vote, the families of newtown deserve a vote, the families of aurora deserve a vote. >> the plead from the president for congress to vote on tougher gun laws. watergate, marco rubio and the bottle. did that really just happen? and beyonce's new film, "life is but a dream." >> people see celebrities and they have money and fame, but i'm a human being. i cry. i get scared. i get nervous, just like everyone else. >> reporter: we are on the red carpet for the l.a. premiere. find out why oprah says this is a game changer. >> this "life is but a dream" is so fiercely empowering. "newsro" good morning, thank you so much for being with me. i'm carol costello. we begin in southern california where an accused killer ex-cop is believed dead, his reign of terror over. police say it will take days to confirm that a body found inside this cabin is actually christopher dorner, the former los angeles cop who had vowed deadly vengeance for his firing. this is video from outside the cabin from cbs. he was spotted yesterday near big bear lake. he crashed a stolen car and then carjacked another vehicle from a camp ranger who happened to be on the scene. >> he came up to me with his gun pointed at me and i stopped my truck, put it in park, raised my hands and he said "i don't want to hurt you. get out and start walking up the road and take your dog" which is what i did. >> that triggered a short chase to the cabin where he opened fire on deputies as they converged. listen to the ferocious shoot-out captured on a reporter's cell phone. [ gunfire ] once dorner was cornered, the expert marxman killed one deputy and wounding another, that follows the trail of victims from last week, he's accused of killing river side police officer michael crain and earlier killing keith lawrence and his fiance mondica qua in n daughter of the person who defended him. casey wian is at the los angeles police department where investigators are filling in the blanks and lending his law enforcement expertise assistant fbi director tom fuentes. tom, take us through what happened last night. >> reporter: absolutely high drama, high in the mountains. let's give you a sense of what happened on this chaotic and eventful day here in the big bear area. >> shots fired, four, five shots fired. >> reporter: what happened in the mountains around big bear fast moving and often confusing. two maids are reportedly tied up, their nissan stolen. law enforcement on the lookout. >> they were driving down highway 32 and approaching two buses. >> reporter: the pursuit was on. within moments he crashes a pickup truck, the suspect who looks like a man like christopher dorner. the suspect rolls down the window and opens fire and a shoot-out ensues, he tacks off and barricades himself inside a cabin. police converge by land and highway 32 and approaching two air, then another shoot-out captured on a reporter's cell phone. [ gunfire ] radio calls from the officers. >> returning fire. >> reporter: and then -- >> we have an officer down, officer down. >> reporter: one deputy is killed, another wounded and expected to survive. the cabin goes up in flames. >> we have ammo explosions. >> reporter: the question is kris cover dorner inside that cabin? over the next few hours, confirmations, denials and duelling news conferences. >> any reports of a body being found are not true. >> we believe that the person that barricaded himself inside the cabin and engaged in gunfire with our deputies and other law enforcement officers is still inside there. >> reporter: finally, close to midnight pacific time, the san bernardino sheriff's office confirms charred remains have indeed been found inside the burned out cabin. and now back here live, one more little interesting bit about dorner, apparently he was using two school buses to try to use as cover or hide behind as he went to escape down the mountain. back to you. >> so frightening. paul vercammen thanks so much. we focus on the investigation and where it goes from here. casey wian is at the los angeles police department, joined by former fbi assistant director tom fuentes. tom, last night our los angeles affiliate kcal aired what appeared to be live scanner traffic or sound of a police officer, police officer's open mike. listen to this recording and tell us what you hear and weigh in on the other side. let's listen. >> it sounds like police officials were trying to move carter out of the area and to a safer area. >> burn it down. >> burn that god [ bleep ] down. >> burn that [ bleep ] house down. burn it down. >> get going right now, [ bleep ], burn that [ bleep ]. >> okay so it sounds when you first hear it that police officers meant to set that cabin on fire, and burn it down. what did it sound like to you, tom? >> good morning, carol. i couldn't quite understand exactly what was being said in all of that, whether that was being said after it was already on fire and he was already inside it or you know, a police officer would not be issuing an order, that would not be a command to say burn it down or burn him down or let him burn inside. i think maybe once the fire was started and given the fact that he had been shooting and already killed an officer, just minutes before, and now was shooting at them in the heat of battle, somebody may have just lost their emotions and said that, so i don't know, i'd like to hear the whole context and exactly the timing of the fire, the timing and exact wording of what was said. >> take us through how they managed to get or tried to get the man believed to be dorner out of that cabin. from what i understand, and believe me, none of this is confirmed, i'm just guessing along with everyone else, police had first threw a flash pot, you know, at the cabin to distract dorner and that would not have set a fire, right? >> well, various devices, the flash bangs and certain types of what are called tear gas grenade can see start a fire. they do involve smoke, they involve somewhat of an incendiary device and if the cabin is, you know, hit in the right location, it could start a fire. it wouldn't be done on purpose and the use of any of those devices would not be used until they're absolutely certain there is no hostages inside and they only have dorner and they only have already made requests for him to surrender which obviously he had no intention of doing. >> the other thing i read and these are just reports, that the s.w.a.t. team moved in and then broke out the cabin windows, and then they pumped in some sort of gas to try to get this man out of the cabin. >> yeah, you know, we'll have to see for sure if they used all of those techniques. pumping in gas is a little bit of a difficult thing. normally from a distance, you would inject tear gas by firing it in there, a small canister, almost looks like a gigantic bullet would be fired through a window, it would go into the building and then start releasing what is commonly called tear gas. tear gas is actually a misnomer. it's not a gas. it's little particles that irritate the body, irritate mucm mucous membranes. in order to get the particles airborne the device becomes a smoke grenade and the smoke carries the particle. it's not gas, it's a solid material that goes into the air and irritates the body. >> so then somehow this cabin burst into flames and maybe casey wian you can enlighten us on this. the fire department was not called in. so there was never any attempt to put out the fire at all. why was that? >> reporter: carol, i don't have any information on that. it was clear they allowed that structure to burn down. the focus of the investigation here at lapd headquarters is two-fold, one to try to determine if dorner had any accomplices. there have been concerns about potential accomplices since last week, a document filed by the u.s. marshal service an arrest warrant mentioned the possibility of accomplices. the lapd saying they will leave no stone unturned in trying to find someone, anyone who may have helped and there's a lot of questions about how he was able to survive in the big bear area for six days. also, the identification of the remains found in that burnt out cabin is a priority. sheriff's department san bernardino county says they'll have to conduct forensic testing on that, those charred remains, we don't know what kind of shape they're in but it could be everything from dna to x-rays to dental records, carol. >> just to button this all up and i'll go back to tom for this question, i would assume firefighters were not allowed to get close to fight that fire because police feared for their lives if the man inside that cabin would start firing. >> that's correct, carol. normally as a matter of policy, s.w.a.t. teams when they deployed the fire department dploiz wi deploys with them and stays a safe distance away. because if they use flash bangs or the tear gas canisters they may create the fire or the subjects themselves may create a fire but in this case he was believed to have a .50 caliber gun which disabled the engine block of one police car and killed many people so that particular weapon, that bullet would go through a fire truck like a hot knife through butter so they're not going to let a fire truck anywhere near that location based on the possibility he could still be there, he could still return fire and kill firemen. members of the fire department deal with danger every day, they have to deal with toxic fumes and possible gas canisters in a location that might explode and kill them, but it is not in their mission statement to go into a place and get shot at and potentially killed that way, so that's the police's job. they would not let fire trucks anywhere near the location until it was safe and they determined there was no possibility of fire personnel being shot at. having said that, by the time they believed it was safe enough pretty much the place was engulfed in flames and they would not i think at that point necessarily want the fire department destroying the crime scene and putting water on a location that it's too late to save anyway. >> tom fuentes and casey wian and paul vercammen, thank you so much. hopefully some answers will be questioned throughout the day. it was one of the most emotional moments in the state of the union address, he plead ford a vote on new gun control proposals. >> gabby giffords deserves a vote, the families of newtown deserve a vote, the families of aurora deserve a vote, the families of oak creek and tucson and blacksburg and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence, they deserve a simple vote. >> a standing ovation with more than two dozen family members of victims in the crowd. one of the family members coins us from capitol hill, sarah katagan, mother from plainfield, new jersey, her 17-year-old son, spencer, was shot and killed in 2010, with her is democratic congressman rush holt who invited her as his guest to the state of the union. welcome to you both. thank you so much for being with us this morning. >> thank you, carol. >> thank you. >> sarah, i want to start with you. how did you feel after hearing that particular part of the president's speech when he mentioned the victims of gun violence? >> i was very pleased. i thought it was just wonderful to be in attendance at the occasion where we're actually considering doing something about gun control here in america. >> and congressman, do you feel that something will get done? because a lot of people are saying, you know, we're spending a lot of time talking about this issue, but nothing will really matter. >> well, that certainly was a dramatic moment and the president was speaking over an unusually loud cheering congress. there was, you know, as he said, do this for the parents of that little girl from chicago, do this for gabby giffords, vote for, you know, have a vote, do these things. it was a very dramatic moment. i thought overall in this piece, in his speech, because of the new, i would say assertive approach of the president toward congress, we are going to see legislative action on gun violence protection, on immigration, on minimum wage, on early childhood education. i think this congress is probably going to move more legislatively than we have in the last two years, because of the president's new assertion. . >> the president wants an up or down on some kind of gun control legislation on the floor of the congress. >> that's right. >> i'd like you, sarah, to listen to what the nra president david keene said, what david keene said, rather, when he was asked if the nra could support such a vote. >> we can't control the congress. the one thing that's sort of upsets me a little bit the president is trying to use emotion to force things through before they've been rationally debated, argued and examined, and that's a mistake because that's the way you get the bad policy. >> so sarah, what he's saying is there were so many families, victims of gun violence there, and it's pure emotion, not logical thinking, that may be driving the president's push for gun control. >> i disagree with that. the president's push for gun control, in my opinion, is based upon a lot of facts and statistics. how many more countless lives will we have to lose in america because of the lack of gun control legislation? i think it is high time if we can save one life or a million lives within our plans to do so, if he has the power to do so now is the time to do it. >> congressman rush holt and sarah cadogan, thanks so much for being with us this morning. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> thank you. sewage running down the walls, carpets soaked in urine. it's been four days since the cruise liner "triumph" lost power and conditions are beyond disgusting. >> he said that the conditions have gotten so bad that they're asking them to use the restroom in bags and they were eating onion sand wichwiches and that monday. >> a live report from mobile, alabama, where the disabled cruise liner is expected to finally arrive tomorrow. 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she called me hysterical screaming and crying and she was scared not what was happening on board but afraid she'd never to geto see her mama again. the last when we say good-bye it was very hard. i didn't know if i'd ever see her or talk to her again. >> david mattingly is covering the story from mobile, alabama, where the disabled cruiseship is expected to finally dock tomorrow afternoon and paul callan is in new york watching out for the legal fallout. welcome to you both. let's start with you, david, what is the status of the cruiseship right now? >> reporter: we checked with the tugboat company, one of the tugs pushing this ship and they tell us about 160 miles out creeping along still, five to seven miles per hour, but that far out the people on deck still cannot see any land, the view has not changed for them, so they are still just creeping along, just languishing out there, waiting, until they get here to this port here in mobile. this place is going to look like paradise to them when they finally get here tomorrow. there will be hotel rooms waiting for them, they'll get right away to hot showers, hot meals, and a nice, warm, dry bed with none of that horrible smell that they've been living with. the plumbing here is already ready to go working, a sheer luxury compared to what they've been living with for the past few days. carol? >> and david, this isn't the first time carnival "triumph" has had issues. tell us what's happened before with this ship. >> reporter: well just in the last couple of weeks they had a problem with the alternator there with the ship. they repaired the alternator and yesterday corn value official c officials were saying that would have no connection with the fire that left the ship without any power. we do know they have had similar problems on another ship, this happened back in 2010 the carnival "splendor" ship in the pacific ocean, they had a fire, lost power h to be towed in to shore, supplies delivered to the people stuck on the ship, a similar situation there. now, when this ship gets to port here, it will be greeted by investigators from the u.s. coast guard and the national transportation safety board. they're going to be going on board to launch a probe into why this fire happened, to get to the bottom of it, to see if there is some sort of systemic problem that might be causing this. >> fascinating. so on that note, let's bring in call callan for the legal side of this story. i mean, is it possible that criminal charges could be filed against someone connected to carnival cruise lines? >> i don't see criminal charges, carol. the cases against cruise lines are difficult. this ship is actually registered in the bahamas and ultimately the bahamian maritime investigating agency will get jurisdiction over it. i also looked at the carnival ticket this morning and you know they've got a big disclaimer in it that says you can't sue for emotional distress, pain and suffering, or psychological injuries, and here the passengers probably aren't going to have a lot of physical injuries, it's really anguish they're suing for. i think in the end tough sledding here in the lawsuit department. >> so what's written on that ticket, it's like, you're out of luck. >> well, u.s. lawyers would be scrambling to sue carnival and ironically there were press reports this very ship the "trium