Colo. Springs Mayor: ‘Certainly Appears’ Shooting at P. P. ‘Act of Domestic Terrorism’

RADDATZ: “Joining us now, the mayor of Colorado Springs, John Suthers. Mr. Mayor, what more can you tell us — tell us about the motivation in this killing?”
SUTHERS: “Well, Martha, the police and the prosecutor have not officially released anything about the motivation. As a former District Attorney, I’m very respectful of that and I will wait, you know, the release of official information before we’ll comment on the motivation.”
RADDATZ: “But do you believe Planned Parenthood was targeted?”
SUTHERS: “It certainly appears that way. I’m sure that as the case proceeds, the criminal case proceeds, we’re learn a lot more about the motivation.”
RADDATZ: “Do you know anything more about these statements he allegedly made about Planned Parenthood or about abortion?”
SUTHERS: “I know what you know, that somebody unauthorized made some statements to the press, but I’m not going to contribute to that, Martha. I’m going to let the police and the prosecutors do their jobs.”
RADDATZ: “What more can you tell us this morning about how — how this happened? The gunman killed one of your officers and yet you still managed to take the suspect alive.”
SUTHERS: “Yes, it was a kind of unusual situation in the fact that he gave himself up alive. Martha, I was in the command center watching this unfold, and the police just did a fantastic job. From the command center, they were able to monitor security cameras in the center and advise the squad officers inside about the movement of the perpetrator. And that sort of coordination, they were, you know, e-mailing diagrams about the building inside to the SWAT team, and that coordination I’m absolutely certain saved a number of lives, because they were able to get people out of the building that were in areas the perpetrator was not.”
RADDATZ: “Incredible work by your officers. We also heard that the gunmen left some unspecified items outside, possibly explosives or bags. Have you cleared the scene there now?”
SUTHERS: “There were some things in his truck; I’m not sure they’ve been identified as having, you know, being related. We’re just going to have to — the crime scene’s still being processed. We’re going to have to wait to see what the police and prosecutor tell us about that.”
RADDATZ: “But would you say, Mr. Mayor, this is an act of domestic terrorism?”
SUTHERS: “It certainly appears that way. We have, Martha, something that occurs quite a bit. We have a person that’s pretty much off the grid and acting for whatever motivation, very hard to ferret out those folks. You know, I — I was an attorney general that was a head of a committee looking at things that are consistent about these kinds of incidents. And one of the things we don’t do very well is identify these people, sometimes with mental health problems, and prevent their access to weapons. And I — you know, we’ll wait and see here, but all indications are this guy, as I say, was off the grid.”
RADDATZ: “OK, thank you very much, Mayor Suthers.”