Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Justice for Dad of 3 Shot Dead at Son's College Family Weekend

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Justice for Dad of 3 Shot Dead at Son's College Family Weekend · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A dad heads to Marist
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Speaker 1: College to visit his son, when out of the blue,
0:20
Speaker 1: a crazed gunman appears and shoots the dad down dead.
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Speaker 1: I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for
0:29
Speaker 1: being with us here at Fox Nation and Serious xem
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Speaker 1: one eleven the very latest. The crazed gunman who shoots
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Speaker 1: a Long Island dad dead while visiting his son at
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Speaker 1: upscale Marist College gets the maximum life sentence. Roy Johnson,
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Speaker 1: just thirty five years old, gets fifty eight to life
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Speaker 1: in the state penitentiary following his murder conviction in the
0:56
Speaker 1: October shooting of a devoted dad, Paul Kuttz at a
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Speaker 1: Courtyard by Marriott hotel in Poughkeepsie. What led to the
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Speaker 1: stiff sentence This is what we know.
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Speaker 2: Roy Johnson, thirty five, was sentenced to fifty eight years
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Speaker 2: in state prison following his murder conviction. The Dutchess County
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Speaker 2: District Attorney recommended that quote due to the egregious facts
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Speaker 2: of this case, as well as the immeasurable loss and
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Speaker 2: trauma inflicted on the victims. The office of the District
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Speaker 2: Attorney recommended the maximum penalty allowable by law, and the
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Speaker 2: judge sentenced the defendant according to that recommendation. Johnson was
1:36
Speaker 2: found guilty of murder, criminal possession of a weapon, and
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Speaker 2: reckless endangerment. He was handed the max sentence on each charge,
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Speaker 2: with the time to run consecutively.
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Speaker 3: Take a listen to this.
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Speaker 4: The hotel is just under five miles from the College Canvas.
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Speaker 4: Police say the parent had been staying at the Marriotte
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Speaker 4: during Marris's family weekend, a yearly event with football games
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Speaker 4: and performances.
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Speaker 3: Now are students in disbelief, shock, disbelief and also just confusion,
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Speaker 3: I think, and just deep sadness for the family, for
2:09
Speaker 3: the victims.
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Speaker 4: Police still trying to figure out the events that led
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Speaker 4: up to the shooting.
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Speaker 3: No word yet on a motive.
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Speaker 1: No word on a motive. Of course, the state doesn't
2:18
Speaker 1: have to prove a motive. But out of the blue,
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Speaker 1: this dad goes to see his child at college on
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Speaker 1: family weekend and he ends up dead at a perfectly
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Speaker 1: respectable hotel. You were just hearing our friends at Fox five.
2:36
Speaker 1: But now take a listen to our friends at NBC four.
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Speaker 5: There are new developments revealing the violence and danger guests
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Speaker 5: faced at a hotel in Poughkeepsie when someone opened fire
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Speaker 5: and killed a visitor.
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Speaker 3: The shooting piercing the.
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Speaker 5: Courtyard by Marriott yesterday morning, where many people were staying
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Speaker 5: to attend family weekend at nearby Mary's College. The bullet
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Speaker 5: shattered the lobby windows, left behind bullet holes and other windows.
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Speaker 5: Police believe the shooter fired two dozen rounds.
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Speaker 6: We cleared that section of the hotel room the rooms
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Speaker 6: inside it just in case, and continued to look for
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Speaker 6: wounded individuals, make sure everybody was okay in the hotel well.
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Speaker 7: For their cursory looked at the room.
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Speaker 6: They also then found manuals that were handbooks on how
3:24
Speaker 6: to make bombs. So the tactical unit that was unseen
3:30
Speaker 6: at that point requested the rest of the hotel be evacuated.
3:34
Speaker 6: So at that point, we evacuated the hotel, moved them
3:38
Speaker 6: to safe locations, relocated them, and then we conducted bomb sweeps.
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Speaker 1: As if it couldn't get any worse. Here you are
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Speaker 1: what is considered a quiet town, at a quiet hotel
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Speaker 1: with respectable people staying there, and a dad gets gunned
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Speaker 1: down and then they find bomb making materials. This is
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Speaker 1: with the irony, the dichotomy of the fact that this
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Speaker 1: is the Marist College, mr Ist, which is of the
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Speaker 1: Order as Mary, the Mother.
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Speaker 3: Of Christ, and it is named that.
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Speaker 1: You may ask why name it after Mary as opposed
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Speaker 1: to Christ, because the view of the Order of maris
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Speaker 1: the Order of Mary, is that she did so many
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Speaker 1: good works on Earth, that she answered God's calling without
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Speaker 1: question and with that bagdrop bullets fly in the hotel.
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Speaker 1: A family Weekend with me an all star panel to
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Speaker 1: makes sense of what we know right now. But first
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Speaker 1: I want to go to an investigative reporter with Newsday.
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Speaker 1: You can find her at newsday dot com and on
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Speaker 1: Twitter at Joan Grala. Joe, thank you for being us.
5:00
Speaker 1: I'm just having a hard time letting this soak in.
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Speaker 1: My friend just went to her son's college parents' day.
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Speaker 1: We just had parents Day at my children's high school.
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Speaker 1: And to think this could happen in a family setting.
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Speaker 1: I mean, it's not like they're out selling dope on
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Speaker 1: the street. It's not like this guy's a member of
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Speaker 1: a gang. I mean, I'm talking about a dad, Paul
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Speaker 1: Coot's three sons, a wife left behind because of this.
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Speaker 1: Just tell me the beginning, Joan, how did the whole
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Speaker 1: thing start well.
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Speaker 8: At seventy twenty nine the police am on Sunday, the
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Speaker 8: police got a call of the disturbance and during that
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Speaker 8: call they say the individual calling reported shots fired.
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Speaker 1: Okay, hold on, John, because you've already hit me with
5:53
Speaker 1: a bag of cement right there. Let me go straight
5:56
Speaker 1: out to Wilberd. Chapman, former NYPD Deputy can Missioner.
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Speaker 3: Did you hear what?
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Speaker 1: The Newsday reporter John Gralogist said, seven twenty nine am. Now, listen,
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Speaker 1: I have investigated thousands of cases, prosecuted so many I
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Speaker 1: can't count them. It's really rare to get violent crime
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Speaker 1: when most people are up having their first cup of coffee.
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Speaker 3: You usually see that after the dope heads.
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Speaker 1: Wake up at about three or four o'clock in the afternoon,
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Speaker 1: then the bullets start flying.
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Speaker 3: But seven nine am at Poughkeepsie, Really.
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Speaker 9: Well, Nancy, this is a particularly difficult situation for me
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Speaker 9: because the Deputy Commissioner of Training in the NYPD, we
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Speaker 9: had a particularly close relationship with Marath's College, so it's
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Speaker 9: really incredulous that you have this type of crime that
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Speaker 9: early in the morning. However, we live in different times there,
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Speaker 9: and people have absolutely no respect for what, as you
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Speaker 9: put it, at the dope heads used to get up
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Speaker 9: at noon, and we were prepared and policing at one
7:02
Speaker 9: o'clock on and expected them to go late in the morning,
7:04
Speaker 9: late into the evening and early morning. Now they're starting
7:07
Speaker 9: early in the morning. And when people have this kind
7:09
Speaker 9: of antisocial and criminal behavior, there is no way of
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Speaker 9: predicting exactly when or how they will strike.
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Speaker 1: You know what, Wilbert Chadman, You can say that again.
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Speaker 1: You can say that again statistically, Joan Garla. As you
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Speaker 1: know from reporting it Newsday. Of course, crime can happen
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Speaker 1: at anytime, but seven twenty nine am and the hotel
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Speaker 1: lobby of the Mary Courtyard, you usually don't expect bullets
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Speaker 1: to fly, but they did. Sorry, I'll cut you off
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Speaker 1: in like what sentence. Three Go ahead, Joan.
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Speaker 10: Well.
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Speaker 8: And one of the mysteries that I think explains the
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Speaker 8: national attention this tragedy has brought. And our Uesday TV
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Speaker 8: reporter Cecilia Dawd spoke with the neighbors and this is
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Speaker 8: a really wonderful family with just a very caring they
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Speaker 8: all described is how heavily armed.
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Speaker 1: Heavily armed in a hotel lobby, a family weekend at
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Speaker 1: the Meris College. Take a listen to the chief of
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Speaker 1: the Poughkeepsie Police Department, Chief Joseph Cavalery.
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Speaker 6: Responding officers set up a perimeter. They began to treat
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Speaker 6: the wounded. Once it was secure, ems was allowed in,
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Speaker 6: they took over the treatment of the victim.
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Speaker 7: The victim was transported to Mid Hudson Regional Hospital, where
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Speaker 7: it was later pronounced dead.
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Speaker 6: The officers on scene continued to secure the hotel.
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Speaker 7: They went to check a room and they noticed.
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Speaker 6: Some suspicious items, some of which to be materials that
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Speaker 6: they redetermined could be combined to create an explosive.
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Speaker 11: Guests gathered and evacuated because bomb made keen manuals and
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Speaker 11: flash grenades and other possible bottom components found in the
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Speaker 11: hotel room.
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Speaker 6: Moved them to safe locations, relocated them, and then we
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Speaker 6: conducted bomb's reaps.
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Speaker 1: Prime Stories with Nancy Grace in the last hours. A
9:30
Speaker 1: sentence goes down for the man that shoots down A
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Speaker 1: married father of three in town for family weekend at
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Speaker 1: the school at which the family was so proud their
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Speaker 1: son had been admitted. It was family weekend. Families were
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Speaker 1: joining from all over the country. At Marist College. Dad
9:49
Speaker 1: was in the lobby of the hotel getting coffee just
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Speaker 1: before seven thirty eight m on October two, when Johnson
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Speaker 1: stumbles into the room acting let's just say, erratically and
10:02
Speaker 1: waving a gun, yelling and cursing in the lobby, trying
10:07
Speaker 1: to get behind the counter before pulling the trigger of
10:10
Speaker 1: a modified glock firing up to thirty rounds. You know too,
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Speaker 1: Doctor Bethany Marshall joining us for now, psychoanalyst joining us
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Speaker 1: out of Beverly Hills. You can find her at doctor
10:21
Speaker 1: Bethany Marshall dot com. Doctor Bethany, you heard what Joan
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Speaker 1: Garla said from Newsday and what Wilbert Chapman said, former
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Speaker 1: NYPD Deputy Commissioner. Right, crime can happen anytime. But I'm
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Speaker 1: still reeling from the dichotomy of this being the Marist
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Speaker 1: College and what it stands for in Poughkeepsie, which is
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Speaker 1: not known for high crime like New York City or
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Speaker 1: inter city Atlanta or Chicago or Detroit.
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Speaker 3: You don't think, Wow, Poughkeepsie, I'm not going to go there.
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Speaker 3: I'll get shot dead.
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Speaker 1: And you're at the family the College family weekend, Doctor Bethany.
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Speaker 3: I know, I mean that's enough for a nightmare for I'm.
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Speaker 8: About to visit a friend in Middlebury, Vermont. He's just
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Speaker 8: bought it in there. He's been there for about a year.
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Speaker 8: And it's a college town and Nancy. You know, when
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Speaker 8: you walk down the street, people are selling homemade pies.
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Speaker 8: Everybody knows each other, there are kids everywhere. It's so
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Speaker 8: family friendly. You know. The most exciting activity in the
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Speaker 8: town is is the book club. Because people are connected,
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Speaker 8: they're engaged. There is really no bad element usually in
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Speaker 8: these small towns. But here's what really alarms me as
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Speaker 8: a psychoanalyst, a mental health professional. The seven thirty in
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Speaker 8: the morning, I think is significant because that tells me
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Speaker 8: whoever did this had enormous amounts of energy. When somebody
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Speaker 8: comes into my office and there's sleep wing, Michael is
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Speaker 8: turned around, I become alarmed. I think about drug use,
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Speaker 8: bipolar disorder, rage, rage directed to other people. Are they
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Speaker 8: doing all night? What are they thinking all night? I
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Speaker 8: think meth had I think PCP. I think I have
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Speaker 8: to evaluate for all these things because most people are
12:08
Speaker 8: not you know, they make it an argument with their
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Speaker 8: spouse late at night, maybe a few too many cocktails,
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Speaker 8: a dysfunctional abuse of marriage. But then they fall asleep.
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Speaker 8: This early morning hour I think is a very crucial
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Speaker 8: part of the story.
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Speaker 1: Well, another crucial part of the story is Joe Graula
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Speaker 1: has told us take a listen to our friends at
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Speaker 1: WABC seven and I.
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Speaker 12: Have been on the phone with the US Attorney's office
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Speaker 12: through last evening in this morning, we are working in
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Speaker 12: conjunction with each other as this moves forward to determine
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Speaker 12: what exactly we are dealing with.
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Speaker 1: Now.
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Speaker 13: The FBI and the ATF have been looped into this
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Speaker 13: investigation and with regards specifically to those bomb making materials
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Speaker 13: and other charges could stem from this arrest. As for
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Speaker 13: the fifty three year old victim, family at this point
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Speaker 13: has ask for privacy.
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Speaker 1: Peter Smith joining me high profile lawyer or out of
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Speaker 1: New York City. He's with the law office of Ken
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Speaker 1: Belkin at Belkanlaw dot com. Peter, whoever this is that
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Speaker 1: has bullets flying at seven twenty nine am at the
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Speaker 1: family weekend at Marist College, the order.
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Speaker 3: Of Mary up in a room.
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Speaker 1: I mean, you can't just discount them as you know, hey,
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Speaker 1: they're probably dopadicts, they're bomb making materials, bomb making materials
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Speaker 1: you've already got one dad of three shot. Did he
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Speaker 1: had no idea who these people are? And now bomb
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Speaker 1: making materials?
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Speaker 14: Yeah?
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Speaker 15: I mean, Nancy, that just adds to the fright that
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Speaker 15: this case is causing in the community.
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Speaker 14: That we don't know what their intentions were. They're heavily armed,
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Speaker 14: they're hopped up on all sorts of dope, and clearly
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Speaker 14: they're ready to explode at any moment. I mean, given
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Speaker 14: what's reporting has suggested, did you know it was probably
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Speaker 14: some minuscule argument that happened down in the lobby that shut.
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Speaker 1: Him off, Some small confrontation maybe was the trigger. And
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Speaker 1: of course under the law, that means nothing. I'm just
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Speaker 1: thinking through bomb making materials and Poughkeepsie at family weekend
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Speaker 1: at Maris College.
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Speaker 3: I mean, whenever I travel out of.
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Speaker 1: Town to work on a case and everybody's say where
14:33
Speaker 1: you going to, say, like, I don't know, the mare
14:34
Speaker 1: at courtyard for Pete's sake, don't they have free breakfast
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Speaker 1: and Wi Fi. Everybody goes and stays at a place
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Speaker 1: like that. Free Wi Fi breakfast in the morning. You
14:44
Speaker 1: can smell the coffee when you wake up. Everybody goes
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Speaker 1: down to the lobby, everything safe and secure, but not
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Speaker 1: this time. I've got a father of three dead. They
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Speaker 1: couldn't save him over what. Take a listen to this,
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Speaker 1: sell friends at WCBS.
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Speaker 16: One person is dead after a shooting at a hotel
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Speaker 16: in Poughkeepsie near Marist College during family weekend. Police say
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Speaker 16: someone opened fire around seven thirty this morning at the
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Speaker 16: Courtyard Marriott. Were told the victim was a relative of
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Speaker 16: a Maras student. During a search of the hotel, police
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Speaker 16: say they found materials that could be used as explosives
15:18
Speaker 16: inside a room. Safe bomb squad is investigating.
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Speaker 6: We cleared that section of the hotel room the rooms
15:24
Speaker 6: inside it just in case, and continued to look for
15:29
Speaker 6: wounded individuals, make sure everybody was okay in the hotel.
15:33
Speaker 6: While further cursory looked at the room. They also then
15:36
Speaker 6: found manuals that were handbooks on how to make bombs.
15:45
Speaker 6: So the tactical unit that was unseen at that point
15:48
Speaker 6: requested the rest of the hotel be evacuated. So at
15:51
Speaker 6: that point, we evacuated the hotel, moved them to safe locations,
15:56
Speaker 6: relocated them, and then we conducted bob sweeps.
16:01
Speaker 1: We are now learning even more. Take a listen to
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Speaker 1: Jonvan dentst at NBC four.
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Speaker 3: It was around seven am.
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Speaker 11: Investigators say that two suspects were smoking a PCP like
16:12
Speaker 11: substance in their room. One went down to the lobby
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Speaker 11: and got into an argument with Steph. It was then
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Speaker 11: he allegedly took out the handgun and began firing.
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Speaker 17: Innocent individuals convening in the lobby of a hotel going
16:27
Speaker 17: about their business, were tragically impacted in one life, horrifically taken.
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Speaker 1: Straight out to Wilbert Chapman, former NYPD Deputy Commissioner. PCP
16:41
Speaker 1: what is it?
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Speaker 9: Altering drug that can cause behavior to be amplified to
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Speaker 9: the degree where you lose all sense of reality, you
16:52
Speaker 9: think you're super strong, you forget all types of reasoning,
16:57
Speaker 9: and it usually is involved in conduct that causes serious
17:02
Speaker 9: injury to others or in this case, the complete loss
17:06
Speaker 9: of life.
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Speaker 8: But Nancy, it's also a hallucinogenic. So these people are
17:11
Speaker 8: hallucinating that committed the crime. They're hallucinating who God knows
17:15
Speaker 8: what that they're seeing the devil that they're saving the world.
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Speaker 8: I have a patient who I used PCP for years.
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Speaker 8: He's now a multi millionaire plumber in Beverly Hills. He
17:25
Speaker 8: has a great life for kids, but he was a
17:27
Speaker 8: gang banger for many, many years, and he recalls stories
17:32
Speaker 8: of breaking into homes, breaking into houses. He said he
17:36
Speaker 8: once hit an old lady over the heads so he
17:38
Speaker 8: could grab her purse. I mean, really sort of frightening,
17:42
Speaker 8: violent crimes. And sometimes they're just barely at the edges
17:46
Speaker 8: of his memory because he was so high most of
17:48
Speaker 8: that time, and most of the therapists been talking about
17:51
Speaker 8: how really, what's a horrible violent criminal he was? He
17:55
Speaker 8: spent eight years in federal prisons. So this drug they
17:59
Speaker 8: were on, I mean, do you remember that case, Nancy
18:02
Speaker 8: where a guy was on PCP and it's the face
18:05
Speaker 8: off a homeless person. We covered that story many years ago.
18:08
Speaker 8: This reminds me of.
18:10
Speaker 1: That, Yes, I remember it. It's commonly known as angel
18:14
Speaker 1: dust and cyclodyne rocket heel.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, let me go to doctor Jeffrey M.
18:20
Speaker 1: Jensen, Professor Forensic Pathology, Director of Autopsy Forensic Services, University
18:25
Speaker 1: Michigan Medical School, former medical examiner in Milwaukee. Doctor Jensen,
18:30
Speaker 1: what welcome? What does PCP do to you? Commonly known
18:35
Speaker 1: as angel dust?
18:36
Speaker 10: Well, again, as that was described with the psychosis that
18:40
Speaker 10: occurs these individuals can have. In addition to the psychotic
18:46
Speaker 10: disconnection and disorientation, they can express excessive strength and force.
18:55
Speaker 10: They're typically very violent and react to and are stimulated
19:01
Speaker 10: by excessive outside noise and.
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Speaker 14: Threats.
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Speaker 1: So I'm thinking, to Joan Grala, joining US investigative reporter
19:11
Speaker 1: with Newsday at newsday dot com, here's his dad visiting
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Speaker 1: his son. He's got three sons, two of them are twins.
19:20
Speaker 1: He's visiting one son at Mary's College, Poughkeepsie. He's mining
19:24
Speaker 1: his own business in the lobby, probably getting that free
19:27
Speaker 1: coffee the Marriotte gives you, and all of a sudden,
19:32
Speaker 1: here come these two a holes technical legal term, hopped
19:38
Speaker 1: up on angel dust and they get into an argument
19:42
Speaker 1: with the staff, the Marriott's staff.
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Speaker 3: What do we know about that, Joan.
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Speaker 8: One of the questions swirling around this is the two
19:51
Speaker 8: individuals accused of this shooting are described as homeless, and
19:57
Speaker 8: the Duchess County executive wants to make it very clear
20:01
Speaker 8: that the county was not putting them up at this.
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Speaker 1: Hotel, so they very well may not be homeless. Speaking
20:08
Speaker 1: of the two take a listener friends at WABC seven.
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Speaker 6: She pursued that gentleman and a.
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Speaker 7: Taking him down a gunpoint.
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Speaker 13: A twenty six year old gunman taken down by a
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Speaker 13: female officer in the courtyard of this Poughkeepsie hotel Sunday morning,
20:24
Speaker 13: and a shooting that killed a fifty three year old
20:26
Speaker 13: father of the mayor's college student, simply visiting for family weekend.
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Speaker 3: Roy A.
20:31
Speaker 13: Johnson Junior, faces second degree murder and weapons charges.
20:35
Speaker 3: Devin M.
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Speaker 13: Taylor, the first suspect taken into custody, also facing weapons charges.
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Speaker 6: He reached into a fanny pack and threw an item
20:46
Speaker 6: away from him. That item was later recovered and turned
20:50
Speaker 6: out to be a handgun straight.
20:52
Speaker 1: Back out to Wilbert Chapman, former NYPD Deputy Commissioner, you know,
20:56
Speaker 1: I'm very surprised as female cop didn't gun him down there,
21:01
Speaker 1: because when you're in pursuit and you know you've already
21:04
Speaker 1: got one dead victim in the lobby and reaches into
21:09
Speaker 1: their fanny pack or their pocket or their jacket, how
21:14
Speaker 1: do you know they're not pulling out a gun to.
21:16
Speaker 3: Fire at you. But she didn't.
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Speaker 1: She managed to take him down without shooting him dead,
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Speaker 1: and according to Joan Graw with Newsday, there have been
21:28
Speaker 1: some reports, not by her but by others that they
21:32
Speaker 1: were homeless.
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Speaker 3: I'm not sure that I believe that.
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Speaker 8: Well, let's start.
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Speaker 9: Let's start with the police taxtic.
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Speaker 3: Okay.
21:39
Speaker 9: Obviously, because we're in a place where there are a
21:41
Speaker 9: lot of innocent people, the police are going to do
21:44
Speaker 9: everything they can to minimize any injury to anybody other
21:50
Speaker 9: than the individual they are trying to apprehend. It was
21:53
Speaker 9: clearly an excellent police response. The officer should be praised
21:56
Speaker 9: for her tactics in bringing down this criminal without without
22:01
Speaker 9: any injury or any property damage other than the focus
22:06
Speaker 9: than the focus on the individual in terms of in
22:09
Speaker 9: terms of looking at homelessness, there is a there is
22:13
Speaker 9: a real correlation between homelessness and crime. And it's unfortunate
22:16
Speaker 9: because the social workers will tell you that it's a
22:20
Speaker 9: condition beyond people's control. But yes, one can be homeless,
22:23
Speaker 9: but that does not allow them or give them excuse
22:27
Speaker 9: to engage in unlawful activity.
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Speaker 3: I'm not convinced these to you guys are homeless. If
22:31
Speaker 3: they're homeless, what.
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Speaker 1: Are they doing shucked up at a Marriott courtyard and
22:35
Speaker 1: from what I understand, they've got a car.
22:37
Speaker 3: Guys, take a listen to NBC four.
22:39
Speaker 11: These are the two Marriott Courtyard hotel suspects. The lobby
22:44
Speaker 11: was a shooting zone Sunday morning. Bullet hole is still
22:47
Speaker 11: visible at least one of those bullets, killing a visiting
22:50
Speaker 11: relative of a Marist College student.
22:53
Speaker 6: The suspect did not know the victim, as.
22:59
Speaker 7: We believe, is the back.
23:00
Speaker 11: This is a photo of one of the weapons, a
23:02
Speaker 11: so called ghost gun assault style rifle. The other the
23:07
Speaker 11: weapon used a glock nine millimeter like this with a
23:12
Speaker 11: switch to make it automatic. When the weapon was later
23:15
Speaker 11: found in the parking lot, it's thirty round magazine was empty.
23:20
Speaker 3: Well with Chatman explain what it's a ghost gun.
23:22
Speaker 9: A ghost gun is a gun that's manufactured to ensure
23:27
Speaker 9: that there is no serial number and it cannot be traced.
23:31
Speaker 9: It is a real problem for law enforcement because these
23:34
Speaker 9: ghost guns are being manufactured and sold over the Internet
23:37
Speaker 9: and through the mail, and anyone can get their hands
23:40
Speaker 9: on them, rather than going through the normal legal channels
23:43
Speaker 9: of getting a weapon with a serial number and making
23:46
Speaker 9: sure that it's cracked so you know who sold it
23:48
Speaker 9: and purchased it. Now it's to challenge the law enforcement
23:52
Speaker 9: and until there is legal action to make sure that
23:56
Speaker 9: the production of them is ceased, We're going to continue
23:58
Speaker 9: to have these guns in circulation and endangering our population.
24:02
Speaker 3: What do you make of a glock?
24:03
Speaker 9: Block was a standard weapon in the NYPD for years.
24:08
Speaker 9: It's an excellent weapon, but it can be altered and
24:14
Speaker 9: arrange so that it shoots as an automatic weapon, in
24:16
Speaker 9: which case it will. It will fire a large number
24:20
Speaker 9: of rounds in a short period of time, and can
24:22
Speaker 9: be exceedingly dangerous if not handled appropriately and deadly if
24:27
Speaker 9: the intent is to inflict injury.
24:29
Speaker 3: Take a listen our friends at WABC seven.
24:31
Speaker 13: Court records indicate police recovered a nine millimeter block from
24:35
Speaker 13: Johnson and also recovered an AR style rifle with the
24:38
Speaker 13: serial number removed and we the people stamped on the
24:41
Speaker 13: weapon from Taylor. Investigators are reviewing surveillance video from the
24:45
Speaker 13: hotel and bodycam footage from other responding agencies to try
24:49
Speaker 13: to piece together the events leading up to the shooting.
24:52
Speaker 6: We're still investigating well everything that led up to it,
24:57
Speaker 6: so we're not ready to get into more of the detail.
25:00
Speaker 13: And investigators say up on a search of the suspect's
25:02
Speaker 13: hotel room, they found bomb making materials, a bomb making manual,
25:06
Speaker 13: leading to hotel evacuations, but an active explosive device was
25:10
Speaker 13: never found.
25:11
Speaker 1: To Joan Grala joining me from Newsday, she's been on
25:14
Speaker 1: the case of the very beginning. This was a nine
25:16
Speaker 1: a nine millimeter glock that had a switch to make
25:21
Speaker 1: it automatic, which maans you hold the trigger and many
25:26
Speaker 1: many bullets. There's a spray of bullets, not just bang
25:29
Speaker 1: bang each time you pull the trigger. And the weapon
25:33
Speaker 1: was found in the parking lot with a thirty round
25:35
Speaker 1: magazine empty.
25:37
Speaker 8: Well. One of the curiosities and mister comes the shot
25:40
Speaker 8: in the chest and tours of the police say that
25:44
Speaker 8: assault rifle as the other guests that had no serial number,
25:48
Speaker 8: but it was stamped with the phrase quote lead the
25:50
Speaker 8: people unquote, which is one of the curiosities that surrounds
25:56
Speaker 8: this case and might possibly go to possible motivation, but
26:01
Speaker 8: all of that is very speculative at this point.
26:03
Speaker 1: So the gun had what an engraving on it or
26:08
Speaker 1: stant we the people correct a ghost gun with an
26:12
Speaker 1: identifying marker, you get a ghost gun, so there's no
26:15
Speaker 1: serial number on it.
26:16
Speaker 3: It can't be traced.
26:17
Speaker 1: Yet you market with a phrase that no one will forget.
26:23
Speaker 3: We the people.
26:38
Speaker 1: Prime stories with Nancy Greace. Can you imagine how happy
26:44
Speaker 1: this kid, the student was, His dad was there. Mister Cutz,
26:49
Speaker 1: Paul Cuts, a Long Island accountant, struck behind just moments later.
26:56
Speaker 1: Now this is the irony the purp already facing murder
27:00
Speaker 1: and robbery charges in a separate case from the August
27:04
Speaker 1: sheating death of Darren Valani in Poughkeepsie. Why wasn't he
27:09
Speaker 1: behind bars? On that A lot is being made of
27:13
Speaker 1: these two being homeless. I'm not buying it for one minute.
27:18
Speaker 1: I don't think they're homeless.
27:19
Speaker 8: Me neither, I don't buy they're homeless. These men had
27:22
Speaker 8: so many resources for homeless people. They're staying at the
27:26
Speaker 8: Marriott that is not cheap. They have the clothing and
27:30
Speaker 8: the appearance of normal people, so that they looked a
27:34
Speaker 8: little strange, but they're they're.
27:35
Speaker 3: Walking in and out to the hotel.
27:36
Speaker 8: They don't look, smell, act like homeless people. Perhaps that
27:41
Speaker 8: it costs a lot of money to get the gun
27:43
Speaker 8: and bomb making women do.
27:45
Speaker 1: Tabeth is just Doucnabethany talking, doctor Bethany. You're right, what
27:48
Speaker 1: about it? John Graula, I don't think these two were homeless.
27:51
Speaker 1: I think they just don't want to give up their address. Why,
27:54
Speaker 1: because they're wanted their fugitives, their home address will identify
27:58
Speaker 1: who they are.
28:00
Speaker 14: I could just jump in real quick. I think that
28:02
Speaker 14: you're absolutely right that these individuals are not homeless in
28:05
Speaker 14: the traditional sense that they were on the rug from
28:08
Speaker 14: other crimes committed downside.
28:10
Speaker 1: Are you trying to suggest that a fugitive is actually homeless, Peter.
28:14
Speaker 14: Smith, Not at all, Nancy.
28:16
Speaker 15: I'm saying that it sounds like anything but homeless. I
28:19
Speaker 15: think that they had the resources to actually initially flee
28:25
Speaker 15: law enforcement from the South, and that they were continuing.
28:29
Speaker 1: Atlanta, specifically, no lack of dope business in Atlanta.
28:34
Speaker 3: Take a listen to Jonathan Danced NBC four.
28:36
Speaker 11: The two suspects have a history of arrests, including for
28:39
Speaker 11: robbery and assault, but the hotel shooting this weekend comes
28:42
Speaker 11: as the two suspects were already under investigation for a
28:46
Speaker 11: drug related killing in August, and it appears the pair
28:49
Speaker 11: might have known police for closing in on them. Both
28:53
Speaker 11: men have passed felony convictions.
28:55
Speaker 1: Family Weekend, He Goes and He Is Shot Dad. Take
29:05
Speaker 1: a listen to our friends at NBC four.
29:07
Speaker 18: A day after the father of a Marist College student
29:10
Speaker 18: was shot to death in this Poughkeepsie hotel lobby. Two
29:13
Speaker 18: men are charged in the killing. Police recovered to guns,
29:17
Speaker 18: including this rifle, a ghost gun with no serial number,
29:20
Speaker 18: according to law enforcement sources, and bomb making materials in
29:24
Speaker 18: the hotel room where police said the two men were staying.
29:27
Speaker 18: Roy Johnson Junior and Devin Taylor, both homeless with previous
29:31
Speaker 18: felony convictions and charged in this case. Law enforcement sources
29:34
Speaker 18: Tellnews for Johnson fired dozens of gunshots inside and outside
29:39
Speaker 18: the Marriotte Courtyard Sunday morning after those sources say he
29:42
Speaker 18: got into an argument in the lobby.
29:44
Speaker 1: Joan Graua News Day, what can you tell me about
29:47
Speaker 1: these two guys criminal history that explains to where they've
29:50
Speaker 1: been living part of the time anyway in jail.
29:54
Speaker 8: Well, yes, you're absolutely correct, And the problem is that
29:58
Speaker 8: the Poughkeepsie police are well, they're being extremely cautious, which
30:04
Speaker 8: makes perfect sense, honoring the family's wishes about not releasing
30:09
Speaker 8: the victims' name, for example, which we only got as
30:12
Speaker 8: reporters from the charging papers. But the past history and
30:16
Speaker 8: the violence of this crime and the weapons found might
30:20
Speaker 8: explain why the individual charged with the shooting was remanded
30:26
Speaker 8: and the second individual while his bail was set at
30:29
Speaker 8: five hundred thousand dollars in cash or a million dollar
30:32
Speaker 8: bond or five million partly secured, which are hefty amounts.
30:36
Speaker 1: Guys, k go straight to our cut. Seventeen Johnson danced WNBC.
30:41
Speaker 11: Roy Johnson was a wanted man. Johnson was labeled a
30:46
Speaker 11: criminal fugitive by the sheriff in Fulton County, Georgia. Johnson
30:50
Speaker 11: allegedly skipped court after his arrest on felony gun and
30:54
Speaker 11: cocaine dealing charges. The Sheriff's office says a warrant for
30:59
Speaker 11: his arrest was put into a national database in July.
31:03
Speaker 1: In the database in July. Yet here they are at Family.
31:07
Speaker 1: We can at Marist take a listener more.
31:10
Speaker 11: In August of this year, law enforcement sources say Johnson
31:13
Speaker 11: was being investigated in the Poughkeepsie area, being looked at
31:17
Speaker 11: as a key suspect in connection with a gang related murder.
31:21
Speaker 11: Several law enforcement sources say while some investigators wanted to
31:25
Speaker 11: make an arrest, they say the DA and others wanted
31:28
Speaker 11: to wait for DNA and fingerprint evidence to come back.
31:32
Speaker 11: During that August murder investigation, it seems at no time
31:36
Speaker 11: did police or prosecutors act on that warrant out of Georgia.
31:41
Speaker 1: Okay, what about it, Chapman, He's got a felony warrant
31:47
Speaker 1: out of Fulton County where I prosecuted for ten years,
31:51
Speaker 1: a felony warrant. Guns and dope. They know it's him.
31:56
Speaker 1: He suspected in another murder right there, and they do nothing.
32:01
Speaker 1: And now this father of three is dead.
32:04
Speaker 9: There's a lot of explaining that's got to be done
32:07
Speaker 9: relative to this case. What the extent of the investigation was,
32:11
Speaker 9: why it was necessary to wait longer before apprehension, And
32:15
Speaker 9: I think until the police and the prosecutor come forward
32:21
Speaker 9: and say exactly what their reasons were, there is great
32:24
Speaker 9: reason to be concerned about what the process was.
32:27
Speaker 1: Concern my rear end concern. You go tell that to
32:31
Speaker 1: the three boys that don't have a father and a
32:33
Speaker 1: mother having to raise a family on her own. Take
32:37
Speaker 1: a listen to WNBC.
32:38
Speaker 11: This inspect Johnson is accused of using a glock with
32:41
Speaker 11: a thirty round magazine to open fire in and around
32:44
Speaker 11: the hotel, allegedly killing cuts another man. Devin Taylor, also
32:49
Speaker 11: charged with weapons possession so called ghost gun assault style
32:52
Speaker 11: rifle and possible bomb making parts found in their hotel room. Earlier,
32:58
Speaker 11: the District Attorney's office in Georgia told us if police
33:01
Speaker 11: here in New York knew where Johnson was this past summer,
33:04
Speaker 11: they would have wanted Johnson arrested and sent back to
33:07
Speaker 11: Georgia on his guns and drugs charges.
33:12
Speaker 3: Okay, you got to jump in.
33:14
Speaker 8: I'm sorry if I could just say one thing about
33:16
Speaker 8: my father, one of the saddest things. He was killed
33:20
Speaker 8: the day before his twins turned twenty second, twenty two,
33:24
Speaker 8: and they also attended Marist. I believe the father was
33:28
Speaker 8: visiting the third son, the younger son, who by all
33:31
Speaker 8: accounts is an extremely accomplished student.
33:34
Speaker 10: Yeah, and Nancy, this is doctor Jensen. This is where
33:37
Speaker 10: the forensic evidence would be helpful in helping to explain
33:43
Speaker 10: the circumstances. We would look to do X rays to
33:47
Speaker 10: determine whether it was a high velocity round that struck
33:52
Speaker 10: the victim or whether it was from the glock handgun.
33:57
Speaker 10: And we can also tell what we describe it atypical
34:01
Speaker 10: entrance gunshot wounds, and this would be indicative of a
34:05
Speaker 10: bullet coming through some kind of an object such as
34:07
Speaker 10: the glass. There may be also some determination of whether
34:12
Speaker 10: the bullet was a ricochet or actually was pointed at
34:17
Speaker 10: the individual. So these are the kind of questions we
34:21
Speaker 10: try to answer just by routine processing of a gunshot,
34:26
Speaker 10: wound X rays, examining the bullet fragments and the weapon.
34:30
Speaker 1: Can I ask you a question, doctor Jensen, how do
34:33
Speaker 1: you stay so calm when you're looking at body after
34:37
Speaker 1: body after body and I mean, I'm just thinking about
34:43
Speaker 1: their children. I mean, it's hard for me to take in.
34:47
Speaker 1: It's always the good people that get gunned down or murdered.
34:51
Speaker 1: He ran an accounting firm with his brother for the
34:53
Speaker 1: last thirty plus years, married, one time, great family, faithful,
34:59
Speaker 1: loyal heart, hard worker. Ma'am, he's dead and these two
35:03
Speaker 1: dopeads are walking for I mean, they're alive.
35:06
Speaker 10: You bring up an interesting point, Nancy, because most pathologists
35:10
Speaker 10: are characterized as being stuck in their basement laboratories. But
35:18
Speaker 10: it's the forensic pathologist that has intimate contact with both
35:21
Speaker 10: the victim and the victim's family. So it's not uncommon
35:26
Speaker 10: that when I'm at a crime scene, I'll i'll encounter
35:29
Speaker 10: to the victim's family and attempt to give them my
35:33
Speaker 10: condolences and to give them a detailed idea of how
35:38
Speaker 10: we were going to treat their loved one in.
35:41
Speaker 3: The last days.
35:41
Speaker 1: A sentence goes down for a gunman who shoots dead
35:46
Speaker 1: a dad visiting his son at an upstate Long Island
35:51
Speaker 1: college for family weekend. He gets life behind bars. Roy
35:58
Speaker 1: Johnson A's thirty five. The gunman in this case may
36:01
Speaker 1: have gotten life behind bars, but from what I can tell,
36:06
Speaker 1: that's just a pitstop on his way straight to hell.
36:11
Speaker 3: Goodbye friend,