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Pressure Cooker Lid Found on Rooftop; Most Victims Home from Hospitals; Keeping Crowds at Big Events; New Arrest in Texas D.A. Killings; Exclusive: Pressure Cooking Lid Found on Roof; Markets Open Lower

Aired April 17, 2013 - 09:30   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Earlier this morning, we got some good news out of Boston. Most of the people injured in the bombings have been released from the hospital. That's not to say there are plenty of people still in the hospital being treated.

Let's head to Boston to find out more.

Good morning, Don.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yes, yes, good news, but still again, a long way to go, Carol, as you said. Of the 183 people hospitalized in Monday's attack, at least 100 have been sent home. At least 100 of them.

CNN's senior medical correspondent is Elizabeth Cohen. She is at Brigham and Women's Hospital with an update on the very latest for us.

So how many survivors are still being treated there? And what are their injuries, Elizabeth?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Don, the injuries are of a wide range. There are some people who aren't very severely injured. And as we've noted, they have been discharged. And then there are some people who unfortunately have had to have a leg amputated or even both legs amputated.

We know, for example, at one hospital, Boston Medical Center, yesterday they had 10 patients in critical condition, now they have only two. So people are on the road to recovery. And I want to tell you about one couple who shared their story. They were only 10 feet away from the blast. Their names are Nicholas and Lee Ann Yanni. And they managed to get to a store that sold clothing. And the husband looked at the wife, saw blood gushing from her calf, and he tore shirts off the racks of the store and made a tourniquet for her.

She told him she was doing OK and he went outside to help other people. He then noticed his wife was being taken to an ambulance and he said let me on that ambulance, that's my wife. They went on the ambulance together to Tufts. She had surgery for a shattered bone in her calf and this is what he had to say after the surgery.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NICHOLAS YANNI, BOMBING VICTIM: You know, it was like -- like -- you know, like home, like -- you felt safe, you know, because, you know, the people you love are there with you, and you know they are OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Nicholas Yanni said that his wife was as cool as a cucumber through the entire ordeal and now husband and wife are recovering together in the same room at Tufts Medical Center. Tufts is one of about 11 hospitals that are taking care of the wounded -- Don.

LEMON: And, Elizabeth, you know, we heard about -- just how crude these particular bombs were. Ball bearings. And we understand many of the victims were hit with shrapnel, maybe some of the debris from things that were near these bombs. How is that treated? How is that being treated?

COHEN: You know, we've been told by doctors that most of these little pieces of shrapnel really went just below the skin, and so they had to be cleaned out. But they said really the big injuries here, the things that they're worried about the most aren't from the shrapnel, they are from the explosion itself.

LEMON: All right. Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. Thank you, Elizabeth.

Back to Carol in Atlanta now -- Carol.

COSTELLO: We'll have much, much more to come on what happened in Boston and the latest information on the investigation. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: And new information into CNN. This is coming from CNN's Fran Townsend, our security expert, who is saying that a lid to a pressure cooker much like this one, a six-liter pressure cooker, two of them believed to be what caused that blast. Fashioned with ball bearings and nails inside.

But the lid to a pressure cooker found right across the street from the finish line of the Boston Marathon. And this will be used to help figure out exactly who may be behind this. So, again, a lid to a pressure cooker, six-liter pressure cooker much like this one, found across the street from the finish line there at the Boston Marathon, and, again, that's what investigators are going to use to try to put together, piece together exactly what happened.

And in the wake of all of this, of this terror attack on Monday in Boston, you know, it has gotten people really nervous around the country. Understandable that many people across the country are anxious and they are attending large events like baseball games and NASCAR races this weekend.

I want to go to CNN's Miguel Marquez. He is standing by now to tell us about how they're going to keep crowds secure for other events -- Miguel.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's going to be very difficult there, Don. But it's not only people across the U.S. but around the world are watching Boston, hoping to learn lessons.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ (voice-over): When it comes to security at big events, despite the number of people attending, each event presents a different security challenge or nightmare.

TOM FUENTES, FORMER FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: If you have something like the Super Bowl football game or World Cup soccer, you have the majority of the crowd confined in a stadium of some sort.

MARQUEZ: Places like Dodger Stadium, easier to protect. Vigilance and security increased since Boston. More thorough bag checks, more police presence.

But in public venues, mass crowds not separated by stadium walls, security headaches multiplied.

(On camera): Organizers for this weekend's London Marathon are reassessing security plans for its 35,000 runners and tens of thousands of fans lining the route. It's the same problem in Tempe, Arizona, at this weekend's Pat Tillman Run.

It's extremely challenging because it's not a secure environment. You know, we can't put fences around it. We can't put an officer every two feet. So we really on every set of eyes out there.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): With so many radicalized groups, or individuals out there, so many large events and soft targets, regardless of the event, the best security is knowing of the threat before the events occur. That means intelligence and lots of cameras, electronic surveillance and more law enforcement.

FUENTES: I think for the most part, the public has pretty much sad since 9/11. We'll live with that. We'll go ahead and accept that that's -- that's the new world we live in.

MARQUEZ: Identifying who carried out the Boston bombing and will help security officials everywhere, but no where will it change the threat to large public events.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: Now look, Russian officials have also said in Sochi for the winter Olympics, they are watching what happens in Boston. And right now it's music, concert season, so you have Coachella Festival out here. They have a higher vigilance out in the desert here because of Boston and Fourth of July events. They're all swinging it because those are very open events as well.

All -- all authorities looking at Boston, hoping that once they figured out what happened in Boston, it will helm them go forward and make their venues more secured as well -- Don.

LEMON: All right. CNN's Miguel Marquez. Miguel, thank you. It's certainly the season now, it's starting to warm up. More outdoor events, more concerts, more ball games. And again, I just want to give our viewers the information on the breaking news here at CNN.

Our security experts -- security analyst, Fran Townsend, getting the information this morning that right across the street from the finish line to the Boston Marathon, a pressure cooker top was found on the roof of a building. Again two pressure cookers they believe -- investigators believe that what caused these two particular explosions here. They believe that the bombmaker fashioned the pressure cooker into a bomb by using nails and ball bearings and other explosive material.

More information on the breaking news and other stories when we come right back here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: "The Dallas Morning News" reporting an arrest in connection with the killings of a Kaufman County District Attorney and another man a prosecutor Mark Hasse. Martin Savidge is on the phone once again. Do you have anything more about this arrest?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Carol we're still trying to work this through. Right now the officials over at the county jail at Kaufman County, where this woman who's now been taken into custody is being held, have suddenly said that they are not allowed to say anything.

It was posted on the Web site of the Kaufman County jail that a Kim Williams, age 46, was booked in at about 3:00 this morning. "The Dallas Morning News" says she is the wife of a former Justice of the Peace and that she's being held on a capital murder charge. Now as we point out this is the first arrest that's directly being tied to those terrible murders that took place in Kaufman County and it shocked not just the county, but it shocked the nation.

You had an assistant district attorney gunned down in broad daylight, outside of a courthouse and then about a month and a half later, two months later, you had the District Attorney and his wife both brutally murdered inside their own home. It triggered a wave of fear and it brought not just local investigation, but federal prosecutors.

But now to find out that the wife of this former Justice of the Peace has been charged is pretty interesting. And let me just tell where you the Justice of the Peace fits in all of this equation. We're talking about Eric Williams. He is one of just several avenues that authorities say they had been investigating including white supremacist groups and others. So he has never been labeled as a suspect or prime suspect.

In fact, just yesterday when I asked investigators about Mr. Williams, they again said he is not a suspect. But he is in custody on another unrelated charge to the murders here. So now that his wife has been brought in overnight, she is charged with capital murder, it's an eye opening experience for many in this county here and you can bet that things are now going to move pretty quickly. We anticipate to hear more in the coming hours -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, we'll let you get back to it. Martin Savidge thanks so much -- reporting breaking news this morning.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: There is new information into CNN now about the bombings here in Boston. We are being told by an official with knowledge of this investigation. Our Fran Townsend, our security analyst, saying that a pressure cooker lid similar to this one, a pressure cooker lid, believed to be used in those bombing at the Boston Marathon found on a roof not far from the marathon site -- not far from the finish line.

That will be used as well as other information, other materials found to piece together exactly what happened. We're also being told that the remains of the pressure cooker found at the scene there are pictures now that are coming in along with a shredded back pack and what appeared to be metal pellets or ball bearings strapped of at least one pressure cooker, nails, a nylon bag, found at the scene were sent to the FBI's national laboratory in Virginia where technicians will try to reconstruct the devices and the agent leading this investigation told us this information on Tuesday.

These pieces suggest that each of the devices was a six-liter -- six liters about 1.6 gallons in volume. That's according to a Boston law enforcement source. And the recovered parts included part of a circuit board which -- which might have been used to detonate a device.

Again that's the information coming in to CNN now from sources, who are close to this investigation. They're going to look at timers, they're going to look at circuit boards, they're going to look at all of the part that may have been used in this ball bearing, BBs, nails, anything found at that scene to try to piece together exactly who did this and how they did it.

Again, CNN has found, has learned, that a pressure cooker lid, believed to be used in one of the explosions at the Boston Marathon found on the roof of a building right across from the finish line. More information right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right, we want to take you to the New York Stock Exchange now. Because stocks are sharply down this morning and we're all wondering why. Alison Kosik can you tell us.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: A couple of things in the mix today. Good morning Carol. Company earnings, the global economy those are in focus, also those lingering concerns about slowing growth in China that's what's weighing on the market as well.

Let's go to the earnings. Bank of America reported disappointing earnings the bank missed Wall Street profit expectations. It looks like consumer banking which is the biggest division within that company, saw not only profits but sales dipped from a year ago.

Also, it's mortgage side of the biz that slumped and this is the fifth major bank to post earnings. So some of the others have missed on sales, B of A is the first to miss on forecast, we are watching shares of Bank of America tumble more than three percent.

Yahoo also weighing on things, although the Yahoo shares are up a bit. It looks like the honeymoon may be over for Yahoo's new CEO Marisa Mayer. The tech giant reported a lousy first quarter with its sales and a down beat outlook for the near term.

So you know what, you roll all of it together and it's got the broader market pulling away from those record level we've talking so much about. We are seeing the Dow fall about 97 points -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right Alison Kosik reporting live from the New York Stock Exchange.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Good morning, everyone. I'm Don Lemon in Boston.

We're going to begin with this. I'm holding in my hand, the lid to a pressure cooker. Why am I doing that because the new development that's coming in from this week's terror attack includes exactly this.

This is what we are learning, this morning at CNN Exclusive we have learned that investigators have found the lid to a pressure cooker similar to this one believed to have been used in the bombings. Take a look at these new pictures. That pressure cooker which was found on a rooftop may have helped, may help complete this -- these images that surfaced overnight.

They show the remains of a pressure cooker, a shredded backpack and what appears to be metal pellets. all of this according to a Boston law enforcement source is saying that the devices should pack about a gallon and a half of killing power. A partial circuit board was also found. This suggests that the bomb are possibly detonated by timers.