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Plane with Russian Passengers Crashes Killing all On Board; Donald Trump Criticizes White House Plan to Deploy 50 Special Forces Ops to Syria; Texas Experiencing Heavy Rains; Video Released of Two Rival Biker Gangs in Shootout; Woman with Down Syndrome Models. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired October 31, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00] RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: And the TV ratings are great. There's a lot of America who has really been getting into this baseball.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, my goodness. All right, fun game for trick-or-treaters this evening. We'll see if it's a trick or treat depending on who you're rooting for, of course. Thank you so much Rachel Nichols. Appreciate it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

WHITFIELD: All right, hello, again, everyone. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredericka Whitfield.

So we begin with this breaking news and new details surrounding that crash of a Russian passenger jet in Egypt. One black box has been recovered from the crash site in the northern Sinai Peninsula. While the cause of the crash is still unknown, the chief of the Egyptian airports company says there is no evidence of any terrorist action, and the plane, most likely, crashed due to a technical failure.

At least two airlines are rerouting their planes around the area. The Russian embassy in Cairo is reporting none of the 224 people onboard have survived. All passengers believed to be Russian or Ukrainian. Investigators are transferring remains of passengers to an ambulance in Suez. That image you're seeing there.

CNN's Ian Lee is live for us now in Cairo. So, Ian, tell us more about how they're able to retrieve bodies and carry out this investigation.

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredericka, we just heard from a little while ago from Egypt's prime minister discussing how this operation is unfolding, what we're learning right now is that it is over the area of roughly five miles. They're expecting to expand that. But right now, searching five miles for debris for clues and for bodies, and 129 bodies have been recovered, leaving 95 still out there unaccounted for.

Right now, though, it is night here. So it's going to make it a bit more difficult to retrieve those, especially in that very mountainous terrain. But a lot of those bodies going to the Red Sea city of Suez, also coming here to Cairo.

And they did find the black box that was in the tail of the plane. We're hoping to learn once and for all what was the cause of this accident. We have heard a number of reports. The Egyptian government, as you said, said that no terrorist involvement, no terrorists were expected to be involved, although ISIS has come out and said that they are responsible for that. It is likely that ISIS is trying to be opportunist, trying to take advantage of this tragedy. But there are airlines that are rerouting planes away from there.

But we do need to remember that, you know, this is 224 people who lost their lives, people who were going to Sharm el-Sheikh, returning home, a lot of them on holiday, on vacation. When you look at the -- what the kind of -- the people on the plane, a lot of, you know, children on the plane, as well, people looking to escape the cold. And so a lot of questions there. Right now, Egyptian officials going through the gruesome task of just identifying the bodies, Fredericka.

WHITFIELD: And then it's expected a number of those family members will be making their way to the region, right, to meet up with officials, retrieve anything belonging to their loved ones?

LEE: That's right. We're expecting to get some people from Russia, family members, friends, coming in. The Egyptians and the Russians have been working very closely. We've had Russian officials send a number of planes here to Cairo to help. And Egypt and Russia have a close relationship. So we're expecting them to work side by side. But right now, Egypt is taking the lead on this. And, you know, we're waiting for those family members to come who are the ones that are really looking for answers at this hour.

WHITFIELD: All right, some heartbreaking images of those loved ones getting the news. All right, Ian Lee, thank you so much in Cairo.

Let's bring in David Soucie. He is a CNN safety analyst and a former FAA safety inspector. And David is also the author of the book "Malaysia Airlines Flight 370." So now, David, that Egyptian authorities are saying they do not believe that there was any kind of terrorist activity and indeed it was likely there was a technical failure, what does this tell you about the direction of this investigation, how they find what that technical failure was?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, Fred, because they have the black box already, and the black box we're referring to is the flight data recorder which is in the rear of the aircraft, not the cockpit voice recorder which is in the front of the aircraft. So they still haven't recovered that. That will give them more clues. But as far as the technical aspect, it could be the reason that they're saying this because they got some information off of the black box already, which is possible, because the Egyptian investigators have that capability right there near where they are now. So, I think that --

[14:05:00] WHITFIELD: So explain that, help us understand that. So you're saying right on site, there's the technology available to help retrieve some of that information from the black box right away? SOUCIE: I'm sorry, I misspoke. Not on site of the accident, but very

near where they are right there, there's a laboratory they could take it to and have it tested. These black boxes now are of pretty standard technology. It's able to just download the information if the black box isn't too damaged which they're designed not to be. So it's possible they could have some information off of it right away.

WHITFIELD: And what's the difference between the tail end black box and the one that's in the front of the plane? Which one's the voice and which one is the data?

SOUCIE: The one in the back is the cockpit -- the one in the front is the voice recorder. It has three microphones and a fourth backup microphone, as well, to get the area and what's happening, the discussions between the pilots. So you would be able to tell from that whether there was something abrupt that happened and whether the pilots were aware of it or not. The flight data recorder, which is the one I believe they have now, is very technical. It says how fast the engines are turning. It says if there's any excessive vibrations and all of those other pieces of data that are very important.

WHITFIELD: So it's pretty impressive they would be able to retrieve that data box this quickly. Does it say something about the potential debris field to you, or at least at the tail was somewhat intact, or is it just, you know, a device that helps them retrieve or locate that black box?

SOUCIE: Well, it does tell you a little bit about it. And the people I've spoken to about it so far on scene have told me that the aircraft in essence was in two different pieces, very closely near each other, which tells me that the aircraft went down in an entire piece, which is likely. And then the aircraft broke apart. But one of the two sections, I believe it was the front section where it broke behind the wing, that that section was on fire, and so that would've damaged their ability to get to that black box.

WHITFIELD: Wow.

SOUCIE: In the front. The tail is -- the reason it is in the back of the aircraft is because that's the last, most of the energy is absorbed by the aircraft as it crashes by the time it gets to the tail. But the difficulty and the focus of the investigators right now is really not I'm trying to figure out why it happened or what happened. It's about the people that were on board that aircraft and their family members.

WHITFIELD: Yes. Well, that's incredible information in detail that, you know, David, we're hearing for the first time. So it only helps. It only puts your mind in a place of these poor passengers and everyone onboard, what they were thinking and feeling. What may have been happening as that plane likely intact was making that big descent, that rapid descent until are breaking up in two, absolutely horrible. All right, David Soucie, thank you so much.

SOUCIE: Thank you, Fred. WHITFIELD: Now, let's check in with the CNN senior international

correspondent Nic Robertson who is in St. Petersburg where the plane was heading. And we saw earlier, Nic, the images of heartbreak of people who were looking up at the screen and just devastated to hear what happened to their loved ones. So what is happening at that airport now?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Indeed. And this is where the people were arriving this morning, those family members coming into the airport expecting to meet their loved ones off the plane. It's now a much more somber atmosphere.

But we've been standing here. People have been coming and paying tribute to the victims aboard that aircraft. We're seeing toys. We watched the man come and lay that little cuddly bear at the end, the gray and white cuddly bear, the flowers, the carnations, the red roses, a lot of carnations being laid. These are being laid while we've been standing here in the last few minutes.

There is a feeling from people, and we've talked to them, those laying the flowers there. They're saying they didn't have relatives on board the aircraft. But they just feel they need to show their support.

The authorities here have taken those families of the victims to a hotel close to the airport. They are talking to them. We're told they'll get brief when there's further information. But we've also been told that 115 people already from those families have now given DNA samples to the authorities here. President Putin has called for a special commission. The transport minister has already gone to Egypt to help with the investigation. Five aircraft with recovery and investigation officials and equipment on board have gone to Egypt, as well. So it does seem to be Russian authorities are doing their best to help the families at the moment and already beginning that initial difficult process that would lead to the identification, as we understand so far, 129 bodies recovered.

Now, we know 17 children were onboard the aircraft, 163 women, another 224 people, 214 were from Russia. So this is, as we're seeing from the tributes here, going to be deeply felt here.

WHITFIELD: All right, tragic. Nic Robertson, thank you so much in St. Petersburg.

[14:10:00] Straight ahead, in this country, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has a whole lot to say about the U.S. ground troops going to Syria. Hear why he is blasting President Obama's decision next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says President Obama doesn't know what he's doing in Syria. CNN's Jeremy Diamond spoke exclusively to Trump about the president's decision during a campaign stop in Norfolk, Virginia, today. He also asked Trump about super PACs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Quick question. I just want to ask you a little bit about your reaction to President Obama's decision with regards to Syria, putting Special Forces there. What do you think about it?

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think we have a president that just doesn't know what he's doing. You either do it or you don't do it. Fifty people, who puts 50 people?

DIAMOND: So you would put more?

TRUMP: You either do it or don't do it.

DIAMOND: What about campaign finance? You have talked about that recently.

TRUMP: Super PACs should not be allowed. Super PACs should not be allowed. It is absolutely a disgrace what's happening with Super PACs. And they shouldn't be allowed. They're a disgrace, they're horrible for our country, and it should be ended.

DIAMOND: Would you do anything about it as president as far as changing the laws?

TRUMP: I would. I'd end super PACs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: CNN politics reporter Jeremy Diamond with us live now at Trump's rally, which just wrapped up there in Norfolk. Before, earlier, Jeremy, it was teeming with people right behind you with that ship as the backdrop. And now everyone has just scrammed. So his message is there in your Q&A. Was that in step with what he told the crowd today?

DIAMOND: Well, you know, he didn't really address Syria in the way he addressed it with us before the event. Today was really focused on veterans.

[14:15:00] But what he did tell us on Syria was pretty revealing. You know, he went after President Obama, like most other Republican candidates, they've slammed President Obama's leadership on the war with is. But Trump said that, basically, he accused President Obama of doing a half measure on the issue of Syria. He said either you do it or you don't do it when it comes to putting troops in Syria. Trump, of course, has argued in favor of allowing Vladimir Putin and Russia to really take the lead in confronting ISIS in that country, whereas he said the U.S. should put troops in Iraq.

WHITFIELD: All right, and then, during the rally earlier, what was his primary message?

DIAMOND: Yes. So Trump was really talking about veterans today. He outlined for the first time in the most detail that he's done it before his plan for veterans. He talked about reforming the V.A., making it more cost effective, more better for veterans. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're going to increase funding for job training and placement services, including incentives for companies hiring veterans, who are phenomenal people. So we're going to give big incentives for companies for hiring veterans, and they're getting a great deal, because they're getting incentive into hiring the best people.

So we're going to have educational support, and we're going to create business loans for the folks coming back. All Americans agree that we must do everything we can to help put our servicemen and women, because we've forgotten about the women. You know, we're thinking from 25 years ago with this deal. To put the men and women on a path to success as they leave active duty by collaborating with many successful nonprofit organizations of which there are many good ones that are already helping. Service members have learned valuable skills in the military, but many need help understanding how to apply those skills in civilian life.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: So, yes, there you have it, Donald Trump laying out his plans for the V.A. He talked about making a more modern and lower cost department. And really one of his big ideas is allowing veterans to go to private health care providers. He said that any health care provider that takes Medicare, veterans should be allowed to go there and use their veterans' identification card and get health care, quote, "immediately," he said. So really you have Donald Trump laying out his ideas on veterans. And, of course, what's interesting, he did read from a script, which is pretty rare for Donald Trump.

WHITFIELD: I was just about to ask you that. Right, Jeremy, I was about to asked because you've been spending a lot of time with Donald Trump on the campaign trail.

DIAMOND: Right.

WHITFIELD: From my recollection, that's the first time I've seen him actually refer to notes. It even seemed like he was reading verbatim. Is that a first?

DIAMOND: He has done it maybe once or twice before, when he's talked about, again, when he's laid out proposals for the first time. You can tell that when he's doing that he really wants to make sure he hits all the points he wants to hit and he's articulating his plan as specifically as he can. So we're waiting to see more details from the plan from his campaign, which said that they would send out that proposal today.

WHITFIELD: Interesting. All right, Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much. You never know what you're going to get on the campaign trail.

All right, well, 10 other GOP presidential candidates are stumping, but in Iowa today. They are speaking at a big gathering in Des Moines. It's a party-sponsored event. But tomorrow several of the campaigns will be meeting in Washington to see if they can take more control of the debates, take control from the RNC, the Republican National Committee. They're not happy with formats, the candidates, I'm talking. And they have questions about those questions that were asked after last Wednesday's debate. Here's how Ted Cruz summed it all up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, I did think it was fitting that the debate occurred the week of Halloween, because the moderators were doing everything they could to ask every candidate, all right, explain to me, are you more of a ghoul or a goblin?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, that meeting of the campaign advisers for tomorrow scheduled to begin in the evening, 6:00 p.m. And the RNC, by the way, has not been invited.

All right, straight ahead, severe weather hitting the south. Heavy rain, more than 20 inches, in fact, has fallen in parts of Texas. A live report on the dangerous storm system next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:23:16] WHITFIELD: A deadly storm system that has brought flash floods and reports of tornadoes to Texas and Louisiana is now moving east. In the last 24 hours some parts of Texas have gotten more than 20 inches of rain. And this is what it looked like in San Marcos, Texas. It's about an hour northeast of San Antonio. At least two people in the area were swept away to their death. Crews in Houston have also conducted dozens of water rescues. Some parts of the state are seeing strong winds, as well. Tornadoes have even been reported near Houston.

On the phone with me now from Houston is Francisco Sanchez. He is a spokesperson for the Harris County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Mr. Sanchez, thanks so much for being with us. So We're hearing that at least two people in your state have died. Talk to me about how you're trying to impress upon people how dangerous this weather is and how they need to be very careful.

FRANCISCO SANCHEZ, SPOKESPERSON, HARRIS COUNTY OFFICE OF HOMELAND SECURITY AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT (via telephone): This is the second weekend in a row that we've had very severe weather. Unfortunately we are investigating two potentially weather-related deaths. We have over 90 high water locations currently throughout the area, which is significant, more than 100 high water rescues. So overnight, eight to 10 inches of rain in significant portions of Harris County and three inches in the rest. So it's definitely a severe weather event.

WHITFIELD: Very terrible. Last two weekends in large part blamed on that tropical depression that was once a big hurricane. So how do you compare this to earlier in the year? Back in May, you had very serious flooding.

SANCHEZ: Well, maybe we had a catastrophic incident where we had thousands of homes flood. But this weekend and last weekend were definitely significant events.

[14:25:00] But we will make a damage assessment tomorrow. It will not be as catastrophic as it was in May. Right now we have a preliminary estimate, about 40 homes flooded in one neighborhood. We'll have a better assessment tomorrow when it's safer to go out and send out crews for the neighborhoods. But we did see some homes flooded. We have some high water rescues that took place. And we also have a tornado touch down in southeast Harris County. So we did see some property damage, but not as bad as May.

WHITFIELD: All right, Francisco Sanchez, thank you so much. Be safe.

SANCHEZ: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, straight ahead, one of the black boxes has been found at that Russian jetliner crash site in Egypt. Investigators are analyzing it as we speak, getting closer, possibly, to the cause of this tragedy. We'll speak with our own aviation experts next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

WHITFIELD: All right, hello, again, and thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredericka Whitfield.

Back to our breaking story, and new details surrounding the crash of a Russian passenger jet in Egypt. One black box has been recovered from the crash site in the northern Sinai Peninsula. While the cause of the crash is still unknown, the chief of the Egyptian airports company says there is no evidence of any terrorist activity, and the plane, most likely, crashed due to a technical failure.

The Russian embassy in Cairo is reporting there are no survivors. The 224 passengers are relieved to be Russian and Ukrainian. Investigators are transferring remains of the passengers to an ambulance in Suez. You see the images right there.

The air bus 321 took off at about 6:00 a.m. local time from Sharm el- Sheikh, a resort town on the Red Sea. It was bound for St. Petersburg, Russia. And 23 minutes after takeoff, Egyptian air traffic control lost contact of the plane. A Metrojet official says the airline plans to fly relatives of the plane crash victims to Egypt.

[14:30:06] Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared a day of mourning for Sunday. And we will continue to follow this story, of course, as development come in.

So right now let's try and talk about what we know about the direction of the investigation. CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo is with us now. She's also the former inspector general of the department of transportation. All right, Mary, good to see you. How encouraging is this in your view that the black box from the tail, the data recorder has been recovered, and that perhaps information is already been extracted from it?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, it's hugely significant because since it is thought to have been mechanical, that black box may very well hold the clue and reveal what actually occurred on the plane. This black box on the air bus has a great number of parameters, meaning lines of data that are recorded, and since it's, you know, this had been an old Soviet era plane we wouldn't have this kind of stream of data. But on the airbus they will have it. So it is quite possible by tomorrow if it's mechanical that they will already know what happened and what went wrong.

Of course, the cockpit voice recorder of what was going on in the cockpit, the microphone on the pilot side, the co-pilot side, that will fill in the rest of the blanks. But if it's mechanical, they'll have it.

WHITFIELD: So Mary, I've spoken with so many analysts today who have all said that 30,000 feet, that cruise altitude, it's very unusual that pilots would experience a problem and not have time to convey it. And as far as we know, early reports are the pilots simply said technical problems, and then this plane simply disappeared from radar. So in your view and based on your experience, what are the realm of possibilities in which something like that would occur?

SCHIAVO: Well, at cruise altitude they tend to fall in three general areas. One, of course, is weather. We remember Air France 447, West Caribbean 708, and Air Asia 8501. Those encountered level five, level six thunderstorms, horrific weather, and the pilots allowed the air speed to deteriorate. That's not the case here.

We also have the cases of missiles and bombs onboard, KAL, Pan Am 103. That's, you know, that's possible, but if the pilot was able to get off a mayday, even saying diversion, even a couple words suggest it wasn't like TWA 800 which was catastrophic and instant.

And then that leads us to things like any kind of a mechanical failure onboard, fire, many of those things. Usually with a fire the pilot would have time to get off more description, like Swiss Air 111, the pilot was able to tell air traffic control what was going on. So those three kinds of areas generally.

WHITFIELD: OK. And Mary, one of our analysts earlier after talking to his sources saying that he was given the impression that the plane has broken into two. So that would certainly, I guess, assist Egyptian officials who have ruled out, now, any kind of terrorist activity.

SCHIAVO: Well, and again, you know, breaking into two, it could certainly happen on impact with the ground. And if it was something on board that caused an explosion, they will have the characteristic pitting and they will know that almost immediately. In fact, rescue crews on the ground would be able to see that characteristic patterns even to the untrained eye sometimes. WHITFIELD: OK, we're going to leave it right there. Mary Schiavo,

always good to see you. Thanks for your expertise.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: And straight ahead, a deadly shootout between biker gangs as a grand jury now weighs charges. We'll show you stunning new images of the gun battle obtained by CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:37:28] WHITFIELD: It was a deadly gun battle between biker gangs that erupted during lunch hour in a Waco, Texas, restaurant in May. Nine people were killed and more than 100 arrested. But in the months since the shootout not a single arrest has been made in connection with the deaths, and few details are known because of a gag order on police and prosecutors. But stunning video obtained by CNN is shedding some light on the chaos as it unfolded.

A warning -- some of the images you are about to see are graphic. Here's Ed Lavandera.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The showdown was like the gunfight at the OK Corral. That's how a witness describes the biker massacre to investigators. You don't have to hear the eruption of gunfire to feel the chaos the moment rival motorcycle clubs unleash a deadly melee. These videos take you inside the Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco, Texas, where nine bikers were killed and the parking lot was turned into a raging war zone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my gosh, crazy.

LAVANDERA: CNN has obtained more than 2,000 pages of documents, crime scene photos, many too graphic to show, and surveillance video giving us the most detailed accounts of what unfolded last May, some of the very evidence that a Texas grand jury is using to possibly indict the 177 bikers arrested and charged with organized criminal activity.

Restaurant surveillance cameras show the patio area filled with members of the Cossacks Club waiting for an early afternoon biker meeting to start. They had already been there for more than an hour. The Bandidos crew rolls in as police and SWAT teams anticipating violence are watching from a distance. John Wilson is president of the Cossacks biker club chapter in Waco. He's sitting on the patio when the Bandidos arrive.

JOHN WILSON, COSSACKS BIKER: The lead guy on that, you know, I looked out. I was watching. He deliberately stared into one of our prospects and hit him. He wasn't going real fast, but he ran into with a motorcycle enough to knock him down.

LAVANDERA: The man Wilson is talking about is Clifford Pierce. He refused our interview request and has not been charged. But in a police report an investigator wrote "Pierce said he did not get his foot run over, but may not have gotten out of the way fast enough." It didn't matter. The Cossacks believed the Bandido ran into one of their guys and the fight was on.

Who fired first isn't clear. One witness told police a Bandido fired the first shot into the ground. Another witness says a Cossack fired first. And in dozens of police interviews the rival biker clubs point the finger at each other or claim they didn't see anything.

[14:40:09] Clifford Pierce says he hit the dirt and was shot. A bullet hits his spine, leaving Pierce paralyzed from the waist down.

WILSON: At that time, it was pretty horrific. There were guys getting hit and falling. And I realized that I need to get away from where I was. And I looked to the guy to my right -- my left, a good friend of mine, and I told him, I said, we've got to get off the sidewalk or we're going to die here, you know.

LAVANDERA: Mayhem ensues. A biker running across the patio fires a gunshot caught on camera toward the fight scene in the parking lot. He then stashes the gun. A number of Cossack bikers take cover. Some slide handguns across the ground to each other. Restaurant patrons and Twin Peak waitresses are stunned and trapped.

The scene plays out in gory detail. You can see a group of bikers pummeling one man just outside the patio area. Crime scene photos later show a biker's body left dead in that exact spot. This biker runs toward the camera with a bloody face. Another group pulls a wounded man into the patio and they appear to be trying to revive him. He's then carried away.

Several defense attorneys tell CNN that the videos show most of the bikers there that day were innocent bystanders.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Y'all going to put us in jail?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Everybody's going to jail.

STEPHEN STUBBS, FORMER BANDIDO ATTORNEY: The way they handled it with the mass incarceration of people with million-dollar bonds flies in the face of justice and flies in the face of fairness. It's ridiculous.

LAVANDERA: After it was all over, the scene was chaos. Dozens of bikers had run inside the restaurant to hide in bathrooms and the Twin Peaks kitchen. Police SWAT teams move in to round up the crowd. They're escorted out with their hands up. Weapons litter the crime scene, knives, brass knuckles, and more than 150 firearms everywhere, some even hidden in toilets.

It's been more than five months since the Twin Peaks brawl and all of the bikers are out of jail, out on bond. They were all charged with engaging in organized criminal activity. But not one of them has been indicted by a grand jury yet, and no one has been charged with murder. In fact, it's still not clear who killed whom.

One police report says at least three officers fired into the crowd. And one officer wrote he heard suppressed fire from what I believe to be SWAT officers with suppressed rifles. Several defense attorneys say it's likely some bikers were hit by police bullets, but as far as we know, ballistics reports have not been completed to determine that conclusively.

Police and prosecutors have refused to answer questions about the investigation, citing a gag order, but Waco police have defended their actions since the beginning.

SGT. PATRICK SWANTON, WACO, TEXAS POLICE: This is a criminal element that came in here yesterday and killed people. They're not here to drink beer and eat barbecue. They came with violence in mind and were ready for it.

LAVANDERA: These images of the Twin Peaks brawl tell the story of unbridled pandemonium.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All the bikers started shooting. They put us in a freezer.

LAVANDERA: It was a wild west style shootout in broad daylight.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Waco, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And now as a grand jury weighs charges in this shootout, what role could that video play? We'll get our legal panel to weigh in next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:47:36] WHITFIELD: A deadly shootout between biker gangs in Waco, Texas, left nine people dead, more than 100 people were arrested. A grand jury is now weighing the charges. So what do we expect might happen next? I want to bring in CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson and commentator and legal analyst Mel Robbins. Good to see both of you.

MEL ROBBINS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Great to see you.

WHITFIELD: OK. So we just saw some of the terrifying video from the scene as, you know, people were running for their lives, you know, trying to get cover. And other cases, people were beating up others and, you know, firing weapons. So Joey, as a defense attorney, what did you learn from that video? Nine people dead. It would seem that it would be fairly easy to impose some charges?

JOEY JACKSON, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: You know, I learned quite much, Fredericka. If a picture's worth 1,000 words, you've got to believe a videotape is worth, 10,000, 20,000, 30,000. And so the point is from the beginning a lot of the defense have been clambering that my guy did nothing, he was merely present. And whenever you're merely present without being an active participant, it exonerates you of any charges. We have a right to be walking on the street or to be in a restaurant, for that matter. The issue is what, if any, criminality you engaged in.

So from a defense perspective, those who have clients who were in on high bail, million-dollar bail, and did nothing, the videotape is going to corroborate that and they'll walk free. In the alternative, those who you see in the videotape who were engaged in shooting and who were hitting and everything else, well, they have some problems and they have some explaining to do. The issue then switches from hey, I did nothing, to I was merely defending myself. So the videotape is helpful from a defense perspective, and I'm sure, as Mel, can tell you, it's helpful from a prosecution perspective, as well.

WHITFIELD: All right, so, Mel, your point of view?

ROBBINS: Well, I'm sitting here listening to Joey who I respect and adore, and I have to disagree. And the reason why I disagree is because a huge part of this case, Fred, is going to be about what happened before they arrived.

Remember, they're talking about investigating racketeering charges. That is a whole other ballgame. What are racketeering charges? Well, that means that the police, the FBI, they're looking into whether or not both of these biker gangs were, in fact, criminal organizations. There was ongoing issues between the two of them. There was an incident that happened prior to this shootout that one of the Bandidos killed one of the Cossacks.

[14:50:12] WHITFIELD: Why would that matter?

ROBBINS: What?

WHITFIELD: Why does that matter?

ROBBINS: Well, it matters a great deal. And the reason why it matters is this. If there were organizers in leadership positions inside the Bandidos that sent out a communication to their entire group saying arm yourself and travel north, we're going to settle this dispute now. And everybody that showed up showed up packing heat, packing a knife, knowing that they were about to engage in criminal activity, that sets the stage, because all you have to do to approve racketeering is that you either ordered the criminal behavior or that you assisted in it.

Now, the --

JACKSON: Objection.

ROBBINS: They will argue they weren't planning on fighting. They were planning on going there and thought they were going there in order to broker a peace deal. Well, I think there's a whole lot to sort out about the back story of why they were there first before you're even going to get to who fired what when.

WHITFIELD: So then Joey, if that is the case, you know, and settling a score or something, but doesn't that also speak to intent? And we did hear in Ed Lavandera's piece, there was law enforcement there. Perhaps that was because there was a large gathering of people and sometimes that comes with the territory. But why would any of that matter what Mel said was kind of advertised that they want to settle a score or whether it was just inherent or whether it was just a moment happened and that things exploded?

JACKSON: Well, Fredericka, it depends upon your perspective. Certainly Mel laid out what is going to be the prosecutor's position. My position as a defense attorney is twofold. First of all, as I mentioned to you, if I'm merely somewhere, then I'm merely there. How is it that you're accusing me of a crime?

The second thing is that I have the ability to renounce at any point. The fact is if I'm not an active participant in terms of engaging in any activity that would be deemed or identified as criminal and I'm there when the police come, what did I do? The videotape shows I was sitting there. Therefore, the police come and arrest me for sitting there? They arrest me for running? They arrested 177 people. They just said, everybody come with me. Well, guess what. A number of those people who the police said come with me did nothing. So from a defense perspective I'm going to argue that that tape exonerates my client, set my client free. And the fact is that if I'm -- if you have a weapon on you and that weapon is lawful, then why am I arrested? Why am I here?

WHITFIELD: All right, we're going to have to leave it there, guys. We know this case is a lot more complex than the three minutes we've given you to talk about it. But something tells me we're going to talk about it again.

JACKSON: I'm ready to fight with Mel some more.

ROBBINS: OK.

WHITFIELD: Without weapons. All right, Joey Jackson, Mel Robbins, only the war of words, thank you so much.

JACKSON: Thank you, Fredericka. Take care.

WHITFIELD: All right, also, just in to CNN right now, we're getting the very first pictures of that Russian passenger plane crash site right here. This is the northern Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. Officials have pulled 129 bodies from the wreckage. In one image we'll also see there, the black box. The black box, the data recorder, flight data recorder has been retrieved. Usually that's in the tail section of the plane. But you see right here an assemblage of many people as they try to get to the bottom of why this Russian jet fell from the sky in Egypt. We'll have much more after this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: There's almost nothing Madeleine Stewart won't try.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's been indoor skydiving, zip-lining in Hawaii. She's been scuba diving.

GUPTA: So when her 18-year-old daughter wanted to model, Roseanne Stewart wasn't going to stand in her way.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm a realist. I know my daughter has Down syndrome, but that doesn't mean that you can't do different things.

GUPTA: Like Madi, half of all children born with Down syndrome have some type of heart defect. So in Madi's case, the blood that was going into her heart wasn't getting enough oxygen before then going out. So when she'd cry, she'd turn blue and pass out.

Madi almost didn't survive to see her first birthday. At two months old she had heart surgery.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The doctor said 13 percent chance survival rate.

GUPTA: You would never know that by looking at this spirited teen today.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She does sports seven days a week. She's so energetic it just exhausts me.

GUPTA: And there's no rest in sight. Madi's modeling career is taking off. She walked the runway during New York fashion week this fall and won a contract to be the face of lipstick company Glossy Girl, all of which her mom says is giving hope to others with disabilities.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Madeleine isn't going to be the president of the United States, but she's Australian, but if she was American. She's not going to be a brain surgeon or an astronaut. But, OK, she's changing the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:58:37] WHITFIELD: All right, checking our top stories. At least two people are dead and another two are missing as raging floods sweep through Texas. This video shows the San Marcos River overflowing with trees and other debris, shutting down major highways. The Houston fire department rescued more than 90 people from the rising waters overnight.

And actor Al Molinaro best known for his role as Big Al Delvecchio in the sitcom "Happy Days" has died. Molinaro appeared in more than 140 episodes of the hit TV show. He died Friday from gall stone complications. Al Molinaro was 96.

And a reminder for most of us here in the U.S., set your clocks back one hour tonight. The official end of daylight saving time kicks in at 2:00 a.m. That means a next round of sleep for everyone except for the folks in Arizona and Hawaii. Those are the two states that remain on standard time year round.

And happy Halloween from space. NASA says this skull shaped asteroid buzzed by earth today. It's expected to miss us by about 300,000 miles, slight farther away than the moon. According to NASA, it's the biggest known object to pass this close to the earth until the year 2027.

All right, thanks so being with me this afternoon. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. See you back here tomorrow. Much more Newsroom straight ahead.