Transcripts For CNNW Inside 20240702

Today on inside politics, carnage in america again. A manhunt is under way and another community terrorized after Mass Shootings at a Bowling Alley and bar grille in lewiston, maine. State Officials Say at least 18 are dead, all from gunshot wounds. 13 others injured. At least three are in critical condition. The shooter is still at large and considered Armed And Dangerous. People in multiple cities are being told to shelter in place and lock their doors. Police are searching for 40yearold robert card who now faces multiple murder charges. They say that he is a military trained Firearms Instructor and a member of the Army Reserves who was recently committed to a Mental Health facility. If you come into any contact with this individual or someone that you think looks like this individual, you are to call 911, Lewiston Police department, federal, state, county and other local municipalities are involved in the coordinated search at this moment for this individual. So is this and ongoing or cours and search to apprehend the person simultaneously. And want to get straight to Shimon Prokupecz who is on the scene in lisbon, maine. You have been speaking to sources up there all morning. And of course last night. What are you hearing about any aspect of how close they are to the suspect . Reporter well, it doesnt appear at least on the ground or from any information that were getting from authorities that they are any closer to capturing the suspect at this point. They know where he left his car. They have his car. But where he went after that, if they know, they are not saying. They have told everyone to stay indoors because they are worried for peoples safety indicating, you know, for most people here who are worried for their safety that they dont know where he is. And really Law Enforcement not really giving much information as to whether they think that perhaps he went after he dumped his car. Did he use another car to somehow get away. The area where they have been searching for him is a wooded area, but were not seeing the Law Enforcement presence that we normally see when there is a manhunt. They are not in the woods searching. As far as we know it is the 17 Person Police department on the ground there doing the searches. And certainly there is a lot of things going on behind the scenes that were not seeing. But in terms of where this individual is, in terms of whether people should feel any safer today or at this moment than they did, you know, yesterday before this happened, it is certainly clear that is not the case. There is still a danger in these communities as Law Enforcement continues to search for the suspect. Still danger indeed. I can see where you are, it is empty behind you as it should be because people seem to be following the instructions of officials there to stay indoors and keep their doors locked. And yet im sure the text on the ground there, the raw fear must be palable. Reporter it is. And even for Law Enforcement, you know, i spent time with the chief in lisbon this morning. And he was wearing his body armor and carrying the big rifle. You know, could see his heart just going and there is this energy, this adrenalin rush. Hes been up all night, they have been responding to 911 calls. People afraid in their homes. They hear a noise, they think they see something so they can calling 191 driving through the streets to see stores empty, closed, coffee shops, restaurants, stores closed. All along the road here. People where not opening their stores, not going to work. Schools are closed. So this is really affecting so many people and right now, we just dont have many answers from Law Enforcement as to what is really going on and if they have any indication of where this individual may be. Yeah, and we should underscore that while this manhunt is going on, what we reported at the time of the show, 18 people are dead from gunshot wounds. 13 others are injured. Thank you so much for that. And i want to turn to evan perez who has been talking to Law Enforcement sources. It was noteworthy at the Press Conference about an hour and a half ago how few answers that they had or details that they wanted to offer. You can understand that they want to keep some things quiet as they are looking for this man. But a lot of times in situations like this, they are very public in their warnings and information that they give to the public in order to enlist members of the public. Right. And one of the things that they have done is put out obviously the photograph and pictures of the vehicle. And that is to try to generate tips from the public. People who have seen this person, this vehicle, people who know him to try reach out. One plan is that he is running and evading. Why they want people to stay out of sight and in their homes is that the fact is that this is unusual. Not only do you have a shooter who carried out one shooting at one location, moves about ten minutes down the road to a second location, kills more people, and then manages to get away. Seems to have some obviously some tactics to evade Law Enforcement, leaving his vehicle in one lotication. He is nowhere there apparently. And the question Law Enforcement has, does he have plans to try to kill additional people, are there more possible shooting locations that he has planned. Because there is some level of preparation that he seems to have done. Now, the problem here is obviously this is a very sparsely populated state. There is this is a url radio area around lewiston. There are plenty of places for someone like there to hide especially someone with some skill, 20 years of Law Enforcement sorry, 20 years of military training. That was my next question. This is not just some civilian who grabbed a gun and is acting erratically, conducted a massacre. And a lot of people in maine go out for days to go hunting for deer and other wildlife. You know, again, this is a part of what life in maine is like. So it is very rugged, it is cold, and they know how to traverse the woods. That is why you see the fbi, the marshals and atf all heading up there, they are bringing in things like aircraft that can detect any signs of heat for instance if someone is hiding. So they are trying to figure out where he last was, where hes been. Again, to get any sort of indication of where this guy could be headed next. Again, the big fear is that he is not done with what he has been doing. And that is the biggest concern. I mean, absolutely terrifying. Thank you so much for that reporting. And i thought want to go to cnns john miller who is former nypd Deputy Commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism. Youve pain been working your sources. And our colleague is hearing that in july of this year, leaders of the Army Reserves third battalion reported that this individual, robert card, was behaving erratically according to a National Guard spokesperson. And he was subsequently transported to Keller Army Community hospital for medical evaluation. Thats right. Sergeant first class robert card was at the camp smith Training Facility in Upstate New York this summer when he started making statements about hearing voices. Were told by sources. About wanting to hurt soldiers. So he got that Command Referral to the Military Hospital where he was transported to. And spent a couple weeks under observation and being evaluated and likely receiving some kind of medication. But we dont have much of a picture after that in terms of that was this summer that takes us through september and october into what occurred in between that time that he has been in maine, attached to the arm reserve center in sack coe. And one of the stressors that he may have gone through is the loss of a job at a local recycling center. But he is really unknown to Law Enforcement except for an arrest in 2007, a long time ago, for an alleged Driving Under The Influence charge. He is not known to atf, he is not in fbi holdings. He has appeared on paper to be a long time member of the military, 20 years in service, somebody who stayed in the Military Reserves and somebody who served his country. So i think a lot of time will be spent, not now, but later going back over, was that encounter and that referral something that needed to be looked at further. You know, did the authorities in m maine where he has a compound with 1,000 acres in land and a number of weapons, did they get a file six card as they call it saying here is someone who went through a mental episode and may have to be given a second look in terms of weapons he has. Before i let you go, i want to ask you about what evan and i were talking about, which is the limited details were hearing from Law Enforcement about their search for this suspect. How normal is that from your perspective with this type of search . Well, they are being very circumspect. What we saw last night was once they had a picture of the suspect and before they knew who he was, they went out with that picture almost immediately. That was to get a Running Start by saying if we cant investigate our way to who this person is fast enough, we can crowd source it and that worked. And that is a good thing. Because what they had was an extreme lack of information about their suspect. Now they know a lot more about their suspect. And they are giving out way less information. And that is usually a signal that they have information of value that they are using and they are trying hard to walk the line between informing the public and not compromising things that they hope will lead them closer to an arrest and capture. Hope definitely an important word in that sentence. John, thank you so much for your amazing reporting. Coming up, much more on the manhunt in maine including details on the gun laws that are on the books in that state. President biden ordered flags lowered to halfstaff until monday to honor the victims of the massacre last night in maine. The white house says the president has been in touch with governor janet mills and members of the state congressional delegation. Priscilla alvarez is live for us at the white house. The president just released a statement. What did he say . Reporter simply put he said this is not normal and we cant accept it, talking about the tragedy in maine and the Mass Shootings that are a reality on almost a daily basis. He said i urge republican lawmakers in congress to fulfill their duty to protect the american people. He goes on to say work with us to pass a Bill Banning Assault Weapons and high capacity magazines to enact universal Background Checks to require safe storage of guns and that that is the least that we owe the american people. But the political reality here is that legislation is stalled in congress. There are divisions and they have been at an impasse when trying to pass additional legislation and stricter gun laws. The president did have signature Gun Legislation passed in his administration and they have started an office called the White House Office of gun violence which focuses on Implementing Parts of that legislation including Background Checks and other executive actions that the administration can take. But the president has said that he has exhausted almost all of his options on this front when it comes to Executive Authority and that there is just not that much more that they can do. But it is clear today another day the president waking up to another mass shooting. And to the point where yesterday at a state dinner, this american reality disrupted International Diplomacy when the president was pulled out for briefings and calls on this matter. Thank you so much for that reporting, priscilla. Lets go to Josh Campbell. We know this suspect is somebody who is reported to have had Mental Health issues. Gun safety groups have been highly critical of maines pretty lax gun laws. How easy is it to obtain a firearm in maine . Reporter it is quite easy. The reason this is important after these incidents, we look at access, that is the big question Law Enforcement has. How did someone with this accident and capability actually get access to a firearm and go on to commit this this and you tros it i. Atrocity. We know according to the images, it appears that he has an Assault Style weapon. Not inherently illegal in the state of maine. And there are no Background Checks for private sales. If you go to a store you do go through a federal background check. But if you are buying from a friend or someone online, you dont go through that background check. And there are no Red Flag Laws. Which we talked about his many it will health issues. And so the Red Flag Laws allow Law Enforcement or a Family Member to go to a judge and have a gun removed. That doesnt exist in that state. Lets hone in on that red flag law and maine doesnt have it. Weve been told that the suspect has a recent thoirs of Mental Health issues. Maine does have a unique sort of a variation of the red flag law. What does that look like . Reporter thats right, the yellow flag law. It requires additional steps for police. What officials in maine have to do, take a suspect into not a suspect, but somebody who might be in crisis, take them to a medical facility for evaluation and a doctor has to sign off that they believe that person is a potential threat to themselves or someone else. The Police Officer then takes that certification to a judge and then the judge will ultimately decide if the medical evaluation fits the standard. And so critics of that say that is more steps for Law Enforcement, more cumbersome, but that is certainly on the books there in maine. This is an interesting stat that might surprise people given the horrors that we are seeing in maine right now. There is easy access to firearms there as you laid out. But the state has a relatively low Violent Crime rate. Very low Violent Crime rate. Does it make it harder to respond to those who may be a threat to themselves and others . Reporter if you look at the state of maine, they have High Gun Ownership but relatively low Violent Crime as you mentioned. Would you ha weve heard from gun rights advocates that say people should be able to have guns. Last year 29 homicides in the state of maine. So relatively low crime. But all of that gets back to this individual himself and that is certainly what officials will be looking at. We know according to those past Mental Health issues that he had and ill i should point out that just because someone has a Mental Health crisis does not mean that they will go on to commit a crime. We dont want to stigmatize Mental Health. But it is something that Law Enforcement looks at. Because if you have the potential warning signs, correspond to our reporting this person underwent an evaluation, whether he was a Law Abiding Citizen two weeks ago or the day before yesterday, the question is did he exhibit signs that would have prevented himself from having a gun. A lot of questions there. Because police want to know how to prevent the next one. No question about that. Thank you so much for that. Really helpful context, josh. Up next, ill talk to maines u. S. Senator angus king. He will come on to talk about the heartsake and deep fear sweeping his state as the manhunt continues. The power goes out and we still have wifi to do our homework. And thats a good thing . Great in my book who are you . No power . No problem. Introducing stormready wifi. Now you can stay reliably connected through Power Outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery backup to keep you online. Only from xfinity. Home of the xfinity 10g network. Heres why you should switch fo to duckduckgo on all your Devie Duckduckgo comes with a builtn engine like google, but its pi and doesnt spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. And theres no catch. Its fre. We make money from ads, but they dont follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. Were following the Breaking News out of maine where a mass shooter is on the loose. His former colleague just told cnn, new information were getting, that he is a skilled marksman, an outdoors man who was moonamong the best shooters his army reserve unit. Tom foreman is Tracking Everything that we know about the manhunt. What can you tell us about the area that Law Enforcement is searching right now . I can tell you that it is growing by the hour. Remember this was 7 00 last night when this all started. And were now 15 hours and change beyond that. And we know that it started in a relatively limited location. Just in time recreation, the Bowling Alley, Schemengees Bar grille, only about four miles apart. But then pretty soon it expanded out here to this area where the vehicle was found. That is about eight miles from the town. So now were in a position where they are having to look wider and wider potentially fending on where he is moving. If we look at the suspect robert card, certified Firearms Instructor, member of the u. S. Army reserve, made threats to carry out a shooting at as in a Al Guard Facility earlier on and reporting Mental Health issues including hearing voices. You combine that with the information you just reported, the idea that this is somebody who that i know the outdoors very well, who may be very skilled at this, you understand how this really changes the approach that Law Enforcement has to take. They will always go into cases like this moving as quickly as they can, but look at the terrain. Maine is one of the least populated states in the country. Ive been in this area. This is an awful lot of rural area and an awful lot of wooded areas where pursuing someone is very different than it is in an urban environment. Authorities largely are saying to people to stay locked down. But think about the distance. 8 miles in here. They have locked all the schools in portland because this is expanding by the hour. How they will track him down in this environment, if he has access to a watercraft, he could go straight through here on the river. Many ways that he can move away from this. And i will tell you this, one of the challenges for Law Enforcement is because they dont know where he is, the search area itself. Again, by the hour, it gets more complicated. If he got in to a different car after he got rid of that other car that he had a short while ago, if he god into a different car than the one that they found at one location out here if he got into a car and started hitting at Highway Speeds and just went in one direction, he could easily be well beyond cleveland, ohio at this point. Does that happen very often . Doesnt seem to, but it certainly could. And it complicates the equation for all the authorities looking for this man who they say should be seen as rmed and dangerous. And so many communities are paying attention. Thank you so much for that. Joining me now is maine senator angus king who is also the states former governor. Thank you so much for being here. I know that you have been meeting this morning with the Current Governor and other officials there including Law Enforcement. What can you tell us at this moment about robert card, the s suspect who of course is considered Armed And Dangerous . I dont think that i can add much to the reporting that youve already had. He is Armed And Dangerous. It was interesting last night on all the press reports, he was referred to as a person of interest. This morning he was referred to as a suspect. Warrants have been issued for his arrest for murder. Youve talked about the Mental Health and skill with the gun. But there is a context point here. Maine being named the safest state in the country. I think last figures i saw Second Lowest Gun Diplomats in the country. So that is why this incident is so shocking. Second lowest until last night. And so this is because maine has a tradition of Firearm Ownership and use. And all of a sudden weve got one individual out of 1. 3 million who has just terrified the region. And Josh Campbell made the point and i want to emphasize, there is no desire, i have no desire, nobody does to stigmatize Mental Health. But the fact that this individual had sought treatment, the fact that this individual in addition to that were now learning from his people who know him from Army Reserves is a very skilled marks man, i mean, that combination is quite scary. And there will be a lot of analysis of this. Was there something missed. Was he teamed deemed a danger t himself or someone else. But to a lot of People Holding firearms is very important. And if you go into a millennialtal Health Checkup or you commit yourself for some Mental Health treatment that will then result you your losing your right to bear arms, then people arent going to a lot of people will say im not going in for that checkup which is the opposite of what we want. So is this a very challenging area. We want to move from fear to grieving but were still looking for this guy. And as you point out, we have schools closed. Two colleges in the vicinity are both on lockdown. Massive manhunt is under way. And i must say your reporter who said that this guy had a second car, he could be in cleveland by now, that is pretty daunting. I dont suspect that is the case. But it is a very dangerous situation. I love this state and i love these people. And this is just an awful dark day for us, i can tell you that. Absolutely. I know that you are a very busy man and i appreciate you coming on. Please come back as you get more information. Hopefully this suspect is found. Thank you for your reporting. And we are continuing to follow the Breaking News out of maine. Right now police are urgently looking for a mass shooter. And we are also still closely watching the war in israel and in gaza. Coming up, ill speak to a mother whose 19yearold son, an american citizen, was kidnapped by hamas terrorists. She is speaking out for the first time. Stay with me. Just in, Israeli Forces say an airstrike has killed one of the hamas intelligence officials who helped plan the barbaric october 7 attack on israel. The news of this strike comes after the idf conducted a raid in northern gaza. Idf spokespeople said it was targeted and intended to create better terms for a ground operation. Yesterday israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to rain, quote, hell fire on hamas. As israel inches closer to that potential invasion, one factor on everybodys mind is the more than 200 hostages still being held by hamas inside gaza. One of those hostages is edon alexander. He is 19, he grew mostly in new jersey. He graduated from Tenafly High School in volunteered to serve in the Israeli Defense forces. He was taken hostage by hamas during the Terrorist Attack on october 7. And im joining thonow by his m and sister. Thank you both for coming. You have a picture there, we have photos. I know you havent been out very much talking publicly about your son. But now you think it is important. Why . I didnt, i think that it is important, i think that it is important people to understand that my son is only 19 years old. He just graduated last year from Tenafly High School. We live in new jersey. His sister is now a senior in the high school. And his little brother, roy, is 12. He is in the Middle School in t tenafly. So we just thoep hear Something Like how hes been, what is going on there. Some kind of and you havent heard have you heard anything . No. We just know that he is alive and he is in gaza kept by hamas you know that he is . They told us that he is alive and he is over there at gaza. And we are just hoping for him to come back home and we need to understand that this is 20 days now without my baby with me. And i just want him to come back home. And we think that it is important to act and turn our hope into action because of the of what we heard about the two hostages being released and now two more being released. So now us and the ear families of the hostages have a lot of hope that good things are going to come with our Family Members. Including because he is american. Definitely. He decided to go back to israel. He was born in tel aviv but group up in the united states. He went back to volunteer in the idf. Yes, that was his decision whechbs his senior year. He told me and my husband that this is something that he believes in. He loves israel. He wants to do any effort that he can to help with the people there, to guard them, to protect them and he wants to do that. And we were surprised at first because we thought that he is going to go to do like college like all his friends. But he told us he wants to do this and then to come back home. Yeah. When was the last time you spoke with him . Last time i spoke with him and texted with him, it was october 7, saturday morning. It was around 6 34 when the alarms start in tel aviv. I was in tel aviv with my parents with the family. I came to visit him actually. So i had like two days with him that week. And then he went to the army. What cadid he say in the tex . He said a lot of missile here but im safe. So i said lets be in touch. After a few minutes he called me. I was shocked a little bit because i knew that he was busy, he was guarding, you know, he is over there. And he just told me, mom, a lot of missile here, a lot of like attacks. Attacks like the situation here is not so good. I told him i love you, be safe, be brave and im still here. Like lets be in touch and that is it. We finished the phone call and then i text him again and again and again and again and nothing came through since then. And it was more than mo. It was a few minutes before 7 00 a. M. What do you want people to know about your brother . I want people to know that hes a happy and lively kid. He cares so much about family and his relationship with me and our younger brother roy. And he will just do anything for his friends, anything for his family. And he is just truly like my best friend. Im 17, he is only two years older than me. And im just im patiently waiting for the dha well be reunited again. Im speaking with him like every day in my heart. Like the whole day, im speaking with him. Just tell him how we miss him and we are doing everything that we can. And we want him to come back and just to tell him about all this stuff that we did. And still doing. And so far there have been civilians released. He is idf, so he is military. But the hope is that because he is american that he will be looked at differently. Yeah. Yes. I really hope so. We had a 90 minute zoom with president biden. And they assure us that he is doing everything that he can and they are work behind the scenes with everyone, like to make it happen. And they all will come back. And you know what, im thankful for this country and for all the people that are around us. They are like im feeling that they are really acting and trying to help and really to do something, you know. For all of us. And im feeling the love and all the prayers. And that is why im full of hope that he will come back to us. And he will come back that is amazing that you have hope. I am. We all must have hope. Im a mom of a boy. Listening to your description is hard to imagine. But you have that photo there. We have the photos up and well continue to show the world your baby boy. Thank you. Who is being held captive. Thank you both for coming in. Thank you so much for having us. Well be right back. To duckduckgo on all your Devie Duckduckgo comes with a builtn engine like google, but its pi and doesnt spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. And theres no catch. Its fre. We make money from ads, but they dont follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. Back to our Breaking News in maine. Police are still searching for 40yearold robert card, the suspect in last nights Mass Shootings that left 18 people dead. Just now, cards brother called for him to surrender, he tells cnn, his family is helping Law Enforcement track him down. As the urgent manhunt intensifies so does fear and anxiety for people across that community. Im joined by melinda small, she owns Legends Sports Bar and grill, just a few yards away from one of the scenes of last nights shooting. Thank you for being with me. Your bar and grill, legends, as i said is very close to the Bowling Alley. Seven people were murdered there last night, seven of the 18. You can tell us what you, your staff, i know your husband was there, experienced as that rampage was going on so close to the place where you work . Yes. Within seconds of the shooter arriving at the Bowling Alley, one of our guests received a call that indicated that they had a Family Member inside the building. So, we were quickly alerted to the shooting. I feel very blessed to be alerted so quickly. Because i do believe within two minutes of the first shot, we on lockdown. We responded very, very quickly and got the doors locked. And we advised everybody to get away from any windows and started telling individuals what was going on. Everything happened very, very quickly, obviously. And then the police were there. And securing the doorways, the glass doorways to the patio. To make sure that nobody was able to get in. And we had a Police Officer come in. And tell us that we need to evacuate immediately. And they escorted four people at a time, and once the four people were out into safety, another four went. In the building was vacant. Thats so terrifying. And at this point, all of your friends and family are safe and accounted for . Correct. How are your neighbors coping with this, how are you opening with this . Youre sheltering in place as were speaking. I think im in a bit of a shock to be honest. Its something that we know happens, but we dont think its going to happen to us. And lewiston is a fairly small city, and to think that this is in our own backyard is just its just very hard to comprehend. Hard to comprehend for so many reasons, but one of the reasons is because the crime rate is so low where you are. And within the state largely. Melinda, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. Were so glad that youre safe. And that Law Enforcement did handle things so well. In your establishment. Yes, im very, very blessed that everything went the way it did for us, but for so many it has not gone so well. It sure didnt. Thank you again. Thank you. And thank you for joining inside politics. Cnn n news centraral starts s a a quick break