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Gunman Targets Austin Buildings; Missing Ohio State Football Player; Boys Buried in Snow; Star Wars Trailer; Vandalized Bakery Gets Donations

Aired November 28, 2014 - 14:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, and here we go on this Friday. Great to be with you. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN.

Let's begin with that deadly attack on multiple government buildings in the capital of Texas. Police say a lone gunman wearing some kind of vest targeted three different locations. The first -- look at these maps with me. First you have the federal courthouse in downtown Austin. Investigators say the unidentified man then moved on to the Mexican consulate, where he fired more shots and set some sort of fire. He then hit his final target, the Austin Police headquarters.

Now, this police chief here in Austin said the gunman fired more than 100 rounds and at one point officers thought he may have been strapped with an explosive device. But instead, investigators figured out he may have been trying to use his car as a bomb.

Let's get more details from the Austin police chief, Art Acevdeo.

Chief, welcome. Thanks for joining me.

CHIEF ART ACEVDEO, AUSTIN, TEXAS POLICE: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Let me just begin with what you know at this point in time because I know it's -- I'm sure it's still a fast-moving situation. You're getting new information. Do you guys know if there were any explosives on him or even in his own home?

ACEVDEO: We have not cleared his residence yet where he lives. I can tell you that we've cleared his vehicle and we've cleared him. He was using small propane cylinders and shooting at them to try to cause a fire at the Mexican consulate and he had more propane cylinders in his vehicle. Which, as you know, when you have an incident like this, you have to assume that on the side - on the side of caution. So we've cleared the vehicle and we've cleared his body as well.

BALDWIN: OK. So haven't cleared the home as of yet. What about the shooter himself? I know you're not identifying him yet. But tell me what you know.

ACEVDEO: We -- he's a white male. About 50 years of age. He's a local resident here in Austin. And I can tell you, he does have a criminal history. We're not going release any details on him or his history. Obviously we want to be respectful of next of kin and we want to make sure that they learn about him being deceased from the proper authorities and not from the media or social media. And so as soon as we can, we'll update the community later on this weekend.

BALDWIN: Understood, so I won't - I won't ask you more about his history. But is it safe to say he is someone you or your department were aware of?

ACEVDEO: No, he was not on our - he was not on our radar. We are, obviously, working very closely with the FBI, the Austin Regional Intelligence Center, the state intelligence center and all of our colleagues around the state and country to make sure that there's no history here that we're not aware of.

BALDWIN: OK.

ACEVDEO: But, you know, this guy is kind of an example of that lone wolf. So it's a scary thing that a guy out of nowhere did what he did to our city.

BALDWIN: It is absolutely scary and I was watching the, you know, the press conference earlier and I was listening to you and you were sort of speculating that this could have something to do with politics or anti-government views. Can you just explain your thought process for me?

ACEVDEO: Well, I mean, if you look at his target selection, he selected -- by the way, he also shot up a bank. So it's actually another location that you didn't describe.

BALDWIN: Oh, wow.

ACEVDEO: But it was a federal courthouse, the Mexican consulate, tried to -- tried to burn down the Mexican consulate by shooting at his propane cylinders. Then he attacked our police department. And if you look at the history of these type of lone wolf - what I would call home grown extremists or, you know, someone that's angry, a lot of time it's directed at the government and, you know, that's -- I think its speculation at this point, but I'm - I have a sneaky suspicion we'll be able to corroborate it in the coming days.

BALDWIN: Checking - I know you said you haven't been to his house, but even on him or in his car, did you find any writings expressing any reason for this anger?

ACEVDEO: Well, that's part of the ongoing investigation.

BALDWIN: OK.

ACEVDEO: Not only are we - we are conducting -- preparing to do a search warrant in his residence for -- in the upcoming days we're definitely going to be digging deep, leaving no stone unturned, to try to get to the bottom of his motive.

BALDWIN: Let me ask you, chief, about one of your officers who shot at this suspect, who managed to fire while he was handling, I believe I read two horses, shooting with one hand? ACEVDEO: Yes.

BALDWIN: Tell me about that.

ACEVDEO: Yes. It's one of - well, it's one of our sergeants who's been on for a while and he's a great guy and, you know, part of our investigation is this, we know that our sergeant's holding two horses with one hand and he took one shot with a single handed shot. After he takes the shot, the suspect goes down to the ground and the investigation we can't determine at this time without the medical examiner's part of this investigation whether he was shot and struck by the sergeant, whether he was killed in combination of a shot from the sergeant or whether he took his own life or it's a combination of both. That will be determined by the M.E. and we'll report back to the community as soon as we get those results.

BALDWIN: We'll stay in touch with you and your investigation. Best of luck to you, sir. Chief Art Acevdeo in Austin, Texas. Thank you very much.

ACEVDEO: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Meantime, protesters, they are stage Black Friday boycotts of major retailers over the police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. This video, taken in the overnight hours inside of a Ferguson area Target store where, as you can see, several dozen marchers protested through the aisles. Similar protests were staged inside Wal-Mart stores in the St. Louis area and in our nation's capital.

Also in Chicago, protesters gathered in a park across from a shopping mall downtown there. You had protests planned across the country today to urge people to turn Black Friday into Brown Friday in the economic boycott for Michael Brown. Rosa Flores is in New York for me, where protesters, where she's walking along protesters there in Harold Square.

Rosa, if you can hear me, tell me why these people want to be there?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Brooke. Yes, there's hundreds of people that are marching towards Times Square at the moment. We're actually very close to Times Square. It started at Herald Square, like you mentioned, right in front of Macy's. We actually saw several protesters barge into Macy's and the police actually following them very closely.

But take a look around and you'll see that a lot of these protesters are holding a lot of signs up. And the big question, Brooke, of course, is, why? Why Black Friday? I talked to the organizers and they tell me that it's very simple. If you branch out from Ferguson, it all starts with the grand jury no bill for Darren Wilson. That if you branch out to racial profiling, to injustice against black people, and then you see this. They say, if you don't have economic freedom, they will never have financial freedom, they will never have racial freedom, freedom from racism. So that's at the core, Brooke, at the core is economic freedom will mean freedom from racism. So take a look around. You'll be able to see hundreds of protesters

from New York, areas in New York here. Lots of signs, lots of people just coming out protesting and demonstrating again for economic freedom and freedom from racism.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Economic freedom, freedom from racism. This is what organizers and those protesters are telling you. But let me just - you know, this is today. This is Black Friday. What -- do they have a bigger plan? Do they have another date on the calendar where they want their voices to be heard?

FLORES: Yes, there's no specific date on the calendar for anything else just now. But they're going on a day-by-day basis. The organizer tells me that they don't plan to stop. They plan to continue to organize these protests and these demonstrations.

I talked to some people here, some of the protesters, and said -- they say it's bigger than Ferguson. It starts there, but they say that this is a national movement. A movement for change and a movement that is for equality, for income inequality. I mean there's just so many thing that it branches out. It starts there. But that there's a lot of passion, a lot of anger, a lot of fear around it and that's why scores of people around the country are coming out and showing their support, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Not just Ferguson, not just New York, but definitely across the country on this Black Friday, hoping their voices are heard. Rosa Flores, thank you very much.

And coming up, we'll talk live actually to the owner of a bakery in Ferguson. This is a bakery that was vandalized during the protests early on this week. Wait until you hear actually how much money people have donated to help this one woman out.

Plus, a football player at Ohio State up and disappears and his sister is now saying something happened in his life in that month before he went missing. What we're hearing from his family ahead.

And boys get buried alive in snow, but they survive. We will tell you how coming up. You're watching CNN.

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BALDWIN: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Let me tell you about this story out of Ohio here. This college football player has mysteriously disappeared and now police and his family are desperately trying to find him. Kosta Karageorge is his name. He's a senior defensive lineman for the Ohio State Buckeyes. He's a big guy, 6'3", 273 pounds. His mother filed a missing persons report saying no one had heard from him since early, early Wednesday morning.

So let's talk more about what we know and what we don't with Bill Rabinowitz. He is an Ohio State football reporter for "The Columbus Dispatch."

So, Bill, I've been reading lots of articles in your paper. It sounds like you guys have been in touch with his family and they immediately point to his history of sports related concussions. Do they think he might be somewhere and just disoriented?

BILL RABINOWITZ, REPORTER, "THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH" (via telephone): Well, that's a possibility. He sent - the missing persons report indicated that he had sent a text to his mom shortly before he left his apartment saying that he was sorry for -- if he had caused them any kind of embarrassment and he blamed the concussions. The sister, when I talked to her yesterday, she did not blame the medical care. She thought that the medical care that he had gotten at Ohio State has been very good, that they followed the protocols, but he had had a concussion about a month ago and it's kind of been a recurring thing with him and they -- she's afraid that that's what set this latest thing off. Although, really, it's a mystery. Nobody has any idea because nobody has found him.

BALDWIN: So he has missed football practice, which, from everything I can gather, this is -- he's not the kind of player to miss practice, even if he is feeling horrible, correct?

RABINOWITZ: Yes, that's correct. And his sister, Sophia (ph), told me that he's gone to practice when he's been sick as a dog, when he's just - you know, that he just does not miss practice. And this week Ohio State plays Michigan, their big rival. And on Thursday, they have what they call senior tackle. It's a big event. It's the last practice for the seniors and they hit the tackling dummy. Kind of ceremonial thing. The parents are there. It's a big deal. And Saturday he is listed as one of 24 seniors who will be introduced for senior day. Again, Michigan's a huge deal. It's a big - a big event and for him not to be there, it's something - something extenuating must have happened.

BALDWIN: What do we know, as far as the investigation goes, about -- have they located, I don't know, his wallet, his I.D., his cell phone? Can they try to locate him just using GPS?

RABINOWITZ: Yes, they tried. The police detected a signal from his cell phone in the Grand View area of Columbus, which is not too far from campus. His sister said it's about 10 miles from where he lives. And -- but they had the signal but not the cell phone. He left his wallet apparently with his girlfriend. So I don't know that he has any I.D. on him. It's just a mystery. He just basically has disappeared.

BALDWIN: 6'3", 273 pound college football player. You don't hear about this often. I hope they fine him. I hope he's OK. Bill Rabinowitz with "The Columbus Dispatch," thank you so much. I really appreciate you jumping on the phone and getting us up to speed on that.

RABINOWITZ: You're welcome.

BALDWIN: Just ahead here on CNN, as more details emerge about the Ferguson grand jury, we are now hearing prosecutors focused on marijuana when talking about Michael Brown in the moments before the shooting, apparently 40 plus times it was mentioned. Hear why.

Plus, it could be the year's best national anthem and it came, ladies and gentlemen, from a young, young teenager. This video will give you the chills.

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BALDWIN: Two young boys are now safe and sound after being buried alive for hours in a big mound of snow. Officials say a plow unknowingly pushed more snow into the area where these kids were playing. Christine Sloan with our CNN affiliate WCBS tells their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trapped in a snow bank, two little babies.

CHRISTINE SLOAN, WCBS REPORTER (voice-over): This iPhone video was shot as police and neighbors rescued two children buried overnight under a pile of snow in Newburgh, New York.

ROBERT NICOSLA, WITNESS: From what I understand, a dog was barking and took the attention to where these children were at. And somebody heard the muffled sounds of the kids under the snow and they were digging them out and then people were screaming for shovels and they dug these young boys out, I'd say around 10 years old. And, fortunately, they were still - they were alive and well and the police got a big round of applause.

SLOAN: One of the boys, J.J. Martinez (ph). His mother let FaceBook friends know how he and his cousin were found just after 2:00 in the morning and are doing well. Taqiua Stevens' (ph) son plays with J.J. She shot this video to helped get the boys out.

TAQIUA STEVENS: All I see was the feet. When I got over there, the little boy's feet was hanging out of the thing and he was shaking and his mother was like, it's all right, he's there, he's there. He was like, mommy, mommy.

SLOAN: The boys were playing in this parking lot across from one of their homes when they went missing just after 6:00 last night. That is when a frantic search started by police and residents. Their guess, a snowplow had something to do with it.

STEVENS: When I left at 5:30, the snowplow was out here. He started plowing already. So he probably - I don't know, he probably didn't see them or something because my son was just with them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: My goodness. Can you imagine? Christine Sloan reporting for us for WCBS.

Here's the update. Both boys were taken to the hospital. We're told one was released with no major injuries. The mother of the other boy posted on FaceBook that her son is still in hospital but he's doing OK.

And now to the most anticipated teaser trailer of the year. It is out. And by looking on social media, it is living up to the hype. I'm talking about "Star Wars" episode seven "The Force Awakens." Fans have been anxious to get a glimpse of the upcoming installment by J.J. Abrams. And if you haven't seen it yet, here's your first look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There has been an awakening. Have you felt it? The dark side. And the light.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So I'm inside the CNN NEWSROOM with my pal, John Berman, who is a bit of a "Star Wars" nerd. Is that fair to say?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You're here with me and C-3PO.

BALDWIN: This was in his office, so we just had an idea. Are you super psyched about this trailer?

BERMAN: Oh, totally psyched. Look, this trailer is phenomenal. It feels so much more like the real "Star Wars," the 1970s era "Star War," "The Empire Strikes Back," than the -

BALDWIN: No, Jar Jar Binks.

BERMAN: Than "The Phantom Menace" Jar Jar Binks stuff.

BALDWIN: Yes.

BERMAN: No, this is the real deal.

BALDWIN: So this is out one year ahead of "The Force Awakens" coming out in theaters. I'm stoked just because it's J.J. Abrams and I was a big "Lost" nerd, right.

BERMAN: He's so good. And when it was "Star Trek" it was so good. And again, this just feels so different. In the trailer you see the millenni (ph) vulcan and you get all get all jazzed up when you see the TIE Fighters.

BALDWIN: Because you get really jazzed?

BERMAN: Yes. Oh, yes.

BALDWIN: Goose bumps?

BERMAN: Yes. I mean you see the x-wings (ph), you know, swooping down. I didn't even know that x-wings could fly that close to the ground and battle, but yet you see that in this trailer. It's very, very exciting.

BALDWIN: So will your boys be dragging you to the movie, or you will be dragging your boys to the movie? BERMAN: It's mutual at this point. I mean they love "Star Wars." I think it's because they genuinely love it, not just because they know if they want to get dinner, they have to say they like it, but -

BALDWIN: Do you think with - there was a need because of what happened the last go around with "Star Wars" that they really reacted to fan disapproval and said, we have to go back to the originals?

BERMAN: I think this is honestly, all joking aside, it's about redemption.

BALDWIN: Yes.

BERMAN: I think the franchise needs to say, you know, we're sorry about that. We're going to retake what you guys all love so much from the original rather than what was for some people, including my generation, like 40 something people, you know, who grew up with it, it was so important to us, a lot of us kind of think it was ruined a little bit by the three that were released later.

BALDWIN: My generation, the 30s something, are also excited as well.

BERMAN: And so is C-3PO.

BALDWIN: Thank you, John Berman. Appreciate it.

In the grand jury investigation into the shooting of Michael Brown, one drug term was reportedly mentioned more than 40 times, marijuana, and specifically this thing called waxing. Have you ever heard waxing? We'll talk about the surprising role it played in this particular case.

Also ahead, a bakery owner sets up a crowd funding website after her store was hit by the riots. She asked for 20,000. And, let me tell you, she got a heck of a lot more than that. What does she plan to do with all the extra money? Let's ask, coming up next.

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