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CNN NEWSROOM
Woman Shot and Killed in Capital Car Chase; Shutdown Stalemate Depends; Karen to Dump 4-8 Inches of Rain; Police Seize Biker Swarm Video
Aired October 4, 2013 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was supposed to be political (INAUDIBLE).
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Happening before everyone's eyes, a police car slams into a barricade and wild high-speed chase that sent lawmakers and tourists scrambling for cover. The surreal explosion of violence began just a block from the White House and then ended near the U.S. Capitol with police fatally shooting the woman, and discovering a toddler, unharmed in the backseat.
CNN crime and justice correspondent Joe Johns joins us now from Capitol Hill.
What more do we know about how this all unfolded, Joe?
JOE JOHNS, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Good morning, Fred. The authorities have picked up a lot more information in the 19 hours or so since all of this occurred, but they still have questions about why 34-year-old Miriam Carey rammed that barricade down at the White House, then led police on a wild police chase up here to the United States capitol just two weeks after the Navy Yard shooting.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS (voice-over): You can hear the shots fired as the driver with multiple police cars in pursuit hit speeds of up to 80 miles an hour before it all comes to an end on the capitol's eastside with more shots fired about a block away from the Supreme Court. Two officers are injured in the chase.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have report of gunfire on Capitol Hill. If you're in an office building, shelter in place.
JOHNS: And as the public address system sounding at the capitol complex warns everyone to hunker down, a stunning surprise. The driver police were shooting at and killed was a woman with a small child in the backseat who is unharmed. What's more, after searching the suspect's car, police find no weapon. For the bystanders on the street, shock and pandemonium.
EDMUND OFORI-ATTAN, EYEWITNESS: When I heard the gunfire about five or six rounds, my wife and I, we just dropped to the ground. DYLAN PRICE, WITNESS: I was walking toward the capitol building and about 30 seconds later, as I hit this point, there was about three or four cop cars that sped past me. About another 30 seconds after that I heard a series of loud pops like a gun going off.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS: Med Star Hospital Center says the police officer who was injured in that chase has now been released and that 1-year-old is in good condition and being held in protective custody -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right. Joe Johns, thanks so much on Capitol Hill.
So we're learning more this morning about the woman, the driver police say instigated this very frightening chase and in the end, was shot dead behind the wheel. We now know that Miriam Carey was 34-year-old and that she lived in Stanford, Connecticut. According to law enforcement source Carey may have suffered from postpartum depression. Her boyfriend said she had trouble sleeping recently and had delusions about being under surveillance.
According to the source the boyfriend told police 10 months ago that he was worried about the safety of the couple's baby girl.
Joining me now CNN law enforcement analyst and former D.C. police detective Mike Brooks.
So, Mike, investigators early this morning found a letter in Carey's apartment addressed to her boyfriend and we're told that it had suspicious white material in it and that the hazmat team apprehended it. So where does the investigation go from here? How do they put all of this together?
MIKE BROOKS, FORMER D.C. POLICE DETECTIVE: Well, from what they may have found in the car to what they found there in the apartment, they're going to try -- I'm sure they have now a pretty good idea on what the motive for her actions yesterday were, but you know, as you and I were talking at the break, sometimes -- you know, when I was in D.C. we used to see people who were delusional come to the White House all the time but they -- you know, they weren't like this.
They didn't act out such as this, but as soon as she ran that barricade at 50th and 80th and struck that Uniform Division Secret Service officer and then took off, right there, you have assault on a federal officer and then she backed into another U.S. capitol police cruiser right there in Garfield Circle, when the first shots were fired after she took off from there and then she wound up, you know, at Second and Maryland Avenue northeast right here by the Hart Senate Office Building where, you know, where she was shot numerous times by officers.
WHITFIELD: And this at a very delicate time, clearly the government shutdown. We're also talking about two weeks after the Navy Yard shooting and also in a climate where there is heightened awareness for all things or anything to indicate that something has gone awry.
You know, is it because of the climate that we're in that measures were taken to, I guess, such extreme levels in this case?
BROOKS: Well, I think --
WHITFIELD: Or is this tantamount to normal?
BROOKS: Well, a lot of people ask me, you know, was the use of deadly force authorized, was it necessary? I would say yes. You know, this incident took me back to 1998, July of 1998, when two U.S. capitol police officers, Officer Chestnut and Officer Gibson, were killed by a gunman who came into the U.S. capitol after running a barricade right there on the plaza.
And it was after that that a lot of the security measures were put in place on the capitol and then not after 9/11 they were even enhanced even more.
WHITFIELD: Right.
BROOKS: But still those officers, U.S. capitol police officers, U.S. Secret Service uniformed division, Metropolitan Police, everyone who is involved in this yesterday, they didn't know what this woman -- who this woman was. Did this woman have a bomb? You just don't know and they had to take the action that they had to take.
WHITFIELD: And we understand that some of these officers that responded were furloughed.
BROOKS: Right.
WHITFIELD: And it's not even clear whether they're actually going to -- you know, they voluntarily essentially came on the job, ultimate public servants.
BROOKS: Absolutely, and the officer I heard, the U.S. Capitol police officer who struck that barricade during the chase he was released from the Washington Hospital Center last night and he's a little banged up but is in good condition.
WHITFIELD: All right, frightening situation.
BROOKS: It really is.
WHITFIELD: And so many people witnessed and had the wherewithal to videotape and snap pictures, that really speaks to the culture and that --
BROOKS: It really does.
WHITFIELD: You know, sign of the times that we're in.
BROOKS: Sure. Thanks, Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much. Mike Brooks, appreciate that.
All right. The deadly end to that drama seemed to blunt some of the ugly politics of the government shutdown. As it now enters its fourth day the latest example of its far reach President Obama canceling his trip to Asia to focus on the shutdown and the approaching deadline to avoid that debt crisis.
CNN's Brianna Keilar is at the White House with more on that.
So, Brianna, tell us more about that president's plans over the next few days. He was to leave this weekend, not going to happen now.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Fred, and now he's wide open. Remember, he was supposed to have four stops in Asia, he'd already pared that down, cutting out Malaysia and the Philippines, and he was going for the summits in Bali and Brunei.
Well, now that's completely off the table. He will be staying in town. This, as we understand, House Speaker John Boehner has told his Republicans that he may rely on Democratic votes to increase the debt ceiling. This is something that certainly some Democrats have seized on but a Republican aide that I spoke with insists this isn't really anything new, that of course he was going to have to rely on some Democratic votes but that he didn't mean he would be abandoning his conference or a large chunk of his conference in order to increase the debt ceiling.
Nonetheless, that is seen by many folks as a sign of reassurance that perhaps there could be some common ground found on the debt ceiling.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR (voice-over): With the government partially shut down and the United States careening towards defaulting on its debts in mid October, House Speaker John Boehner made a key admission about the debt ceiling. A Republican who spoke to CNN after a private meeting with House GOP members said Boehner informed them he will not allow a default to happen even if it means relying on votes from Democrats.
SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: Do you -- do you have a second?
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MINORITY LEADER: I'm all wired up here.
KEILAR: In a city that lives for an open mike moment to pull back the curtain --
PAUL: I just did CNN, and I just go over and over again, we're willing to compromise, we're willing to negotiate.
KEILAR: Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and fellow Kentucky Senator Rand Paul delivered.
PAUL: I think -- I don't think they poll tested. We won't negotiate. I think it's awful for them to say that over and over again.
MCCONNELL: Yes, I do, too. And I just came back from the two-hour meeting with them and that was -- that was basically the same view privately as it was publicly.
PAUL: I think if we keep saying we wanted to defund it, we fought for that, but now we're willing to compromise on this, I think they can't -- we, I think, I know we don't want to be here, but we're going to win this, I think.
KEILAR: KEILAR: But at a campaign style event in Maryland.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hello, everybody.
KEILAR: President Obama pulled a bit of an ace out of his sleeve sounding the alarm for a key voting bloc -- seniors.
OBAMA: In a government shutdown, Social Security checks still go out on time.
KEILAR: As he explained why defaulting is worse than a government shutdown.
OBAMA: In an economic shutdown, if we don't raise the debt ceiling, they don't go out on time.
KEILAR: He again pressured House Speaker John Boehner to fund the government and drop Obamacare concessions.
OBAMA: Call a vote. Put it on the floor. And let every individual member of Congress make up their own minds. And they can show the American people, are you for a shutdown or not?
KEILAR: And in an exclusive interview with CNN's Dana Bash, Senate leader Harry Reid revealed he and Boehner originally struck a deal that included spending cuts.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You're saying that he told you, he promised you in a private meeting, that he would pass a clean bill with no strings attached particularly on Obamacare?
SEN. HARRY REID (D), MAJORITY LEADER: That's why we did it. That's why we agreed to that lower number so that's one of the largest compromises since I've been in Congress. That was a big deal, $70 billion just like that. And he couldn't deliver.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: Now maybe not surprisingly you're hearing a different story from some Republican. I spoke with one aide, Fredricka, and stick with me because this kind of gets in the weeds a little bit, but this aide said they did not agree to spending cuts, what they were talking about was a starting point for funding the government for six weeks and that included the sequester, the spending cuts that are currently already in place, that was $70 billion over the course of a year.
Of course, the agreement, the timeframe for funding the government was a short-term extension, not a year, it was six weeks, and the initial plan I'm told from the House that was discussed was to have two bills, one that would short-term fund the government for six weeks and the other that would include defunding Obamacare, a vote on defunding Obamacare. In the end, Fred, the House combined these things together so that is a change of plan, but one House Republican aide firing back at the speaker there saying that Harry Reid doesn't -- that the speaker doesn't ask Harry Reid's permission about what House Republicans will do. We had a plan, it changed, and Senator Reid can deal with it but the bottom line here is there are divisions among House Republicans, Democrats, and certainly the White House are very happy to exploit those -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right, it just gets messier and messier, doesn't it, Brianna. All right. Thank you so much. Appreciate that, from the White House.
So for one lawmaker, anger over the shutdown is moving from Capitol Hill now to the World War II Memorial which has been closed since the standoff began. Well, here's what happened when Congressman Randy Naugebauer of Texas faced off with one of the site's park rangers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. RANDY NEUGEBAUER (R), TEXAS: How do you look at them and say -- how do you deny them access? I don't get that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's difficult.
NEUGEBAUER: Well, it should be difficult.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is difficult. I'm sorry, sir.
NEUGEBAUER: Park Services should be ashamed of themselves.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not ashamed.
NEUGEBAUER: You should be.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not a tourist (INAUDIBLE) at no costs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ask that question to the people who weren't passing a budget.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The memorial doesn't cost any money when they come in here.
(CROSSTALK)
NEUGEBAUER: Yes. Mr. Reid --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This woman is doing her job just like me. I'm a 30-year federal veteran. I'm out of work.
NEUGEBAUER: Well, the reason you are is Mr. Reid is --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it's because the government won't do its job and pass a budget.
(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: Oh, boy, and so what Naugebauer didn't mention himself was that he actually cast a vote to delay Obamacare setting up this shutdown and the closure of the national parks and museums just like this one.
Earlier this week busloads of veterans, some of them in wheelchairs, as you see, well, some actually broke past the barricades and entered the memorial anyway.
All right. Let's talk weather straight ahead, Tropical Storm Karen has the Gulf Coast in its sights and that's where we find Indra Petersons, Pensacola, Florida -- Indra.
INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. We're live here in Pensacola Beach, where we are currently under a hurricane watch. We're going to give you all the details coming up on the looming tropical storm, coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right. Checking our top story.
Dramatic dash cam video has just been released of a deadly shooting between an armed suspect and Oregon police officer. This happened back in august.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
POLICE OFFICER: Traffic (INAUDIBLE) 106, 1-4 eastbound, a black -- police, back in the car for me. You were speeding but right now I need you to -- sir, get back in the car for me now. Sir, please get back in the car for me now. I told you, you were speeding.
(EXPLETIVE DELETED
(GUNFIRE)
POLICE OFFICER: Fifty-three, twenty-six, shots fired! Shots fired! Fifty-three, twenty-six, shots fired!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Wow. Dramatic indeed.
The suspect as you saw drove off but was found about a half mile later dead inside his car with a single gunshot to the chest. The officer was also shot but did not suffer any serious injuries. Incredibly, the suspect actually had three kids in the car at the same time. You could see there were some shadows of someone in there, children. They were not hurt.
Twitter revealed plans for a billion-dollar public stock offering but some investors may be wary of Twitter's numbers. The company hasn't turned a profit for any of the last three years and lost $69 million in the first six months of this year. The company also announced the ticker symbol it wants to trade under, TWTR. Some furloughed federal workers are back on the job as FEMA ramps up its staff before tropical storm makes landfall. Karen weakened just a little bit this morning but hurricane and tropical storm watches remain in effect for parts of the Gulf Coast.
CNN's Indra Peterson is covering the storm from Pensacola, Florida, where the beach always looks so placid and gorgeous and beautiful before the storm. But we know something nasty is brewing out there.
PETERSONS: I mean, that's literally exactly what we've been talking about all morning, Fredricka. I mean, you look around and you think 50, 100 years ago before you had modern technology, no one here would have known there was a storm coming. It is gorgeous. People would have been lining the beach enjoying their vacations and Pensacola, Florida, being a popular vacation spot. You can see the hotels just lining the beach here.
And yet that's not the case. People here do know that a storm is lurking. In fact, just 100 miles off the coast of Louisiana now, we do have Tropical Storm Karen.
Now, current conditions it has weakened, starting to break apart, currently 60-mile-per-hour winds. It still has the potential to strengthen so it could technically, although doesn't look as likely, be a category 1 hurricane.
Now, whether or not it's a tropical storm or a category 1 hurricane, you're going to be seeing the same thing. Take a look at the surf here behind me. You're going to start to see waves picking up over the next several hours. You're going to see the rain starting to come in, four to eight inches of rain possible, even a foot, call it 12 inches of rain the better way to say it talking about rain, possible in the area.
And think about this -- this area has had rainfall above average all summer long. So, that is the key ingredient. When you talk about the amount of rain here, the ground is saturated.
If those winds come in 70, 75 miles per hour, it will uproot the trees as if it was a stronger storm because the ground really cannot hold those trees in. So, that is a big concern, of course. The rainfall, this storm surge coming in, those rip currents that will continue to come in.
Landfall expected late Saturday into early Sunday morning. So that's what we're going to be watching anywhere from Louisiana all the way to the panhandle of Florida. That's going to be the concern here and, of course, conditions expected to worsen as we go throughout the day today, something we'll continue to monitor of course and watch these conditions as they come in.
Big time point, though, Saturday night to Sunday morning.
WHITFIELD: Oh, we'll be watching closely. Let's hope it weakens and looses some of its themes. Thanks so much, Indra Peterson. All right. Still to come, a break in the case of that SUV driver beaten after he plowed through a swarm of motorcyclists. We'll have the latest on the investigation.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Police say they are closer to finding a motorcyclist suspected to playing a key role on the biker swarm on an SUV driver in New York. A law enforcement source tells CNN the biker is suspected of using its helmet to smash the driver's window as you see here.
Police say they know who the biker is and expect him to be in custody soon. Authorities also now have the original copy of this video which launched the encounter into the national spotlight.
National correspondent Susan Candiotti has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Police have now tracked down the motorcyclist who's shot this helmet cam video. They found him in this home in Bellport, New York, questioning him and taking the video as evidence.
Until now, we've only seen an edited version posted online. It cuts off moments before authorities say Alexian Lien was pulled out of his SUV, beaten and slashed in front of his wife and 2-year-old child.
The family now issuing its first statement since the incident. "Our plan last Sunday was to celebrate our wedding anniversary by having a nice family day out with our 2-year-old daughter. Unfortunately instead, we were place in the grave danger by a mob of reckless and violent motorcyclists."
Lien's wife defended her husband's decision to peel away from the crowd surrounding their SUV, rolling over bikers in the process, critically injuring one. "My husband was forced under the circumstances to take the actions that he did in order to protect the lives of our entire family."
CNN has learned it was Mrs. Lien who made the last of the three 911 calls the couple made as her husband was being attacked. "We would like to thank the brave citizens who risked their own safety to intervene on our behalf. They truly helped save our lives."
New video emerging today showing bikers gathering before Sunday's rally and riding on sidewalks, prompting the politicians to release it to call for more enforcement.
ADRIANO ESPAILLAT (D), NEW YORK STATE SENATE: I don't see why you can have 500 motorcycles that are doing wheelies and that are out of control stopping traffic, totally stopping traffic in the highway or some streets, and doing whatever they want.
CANDIOTTI: One of the motorcyclists, Jerome Davis, witnessed the confrontation and told OUTFRONT they are not just some wild gang. JEROME DAVIS, MOTORCYCLIST WHO WITNESSED CONFRONTATION: It's not a gang. We're not a gang.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: How would you describe it?
DAVIS: As a gang?
BURNETT: Yes, I mean, instead of a gang. What's the right word, do you think?
DAVIS: Family.
BURNETT: A family?
DAVIS: Unity, friends.
CANDIOTTI (on camera): One biker has been arrested for slowing down and causing that first collision with the SUV. His lawyer says his client's not guilty. Meantime, police continuing to search for more witnesses and looking through videos of the incident frame by frame for every bit of evidence.
Susan Candiotti, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And still to come, it was the comment that landed Harry Reid in the middle of a shutdown controversy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: But if you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn't do you it?
(CROSSTALK)
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: Listen --
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: Why pit one against the other?
REID: Why would we want to do that?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: The leader is speaking out to CNN about the remarks and why he thinks anarchists is the best way to describe the Tea Party. That's right after this quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Carol Costello this morning.
The government shutdown has put the spotlight on congressional gridlock and the pitfalls of partisanship. And for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the spotlight has been harsh this week after he seemed to dismiss a Republican bill that would restore funding to the National Institutes of Health for clinical trials for cancer treatments. Conservatives pounced on the comment, some called Reid sick and twisted, while others claimed he was, quote, "willing to sacrifice children with cancer."
Reid spoke exclusively with CNN's chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash about that moment and others that have shaped the past four days for him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: First, I want to ask about a certain exchange you and I had that might have gotten a little bit of attention.
You all talked about children with cancer unable to go to clinical trials. The House is presumably going to pass a bill that funds at least the NIH. Given what you said, will you at least pass that? And if not, aren't you playing the same political games that Republicans are?
REID: What right did they have to pick and choose what part of government is going to be funded?
BASH: If you could help one child who has cancer, why wouldn't you do it?
REID: Listen --
SCHUMER: Why pit one against the other?
REID: Why would we want to do that? I have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force Base that are sitting home. They have a few problems of their own.
