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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Nine Killed in SC Church Shooting; Suspect Now in Custody; Obama Speaks on the Massacre. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired June 18, 2015 - 12:00   ET

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


[12:00:00] KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Officials in South Carolina, the police wrapping up right there. We heard from the mayor, as well as the South Carolina governor, Nikki Haley. The police chief laying out the important details right now.

They do have the suspect, Dylann Roof, in custody. He was cooperative during the arrest. They do believe that he acted alone. They got a tip from a citizen who saw a suspicious vehicle, and that's when they acted. He was picked up in Shelby, North Carolina, where he is being held right now.

I think it's worth noting that the governor got very emotional when she spoke, saying very simply, that the heart and soul of South Carolina was broken and they needed time to grieve.

Thank you so much for joining us. I'm going to hand you off to my colleague, Ashleigh Banfield, right now.

Ashleigh.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm Ashleigh Banfield. I want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and right around the world. We have breaking news to bring you.

It is 12:00 noon in Charleston, South Carolina, where police have just wrapped up a news conference in which they gave us the basics, but at this point, the basics are good enough. The arrest of a 21-year-old suspect, who had been on the lam, armed and dangerous, his name, Dylann Roof. His photograph, you can think for yourself what you make of that.

They found him in the black Hyundai, license plate broadcast all over America, LGF-330. He was in that car when they approached him. And the sources in the police and authority departments that were involved in this say that he was in fact armed with a handgun when he was taken into custody.

Why was this the manhunt that it was? Nine people dead after a church massacre, a prayer vigil, a Bible study group, with whom he had allegedly spent one hour prior to, again, allegedly opening fire and killing nine people. We are expecting at any moment that the president of the United States

is going to address the nation, and make comments about this. We have already heard from the attorney general of the United States who has announced that this will, in fact, be a federal hate crime investigation. That there will be a number of authorities weighing in on that investigative process. What we don't know, though, is what this prosecution will be. Will it be a state prosecution or a federal prosecution? If it is a state prosecution, the death penalty does apply here.

So as we wait for the president, a couple of other things that I want to bring to note.

It was a citizen tip apparently, according to the authorities, that led them to a suspicious car. A citizen's tip. So when the authorities let that information go public, it certainly yielded results.

I want to go right now to CNN anchor and correspondent John Berman, who's standing by live.

That is just such a remarkable turnaround time, although given what we've seen in the past with manhunts, perhaps not so much.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ashleigh, it's about 15 hours from the time the of the shooting to when they apprehended this man, fourteen and a half hours. The shooting took place behind me at that white church right there, which is both humble and majestic at the same time. Mother Emanuel they call it. The road is shut off right now in front of the church. There is a large tactical police vehicle, the black truck. I'm not quite sure you can see it right now. It is still a crime scene and will be, I imagine, for some time.

Shelby, North Carolina, where they apprehended this man, Dylann Roof, is about three hours and 45 minutes, four hours by driving. So what did he do between the time that he fled this scene in the black Hyundai and then arrived in Shelby, North Carolina? We do not know. I am sure that is one of the things that investigators will try to piece together over the next several hours, over the next several days.

And as you said, they apprehended this man based on a tip. It was someone who said they saw something suspicious in this car and he was picked up at a traffic stop with a gun inside, although we are told it was without incident.

That is the man suspected of the heinous crime. What about the victims?

There were nine people killed here behind me, six women, three men. They were at a prayer meeting, a regular Wednesday night prayer meeting, at this church, the oldest African-American church in the south. We don't know the identities of all those who were killed. We do know the identity, though, of one person who is now dead, the Reverend Clementa Pinckney, who was also a state senator, 41-years- old, two young children, a pillar in this community. You talk to anyone here and they have only glowing things to say about (INAUDIBLE). We don't know what these sirens are right now. We have seen a lot of cars going back and forth. (INAUDIBLE) sirens right now. No reason to believe that's connected in any way to the investigation.

[12:05:04] But Clementa Pinckney, the reverend, the pastor at this church, a pillar in the community, a leader for so many, a healer in this community, a man who held no grudges, we are told, but also was a state senator, and people just speak in glowing terms of him. The type of man they would want to be a leader today when there is so much tragedy, when you need people to come together, he is the type of man they would want.

There's a prayer vigil going on right now at another one of the AME churches here. There will be a much larger community service tomorrow at the College of Charleston, the arena here in town. That was announced just a short time ago.

And, Ashleigh, I should also say, just a short time ago we heard from the governor, Nikki Haley, who broke up, she was in tears, talking about what's happened and how much healing still needs to happen. This, I believe, is the prayer vigil happening right now just a few blocks away.

BANFIELD: And I want to just highlight the fact that, John, not only is this vigil going right now, but there will be vigils across the country that will be taking place as well. Let's listen in.

(PRAYER VIGIL)

BANFIELD: As we look at these live pictures of the vigil that just began moments ago in Charleston, South Carolina, in mourning of those who died in that church massacre, those nine people. And of note, the Reverend Clementa Pinckney as well, who's pictured in the upper left- hand corner of your screen.

I also want to draw your attention to the fact that we are waiting for the president to speak, and these are the images on Capitol Hill right now. I said there would be vigils at churches across the country. This one is ad hoc. It was organized by Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina. There is a silent prayer vigil that is ongoing right now in the nation's capital given what has transpired in North Carolina, so many details that have come so quickly amid such a tragic wake. Those nine people's families clearly knowing that this person who is alleged to have done this has been apprehended. The president, quiet for most of the day, more than likely because these developments have been so fast-moving. Let's listen in to Capitol Hill.

(CAPITOL HILL SILENT PRAYER VIGIL)

BANFIELD: A somber moment. Again, this was not expected today, but Senator Scott put this together fairly quickly in the wake of what's happened.

There is more news I need to get to you as well. Our Deborah Feyerick, our senior national correspondent, has been working her sources in law enforcement. And you've got some really remarkable details about this arrest of Dylann Roof.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we did. One of the key things is that, according to a law enforcement source briefed on this investigation, apparently Dylann Roof's father bought him a 45 caliber handgun for his birthday. Now, he turned 21 on April 3rd of this year, just a couple of months ago, and so it's not clear whether it was that birthday or another birthday, but that's what we are being told. It was a 45 caliber gun that was bought for his birthday.

[12:10:13] What that means is that investigators will be able to come in and match the gun to the shooting. Investigators will be able to determine whether the shell casings match, and they'll be able to determine, in fact, whether that gun may have been used in an earlier crime. It's important because there's no central database. You can't just look up his name to find out, you know, who owned the gun or what gun he had.

BANFIELD: No, but to be clear --

FEYERICK: But the fact that they recovered a gun in the car where he was taken into custody is important.

BANFIELD: Do we know -- do we know that the gun that he was arrested with is the gun that he received as a birthday present? We -- or do we just know that he got that birthday present from his father?

FEYERICK: We know that he has a 45 caliber gun, that he got it for his birthday. Also, the way police were able to identify him is that because a BOLO, be on the lookout, was sent out early this morning with his name and the model of the car, police officers, local police officers in the Shelby area were able to identify the vehicle, and they stopped Roof, they pulled him over. This whole thing went down without any incident. He came out of the car peacefully. There was no shooting. He sort of essentially surrendered.

BANFIELD: And I just want to make clear that what the viewers are seeing right now are live pictures in Shelby, North Carolina, where that -- that arrest was effectuated. It was a citizen's tip about a suspicious car that matched the description that had circulated countrywide, in fact, when the shooting took place and when they identified that surveillance video and made the I.D. on Dylann Roof and he was on, you know, on the run.

But this is that black Hyundai with the license plate LGF-330. And the live pictures we were just seeing had, you know, an amount of activity, police activity. I'm seeing some crime scene tape, but I'm not seeing even processing at this point. There's so much left to be done. They're not even at the point where the forensics are being -- are being taken from this vehicle. So they need to protect it with kid gloves from any -- anything that might actually disturb the evidence.

FEYERICK: Well, that's exactly right, they needed to get this guy in custody as fast as they possibly could. The fact they had such a clear identifying picture, and also a license plate, led authorities to believe that they would get him in custody, at least by the end of the day, which they did.

He drove about four hours from the shooting to Shelby, North Carolina. Not clear when he began his trip or how -- whether he stopped in between, may have stopped at a place to overnight. Unclear whether he was watching television coverage and decided that his best chance was simply to get out of the area. But he drove about 245 miles over four- hour period, if he was driving directly. And, again, alert police officers seeing that vehicle were able to the stop him, and he surrendered effectively, he gave up --

BANFIELD: Yes.

FEYERICK: Once he was confronted by those police officers.

BANFIELD: And the manhunt -- the manhunt and the chase may be over, Deb, but the legal process is in a flurry, the extradition efforts to get him out of North Carolina. You heard the authorities earlier in this newscast and in our CNN coverage saying that they will work feverishly right away to extradite him back to South Carolina to start facing the myriad of charges he will be facing. And we should be very, very careful to note that even the attorney general herself, who in announcing that this will be a federal hate crimes investigation, was cautious to say if this is the person. That's the way it works. Innocent until proven guilty.

We are watching that right-hand bottom corner of your screen, the live press briefing room at the White House, where the president of the United States at any moment is expected to address the nation regarding this church massacre in South Carolina.

Our Michelle Kosinski is standing by live.

We were wondering why the president had stayed fairly quiet earlier in the day.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right.

BANFIELD: And John King is joining us as well with his thoughts about this and what the reaction is among not only those on Capitol Hill, but those who are in the presidential race too.

But I want to start with you, Michelle. What are we expecting from the president and when?

KOSINSKI: Well, this could be any minute. He's about to leave on a trip for California. It's not as if that is pressing on this statement. I mean he'll -- he'll do this on his own time.

We don't expect it to be a very long statement, though. We expect him to offer the usual condolences in a -- after something like this happened. But when you look at the way the White House is handling this, I mean they didn't make a statement right away. Remember, this happened last night. But we heard virtually everyone, the candidates in 2016, members of Congress, other people in the community, Gabby Giffords, weighing in on this large scale tragedy. But the White House has been silent but now we know why. I mean the president himself wanted to come to this briefing room to give a statement on that -- on it.

So we expect this to be somewhat of a more emotional statement than what we heard from Loretta Lynch, who spoke mostly about the investigation. But that's not to say that the president won't weigh in on that with the resources of the federal government behind this investigation.

[12:14:48] But, you know, race has been a difficult issue for the president. Polls have shown recently that a plurality of those polled, almost 40 percent, feel like race relations have declined under President Obama. I mean this is one more case where that issue is going to come up. We'll see what he has to say on that.

But when you look at -- at the -- how big this is, and the other issues that are coming up, the questions that this raises, domestic terrorism, gun control, it's doubtful he's going to get to any of that in this statement. We expect it to be mostly condolences and moving forward, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: I want to just skip over to John King, and thank you, Michelle Kosinski, as we keep a live eye on the press briefing room in the White House.

John, I'm sure you were watching as well as the ad hoc prayer vigil that was convened on the steps of the Capitol, where Senator Tim Scott was able to get together his colleagues, it was very moving. But it's also very telling.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ashleigh, what we're seeing so far in South Carolina and here in Washington and from the various candidates for the presidency around the country so far is both important and I would say impressive to a large degree. There's some criticism as you watch that event on Capitol Hill that Bernie Sanders, the Democratic candidate for the presidency, is having a pension rally nearby and he's faced some criticism for not putting that off. We'll see how that plays out during the day.

But here in Washington, very careful statements, very bipartisan statements. That prayer vigil, obviously an important statement. And what you saw in South Carolina today I think is pretty remarkable. If you know anything about South Carolina politics, it is rare that you will see the Republican governor, Nikki Haley, and the Democratic mayor of Charleston, Joe Riley, and many of the other Democrats (INAUDIBLE), they don't get along on a lot of issues but they have decided today to do exactly the right thing, come together and speak about their community, speak about their pain. Not point fingers, but bring people together. And I think that's what we'll hear from the president in just a few minutes.

The living encyclopedia of the White House, CBS radio correspondent Mark Knoller, tweeted out that this is the 14th time, by his count, during the Obama presidency that President Obama has decided to make a public statement about a tragic shooting during his presidency. So that in and of itself, Ashleigh, the 14th time. It's incredibly sad. And add into it, in this case, by all accounts, this was a hate crime. Witnesses say this suspect, and we have to be careful as you have been say he's a suspect, but the allegation is he stood up and told people he was shooting them because they were black. And so this is important for any president, and obviously it will be magnified to a degree because Barack Obama is our first African-American president.

BANFIELD: John King, thank you.

And the details that we're getting from inside that shooting are just horrifying, as you said, the racial undertones and epithets that were thrown before that massacre.

I want to draw you attention to what's happening outside of the church that we were just showing you. it was a vigil that you saw inside at the Morris Brown African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Standing room only doesn't describe it. This is the overflow, those who have gathered outside, to be a part of this vigil. Let's listen.

(SOUTH CAROLINA VIGIL)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:20:44] BANFIELD: Welcome back. Our breaking news. We're in the press briefing room in the White House. The president addressing the nation. Let's listen.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good afternoon, everybody.

This morning, I spoke with and Vice President Biden spoke with Mayor Joe Riley and other leaders at Charleston to express our deep sorrow over the senseless murders that took place last night.

Michelle and I know several members of Emanuel AME Church. We knew their pastor, Reverend Clementa Pinckney, who, along with eight others, gathered in prayer and fellow ship and was murdered last night, and to say our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families and their community doesn't say enough to convey the heartache and the sadness and the anger that we feel.

OBAMA: Any death of this sort is a tragedy. Any shooting involving multiple victims is a tragedy. There is something particularly heartbreaking about a death happening in a place in which we seek solace and we seek peace, in a place of worship.

Mother Emanuel is, in fact, more than a church. This is a place of worship that was founded by African Americans seeking liberty. This is a church that was burned to the ground because its worshipers worked to end slavery.

When there were laws banning all-black church gatherings, they conducted church services in secret. When there was a nonviolent movement to bring our country in closer line with our highest ideals, some of our brightest leaders spoke and led marches from this church's steps.

This is a sacred place in the history of Charleston and in the history of America.

The FBI is now on the scene with local police, and more of the bureau's best are on their way to join them. The attorney general has announced plans for the FBI to open a hate crime investigation. We understand that the suspect is in custody, and I'll let the best of law enforcement do its work to make sure that justice is served.

Until the investigation is complete, I'm necessarily constrained in terms of talking about the details of the case. But I don't need constrained about the emotions that tragedies like this raise.

I've had to make statements like this too many times. Communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this too many times.

We don't have all the facts, but we do know that once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hand on a gun.

Now is the time for mourning and for healing. But let's be clear. At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn't happen in other places with this kind of frequency.

OBAMA: And it is in our power to do something about it. I say that recognizing the politics in this town foreclose a lot of those avenues right now. But it'd be wrong for us not to acknowledge it, and at some point, it's going to important for the American to come to grips with it and for us to be able to shift how we think about the issue of gun violence collectively.

The fact that this took place in a black church obviously also raises questions about a dark part of our history. This is not the first time that black churches have been attacked, and we know the hatred across races and faiths pose a particular threat to our democracy and our ideals.

The good news is I am confident that the outpouring of unity and strength and fellowship and love across Charleston today, from all races, from all faiths, from all places of worship, indicates the degree to which those old vestiges of hatred can be overcome.

That certainly was Dr. King's hope just over 50 years ago after four little girls were killed in a bombing at a black church in Birmingham, Alabama.

He said, "They lived meaningful lives, and they died nobly. They say to each of us," Dr. King said, "black and white alike, that we must substitute courage for caution. They say to us that we must be concerned not merely with who murdered them but about the system, the way of life, philosophy which produced the murders. Their death says to us that we must work passionately and unrelentingly for the realization of the American Dream.

"And if one will hold on, he will discover that God walks with him and that God is able to lift you from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope and transform dark and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of inner peace."

Reverend Pinckney and his congregation understood that spirit. Their Christian faith compelled them to reach out not just to members of their congregation or to members of their own communities but to all in need. They opened their doors to strangers who might enter a church in search of healing or redemption.

Mother Emanuel Church and its congregation have risen before from flames, from an earthquake, from other dark times to give hope to generations of Charlestonians, and with our prayers and our love and the buoyancy of hope, it will rise again now as a place of peace.

Thank you.

[12:28:14] BANFIELD: The president making his remarks short, but poignant, and highlighting two particularly important areas. Number one, gun control, and, number two, the dark history, as he put it, the dark part of history. It's not the first time black churches have been attacked, but that he said he's confident the outpouring of unity and strength and friendship from all races, all faiths and all places of worship, that the vestiges of hatred can be overcome.

I want to bring in John King.

These are two key areas the president had to address in the wake of this horror in South Carolina.

KING: It was a very touching statement from the president, Ashleigh, and it was a choice the president made to bring up the gun control argument. First, he started about the magnitude of the crime. He talked about the history and the value of this particular church in the Civil Rights movement. And a lot of his remarks were directed at the hatred in our society and asking people and paying tribute to the community -- across the community of Charleston today for coming together across racial lines, across political lines, across faith lines to try to begin the healing process.

But then the president, Ashleigh, did make the point and this -- this was a choice he made. He said, I know I will lose the conversation in this town, I know I can't win given the politics of Washington when I say we should have a conversation about gun control. But he said the country needs to have it. And he said, look around the world, this does not happen at -- with such frequency. You do not have such gun violence in other advanced nations.

Now, the president has tried and failed before when it came to gun control, but he decided to put it out there today as part of his statement. His critics will say, Ashleigh, this isn't about gun, this is about hate, this is about race, this is about mental health. But the president made the choice, in the hours after this horrific shooting, to put that out there. He knows full well nothing will happen on this issue during his presidency but he does want to, once again, try to start the conversation.

[12:29:58] BANFIELD: And, John, there is always criticism that people and politicians and those with a cause will politicize these tragedies for their own benefit. But we are in the midst of, you know, the beginnings of a presidential race with a lot of people on the stump having to actually re-orchestrate their plans because of what just happened.