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ISIS Claiming Responsibility for Garland, Texas Attack; Investigators Seize Gunmen's Phoenix Apartment; Interview with Garland's Mayor; Commissioner Batts Praises His Cops; Mike Huckabee to Join Crowded GOP Field. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired May 05, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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

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[09:00:33] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Happening now in the NEWSROOM, for the first time, ISIS claims responsibility for an attack on American soil. We investigate the possible links between the terror group and the shooters at the Prophet Muhammad cartoon ontest in Texas.

Then --

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's important that, now that charges have been brought in Baltimore, that we let due process play itself out.

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COSTELLO: President Obama talks Baltimore and dispatches his attorney general as a tense confrontation plays out. A gunshot sounds, officers respond, pepper spray is used. What really happened here?

And then the Boston bomber finally gets emotional. What triggered Tsarnaev's tears.

Let's talk live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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COSTELLO (on camera): Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

In Texas, a chilling development. ISIS says it has carried its first attack on U.S. soil. The terror group claims responsibility for Sunday night's attack in Garland, Texas, and ISIS warns Americans more attacks will come. Two gunmen shot to death as they attempted to storm a cartoon contest featuring depiction's of the Prophet Mohammed. The men, outfitted with body armor and armed with assault rifles, drove more than 1,000 miles from their apartment in Phoenix to carry out this attack.

Let's begin our coverage with senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh. He's live in Beirut this morning. Tell us more.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, what we know is limited at this stage and it doesn't necessarily suggest that ISIS, in terms of their official leadership, had an awful lot of fore knowledge of this attack, as far as we know now. They released a statement on the al Bayan official radio station, that's said to be broadcasting out to the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, in which they referred to the two attackers as brothers, as soldiers of the caliphate. That's the part of the northern Syria and northern Iraq they've self declared as an Islamic State. And they repeated the fact, which are frankly widely known in the media that they were both killed in an exchange of fire in which a security guard was injured.

Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that ISIS were not involved in the planning, but they're not exposing those key details and investigators will be looking for to assess whether this was part of a broader plot, where ISIS leaders in Iraq or Syria were in communication with Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi in the hours and days ahead of that attack, or whether this tweet, which Elton Simpson posted himself just before the attack, which makes a reference to pledging allegiance to the leader of the faithful, that could well be the ISIS leader, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, was in fact the first perhaps that ISIS knew about it, and subsequently making this claim that they were involved to try and boost their following in social media and those extremists around the world.

That statement on al Bayan radio, Carol, goes on to make a loose and familiar, frankly, from ISIS hyperbole, threat to the U.S. in which they say, "We say to the defenders of the cross, the U.S., that future attacks are going to be harsher and worse. Islamic State soldiers will inflict harm on you. With the grace of God, the future is just around the corner."

Now this is obviously part of the hyperbole we've heard before, but this is the first time in which, as you said, an attack on U.S. soil has subsequently had ISIS claim it. Whether they really were behind it, we may not know until investigators dig further, but it is potentially a chilling insight into how these lone wolf attackers, like the ones in Garland, Texas, may operate. Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Nick Paton Walsh reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

We do have new details this morning on those gunmen, and one big question, were they really soldiers mobilized by ISIS or merely sympathizers that the terror group now wants to claim?

CNN's Kyung Lah is in Phoenix where the suspects shared an apartment with more. Good morning.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Investigators are hoping to answer that very question. They are digging through the evidence that they seized out of the apartment that these two gunmen shared in Phoenix. They are hoping to find any evidence of this supposed hard link, if a link even exists, between ISIS and these two men. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAH (voice-over): The FBI filled a van with evidence from the gunmen's Phoenix apartment, investigators scrubbing all items, hoping to piece together a timeline of this plot. Neighbors in their apartment complex saw nothing outwardly alarming from the two roommates except one of the men, Elton Simpson, put his car up for sale.

[09:05:08] ARIEL WHITLOCK, NEIGHBOR: I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it right now.

LAH: Ariel Whitlock exchanged texts with Simpson.

WHITLOCK: You don't think maybe he is going to go and plot something and you're giving the money to help them go plot something.

LAH: But he changed his mind, instead driving it to Texas. Shortly before opening fire, Simpson tweeted an oath of allegiance to Amirul Mu'mineen, a pseudonym for the leader of ISIS.

But the first clues date back to a 2011 arrest. Talking to an FBI enforcement over years, court records show Simpson wanted to go to Somalia to fight, recorded on wiretaps saying "If you get shot or you get killed, it's heaven straight away. Heaven, that's why we here for, so why not take that route?"

Nadir Soofi was the other gunman, a pizza shop owner and father to a young son, says his mosque president. A Pakistani source with knowledge of the family tells CNN when his parents divorced, he moved to Pakistan with his father where he attended a prestigious private school in Islamabad.

Soofi's grandmother tells CNN affiliate KPRC that he never felt persecuted for his religious beliefs, and blames the other gunman for instigating the crime.

SHIRLEY DROMGOOLE, GRANDMOTHER OF GUNMAN NADIR SOOFI: Whoever he was with talked him into it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's how you feel about it?

DROMGOOLE: Yes. There's no other way it would happen.

LAH: Their plan so secret that mosque president Usam Shami spent years with both men at services and never saw either as a threat.

USAMA SHAMI, PRESIDENT, ISLAMIC COMMUNITY CENTER OF PHOENIX: When that happens, it just shocks you. How good did you know these people? That's the question that people ask themselves.

LAH: A question Elton Simpson's family is also asking. In a statement released Monday night, they write, "Just like everyone in our beautiful country, we are struggling to understand how this could happen."

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LAH (on camera): And what friends and family are asking today is were the signs there? Were the clues there and did they just miss them? Carol?

COSTELLO: All right, Kyung Lah reporting live from Phoenix this morning.

Douglas Athas is the mayor of Garland, Texas. He joins me now by phone. Welcome, Mayor.

MAYOR DOUGLAS ATHAS, GARLAND, TEXAS (via phone): Good morning. How are you?

COSTELLO: I am good. Thank you so much for being with me this morning. I appreciate it.

I first want to talk about the hero cop that shot the two suspects. Have you talked with him?

ATHAS: I have not yet.

COSTELLO: Do you plan to soon?

ATHAS: I do know him; I know his family so I do hope to talk to him sometime soon.

COSTELLO: I think he deserves the key to the city. Do you have anything planned?

ATHAS: Not yet. Obviously in his mind, I'm sure he was doing his job and obviously his training came through, and there were a number of officers near him that would have done exactly the same thing.

COSTELLO: I know that you put a lot of thought into whether this cartoon contest should have been held in Garland, and as you know hindsight is 20/20. Do you have any regrets over your decision?

ATHAS: Well, it wasn't my decision. The school district was the owner of the building and they're the ones that leased the space. We provide the security; of course the school district and the city both worked together to make sure that we had adequate security, and in hindsight, we had adequate security.

COSTELLO: You certainly did. It is interesting to note that most of the 200 people attending that event came from out of state. Why don't Garland residents?

ATHAS: Well, it was not something that was -- that would be very -- that anyone in Garland would participate. I mean, we have 114 languages spoken in our school district. We're recognized by a Brown University study as one of the most integrated neighborhoods in the cities in the United States. We live very together happily; we have very few -- any sort of situations between different kinds of people, different ethnicities. They all go to school together and this is just not something you think about. Our neighborhoods are integrated in such a way that if you go knock on the door, you really have no idea who's going to answer the door. That doesn't make any difference here.

COSTELLO: Would you say the people of Garland shunned this event?

ATHAS: I guess you could say that. There was certainly no real interest in Garland in attending. I know a number of Muslims; they weren't interested in attending or protesting, so -- I wouldn't use the word shun. They make their own choices and what those choices were, I don't know, but you see the results.

COSTELLO: The organizer of the event, Pamela Geller, she is not from Texas either. And it's interesting that Geert Wilders, the keynote speaker, said don't mess with Texas in his speech when there were few listening from Texas attending. Were they using Texas? Do you feel used?

ATHAS: It's a common slogan. A lot of people like that slogan. We use it for litter; but other people use it for other things.

[09:10:02] COSTELLO: Mayor Douglas Athas from Garland, Texas. Thank you so much for talking with me this morning. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Baltimore police confront a new round of tensions after a report that cops shot a man turns out to be false. So what will it take to restore trust here? We'll talk about that next.

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OBAMA: Families, officers, all across the country every day, they're wondering is my loved one going to come home? And so they've got a really tough job. What we also know, though, is that for far too long, for decades, you have a situation in which too many communities don't have a relationship, a trust, with the police. And if you just have a handful of police who are not doing the right thing, that makes the job tougher for all the other police officers out there.

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COSTELLO: President Obama weighing in on the sometimes difficult relationship between police and communities, a relationship that has been under scrutiny in Baltimore. Today, Baltimore will get a visit from the nation's newest Attorney General. Justice Department officials telling CNN that Loretta Lynch will sit down with lawmakers, community leaders, and city officials.

Lynch's trip comes amid fresh tensions after this chaotic scene near the area where the riots broke out just over a week ago. False reports of a cop-involved shooting drawing crowds of people demanding answers, as officers tried to make it clear they didn't shoot anybody.

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[09:15:09] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You shot him! They shot him in the back, man!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a cop! He's a cop!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You shot my man, yo!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You shot my man, yo!

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COSTELLO: Now, police say they spotted a man with a gun, they chased after him, the man dropped the gun and that caused it to discharge. The bullet hit nobody. But the incident underscores the distrust between parts of the community and law enforcement sworn to protect it. Police Commissioner Anthony Batts offering these words of encouragement to his force over the police radio.

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VOICE OF ANTHONY BATTS, BALTIMORE POLICE COMMISSIONER: You have tremendous support in this city and people have said it, and I want to know you did a good job. Yyou did well and I am extremely proud of you. Other than six hours, because we didn't have support, we knocked 'em dead. We did well, so thank you guys. I just want you to know, and what I'm very proud of, is no one's submitted their letter of resignation. No one called in sick. Everyone stood tall. I applaud your courage and I applaud your professionalism. I can't tell you how proud I am of you. I just spent a call a number of our guys that got hurt who stood tall. Again, you ask yourself why you do this? For the grandmothers, for the babies, for the weak. Not everybody can be a Baltimore Police Officer. I am proud of you. Stay safe.

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COSTELLO: Joining me now to talk about all of this, Tom Verni, former NYPD detective, and Jeff Roorda, a business manager for the St. Louis Police Officers Association. Welcome, gentlemen.

JEFF ROORDA, BUSINESS MGR, ST. LOUIS POLICE OFFICERS ASSN: Good morning.

TOM VERNI, FORMER NYPD DETECTIVE: Morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. Jeff, first to you, how difficult is it to be a police officer in Baltimore today?

ROORDA: Well, I don't know about Baltimore, but it's difficult all over the country. You know, we don't make it any easier by vilifying police officers, by letting rumors take on a life of their own, or through false prosecutions.

COSTELLO: And, Tom, I want to center on that incident that you saw that happened in Baltimore, the man dropped the gun and the gun discharged and everybody thought maybe police shot somebody. What is it like to be a police officer in the middle of that crowd? VERNI: I'm sure that was probably very chaotic, and I'm sure the cops

responding to that were wondering whether or not there was going to be a groundswell of anger and a potential riot forming within minutes. Because these situations are chaotic at best. Getting information out to people in a timely matter is -- it could make the potential difference between a riot occurring and people just calming down and realizing that there's nothing to riot about.

Tensions are so high there right now, and I understand people's apprehension and their mistrust of the police, I get that. But I always try to ask people to have a leap of faith, that the police are doing the job the way that they were trained to do it, and that whatever incidents are occurring, that they are doing so in a lawful manner and they're conducting their investigation and for people to wait for the facts to come out before they just automatically just jump to conclusions that someone's being beaten unlawfully or whatever it is that they're thinking.

COSTELLO: Yes, I'm hearing somebody spread false information within that crowd. I don't know who it was but it certainly was not CNN.

Jeff, I'll ask you this. You saw the police officers, they used pepper spray on some people. Talking did the trick on others. From your perspective, what's it like to be in a crowd like that?

ROORDA: It's a harried situation, and it's no time for folks to demand answers. I mean, these police officers are in the middle of making an arrest of a serious felon who fled from the police with a gun and irresponsibly tossed the gun, discharging it, could have hit an innocent civilian. These officers should be able to take that suspect into custody, process him, get to the bottom of things instead of answering the questions of an angry mob. And this is a new normal. I mean, every time there's even a hint of police being involved in a violent confrontation, the mob turns ugly right away.

COSTELLO: The commissioner, Batts, he said how proud he was of his officers over the police radio. He congratulated no one for turning in their resignation or calling off sick. What did that mean to officers, you think, Tom?

VERNI: I think that's great. I think that's great that he's come out and he's been supportive -- even in the other incident, he's been as supportive as he possibly could be. And I think that's extremely important for the rank and file to hear that, from the top down, that you're getting that support. He knows that, right now, it's unbelievably hard to be a police officer in Baltimore, and even here in New York, we just had the death of a police officer two days ago. So policing across the country is becoming unbelievably problematic for the average person that wants to do that job. They need to know that they have support from the top down.

[09:20:03] I think Commissioner Batts was awesome in providing that respect and that support for his people.

COSTELLO: Tom Verni, Jeff Roorda, thanks to both of you for being with me this morning. I appreciate it. VERNI: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Mike Huckabee, 2.0. The former Arkansas governor minutes away from launching his second run for the White House, but can he set himself a part from a growing GOP field?

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COSTELLO: The race for 2016 heats up this morning with Mike Huckabee's announcement that he is indeed running for president. In about two hours from now, the Republican candidate will throw his hat into the ring for a second time, just one day after Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina launched their campaigns. Huckabee is expected to lean heavily on his experience as governor of Arkansas, while casting himself as the only Republican contender who's taken on the Clinton machine and won.

Check out his pre-announcement video.

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ANNOUNCER: On his first day in office, Governor Mike Huckabee's door was nailed shut. It was in Bill Clinton's Arkansas. He had huge Democratic majorities in the House, in the Senate. You had all of the apparatus of the Democratic Party aligned against Mike Huckabee, and all of a sudden this Republican comes out of nowhere and wins.

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[09:25:03] COSTELLO: Today's rally just so happens to be in Hope, Arkansas, the shared birthplace of Mike Huckabee and the former president Bill Clinton. CNN's chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash joins me now live. Good morning, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. This Huckabee announcement is so fascinating, not only because he is going to a place called Hope and he is not Bill Clinton, that's certainly what put that place on the map. But also because Mike Huckabee, as you mentioned, he's playing up big in his video that he knows how to go against the Clinton machine, as he calls it.

He's also unique in this very crowded field in that he's actually the only one who's running who has actually won a Republican presidential contest. Back in 2008, he won the Iowa caucuses, kind of came out of nowhere. I was with him, I covered him for a good long time, following him around with barely a couple of staffers, not a lot of money. But he did so by reaching out and really connecting with the grassroots, and that's certainly what he's hoping to do once again this year.

The difference, of course, is that his area of the Republican field is a lot more crowded than it was back in 2008, appealing to evangelical voters, appealing to home schoolers, and so forth, and really connecting on a populist level. You've got so many more people in that area. Rick Santorum, for example, who won the last time around, he's also going to be in the field. So it is different, never mind the fact that he's not just kind of a pull yourself up from your bootstraps kind of southerner. He has since been working for Fox News, made millions in speeches, bought a nice house in Florida. So he is a different guy as well.

COSTELLO: It's interesting that he's running against the Clinton machine, because of course Hillary Clinton wasn't the governor of Arkansas, her husband was?

BASH: Absolutely. But I think that he realizes, and I believe he's right, that when you talk about the Clintons, it is kind of a very powerful political network. At the time, obviously, that was true in Arkansas, but now it is true on a nationwide level.

He tried this back in 2007 when at that point it was so early before the Iowa caucuses when Hillary Clinton came in third, they thought that she was going to be the Democratic nominee, and it didn't have that much power. But this time might be different.

But I just want to show you one thing, Carol. Mike Huckabee is, as I said, in a crowded field. Look at the top five contenders, where they rank, according to an NBC/"Wall Street Journal" poll that came out last night -- Bush, Rubio, Walker, Paul, Cruz. Guess who's not there? Mike Huckabee. But if you go to number six, he actually is there. But still, when you ask the respondents who their top choices, he's in single digits, barely in single digits, but second choice, 10 percent. So a total of 15 percent. A dozen people, he's in the middle, he'll argue that's not so bad.

COSTELLO: Well, he's got plenty of time to catch up, right?

BASH: Exactly.

COSTELLO: Dana Bash reporting live from Washington this morning.

Don't forget, you can catch Mike Huckabee's live announcement from Hope, Arkansas, 11:00 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

As for Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton, she is headlining a campaign fund-raiser in Las Vegas today, but you probably need to be a bit of a high roller to be there. It costs 2,700 bucks just to get in.

Yesterday, the former Secretary of State agreed to testify one but not twice before the Special House Committee investigating the 2012 terrorist attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. That's expected to take place two weeks from now.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, outgunned and outnumbered, a lone cop stops two gunmen determined to storm a Texas gathering. We'll take a closer look after the break.

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