the last word with lawrence o`donnell september 16, 2013 guests: ginger gibson, janis orlowski; garry kasparov lawrence o`donnell, host: we are about to hear more from washington, d.c. police and fbi about the mass murderer who shot and killed 12 people in the washington d.c. navy yard. a news conference is set to begin any minute now. we will bring it to you as soon ass underway. but here, 13 hours after those people were shot and killed, police say they are still working on identifying those victims and notifying their families. three victims of the shooting, including one police officer, remain hospitalized tonight. but doctors expect those three to recover fully from their wounds. navy commander tim jirus was actually speaking to one of the victims when he was shot. (begin video clip) cmdr. tim jirus, u.s. navy: there`s an individual who came from the building behind us, i mean, this building. he came up and was talking to me, basically saying, hey, there`s a shooter in your building. then i heard two more shots. one of them hit him. he went down in front of me and i took off from there. reporter: the guy you were with? jirus: the guy i was talking to. reporter: got shot? jirus: correct. reporter: and what was his situation afterwards? did you move or did you try to assess? jirus: he was shot in the head. he did not look like he made it. so, i run from there. i don`t know if he was aiming for him or aiming for me. but i got out of there as soon as i could afterwards. i realized i couldn`t do anything else for him. (end video clip) o`donnell: the alleged murderer aaron alexis was shot and killed in a gun battle with police. aaron alexis was a u.s. navy civilian contractor who worked in information technologies. aaron alexis previously served in the navy reserves between may 2007 and january 2011. here is how washington, d.c. police chief cathy lanier described the scene. (begin video clip) chief cathy lanier, dc police: it certainly was one of the worst things we have seen in washington, d.c. as officers entered the building and moved to the building, they were making transmissions and keeping commanders informed of what they were coming across as they went through, multiple victims. there was gunfire still going on. this is what we trained for. we were able to pull active shooter teams together and compliments to the partners here in the national capital region. we were able to pull officers from different agencies, put them in a single team and get them into the building within seven minutes. (crosstalk) lanier: there`s no question he would have kept shooting. (end video clip) o`donnell: joining me now: nbc`s kasie hunt and "politico`s" ginger gibson, who have been covering the navy yard scene all day. kasie, you are at the scene of the press conference. what is it that we expect to learn at this hour? kasie hunt, nbc news correspondent: at this point, it`s not definitive what we`re going to actually hear. but at this hour we`re really waiting for the sad accounting for the victims. we still don`t have a full picture of how many people died, although officials have said at least 13 civilians and we haven`t begun to understand who they are and go through that grieving process. so, at this hour, just a few blocks from where we are, there are still, by all accounts, thousands of people inside the navy yard waiting to be bussed out. the fbi has been talking with those who actually did have some connection with the event before they have been letting them out. they have been bussing people over to nationals park where there was supposed to be a baseball game tonight. so, we are still getting the full picture from people who were actually witnesses to what happened today. i did speak with one man who was nearby and who said they barricaded he and nine of his colleagues barricaded themselves inside a conference room. at one point, the ceiling was sprayed with bullets, and he said, while he didn`t see any casualties on his way out, he did hear from somebody that he knew that one of his friends, somebody he`d served with at the pentagon had, in fact, been killed. so, at this point, we`re on hour almost 14 of sorting through exactly what happened today and still no real end to this terrible day for all of these people here -- lawrence. o`donnell: ginger gibson, a place where thousands of people work, what was your -- how would you describe the confusion level today among people trying to get out of there, and people trying to figure out who`s left in there? ginger gibson, politico: i was at nationals stadium earlier today. as kasie pointed out, it was supposed to have a baseball game, instead, it`s being used as a place where they a reunited families. a lot of families confused. a lot of families still looking for the woman whose mother was working inside the building where the shooting was. she was able to get in touch with her through a co-worker`s cell phone to a neighbor, but unable to get text messages or calls right away. a lot of people were texting assured that their family member was safe but still very worried, very nervous, not knowing what was going to happen next. and, you know, there are lots of people on the navy yard, still waiting to be able to go home. and their family members don`t know when they will get to see them next. they can`t drive their car. they don`t have any other way to get home for some of them. so, there is a lot of confusion and a lot of people trying to sort out what exactly took place. o`donnell: the latest update we have from law enforcement sources in washington indicates that they have located the suspect`s rental car in the garage across the street from the building where the shooting occurred. the authorities are in the process of obtaining warrants to search that car and to search the hotel rooms of the suspect and his fellow contractors at the southwest washington, d.c. residents` inn, where those contractors were staying. the same law enforcement sources said that it appeared that alexis entered the building armed and one of the first persons shot was the security guard at the entrance. it is believed that he then took that guard`s side arm and either picked up the assault rifle from a safe or cabinet nearby, or also the guard may also have had a long gun with him. kasie, this is one of the mysteries of the day, is it seems that the shooter ended up with three weapons but probably didn`t start with three weapons. hunt: absolutely. and there`s also been over the course of the day, as you remember questions about how many active shooters there were at any given time. and then you had police even confused, or not necessarily confused but warning the general public and reporters who were gathered outside the scene here that there could be more than one suspect in this case. we have since learned that it was just this, they believe now it was just confined to this one active shooter. we are starting to get some, as you outline, details more of where the guns came from. my colleague michael isikoff points out that a source told him that he would have passed a criminal background check to get the gun that he may have brought on to the premises himself. o`donnell: let`s listen to what the suspect`s brother-in-law said earlier tonight. (begin video clip) anthony little, brother-in-law of alleged gunman: their initial reaction, i was not here for, but when i got here they were very distraught, stressed out, tears. they didn`t see it coming. it`s very hurtful. the hearts are going out more to the victims, the people that got hurt. (end video clip) o`donnell: ginger gibson, i don`t want to read too much into that, but he doesn`t seem completely shocked. i mean, just says didn`t see it coming. but there`s -- i don`t hear a comment there about this is unimaginable. you know, he -- we would think he would never do something like this. gibson: we`re going to be waiting to hear maybe tonight the details of what happened inside that building or in the morning. but the more difficult part and the part we all want to know is why. how did he get to a point where he could do something like this? listening to what the brother had to say. i know there are folks in texas talking to friends, former roommates, co-workers, trying to put together those pieces is going to be difficult to try to grasp. we all want to grasp what would make someone do such a horrific thing. the brother-in-law didn`t seem too surprised but we have to remember, too, that shock is at play here. it`s very difficult to try to put together in such a short amount of time why and how someone could do something like this. o`donnell: we`re joined now by nbc news national investigative correspondent. michael, what is your understanding of the latest version of where we are? michael isikoff, nbc news national investigative correspondent: well, the latest version is, as you just reported, the rental car has been located across the street in the garage. and law enforcement authorities are trying to get the search warrant to search those. but there`s still, you know, the big unanswered question here is why. motive has not yet been established. the closest that i have seen, lawrence, are the interviews with the friends who talk about that he had some sort of beef with the contracting firm that had employed him, didn`t feel he was being paid, and was ticked off at them, and then also had this propensity for violent games, that i think one of his friends or acquaintances described him as obsessed with violent video games. now, we heard that before with adam lanza and the newtown shooting. but, you know, it`s still a far cry from playing those video games to committing an atrocity like this. so, it`s fair to say there`s a lot of unanswered questions. just a couple of points on access to the base. we did get this statement tonight from hewlett-packard confirming that alexis had been employed by a subcontracting firm called the experts, which was part of an hp contract to refresh equipment used on the navy marine corps intranet network. apparently, that involved installing new pcs when they went down and refreshing them, replacing them. but that did apparently give him access to the base and might explain how he got in there in the first place. o`donnell: we`re still waiting for the latest update from a press conference that casey hunt is attending. and, michael, the -- there is information that has been developed now in the last few hours saying that this suspect had been treated multiple times for psychological issues, including sleep deprivation, anger, paranoia. most recently, they said he had been treated at a v.a. hospital in new england, rhode island, possibly massachusetts. so we are still in the process of developing this psychological profile. isikoff: exactly. there is clearly a lot that we don`t know. we do know we found that he had this arrest record. he had been arrested on misdemeanor charges in september of 2010, which is just a few months before his discharge from the navy. it`s worth pointing out that the charges were dropped and they would not have been a barrier to him buying the weapon. we know that he -- or weapons. we know that or believe that he did purchase this shotgun in northern virginia just -- northern virginia, not far from washington d.c. but nothing that we know of in his background would have prevented him from doing that or passing a background check. o`donnell: michael, i have to interrupt you. we are going to a press conference. the mayor is about to speak. mayor vincent gray (d), washington, d.c.: we will follow the same order of presentation that we did earlier. i will be followed by chief lanier, who will be followed by our fbi washington director, and then chief chambers and congresswoman norton. we don`t have a great deal of new information to present to you at this point. i think we mentioned earlier that we had ruled out one of the suspects. no longer being a suspect. we continue to pursue the possibility of there being another shooter. we don`t have any evidence, any indication at this stage that there was yet another shooter even though we haven`t completely ruled that out. that was the person as you probably will recall who was identified as wearing an olive, drab uniform -- somebody around 55 years of age, around 5`10", with graying sideburns. we have not identified that person nor do we have a lot of corroborating evidence. and maybe valerie will talk a little bit about that, too, when she comes up. we don`t know what the motive is at the stage. we were asked earlier if there was likely terrorism involved. we have no indication of that. we haven`t ruled that out. we continue to investigate that. we know that there are 13 fatalities, including the shooter who perished today. we do have more information now on the decedents. their ages are 46 years of age to 73 years of age. the families now are still in the process of being notified. seven families have been notified and the process continues to notify the other six. we don`t know exactly when that process will be completed, but it is continuing now as we speak. i also want to update the issue around injuries. we didn`t have precise numbers earlier. we were using estimates. we now know that there are eight people who incurred one or another kind of injury. of the eight, three were shot. they all are -- that includes officer scott williams who the chief and i just went to visit earlier this evening who is doing well. he is in great spirits. there were two other civilians who were shot and they are relative minor injuries. the other five injuries range anywhere from stress action and someone who fell and had head injury, a contusion chest, arm abrasions and chest pain. so, again, a total of eight injuries, people who were hospitalized as a result of those and there`s absolutely no reason to think that there won`t be fined. one other point before i turn it over to chief lanier. we anticipate tomorrow morning that the traffic patterns will be back to normal in the city. all the bridges will be open, all the streets in the area of the navy yard will be open, even as the investigation, of course, will be continuing tomorrow and the days ahead. again we have been in close contact with the white house. they`ve been a close contact with us and the president has reached out. his staff and the president through them have reached out to connect with us as this process has unfolded throughout the day. so again, this is a horrific tragedy. i want to thank all of the first responders who have done a terrific job dealing with this horrific tragedy. our police officers and various law enforcement agencies that have done a sterling job, and i want to especially thank fire and emergency medical services for the work that they have done today as well. they had obviously many transports that they had to make and they did an extraordinary job doing that. and chief eleve (ph), where are you, chief? i want to thank you for the work that you did today in order to be able to handle that important responsibility. so, with that having been said, let me ask chief lanier to come up and share some things with you -- chief. lanier: thank you. i`ll pick up where the mayor left off. i can`t say enough about the first responders. all the training, exercising and daily interaction that we have here with more than 30 law enforcement agencies of some type in the district. the team work as we hear story after story and having been on the scene and listening to transmissions throughout the course of the day, 24 years doing this in the city. i`m very proud of the team work. the ability to quickly pull together to spare the teams of law enforcement, the heroic efforts, united states park police working with metropolitan police department quickly entering the building along with security from the navy yard, as well as support from partners quickly brought in mutual aid, maryland state and park police helicopters, as well as fairfax, to see three difference jurisdictions had less than 45 minutes to coordinate emergency response, whether it`d be fire, emergency, medical, support from prince gorges county brought to dc fire ems, to medevac support brought in through united states park police and their medevac, just incredible work. united states marshall service entering buildings with teams of mpd. also, ncis who assisted in picking up and carrying an injured police officer out of the building, story after story, we`ve heard from police officers and firefighters just terrific responses and thank you for all of the local and regional partners who responded. i will say metro transit as well. the special recognition that really stepped up today to help us get large numbers of victims and survivors to various places that we needed to transport witnesses, never had to ask for any support. they are always there to provide what we need so we really appreciate the work of metro transit. as of right now with the last outstanding lookout that we had for the potential last person connected to the deceased shooter, that was a lookout we put out for a black male between the ages of 40 and 50 in an olive drab uniform. obviously, we had multiple witness accounts that we were sorting through. we have now exhausted all means that we have available to either support or discount that lookout. and we are comfortable at this point to lift the shelter in place to the residents of the neighborhood. thank them first of all, residents and businesses, for supporting us and sheltering in place for an extended period of time, but we feel comfortable right now that we have exhausted all means to eliminate that possible last suspect. so, we do now feel comfortable that we have the single and sole person responsible for the loss of life inside of the base today. if anything changes, as we continue to go forward we certainly will make that available to the public. but again we are lifting the shelter in place and we appreciate the support from our community members. we will most likely have all of the traffic closures around the area open by 5:00 a.m. for morning commute. but we will make sure that is put out for the public in advance. listen to your local news media before you come to work in the morning. and as of right now, we have, as we go through finalizing next of kin. we have identified one d.c. resident so far that are among the victims. so, in terms of our outreach in local community, our hearts go out to all of the victims certainly and at least one of our victims we have confirmed as a d.c. resident. at this point, we don`t have anything to support that any of the victims so far identified are active duty military. we have civilian and contractors so far that have been identified. we still have some work to do, but no active military have been identified amongst the victims at this point. so, with that, i will turn it over to the assistant director of the fbi, val parlave, and let her update you on their investigation. valerie parlave, fbi: good evening. as we have stated, this continues to be a very active investigation. the fbi`s evidence response teams continue to process the shooting scenes. these teams have special capabilities to include bullet trajectory analysis and crime scene mapping. we continue to follow every lead related to the shootings, to include piecing together the movement and activities of aaron alexis. while we have learned some information about his recent whereabouts, we continue to work to determine where he has been, who he has talked to, and what he has done. this includes determining the origins of the weapons he used, but because this investigation still continues, we will not comment further on the weapons used in today`s shooting. we can confirm, however that mr. alexis had legitimate access to the navy yard as result of his work as a contractor. and he utilized a valid pass to gain entry to the navy yard. we continue to work to identify and locate additional witnesses to today`s events and any individuals who may have information about mr. alexis. we appreciate the information provided so far by the public and we continue to ask for any and all information related to mr. alexis and today`s tragic events. please report this information by calling 1-800- call-fbi. that`s 1-800-225-5324. and we again thank the public for your cooperation and will continue to update you on this investigation as it progresses. thank you. chief teresa chambers, park police: and simply from the united states park police. you heard chief lanier talk about team. we were part of that team this morning. we now have a more subordinate role, but we commit to her and to assistant director parlave and the mayor that we will provide whatever resources available and appropriate to help complete this investigation. thank you. del. eleanor holmes norton (d), washington, dc: thank you more mayor for bringing us to this last report to the city and to the region. as in the beginning, our thoughts are with the victims and their families and they will also be our first thoughts tomorrow when congress reconvenes and i go on the floor to lead moments of silence. we`re not going to be silent about the tragedy that occurred here today. there are many outstanding questions. i would say most of the questions are outstanding. for many of us in this city who have been plagued by gun violence, among them is how someone, whatever his badge, managed to get a high powered gun into one of the most secure facilities in the district of columbia. i`m sure the navy will be doing its own investigation. tomorrow i will be working with others to get an independent investigation of what occurred here. i`m very, very proud and very grateful for the federal and d.c. police who responded so promptly. they have made the district of columbia since 9/11, the most protected and secure city in the united states. but we do not fool ourselves. we understand that in an open and democratic and free society, you cannot make yourselves impenetrable, especially when there are more guns than there are people in the united states today. we take very seriously security at one of our most secure facilities is penetrated and where the security is breached. but we also regard the naval sea system command as a neighbor, a part of this residential mixed use neighborhood. and we like it that way. i appreciate -- continue to appreciate the banquet room they built so that they could accommodate residents. and i`ll be working with the navy and the naval sea system command to maintain the relationship with the neighborhood while shoring up the security here in the neighborhood and at the facility. thank you very much. gray: all right. we will take a few questions. reporter: question to the special agent in charge, can you just characterize the (inaudible) parlave: there is still quite a bit of work left to do inside, processing the scene. i would expect them to be there for the next couple of days finishing up. it took us a while to clear the building with our tactical teams and they haven`t actually been in there that long, processing the evidence on scene. so, i would say, you know, 48 hours wouldn`t be unreasonable. reporter: there are a lot of people still left in there, the navy yard? parlave: i believe most of the people who were alive have been cleared from the navy yard. reporter: all civilians and contractors were among casualties. do you have any belief that the shooter was intentionally avoiding shooting military personnel? parlave: we have no information right now as to motive. reporter: the congresswoman was talking about bringing a high powered weapon into the building, into the yard. is there any sense that the suspect was able to lift any of the weapons off of the victims? parlave: that is part of the ongoing investigation and i can`t comment on that. reporter: there have been reports that a rental car has been found near the scene that belong to the gunman. can you confirm? parlave: we are processing vehicle at the scene related to the shooting. reporter: are there reports of other officers injured in the navy guards on base or park place -- lanier: we do have one park officer with injuries, not a gun shot injury, but other related injuries to the incident. i believe we do have one contract, i believe contract security working with the naval district of washington. we will confirm as we go forward, but i do believe we do have at least one. (inaudible) lanier: he`s in very good spirits. his family is here, parents, brothers and sisters. he has been on the department 23, almost 24 years. in fact, came on right about the time i did. we worked together for many, many years. he is a k-9 officer. he`s in very good spirits. he`s got a pretty serious injury, but right now, his family is here with him and he is in good spirits. the mayor was up visiting with him as well and he was certainly very complimentary of the partner agencies who helped to get him out of the building and d.c. fire and ems helped to get him medical attention that he needed. he is just very grateful for all the other responders that helped to get him out of the building and get him the medical attention he needed. but great police officer. i have known him for most of his 23 years and he`s got a stellar record. reporter: chief, why did you think there was a second shooter and why is that not so? lanier: well, obviously, the more information that we can put out, as time goes on. but we always err on the side of caution through conglomeration of witness victim interviews, some camera views. there was potential that there could have been other shooters involved and we believed that the best action for us to take was to make sure our community was safe first. and we weeded through that information, secondly. we certainly want to clear the community as quickly as possible but we would rather err on the side of caution so we did that. and we have spent the last several hours trying to go through everything possible to make sure that we were 100 percent comfortable that we had cleared that information and get it out as quickly as possible. so, again, sometimes we ask for a little bit of patience from our community but our goal is to make sure that everybody is safe and that there is no additional harm. and that`s our goal, no addition harm once we arrive on the scene. gray: last question, last question. reporter: at one point (inaudible) lanier: no, there will be a press release put out following this event. i believe that is already completed. so, those victims that have been identified, confirmed and notified will release that following. this press briefing, i believe it is here with us so we can hand that out. and as the next of kin are notified, we`ll put out the remainder. gray: thank you all very much. o`donnell: michael isikoff, so there we have the investigation conclusion at this stage that the suspect that was killed today is as the police chief put it, the single and sole person responsible. isikoff: right. and one piece of new information that is worth noting here is that he did have a valid pass and legitimate access to the navy yard in his capacity as a contractor. and what is interesting about that, lawrence, he was working, according to the statement we got from hewlett packard on this navy marine corps intranet network, which is a clues network, which does suggest that there would classified work involved. and in order to do that, the presumption would be, he would have to have some sort of security clearance and have undergone some sort of background check. now, we have not confirmed what level that is or what sort of background checking underwent. but to work on a closed military network like that would normally require that kind of clearance, some sort of clearance. so, i think there is g to be an addition to the questions that congresswoman norton raised about the billing to purchase the weapon. and as i put it up before, we have no felony conviction that we know of in his background. there is, i think additional questions about what sort of background check he underwent to get this job. o`donnell: michael isikoff, thanks very much for joining us tonight. isikoff: thank you. o`donnell: coming up, the chief medical officer of the hospital that took in the wounded joins me. and who the extraordinary press conference today, dr. janis orlowski forced us to think about why these kinds of shootings keep happening in america. (commercial break) (begin video clip) doctor janis orlowski, chief medical officer, medstar washington: i`m doctor janis orlowski. i`m the chief medical officer at medstar washington hospital center. i`m here to give you an update regarding the three individuals brought to the hospital center. (end video clip) o`donnell: the doctor orlowski was then able to announce that the three shooting victims her team was treating are all going to recover including the police officer who was shot multiple times. then 15 minutes later in that press conference, in a response to a question about the hospital`s experience treating gunshot victims, dr. orlowski said this. (begin video clip) orlowski: we see a lot of trauma and, you know, sometimes it`s just accidents that occur. and then you see what i call senseless trauma. and there is something evil in our society that we as americans have to work to try to eradicate. i have to say i may see this every day. i may, you know, be the chief medical officer of a very large trauma center, but there is something wrong here when we have these multiple shootings, these multiple injuries, there is something wrong. and the only thing that i can say is we have to work together to get rid of it. i would like you to put my trauma center out of business. i really would. it`s a great city. it`s a great country and we have to work together to get rid of this because we just cannot have one, you know, more shooting with, you know, so many people killed. we have got figure this out. we have got to be able to help each other. it`s a challenge to all of us. let`s get rid of this. this is not america. this is not washington d.c. this is not good. (end video clip) o`donnell: joining me now from medstar washington hospital, dr. janis orlowski. thank you very much, dr. orlowski, for staying up late on this very long day to join us now. your know, your comment there towards the end of your press conference really captured the nation`s attention today beyond the very helpful information that you gave about your patients. it sounds like it is a truly wearisome duty that you have there, processing a of these gunshot victims not just today but washington d.c. in and out of that hospital. orlowski: well, i think it is. the recorder asked me a question. she said we know you to be a great trauma center. we know that you are taking care of victims, but is there something different about today? and i think that i spoke not only as a physician as the chief medical officer, but i spoke as a mother, as someone who is in this community and it is not only weary. i have to say that i worry about this. i worry about our community. mass murders, people walking through schools, people walking through movie theaters, people walking through workplaces. unfortunately it is common or more common than what it should be. and i think that i spoke from the heart when i said we have got to work together as a community to stop this. o`donnell: you are certainly in emergency medicine doing your end of this terrible task. but does it feel at the end of this task that society, that government that we are in fact not coming together as you said we must in order to minimize how much of this burden we are sending into our hospitals? orlowski: i think that there is much more that we can be doing and that we should be doing. we have multiple mass murders throughout the united states. we have individuals who some of them we know needed mental health care. a number of them could have been identified. i think that we just as you would see anyone who is bleeding on the street to call 911, i think we he to be able to identify and help those individuals who suffer other illnesses that make them act in this way. i believe that it`s not just rage. i believe that it`s not just anger. i believe that it is an illness. so, it`s an evilness to have someone raise arms against their fellow man. it`s wrong. we need to work to eradicate it. and whether it`s more support, more mental health, whether it is programs to help individuals, i spoke frankly when i said to the country and to the people who were listening we h
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