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Record Breaking Rain Pounds the Plains; Coalition Forces Launched New Air Strikes; Severe Weather in Texas and Oklahoma; Anne Meara, Ben Stiller's Mother, Has Died; John Nash, the Princeton University Mathematician Whose Life Inspired the Film "A Beautiful Mind," Died Saturday; Ben Carson Handily Won the Southern Republic Leadership Conference Straw Poll; All-Female Activist Group Crosses Korean Demilitarized Zone in a Bus; Washington, DC, Police Released Four People Taken into Custody with Daron Wint. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired May 24, 2015 - 16:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN: All right, thanks again for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. We begin with severe weather taking its toll in parts of the country. Texas and Oklahoma are being hit the hardest. Thousands of people remain under weather warnings and watches. And in Houston, an apartment building collapse around 6:30 this morning after apparently being hit by a tornado. Two people were sent to the hospital, but there were no serious injuries.

In the suburbs north of Houston, Montgomery county has issued an evacuation order for residents near Lake Lewis Dam. They say the dam is still intact, but they are taking precautions because of the heavy rain. In Oklahoma, the record-breaking rain has claimed the life of a firefighter in Claremore was killed while trying to rescue people trapped in rising water. He died after being swept into a storm drain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN DOUGLAS, CLAREMORE, OKLAHOMA FIRE CHIEF: They are family. So it's going to be really hard for our department to kind of heal - come together and heal and go forward. The effects won't be known for a little while.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The rain that fell in Oklahoma City broke records, roads and houses are still under water today and more than 17 inches have now fallen for the month of May and more is expected in the coming days.

Let's get more on the severe weather that is bearing down from Oklahoma to the Texas panhandle, as CNN's Alina Machado is in San Marcos, Texas, right there in Hayes County, one of the hardest hit areas. We just learned that there had is a curfew that will be taking effect tonight. How might that be impacting people?

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There is that curfew and really when you drive around this town and you go into the areas that had been hardest hit, you get a sense of why that curfew is needed. Just in the time that we have been here, just look at all the people keep driving around wanting to see the destruction that mother nature left behind.

That is the river responsible for all of this flooding. It is called the Blanco River. And it has been flooded from upstream because there was a heavy downpour overnight in an area that's north of where we are. All of that water flowed downstream and flooded this area.

Just you get a sense of how much how much debris we are talking about and how high the water got, look that this overpass. 16 feet is the clearance here. There is debris stuck right underneath and we're told that at one point, the water was over it. When we were driving into this area, through the highway, we saw bales of hay and debris on the highway.

That gives you a sense of just how strong this water was. Now, because this happened so quickly and the water rose so quickly overnight, many people didn't have time to evacuate. So they had to rescue many of these people, some of them even from their rooftops. We are told that there are about 1,000 people in shelters and preliminary estimates have about 400 homes that have been destroyed.

Authorities tell us that they are still assessing the number of people who have also been injured. The good news in all of this, Fredricka is that it looks like the worst is over now.

WHITFIELD: Well, let's hope so. All right. Alina Machado, thank you so much for bringing us that update.

What happens next for the area around San Marcos? On the line with me now, Kharly Smith, she is the emergency management coordinator in San Marcos. So what are the greatest needs right now, Kharly?

KHARLY SMITH EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COORDINATOR, SAN MARCOS: Right now, we are still trying to get a handle on what kind of rescue operations we have under way. As mentioned, we had several residents that were trapped on their roofs and subdivisions that were isolated from first responders, so with the assistance of state assets, we have mobilized swift water rescue teams and helicopters that can come in and assist in the rescue operations.

Again, we're trying to get a handle on the rescue operations before we can even start to assess the recovery aspects but we are looking as well, 360 to 400 completely destroyed homes, not to mention an additional probably 600 to 700 damaged homes. We do have 1,000 of our residents in shelters right now and trying to figure out their intermediate and long-term housing needs. So, we have quite an uphill battle ahead of us.

We had a great community in Hays County. Some amazing first responders and volunteer organizations that are helping. But it's hard, hard because it's a record flood for our area.

WHITFIELD: Right. So 1,000 people in shelters, as you put it, but then help us understand the curfew that will go into effect tonight. Why is that and what will and how will it protect? SMITH: It is really for public safety concerns. We have so many

areas damaged that were just now in the late afternoon being able to assess. We have low water crossing bridges that we question the infrastructure that supports them and we want to make sure that we have the highest level of safety for our citizens. There are so many areas that have dangerous repercussions from the floodwaters that until we actually have a handle on those areas, clean up the areas that are in question, we don't want our residents finding themselves in a predicament just looking to explore, as you stated earlier.

WHITFIELD: And then earlier, it was reported that there were people on rooftops in nearby areas. Is that still the case, do you believe? Are there people who might still be stranded?

<16:05>02>

SMITH: No, we don't believe that there are any additional residents that are actually stranded. We did have helicopter and swift water rescue teams operating throughout the day today. We believe we have successfully rescued all of our residents and have them either with family members or in shelters at this time.

WHITFIELD: All right, Kharly Smith, thank you so much and all the best.

SMITH: Of course, thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. On to Cleveland now. The mayor and the police chief there are praising protesters for relatively peaceful demonstrations following the acquittal of Officer Michael Brelo in the shooting deaths of two unarmed people. Things were tense for a bit last night when police in riot gear took to the streets. There were 71 arrests.

CNN's Ryan Young is live for us now in Cleveland. So, Ryan, kind of conflicting messages there when you talk about 71 people, that's a big number, people arrested, yet at the same time, the protesters being praised as having been peaceful. So, what were the arrests for?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, when you think about this, I think this protest shows a different scenario here, they obviously said they are not going to take any grief from people who try to go too far here. So any time someone sort of stepped out of line, the police were quick to move in, make sure the crowd didn't get too heavy or out of control.

In fact, we watched the crowd just after that announcement rush up these stairs toward the front of the Justice Center. And there's officers all behind that glass. They rushed out. They meet those protesters. And then it kind of dissolved from there. And then people, of course, started walking through the streets, but it did remain peace. They did stop traffic.

We actually watched the captain come out and talk to those protesters and said, "hey, let the traffic go through." So there was this coordination all afternoon long that we saw between police and protesters, to make sure things remain peaceful. If you look here, you can see some of the signs that people left behind, they wrote here in front of the Justice Center, "dream, keep hope alive." You also see right here, badges don't grant extra rights. So all day long, people were marching with that message.

There's a small number of protesters who are left. They are standing over there. We'retold maybe there will be more protesters during game time but the chief of police talked about what happened overnight here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF CALVIN WILLIAMS, CLEVELAND POLICE: We only moved in to make arrests when things got violent. And protesters refused to disperse. We wanted to make sure that people understand we are going to help you in this process but if things turn violent, as we stated in the beginning, we will take action to preserve safety in this city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Fred, we heard from pastors all afternoon talking about they did not want Cleveland to be a part of the national conversation where they saw the protest get out of hand. They have been working on this for two years. There was somebody who was accused of throwing a sign at someone walking into a restaurant and then several fights started there.

Police moved in quickly and arrests that person. There has been a larger conversation just about how protests should be handled. For the most part, the people who have been showing up here have kept it peaceful. We haven't seen anyone sort of even getting in the face of officers, trying to antagonize them and we heard from community members who said they liked the fact this hasn't got out of hand. I can tell you the governor also praised Cleveland for how they reacted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV.JOHN KASICH (R), OHIO: What I will say is that I think the people of Cleveland handled this - I mean, they should be so proud of themselves and we should look at Cleveland as a model. The mayor, former senator Nina Turner, some of the ministers, Todd Davidson, these are people who have said it is proper to protest and but at the same time, no violence because violence in a community only destroys the community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Fred, a local weather guy said today that this was a Chamber of Commerce day. It is a beautiful day here in Cleveland. And as we walked the streets just to see if any protesters were going to be out here because we were told at 1:00, more protesters were going to show up, no one has shown except for those four or five people who have shown up who were standing down that way. So the all-clear has sort of been given so far, but once again, the game is at 8:00 tonight, the NBA game, the Eastern Conference finals, people do believe some protesters may show up outside that game but no calls for anything besides maybe a peaceful demonstration.

WHITFIELD: All right. Keep us posted on any or all things that may or may not happen there. Appreciate it from Cleveland.

All right. Tomorrow, Memorial day, time when the U.S. pauses to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. So many of them are buried at Arlington National Cemetery and every year, at this time, flags are placed at each head stone to honor them.

16:10:00

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Now to the fight against ISIS and a gruesome headline out of Syria. The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights tells CNN that more than 90 people, including at least 11 children have been executed by ISIS fighters in Palmyra, an ancient city located 130 miles from the Syrian capital of Damascus.

Meantime, in Iraq's Anbar province, coalition forces have launched new air strike at ISIS targets there. The goal to keep terrorists away from a key Iraqi military base and the country's capital of Baghdad. ISIS has been on the tear, matching east toward Baghdad since capturing the key city of Ramadi last weekend.

And in a CNN exclusive interview, U.S. Secretary of Defense, Ash Carter, said the fall of Ramadi was proof the Iraqi military lacked the will to fight.

Joining me right now, CNN correspondent, Athena Jones, at the White House. So Athena, Carter offered a harsher assessment than what we have heard from other members of the Obama administration.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fred. That's right. Very tough words from the Defense secretary, ever since the fall of Ramadi in Iraq and then later, the fall of Palmyra in Syria this week. There's been a lot of discussion about whether the U.S. needs to change its entire strategy to ensure that ISIS is defeated.

Well, Secretary Carter said "look, a big part of the problem is the Iraqi forces themselves." Take a listen.

16:15:05

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASH CARTER, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: We can give them training, we can give them equipment. We obviously can't give them the will to fight. But if we give them training, we give them equipment and give them support and give them some time, I hope they will develop the will to fight because only if they fight can ISIL remain defeated.

(END VIDEO CLIP) JONES: And so there you have Secretary Carter staying it's going to be up to the Iraqi forces to step up with the help and the support of the U.S., but it's going to come down to them to fight and defeat ISIS in a lasting way, Fred.

WHITFIELD: And of course, we heard a lot of criticism about the president's approach to ISIS, but what more is being said?

JONES: Well, from a lot of Republicans, you're hearing this criticism and we have been hearing it for weeks, it has really intensified this past week because of what happened in Ramadi and Palmyra. We have folks like Senator John McCain who say they are going to need 10,000 U.S. troops on the ground to ensure that ISIS is defeated. Take a listen to what some of what he had to say on "Face the Nation" today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: We need to have forward air controllers. We need to have special forces. We need to of more of those kind of raids that were so successful into Syria. We need to have a strategy. There is no strategy. And anybody that says that there is, I'd like to hear what it is, 'cause it certainly isn't apparent now and right now, we are seeing these horrible reports now in Palmyra, they're executing people and leaving their bodies in the streets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: And so there you have Senator McCain, who is a well known Senate hawk saying the U.S. has no strategy. Of course, the White House says yes, they do have a strategy, the strategy is continued air strikes. The strategy is equipping and training local fighters who are the ones who are going to have to ultimately not only fight to defeat ISIS but then control the territory that they retake.

So, that's the debate that's raging here. I can tell you right now there are no plans for those 10,000 ground troops, no plans for those forward air controllers that Senator McCain talked about as of right now, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Athena Jones, thank you so much at the White House.

Hey, we have been talking about severe weather in Texas and Oklahoma. One of the hard-hit areas of big flooding and flash flooding has been Hays County, in San Marcos, Texas. Let's go live right now to a press conference under way.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: ... tornado touched down in the middle of all of this and on 290, we lost 25 or had damage - significant damage to 25 mobile homes out in driftwood -- Dripping Springs area. We are going to be working obviously through the night and into the several weeks to come, I suspect, finishing up the response and the recovery phase of this operation.

We have - we have Texas Task Force One, we have state assets, regional assets from all over Texas helping us out in this event. Yes, sir?

UNIDENTIFED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) or is it possibly they are in a shelter (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFED MALE: That is always an issue we have to deal. We have some that are not in shelters that we are searching for on the ground right now that are missing.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Can you give us a ballpark idea of how many people fall into the general category of unaccounted for?

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Right now at least three.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: No fatalities at this point?

UNIDENTIFED MALE: At this very moment, we are still looking for missing persons. It is hard for me to nail that down, 'cause there's - the information that we get, by the time it gets to us it has been scrubbed two or three times. So there is an x here and come to find out it is bad information. We're getting stuff, you have to keep in mind, phones don't work well, internet is not working well. Until I see the guy's face or the gal's face giving me that report, are you sure someone's gone or missing, or a fatality, I need to verify that.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: No confirmed fatalities?

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Correct.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Did you say three?

UNIDENTIFED MALE: I'm sorry.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Three?

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Three are missing that are actively looking for yet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you confirm any of those are children?

UNIDENTIFED MALE: I cannot. I don't know.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: No bodies have been recovered anywhere?

UNIDENTIFED MALE: As we were coming in here, there was some radio conversation but I'm not clear on all the details of that yet. My partners up here visiting might be able to confirm that for you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is that search (INAUDIBLE) walking around (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFED MALE: We have several groups, Texas Task Force One is on the ground with about 40 or 50 folks. They are literally walking in between rescues, they'll search a certain area, make sure if there is a rescue performed, that there's nobody left behind or any parties left behind and we are searching through debris piles and such and that's pretty extensive, we're talking debris piles almost 20 feet in the air, in the tree lines. So that's pretty significant scenario for us.

16:20:05

UNIDENTIFED MALE: You said hundreds of missing homes, (INAUDIBLE) seen the area, these homes washed off their foundations, destroyed, floated away?

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Correct.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: They're not there anymore?

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Correct. And I -

UNIDENTIFED MALE: In Wimberly?

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Yes, sir. In Wimberly through Fisher. If you give me a second, I will let Kharly Smith with the Hays County Emergency Management get a little bit more detail on the county piece and I will see if I can clarity on that other question you asked, because I know we were having stuff as we were walking in.

WHITFIELD: All right. We are listening to a press conference there out of hard-hit Hays County, Texas. You heard that official talking about the fact that there have been homes that have either been washed away or simply blown away. Let's listen in to more

SMITH: ... seeking shelter with neighbors or friends or maybe a non- registered shelter that they call into our main emergency operations center line and identify that they are OK, that they are staying with a friend so that we can maintain a record of those individuals.

So, again, our main EOC, operating line is 512-753-2180. And we are asking that anyone that is staying with a friend or a non-registered shelter call in and let us know that they are OK, if they may have friends or family that are searching for them. We are doing the initial damage assessments, as Mr. Bell stated, out in Wimberly is the most significant damaged. For the county, we do have whole streets that have maybe one or two houses left on them and the rest are just slabs.

It is difficult to get into the areas, we have downed power lines and downed trees that are blocking our path but we are starting to do that damage assessment and realizing that it is pretty bad out there and we wanted to make sure that our residents adhere to the curfew that we have in place for tonight and tomorrow so that they don't find themselves in an area that is dangerous for them because we haven't verified the infrastructure that surrounds them and the dangers that are present.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Do you have any general idea how many people are displaced or out of their homes, whether they are in shelters or just not where they used to be?

SMITH: We know we have a little over 1,000 in shelters. We've also identified - we believe is about 200 to 250 that are residing either with neighbors or family or left the area. UNIDENTIFED MALE: Of the three that are missing, are they all

Wimberly residents?

SMITH: Yes.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Are the county or city requesting any kind of emergency declaration?

SMITH: We did issue a disaster declaration this morning on behalf of all of Pace County, including the cities of Wimberly and San Marcos.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: And from a federal or state level?

SMITH: It's appealing to the state for state resources at this time.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Not the federal?

SMITH: No, the state would have to appeal to the federal.

UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: Do you know how many people are still trapped in certain areas that you know of that still need to be rescued?

SMITH: We don't have confirmation that anyone is in an area that is trapped. We do have some subdivisions that are more difficult to get out of, they would require assistance but their homes are intact so they prefer to stay in their home at this time.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: A few hours ago, PIO said as far as they knew, some people picked off roofs, is that phase over with now?

SMITH: That phase is over. As Ken said, we're no longer able to support air operations because of the weather but we have no existing reports of anyone that's trapped on a rooftop or needing air support.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Do you still think 400 homes that are gone? Is that a reasonable estimate?

SMITH: We're still going with between 350 and 400, yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Can you talk about the roads and bridges affected by this? Are there some (INAUDIBLE) have real structural damage?

SMITH: There are some that have real structural damage. We have two main bridges that have completely washed away. We have some low-water crossings that we question their infrastructure and have closed them until we can get engineers out to evaluate, which is again why we have that curfew in place.

When residents don't see water rushing over a low-water crossing, they think that it is safe to drive around the barricades, which is not a smart idea, no matter the time of day it is, but especially not at night when you question the infrastructure or the roadway.

(INAUDIBLE)

SMITH: The curfew is for the entire county that was affected by the incident.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So San Marcos proper?

SMITH: Yes.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Which were the two bridges you mentioned that were major bridges that were washed out?

SMITH: Fisher Shore Road was one and Jacobs Fisher Store Road bridge, and Jacobs (INAUDIBLE) Bridge, both out of Wimberly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you spell that Fisher because it's not -

SMITH: Yes, F-I-S-C-H-E-R.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: And are both of those bridges over the Blanco?

SMITH: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Any roads that are washed off currently?

<16?25:02>

SMITH: I don't have an accurate - I'm sorry, I don't have an accurate count. We are maintaining them on the atext flood site through our Hays inform site. It is the most accurate. We are in the process of reopening roadways right now, just because our road crews are still so taxed with trying to remove debris and look at the infrastructure of the roadway that that list would remain current.

WHITFIELD: All right, you're listening to emergency management officials there is in Texas, Hayes County, in particular, hard-hit area after so much rain, three and a half inches of rain just in the last couple of days, leading to flooding and flash flooding, you heard one of the officials say there have been a number of homes that have simply been washed away, some may have been swept away by other means, some reports of tornadic activity in the area as well and a curfew is in police, in large part, as you heard the one official say, because some of the bridges are precarious, too dangerous for people to transit, especially at night with more flash flooding expected.

We will have much more of our coverage there. It is an emergency situation, particular there in parts of Texas and Oklahoma. Much more when we come back.

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WHITFIELD: Hello again, everyone, thanks so much for watching, I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

[16:30:01] Much more on breaking news coming out of Texas and Oklahoma, very severe and dangerous weather there. We just listened to a press conference moments ago out of Hays County in San Marcos, Texas, a hard hit area. One death has been reported. Three people remain missing. We heard from officials who said there are 20-foot debris piles, a disaster declaration has been issued. Our CNN Alina Machado is in San Marcos, Texas. Right behind you, we see these debris piles that look rather flaccid but the danger still exists.

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, the danger is still there. Really that's why officials are going to have this curfew tonight. They don't want people out here. Look at what's happening. People are coming out here to look at the debris. In this particular location, it looks like mostly what we're seeing is tree debris and we're also seeing some pieces of wood, I want to see if I can show you that over here. But there are areas -- some of what we are seeing here, just pieces of wood, tree debris. There's also tree debris hanging from just underneath that overpass about 16 feet in the air so, not a good idea to be out here anyway. But there are areas where there are downed power lines and there's, you know, the possibility for people to really, really get hurt. So, we are hearing that, you know, some latest numbers that we have gotten, 1,000 properties damaged. We know that they are actively searching for at least three people and in the middle of all of this flooding Fredricka; we learned there was also a tornado that hit the area in the middle of it all, damaging 25 mobile homes.

WHITFIELD: Very serious. And what about this effort to try to reach people, perhaps, that they haven't heard from? We heard from the one official who said if you have heard from family members, you need to make a call, let people know. Meantime there are people who remain missing.

MACHADO: There are people who remain missing and they are actively searching for these people. At this point, they had to suspend air operations, no helicopter rescues at this point, simply because the weather isn't cooperating with that. I don't know if you can tell, but kind of windy where we are. And then there's also -- they said they don't believe that anybody is necessarily trapped in their home. There are places where it's not necessarily easy to get out of and people have chosen to stay inside their homes, but officials say those homes don't appear to be damaged, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Alina Machado thanks so much. Keep us posted there had in hard-hit Hays County there in San Marcos, Texas. Let's get more now from meteorologist Tom Sater, while it looks dry where she is right now, there's another weather band on the way?

TOM SATER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah I mean there are a couple days really until Tuesday, it's completely saturated. To give you an idea, this is in between Austin and San Antonio, yesterday afternoon, the San Marcos river had a level of eight feet. It is expected tonight to crest near 38.

WHITFIELD: Oh my gosh.

SATER: Can you imagine that? That's how much rainfall. This is amazing. Take a look at the map ok, it's kind of hard to read to I'll read it off, Dallas, average four, you're at eight inches. Austin two inches is average for the moment, you are at ten. Corpus Christi, thirteen, Little Rock, six, Oklahoma City, averages three inches, you are over eighteen, not only a rainfall record for the moment of May but all-time monthly rainfall record. There is more. Again, our area of concern really from Southern Texas to Northern Missouri, but I think the severe weather with the exception of some isolated flooding, the tornado threats from Louisiana toward Missouri, more on that in a minute. Just the last 24 hours, these numbers alone are enough to cause massive flash flooding and evacuations. Look at all the reports of flood problems that we had yesterday east of Oklahoma City, Elk City, forty eight, high water rescues yesterday. Unfortunately also in Oklahoma and Rogers County, the life was lost of a first responder as he was performing a high-water rescue. Our thoughts go out to his prayer and the department. Here we go, Fayetteville, Portsmouth, a warning, I want to point this one out because that's the heaviest populated area right now of all of our flood warnings. You are going to see them pop up, but also in red, these are tornado watches, from the parishes of Louisiana just toward the west of St. Louis, up toward the north, that's Kurtzville, Missouri, we're going to be watching this area as well.

So, flooding, severe weather, you name it we've got it, I think we will probably have a few isolated tornadoes within this box. Our concern again, San Marcos and if we come over a little bit into Houston, we've had problems too, north of Houston, there's a levee that engineers are afraid could fail. So, if you get in close, you're going to see the dam pressure the water is so great right now, Fredericka, they're bringing in truck loads of limestone right now, this is not going away.

WHITFIELD: Heavy work right before this, you know, threat.

SATER: They're going to busy for a while.

WHITFIELD: My goodness. All right, thank you so much, Tom. Appreciate it. We will have much more from the newsroom right after this.

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[16:38:33]

WHITFIELD: Welcome back, this just in, Anne Meara, Ben Stiller's mother has died. Meara and Jerry Stiller were married for 61 years and became one of America's most well-known comedy teams, she was also an actress, comedian and a writer. Meara was 85 years old.

Also today, the loss of a genius, John Nash, the Princeton University mathematician whose life inspired the film "A Beautiful Mind" died Saturday in a car accident.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to Princeton, who among you will be the next Einstein?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Find a truly original idea. It's the only way I will only distinguish myself. It's the only way I will ever matter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The 86-year-old and his wife, Alicia, who also died, were riding in a taxi in New Jersey when the wreck occurred, more now on his life and the inspiration behind the Oscar-winning film.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Famed mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr. and his wife, Alicia, died in a car accident, according to New Jersey state police. They were ejected from a taxi that lost control trying to pass another car. The Nash's were pronounced dead at the scene. 86-year-old Nash won the Nobel Prize for economics in 1994.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dr. John Nash, your analysis of equilibrium non- cooperative games and all your other contributions to game theory have had a profound effect on the way economic theory has developed in the last two decades.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just last week, Nash accepted the 2015 Able Prize in Norway for mathematical contributions. His life was the inspiration for the 2001 Oscar-winning film "A Beautiful Mind." The movie focused on his work on game theory and his long-time struggle with Schizophrenia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't reason your way out of this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why not? Why can't i?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Russell Crowe won a golden globe for his portrayal of a character loosely based on Nash.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have to divide Nash from your regular mathematician, he is beyond that in his thought process. He looks at a series of figures, he knows the answer. The hardest thing for Nash is proving it to his fellow mathematicians is taking the time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After hearing of Nash's death, Crowe tweeted, stunned, my heart goes to you to John and Alicia and family, an amazing partnership, beautiful minds, beautiful hearts.

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WHITFIELD: John Nash was 86.

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[16:44:06]

WHITFIELD: Checking our top stories, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson handily won the southern republic leadership conference straw poll on Saturday, it's the first major survey of the GOP presidential field in the south. Carson captured 25 percent of the vote in a pool that counted nearly 20 candidates, including announced the prospective hopefuls for the party's 2016 nomination.

Earlier today, an all-female activist group riding in a bus crossed the controversial demilitarization zone between North and South Korea. The group of about 30 women marched for the need for peace between the two countries and also a working to reunite families separated by the Korean War. The activists, including feminist Gloria Steinem, she told CNN this act of civil disobedience involved a lot of risk and uncertainty.

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GLORIA STEINEM, FEMINIST AND POLITICAL ACTIVIST: It is such an enormous accomplishment. We started out from our homes, not at all sure what would happen and we had all paid our own tickets and we had a dream because of Christine, who was our main organizer and, you know, heart and soul of all of this. But we of course, there's so much mystery, we didn't know what was -- what would happen. But, in fact -- and we constantly didn't know, you know? I mean, we didn't know whether just today we would be able to cross the DMC and where we would be able to cross and it happened. And it happened.

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WHITFIELD: Other activists have criticized Steinem's group for being "North Korean sympathizers." They say this event overlooked the problem women face under supreme leader Kim Jong-Un's authoritarian rule.

The French Open is under way at Roland Garros. Roger Federer got a win today in the first round but he was furious because of security, or should I say lack of security on the court, a fan actually ran onto the court and tried to take a picture with Federer. Federer said "I'm not happy about it, but nothing happened. I'm relieved but clearly, it wasn't a nice situation to be in."

And the Indy 500 has just finished and the winner a Juan Pablo Montoya. He grabbed the lead with just four laps to go and held on to win. Montoya came all the way back from 30th place to win. This is his second Indy 500 win.

All right, nine of the Cleveland cops involved in the shooting of two unarmed citizens in their car back in 2012 are now suing the police department. They claim they were discriminated against with longer- than-normal leaves because they are not African-American. The Michael Brelo not guilty verdict was put -- has put rather a new twist on the lawsuit because Brelo was acquitted, cleared of the charges. Sara Ganim is covering that part of the Cleveland story for us. So, why are these officers now claiming discrimination?

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They say this is all about race, Fred. They say that because the victims in this case were African-American and these nine officers were not, they say they were placed on sixteen months of administrative leave, restricted leave, I should say after the shooting when the department typically puts officers on leave for about 45 days and they say that this is a pattern, that the white officers in the department who are involved in officer-involved shootings are typically given more time on restrictive leave when the victims in the case are African-American, then their counterpart officers who African-American. I want to read from their lawsuit so that you understand what exactly they're saying. And they say that there are long-standing practices and procedures which place owner's burdens on non-African-American officers because of their race and the race of the persons who are the subject of deadly force. They also say that they were cleared of wrongdoing in this case by the state attorney general. Back in 2013, but then stayed on administrative leave until June of 2014, a total of 16 months.

Like I said, when typically, the leave is about 45 days more from their suit says this is all substantially longer that that which had been meted out to similarly situated African-American officers. Now the judge in this case has now ordered that the city of Cleveland turn over disciplinary records for a five-year period of police officers and sort them out by the officers' race so that the judge can go through and see if this in fact, is a pattern, if there really are statistics that show that they are treated differently, the officers are treated differently based on their race. Now I pose this question to a former Cleveland prosecutor earlier today who I talked to. I said, is there any chance that there's any merit to this lawsuit? I want you to take a listen to what she had to say.

[16:49:58]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TANYA MILLER, FORMER CLEVELAND PROSECUTOR: I don't know that you get to file a lawsuit just because you're on leave a little bit longer than other people. Was your case different in someway? Were there some extenuating circumstances that required your leave to be extended longer than other folks? The mere fact that their leave was longer or someone else's leave was shorter doesn't necessarily mean you're going to prevail in a federal lawsuit that you have been discriminated against because you're white.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GANIM: Now the Department of Justice has found Fred, that in the past, there have been problems with the Cleveland Police Department and how they discipline officers and with the use of deadly force. I want to read to you from the report, because I think it makes sense, its relevant here to this lawsuit. The Department of Justice in their report found that it revealed several troubling practices and a problematic view of what constitutes holding officers accountable. Now, that in light of this lawsuit, plus, Fred, I want to add that a big part of this lawsuit from these officers is that they blame Michael Brelo. They say that they were punished with restrictive leave for a long period of time when the state investigation showed that they -- they did not contribute to the death of those two victims in that car. They blame Michael Brelo. Yesterday, the judge to put a twist on all of this, he found when he acquitted Michael Brelo, that he could not tell where the -- where the shots came from that ended with the death of Melissa Williams and Mr. Russell. And so, that puts a new twist on this case, and moving forward, Tanya Miller, the Former Prosecutor, told me that could be a factor in the result of this discrimination lawsuit.

WHITFIELD: All right, all fascinating stuff. Sara Ganim thanks you so much. We will have much more right after this.

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[16:58:58]

WHITFIELD: In Washington, D.C., police released four people who were with Darren Wint when police arrested him for the murders of Sava Sabapoulis, his wife, Amy, their 10-year-old son Philip and the family's housekeeper, Verlizia Figueroa. Wint is in jail today, charged with those murders but police believe he did not act alone and they are still searching for suspects, combing through the evidence found at the crime scene. Here is now is CNN's Alexandra Field.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEXADRA FIELD, CNN NEW YORK: It is potentially the smoking gun, a pizza box found at the scene, inside, crust that investigators say connects Darren Wint to a heinous crime.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a pretty good find for an investigator.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly. Yeah.

FIELD: Dr. David Zang runs a DNA identification lab at Mount Sinai hospital in New York City. He says a single bite mark can be enough to crack a case.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Swab the pizza to get as much DNA from the crust as we can.

FIELD: Zang says investigators also likely tested a crumb.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Put it in a tube. Get the cells out and proceed to the DNA extraction.

FIELD: First, a machine separates out the DNA.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is releasing the DNA?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And purify the DNA.

FIELD: Then the sample is amplified, millions of copies are made that make the sample large enough to be seen with the help of another machine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The laser would the phase the DNA and that's what you're going to see here.

FIELD: It's a unique readout called a DNA fingerprint. To solve the case, that finger print can be added to or matched in the federal database including some 14 million different profiles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hair, saliva, urine, semen, all these can be used.

FIELD: The seemingly small clues picked up at crime scenes, Zang says a piece of crust can yield millions of cells or even just a few. Sometimes that's just enough to identify a suspect or even solve a case. Alexandra Field, CNN New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much for being with me this afternoon. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Much more straight ahead in the News Room, it all starts right now.