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Weekend Early Start

California Shooting Suspect Identified; Missing Teacher Apparently Found; Govt. To Investigate NSA Leak

Aired June 09, 2013 - 07:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Pamela Brown. Nice to have you here with us.

We begin this morning with breaking news out of California. We now know the name of the suspected gunman in the rampage that left four people dead Friday in Santa Monica.

Take a look right here looking at a 2006 year book photo of John Zawahri. Police say he began his shooting spree at a house where he killed his father Samir and his brother Chris.

CNN's Stephanie Elam is in Santa Monica this morning.

And, Stephanie, what more have police said about the gunman.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, Pamela, this is a story we've been following to get any details we can out of this. One other thing we believe, according to police, is that John Zawahri, he actually set the house on fire before he killed his brother and father. That's one thing they're telling us before he then carjacked a woman and then shot at a city bus.

One other thing we are learning now too is that this was -- the shooting happened a day before his 24th birthday. Obviously, he was also killed in this shooting spree.

We also have learned that he attended a high school for people who are behind in credits as recently as 2006.

And we also now know that as recently as 2010 that he was a student along with another family member at Santa Monica College as well, Pamela.

BROWN: All right. And, Stephanie, police now know John Zawahri amassed all of these weapons. Do we know how?

ELAM: That is something that they definitely want to find out more about because he did have such a cache of weapons with him and ammunition. They're particularly interested in one rifle in particular. It's a .223 semiautomatic rifle. That's highly regulated here in California. So, they're very interested in learning exactly how he was able to get possession of that one rifle. BROWN: And I know they're also trying to learn motive. Any clues to a motive at this point?

ELAM: No clues yet, but there's a couple of things we can tell you. For one thing, police officials do not believe that this had anything to do with terrorism. This was just a singular individual who just went off.

They're also saying he was dealing with mental health issues and that he did get some treatment in 2006. Police did have contact with him then, but he was a juvenile. And so, because of that, no information was released.

But we also don't know whether or not it was the family that went to find treatment for him or if it was officials that put him into that treatment as well. This is the little bit of information we're getting about him, but it's still very sketchy at best to know what could have caused him to want to go shoot at people, which seemingly right now seems like it was random on Friday afternoon.

BROWN: All right. Stephanie Elam, thank you for that update.

Ninety-eight days, that's how long it took police to apparently find a teacher missing in New Orleans. A car belonging to Terrilynn Monette was pulled from a bayou yesterday. The body behind the wheel is believed to be hers. And if it wasn't for a police officer volunteering his time, that car might still be under water.

CNN's Nick Valencia is here with more.

Nick, you've been following this story. How could it take so long to find her? And, by the way, police have searched this area before where the car was found, right?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I was there in mid-March when police were bringing in divers. In fact, they brought in an independent search and rescue team from Texas, Equusearch. They were made famous during the Natalee Holloway investigation.

They had sonar equipment. They were combing the waterways of Bayou St. John. They couldn't find her. In fact, the family and friends spoke to our local affiliate yesterday. They're still very upset and they're looking for answers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How long the car been there? If they done searched this area, this area been searched before and it's really mindboggling to me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We never would have imagined this would have happened. How do we move on?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: It certainly wasn't for a lack of effort, Pamela. They were passing out these buttons and flyers all throughout the area when I was there. Everybody was looking for her. It was all hands on deck.

Yesterday, it seems it's the closure, but not the closure the family was hoping for.

BROWN: Obviously not. It's been very tough for them.

There's so many unanswered questions still, nick. They have found the car. We still don't know how it ended up in the bayou, or do we?

VALENCIA: Right. Well, it's an open criminal investigation at this point. Up until now, the mother specifically, Toni Enclade, that told me that she believed that foul play was at hand here. Yesterday, I spoke to her best friend, it seems they sort of quelled that and sort of suppressed. They believe that Terrilynn may have left the bar and driven directly straight into the bayou.

Having said that, this still is an open investigation. The homicide detectives are still gathering evidence, poring over evidence. We won't know officially it's her body until the coroner's office comes out and announces it officially.

BROWN: But we presume it is.

VALENCIA: That's right.

BROWN: We're just waiting for official declaration.

VALENCIA: That's right.

BROWN: Our hearts to go out to her family, certainly.

All right. Nick Valencia, thank you for following the story for us.

VALENCIA: Thank you.

BROWN: Some heart breaking news to pass along right now.

Sarah -- 10-year-old Sarah Murnaghan has taken a turn for the worse, we've learned. She's the little girl who captured the hearts of so many. She's right here. She's been fighting cystic fibrosis and her fight for survival has sparked a national debate over transplant roles. Her mom posted on Facebook last night that doctors had put a tube down Sarah's throat to help her breathe. She said, quote, it's been unimaginably awful here. You can imagine all you parents out there watching how difficult this must be for her family.

And this all comes ahead of tomorrow's emergency meeting of the group that sets national rules for lung transplants. Members could change the policy that puts kids at the very end of the waiting list inform adult organs no matter how sick they are.

I talked about this yesterday with Congressman Tom Price of Georgia. He's an orthopedic surgeon with two decades of experience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TOM PRICE (R), GEORGIA: Everybody ought to be treated equally. And this is only fair. If -- again, if the physicians involved, if the surgeons involved, if the transplant surgeons involved, the family and the institution, that's the hospital is capable of doing this, and they all believe the patient would be eligible for it, if they were an adult, then there isn't any reason not to treat everybody equally.

So, there's a process we go through -- again, it's scientists and physicians and transplant surgeons who are involved in all of this. It ought not be Washington, D.C. That's the point we were trying to make.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And, of course, CNN has been staying on this story. We'll keep you up to date on tomorrow's hearing and how little Sarah is doing. We wish her the best and hope she pulls through.

And keeping secrets -- turning now to the government. Keeping secrets is essential to the government, but in the Obama administration those secrets keep getting out, it seems, like the NSA data mining program, which came to light this past week because of a leak.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't -- I don't welcome leaks because there's a reason why these programs are classified. I think there is a suggestion that somehow any classified program is a, quote-unquote, "secret program," which means it's somehow suspicious. But the fact of the matter is, in our modern history, there are a whole range of programs that have been classified.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Now, remember, the NSA's phone tracking program had been going on for several years and Congress knew about it. It's not the biggest, just the latest leak to hamstring the Obama administration. The White House is launching an investigation to find out how that secret got out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN RHODES, DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: What we're focused on doing right now -- and you see this in the DNI statement -- is frankly doing an assessment of damage done to national security by the revelation of this information, which is necessarily secret because the United States needs to be able to conduct intelligence activities without those methods being revealed to the world. So, currently, there's an investigation under way to understand what potential damage may be done. As it relates to any potential investigations, we're still in the early stages of this. Obviously, the Justice Department would have to be involved in that.

So, this is something I think will be addressed in the coming days by the Justice Department, the intelligence community in consultation with the full interagency that's been affected by these very disturbing leaks of National Security Administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Also, leaks are nothing new to the administration. Just a couple weeks ago, the administration was getting heat over the search of the phone records of the reporters as part of a leak investigation looking into how details of a foiled terror plot were revealed.

Attorney General Eric Holder said the information getting out put the American people at risk.

And then there's the James Rosen case. He's the journalist who reported on a failed plot targeting the Iranian government. That information was leaked from a CIA source.

And just this week, we saw the sort of the court martial of Private Bradley Manning. Manning is the one accused of leaking thousands of documents to WikiLeaks. All of them are troubling to the administration, and that's why "USA Today" reported, that the Obama administration has launched more leak investigations than any other administration combined.

But does that hurt the president in the eyes of the American people? You be the judge. When asked if he was honest and trustworthy, 58 percent said yes. When asked about "The Associated Press", the majority of people said the Justice Department was out of line.

But here's the real test of whether the leaks are hurting the president. They don't seem to be, with 53 percent of people approving of how President Obama is handling his job.

South Africans are praying this morning for Nelson Mandela. We are live at the hospital where Mandela is being treated, trying to find out the latest on his condition. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: One person is in custody in connection with the killings of two American troops and one American civilian. It all happened in Paktika province. That's in eastern Afghanistan. Sources say the attacker, who was killed, wore an Afghan army uniform.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUNTER KATZ, ISAF SPOKESMAN: Today was a difficult day for ISAF. We had two tragic incidents.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BROWN: An Italian soldier in western Afghanistan was also killed this weekend. Some people are concerned by ongoing attacks as NATO winds down its military presence in Afghanistan.

North and South Korea are trying to bridge their differences at their first official talks in two years. It's the latest sign of improved relations between the two countries. On Friday, the North reconnected with the hot line with the South, and it's hoped that today's meeting will pave the way for higher level talks on Wednesday.

South Africans are praying this morning for their beloved former President Nelson Mandela. So many people tried logging onto the president's Web site to hear about him that the site crashed.

Nkepile Mabuse is in Pretoria, at the hospital where he is being treated for a lung infection.

Nkepile, what is the latest on his condition?

NKEPILE MABUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, we have not heard anything new today, any new updates. The last update we've got was yesterday from the presidency, the South African presidency, who basically controlled communication around Nelson Mandela's health. They said, of course, he's being treated for pneumonia and is breathing unaided, he's breathing by himself.

Nothing new this morning. Of course, when the story broke, we were told that Mr. Mandela was rushed to hospital at 1:30 in the morning on Saturday with Graca Machel, his wife, by his side. We understand that he had been ill for a couple of days, and, of course, doctors found it worrying enough to rush him to hospital at that hour.

We are expecting that we may get an update today from the presidency, but that has not yet confirmed by them, Pamela.

BROWN: Nkepile, you mentioned that Nelson Mandela's wife has been by his bedside. What have we heard from the family?

MABUSE: You know, the family is not speaking at the moment, but every time he is rushed to hospital, he has been in hospital four times since December, many people who are closest to Mr. Mandela say they find comfort in the fact that he is a fighter.

And these are the sentiments really that were echoed by his grandson, who spoke to me exclusively last week Thursday in Cape Town.

This is what Mandla Mandela had to say about his grandfather's health.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANDLA MANDELA, NELSON MANDELA'S GRANDSON: He's been able to show his strength through being able to overcome the challenges health-wise, and he continues to be within our family, the monument that we all draw our strength from. So, I want to say he's my role model, one person that I will forever treasure. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MABUSE: You know, around the country today, many people praying for Mr. Mandela to recover very quickly, but I think the fact he has been in and out of hospital so many times recently has reminded South Africans that the inevitable will eventually happen. This is something that South Africans have not wanted to face for many, many years.

But now, it is very clear, he is very old. He's turning 95 next month, and I think many South Africans feeling that they want him to be discharged from hospital, but also loving him so much they don't want him to suffer any longer, Pamela.

BROWN: Absolutely. Certainly a somber day in South Africa. Nkepile, thank you so much for being live with us there.

Curators at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington have spent months collecting artifacts from survivors. We'll show you those precious objects, many of them never before seen by the public.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: For 20 years, the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington recognized one of the darkest moments in modern history. Its latest goal has been to collect personal artifacts from those who survived the Nazi wars.

The work started last year and spanned the country and it culminates today in Chicago.

I'm joined by Suzy Snyder in Chicago. And she's an associate curator with the Holocaust Museum.

Suzy, thanks for being with us.

First off, why is it so important to launch this project now?

SUZY SNYDER, ASSOC. CURATOR, U.S. HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM: I think 20 years after we've opened, we are looking at a diminishing survivor community, and this is the last chance we might have to speak with survivors of the Holocaust. So the artifacts that we collect on the road these past six months are really the last groups of materials we will get from survivors. From that point on, we depend on the next generation.

And when we have no survivors, these artifacts are the things that will speak to us.

BROWN: And let's talk about some of these items, Suzy. Most of them have never been seen by the public before and have been made available exclusively to CNN.

Let's talk about the uniforms we have here. Take a look. What can you tell us about the uniforms?

SNYDER: The uniforms were worn by a father and his son who were originally from Germany. They were deported to the Krakow Ghetto and from there, they worked for Oscar Schindler. They survived. They came to the United States in 1947. The uniforms were put away, and only after the son passed away did the uniforms come to light.

And so, it was amazing that nieces of the gentlemen had found the uniforms, and they chose to donate them at our New York venue.

BROWN: With each artifact comes just an incredible story, Susie, as you said there. You've also collected passports. What can we learn from the names and the photos in these documents?

SNYDER: The passports are interesting because, generally, they were issued after 1938, and they were issued -- most passports were issued to the general public. In these cases, these passports have the middle name Sara or Israel, indicating the person that was the bearer was a Jew. That gives us a lot of insight.

Also, within the passport, their travel is usually documented with stamps. It tells us how they got out, if they got out in 1938 or 1939. Some of them got out as late as 1941.

BROWN: Wow.

And, Sara, you also -- or, Suzy, rather, you also have some very personal items. It gives you chills when you think about this -- a little girl's dress and a stuffed bunny. What do objects like this teach us about the Holocaust?

SNYDER: These objects are very personal images to people, and many of our survivors wait until later in their life to donate these objects because, for example, it's the one thing they carried with them or the first object that they had. In the case of the bunny, it was given to a child who was really very young and in the concentration camp.

And the bunny was made for her by another victim in the camp. So, for her, it's not only her memory but it's the first object she carried with. The blouse is a similar story. It came with a little girl when she was a Viennese refugee arriving in the United States in 1938. So, for her, this was the tangible object that she brought with her.

BROWN: All right. Suzy, thank you so much. You've written an essay about the Holocaust Museum's latest project.

You can find it and more photos from this collection at CNN.com/opinion.

Suzy Snyder, thank you so much for being with us.

SNYDER: Thank you. BROWN: Falling to her knees in celebration. Serena Williams made history once again at the French Open this weekend. The details, up next.

But, first, let's check in with Dr. Sanjay Gupta for a look at what's coming up on "SGMD" at the bottom of the hour.

Good morning, Sanjay.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Pamela, I'm going to take a closer look at performance enhancing drugs, testosterone and growth hormones specifically. You know, not just pros, but a lot of athletes are taking these. There are real risks, and the drugs may not do what you think they're going to do.

Also, I'm going to explain the latest research on sunscreens. Which ones might keep your skin looking younger?

And also, Dr. Phil McGraw is coming by to talk about his new book, about getting rid of toxic people.

All that coming up at 7:30 a.m. Eastern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Welcome back, everybody. Let's take a look at sports, shall we?

Another Triple Crown season came to an end with the 145th running of the Belmont.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

BROWN: The big winner of the $1 million race was underdog Palace Malice, a long shot with 15-1 odds. The South Carolina bred 3-year- old managed to outduel Oxbow, the Preakness winner and this orb, this year's Kentucky derby winner. Palace Malice had just won a victory prior to this weekend.

Well, it may have taken 11 years, but Serena Williams finally did it again this weekend, winning the French Open in a compelling final against reigning champion Maria Sharapova. After the win, Serena dropped to her knees in celebration and put her head to the clay, obviously very excited for good reason.

Obviously, very excited for good reason. It's the 31-year-old's second Roland Garros title to date and her 16th major trophy overall.

All right. Let's go to baseball now. The Mets and Marlins decided to make up for Friday's rainout by playing extra long on Saturday. The game went 20 innings with the Mets pulling out the 2-1 win. Rangers and Blue Jays tried to keep up. They played 18 innings. It's just the second time in history that two games went at least 18 innings on the same day.

I'll see you back here at the top of the hour, 8:00 Eastern Time.

First, "SANJAY GUPTA, M.D." which begins right now.