Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Manhunt Over in Miami; A Tense Scene in New Orleans With a Deadly Outcome

Aired December 27, 2005 - 08:00   ET

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


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
I'm Miles O'Brien.

The manhunt is over in Miami. Serial rape suspect Reynaldo Rapalo chased down in the city's streets after his escape from jail. A live report from Miami straight ahead.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Carol Costello in for Soledad.

A tense scene in New Orleans with a deadly outcome. A man shot after threatening police with a knife. We'll talk to a witness about whether the police were justified.

M. O'BRIEN: And the sudden surge of violence in Iraq -- car bombs and shootings kill more than two dozen in the last day.

We're live in Baghdad on this AMERICAN MORNING.

COSTELLO: And good morning to you.

It's 8:00 straight up, 8:00 Eastern.

M. O'BRIEN: Good to have you with us this morning.

We begin in Florida and the recapture of a serial rape suspect. We got our first look at Reynaldo Rapalo in custody just about an hour ago. He evaded police for a week, since he broke out of jail sliding down a rope made of bed sheets. A tip led cops to Rapalo last night, and today they're asking who, if anyone, helped him.

John Zarrella live in our Miami bureau with more -- good morning, John.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

And as you can see in that video that we've been showing there, he was very cocky this morning, police saying that Rapalo seemed to be happy that he was -- had eluded capture for the week since December 20th.

Now, I can recall covering the story back in 2002-2003, when the manhunt was underway, looking for Reynaldo Rapalo, the man accused of what was known as the Shenandoah rapist, an area of the Little Havana neighborhood that he stalked and terrorized.

And after the capture, there was a tremendous amount of relief in that neighborhood that he was, in fact, in custody.

He is accused, of course, of 11 -- of seven rapes of women and young girls between the ages of 11 and 79.

And police say that it was a matter of a tip that led them to the arrest last night, about 10:00 p.m. of Reynaldo Rapalo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DET. AL VELEZ, MIAMI-DADE POLICE: He lost a lot of weight considering what he looked like in the photos of his first capture. So we had to verify it through looking at the pictures and his story, whether it was him or not. And once we felt that it was him, we police department to go and take him into custody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: Now, those were the two detectives who responded to the tip and managed to get to Rapalo, talk to him. At one point he began to run from them, saying that he was a homeless man, that he had come from Nicaragua. And, of course, he took off. He was wearing that pink frilly sweatshirt underneath the shirt that he had on. And he was wearing blue jeans.

But, again, from a tip, an anonymous tipster, they were able to catch him.

Now, he will probably appear in court today. He was scheduled to go on trial in February to face those rape charges; now, probably additional charges for the escape. And police say they do expect to make arrests, potentially as early as today, of people who may have helped him during this past week that he has been on the loose -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: So just to clarify, John, it's just a matter of time, you think, before there will be more arrests?

ZARRELLA: That's what police are indicating. They do believe that there were people that had to have helped him for him to have been able to evade capture for the past week. He never left the neighborhood. He never left the area of Miami. They found him here.

You know, originally the concern was he might have tried to pull up stakes and take off. But police told us that he had a good plan for the escape, but didn't have a very good plan after he managed to pull it off.

M. O'BRIEN: John Zarrella in Miami.

Thank you very much -- Carol.

COSTELLO: We are following several new developments out of Iraq this morning.

A mass grave has been found near Kabul, the victims believed to be killed during an uprising against Saddam Hussein in 1991. Also, two U.S. Army helicopter pilots are the latest Americans to die in Iraq.

In an up tick of violence. Close to 30 Iraqis killed in a spate of attacks.

CNN producer Arwa Damon joins us live from Baghdad to tell us more -- good morning.

ARWA DAMON, CNN PRODUCER: Good morning, Carol.

That's right, as you mentioned, construction workers were digging for a water pipeline in the southern city of Kabul when they uncovered perhaps what could be called a horrific reminder of this country's past under Saddam Hussein.

They found the bones and the skulls of about, they're estimating, for now, at least 20 individuals believed to have been killed, Shias killed during the 1991 Shia uprising.

Now, that uprising killed at least 30,000 Shias countrywide. And officials are also saying that since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, they've uncovered about 300 mass graves throughout the country.

Of course, all of this comes as we are waiting for Saddam Hussein's trial to resume. In this case, he is being tried for alleged crimes against the people of Dujail, where about 148 people were killed after a failed assassination attempt against the former president -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Arwa, can you tell us a little more about how these U.S. Marines died?

DAMON: Well, we don't know very much. We received a press statement from the U.S. military saying that the apache attack helicopter had crashed in western Baghdad.

Now, they say that this was a non-hostile incident, that it did not involve enemy fire. The incident is still under investigation, but it does remain a clear indication of just how dangerous even day to day operations can be in Iraq -- Carol.

COSTELLO: U.S. Army helicopters, two U.S. Army helicopters, and I just wanted to clarify.

Thank you, Arwa Damon reporting live from Baghdad this morning.

M. O'BRIEN: In Afghanistan now, still a lot of work to do there for U.S. forces, as troops come home -- and 3,000 will soon be on the way. Job one is training Afghan troops to take their place.

CNN's Becky Diamond is embedded with U.S. soldiers in Gardez.

That's about 70 miles south of Kabul.

She joins us now by video phone -- Becky, you've had an exclusive opportunity to see how that training is going there.

What's your assessment?

BECKY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's so fascinating here, Miles.

This is a very critical front in the war on terror and it's really an under reported front, an under reported campaign. It's part of nation building and rebuilding and reconstruction.

Soldiers here from the 53rd Brigade, a Florida National Guard unit, are actually embedded with the Afghan National Army. They're taking these soldiers out on patrol, they're acting as mentors and trainers, helping them build their skills both in terms of weaponry, firing weapons and also in terms of discipline and learning on the job training.

Now, soldiers, U.S. soldiers here say the ultimate goal is for the Afghan National Army to conduct operations on its own. Right now they're doing things like staffing security checkpoints and providing a presence.

The area that I'm in right now is somewhat of a lawless area, where there's no national government presence. So it's really important for the army to get out and provide some sort of security for these people.

And U.S. soldiers say that the army here, the Afghan Army, is doing well, but there are some challenges. Language is a challenge. Often, these soldiers speak three different languages. They need a translator for the translator for the translator. And, also, about 70 percent of soldiers are illiterate.

So they're confronting these challenges, but they say that overall these soldiers are good soldiers. They're used to a lot of hardship, used to a lot of war and they're up for the job and they're proud of what they're doing.

M. O'BRIEN: Becky, let's talk about the remnants of the Taliban there.

Do the U.S. forces you've had an opportunity to talk with, the soldiers, and, for that matter, the commanders, do they have a sense that their efforts to stem the war on terror, to fight the war on terror, is meeting with success?

DIAMOND: They do. Soldiers here really believe that they're winning the war on terror. I spoke with a couple of soldiers today from the 82nd Airborne Division. And they say that they are really not seeing groups of organized insurgents. They say they're basically seeing criminals, crazies and thugs, and they say they rarely see more than 10 people at a time in any kind of combat related activity.

And they say that basically the Taliban has retreated from this area, which is also allowing for reconstruction efforts to go on here, things like building wells, distributing medicine and also training the Afghan Army. N some soldiers say the more that the Afghan Army can take over, the more it allows U.S. soldiers to go out and do other kinds of operations -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: And hopefully come home before too long.

Becky Diamond, embedded with U.S. forces in Afghanistan, something you'll see only here on CNN.

Thank you very much -- Carol.

COSTELLO: New details this morning after that Christmas Day shooting rampage outside of Washington, D.C. Police say 27-year-old Nathan Cheatham first shot and killed his mother outside of her home and then he drove to another home, where he killed three more people and then shot himself.

Police still don't have a motive for this crime. They say Cheatham had a history of mental problems.

Georgia police looking for one of the suspects in an early morning shootout in a Wal-Mart. Officers say two suspicious men were spotted inside the store late last night. When they were asked to leave, one of the men opened fire. The bullets hit a Wal-Mart employee. The suspected shooter was later caught and injured in a struggle with police. Both the suspect and the Wal-Mart employee now listed in stable condition.

In New Jersey, the search continues this morning for one of two police officers whose vehicle plunged off a drawbridge Sunday. The body of 40-year-old Sean Carson was recovered shortly after the incident. The missing officer is 30-year-old Robert Nguyen. The police chief says the search will continue until his body is found. Heavy rain and fog blamed for the accident.

Is it strike three for one of baseball's greatest relief pitchers? Jeff Reardon, who earned about $11 million during his 16- year baseball career, is now charged with holding up a jewelry store. He's being held in the Palm Beach County Jail awaiting a bond hearing. Reardon played for seven teams and is fifth among the all time saves leaders, with 367.

Let's head to the -- that's such a sad story -- Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I know. You know, it's really been tough being a Minnesota sports fan these days.

COSTELLO: Well, apparently he's had some family problems and I don't know, it's just really sad.

JERAS: Well, we wish him the best.

COSTELLO: But brighten our day by telling us about some good weather.

JERAS: Well, we do have some good weather to talk about. And we also have some not so good weather to talk about. (WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up on the program, some tense moments in New Orleans. Police shoot and kill a man waving a knife. Did they do the right thing? We'll talk to an attorney who happened to be a witness to the whole event.

COSTELLO: And later, BTK, Michael Jackson and Terry Schiavo -- senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin weighs in on the biggest court cases of 2005.

Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: In New Orleans this morning, a man is dead, shot and killed by police. An internal investigation is underway and New Orleans police face yet another challenge. This time it is defending the use of deadly force.

A witness to part of that stand-off, Robert Jenkins, who happens to be a defense attorney, joins us now from New Orleans.

Mr. Jenkins, good to have you with us.

ROBERT JENKINS, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: How are you doing?

M. O'BRIEN: All right.

Let's, if we could, first of all, just play this tape so people can see it. The suspect, who had been known by people in that area to act erratically, was brandishing a knife here. I don't know if we can freeze it to show you the knife. You can see upwards -- well, he had a knife in his right hand.

Here you see upwards of -- and right about there you'll see it, right in that area right there in his right hand. And it sort of glinted in the sunlight there.

I just want to point out we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, at least eight officers there. And if we move on, Michael, to the wider shot, upwards, in excess of a dozen police officers right about there.

Let's take a look right here -- one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 that I can count, probably more.

Mr. Jenkins, a lot of police presence there.

Was it too much?

JENKINS: Well, no, it wasn't too much. And, actually, there were many more officers there. Like I was telling the other reporters there, when the police came out, they ordered the man to put the gun down -- I mean the knife down. They told him to get on the ground. He refused. They pepper-sprayed him. He still didn't go down. And they also, you know, showed great restraint early on in terms of following him down the street.

M. O'BRIEN: OK, you would call that 13, 14 officers pointing guns at a person with a knife, you would call that great restraint?

JENKINS: Well, what I'm saying is that this video picks up somewhat halfway down the block.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

JENKINS: They were yelling at him, telling him to get down. At some point he was flailing at them and things of that nature. But they were following him down the street.

What you don't see in this video is that when they pepper-sprayed him, he had gone in his pocket and took a handkerchief or a towel and wiped it off and continued to go down the street.

M. O'BRIEN: You mentioned pepper spray...

JENKINS: Personally...

M. O'BRIEN: You mentioned pepper spray.

Why didn't they taser him?

JENKINS: I don't even know if they had tasers. I really couldn't tell you.

I personally think that they could have shot him in the leg or something of that nature...

M. O'BRIEN: Well, you know, they're not trained to do that.

JENKINS: ... but they're trained to.

M. O'BRIEN: You know that.

JENKINS: Yes, I know that.

M. O'BRIEN: You know the police aren't trained for that.

JENKINS: I know that.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

JENKINS: But I'm just saying personally what I think.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

JENKINS: They're not trained to do that. But the other side of it is that there was no question about that they had ordered him to get down. They told him to drop the knife and he just wouldn't comply. M. O'BRIEN: All right, let's listen quickly to David Adams, who is the New Orleans Police Department spokesman and see what he has to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID ADAMS, NEW ORLEANS POLICE DEPARTMENT: We have several officers out here, police officers right in front of him. Their life was in imminent danger. He has to back out of the way to keep from being stabbed in his chest. I don't think it's too much force.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: All right, here's the thing, though. You've got, you said, more than 14 officers. I can count 14 officers with semi- automatic weapons...

JENKINS: Correct.

M. O'BRIEN: ... versus one guy with a knife.

JENKINS: Correct.

M. O'BRIEN: It seems as if there could be a non-lethal way to stop this situation, and I have to ask the question, did they sort of provoke this incident by surrounding him that way?

JENKINS: Well, I don't think, personally, that they provoked him. I think they were just trying to end the situation early on.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, they ended it, all right.

JENKINS: They went down about another block...

M. O'BRIEN: They certainly ended it early on, if that was the goal.

JENKINS: Right. But what I'm trying to get you to understand is, you know, I saw it unfold and I don't think that they purposely provoked him. If you had to be here to see that they were shouting commands, they were asking him to get down, they were telling him to drop the knife.

Now, at some point down the block, he allegedly launched at the police officers and they fired. I don't agree with it. As I said, I thought they could have shot him in the leg, but they are not trained to do so, as you know.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, a final thought here...

JENKINS: The other thing about...

M. O'BRIEN: Let's -- I need to put this in context. You know, this comes -- a lot of people's knowledge of the New Orleans Police Department is obviously very limited here. It's post-Katrina, unfortunately, because there's a lot of focus there. JENKINS: OK.

M. O'BRIEN: And we saw, of course, what happened in the French Quarter a couple of weeks after Katrina, that beating.

Is this part of a pattern there?

And a related question, are these police officers being asked to do too much? Are they under too much stress, do you think?

JENKINS: Well, I don't think so. I just think that you have to take each incident as it happens.

Now, on the other side of it, you know, in this particular case, people are going to look at it the way they want to view it based on their relationship with the police department.

As you know, I've sued them. I've represented them. I fight them often. But in this particular case, I can tell you, just from my own personal observation, that it was restraint a lot early on. In view of what happened last week with the officers being fired and the beating in the French Quarter and the killing in the French Quarter, you're going to have people saying that this is just another thing that happens in the NOPD.

I'm only telling you what I saw and how I viewed it.

M. O'BRIEN: Robert Jenkins, who is a criminal defense attorney, who happened to be a witness yesterday, joining us from New Orleans.

Thank you very much -- Carol.

JENKINS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, the Michael Jackson case might have gotten the most attention, but it wasn't the only big trial of 2005. Senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin gives us his picks for the trials of the year.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All this week on AMERICAN MORNING, we're taking a look at five diets that work, one each day, with lessons for health conscious dieters.

Today we look at a Web site that virtually watches what you eat.

For an explanation, let's get right to nutritionist Heidi Skolnik.

She's also a columnist for "Men's Health" magazine.

Nice to talk to you.

HEIDI SKOLNIK, NUTRITIONIST, "MEN'S HEALTH" MAGAZINE: Good morning.

S. O'BRIEN: This is basically journaling, but it's online journaling.

Why do nutritionists like journaling for weight loss?

SKOLNIK: Journaling is an excellent tool to help individuals become aware of what they're really doing. I'll see people come into my office and they'll say, oh, yes, I really eat well, I have fruits and vegetables every day, I'm not big on chips or candy. And then we look at what they're eating...

S. O'BRIEN: Lots of candy, lots of chips.

SKOLNIK: And what -- you know, they had a banana one day --

S. O'BRIEN: Guilty!

SKOLNIK: Then orange juice the next. That's not really abundant, you know, or right. They think oh, well, I have it twice a week and you see really four out of five days they're eating chips before dinner because they're so hungry.

So journaling makes you become very aware. One of the things they say at Nutrax is that it's not one food decision that determines your diet, it's a trend of decisions. And what this food log does is helps you see the trend of decisions that you make.

S. O'BRIEN: So this Web site allows you basically to connect to nutritionists?

SKOLNIK: There's two different levels. Nutrax Lite is where you can really be your own nutritionist, keep your own journal. You can use a camera phone. You can use a digital camera and you can actually keep a journal that is a photo log of your food. And there's feedback.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's, for example, show...

SKOLNIK: OK.

S. O'BRIEN: ... if you were having, let's say this is my lunch here.

SKOLNIK: OK.

S. O'BRIEN: Ooh, yum, a burrito and chips and a big old soda. I'd snap a picture, I would send it to the Web site.

SKOLNIK: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: Then what happens? SKOLNIK: Well, what happens is if you're doing it on your own, you would get feedback on what's in there. The other thing is like I'll have a client who say they had a burrito. Well, is it a small burrito? Is it a double-sized burrito? Is that a burrito that really has 1,200 calories in it? It makes a big...

S. O'BRIEN: That one.

SKOLNIK: It makes a big difference. Do you eat the chips? Did you have it with the soda?

S. O'BRIEN: It kind of keeps you truthful.

SKOLNIK: And it keeps you -- exactly. It keeps you more accurate, really, what you're taking in. You can't deceive yourself, because we all can keep food journals. It's only as good as the real information that you put in.

But what Nutrax does have, there's the Nutrax Lite that gives you feedback...

S. O'BRIEN: And then what's the next level?

SKOLNIK: The next level is for about $13 a week, you can actually have a nutritionist on the other end, your own nutritionist that you send the food log to, who will give you feedback and help you create alternative solutions and really help you begin to individualize it to your schedule, your goals, no matter where you are, no matter where you are in the country and no matter what your travel schedule is. It's 24-7. It's just as easy as getting onto your computer.

S. O'BRIEN: I think this sounds so great, but I'm wondering, as a nutritionist, do you like this idea or do you hate it?

SKOLNIK: I think it's fantastic. I think it gives access to a lot more people who otherwise may be reluctant to either get out of the office to get to an appointment or don't like to go to the group settings.

S. O'BRIEN: What kind of person? Like I can't see my mom -- not that she needs to, you know, lose weight or work on any of her, you know, her medical issues.

SKOLNIK: But I can't...

S. O'BRIEN: Not that there would anything wrong with it.

SKOLNIK: Right...

S. O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) my mother. But I can't see her, you know, clicking with her camera phone and then downloading it.

SKOLNIK: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: So there are only certain types of people who really should go this route, right?

SKOLNIK: Well, I mean I think it's very contemporary, it's very technological. It's, you know, although it's very easy. But if you're intimidated, it may not be for u.

But for everyone else who really wants immediate, who wants feedback and who's very comfortable, who's out there with the latest gadget, who's getting the camera phones, which really so many people have.

So it may not be for your mom, but it's probably for almost anybody under the age of 50.

S. O'BRIEN: Ninety-nine.

Heidi Skolnik, thanks, as always.

Appreciate it.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Tomorrow's diet that works, The Portion Teller.

The Portion Teller?

COSTELLO: Like the fortune teller, only portion.

M. O'BRIEN: I get it. Yes, I was -- I now get that.

All right, now that I've said it, how to know what a true portion size should be without weighing, measuring or counting calories. And it's not just for people looking to lose weight either.

Coming up, "The Jetsons" promised a future full of flying cars and talking robot maids. Where are they? We want them. We haven't seen them yet. Ooh.

COSTELLO: What? There's one.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, there's one right there.

Wow!

Anyway, if you listen up, folks. The future is actually already here. A world of technological wonders ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com