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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

At Least 1 Killed By Tornado Swarm; Dash Cam Video from Police Shooting Released; New Challenges for Iran Nuclear Deal. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired April 10, 2015 - 04:00   ET

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


[04:00:25] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, deadly tornadoes tearing through the Midwest. The devastating damage. We're tracking what is still to come, live.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: New video of an unarmed South Carolina man just before he was killed by police. What led up to the deadly chase, ahead.

BERMAN: And growing challenges for a nuclear deal with Iran. Iranian leaders and now, Congress throwing up roadblocks. We have all the details, ahead.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It is Friday, April 10th. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East.

Breaking news this morning, a deadly swarm of tornadoes tearing across the Midwest from Iowa to Ohio. The outbreak including at least 14 -- 14 reported tornadoes across three states, this according to the National Weather Service. Officials say the path of destruction across Illinois was more than 25 miles long.

BERMAN: There was a huge twister in northern Illinois near the city of Rochelle. Officials say the severe storm caused one fatality in nearby Fairdale. This is another view of the tornadoes and the pelting hail in northern Illinois. Residents of this neighborhood ran to their basement for shelter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINDSEY MANNING, ILLINOIS TORNADO VICTIM: We were here. It was hailing. We actually kind of thought it was going to miss us. We started getting calls from people saying tornadoes were headed our way, and we quickly went to the basement and could feel the tornado right over our house and came up to this. I feel like it is a bad dream. Something I'd be watching on the news somewhere else. Not in my neighborhood.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Emergency officials say the tornadoes and high winds caused multiple injuries, widespread damage, like this building leveled in Rockford, Illinois. The fire department there tweeted that they were having hard time getting access to devastated areas because of all of the damage and debris.

ROMANS: In Missouri last night, another severe storm blasting through Chesterfield, just west St. Louis. Fire officials say some 15 buildings in an industrial area were damaged. Some of them almost destroyed. But no one was injured. Officials say it was after business hours and those still there got out as quickly as they could.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID BARNARD, ESCAPED STORM DESTRUCTION: A lot of wind and sideways rain. You could not see anything. I started hearing crashing back in the shop area of our building and I went back there and saw that the vents have been ripped out of the roof and back part of the roof was separating from the wall of the building and lifting up, and decided that probably wasn't the best place to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: In Iowa, ominous storm clouds.

ROMANS: Wow.

BERMAN: Look at that. Near Clinton, Iowa, another twister with downed trees and scattered debris. Officials there say no injuries were reported.

ROMANS: Wow.

Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is tracking the storms for us. He joins us with the very latest on this.

That was something else last night.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, John and Christine, the footage of the 18 wheeler truck flipped on its side is not only terrifying, but it's extraordinary. At the same time, this is the line of thunderstorms that moved across the northwestern sections of Illinois that brought the damage. In fact, we pinpointed the exact moment in time with the radar and the super cell that crossed Interstate 39, and the footage that you saw, of course, subsequently flipping the vehicles and also causing all kinds of extensive damage. That storm continues to clear well north and east of the greater Chicago region.

In fact, this is the cold front at the moment. We still have one tornado watch box in effect, at least for the next hour or so from Indiana and Ohio and Louisville. These storms currently are not tornadic in nature. However, we're going to monitor those very closely.

Interaction of two air masses causing another round of possible severe thunderstorms today, this time from the Mid-Atlantic States. That means the nation's capital, all the way to Atlanta, stretching toward New Orleans and even parts of Texas. We have the possibility of large hail, and damaging winds and isolated thunderstorms, although we do not anticipate this to be as widespread as what we experienced on Thursday.

Here goes the cold front continuing to move eastward, even for you in New York City, thunder and lightning strikes possible as well. By the way, behind the storm system, it will become extremely windy and temperatures are going to drop like a rock.

John and Christine, back to you.

BERMAN: All right, Derek. Thanks so much.

ROMANS: All right. This morning, we have new video that brings perspective to a police officer's shooting of an unarmed man in North Charleston, South Carolina. Now, that officer, Michael Slager is in jail facing murder charges. The dash cam video released by state officials.

[04:05:00] Now, it does not show the shooting itself. But watch here, it does show these important moments leading up to the shooting as Walter Scott is pulled over and questioned by Officer Slager.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OFFICER MICHAEL SLAGER: Do you have your license, registration and insurance card?

WALTER SCOTT: (INAUDIBLE)

SLAGER: What's that?

SCOTT: I got my license, but (INAUDIBLE)

SLAGER: OK, let's start with your license. The reason for the stop is your brake light's out.

SCOTT: Oh, OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: CNN's Brian Todd is in North Charleston picks up the story from there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, the latest development in this case is a dramatic one. The release of the dash cam video from the squad car of Officer Michael Slager.

The video shows what appears to be a routine traffic stop. Walter Scott's vehicle pulling into the parking lot of an Advance Auto Parts Store, Officer Slager getting out, going over to the car, talking to Walter Scott on the driver side, talking to him for several minutes. Then, Slager comes back to his vehicle. Walter Scott appears to get out of his vehicle briefly and put his hand up and but then he goes back in the vehicle. A few seconds later, Walter Scott emerges from his vehicle on this videotape and is seen taking off running to the left side of the screen.

That is the extent of that videotape. We don't know why Walter Scott took off running. That is a key gap that has to be filled in this case.

Another new development we have just interviewed another witness. We have exclusively interviewed a witness to come forward to talk about what she saw on the day of the shooting. Gwen Nichols is her name. She was in the neighborhood.

She saw a scuffle between Walter Scott and the officer. She did not witness the actual gunshots. She said they scuffled a little bit, and then saw Walter Scott go into the vacant lot where he eventually was shot.

She did hear the gunshots, though, and she described to us how she felt when she heard them.

GWEN NICHOLS, WITNESS: I started to cry. Sorry. I started to cry because I thought about the altercation with my son, and it could have been my son. It could have been any one of these young black men around here.

TODD: Gwen Nichols referred to her son there because she says her own son had his encounter with the North Charleston police that was somewhat similar. That his son was pulled over for a routine traffic stop and they ended up kind of roughing him up a little bit and arresting him. So, she could relate to what happened to Walter Scott on that day -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Brian, thank you.

Also this morning, we are hearing from the mother of Michael Slager. While holding back tears, she offered this to the family of the man who her son is accused of murdering.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAREN SHARPE, MOTHER OF MICHAEL SLAGER: I just -- I just have to let it be and hope God takes care of everybody involved. Not only my family, but the Scott family, because I know they're grieving, just like I'm grieving.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Karen Sharpe says her son loved being a police officer and that murder is just not in Slager's character.

BERMAN: Cracks are starting to appear in the framework for the nuclear deal with Iran. Here in the U.S., the Senate is closing in on a plan that would give Congress a chance to review the deal which would complicate negotiations. While Iran's supreme leader says he will not agree to a deal unless economic sanctions are lifted on day one.

CNN senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen following the latest developments for us this morning.

Good morning, Fred.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, John.

You remember those video pictures out of Tehran on the day the interim deal was signed with all of those people, all that euphoria, those people driving to the streets, waving the Iranian flag. It seems that none of that is left at this point.

The supreme leader, as you said, coming out yesterday and saying he was very pessimistic about a deal actually coming through. He said he still doesn't trust the U.S. and the negotiations going forward. He felt a lot of it was put out about the interim deal right after it came out was false.

And again, at the core of all of this for the Iranians is sanctions relief. That's the one thing where they take a very tough stance. And as you say, they want sanctions relief from day one. They said the moment that this deal is implemented, all of the sanctions have to go away. And that's certainly as we know is not the way that the U.S. sees it.

And another important point as well, the U.S. is also saying that the framework for the sanctions needs to remain in place as well in case Iran breaches the deal, all the sanctions would go back into place. That certainly is not something the Iranians are talking about.

And the negotiators for the Iranians themselves are facing a lot of pressure back home. There's a lot of hard line Iranians who feel that Iran is getting a bad deal out of this. They feel Iran should have walked away from the negotiating table a long time ago. There are people in Tehran who think that living under sanctions is better than a nuclear deal, at least the one that seems to be shaping up right now.

[04:10:07] And so, certainly, at this point, the euphoria isn't what it was before, John.

BERMAN: Clearly, still more negotiating to come over the coming two- plus months.

Frederik Pleitgen for us in London -- thanks so much, Fred.

ROMANS: Meanwhile, mounting tensions this morning between Iran and Saudi Arabia over the conflict in Yemen. Those Iran-backed Houthi rebels have overrun the capital of a key Sunni province, despite Saudi Arabia-led air strikes. Iran's supreme leader lashing out, calling the bombing campaign genocide.

CNN senior international correspondent Nima Elbagir live in Djibouti for the very latest for us. Good morning.

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine.

Well, we are in the third week of aerial bombardment by that Saudi Arabia-led coalition. What we see on the ground is gains for the Houthi forces. They have taken another city in the southwest of the country, Ataq.

Now, Ataq is, of course, any territorial gain at the moment for the Houthis is a good thing. But in addition to just taking ground, it also puts them a step closer to the Yemen's critical natural gas facility, about 160 kilometers south of Ataq. If they get there and on to the Arabian sea platform that Yemen has been doing, then they can really disrupt, they cause an awful amount of damage that would be very difficult for any returning president, whether it's al-Hadi or not to really reverse.

Meanwhile, we're also hearing reports from the "Reuters" news agency that the black flags of al Qaeda have been raised in another district in Yemen. There is a real sense that al Qaeda is taking advantage of the security vacuum to try and grab as much territory as they can while the international community is looking in the opposite direction, Christine.

ROMANS: Nima, what about humanitarian aid? I mean, you must have a crisis on the ground for people who are caught in all this. Is it able to get to those who need it?

ELBAGIR: Absolutely. The United Nations has called it a massive humanitarian crisis. And the concern is that there didn't ever seem to be any real plan for how aid would get in to the areas blocked off because of the fighting. The Red Cross has confirmed just a few minutes ago that they have finally gotten an aid plane into Sana'a. This took days of negotiations with the Saudi Arabian. It's nowhere near enough, but it is a start, Christine.

ROMANS: Nima Elbagir, thank you so much for that this morning.

BERMAN: Twelve minutes after the hour for us.

A new study out this morning says there are major gaps in airport security nationwide. The investigation by the Associated Press finds there had been 268 perimeter breaches since 2004 at some of America's busiest airports. And that could be another statement because Boston's Logan Airport refused to release security information. Authorities say it is neither financially or physically feasible to keep all intruders out.

ROMANS: All right. Time for an early start on your money.

Stock futures barely moving. It's been a relatively calm week on Wall Street. Caution ahead of next week, earnings report start to come out. They're going to tell us what corporate profits have done in the first quarter, and they are likely to disappoint, John. That is the case so far this week.

Also, the Apple Watch is here. In case you live in a cave, I want you to know the Apple Watch is here. It is taking pre-orders starting this morning for the watch. The first new product in five years, the first new product since Steve Jobs died. Customers can try the watch on today in stores. The watch starts at I think $350 and goes all the way up to $17,000 for the 18 karat gold version.

The big question, how many 18 karat gold versions should you get? Do you need one for --

BERMAN: I've got two wrists. That's all I can say.

ROMANS: Will it be as revolutionary as the iPhone and the iPad. Right now, Apple relies heavily on the iPhone for most of its revenues. The early reviews have been sort of interesting. One reviewer said it took three maddening days to figure this watch out and changed his life.

BERMAN: You know, it's complicated, but it's interesting to see how the market develops there.

An investigation launched after police are caught beating a suspected robber. The story behind this video, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:17:14] BERMAN: Breaking news this morning -- look at this -- at least one person dead after twisters ripped across the Midwest. That just looks huge. At least 14 tornadoes reported in Illinois, Iowa and also Ohio. One person killed in northern Illinois where a tornado shredded homes and toppled trees. In one St. Louis suburb, the violent damaged about 15 buildings. There were no injuries reported there. The twister touched down in eastern Iowa spared a densely populated area, but it did obviously down trees and power lines there.

ROMANS: All right. Developing this morning, a guard is dead after gunfire at the U.S. Census Bureau headquarters in Maryland. The shooting happened after 7:00 Thursday night. CNN has learned the gunman abducted his wife and drove to Census headquarters and that's when chaos broke out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A guard approaches a car that matches the description from the kidnapping that has two people who are apparently involved in a domestic fight in the car. When the guard approaches the car, the guard is shot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: As soon as D.C. police showed up, the unidentified gunman began firing shots from his car. The officers quickly returned fire, with the suspect shot multiple times. At this point, no word on the gunman's condition. Meantime, officers hit in the accident are expected to be OK. The gunman's wife is located and safe. The guard killed in the incident identified as 59-year-old Lawrence Buckner. So far, no word yet on a motive.

Developing this morning, new incidence of police officers accused of using excessive force. Look at this, video -- new video of a man being pummeled by deputies in San Bernardino County in a bizarre horse back pursuit. This purportedly the beating went on about two minutes, involved as many as 11 officers. The man being hit is identified as 30-year-old Francis Housaka (ph). He was struck although his hands were behind his back. You can see that on this video.

The incident allegedly stemmed from an identity theft investigation. An internal investigation has now been launched in this case.

ROMANS: All right. A California power company facing the largest penalty in U.S. history. State regulators ordering Pacific Gas & Electric to pay $1.6 billion for failures leading up to a deadly 2010 gas pipeline blast in the suburb of San Bruno. Eight people killed, remember that, 38 homes flattened. The company still faces more than $1 billion in federal crimes, has committed to spend at least $3 billion to improve its pipeline safety.

BERMAN: President Obama hinting at a breakthrough with Cuba. Could meet with Raul Castro as soon as today. So, what does this mean for U.S./Cuba relations? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:23:34] ROMANS: The president in Panama this morning. Mr. Obama expected to have a historic face-to-face discussion with Cuban President Raul Castro. Recently, he announced he removed Cuba from the U.S. list of government state sponsors of terrorism.

CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, all eyes will be on what could be an historic encounter between President Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro here at the Summit of the Americas. It's a summit of Latin American leaders that takes place later on today.

Now, they have spoken on the phone before, and they did it shake hands back in 2013. But nothing like what we may witness later on today.

Now, one thing we should point that this interaction comes as the State Department is recommending the Obama administration remove Cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. That is a key stumbling block. It is believed to reestablishing embassies in both Havana and Washington.

There was a lot of speculation that this would all have been taken care of by now. But the president, when he was asked about normalizing relations with Cuba earlier on Thursday dismissed the notion that this is taking too long.

Here's what he had to say. BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In terms of the overall process of establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba, I think that they are proceeding as I expected. I never foresaw that immediately overnight, everything would transform itself.

[04:25:01] That suddenly, Cuba became a partner diplomatically with us the way Jamaica is, for example. That's going to take some time.

ACOSTA: One sign of the difficult work that lies ahead, a couple of fights have broken out here in Panama City between pro-Castro Cubans and dissidents from the island who have traveled here for the summit. While none of that is expected to pose much a threat to the summit that is taking place over the next couple of days, it is a reminder of the hard feelings that still exist on the island -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Jim Acosta, thanks, Jim.

BERMAN: We've got some deadly storms just barreling across the Midwest. We're going to tell you the damage that was done and what comes next right after the break. Look at that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Deadly destructive tornadoes tear through the Midwest. Communities destroyed. Residents devastated. We are tracking the storms for you and what you can expect today.

BERMAN: New video shedding new light on a deadly police chase. We'll you about the moments before Walter Scott was killed. That's ahead.

ROMANS: Nuclear roadblocks. Leaders from Iran and Congress casting new doubt that a nuclear deal can never be reached. We're live with the new challenges, ahead.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: Great to see you today. I'm John Berman. About 30 minutes past the hour.

Our breaking news this morning: a deadly string of tornadoes tearing across the Midwest from Iowa to Ohio. Look at that. Just a truck just pushed over. The National Weather Service reports at least 14 tornadoes across three states. Officials say the path of destruction across Illinois was more than 25 miles long.