homeless veterans. so guess who we found sleeping outside? fighter girls. would you do this for practically nothing? this single mother does. but why? chicks, inc. forget the music, forget the makeup. this may be the smartest band in the history of rock 'n' roll. >> can you put a dollar sign on the kiss empire. >> $500 million, $750 million. a billion dollars. >> the genius of kiss, inc. revealing investigations. fascinating characters. stories with impact. this is "cnn presents" with your host tonight soledad o'brien and son jay gupta. >> good evening. we begin with a murder in mississippi. ray brutal killing allegedly fueled by race and rage. >> we broking this shocking story right here on cnn. a young white teenager accused of killing a black man just because of the color of his skin. >> over our four-month investigation we found more disturbing details uncovering how the teenager and some of his friends had this history of violence and racist incidents. >> and raising questions whether authorities turned a blind eye. drew griffin has been digging into the story from the very beginning. >> june 26th in mississippi would bring temperatures and humidity into the 90s. a breeze out of the southwest would the barely move the state flag enough to see that confederate battle symbol. still displayed in its upper left corner. at 4:00 a.m. on this sunday morning, most of mississippi was still asleep. but for a group of teenagers, white teenagers barreling west on interstate 20, a mission was already under way. they were headed to jackson because in their segregated world, jacksoning is where the black people live. >> they were looking for black people. they were looking for a black person to assault. >> reporter: mississippi's heinz keep the district attorney robert schuller smith says evidence shows those white mississippi teens had just one thing in mind. >> they discussed let's go get -- let's be honest here, let's go get a nigger, right. >> that's exactly what it will show. >> reporter: it was still dark when james craig anderson walked out of a motel towards his car in a parking lot off jackson's ellis avenue. smith says that's when the white teenagers saw him. james, a black man, alone. it is hard to imagine what happened next without using the term hate. the teenagers were mostly white rankin county were being led by an 18-year-old named darrell dead man according to police. he had a history of harassing teens at his high school by several accounts from parents and students who knew him, he hated blacks, hated white people who had black friends. he hated anyone he thought was gay. and on this sunday morning, after a night of drinking, he and his friends witnesses have told police, were out to the act on that hate. some of the teens there that night would tell police the teenagers attacked that lone black man without any provocation repeatedly beating anderson, yelling white power. then one of the vehicles drives off. >> darrell deadman apparently wasn't through. he had two girls in his truck as he was leaving this parking lot, a big f-250 pickup truck. james craig anderson, the man who was beaten almost to a pulp, was stumbling down this curb. that's when police say darrell deadman hit the gas. jumped the curb and ran right over his victim. smashing him. but what he didn't know was the entire episode was being caught on a surveillance camera on the corner of this hotel. this is what was caught on that tape. obtained exclusively by cnn and we warn you, it is disturbing. james craig anderson first comes into view in the lower right corner of the screen after he was beaten according to police. he staggers into the headlights of mr. deadman's truck. his white shirt easily visible. then the truck backs up, surges forward, the headlights glowing brightly on anderson's shirt before he and that shirt disappear underneath it. the truck runs right over the defenseless man. >> after he does that, he drives to a mcdonald's, he picks up the phone, apparently calls a buddy and says what? >> according to testimony, i ran that nigger over. >> witnesses say he almost was bragging about it. that he was laughing about it really. >> that's what we plan to present. >> darrell deadman has pled not guilty. his attorney has refused to answer cnn's many calls for comment. though during one court appearance that attorney said he didn't see any evidence racism was involved. the district attorney says nothing else was involved. he has classified this as capital murder and a hate crime. you would think it would be a wake-up call for any town where that kind of hate could fester. but this is brandon, mississippi. think again. >> it's an unfortunate incident. it happened, but you know, once it happened, we haven't gone into you know, code red oh, my god, we've got a major problem. let's stop traffic and everybody feeds to go home and lock their doors and you know, we just kind of just keep going, doing what we do. >> here where a confederate war memorial stands at the center of town, the police say there were no warning signs. but we found the police are wrong. cnn has learned investigators are now looking into algations darrell deadman and his friends had a pattern of racism and violence. what's it going to do to the planet? 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[ male announcer ] write your story with the new citi simplicity card. no late fees. no penalty rate. no worries. get started at citisimplicity.com. consumers er wanchai ferry orange chicken... over p.f. chang's home menu orange chicken women men and uh pandas... elbows mmm [ male announcer ] wanchai ferry, try it yourself. >> you have to drive east to get to brandon. across the pearl river, the invisible line that seems to separate black mississippi from white. and while in jackson, anderson's killing has prompted marches and a call for healing. in brandon, the reaction has been mostly silent. brandon police wouldn't even return cnn's phone calls. >> is the chief in? >> it was an assistant police chief who finally came out to say, there was no story here. >> are you concerned that a lot of these kids are from rankin county. >> not just one or two but seven who took part in this. >> you're right. you're going to have a couple of bad seeds. one guy ran over the individual. not all six. so you know, i can't -- i hate that it happened. i wish to god it didn't happen. here or anywhere, but as far as it being you know, we have a national problem, we don't have any more problem than any other city. >> it's just an isolated incident and you can quote me on that. >> but it didn't take us long to find out it wasn't an isolated incident. daryl dedmon has a criminal history. arrested and convicted of harassment earlier this year. two years ago this local pastor says he had to call police when his son was being harassed. >> and i had told jordan for a year and a half, that daryl dedmon will kill you. >> he had a look of no conscience. he was blank stare. daryl always i think just carried around this backpack of hatred. >> other students also told us they were bullied or beaten by deadman and his friends who called people nigger lovers if they befriended blacks. we were told school administrators mostly looked the other way as bullying and racial hatred festered. school officials declined our interview requests but a spokesperson told cnn they take bullying seriously and that they had no record of any trouble from daryl dedmon. students told us dead man and his friends were a problem. u using racial slurs, calling blacks and even president obama the "n" word. ken johnson use to the manage a gas station where deadman and his friends used to hang out. >> every word that came out of their mouth was the "n" word. and that they're taking over. as if it was some kind of war. >> dedman's family has refused to talk to cn. so has his attorney. this man did. once close to dedman and his friends, he now fears them. >> i believe that every one of these kids that occurred in the incident are dangerous and they're capable of many things, and i just don't want my image to be seen because i'm really worried about it. >> this man told us there were other violent and racial incidents with dedman and other friends of his. >> did they ever go looking for black people? ing. >> hunting literally? >> yes, they're known as the like i said, they're also known as the racist kids. the white group. >> cnn has learned federal investigators from the department of justice have uncovered two other possible incidents where groups of white ranken county teens, including dedmon have south out and attacked a black person. >> have you guys been concerned about these guys? not at all. >> nope. >> this man says racism is behind brandon, mississippi's silence. >> do you believe there's a lot of people in brandon, mississippi, that may feel the same way about the killing of a black man? >> yes. yes. i've even heard it out of some of the police officers' mouths that this is their statement. well daryl is a good kid. he just made one bad mistake. >> drew griffin joins us now. we talked about teenagers. what happened to the teenagers involved? >> five other teenagers involved have been very cooperative with this investigation. i think it's fair to say without their cooperation, a lot of the details would not have come out. that being said, this investigation both federal and state is ongoing. i'm told more charges may be filed. >> how much more is going on here do you think? this one teenager and one community. do they talk about, is this a symptom of a larger problem? >> many people are saying this is a wake-up call for mississippi and maybe even for the rest of the nation. these are teenagers as you said, soledad. they didn't grow up in a vacuum. parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, teachers, even they go to church. these kids go to church. and what pastor richardson is saying look, we can't allow this, we can't all go to church and pray for mankind on sunday and then allow our kids to go and use the "n" word on monday. so this is a wake-up call he would like to bring to the attention of. so far it's not being heard. >> drew, thank you very much. i know you'll continue to follow the story as it goes to the courts. up next, a story that i've been investigating for several months now. think of it as another form of injustice. veterans from iraq and afghanistan back home and living on the streets. >> a contract, i'm going to serve my country but then my country's going to serve me. 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[ male announcer ] ask your doctor about cymbalta. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. go to cymbalta.com to learn about a free trial offer. cwill be giving away passafree copies of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. >> for far too many americans the street is their home. it's a life bad enough for anyone but unforgivable when the struggling men and women have already risked their lives for their country. i was stunned to find out that more than 8,000 homeless veterans live in los angeles alone. what surprised me even more, there's a lot of land there, nearly 400 acres that was donated for free just to build a home for vets. it would have been a life saber for a vet i met in los angeles. >> you're young. how old are you? >> i'm 22, almost 23. >> almost 23, and are you from this area originally? >> san fernando valley, just up over the hill. >> fresh out of high school, robert risman signed up to fight for his country. >> what makes an 18-year-old join the army? >> i wanted to go to college and make something of myself. and the army said they'd pay for it. >> a little bit of a contract, i'm going to serve my country but then my corrupt's going to serve me. >> that's kinds of what i was hoping for, yeah. >> where did it fall part? it began to fall part in iraq. you saw things that i know you don't want to talk about. >> no, don't. >> you probably never want to talk about. >> no. >> you see robert was in a rapid response unit. he saw action. night after night. >> i got back from iraq and i was having a lot of psychological issues. i guess you could say. >> post traumatic stress. >> post traumatic stress disorder. >> back home at fort carson in colorado, he starred feeling like people were out to get him. a few months later, someone discovered robert's illegal sawed off shotgun hidden in his barracks. according to army papers, robert told investigators he was suicidal. at one point, he spent a full day drinking. then sat on the side of the bed with the end of the gun in his mouth. >> i wish sometimes that i had died in iraq. so that my life would have meant something. you know? >> forced to quit the army, robert ended up homeless. >> i went lieu some pretty bad times when i first got out. i was doing a lot of methamphetamines, my drug of choice. i was smoking a lot of dope and i was getting in with some rough crowds. >> and many of those rough crowds were made up of people just like robert. returning veterans. as many as one in three soldiers returning from iraq or afghanistan suffers from traumatic brain injury, severe depression, substance abuse, or ptsd. >> i was dealing with other people that weren't so nice and -- >> is that weird for you to hear. >> yeah, that's uncomfortable actually. >> what happens when you hear a noise like that? >> it startles me a little bit but i know it's a truck. >> you see it everywhere you look. ex-soldiers like robert are desperate for steady care and for stable housing. so i was stunned to hear about a piece of property in west los angeles set aside for this very purpose. for veterans, for long-term housing, and it's literally across the street from the va hospital. the story here actually dates back all the way to the 1880s. back then the government wanted to treat facilities for aging veterans of the civil war. so former senator john p. jones and his friend who was a glamorous hairess decided to donate all of this land. back then, it was mostly ranch land. but today, just a few miles from the pacific ocean, it is some of the most valuable real estate in all of north america. >> it was solely an act of good will, an act of trying to take care of the veterans that they had from the spanish american war and the civil war. >> carolina barry is descended from the hairess who made this gift and she's part of a lawsuit against the va filed by the american civil liberties union. the original deed includes a condition. that the land be used to establish and maintain a branch of a national home for disabled vets. and a permanent home for thousands is exactly what it was. >> they had their post office. they had a trolley system that went all the way down san vicente to the beach. everything was provided for them. they had a special uniform. it was a marvelous place to live and the grounds were gorgeous. i mean they were just gorgeous. >> mark rosenbaum is the lead attorney for the aclu. >> at one point, this campus housed as many as 4,000 veterans but beginning with the street nam war era, vets were kicked out, they were literally kicked out. >> around 200 veterans live on the property today. but none of them in permanent housing. alongside them empty buildings. a public golf course. a variety of private businesses. like a theater. and a bus depot. >> this land has been utilized for enterprise rent a car, for marriott hotels, for ucla baseball, for exclusive private schools. they know what this land's about. >> with veterans sleeping on l.a. streets, i decided to head to the va to see why this land isn't used for their housing. >> people have said look, that property is not being used for that purpose. is that a legitimate beef? 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[ female announcer ] in this lab demo, 1 sheet of bounty leaves this surface as clean as 2 sheets of the bargain brand. ♪ dance cooking? bring it. super durable. super absorbent. super clean. bounty the 1-sheet clean picker-upper. and try bounty napkins. >> we've been investigating a story in los angeles. there are more than 8,000 veterans who don't have a home. >> you know, it's particularly surprising when you consider that there is land specifically set aside to house homeless vets. so why isn't that happening? i went to l.a. to find out. >> i wanted answers. from for men like robert rissman, a 22-year-old former soldier and now drug addict. he's in transitional housing with no idea what comes next. he's just trying to get back on his feet. >> i had to steal food at one point because i had too much pride to ask anyone. i still have that kind of pride. >> for vets like robert, the aclu filed suit to try and force the v.a. to build housing on 400 acres of land that it was given back if 1888. at first we called the head of the va and they said we can't comment on pending litigation. we called the department of justice whose lawyers are handling the case and they said they can't talk about it either. finally the va said their chief of staff wants talk to me to tell us what they're doing to help homeless vets. >> we've added 700 emergency housing and transitional housing beds. they have mental health programs, substance abuse rams and medical programs. >> they also have s