Return to Transcripts main page

New Day Sunday

Four Kids, Woman Stabbed to Death in NYC; Germany Outraged Over Spying Allegations; Cardinals Win Game 3 in Wild Ending

Aired October 27, 2013 - 07:00   ET

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


MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Authorities have the campus on lockdown while authorities search for two men, one of whom is armed with a knife. A university employee says the two who are students got into a fight with another student and stabbed him in the back. Early this morning, the official university account tweeted out a warning to take safe shelter, lock doors, follow instructions from authorities. Scary stuff for students, I'm sure, but the victim is in the hospital and apparently he will be OK.

PAUL: And another breaking story, just shocking, out of New York City. And I hate to have to tell you this -- but five people including four children between the ages of 1 and 9 were found stabbed to death inside their Brooklyn home. We are still getting details trickling in, but here's what we know right now.

MARQUEZ: Police responded to a 911 call just before 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time last night. They found five people unconscious, all with stab wounds to their upper bodies.

PAUL: Police at the scene did take a man into custody. He has not been charged, however.

CNN's Alexandra Field is in New York.

So, Alexandra, what more do we know about these victims or even the person that they have in custody?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, at this point, Christi, police are not saying much about the person in custody, only that he was picked up at the scene. They haven't confirmed whether or not he could be related to any of the victims who were inside the house. A gruesome attack left five people dead in a Brooklyn home last night. Four of them were children.

Police responded to a 911 call, saying that there had been a stabbing. When they got inside, they found a 9-year-old girl, a 7- year-old girl, and a 1-year-old boy, all dead, having been stabbed in the upper part of their body. A 5-year-old boy and a 37-year-old woman were both taken to a hospital with stab wounds. They also died. Police in that Brooklyn -- neighbors in that Brooklyn neighborhood gathered outside.

They say they watched as police removed the bodies from the house. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Actually, here is rather safe. And recently, it's just being very dangerous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FIELD: One neighbor says that he saw a child covered in blood taken from the house, a chilling scene for everyone who is out there. It's a two-story home in Brooklyn. It touches a number of the homes next to it. It's a row full of houses is and a lot of people flooding the streets last night trying to figure out what exactly had happened.

Again, we know at this point that police have taken one person into custody, and that they picked him up at that scene -- Christi, Miguel.

MARQUEZ: Alexandra, how horrific.

All right. Is there anything to be gleaned about motive here? Are neighbors saying anything, police saying anything about why this person may have done this or why this all happened?

FIELD: Police have not identified the victims who were inside the at this point. They have given us their ages, but they haven't said whether or not all these people are related, and they haven't said or whether or not the person in custody is related. So it's unclear at this point what the connections could be, what the motive could be, but people in that neighborhood are just standing out, slack-jawed and stunned to hear about five people dead in their neighborhood, four of them, again, children, under the age of 9.

PAUL: All right. Alexandra Field in New York there, thank you for giving us the latest update. We appreciate it.

MARQUEZ: Thanks so much.

For the first time, we are hearing from the mother of Philip Chism, the 14-year-old boy charged with killing a Danvers, Massachusetts, teacher. Through her son's attorney, Diana Chism says her heart is broken for the Ritzer family and the loss of their daughter and sister, Colleen. She continues, her son was born in love and is very dear to her. She is struggling to understand this.

Philip Chism is charged as an adult with the murder of Colleen Ritzer. Police allege he killed the algebra teacher with a box cutter and dumped her body in the woods behind Danvers High School.

PAUL: Stunning new reports of alleged spying by the U.S. are sending shock waves from Germany and putting some new pressure on relations between Berlin and Washington.

MARQUEZ: A German magazine says the U.S. may have bugged German chancellor Angela Merkel's phone over the last decade.

CNN's Erin McPike joins us from Washington. Any response, Erin, from the White House?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miguel, Caitlin Haden, who is the spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House said that they're not going to comment on any every specific allegation of some kind of intelligence activity, But she did say that the White House has made clear that they gather intelligence on foreign countries like all other countries do. So, kind of walking both lines there, Miguel.

PAUL: OK. Is this more fallout from NSA leaker, Edward Snowden? Is that the origination here?

MCPIKE: It absolutely is, Christi. And, of course, Edward Snowden has caused a number of headaches for the White House over the past few months. We want to take a look back at what those have been.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCPIKE (voice-over): May 20th, NSA leaker Edward Snowden flees to Hong Kong and shortly after the revelations begin.

On June 5th, "The Guardian" newspaper reports the U.S. government has systemically been collecting the phone records of millions of Americans, basing its reports on documents it later says Snowden provided.

Then, another bombshell. The very next day, June 6th, "The Guardian" and "The Washington Post" revealed the existence of Prism, a program allowing the NSA to record the activities of people using the Internet.

Under pressure, President Obama tells the American people he's confident the government is striking the right balance between security and privacy.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it's important to recognize that you can't have 100 percent security and also then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience.

MCPIKE: From his Hong Kong hotel room, Snowden tells "The Guardian" he's not a traitor.

EDWARD SNOWDEN, NSA LEAKER: I don't want to live in a world with everything that I say, everything I do, everyone I talk to, every expression of creativity of creativity or love or friendship is recorded.

MCPIKE: After the U.S. charges Snowden with espionage and seeks his extradition, he flies to Moscow and hiding out in a Moscow airport applies for asylum. Over the next couple of months, the Snowden saga gets overshadowed by the U.S. government shutdown in Syria and the U.S. government shutdown.

But then, Snowden strikes again, with more embarrassing revelations about U.S. spying, this times overseas on its allies. On Monday, the French newspaper, "Le Monde" reports NSA may have intercepted 70 million calls in France over the period of a month.

And on Wednesday, "The Guardian" reports the NSA monitored calls of 35 world leaders, including German chancellor Angela Merkel's personal phone. An angry Merkel says the allegations have left U.S. and European relations, quote, "severely shaken."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: The German government is sending some intelligence officials to Washington soon. What do they hope to learn?

MCPIKE: Well, Miguel, yesterday the White House did acknowledge that they know these German officials are coming in the next few weeks and their counterparts here in the United States will meet with them, but there are no specific meetings yet that the White House the divulging information on. But they understand that Germany is very upset and they do intend to meet with them, Miguel.

MARQUEZ: All right. Erin McPike, thank you very much.

If you're in one of the plain state, enjoy the clear weather while it lasts. It's not going to last as long. The big storm is headed your way early this week and parts of the mountains and foothills of Montana could get as much as a foot of snow.

PAUL: Meanwhile, over in the U.K., it's not the snow, it's the wind and rain what they're watching.

Alexandra Steele is in the CNN weather center.

Hey, Alexandra. What's going on?

ALEXANDRA STEELE, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hi. Good morning, Miguel. Good morning, Christi.

All right. Well, here's the deal -- it's the U.K., a storm system that's really developing. You can see this area of low pressure here, kind of moving just west of Glasgow. It's northern U.K. That's not the storm system we're watching. That will bring winds of about 20 miles per hour. But it's this area of low pressure, deepening to the southwest that we're going to watch move across the U.K.

So the biggest problems, because it's fall, and we're expecting winds, maybe between wind gusts between about 50 and 70 miles per hour. The leaves are on the trees, so power lines, trees coming down, and a disruption to transportation, maybe the roads and also the rails. That will be the biggest issue.

So, kind of like a hurricane. These are computer model projections of where this storm will go, north and maybe the southern tier. It's the center of the country that will see kind of the greatest impact. And that is the most likely track, southwest to northeast.

And again, wind gusts 60 to 80 miles per hour. Not sustained winds, but gusts. Right now temperatures in the 60s in London, winds now at 24. But, again, the gusts they could see are about 50 miles per hour. Next two days, look at London, 50-mile-per-hour wind gusts.

So, even if you're flying into London and even Paris, Paris is 41-mile-per-hour wind gusts expected. So, the winds will be strong. In terms of the rain, computer models putting out maybe an inch, an inch and a half of rain. But with the rain coupled with the winds, guys, that will be the biggest issue and the heart of the time tonight and in through tomorrow.

So, anyone traveling overseas, London, Paris, Amsterdam could potentially be impacted by this.

MARQUEZ: I'm pretty sure these are the winds that brought Mary Poppins into London.

STEELE: Absolutely. And then took her away.

PAUL: They don't everything bad.

MARQUEZ: Alexandra Steele, thank you so much!

STEELE: Sure. See you in a bit.

PAUL: All righty. If you're just waking up, you might have missed the end of last night's world game series. Oh, what a doozy.

MARQUEZ: Oh my goodness.

PAUL: Missing history.

MARQUEZ: I'm not awake yet. Trying to stay up.

PAUL: We're going to show you exactly what happened, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: All right. So did you stay up late watching the World Series? If you did, maybe you're still in shock. If you didn't, we got you covered.

MARQUEZ: I tried. I tried, I tried. I fell asleep. I had to get up for this.

PAUL: You fail.

MARQUEZ: Because I had to inform the nation as to what happened, what I didn't see. It was the game ending, it just wild, crazy.

Joe Carter is here.

Tell us.

JOE CARTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, the fair perspective here, it's so crazy, that the home team, when they won, they didn't even realize how they had just won. That's how it all kind of unfolded here. It's the first World Series game ever to be decided on an obstruction or interference call.

Now, it happened in the bottom of the night. Let me show you the video here. St. Louis is at bat, 4-4.

PAUL: Hold on, hold on, hold on.

CARTER: All right.

PAUL: There you go. Joe Carter?

CARTER: OK. You see here that the third baseman, the base -- because they trip into each other, because Will Middlebrooks is trying to get up off the ground, he trips Allen Craig, therefore impeding him from going to home base, that's called obstruction. It's like interference, obstructing the runner from his progress of going to home base. So the umpire had to award the base runner the base. So, therefore, St. Louis won the game last night, 5-4 on a walk off obstruction call, which this morning is being called one of the strangest ways you'll ever see a World Series game end.

And here's reaction afterwards.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a tough way to have a game end. He's on the ground, you know, if he tries to raise up, then he's clearly getting in his way, you know, for Craig to try to advance to home plate. But he got tangled up with him and that was the call.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARTER: All right. So, as I said, this is the first time in series history that a game has ended on an obstruction call and afterwards, the umpire said, you know, we feel and we believe that we got the call right. The reaction from a lot of the analysis, people that were at the game said they got the call right, and basically, obstruction is the act of a fielder obstructing a runner when not in the act of fielding a ball. It does not have to be intent.

PAUL: OK.

(CROSSTALK)

CARTER: -- or impede, because he was laying on his stomach, because Will Middlebrooks is trying to get up off the ground, he obstructed Allen Craig from going from third base to home plate, therefore they have to call it obstruction and give the base runner the base.

PAUL: That's great clarification because I think people watch that and you say obstruction, and you're like, where was he going to go? I mean, he fell. It's not as though he go could get out --

MARQUEZ: But people are saying it did la look like he moved his legs upwards, trying to trip him, trying to be more --

CARTER: Let's watch it again. You see in the video up here. So, the runner is out of home --

PAUL: OK, here we go.

CARTER: The ball gets by the third baseman and you'd think that Allen Craig is going to be thrown out at home base. But he's called safe, because the third base umpire calls the obstruction.

He's getting up and obstructs -- there you go -- obstructs him from going forward.

MARQUEZ: I don't know. I like the Cardinals, but I don't know that's the right -- you think it was the right call.

CARTER: I definitely think it's the right call. That's what the rule books says.

PAUL: Well, and apparently everyone here has said. So --

MARQUEZ: Joe Carter, who has suffered an obstruction of reporting this morning by a --

CARTER: It's OK. Game four, tonight. We'll see what happens.

MARQUEZ: Wow, what a series. Amazing, amazing, amazing.

PAUL: Thank you, Joe.

CARTER: You're welcome.

PAUL: All right. It looked, initially, not this whole sports thing, but this looked like an accident.

MARQUEZ: Police say it was not. A state fair operator is in custody. What he's accused of doing, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUEZ: New this morning. Investigators say an accident at the North Carolina state fair was no accident at all. The ride operator is facing three felony accounts of assault with a deadly weapon this morning. Police say he tampered with the ride.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CALLER: We're at the state fair and the ride turned upside-down and dumped everybody out. There are people bleeding really bad.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Panicked 911 calls from the North Carolina state fair Thursday night. Witnesses say the vortex ride had stopped, people were getting off, when it restarted. Five people were hurt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It just sounded like a bunch of stuff hitting metal.

MARQUEZ: This morning, the ride operator, 46-year-old Timothy Tutterrow, is in custody, charged with three felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon.

SHERIFF DONNIE HARRISON, WAKE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA: This ride was tampered with after the inspection and that critical safety devices were tampered with and compromised.

MARQUEZ: The sheriff's office says Tutterrow is an independent ride contractor for a company that only had one ride at the fair, the vortex. More arrests in the incident are possible. The investigation is ongoing.

STEVE TROXLER, AGRICULTURE COMMISSIONER: It makes me mad to think that anybody would put people's safety in danger like they have. And I'm not mad, I'm furious.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: Now, three of the five people injured in Thursday night's accident are still in a Raleigh hospital this morning.

PAUL: All right. Thanks, Miguel.

Still to come on NEW DAY, he's been called President Obama's pastor in chief. He's made it his duty to keep the president inspired with daily meditations. Now he's put hundreds of them in a new book. We're going to talk with him next.

First, though, I want to check in with Dr. Sanjay Gupta for a look at what's coming up on SGMD at 7:30 Eastern.

Good morning, Sanjay.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christi, we've got two news-making interviews ahead. First, a question I had to ask the woman in charge of the Obamacare rollout. Will Kathleen Sebelius accept a day on the individual mandate?

Plus, former Vice President Dick Cheney, he's opened up about his heart. You're going to hear about this unprecedented move he made right after taking office. See you in just a few minutes at the bottom of the hour.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUEZ: And we're looking at live pictures of the White House there, where they clearly have not decorated for Halloween, as far as I can tell.

PAUL: At least not outside.

MARQUEZ: I think they need at least a pumpkin out there or something. They'll get one by the end of the week.

Rough week for the president, though.

PAUL: Yes, ongoing problems with the health care site, documents show U.S. may have been spying on allies, like France and Germany. So, a lot of pressure.

MARQUEZ: A bit of a Halloween, I suppose. That's not a bad segue.

PAUL: Very nice. Very clever.

Hey, you know what, in a position like that, being in a presidential position, you probably need a lot of inspiration. Well, this guy has been dubbed President Obama's pastor in chief by "TIME" magazine.

MARQUEZ: Now, the man who served as spiritual adviser to the president is out with a new book. Of course, it's called the president's devotion. It highlights hundreds of meditations he sent to President Obama, like this one from author Hugh Walpole, which I suppose could come in handy during a tough campaign. It reads, "Don't play for safety. It's the most dangerous thing in the world."

PAUL: Joshua DuBois joins us now. He also served by the way, as the executive director of the White House Office for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnership.

So, Joshua, thanks for being here. How did you come into being the role of this personal pastor to the president?

JOSHUA DUBOIS, OBAMA BSPIRITUAL ADVISER: I certainly didn't start off thinking I would be a spiritual adviser to the president of the United States. I was working on the 2008 presidential campaign, doing outreach on that campaign.

And I saw in Barack Obama someone who had a lot of support around him. He had policy advisers and political supports. But I wondered, who is thinking about his spirit, who is thinking about his soul? So, I reached out and sent him a message of inspiration, not knowing what his response would be, but he replied to my e-mail and said, you know what, Joshua, this is exactly what I need, would you mind sending these every morning? So, that's how it got started, on the 2008 campaign.

MARQUEZ: That is unbelievable. What a great story.

Now, Joshua, the hardest decision I make all day, is it ham or bologna, white bread or brown bread?

DUBOIS: I'm sure it's harder than that.

MARQUEZ: So what can the average reader, the average American, the average Joe like myself, take away from this?

DUBOIS: You know, the challenges President Obama faces are not all that different than the challenges we all face -- how to grow closer to God each day, how to start each day with purpose and joy, how to love our neighbors, even those who are difficult to love sometimes. That's what the devotional speak to, these daily challenges that we all face.

PAUL: So I'm -- I mean, I'm just wondering, on any given day, speaking of, do I eat ham, do I eat cheese, what do you decide to send him?

DUBOIS: You know, there's a lot of -- there many devotionals about perspective. Obviously, the president is facing a crisis almost every day. It's something new that he has to deal with. So he's really got to learn to take the long view and realize that problems come and go, but some things are eternal. Like his relationship with God, the relationship that he has with family and friends and so I try to remind him of that. And hopefully, this book will remind others of that as well.

MARQUEZ: Was there any one devotional? A single day where you think, oh, boy, I thought it was good when I sent it out, but, boy, that really hit it.

PAUL: Yes, does he have -- does he ever respond?

DUBOIS: He does respond from time to time. He's said that devotionals meant the world to him. And I did take a break, right after I got into the White House, I thought I could take a week off sending these on my own and I got a call from the White House switchboard and it was his assistant saying, the president is wondering where his devotions --

MARQUEZ: No way.

PAUL: Come on!

DUBOIS: I was a little embarrassed, but at least I was glad he was reading them.

MARQUEZ: Not only does the news never stop, the world never stops, I suppose the president never does either.

DUBOIS: That's right.

MARQUEZ: Joshua, what a great story.

PAUL: Joshua DuBois, thank you so much for taking time to talk to us.

MARQUEZ: Thank you, thank you, thank you.

DUBOIS: It's my pleasure. Have great morning.

PAUL: Thank you. You, too.

All righty. We'll see you back here at the top of the hour, 8:00 Eastern for another hour of NEW DAY SUNDAY.

MARQUEZ: But, first, "SANJAY GUPTA, M.D." starts right now. Sanjay, take it away.