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>> that's exactly what it will show. >> reporter: it was still dark when james craig anderson walked out of a motel towards his car in a parking lot off jackson's ellis avenue. smith says that's when the white teenagers saw him. james, a black man, alone. it is hard to imagine what happened next without using the term "hate." the teenagers from mostly white rankin county were led by an 18-year-old named deryl dedmon, according to police. dedmon has a history of harassing teens at his high school. by several accounts from parents and students who knew him, he hated blacks. hated white people who had black friends. he hated anyone he thought was gay. and on this sunday morning, after a night of drinking, he and his friends, witnesses have told police, were out to act on that hate. some of the teens there that night would tell police the teenagers attacked that lone black man without any provocation, repeatedly beating anderson, yelling "white power." then one of the vehicles drives off. deryl dedmon apparently wasn't through. he had two girls in his truck as he was leaving this parking lot, a big f-250 pickup truck. james craig anderson, the man who was beaten almost to a pulp, was stumbling down this curb. that's when police say deryl dedmon hit the gas, jumped the curb and ran right over his victim. smashing him. what he didn't know was the entire episode was being caught on a surveillance camera on the corner of this hotel. this is what was caught on that tape obtained exclusively by cnn. and we warn you, it is disturbing. james craig anderson first comes into view in the lower right corner of the screen after he was beaten, according to police. he staggers into the headlights of mr. dedmon's truck. his white shirt easily visible. then the truck backs up, surges forward. the headlights glowing brightly on anderson's shirt before he and that shirt disappear underneath it. the truck runs right over the defenseless man. after he does that, he drives to a mcdonald's. he picks up the phone. apparently calls a buddy and says what? >> according to the testimony, i ran that nigger over. >> reporter: witnesses say he almost was bragging about it. that he was laughing about it, really. >> that's what we plan to present. >> reporter: deryl dedmon has pled not guilty. his attorney has refused to answer cnn's many calls for comment. though during one court appearance, that attorney said he didn't see any evidence racism was involved. the district attorney says nothing else was involved. he has classified this as capitol murder and a hate crime. you would think it would be a wake-up call for any town where that kind of hate could fester. but this is brandon, mississippi. think again. >> it's just an unfortunate incident. it happened, but once it happened, we haven't gone into, you know, code red, oh, my god, we've got a major problem. let's stop traffic and everybody needs to go home and lock their doors and, you know, we just kind of just keep going, doing what we do. >> reporter: here where a confederate war memorial stands at the center of town, the police say there were no warning signs. but we found the police are wrong. cnn has learned investigators are now looking into allegations deryl dedmon and his friends had a pattern of racism and violence. how did they get away with this? >> they just never got in trouble. like, they would be told on and the cops wouldn't do anything to them. they'd let them go. >> reporter: school officials ever intervene? >> no. let them go. coming up, did a town's indifference help lead to murder? the markets never stop moving. of course, neither do i. solution: td ameritrade mobile. i can enter trades. on the run. even futures and forex. complex options? done. the market shifts... i get an alert. thank you. live streaming audio. advanced charts. look at that. all right here. wherever "here" happens to be. mobile trading from td ameritrade. number one in online equity trades. trade commission-free for 30 days, plus get up to $500 when you open an account. trade commission-free for 30 days, [ woman announcing ]bsite there's an easier way. create your own small-business site... with intuit websites. choose a style, customize, publish and get found... from just $7.99 a month. get a 30-day free trial... at intuit.com. we've been investigating an alleged hate crime for months. it's raising disturbing questions about whether the hatred that haunted mississippi's past is still burning today. and maybe even more disturbing, did a small mississippi town ignore the warning signs? drew griffin found in brandon, mississippi, that many people knew and may have looked the other way as a group of teenagers became more racist and more violent. >> reporter: the death of james craig anderson was like the dark mississippi past come back to life. prosecutor robert smith had only heard the tales of racial hatred from his grandfather who helped and even housed civil rights leaders like medger evers and dr. martin luther king jr. it was before smith was even born, back in the '60s, when both men were shot down in a terrible wave of racial violence. on june 26th, that ugly past was suddenly present. >> when you first saw the video, the surveillance video, what was your reaction? >> certainly breathtaking. unbelievable. i thought about the fact that that could have been anyone, including myself. >> reporter: the district attorney has charged deryl dedmon, the teen driving the truck that killed anderson, with capitol murder. a second teen, john rice, has been charged with simple assault. five other white teenagers who were there have not been charged. anderson's family has kept their grief and frustration mostly private. but after a court hearing, anderson's sister could not contain her emotions. >> go to brandon, mississippi. go to brandon, mississippi, and get those other five murderers who committed such a horrendous, violent act against my beloved brother, james craig anderson. >> reporter: you have to drive east to get to brandon. cross the pearl river. the invisible line that seems to separate black mississippi from white. while in jackson, anderson's killing has prompted marches and a call for healing, in brandon the reaction has been mostly silent. brandon police wouldn't even return cnn's phone calls. is the chief in? it was an assistant police chief who finally came out to say there was no story here. are you concerned that a lot of these kids are from rankin county? not just one or two, but there were seven of them who drove over and took part in this. >> you're right. you're going to have a couple of bad seeds. one guy ran over the individual. not all six. so, you know, i can't -- i hate that it happened and i wish to god it didn't happen here or anywhere. but as far as it being, you know, we have a national problem, we don't have any more problem than any other city. it's just an isolated incident. and you can quote me on that. >> reporter: but it didn't take us long to find out it wasn't an isolated incident. deryl dedmon has a criminal history. arrested and convicted of harassment earlier this year. two years ago this local pastor says he had to call police when his son was being harassed. >> and i had told jordan for a year and a half that deryl dedmon will kill you. >> he had a look of no conscience. he was blank stare. deryl always, i think, just carried around this backpack of hatred. >> reporter: other students also told us they were bullied or beaten by dedmon and his friends. who called people nigger lovers if they befriended blacks. we were told school administrators mostly looked the other way as bullying and racial hatred festered. school officials declined our interview requests, but a spokesperson told cnn they take bullying seriously and that they had no record of any trouble from deryl dedmon. students told us dedmon and his friends were a problem. using racial slurs. calling blacks and even president obama the "n" word. ken johnson used to manage a gas station where dedmon and his friends used to hang out. >> it seemed like that every word that came out of their mouth was the "n" word. and that they're taking over. as if it was some kind of war. >> reporter: dedmon's family has refused to talk to cnn. so has his attorney. this man did. once close to dedmon and his friends, he now fears them. >> i believe that every one of these kids that are in the incident are dangerous and capable of many things. i'm really worried about it. >> reporter: this man told us there were other violent and racial incidents with dedmon and other friends of his. did they ever go looking for black people, hunting, literally? >> yes. they're known as the -- the -- like i said, the brandon boys. they're also known as the racist kids. the white group. >> reporter: cnn has learned federal investigators from the department of justice have uncovered two other possible incidents where groups of white rankin county teens, including dedmon, have sought out and attacked a black person. have you guys been concerned about these guys? >> nope. >> not at all? >> nope. >> reporter: this man says racism is behind brandon, mississippi's, silence. do you believe there's a lot of people in brandon, mississippi, that may feel the same way about the killing of a black man? >> yes. yes. i've even heard it out of some of the police officers' mouths. that -- that this is their statement. deryl was a good kid. he just made one bad mistake. >> drew griffin joins us now. we talked about teenagers. what happened to the other teenagers involved? >> the five other teenagers involved had been very cooperative with this investigation. i think it's fair to say without their cooperation, a lot of the details would not have come out. that being said, this investigation, both federal and state, is ongoing and i'm told more charges may be filed. >> how much more is going on here do you think? this one teenager and one community, i mean, do they talk about is this a symptom of a larger problem? >> you know, many people are saying this is a wake-up call for mississippi and maybe even for the rest of the nation. these are teenagers, as you said, soledad. they didn't grow up in a vacuum. parents, aunts, uncles, you know, siblings, teachers, even they go to church. these kids go to church. what pastor richardson is saying is, look, we can't allow this. we can't all go to church and pray for mankind on sunday and then allow our kids to go and use the "n" word on monday. so this is a wake-up call that he would like to bring the attention of. so far, i must tell you, it's not being herd. >> drew griffin, thank you very muf much. i know you'll continue to follow this story as it goes through the courts. up next, a story i've been investigating for several months now. think of it as another form of injustice. veterans from iraq and afghanistan back home and living on the streets. there's a little bit of a contract. i'm going to serve my country. >> right. >> but then my country's going to serve me. >> that's kind of what i was hoping for, yeah. >> where did it fall apart? i decided to find out in my special investigation. d pay a little at a time... but actually we do -- and my kids would be like, "awesome, mom!" oh! i did not see that. 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[ thunder rumbling ] [ thunder crashing ] and then, in one blinding blink of an eye, their tree had given its last. but with their raymond james financial advisor, they had prepared for even the unthinkable. ♪ and they danced. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you. i tell you what i can spend. i do my best to make it work. i'm back on the road safely. and i saved you money on brakes. that's personal pricing. for far too many americans, the street is their home. it's a life bad enough for anyone, but unforgivable when the struggling men and women have already risked their lives for their country. i was stunned to find out that more than 8,000 homeless veterans live in los angeles alone. what surprised me even more, there's a plot of land there nearly 400 acres that was donated for free just to build a home for vets. it would have been a lifesaver for a vet i met in los angeles. you're young. how old are you? >> i'm 22. almost 23. >> almost 23. you are from this area originally. >> san fernando valley just up over the hill. >> fresh out of high school, robert rissman signed up to fight for his country. what makes an 18-year-old join the army? >> i wanted to go to college and make something of myself and the army said they'd pay for it. >> it's a contract. i'm going to serve my country, but then my country's going to serve me. >> that's kind of what i was hoping for, yeah. >> where did it fall apart? it began to fall apart in iraq. you saw things that i know you don't want to talk about. >> no, i don't. >> and probably never want to talk about. >> no. >> you see, robert was in a rapid response unit. he saw action night after night. >> i got back from iraq, and i was having a lot of psychological issues. i guess you could say. >> post-traumatic stress? >> post-traumatic stress disorder. >> back home at fort carson in colorado, he started feeling like people were out to get him. a few months later, someone discovered robert's illegal sawed-off shotgun hidden in his barracks. according to army papers, robert told investigators he was suicidal. at one point, he spent a full day drinking, then sat on the side of the bed with the end of the gun in his mouth. >> i wish sometimes that -- that i had died in iraq. so that my life would have meant something, you know? >> forced to quit the army, robert ended up homeless. >> i went through some pretty bad times when i first got out. i was doing a lot of methamphetamines, my drug of choice. i was smoking a lot of dope. and i was getting in with some rough crowds. >> and many of those rough crowds were made up of people just like robert. returning veterans. as many as 1 in 3 soldiers returning from iraq or afghanistan suffers from traumatic brain injury, severe depression, substance abuse or ptsd. >> i was dealing with other people that weren't so nice. >> is that weird for you to hear? >> yeah. that's really uncomfortable, actually. >> what happens when you hear a noise like that? >> it startles me a little bit. but i know it's a truck. >> you see it everywhere you look. ex-soldiers like robert are desperate for steady care and for stable housing. so i was stunned to hear about a piece of property in west los angeles set aside for this very purpose. for veterans. for long-term housing. and it's literally across the street from the va hospital. the story here actually dates back all the way to the 1880s. back then the government wanted to create facilities for ageing veterans of the civil war. so former senator john p. jones and his friend who was a glamorous heiress decided to donate all this land. back then it was mostly ranch land. but today, just a few miles from the pacific ocean, it is some of the most valuable real estate in all of north america. >> it was solely an act of goodwill. an act of trying to take care of the veterans that they had from the spanish-american war and the civil war. >> carolina barrie is descended from the heiress who made this gift. and she's part of a lawsuit against the va file bid the american civil liberties union. the original deed includes a condition. that the land be used to establish and maintain a branch of a national home for disabled vets. and a permanent home for thousands is exactly what it was. >> they had their post office. they had a trolley system that went all the way downtown to the beach. everything was provided for them. they had a special uniform. it was a marvelous place to live, and the grounds were gorgeous. i mean, they were just gorgeous. >> mark rosenbaum is the lead attorney for the aclu. >> at one point this campus housed as many as 4,000 veterans. but beginning with the vietnam era vets were kicked out. they were literally kicked out. >> around 200 veterans live on the property today. but none of them in permanent housing. alongside them, empty buildings. a public golf course. a variety of private businesses. like a theater and a bus depot. >> this land has been utilized for enterprise rent-a-car. for marriott hotels. for ucla baseball. for exclusive private schools. they know what this land is about. >> with rveterans sleeping on l.a. streets, i decided to head to the va to see why this land isn't used for their housing. people have said, look, that property is not being used for that purpose. is that a legitimate beef? 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