Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Flooding Spreads from South to Midwest; Celebrity Battles over Kids; Search On for Kidnapping and Murder Suspect; Amber Alert Extended to Oregon; Teen Dies After Police Taser Him; Part of South Under Water; California Wildfire Explodes in Size; Latest Car Safety Data Examined; Father of a Kidnapped Girl Talks to CNN

Aired August 08, 2013 - 13:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't fathom what happened in Jim's head. What happened. He, obviously, just lost it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: The desperate search for two missing children in California. A father speaks to CNN about the man wanted in connection with their kidnapping.

And this is how some commuters started their day. This is in Nashville. Their bus gets stuck in flood waters, but this isn't the only trouble spot. We're going to take a look at the areas hardest hit.

And following the near death of their son in a pool accident, Usher's ex-wife says she wants custody. We're going to take a closer look at public celebrity battles over children.

This is CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Just a couple hours ago, we heard from the father of a girl that police believe was abducted in southern California after her mother was killed. Brett Anderson spoke to our own Chris Cuomo and police are doing DNA tests on some remains to figure out if the man's eight-year-old son was killed. Anderson says the alleged kidnapper was his good friend, a man that looked out for his family while he was working in another state.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRETT ANDERSON: He and I had a very close relationship over the years, and we have done many, many things throughout the years together, and he is basically became like part of our family. He was always around, and we always did stuff together as a family, and sometimes he took the kids camping. But we were just very good friends.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is your buddy. You know him. Was there ever anything --

ANDERSON: Yes.

CUOMO: -- about him that you found suspicious? I know the easy answer is no because you wouldn't have had him around your family but searching your history now, was there anything there?

ANDERSON: You know, I have come up blank. I have been through every scenario in my brain. There was nothing ever to show any indication of this. He -- everybody you can even talk to loved him. He'd -- he would give you the shirt off his back. And he was there to help at any time you called, and nothing ever like this indicated anything. I am hearing different stories, you know, but nothing to me ever indicated anything like this.

CUOMO: So, in piecing this back together, your kids and their mother going up to his cabin, not unusual, happened all the time, can't read into it.

ANDERSON: That is correct. I can't say it happened all the time, but a lot of times he was down at our place, --

CUOMO: OK.

ANDERSON: -- and every once in a while the kids, even myself when I was in San Diego would go up there and stay the night and we would ride a go cart or do whatever, you know, and there was just -- being like camping out because of his cabin.

CUOMO: Now, we have heard these rumors as have you that your 16-year- old daughter Hannah had become uncomfortable around him. He had expressed that he had a crush. We don't know the context. We don't know what really happened. But had you heard anything about that until now?

ANDERSON: I have not heard anything about that. If I had heard and about that and -- or my wife had heard something about that, it would have been cut off.

CUOMO: No question about it?

ANDERSON: No question about it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Wow. We're going to bring you the rest of that very powerful interview with Brett Anderson later in the show. But first, I want to bring in Paul Vercammen in San Diego to tell us a little bit more about the search now for this guy, this alleged abductor. And, I mean, the police have put out this Amber Alert. I imagine that they have gotten a lot of tips on where James Dimaggio could be. Are they any closer to finding him?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right now, no, Suzanne, and the most credible tips they had come yesterday afternoon out of extreme northeastern California, Modoc County, and the city of all tourists. Apparently, they're a business owner seeing a license plate that possibly matched that of the blue Versa, same make of car. Now, they say one problem with that tip is the person who reported this saw multiple possibly four people in that car and that wouldn't add up.

And then, later also, it crossed the border in Oregon, another possible sighting. I spoke with the Oregon State Police just a short time ago. Nothing about that car since then. But something to think about, because Dimaggio is an avid outdoorsman, they say he would be well familiar with driving country roads and interestingly enough back in -- 18 years ago, he was cited for a misdemeanor in Texas, found guilty. And basically what he did was he had fled from an officer. He was speeding down a country road at about 60, 70 miles per hour -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And, Paul, we have also heard, too -- last night we heard from the abducted girls, the best friend, a young man that told Nancy Grace that Dimaggio told this young girl that he had romantic feelings for her. Do we know how that even plays into all of this?

VERCAMMEN: That is a lead, of course, that police are pursuing and a neighbor had also said Dimaggio had taken the girl to Hollywood, at point -- at one point. Now, Dimaggio has an ex-wife and they quizzed her as well. Perhaps, you know, they have always joked that ex-wives will tell all and she said, if anything, that Dimaggio was just absolutely great around her son. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was very, very nice. He was great to my son. I had a son, and my son was about five years old, and he was -- he was just an all-around nice guy, and, you know, there was no -- he gave me no reason to have any -- there was no red flags whatsoever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: And again, Suzanne, all of those close to the family absolutely stunned by what happened here.

MALVEAUX: It is stunning. Please give us updates when you know where he could possibly be. This is a very disturbing story and of course we want to find those children. Thanks, Paul.

We're going to actually hear the rest of Chris Cuomo's emotional, very powerful interview he has with the father, Brett Anderson. That's going to be later in the show, 1:30 Eastern. You're going to want to listen to the rest of that interview.

In Florida, detectives are now investigating the death of a teenager after police tasered him. That's right. Friends told our affiliate, WSVN, that Israel Hernandez, he was spray painting a building when police stopped him. They spotted him. He ran. They chased him down. When it was all over, this young man was dead. I want to bring our Nick Valencia who's following the story for us. Explain this to us, how this actually happened.

Well, his friends are very angry about what happened. About 5 a.m., Israel is spray painting an abandoned building, an abandoned McDonalds, when the cops came and confronted him and he took off. He went running. And when he went running, that's when police -- he led police on this chase. They cornered him and said they had to tase him in order to arrest him. But it's the friends and family that are really outraged about how police handled this.

In fact, two of his friends that were with him, Suzanne, say that friends -- say that the police stood over Hernandez's body and high fived each other. They say the life of a very talented graffiti artist was taken too soon. But his actions were not without criticism. In fact, there are some people that are voicing their criticism of Hernandez saying that he was a vandal and that he should have stopped when police told him to stop. Now, I spoke with his girlfriend earlier this morning, and I asked her to respond to those -- to those criticisms.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

ALEXANDRIA MORGAN: You know, Israel, he ran because he was scared. You know, he's just a kid. He only weighs probably like 140 pounds. He's just a child in so many ways. And he's so -- he is such a pure, innocent person, and he'd never do -- he is the farthest thing from (INAUDIBLE.)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: Police have released a statement that says in part that they had to tase him in order to arrest him. Toxicology and autopsy are pending. We did ask his girlfriend though, he went by the name Reefa, alluding to drug use. We asked her if he was a drug addict and perhaps had narcotics in his system. She said he was straight edged, straight laced kid that he was just a really pure and innocent person.

MALVEAUX: Did the police explain was he violent in any way? I mean, why was it they -- first of all, they felt they needed to tase him? And then secondly, while he was there in their custody, I mean, if he was undergoing some sort of stress medical duress, why didn't they actually help him out or get some sort of medical help?

VERCAMMEN: Well, they did. They called the ambulance and he was taken to a local hospital, nearby hospital and pronounced dead within the hour. The police report that we read doesn't really go into detail about why they had to use deadly force. And even in their statement, Suzanne, they just said that they had to do it in order to arrest him.

Now, we've reached out to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement which often gets involved in deadly force cases. Though in south Florida, they tell us the south Florida police departments, they usually like to take the lead on their own use of deadly force investigations. So, right now, we're not sure in an outside party is going to get involved or if the Miami Beach Police Department is just going to take the lead on this.

MALVEAUX: All right. Keep us posted.

VERCAMMEN: Absolutely.

MALVEAUX: All right, thank you. Here is also what we're working on for this hour. Honda tops the test in safety ratings and Nissan and Kia not so much. The new crash test report is out and we've got the list.

And roads have turned into rivers. This is in Nashville. While flooding plagues part of the U.S., well, there are fires that are roaring out of control in another part. We're going to have live reports from both areas up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: We are watching extreme weather. This is from coast to coast from fires to flooding, millions of people are worried about their safety. In southern California, see there, a wildfire has exploded in size. Many people are evacuating their homes while they still can.

Well, in the south, flooding is a threat there. More than a dozen people in Missouri were rescued last night from roofs and trees. Then, other dramatic rescues, this in Tennessee, including a newborn baby rescued, several other states also in some trouble today.

Chad Myers at the CNN Weather Center and Stephanie Elam, she is in Riverside County, California. Chad, let's start with you here. Let's talk about the flooding because obviously a lot of people very, very worried about their homes and their safety.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And we could see pictures that we just showed you like that in Atlanta, Georgia or very close to that. New flash flood warning for the city of Atlanta right now. Just issued literally about five minutes ago. There has been rainfall, day after day after day. This is 72 hours' worth of rain, added up by the radar, from Kansas with, there we go, six, 10 inches of rain. Across parts of Missouri six, 10, 12 inches of rain here, not that far from Branson, Missouri and Springfield, Missouri. Down into Tennessee and now even into north Georgia where there is flooding going on right now. Branson, Missouri picked up eight inches of rainfall in 12 hours.

And this is what we're kind of looking for here across parts of Nashville, Atlanta, Huntsville, maybe Chattanooga. What's wrong with the storms today and what's wrong with storms the past couple of days is their speed. We just got warned from the National Weather Service here in Atlanta that these storms will move at five miles per hour today. So, when it rains and it starts to rain hard, it's going to rain for a long time.

So, all the way really Gwinnett County almost back down to Alabama. That's where the line of weather is right now. And it isn't going to move. If it's raining where you are, it's going to be raining. Here is a live shot right outside of our studios, not raining here. But you go three miles to the north, there is already water in the streets. So, that's what you have to watch out for, storms that will not move.

MALVEAUX: Thank you, Chad. I want to go to Stephanie out of southern California. Opposite problem we're having here, a wildfire threatening several communities. So, tell us what people are dealing with here.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've got some updates for you, Suzanne. We can tell you now that this fire has now burned 10,000 acres. Keep in mind, this started at 2 p.m. local time yesterday, so this really has just been a racing fire. A major reason why, as you can probably see here, is the wind. The wind is just pushing through here and it is pushing the flames along in this direction which would be heading towards Palm Springs which is about 20 minutes to the east of where we are now. We know four fire fighters have been hurt and we know one civilian was hurt, possibly bad burns throughout their whole body. We are still working to confirm that information here. But a lot of people evacuating when they could.

Take a listen to what one woman told us about her ordeal getting out of her house.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LILI ARROYO: The firemen helped me bring up pictures of stuff but then I couldn't think of my purse and my medication in the back room in the bedroom and they wouldn't let me back in. They wouldn't let me go get it. And I told them please, let me. I can make it and they said, no, we just five minutes and we'll take care of everything. Get in the car. Get in the car.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: And we know that there are 13 helicopters out here dropping water but just as we were coming live, Suzanne, I can tell you we saw the return of the DC-10 now that the sun is out and they are continuing to drop water from the skies while there are about 1,000 firefighters inside there, on the fire lines, working to get this fire, which is right now 0 percent contained.

MALVEAUX: And, Stephanie, you talk about those powerful winds. We can actually hear those winds in your live shot, Stephanie. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

We're also following this, a question about how safe is your car? There is a new report that is raising questions about some small vehicles. We will tell you which models did well and which failed the test.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: We've got some optimistic news for you, especially if you drive a certain model of a compact car.

There is a major insurance group that smashed up a lot of cars and found one which is the safest. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MALVEAUX (voice-over): Twelve new compact cars got the crash and smash treatment. You see it there. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety scored the Honda Civic best in terms of passenger safety.

Here are the models that got either a good or acceptable safety rating. The Civic is the only car that ranks good when it hit in a small area about 40 miles per hour. Here is the other end of the spectrum. The cars that did not fare well in the same crash test, the Nissan Sentra and two models of Kia.

Here is Rene Marsh with more of the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is this type of crash that happens on U.S. roads thousands of times per year. Watch closely. Not quite a head on, but what the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety calls overlap frontal crashes, where part of the car's front end strikes an object.

The group says some popular small cars on the road don't make the grade in overlap crashes. Twelve small cars put to the test, the Honda Civic received the top grade. The head and chest of the test dummy was protected, the airbag released on time and the structure of the car did not cave in on the driver's side. The Kia Forte performed the worst.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The structure collapsed. We have got the restraints not doing a good job of controlling the motion of the occupant.

MARSH (voice-over): The group says manufacturers have built cars to best absorb impact in the center. Take a look. A more head-on impact on the left and an overlap crash on the right. The damage much worse in the overlap crash.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So as manufacturers redesign their cars, they need to try to figure out ways to provide better protection for the people inside.

MARSH (voice-over): Along with the Honda Civic, the Dodge Dart, Ford Focus, Hyundai Elantra and Scion TC passed the test. The Chevrolet Sonic, Volkswagen Beetle, Chevrolet Cruz, Nissan Sentra, Kia Soul and Forte all performed poorly.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: So back to another story.

You heard the first part of Chris Cuomo's interview with Brett Anderson at the top of the hour. Well just ahead we're going to bring you the rest of what Anderson told us about his missing kids and the man wanted in connection with their kidnapping.

(MUSIC PLAYING) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Brett Anderson, the man whose wife was killed and two children are now missing, spoke out about what he is going through with our Chris Cuomo this morning.

Well, more than 100 tips have been called into police to find the suspect, the suspect, James DiMaggio.

Anderson's wife's body was found in their burnt out home -- this is just east of San Diego. Also a body that might be of his 8-year-old son. Police say the remains are so burnt that the DNA test is proving now difficult. I want to bring you the rest of Anderson's emotional interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRETT ANDERSON: My cousin called me and said did you hear about Jim's house?

So I just Googled it and found the pictures and they said there was one body, which at the point I thought was Jim, and so I was very upset for Jim, and then things just downward spiraled from there.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Tell me about your kids, Mr. Anderson.

Tell me about Hannah. Tell me about Ethan.

ANDERSON: Give me a second.

CUOMO: I know this is difficult. I cannot imagine talking about my kids in this kind of situation, but we want people to feel connected to what's at stake here and who may be lost. So please, if you can, tell us about what made these kids so special to you.

ANDERSON: Ethan wore his heart on his sleeve. He would give -- do anything for anybody, loved everybody. He was just my buddy. We spoke quite often since I have been in Nashville and he would tell me his daily routines. He was just getting back into football for a second year.

And Hannah was just a beautiful, beautiful girl, very, very good student. Hundreds and hundreds of friends, and there was nothing bad to say about my kids. They never did anything to anybody. They were always wonderful. We were pretty tight niched even though I was a couple thousand miles away.

I don't know what to say. It is surreal to me right now.

CUOMO: When you found out that they found your wife in the house, and that she is gone, could you believe it?

ANDERSON: No. I could not believe it. I can't fathom what happened in Jim's head, what happened. He obviously just lost it.

CUOMO: Tell us about her. Tell us about your wife. ANDERSON: My wife and I, you know, we had been together for many years. We got -- we have been married for about the last going on 11 years.

And I have taken a job in Nashville; my job here in San Diego went under and we still spoke at least a couple times a week and we were working things out. She was a very lovely lady, very friendly to everybody. She has good friends, loved by her family, and she wouldn't hurt a fly. For this to happen to her was just uncalled for.

CUOMO: And this guy DiMaggio was one of the people you thought you could depend on in your absence to make sure that your wife and your kids were OK, is that true?

ANDERSON: Absolutely. I spoke to him often, and he would help get my son to football practice on days that Hannah had dance or whatever, and he was constantly there for me.

CUOMO: They are going through this very difficult forensic analysis of what happened inside the house, they know they found your wife there. There is another body they're trying to figure out.

Is not knowing the most difficult part for you right now?

ANDERSON: I know that they're looking for DNA and everything, but I wish that -- I hope that's not my boy. But I have to kind of think that it is. That's kind of my mindset right now. So right now a lot of focus is on trying to get my daughter back alive.

CUOMO: Sixteen years old, she is smart. She is strong. But she is with an adult male.

Do you have any idea where he would think he could go, what he would think he could do in a situation like this?

ANDERSON: I have no idea. He is into camping. He could be anywhere. That's why people that are going out to different camp spots, please keep your eyes open. I don't care where it is. I just have no clue.

Like I said, it is surreal to me. I can't imagine this even happening and just kind of taking it day by day and hoping for the best.