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Russian Critic of Vladimir Putin Killed in Moscow; American Reverend Kidnapped in Nigeria; Congress Passes Seven-Day Funding for Homeland Security Department; Israeli Prime Minister to Speak to U.S. Congress; American Blogger Killed in Bangladesh; Alleged Boston Marathon Bomber's Trial to Take Place in Boston; Principal Speaks Out against Cyber Bullying; CNN Hero Invents Cup for Movement-Impaired

Aired February 28, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST: Thanks so much for joining me. Don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter if you can smell "Smerconish.' See you next week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: So glad to have you with us. We begin with breaking news as we now have for you, brand new images coming into us. Take a look at this. The car that may have been used by the killers of one of Russia's president's most outspoken critics. This is the white car, you see to the left there, well, you can see in full there. These pictures are from Russia 24. That's the country's state-run broadcasting network. And police are searching for this very car as we speak.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: We'll continue to have this conversation. Good morning, I'm Victor Blackwell.

PAUL: And I'm Christi Paul. So glad to have you with us.

BLACKWELL: Of course we are getting this new video as there's an all- out manhunt out for the killer of Boris Nemtsov. Nemtsov was walking across a bridge in Moscow last night when a car pulled up and shots rang out. Nemtsov killers are still at large. And the supporters are bringing flowers and candles to the spot where he was killed. CNN's senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen is there too. He joins us now. Fred, what do we know about this car?

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that since the late evening hours of yesterday when this killing happened that the police have been saying they have been searching for a white car. It was really in the early stages of the investigation that we heard that eyewitnesses had seen a white car stop in front of Boris Nemtsov and the friend that he was with, a lady from Ukraine here, opened fire and then sped off. And so certainly there was a manhunt underway also specifically looking for a white car.

It was interesting because we were driving around Moscow late last night and there were white cars that were being stopped quite frequently as police were clearly looking for the suspects. Now, still it is of course unclear who was driving that car. It's still very much unclear who is behind this. However, throughout the day the Russian authorities have said they have been making they believe headway on the investigation. They said they have questioned several witnesses. Of course, first and foremost, the female friend who was with Boris Nemtsov walking on this very bridge late last night.

Also, one of the things, Victor, that we have to keep in mind is that the area we're in right now, which is the area around the kremlin, is one that has a lot of surveillance technology. There's a lot of cameras around here. There's a lot a lot of police officers around here on many days, actually, many of them in plainclothes as well. And so certainly there would be a lot of eyewitnesses. There would be a lot of tape that the police says it is also going through. And clearly there's video of that white car that police believe might be the one that was used. It isn't confirmed yet, but clearly it was caught on surveillance cameras as well, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Fred, explain for us Nemtsov's role in the opposition movement and what is planned tomorrow to memorialize him?

PLEITGEN: Well, I mean, he was certainly someone who was very important to opposition movement here in Russia, but one of the things that we have to keep in mind was that the opposition movement here for a very long time has been marginalized. And you can read that. So when you look at the approval ratings that Vladimir Putin has here in this country, the recent approval rating which actually came out only a couple days ago had him at 86 percent approval. Think about that. If you look at the western politicians and the approval ratings they regularly get.

And one of the things we have to say is that the approval is real. The vast majority of the people here in this country support Vladimir Putin. So this certainly wasn't someone who would have been a threat to Vladimir Putin in any way, shape, or form. But he was significant in the opposition movement. And certainly the march tomorrow is when it's going to be a lot different than it was going to be. The main theme of it was going to be before all this happened, criticism of Russia's actions in Ukraine. Now it's going to be a march of silence, a march of mourning for Boris Nemtsov.

BLACKWELL: All right, Fred Pleitgen in Moscow for us, Fred, thank you.

PAUL: Another story we're following a temporary fix to keep the Department of Homeland security running, at least for now. President Obama signed a short-term bill that extends funding for seven days. The House lawmakers approved the plan just hours before the midnight deadline. And that means thousands of TSA workers, border agents, and other federal employees will indeed continue to get paid for the time being. CNN's Erin McPike is live for us this morning outside the White House. Good morning, Erin.

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christi, good morning. We really do need to stress this is just a one-week extension. It was done at the 11th hour. And that is after a three-week extension failed in the House. That three week extension passed in the Senate as did a clean funding bill. With overwhelming support, Republicans relented, saying we will give President Obama what he needs in order to fund that department for the rest of the year.

This is really going to come down to House Republicans. I should point out, of course, that the reason that the three-week extension failed is because House Democrats wanted to stop playing the games. They said let's just fund the department for the rest of the year. But going forward in the next week, they only have a breather for the next couple of days as House Republicans have to figure out how they can get enough people on board to fund this department for the rest of the year.

PAUL: All right, Erin McPike, we appreciate it. Thank you so much. So now that there's that one-week extension, Erin is talking about here, the debate at the center of this battle, immigration, starting up again. Republicans trying to tie money from Homeland Security to legislation, rolling back the president's executive orders. Congressional Democrats expected to block that effort. Let's bring in New Mexico's governor Bill Richardson. Governor Richardson, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us here.

BILL RICHARDSON, FORMER NEW MEXICO GOVERNOR: Thank you. Nice to be with you.

PAUL: Thank you. So, first of all, what is your reaction to the stopgap measure?

RICHARDSON: Well, I just think that what's happening is another example of the dysfunction in the Congress. A week reprieve -- it shows combined with the Netanyahu speech, the fact that no action seems to happen on immigration, on anything, the gridlock continues. And the Republicans have chosen dysfunction as a tactic. And I think right now the executive branch is basically trying to see where there's a penetration on potential action on immigration, on funding the budget, on Homeland Security, and then deal with this Netanyahu issue in the Congress next week.

PAUL: So governor, you said Republicans are choosing dysfunction. Do you think that the onus of all of this chaos falls on them?

RICHARDSON: Well, it does, because they are the ones blocking the budget, the Homeland Security issue. The Senate, I think the Democratic Senate, found a one-week reprieve.

Look, I'm not just blaming Republicans. I think both sides, both sides need to come to the table and say, this has to end. I mean, this is the funding of the federal government. These are jobs. This is the security of the American people, the Homeland Security. This is domestic terrorism. This is funding to protect Americans at airports.

So this is incredible what is happening. You know, when I served in the Congress, we had disagreements to the stage where there would be a breakdown in government. And I don't see where the benefit for any political party is when there is total incapacity, total dysfunction in getting even a budget for security for the American people passed.

PAUL: OK, so let me ask you this, do you think the issue of immigration should be in this bill, or should it be something separate?

RICHARDSON: Well, it should be something separate, because the president clearly has federal control over immigration. What he did on the deportation issue has been proven by legal scholars on the right and the left. But I think a very small fraction, maybe 60 in the House Republican caucus, the Tea Party caucus, is holding up funding for Homeland Security, the entire department, the entire scope of domestic security for the American people, in retaliation for that action. So, look, you have to be honest and say this is what's happening.

PAUL: OK, Ambassador Richardson, do stay with us, because we have so much more that we want to get your thoughts on regarding what is the most talked about stories in politics this weekend, this growing protest over Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu. We want to hear more on that from you as well as maybe what is going to happen with Speaker Boehner now that he's really feeling the fire under his feet. Again, Ambassador Richardson sticking with us. We are back in just a moment.

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BLACKWELL: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. Let's continue our conversation with former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson. Governor, let's look at one of the biggest stories in politics this week, Prime Minister Netanyahu's upcoming speech before a joint session of Congress. This debate started heating up last month after the Republican House Speaker John Boehner invited the Israeli leader to speak in Washington without consulting the White House. Already, 33 Democrats have vowed to boycott the speech, arguing that his message could jeopardize talks over Iran's nuclear program, which are approaching a critical deadline. Others say two weeks before the election in Israel is inappropriate.

What's your take on the prime minister's decision to sidestep the White House and speak on Capitol Hill? And we now know, in his own words, he will discuss with Congress this proposed or potential deal with Iran.

RICHARDSON: Well, I do believe it was a breach of protocol by the prime minister, by the speaker. They should have consulted the White House. On the other hand, the Israeli-American relationship is very strong. This is a public spat. This is a breach. This is a lovers' quarrel gone bad. It's not the end or the weakening of the U.S.- Israeli relationship. This is a big bad public spat which should end.

But at the same time, look, I have to confess, I am concerned about this deal with Iran. I want to see more details. I want to see Iran end its nuclear capacity. So the prime minister is raising legitimate issues on behalf of Israel, on behalf of the security in the region. But the way he did it, I think, is wrong. I'm a strong supporter of Bibi and Israel and the relationship, and I think the Obama administration needs to minimize this incident as much as they can and not use words like "destructive phase of the relationship" as has been used. I think we need to cool down because this is a very important security relationship in a region that is basically exploding and where the United States doesn't have too many allies.

BLACKWELL: Let me ask you also about Reverend Phyllis Sorter. She's an American who was serving as a missionary in Nigeria. She was kidnapped on Monday in Lagos, Nigeria. From what we understand the kidnapping had been outside of the area which Boko Haram typically has this jurisdiction, we'll use that word for lack of a better term, so it is not seen as terror related by this definition of terror group, this terror group being involved. They asked for the equivalent of $300,000, demanded $300,000 for her safe return. Because this is not seen as terror-related or related to a terror group, and for some families or congregations, $300,000 might be doable, should they be allowed to pay ransom to get this reverend back?

RICHARDSON: I hope not. I think U.S. policy is correct, that there shouldn't be no ransoms. Otherwise you will have random ransoms everywhere and it's going to be chaotic. At the same time, that doesn't mean you don't use special envoys, the church, other potential breakthroughs that might secure the release of this person. You know, it's a private case. There have been cases where Americans have paid through organizations some kind of kidnapping funds. That's a private decision.

But my hope is that the families, the organization, use the U.S. government, because the Nigerian government is virtually helpless in many of the kidnapping cases. They are either inept or they're not cooperating with anyone. So I think you have to go on a case by case basis.

But ransom should not happen. There should be better concentration of information given to the families by the U.S. government if we have that information. Families many times suffer because they don't know the scope of the negotiations, the condition that their loved ones are in. So I think we should make an effort to get better intel, better intelligence, but at the same time more information to the families and groups that are the victims of some of these kidnappings.

BLACKWELL: All right, former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, thank you so much for your time this morning.

RICHARDSON: Thank you.

PAUL: Well, guess what, it seems that winter is just not going to let go of Texas. Snow, ice triggering pileups, gridlock on slippery highways. Look at these pictures. We have the latest on this brutal weather that will not seem to let us go.

Plus, the trial for one of the Boston marathon bombing suspects expected to get underway next week. Here's the question -- can he really get a fair and impartial jury?

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IVAN CABRERA, METEOROLOGIST: All right, welcome back to Newsroom. We are tracking conditions here in Dallas. We have some issues with the ground-stops at the airport as a result of icing. That has been lifted now. But if you're traveling on I-20, I still think you're going to see slick spots because we are still dealing with temperatures that are below freezing and we still have a little bit of rain that's going to be moving through. Temperatures are into the upper 20s. Then eventually this afternoon we'll climb up about a good 10 degrees more. That will be enough to melt whatever is left as far as ice on the roads. So good news there.

But then we track the storm heading off to the north and east. St. Louis, Indianapolis, you'll be getting into the snow tomorrow, may see some issues there. And then eventually this all heads to the north and east where we could see additional accumulations from Philly heading up to Boston. In fact, in Boston, four to six inches, that could put you into the snowiest winter ever. Incredible stuff here with four to six inches, a pretty good swath there.

Winter storm watches have been posted. In fact some of these will become warnings over the next several hours as conditions get a little bit closer. Frigid air begins to retreat a little bit as some milder conditions take over across the southeast, so that's certainly good news. But then the cold air mass pushes right back in here with temperatures over the next few days. My goodness, look at Atlanta, pushing 60 degrees by the afternoon. Staying cold to the north but not as frigid, although we're going to watch that snow closely for you throughout the weekend and heading into the early part of Monday. Victor?

BLACKWELL: Sounds good. Getting closer to 60. Ivan Cabrera, thank you so much.

PAUL: We want to get you a look at the other stories developing right now.

BLACKWELL: Yes, it was the attack that terrorized Boston. Now a court has ruled the marathon bombing trial can stay in Boston. A federal appeals court denied a petition to change the venue for the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. So that means the jury procedure can proceed next week. Our legal experts will weigh in in just a moment.

PAUL: It was an emotional day for President Obama as he said goodbye to outgoing attorney general Eric Holder. The president was among those who attended a portrait unveiling ceremony for Holder at the Department of Justice yesterday. And legendary soul singer Aretha Franklin delivered a surprise performance of "America the Beautiful." She called holder a champion and warrior.

BLACKWELL: And the president also said goodbye to beloved actor Leonard Nimoy, saying "Long before nerdy was cool, there was Leonard Nimoy." Nimoy died yesterday at the age of 83. He may be best remembered for playing Spock in the original "Star Trek" TV show and so many of the films.

All right, still ahead, new pictures this morning of the ISIS terrorist known as Jihadi John and what we are learning about his childhood growing up in London. PAUL: Plus, an American blogger who spoke out about extremists is

hacked to death on the streets of Bangladesh.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our next "Ones to Watch" is in the locker room and ready to roll. Jennifer Lopez has hired him as a choreography but has found his dancing so captivated that she has pulled him from behind the scenes to perform with her center stage. So what is it that makes him so irresistible to the stars?

FRANK GATSON, CHOREOGRAPHER: Chris Grant is the best dancer in the world, OK? I think the thing that makes Chris and people like Beyonce and J-lo and Michael Jackson is the fire. Dance like it's your last dance all the time. You know, always, you know, and he does that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The spins, the hits, the thrusts -- Chris spent his childhood studying Michael Jackson's every move and performed his routines at talent contests across the state. The king of pop had a magic he was desperate to understand.

CHRIS GRANT, DANCER AND CHOREOGRAPHER: The way he performed, the way he transformed when he got on the stage, the way he owned the stage was amazing to me. And he really made me feel how he was feeling. It's one thing to learn something and to move and do all the stuff, but for you to really embody it and fill it and have the emotion, you know, it's really, it's tough. I was taught to always rehearse, rehearse, rehearse until it just becomes you where you don't have to think.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: You can check out the full show at CNN.com/OnesToWatch.

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BLACKWELL: Just hours before a midnight deadline lawmakers approved a one-week funding extension for the department of Homeland Security. Late last night President Obama signed the bill which expires next Friday. And Democrats are vowing to reject any Republican measure that would tie DHS funding to rolling back the president's immigration orders.

PAUL: Russia police are searching a car that may have been used in the drive-by shooting of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. These are brand new images we're getting here of the vehicle. This is coming to us from state run broadcaster Russia 24. Nemtsov, an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, was gunned down as he walked across a Moscow bridge last night. In a message to his mother, President Putin asked her to accept his deepest condolences and promised to do everything possible to find and punish his killers.

BLACKWELL: We have new details about the ISIS killer known as Jihadi John. It's now known that Mohommad Emwazi had a normal childhood in London. You see here this class photo in a school uniform. Now terrorism experts are trying to figure out how he went from that person to the infamous killer seen in the ISIS beheading videos.

This morning officials in Bangladesh are trying to figure out who carried out a brutal attack on a Bangladeshi-American blogger.

PAUL: Avijit Roy who lived in the Atlanta area at one time was hacked to death on the streets of the capital city Dhaka, and his wife was seriously injured. She was walking with him. The blogger had reportedly been the target of threats from Islamists for his view on religion and Islamic extremism. Listen to what an eyewitness had to say here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAZI SHAWKAT ARA, WITNESS TO ATTACK (via translator): I saw an unknown person bring out a big knife and first hit him from behind on his head and then on his shoulders. I shouted for help from the people but nobody came to save him. No one came. A lady was with him. She was his wife. She was also hit on the shoulder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Let's bring in CNN's international correspondent Ivan Watson for more now. Ivan?

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The grieving father of a well-known Bangladeshi-American writer and critic of religious extremism who was murdered in the streets of the Bangladeshi capital Thursday night, the father tells CNN that his son had faced many death threats and that he suspected Islamist groups of carrying out this grisly murder.

Now, we have spoken to the doctor who carried out the autopsy on Avijit Roy, and says he had deep wounds to the back of his skull, to his neck and to his back from some kind of a weapon like a machete. Eyewitnesses, they say that two men attacked Roy and his wife as they were walking down the street in the Bangladeshi capital Thursday night on their way back from a book fair.

Now Roy said he got a surge in death threats after he published a book last year that was titled "The Virus of Faith" in which he denounced religious extremism. And in a column he wrote for a magazine that was supposed to be published in April, he condemned the attacks in Paris against the cartoon magazine "Charlie Hebdo" which were carried out by Islamist fundamentalists.

I'm going to read an excerpt from this essay. It goes, quote, "Religious extremism is like a highly contagious virus. Death threats started flowing to my e-mail inbox on a regular basis. I suddenly found myself a target of militant Islamists and terrorists."

Even more ominous, Roy said that he quoted one threat that he says he received from a man who wrote that they couldn't reach Roy while he was in the U.S. where he lived outside of the U.S. city of Atlanta, but they would wait to attack him when he returned to Bangladesh.

The Bangladeshi police have yet to arrest anybody in connection with this murder. The U.S. state department has condemned the attack and offered to help with the investigation.

Ivan Watson, CNN, Hong Kong.

PAUL: Ivan, thank you so much.

Jordan's King Abdullah II told CNN that he didn't watch the video of his nation's pilot being burned to death by ISIS, calling it propaganda that has backfired on the terrorist group. But in an exclusive television interview, his first we should point out since the pilot was killed, the king spoke to CNN's Fareed Zakaria about the ongoing war on ISIS and President Obama's refusal to label the fight a war on radical Islam. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": President Obama has gotten into a little trouble, or at least has received some criticism, because he says he doesn't want to call groups like is "Islamic extremists" because he doesn't want to give them the mantle of legitimacy by acknowledging they are Islamic. Do you think he's right?

KING ABDULLAH II, JORDAN: I think he is right. And I think this is -- this is something that has to be understood on a much larger platform, because they are looking for legitimacy that they don't have inside of Islam.

We're asked in this debate, are you a moderate or extremist? What these people want is to be called an extremist. They take that as a label of honor. So to label Islam under the term of extremists- moderates is completely wrong. So I think by making this comparison they are extremist Muslims actually is working exactly what these people want. No, we are Muslims. I don't know what these people are, but they definitely do not have any relationship to our faith.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Watch the entire interview with Jordan's King Abdullah II on "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS" tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. eastern.

PAUL: It was the attack that terrorized Boston. A court now has ruled the marathon bombing trial can indeed stay in that city. A federal appeals court denied a petition to change the venue for the trial of accused bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. So that means jury selection proceeds as scheduled as this week.

I want to bring in CNN legal analyst Mel Robbins to talk about this. So Mel, good to see you. Where do you think the defense team has to go from here? Do they have the option to file another appeal or is this it?

MEL ROBBINS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Christi, good morning. It's always great to be on with you.

And the defense, he has the best defense on the planet. These are the number one death penalty lawyers, literally, in America. And so you're going to see them basically take appeals wherever they possibly can. This wasn't the first time they tried to get the trial moved. This was the third time. And you could see them possibly do it yet again.

However, when they get into court, Christi, this week, they are going to be facing 70 jurors. Now, they have whittled them down from a pool of thousands. Then they whittled the thousands down to a pool of 256. They interviewed those 256 for over a week. They filled out huge questionnaires, and now we finally have a pool of 70 potential jurors.

Now, what's going to happen is each side has 20 challenges where they can strike people from the jury without saying exactly why. They will then impanel a jury of 12 people. There will be six alternates, and then they will start opening statements on Wednesday.

PAUL: All right, I want to read you something one of the dissenting judges wrote, because he said that the coverage form the day of the bombing has been, and I want to quote it here, "unparalleled in American legal history. And that it is absurd to suggest Tsarnaev will receive a fair and impartial trial." Do you agree?

ROBBINS: I completely disagree. And frankly I find it insulting. He's before one of the most respected federal court judges in this jurisdiction. They are meticulously scrutinizing every single thing that they do. As I mentioned earlier, he's got the number one death penalty attorneys in the country representing him. They have made multiple appeals already. And to suggest that he can't get a fair trial in a city of at least 5 million people and to say that they can't find 12 open-minded jurors that can take a look at this case and view him as presumed innocent and look at the facts, I find it to be insulting, frankly.

PAUL: OK, so Mel, really quickly here, you keep saying that he has the best defense on the planet. How do you think they are going to defend him?

ROBBINS: I think what you're going to see them do is create a narrative around his life story. Many of us have already said this is really a trial of two parts, Christi. One is about the guilt or innocence. And I don't think there's anybody that believes he will be found innocent of these charges. I think he will be found guilty on all of the counts. Then we move to a sentencing phase. And the sentencing phase is all about whether or not he is going to spend his life in prison and die there or whether or not he's going to get the death penalty.

And ironically, one of the best places for him to be is in Massachusetts because the majority of people in this state disagree with the death penalty. And while you have to say that you can impose the death penalty in order to be impanelled on a death penalty case, the truth of the matter is he's probably has a better chance of getting a sympathetic jury here to actually spare his life than if they moved it to a different venue.

So what you do as a defense attorney on this kind of case is you build a story around his life and around how he was overwhelmed by his brother. And you use it to try to get the jury to spare his life and only sentence him to life without the possibility of parole.

PAUL: Interesting. All right, Mel Robbins, always appreciate your voice on this. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Consider this, a small Missouri town, population 50, now rocked to its core after a shooter guns down seven of the 50 in a house-to-house rampage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Investigators in Missouri are trying to find the motive behind a house-to-house killing spree that left seven people shot to death. The scene of that rampage, the small rural town of Tyrone in southeast, Missouri where most of the residents, 50 at most, they know each other and don't even lock their doors at night. CNN's Will Ripley has the latest for us this morning. Will, what do we expect to learn from police?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know, Victor, that today, perhaps it was scheduled to begin a short time ago. They are examining the body of Alice Aldridge. She is the mother of the suspected gunman in this case, Joseph Aldridge, who we are learning she may have been dead for 24 hours before her body was discovered. And police are trying to find out if there was a link between Alice's death of natural causes and what they believe is Joseph's shooting spree that he went on in the town of Tyrone, as you said, a town of about 50 people beginning on Thursday night.

According to the investigators here, he essentially, because people here don't lock their doors, he was able to go from House to House to House killing four members of the Aldridge family, essentially wiping out most of that family who live in the town of Tyrone, and also going on to kill at least two members of another family which police have not yet named.

We spoke yesterday with the cousin of some of the other people who were killed from the other family. He went over there and found their bodies. And he also found their 13-year-old son who was in his back bedroom essentially in a state of shock. We also know there was a 15- year-old girl who heard gunfire in one of the Aldridge homes. She raced out, went to a neighbor's house. She called police. Of course, she also is traumatized this morning.

There was one survivor of the shooting, another member of the Aldridge family in the hospital, talking to police to give them as much information as she can. But understandably a shock that this town, now the scene of the deadliest mass shooting in recent history here in Missouri. Victor and Christi?

BLACKWELL: Your heart certainly goes out to that town and to that family. Will Ripley there for us there in Missouri. Will, thank you. Christi?

PAUL: A high school principal that you do not want to mess with. The Iraq War veteran pinned a scathing letter to his students vowing to go after "pathetic cowards who use social media for cyber bullying." He is joining us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: "Cowards," that's what a high school principal in Massachusetts is calling cyber bullies who have been using anonymous Twitter accounts to pick on students. And he is so frustrated he's vowing to go after them. Take a look at this letter the Iraq War veteran sent out. This was sent to 350 students. I'm going to read part of it for you here. "To the pathetic cowards who chose to start and participate in this, you are warned. I am coming for you and I am furious. I hate sniveling, cowardly behavior like this. I have more respect for insurgents I fought in Iraq than I do for people behind a Twitter account. At least Iraqis had the courage to face their targets and not hide behind a Twitter account."

Principal Joshua Romano is with us now. Principal, thank you so much for taking time to be with us now. This letter has gone viral. Thousands of people have read it, but I understand you wish you would have chosen your words differently. Why so?

JOSHUA ROMANO, PRINCIPAL, WINCHENDON HIGH SCHOOL: Well, I think that I didn't want to come across quite so strong, but I was writing very much in the heat of the moment. I had just been speaking with the parents of one of the children who was a target on the account, a 15- year-old girl who just absolutely had vulgar and crass, disgusting sexual things that had been said about this young lady. Obviously the parents are very upset, the student is very upset. And once I was notified about it and looked at the tweets, there was just the level of vulgarity displayed in them really pushed me to make a strong message.

And I care about these children very much. And I don't want to see bad things happen to them. And so I was reacting to that.

The other thing that set me off is not only was it the actual post on there by the few people who created the account, but there were already 50 students following them, people re-tweeting them, which just spreads it further. And so where normally in a bullying case I would go and deal with the aggressor and it would be something dealt with school-wide, between the anonymity of Twitter where I didn't have a suspect or any suspects, and the fact that so many students were participating in it and spreading it, I felt I had to act strong to make sure students knew exactly how I felt about it and see if I could stop that for the sake of the two dozen or so students victimized by these two accounts.

PAUL: OK, so two dozen victims of this. I want to listen to some found here because you have students and parents really backing you up on this. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think he's doing a good job.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I think he's the best principal we have had. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That just shows he's a good person and actually

cares about us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought it was great, because if maybe more people stuck up, less kids would get bullied and less bad things would happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: All right, so you mentioned a couple dozen who have been affected by this. Has this been an ongoing problem for a long time, and have you seen any changes since you wrote that letter?

ROMANO: I have never seen Twitter accounts like this where just anonymous places where people are posting hateful comments. And so my fear when the first two accounts started and all these other students were participating was that this was going to become the next problem. I had two students doing it now. What if I had 10 other students who decide, hey, this is really cool and start their own. Now I have a dozen forums in which people are just dishing out hatred towards classmates and horrible things.

So you're always dealing with bullying as a high school principal. You're always dealing with it to some extent. Typically it's not at this scale where it's literally school-wide. Typically it's one aggressor targeting one student. And it can be through electronic media, but typically it could be something through Facebook where you know who is doing it. This is the first time I have seen something to this scale.

PAUL: Real quickly, I just wanted to ask you, you mentioned the word "crime." They are alleging sexual, vulgar things, and they are under age. Is there a possibility of legal action anywhere here?

ROMANO: The only way there would be legal action would be if I was able to identify who the aggressors were and it was part of a pattern towards the target. So if there was a student targeted by one of the aggressors and it was part of a pattern of bullying, then you can make charges of criminal harassment. But until I have suspects, until I know who created the accounts, I can't do that. And the nature of Twitter allows for anonymity where people don't have to put their name anywhere on their profile. So it is very hard without somebody coming forward to find out who the aggressor is. So until I have a name, there's no possibility at all for criminal charges.

PAUL: Joshua Romano, we really at least you taking the time to talk to us. Thank you, too, for your service.

ROMANO: Thank you very much.

PAUL: Sure, take care. Victor?

BLACKWELL: A manhunt continues in Russia for the killer of this man, Boris Nemtsov. He's the outspoken opposition leader and critic of Vladimir Putin. A live report ahead from the crime scene where great numbers of mourners have gathered. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Today's CNN hero recognizes a 12-year-old girl who invented a special drinking cup for people with mobility issues, like her grandfather with Parkinson's disease. Now she sold 11,000 of them and they are being used by everyone. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LILY BORN, CNN HERO: My grandfather has Parkinson's disease that causes him to shake. He spilled all the time. So I decided to make the kangaroo cup. I came up with the idea when I was around eight or nine years old. I wanted to put legs on the cup because I figured that it wouldn't be as likely to spill. The original cup was made out of porcelain. We decided to make a plastic version so it can be used by anybody, like little kids, people with mobility issues. I have a design team and they really do help me so much.

Color-wise, blue?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lily has sold about 11,000 cups total. Any of her classmates and teachers don't even know what she's doing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let it be like the next big thing.

BORN: I do think I'm keeping kangaroo cup talk to a minimum.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now the word is getting around school like, wait, Lily? She invented this cup? Oh, my gosh.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is so cool.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, Lily, how are you doing?

BORN: Good. My cup has changed my grandfather's life because that's the only cup he uses now. Once the kangaroo cup came, the other cups he used, they were just out of the picture. One day I gave him a kangaroo cup to Parkinson's research and hopefully they will find a cure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here's to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Good for her. Hey, we hope you make some great memories today. Thanks for being with us.

BLACKWELL: There's much ahead in the next hour of the CNN Newsroom. We turn it over to our colleague, Fredricka Whitfield.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: You hesitated for a second. I heard that.

BLACKWELL: It worked out.

WHITFIELD: Are we ready to go, cameras in place? You're funny. All right, thanks so much, you guys. Have a great day.

PAUL: You too, Fred.

BLACKWELL: You too.