making it difficult for investigators, Jonathan, as you well know, is there's no big social media footprint, at least right now they haven't discovered one. There's a few blog posts, right?

GILLIAM: That's right.

COSTELLO: And it mentions religion, but they're not the sort of things that make you go, oh, this guy could be a terrorist.

GILLIAM: But that's the thing we have to start wrapping our mind around. You know, we're not looking at drug dealers that were born and raised on a certain corner and they're easily found. You go into the right neighborhood, you see them dealing drugs, you know the way the system works.

We're now dealing with that. We're dealing with now covert operations that could last a lifetime. That's the way these operators want to work. This -- you know, I could be completely wrong here, but we have to still -- about this individual, but I'm not wrong at all, I'm 100 percent correct when I'm saying that this is ultimately what they want. People that live and exist in a community that are unnoticed until the day they attack. That's really the ultimate smart weapon.

COSTELLO: Matthew?

FOGG: Well, yes. Just to follow up on that, I don't -- the concern that we have, it's almost like stop and frisk. I mean, do we just stop people randomly or do we know? Again, when you've got somebody with a clean record like that, we've got to just understand in the law enforcement world that, OK, there are folks out there that start turning their ideologies and change but we cannot just simply, simply target people when we don't have anything on them. But we've got to be very vigilant and watch.

GILLIAM: Yes, but I'm not -- I'm not saying, I'm not saying target people. What I'm saying is there has to be a definite shift in the way that we start looking at people. We have to start looking at this from a tactical perspective and not a what is right and what is friendly with people. They're at war. They're coming to attack us and we have to assume they could be anywhere and that's not judging. That is the honest truth where the enemy lies now.

FOGG: But do we -- but we look at a guy like Dylann, what Dylann just did down there in South Carolina. There wasn't nothing -- I mean, actually Dylann probably had more things on his radar that we should have looked at but the bottom line is, I just don't see when you've got somebody as clean as this, it's very difficult, it's not to say that it can't be done, but we just have to be more vigilant as law enforcement people.

He did have a weapon on him. He was in a vehicle. It was never searched and this guy finally somehow got on the scene and was able to do what he did.

COSTELLO: OK. I'll have to leave it there. Thanks to both of you for your insight. I appreciate it. Matthew Fogg, Jonathan Gilliam.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a remarkable story of survival. Hear from the teenager who walked away from that fiery plane crash next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:18:21] COSTELLO: We are now hearing from the teenage girl who survived a fiery plane crash in the remote mountains of Washington state. 16-year-old Autumn Veatch is now talking about that crash and her remarkable two-day journey to safety.

Here is CNN's Sara Sidner.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 16-year-old Autumn Veatch was excited when her grandparents offered her a chance to be flown home in a private plane instead of driven home, but that excitement turned into sheer terror when the plane began to have problems.

VEATCH: We almost crashed the first time that like we went through some clouds but he took like a really sharp turn and was like, whew. That was a close one.

SIDNER: It happened again and this time the plane crashed in the remote wilderness.

VEATCH: I'm still like panicking, freaking out, and then they both started freaking out, kind of yelling like turn the GPS back on, and then I can't see anything that's going on. So started to go up and then it was all white and then it was all trees and then it was all fire.

SIDNER: She got out and tried to save her step grandparents.

VEATCH: They were both screaming, and I was -- there was no way I could get to Grandma because she was on the far side. If I got Grandpa out first, then maybe she would come out, but I was trying to pull him out and I just couldn't do it. Like there was a lot of fire.

SIDNER: Sobbing, she eventually realized she'd die, too, if she stayed put.

(On camera): You must have been so incredibly stressed out, scared, sad.

VEATCH: Scared to be alone in the middle of absolutely nowhere. I didn't -- I mean, you know, where was I at all? I don't know what city it was or anything.

SIDNER (voice-over): She began walking, her hand, face, and hair burned. Her body bruised.

[10:20:04] (On camera): Did you think at some point I'm not going to make it? I'm going to die?

VEATCH: I was freezing, and it just didn't seem likely that I would make it. I mean, what are the odds? I don't know anything about outdoor survival.

SIDNER (voice-over): But she did make it after two nights and three days in the wilderness. She credits a tip from the survival shows her dad watches, follow the water and live.

Sara Sidner, CNN, Bellingham, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Wow. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a gunman opens fire and investigators scramble to uncover why. Was yesterday's deadly rampage in Chattanooga an act of domestic terrorism? We'll talk about that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:25:19] COSTELLO: An explosion of gunfire shatters a summer morning in a suburban shopping mall. We're hearing from a witness to the gunman's first target. A military recruiting officer in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEWIS: I saw him raise his gun and then I just -- I saw him take one shot and then I just saw him take consistent shots after that because there was a pause in between. He took a shot and then it was a pause for about two seconds and then it was just shot, shot, shot, shot, shot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So what are investigators most focused on? What led to these attacks?

Evan Perez is CNN's justice correspondent. He's been delving into that. What have you found out, Evan?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. The question today still remains why, why did this shooter carry out this rampage yesterday? We know that FBI investigators so far have not found any links between him and any foreign terrorist organizations. As you know, we've been talking a lot this summer about threats from ISIS. Well, so far they haven't found any kind of links between this shooter and any of those threats that have been made.

We know that the Justice Department is treating this as a national security investigation, however, and the FBI says that they're treating it as a terrorism investigation until it's proven otherwise.

Here is how Ed Reinhold, the special agent in charge who is leading this investigation, here is how he puts it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REINHOLD: We are checking every possible place that he could reside or could have resided, visited, where he's shopped, where he went to school, who his friends were, if he worked out at a gym, every possible lead. So we have information that he's been in various locations and we will check each and every one of those.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And Carol, this investigation extends overseas as well. The government of Kuwait this morning has put out a statement saying that, yes, indeed, he was born there. He was a Jordanian citizen and he became a U.S. naturalized citizen. He did visit Kuwait in 2010, in May of 2010, and a couple of months later he crossed over to Jordan where again he had citizenship.

We know that U.S. investigators are now talking to the Jordanian intelligence, Jordanian authorities to try to figure out who he might have been associating with there. His friend in an interview with Drew Griffin last night said that he was there to teach, and so now the FBI wants to know who else was he meeting with there? Did that change anything? Did that lead to what happened yesterday? So far they do not know.

COSTELLO: And as far as social media is concerned, Evan, is there anything really suspect that investigators have been able to track down?

PEREZ: Well, there's one tantalizing thing which is a blog that was found yesterday. The FBI has not verified yet that it is his blog but it does have his name and it does track back to an e-mail address that appears to be his, and in this blog, Carol, a couple blog posts that were posted just a few days ago, this person ruminates about what it means to be a Muslim. He talks about jihad, and he uses terms that we've come to see a lot in people who believe in a fundamentalist strain of Islam.

So that is something the FBI is looking at as well because they don't know -- again, they know that he was religious. They don't know that there was something else that was going on there.

COSTELLO: All right. Evan Perez reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

I want to take you now to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Police Chief Fred Fletcher is joining me now.

Good morning, sir.

CHIEF FRED FLETCHER, CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE POLICE: Good morning, thank you for having me. COSTELLO: Thank you for being with me. I'm sure you're busy today.

Can you tell me about the police officer that was wounded yesterday?

FLETCHER: I can tell you about this particular hero. He is doing very well considering the brutal assault he experienced. He and his family are recovering in Erlanger Hospital here in Chattanooga. He's receiving the best care possible. And he's received an outpouring of support from our department, our community, and as you know around the country.

COSTELLO: Can you tell me what he encountered as he arrived on the scene?

FLETCHER: Yes, absolutely. He encountered an absolutely brutal and vicious gunman who was determined to kill people because of the uniforms they wore, and he put himself in harm's way, between harm and bullets, and our community -- and he most certainly saved lives in our community.

COSTELLO: He was shot. Can you tell me about his injury?

FLETCHER: Yes. He was shot at least one time in the lower leg and again he's receiving fantastic care, fantastic support from his family and our broader family within the department and the community, and we absolutely believe he will recover and continue to serve our community in the courageous way he did yesterday.