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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Gunman May Have Been Casing Other Locations; The Gunman's Vantage Point; Mom of Aurora Victim on Vegas Shooting. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired October 05, 2017 - 20:00   ET

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

[20:00:04] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Good evening.

Tonight, we have new information in the Russia investigation involving the former British spy who wrote the now infamous dossier about Russian efforts to help the Trump campaign. We've learned that that former spy has met with investigators from special counsel Robert Mueller's team. We're gong to have much more in that coming up.

But we begin with the other investigation into the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history ongoing right now. Now, we still don't know why the shooter killed 58 people as if a question could ever have any real answer. But we are getting more information, including that he may been casing other locations.

Our senior national correspondent Alex Marquardt joins us now from Las Vegas with the latest.

So, what information do you have about these other possible locations?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, we know that there were at least two. One here in Las Vegas, the other in Chicago.

We know that the shooter just under two weeks ago rented a room at the Ogden Hotel that overlooks the Life is Beautiful Festival. That's a huge festival, much bigger than the Route 91 Harvest Festival that the gunman eventually attacked. It had around 100,000 people attending it. It had huge acts like Lorde and Chance the Rapper. We know thankfully nothing happened over that weekend of September 22nd.

We are also learning that someone by the same name as the shooter rented a hotel room overlooking Chicago's Grant Park in August, the same time that the Lollapalooza Music Festival was going on. We don't know if it's the same person. They just happened to have the same name. That person never showed up, but it certainly is chilling to think that the shooter might have been going around casing and scouting out all these different music venues.

COOPER: In terms of the investigation, has there been any more said about the note that appears in the photograph in the hotel room?

MARQUARDT: Right. In that photograph, very clearly, there was a note that was left. The only thing that we know from the police yesterday, they haven't even given a press conference today was that it's not a suicide note. When the coroner was asked about it, the coroner's office said they don't have any more information about how the shooter died. That as part of the ongoing investigation.

We do know that the shooter died of a self-inflicted wound, but we are also being told by the police that the plan might not have been to initially commit suicide in that hotel room up there on the 32nd floor but rather to try to escape alive.

COOPER: The FBI has been pretty tight lipped about what they learned from interviewing the girlfriend. Have any new details come up?

MARQUARDT: Very tight lipped. They're really not saying anything.

We do know that Marilou Danley, the girlfriend of the shooter, came back to the U.S. from the Philippines. She is now in Los Angeles being questioned by the FBI.

She told the FBI that she had been sent overseas by her boyfriend, the shooter, to visit her family, that he had sent her money to buy herself and her family a home in the Philippines, and she took that as an indication that he might be breaking up with her. But she denies knowing about this massacre. She said in a statement: He never said anything to me or took any act that I was aware of that I understood in any way to be a warning that something horrible is going to happen.

So, a little indication right now, Anderson, that we're any closer to learning of the motive of the shooter.

COOPER: Alex, appreciate that.

Authorities have laid out a timeline for what happened on Sunday night, showing that Police first breached the gunman's suite an hour and 15 minutes after he started shooting. But long after he had actually stopped shooting as the investigation continues. We want to know to take a look at how the shooter's vantage point on the 32nd floor may have played into the way things happened.

Brian Todd tonight has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIANN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The one thing Las Vegas police say they are convinced of in this investigation is that the gunman's horrific attack on the Route 91 Country Music Festival was a very meticulously planned assault.

SHERIFF JOSEPH LOMBARDO, LAS VEGAS METROPOLITAN POLICE: The man who spent decades acquiring weapons and ammo and giving a secret life.

TODD: That planning, experts say, began with a sniper's nest he selected at the Mandalay Bay and the targets he chose below.

CNN got access to a room at the Mandalay Bay Hotel, two floors up from the shooters with a similar view. From the room, you can see the shooters broken hotel window, his line of sight to the concert venue.

JOHN SHEAHAN, FORMER LAS VEGAS SWAT TEAM MEMBER: This is my first time being up here, and looking at this. And to me, it's very eerie. TODD: John Sheahan is a retired Las Vegas police sergeant, who spent

13 years on the SWAT team. From this vantage point, he says he has a clearer picture of the shooters tactics and his planning, including choosing a high room at the end of a hallway.

SHEAHAN: He requested an east-facing room. He requested an east facing room because if we pan over, we look to the east of where his room is. Let's look. The tower is over there. There is the room that he shot from. And now we pan east and we look, and there is no way to get a counter sniper, a SWAT sniper up at a level position to be able to effectively take this man out.

TODD (on camera): And firing from a room like the one we're in, if you knock out this window and fire toward him, that doesn't work.

SHEAHAN: We still wouldn't be able to see him more than likely because we're not seeing deep enough into the room and only when he fires will we be able to see him.

[20:05:03] TODD: Sheahan says the choice of the room put the SWAT team at a disadvantage, one multiplied by the fact that he blocked the stairwell door and wired the hallway with cameras so he could see a security guard and later, police approaching.

SHEAHAN: Because of his countermeasures placed in the peephole and in the hallway, he observed the security guard and he was in fear that he was about to be breached. So, he was doing everything possible to figure out how he could escape at that point.

TODD: But Sheahan says if the shooter could have gotten away, is it wouldn't have been for very long.

SHEAHAN: There's one of three ways it's going to end for an active shooter and they pretty much all know this. You're either going to commit suicide, you're going to die in a hail of gunfire with the police. You're going to shoot it out with them and you're going to be killed. Or you're going to continue on a preplanned rampage at locations B, C, D and E until the police finally stop you.

TODD (on camera): So, you don't believe escape meant escape for good, just to --

SHEAHAN: Brian, how could it? How could it? Because he rented the room in his own name. He's already on video coming in and out. We know who he is.

He's going to be the most wanted man in the world if he does try to leave here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Brian joins me now.

What are the specific indications you're getting from law enforcement about why the shooter may have wanted to try to escape from the room? TODD: Well, Anderson, they're giving indications regarding the

material in the shooter's car and that gives you a sense that he may have wanted to continue his rampage. Police say that he left 50 pounds of explosives and 1,600 rounds of ammunition in his vehicle.

Now, that former SWAT team member we spoke to, John Sheahan, says that tells him that this gunman likely intended to continue his rampage at her locations and maybe plan to be taken out by police at some later time.

COOPER: Brian Todd, fascinating report. I appreciate it.

Joining me now are CNN law enforcement analyst and former U.S. Marshals assistant director, Art Roderick, CNN counterterrorism analyst, Philip Mudd, formerly of the FBI and CIA, and forensic psychologist Kris Mohandie.

Phil, what do you make of that note? I mean, the police are saying they don't believe it's a suicide note.

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Well, they know what the because they've read it. Look at a couple of characteristics here. One is how meticulous he was in his gambling habits. We've seen his family talking about how he played the odds all the time in life. Someone who is fastidious about determining what the odds are in the slots.

Same thing with the preparation for this event. He's got the cameras in the hallway. He's got a variety of weapons. He's got angles in the room that were preordained to ensure that he had the right access to the venue.

This is a guy who goes from A to B to C and never skips a step. My point is I think what is in that note is not a suicide note. It's something related to his operational plan to ensure he stayed on plan, including potentially maybe he's saying this is how I execute the operation and this is how I get out.

This is a guy who steps through every piece of the operation, maybe writes it down to ensure he doesn't forget a step.

COOPER: Art, though, I mean, just the planning of this, you know, this is not a guy who has extensive military training or anything.

ART RODERICK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Right.

COOPER: You know, Phil during the break was saying he'd like to see his Google searches, which is something the FBI has access to. I mean, you wonder how did he learn how to do all of this stuff.

RODERICK: I would also like to see his library, not only Google searches, but his library, to see what books he's been reading because when you look at that position that he set up in that room, that's a shooting, a sniper's post, and he stayed far enough back from the room. If you watch that video that we've all seen, you cannot see any muscle flashes coming out of that window which means he was far enough back that the muzzle flashes could not be seen.

And that's what snipers do. It's not just that you're a good shot. It's where you pick your spot to shoot from so that you can't be detected.

The other scary thing is, what's he doing with those explosives in his vehicle? Did he plan on shooting that? We don't exactly know where the vehicle was positioned, but I talked to some people today that are explosives and ordnance experts and they told me that just that 50 pounds of Tannerite would have created a good size crater.

Now, add that on and we haven't heard how much of that ammonium nitrate was there, but that would have triggered that ammonium nitrate and the 1,600 rounds. That would have created quite an explosion and something that would have distracted everybody from what he was doing.

COOPER: Which, I mean, the Columbine killers had planned to have explosions going off as well as a distraction, whether that's --

RODERICK: San Bernardino, too. Remember all the pipe bombs they had there, too. So --

COOPER: Yes.

Kris, I mean, authorities have also said they believe the shooter intended to survive, doing everything he could to see how he could escape. Does that offer you any insight into this person's mindset? Or how does that impact the investigation?

KRIS MOHANDIE, FORENSIC PYSCHOLOGIST: You know, I don't think he really had any plans on ultimately surviving. I agree with the other opinions that there's only three different ways these things end, either an immediate suicide, a suicide by cop or, you know, eventually it's all going to come apart in some sort of hail of gunfire.

I believe that this goes a lot deeper, though, than, you know, current events and planning. I mean, he was 13 years old when the Texas Tower sniper event happened.

[20:10:03] He would have been very impacted by that. I think he's got a long-standing history of fantasizing about this stuff, and I think it goes all the way back to August 1st of 1966, probably his first thoughts about it honestly.

COOPER: Which is really the only other time that law enforcement has had to deal with a -- I mean, kind of a sniper shooting down from this high vantage point, right?

RODERICK: Exactly, yes.

MUDD: I mean, you look at this, there are elements of this that we're talking about and I think that Texas Tower comment is critical, that are important from an investigative standpoint, and that is that the key question of whether someone knows something that's materially relevant to the investigation, all the public commentary is, how do we not know what motivated at him? I'm looking at this saying, let me get this straight, someone participated in culture. He had a girlfriend. He was in contact with his family. He had a successful business life.

Over the course of months, he acquires weapons, in years, weapons. He looks at separate targets. He looks at how to employ these kind of tactics to successfully kill this many people. The likelihood that one is spending that amount of time contacting that number of people with all the information we are seeing about everything from Chicago to Las Vegas and nobody knows anything about motivation -- I'm going to tell you one thing, Anderson, FBI is already seeing information about motivation because of the variety of contacts he had overtime. They're just not talking to us about it.

COOPER: You're saying there's no doubt somebody else had some sort of window into or hints of what was happening.

MUDD: That's right. I think the questions have been too quickly on the girlfriend, does she know something or is she complicit in the attack? There's a middle ground. Over the course of six years, did he say something that gave an indication about changing mindset and the answer is got to be yes.

COOPER: I mean, anybody that's involved with somebody for a longer time, I mean, she must know at the very least whether or not she knew anything about the specific planning, about grudges he held or opinions he held or fantasies he had or whatever.

RODERICK: I mean, he purchased these 33 firearms --

MUDD: All of that.

RODERICK: -- since October of last year. So I mean, he -- he was doing a lot of things in that time frame. He was buying ammonium nitrate. He was getting Tannerite. She had to know something.

COOPER: Chris, do you agree with that, whether it's the specific plot whether she knew that or not.

MOHANDIE: Right.

COOPER: But just having spent years with this person, you get a sense of oh, this person has a grudge against, you know, whatever it may be.

MOHANDIE: Exactly. There will be grudges that she and other people will be aware of, things that he fantasized about, ideas that he was sympathetic to, who he identified with, how he viewed his own father being on the run, for example. There's going to be all these different pieces that are being put together by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. It's just going to take them a little bit of time to assemble, you know, a variety of different information from different sources.

But I agree. I believe that the motivation will become apparent and they're working on it and it will eventually come out.

COOPER: I want to thank everybody on the panel. Among the heroes on the night of the shooting, hospital doctors and

nurses that are still right now working tirelessly to keep alive those in their care who are wounded in the shooting. An update next from one hospital.

Also, Tropical Storm Nate heading toward the Gulf could soon hit hurricane status. A state of emergency declared in several locations. We'll show you how big, how powerful and where in the U.S. this storm may be headed. Answers from the weather center ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:17:08] COOPER: The families of the 58 people killed in Las Vegas are the newest members of a growing group that no one should ever have to be in -- people whose loved ones were murdered in a mass shooting in America.

In a moment, we're going to hear from Sandy Phillips. Her 24-year-old daughter, Jessica Ghawi, was one of the 12 people who were killed in a shooting a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, five years ago. Jessi, as her mom called her, was finishing her college degree looking for a job interview and for her mother to come visit. She called her mom her best friend.

After the shooting that killed Jessi, I spoke with brother Jordan Ghawi, and he made a pointed about the names we remember and the ones that we don't. I think it's such an important point. I want to play you what Jordan said to me just days after the shooting in July of 2012.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JORDAN GHAWI, SISTER WAS KILLED IN AURORA SHOOTING: I want the word out about my sister, her life and what happened as soon as possible, but I also don't want the media to be saturated with the shooter's name. The more air time these victims have, the less time the man gets his two seconds on television. I want the victims to be remembered rather than this coward.

COOPER: I think you raise such an important point. And, I mean, I said it just actually about 10 minutes ago, I really don't even want to use this guy's name very much because I just don't think it should be known a month from now, you know, a week from now or even tomorrow. I think it should be forgotten.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: And since then we've had a policy of not naming the shooter since Jordan opened my eyes to that idea. Jessica's life was cut short. Her mom Sandy Phillips has become an activist in the fight against gun violence and meets with victims' families.

I spoke with her earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) COOPER: Sandy, the people you're talking to, the people who have lost lived ones, at this stage do they realize how their lives have forever changed now?

SANDY PHILLIPS, DAUGHTER JESSI WAS KILLED IN AURORA SHOOTING: Absolutely not. They're in shock. They don't understand how this could have happened, not only to them but how this could have happened where they were in the city they were in, the country that they live in. They're totally baffled and in total shock.

COOPER: I think one of the things that's so important about what you do not only as sort of, you know, as a voice from somebody who has experienced this firsthand with the murder of your daughter, of Jessica, but to kind of give them a sense of what to expect, not just in the coming days but in the coming weeks and months and years, because it's often -- I feel like adrenalin sort of gets people through the first couple of days, but once they go back home and their loved one is gone and, you know, their friends gradually go back to their lives and the world continues to spin forward, that they're left with a completely different life.

PHILLIPS: Totally different life. And you're right. They go home and quite often, they lose friends. Some of us even lose family members that don't want to be close to us anymore because we're totally new people.

[20:20:03] And that again, it confuses them. They don't know what to do. They don't know how to be with us. So, we know that this is a family that these people have joined and they don't know it. It's a family of survivors across the nation that are always there for them.

COOPER: You know, I met your son Jordan in the wake of Aurora and it was really Jordan who sort of opened my eyes to this notion of not naming the killers, and not giving them the attention that so many of them want. And in fact, we should remember the names of your daughter, Jessica Ghawi, and the names of people whose lives were taken as opposed to the person who took those lives.

Can you just explain to people why that is so important to you?

PHILLIPS: Well, first of all, I remember the day of our shooting, and I remember turning on CNN and seeing the killer's face and his name and the face and the name and the face and the name over and over and over again. And it was so traumatizing and re-victimizing.

So, then, we met with the FBI and the FBI told us about their program of don't name them. And in the meantime, Jordan had challenged you, can you get through the interview without naming the killer or showing his face.

And I think when the media understands that when you do keep reinforcing the name and the picture, that you're hurting anyone who is in that theater or on the grounds of this concert. You're re- victimizing those people and you're also contributing to the contagion effect that the next mass killer is watching and learning. So, we're very proud of the no notoriety and the work that Jordan started and Karen and Tom Teeves (ph) have continued and Lonnie and I support.

But we're very, very grateful, Anderson, for your support on that and how you every time you follow no notoriety rules. And that's a real crowning achievement to all of us that work with victims and survivors.

COOPER: Well, I certainly hope that it's something that more people take up and more people in this business take up, because it just -- I don't know, to me, it just seems to obvious once Jordan said to me. You know, I don't know, it's changed -- it's changed the way I think about this and approach it.

What do you -- what else do you want people to know about what these families are going through and what they face and what you're doing right now?

PHILLIPS: Well, a lot of the victims and survivors from other mass shootings have put together a fund that's called the National Compassion Fund and that fund has over 120 other victims and survivors from other mass shootings that signed on to make sure that when funds are being collected, that they're not going to other charities, that they're actually going to have money collected for the victims and survivors and given to the victims and survivors.

So, we've had that work at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando. We've had it work in Chattanooga and we've only been doing this for a short time, only a few years. And now, we believe we're the only victims- sourced charity in the country that makes sure that a 100 percent of the funds that are collected go back to the victims and survivors because they have so much that they're facing.

COOPER: How do people donate to it?

PHILLIPS: They can go right to the National Compassion Fund and donate directly to it. There's also a GoFundMe page here in Las Vegas, Las Vegas GoFundMe, and they have already agreed that every penny they collect, they will put into the National Compassion Fund.

COOPER: Sandy, it's such an honor to talk to you. And keep in touch with Jordan and I have since Aurora. I'm so happy to finally talk to you face-to-face and I wish you the best.

PHILLIPS: Thank you so much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Head to the nationalcompassionfund.org which helps the victims of the survivors of those who lost their lives in Las Vegas and other mass shootings.

There has been so much focus on the timeline, just how long did the shooter take to plan this horrific act, we're learning new details tonight from someone who spoke to the gunman just two months before the attack.

Kyung Lah joins us now with that part of the story. So, I understand you spoke with the shooters -- someone who knew the shooter.

KYUNG LANG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Someone who cut his hair, and she has not spoken out publicly before. This is the very first time we're hearing from Kallie Beig. She is a woman who was a hairdresser at Great Clips in Mesquite, Nevada.

[20:25:01] That is where the gunman had his primary residence.

She says between 2015 and 2017, she did cut his hair. He came in three different times. Other people in the salon did see him there and they confirmed that Kallie Beig is indeed his hairdresser.

Two months before the rampage is the very last time she saw him. And she says that the visits weren't particularly remarkable. She didn't see any red flags. She did find him to be memorable in part because of that last visit. Again, two months before the rampage, he told her that he was planning on sending his girlfriend to the Philippines and he was going to be alone.

Here is what he told her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: Do you remember the last time you saw him?

KALLIE BEIG, SHOOTER'S HAIRDRESSER: Yes. Yes. The last time I saw him was probably only two months ago. It was just about two months ago. He came in and he got his haircut and again smelled of alcohol, and his girlfriend was with him, and again, just kind of doing her thing.

And he sat down and was telling me about her leaving to go to the Philippines and he was going to be home alone hanging out for a while by myself. But, you know, it wasn't -- it wasn't anything weird or it wasn't anything that seemed off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: You know how intimate your relationship is with your hairdresser and how close they get to you.

Beig says that when she put the cape around him just before the haircut, those three times that he came she noticed that he smelled of alcohol, strong alcohol. She thought it was whiskey. He came when the salon opened between 8:00 and 9:00 in the morning each of those times.

And that he told her he had been up gambling all night at one of the local casinos and he also brought his girlfriend, but she characterized their relationship, Anderson, as being quite cold, being distant. She didn't see them interacting in any intimate sort of way, like you would normally see couples, Anderson.

COOPER: You know, one of the hospitals where victims were taken on Sunday. Do we know how many people are still in critical condition?

LAH: Well, we can tell you that the very latest from the hospital is 45 people remain in the hospital, 23 in critical condition.

But I want to put those numbers into context for you, Anderson. At the time that this rampage happened, 200 people, almost 200 people came to this hospital. So, we're seeing a good portion of them home tonight, sent back to their families to try this very long process of recovery.

COOPER: Yeah. Long road ahead for many.

Kyung Lah, thanks very much.

Up next, we have more breaking news. President Trump making some comments from the White House with military leaders by his side. What he could have meant by the calm before the storm.

Plus, new details on the Russia investigation. The special counsel team has met with the author of the dossier containing some of the most salacious allegations of contact -- allegations of contact between Trump campaign associates and Russian operatives. What they discovered, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:31:58] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news tonight at reception for top military officials at White House President Trump made some ominous remarks potentially. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You guys know what this represents? (INAUDIBLE) Maybe it's the calm before the storm.

REPORTER: What's the storm?

TRUMP: Could be the calm before the storm.

REPORTER: From Iran? On ISIS? What storm, Mr. President?

TRUMP: We have the world's great military people in this room, I will tell you that. And, uh, we're going to have a great evening. Thank you all for coming.

REPORTER: What storm Mr. President?

TRUMP: You'll find out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Wow. CNN'S Ryan Nobles joins us now from the White House. Is the White House said anything more about what the President means?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: No, they haven't, Anderson, and we've reached out to a number of White House official tonight to try and get some clarity is, to exactly what the President was talking about. When he talks about this "calm before the storm" and then suggests that we'll ultimately find out what he's talking about.

Of course, there are a number of global threats around the world that this administration is dealing with. There's obviously the situation in North Korea, the growing threat of ISIS and then there is the situation with Iran where the White House is signaling that it is prepared to decertify the nuclear agreement with that country that was hatched during the Obama administration, which would essentially send the decision back to the Congress.

But Anderson, frankly, we don't know if one of those particular issues, of all of those issues, if another issue that we're not even thinking about is what the President was alluding to tonight. But it's important to point that he made these comments right after a lengthy dinner with most important military leaders in the United States.

COOPER: Yes. And other option, of course, is he was just speaking off top of his head and has no meaning.

The President also tonight at that event -- I understand he admonished his commanders, saying he wants the military plans faster than he's getting them now?

NOBLES: Yes, that's right. That actually happened in the video spray that took place before the dinner began. And that's where the President essentially looked around the room and told his generals, you know that I want to have military plans in my hands quicker than what I'm getting right now.

He also told them that they, of course, need to deal with the bureaucracy of the government but they have to overcome that bureaucracy to get him those plans. And that was kind of a remarkable statement for the President to make in front of these generals in public on camera to essentially admonish them and tell them that they're not giving him those military plans fast enough.

The President wants those on this desk sometime in as little as week so they can make this important decisions but it's also important to point out, Anderson, that he said many times before that he doesn't want to tip his hand to the enemy, which could also be part of what he was talking about tonight.

COOPER: Yes, it's like reading tea leaves. Ryan Nobles, thanks very much.

Now, to our breaking news in the Russian investigation, tonight source has tell CNN that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators met with the British spy who wrote the Russia dossier. That document, allege effects to aid the Trump campaign months of investigation is going to play the Trump administration.

Evan Perez joins us now with more on that. He broke the story, along with (INAUDIBLE) and Pamela Brown. So what's the deal on this? What have you learned?

[20:35:00] EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, we've learned that investigators working with Special Counsel Robert Mueller met this summer with Christopher Steele. Steele, as you remember is the former MI6 officer who put together what many now called the dossier, which is really a series of memos detailing alleged efforts to help Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

Steele was hired by a Washington firm paid first by anti-Trump Republican and then Democrats. The Special Counsel of course, is now trying to determine whether any of the series of contacts between Trump campaign associates and suspected Russian operatives broke U.S. law.

We don't know what information Steele may have provided to Mueller's team but we know that Steele previously has provided the FBI with information to try to verify some of the sources that he used to put together this dossier. Some of the more salacious allegations in the dossier haven't been verified but it's broad assertion that Russia waged the campaign to interfere in the election is now accepted as fact by the U.S. Intelligence Community.

COOPER: Yes, there's certainly a lot of question about how legitimate the information in the dossier was, particularly the salacious stuff. What are you hearing about how it was viewed in the intelligence community?

PEREZ: Well, that's right. Late last year, we're told that top officials at the FBI, the CIA and the Director of National Intelligence actually discussed including parts of the dossier, the Steele dossier in the official intelligence document on Russian meddling.

Sources talk to us about this and said that the Intelligence Community didn't want to include it because they didn't want to explain what parts of the dossier that actually been able to corroborate. They're also concerned about revealing sources and methods that they have used to do this. Then the FBI Director James Comey was actually worried that the FBI alone presented the dossier allegations, then the new President-elect would view that information as an attempt by FBI to hold leverage over him.

Now, as we know, when Comey briefed Trump in January, that's exactly what ended up happened. President Trump later told the New Times in July that he thought Comey was trying to holding the dossier as leverage over him. Anderson.

COOPER: Yes. Evan Perez, thanks very much to that update. When we come back, the incredible story of an off-duty firefighter who was shot in Las Vegas continued to help others even as he was bleeding. I spent some time with him and his family in the hospital with week. We'll bring you that story, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[30:41:03] TRUMP: We've been talking about the tragedy in Las Vegas and once again I want to focus on the victims, on the innocent lives lost and on the survivors, many of who are going to live with life- long injuries, daily reminders of a night that should have been filled with country melodies instead of gunfire.

Here is the story of one of those injured victims of firefighter, a survivor who kept helping others even after he was shot.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (on camera): So how are you doing?

KURT FOWLER, INJURED IN LAS VEGAS SHOOTING: I'm actually doing pretty well under the circumstances. I would have to say that I'm doing really well mostly because of I've been raised up by outpouring of my firefighter family.

COOPER (voice-over): Kurt Fowler is lucky to be alive. He is a firefighter from Lake Havasu, Nevada. He was at the concert of Sunday night with his wife, Trina and his brother-in-law, Travis and other family members and friends.

When firing started, Kurt jumped on Trina, shielding her with his body, that's when he got hit.

K. FOWLER: I got shot, and I told my wife, we've been hit, we have to go. You have to go, you have to run, run, and you have to get all the way out of here. And then, I'll do what I have to do. That's really --

TRINA FOWLER, HUSBAND WAS INJURED IN LAS VEGAS SHOOTING: Hardest thing to do.

K. FOWLER: It's really hard for her to leave me but we have three kids. And somebody has to make sure they get out, all the way out. So I'm sure it was hard for her to leave me and anybody else behind.

COOPER (on camera): It's impossible choice to she has to make.

K. FOWLER: Yes.

T. FOWLER: I knew -- yes, I knew that if he was not going to make it because I didn't know, that my kids needed a parent.

COOPER: That's what went through your mind?

T. FOWLER: That's exactly what went through my mind. I was like, my only focus was my kids. It was all I could think about it. I mean, when I got to that truck, I just -- I felt -- I made it. I made it. My kids are going to have me and I was thinking about him and I didn't have a phone and I was separated what seemed like eternity.

COOPER (voice-over): Kurt told family got separated during the chaos and Kurt found himself alone with serious gunshot wound to his leg.

K. FOWLER: After we got Trina moving and got on her way, again bodies everywhere, I made my way over bodies and when I stood up, my foot was gone. I was -- I mean tibia and fibula were completely shattered. I had to crawl over mounds of people that we either too frightened to move or had already passed on. And I had to go over them. At that point I have to go save my life.

COOPER (on camera): You're losing blood.

K. FOWLER: I have to go and save my life. So I made it under the sound stage. And immediately got somebody, good samaritan, that take off their shirt and I explained to him we had to make a tourniquet, tourniquet my leg and stop the bleeding.

COOPER: You had the presence of mind to give instructions about how to?

K. FOWLER: Absolutely. You know, that's just training kicks in. And I mean, I try to explain to everybody under there they needed to be quiet and calm down, you know, so we could hear what was going on.

COOPER (voice-over): Trina's brother Travis was helping the wounded elsewhere, there were no ambulances to be found so he was loading the injured onto pick-up trucks to go to hospital. He had no idea his brother-in-law Kurt had been shot.

COOPER (on camera): How did you find him?

TRAVIS HOLDEN, RESCUED INJURED FROM LAS VEGAS SHOOTING: I looked up and see Kurt in back of the truck.

COOPER: No kidding?

HOLDEN: Yes. And I just --

COOPER: You had no idea that, that's Kurt?

HOLDEN: No, and I just -- he looked calm. I didn't know he was shot. I thought, he's a firefighter, this is makeshift ambulance. Like he's taking everybody to the hospital and he going to help and I just kind of ran over and give him a hug real quick and said I got to go. And he said you're doing good and just -- I ran back out, and we loaded someone else up onto a white truck right behind the truck he was on.

COOPER: Did you think about the danger?

HOLDEN: When that stuff happens, you don't. I mean, I told everybody, yes, your family and everyone close to you to safety and then you start thinking about everybody else. I mean, you see everybody on the ground that's been shot and your senses is kick in that you got to get them to safety. I mean, it's not of an -- you don't think about it. It's just what you do.

[20:45:18] You know, and we saved as many as we could, you know. And it's tough. But I'm telling you amount of goodness that you saw in people, I mean, that's America, you know, like that's true Americans going in and doing whatever you could.

COOPER (voice-over): Kurt's hospital room is filled with family and friends. Matt Ferris, a former firefighter brought a guitar to play music to them all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

The road ahead is long but Kurt and Trina's three kids are close by their side, they have each other. Survivors of a tragedy that almost tore them apart. As we said, Kurt has long road to recovery in front of him, his firefighter friends set up GoFundMe page, you see the web address in the bottom of the screen there. The money will help with his medical expenses. He doesn't know if he'll be back to work in six months or six years but he's determined to make it back to work. He has more surgeries likely on the way.

Up next, tropical storm Nate threatening to intensifying to a hurricane, strike the U.S. gulf coast. Several state issue state of emergency. We're going to check in with our Weather Center for the latest on the storm's path.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:50:37] COOPER: Breaking news tonight, the entire state of Louisiana along with Alabama, parts of Florida, and the city of Biloxi, Mississippi are under a state of emergency as tropical storm Nate takes aim at the U.S. gulf coastline. Nate could intensify to a hurricane.

Tonight, more than 100 oil and natural gas production platforms have been evacuated in the Gulf of Mexico. Our meteorologist Tom Sater joins us now from Weather Center. So what's the latest for forecast for the storm? Where is it expected?

TOM SATER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, right now it's over land and has been for most of the day, Anderson. In Central American but it's going to be moving into the gulf, and once it gets there, it's going to hit something. Here's the problem, last month, the month of September was the most active month in a hurricane season we've ever had for the Atlantic hurricane basin.

In fact, the records go back to the mid 1800s. We went 37 straight days with a named storm. Then we got a break, but for only three days, until Nate was named this morning at 8:00 a.m.

Right now, the center of the storm is over land in eastern Honduras. We can confirm now that seven fatalities have occurred in Costa Rica. But they've had rain for over two weeks now. And the rivers are swelling. We can now confirm as many as 20 fatalities, and just the last two days from part of Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica and it's just a tropical storm. So it doesn't have to be a hurricane.

But let's take a look at what's going on. The next area in the second landfall was going to be up in the Yucatan, warnings and effect for Cancun and Cozumel. That will be tomorrow night and mostly likely a tropical storm status, if you have loved ones that are there vacationing, hotel staff are going to get them sheltered. I wouldn't worry so much about it. But, well, it gets stronger in to the Gulf of Mexico. This year has been a hyperactive year, and we see rapid intensification, brings it in to around the Louisiana, overnight Saturday and Sunday morning. Maybe between 3:00 and 5:00 a.m., of course, give or take an hour. At category one, maybe category two strength, and then picks it up in speed and carries it off quickly.

So when we talk about the models. And let's take a look this -- we've talked nauseam about these with the past couple hurricanes, in blue the European Model, in red is the U.S., the GFS Model, they're in good agreement. The European has been outstanding for these storms. But let's talk about the spaghetti plots. And we talk about this as well, we know him well.

We're looking for a spread in the models. Or are they tight? It gives us confidence in the forecast. And every model run we have at this, it seems to get tighter and tighter. So there is confidence that after a Yucatan landfall tomorrow, it makes its way for a Sunday landfall.

Now, again, we are better at forecasting the track than we are the intensity. So we got to talk about that as well. If you're wondering in Texas, is there a possibility this could slide westward. We got a cold front right now that will have some severe weather in some of the planes. And as it moves across Texas, this front I think Anderson, will block the storm from moving too far to the west. And in any case, should pick it up and move it even quicker across the Tennessee and Ohio valley. Anderson.

COOPER: Tom, you talked about Nate getting to category one or cat-two status. Could it get stronger?

SATER: It could. In fact, as we've talked about the last couple of weeks, the storms have been increasing in their strength of rapid intensification.

Remember, the waters are warmer now in the western Caribbean than they are in the gulf. But they're extremely warm here too. Let me remind you, that Hurricane Harvey in just 12 hours went from a category one to category three status, just 12 hours, making landfall as a four.

It is possible. It is possible. I want to put percentages on it, but we have seen this time and time again this year, could it reach category three? Yes.

Right now, strong one, and I'm leaning more toward a category two. Just remember, this cone of uncertainty can change in the next couple days, but it looks like preparations should be made now for an overnight Saturday, Sunday morning landfall. Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Tom, I appreciate that.

[20:54:16] Up next, the latest in the Las Vagas massacre investigation, the possibility the gunman may have been casing other locations, in at least one other city when investigators discover on that when we continue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Tonight we have disturbing new information in the Las Vegas shooting investigation. Information that suggests the shooter may have been casing other locations. Authorities point out they do not know for sure yet what if anything he was planning at other music festivals. But someone with his name booked rooms, knew at least two other festivals. Dan Simon joins us now with the latest.

So talk to me about this possible other locations.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, the most direct evidence that he was targeting other music festivals is -- just this past week he rented a room in Downtown Las Vegas, a short distance away from here. This was near The Life Is Beautiful of music festival. It overlooked the festival. There are also reports that he may have targeted Boston's Fenway Park as well as Downtown Chicago.

We know that someone with the same name as the shooter reserved the room in Downtown Chicago just across from the Lollapalooza Music Festival but we should point that the person never checked in. And we don't know, if in fact, is the same person. Anderson.

COOPER: In terms of the investigation, has there been any more said about the note that the shooter had in his hotel room?

SIMON: Well, there's been a lot of intrigue about this note. One thing we can say, for sure is -- according to the sheriff, it that it was not a suicide note. There is also a lot of intrigue about the autopsy report surrounding the shooter but corner said, it will not be released. Of course, there's speculation that the shooter may have had some kind of brain abnormality or a terminal illness, and perhaps that's what may have caused him to go on this rampage.

COOPER: They're saying no accomplishes, but the sheriff said he received some help. Are you able to clarify, though?

[21:00:09] SIMON: Well, officials are saying tonight that there were no accomplices but yesterday the sheriff said that he did received some help.