"Terror At The Mall" On HBO
COOPER: One year ago, the al-Qaeda-linked Somalia group, Al-Shabaab attacked the West Gate Mall in Kenya. You probably remember that. It was a two-day siege. It left 71 people dead, hundreds more wounded. Well, on Monday, HBO's premier a really extraordinary documentary from a director named, Dan Reed, who got hold of footage for more than 100 security cameras that were inside the mall. I spoke to the filmmaker a short time ago.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There were tracer rounds, the flash was wide as they were flying through the air.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People were confused. They were trying to go, stepping on each other. I saw a white lady with three children. So they are running different directions. That is when I picked one.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, I started to run and then a Kenyan woman came and grabbed one of the girls from me, and we dove behind a display table. She had my 4-year-old, laying on top of her to protect her.</s>COOPER: Just extraordinary. Director and producer, Dan Reed, joins me now. I have seen a lot of your films, you have done the terror film, Mumbai. You did the theater film. And in all your films, there is extraordinary use of surveillance footage, CCTV cameras. It seems like in this you have more cameras than ever before.</s>DAN REED, DIRECTOR, "TERROR AT THE MALL": We have, this was an attack on a shopping mall on a Saturday lunchtime. They were installed to stop people from running or stealing. We have an unbroken time line of the attack, which was very important because that allows us to figure out exactly what happened.</s>COOPER: This is probably one of the most videoed.</s>REED: The most videoed attack in history.</s>COOPER: Without a doubt.</s>REED: Without a doubt, yes.</s>COOPER: And can I ask how you got the footage?</s>REED: Well, the footage was not released to us by the authorities.</s>COOPER: I have only seen a few -- they only released a few little clips here and there.</s>REED: They did. They released a few clips in the immediate aftermath of the attack. And I thought what if we have could get all the security footage, what if we could get a complete record of the terrorist attack for the first time ever and see from every angle step by step how this attack took place.</s>COOPER: And you were able to do that?</s>REED: We were able to do that.</s>COOPER: You can't say how, though.</s>REED: I can't say how we got the footage.</s>COOPER: How many cameras?</s>REED: My estimate is maybe 150.</s>COOPER: That is incredible. So what about this attack surprised you or was different than some of the others that you have worked on?</s>REED: This was an attack in one location, the attacks in Mumbai were over five locations. This was one team, four guys who went into a crowded shopping mall. Lunch time on Saturday. The four guys open fire with Kalashnikovs. And they're opening fire until there is nobody else to kill.</s>COOPER: And yet many of the deaths occurred very early on?</s>REED: Most of the deaths occurred early on, that is one of the really alarming things. When you make it, you think how can we prevent so many people dying? The only way to do it is to get armed response there very quickly in the first half hour if possible.</s>COOPER: And just quickly, the eyewitness accounts of people you have. I want to play it a little bit more for the phone.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was counting every single second that passed. And all of a sudden it happened. There he was. I looked up at him and just mouthed the words, he is just a baby. He is just a baby. And after a while, he looked to the side at some of his colleagues over there. And said something in a language that I didn't understand. And someone in a broken voice said lady with baby, stand up. Then as I'm looking at them the terrorist that is in the middle in the front looks at us, sees the baby peering around and turns his head to the side and kind of cocks his head and makes a cute baby face. And I just remember thinking, if they see my face now they're going to know how crazy I think this is. I can't believe what just happened. They're killing women and children and making baby faces at us and waving.</s>COOPER: That is extraordinary. The dichotomy between how they interacted with her and killing women and children.</s>REED: And one of the handlers in Somalia, there seems to be some sort of instruction to release women and children and release Muslims, as well. They started to ask people their faith.</s>COOPER: This may seem like an odd question, but do you find mothers with kids, do they act differently in an event like this? Somebody who has a life to protect?</s>REED: Yes, that came to the fore, I found women with their children. They seemed to be a lot sharper, a lot more switched on. A lot more able to -- to cope with the situation and able to make really very difficult, difficult decisions.</s>COOPER: I always talk to the police about this. It is surprising to me this has not happened in the United States yet. And obviously, there are law enforcement. This is a huge concern, not just someone bringing a bomb into a place, but a small group of terrorists, three or four people with automatic weapons really can bring -- in Mumbai can bring a city to paralysis for days at a time. Is there a lesson, how would you respond if you were at the mall?</s>REED: If I was at a mall, run and keep on running, pick a direction, it doesn't matter which one, just run as fast as you can and that is your best chance.</s>COOPER: You would not hide or wait for authorities? You would try to get out? That is the lesson for you.</s>REED: The people who were hit, I think most of the people in this story were executed as they lay on the ground, you know, men, women and children old people just mercilessly killed. The people who ran, the majority of them survived, just take to your heels and survive.</s>COOPER: It is an extraordinary film. Your work is so extraordinary. I really appreciate you being on.</s>REED: Thank you so much.</s>COOPER: The movie "Terror at the Mall" debuts Monday, September 15th on HBO, which owned by Time Warner, which also owned CNN. Just ahead for us tonight, a journey through American history told in signatures.