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At least 12 Dead, Four Injured in Virginia Beach Shooting; Trump Threatens Mexico with New Tariffs over Immigration; Mueller Report Fallout. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired June 01, 2019 - 11:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:48] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone.

I'm Fredricka Whitfield live in Virginia Beach for CNN's special coverage of a deadly workplace shooting.

It's an all too familiar scene here in Virginia Beach. Twelve people murdered in the deadliest mass shooting in the United States this year. Four other people are injured after police say a disgruntled employee started indiscriminately shooting at a city government building.

And now once again a community is in mourning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a day that none of us -- none of us thought we would ever live in. I think for all of us that are residents here, we all went to bed last night hoping that we would wake up today and this is just a bad dream. But it's our reality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And these are the faces that matter. These are the faces at the center of heartbreak. Eleven of these 12 were dedicated employees, murdered at their workplace. They have years and years of service to their community. One was a contractor coming in for a permit.

We want you to see their faces and hear their names. Laquita C. Brown, she was a right-of-way agent and worked in Public Works for four an a half years. Tara Welch Gallagher, she was an engineer and worked in Public Works for six years. Mary Louise Gayle, she was a right-of-way agent and worked in Public Works for 24 years. Alexander Mikhail Gusev, he was a right-of-way agent and worked in Public Works for nine years. Katherine A. Nixon, she was an engineer and worked in Public Utilities for 10 years. Richard H. Nettleton, he was an engineer and worked in Public Utilities for 28 years. Christopher Kelly Rapp, he was an engineer and worked in Public Works for 11 months. Ryan Keith Cox, an account clerk working in Public Utilities for 12 and a half years. Joshua A. Hardy (SIC), an engineering technician working in Public Utilities for four an a half years. Michelle "Missy" Langer, she was an administrative assistant and worked in Public Utilities for 12 years. Robert "Bobby" Williams, he was a special projects coordinator and worked in Public Utilities for 41 years. Herbert "Bert" Snelling, he was a contractor trying to fill a permit.

President Trump just tweeted moments ago, offering his condolences to the victims of the shooting. He tweeted that he spoke to Governor Ralph Northam about the shooting and offering federal resources to aid in the investigation.

Meantime, police are still working to answer so many unanswered questions. City officials choked back tears as they spoke earlier today.

Let's check in with CNN's Brian Todd from Virginia Beach who was at that press conference. This is so personal because we're talking about law enforcement is just meters away, just a few yards away from Building Two were all of this unfolded. And these are friends, these are co-workers, these are colleagues that they had to speak of.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right -- Fredricka. And we got a real sense of that a short time ago.

I spoke to the mayor of Virginia Beach, Bobby Dyer, who came in and told us that he lost a personal friend. His friend was that contractor -- Herbert Snelling, nicknamed "Bert". And the mayor really kind of broke up as he talked to us about losing his friend. Here's a piece of sound from that interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BOBBY DYER, VIRGINIA BEACH: A personal friend -- he did a lot of carpentry work in my house. He was a contractor. He was in the building, getting a permit. And I found out about it on social media, about midnight last night. And it rocked my foundation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: The mayor very emotional, obviously, about losing his friend -- Fredricka. And so many people around here -- as you mentioned, these were colleagues, these were friends.

And when you were going over those names, the years of service, some of the them 20-some years. There was one guy, I believe, who worked here for 40-some years.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

[11:05:01] TODD: I mean just the dedication -- that is what is really just tearing at the heart strings of some of their friends and colleagues.

We do have to say a little bit of information about what we found out about the shooter. This gentleman, this man named DeWayne Craddock who died in the shootout. He was a current employee of the city of Virginia Beach. He worked as an engineer there for about 15 years. Police believe he bought his gun legally. But as for a motive, they

really were not ready to give that information out. They were not ready to say whether he had made any threats to anybody here. Just the why of this -- they're not ready to tell us right now.

WHITFIELD: Yes. Very careful about the details. But we also heard from the city manager and the mayor and the police chief, about why they wanted to spend a good amount of their time talking about their fellow employees, their colleagues that were killed in this, and the grieving loved ones and colleagues, you know, left now trying to make sense of all of this.

This is an interesting location, because I think when people think of municipal office buildings they're thinking about a freestanding building in a downtown section. This really is almost like a college campus of more than 20 city buildings from city schools to fire department to police. Police was just -- the police department was just, you know, a few yards away --

TODD: Right.

WHITFIELD: -- which is largely why they were able to respond to quickly.

TODD: It's true. And they got there very quickly and they engaged him very quickly. But for that, this could have been just so horrific, as if it wasn't already.

But they got there, they engaged with him. The police department is just a couple of doors down. And what they told us yesterday was that this building, on a day during normal business hours, there are roughly about 400 people at a time in this building. So it gives you kind of a sense of the challenge that police had in responding to this.

WHITFIELD: All right. Brian Todd -- we'll check back with you. Thank you so much.

So for the workers in that city building, Building Two, when the shooting started, the minutes really felt like hours. So many today are just thankful to be alive. They're sharing about those terrifying moments when they first realized there was indeed a shooting under way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We tried to do everything we could to keep everybody safe. And, you know, barricaded in as much as possible.

MEGAN BARTON, SHOOTING WITNESS: You're wondering if he's going to come in where you're at or if he's, you know, he's going to come, you know, in your office or where you're at or where your friends are at. It's just we all know each other. And that was the biggest thing, is just trying to make sure everybody was ok.

EDWARD WEEDEN, SHOOTING WITNESS: She came running back downstairs, she said, they guy's got a gun. We heard a shot, we don't know how to react. In a way, you want to stay; in a way, you don't want to stay.

SHEILA COOK, SHOOTING WITNESS: We heard shooting. We heard shooting but we didn't think it was that close, that close like in proximity of the building. So I just thank God that they were able to alert us in time because if it had been ten minutes more, we all would have been outside. So that's what I'm grateful for today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we got out of here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Certainly a hard day, especially for the city workers. With me right now, Virginia Beach councilman Aaron Rouse. Mr. Rouse, this is really close to home for you. Not only are you experiencing this with all of your colleagues about what just happened, but in 2007 you were a Virginia Tech student. You graduated that year when, sadly, an undergrad student opened fire, killing more than 30 people.

So talk to me about what you felt, what you experienced personally when you heard there was a shoot taking place on the very campus where you work.

AARON ROUSE, VIRGINIA BEACH COUNCIL: Well, you know, initially my mind was to the victims and their families, and how can we surround them and let them know that they aren't alone. That we are here, we're going to be there to support them.

You know, as a college kid, you know, I felt helpless in the moment, not really understanding this tragedy. And now a councilman, I stand before, I am emboldened to make sure that we won't let fear hold us back. We won't this moment define us.

We will define our community by how we come together, we come together stronger. How we open our minds, how we want to invest in each other, in our humanity. And that's where we are today.

WHITFIELD: Because naturally, as a student, you described you were fearful. I mean here you were a senior in college -- I mean what could possibly go wrong on your college campus, and then you experienced that.

But then fast forward now, as a leader of this community of Virginia Beach, your constituents are going to say, yes, they're afraid. You know, they learned a little bit about who this gunman was, and partly that he was disgruntled, but they don't really know the nucleus of how and what can set off a person to want to kill so many. So it can't be simple to try and convey to people that fear has to be channeled into strength, into unity.

ROUSE: Right.

[11:10:04] How do you do that? I mean how do you turn those words of the collective strength into action so that people feel safe again?

ROUSE: Well, you know, we have our great first responders, our Virginia Beach police officers. You know, they didn't give second thought into putting themselves in harms way and making sure that this massacre, that this shooting ended abruptly.

But again, there's safety in numbers. There's strength in numbers. And that's how you come together to mitigate a lot of the concerns and fears. You know, I don't know if a lot of people know, but Virginia Beach is the largest populated city in the state of Virginia.

We have numbers here. We have a diverse community from the military community to our farmers to our thriving town center here. We welcome thousands of tourists, millions of tourists a year here in our community. We're a safe community.

And I know the resolve here. I grew up here, you know. I wouldn't be who I am today if it wasn't for our community. They say it takes a village to raise a child and Virginia Beach helped raise me to who I am.

And now I'm proud to be in a position where being through this before at Virginia Tech, I can stay here and I can stand in front of our community. Listen we're going to come together like we did at Virginia Tech. And we're going to do so stronger, smarter. We're going to have more humility, more tolerance for our differences. But Virginia Beach, we will define our moment in this hour.

WHITFIELD: While you are, you know, pledging to be proactive, when you look at the totality of what has happened, whether it be here, whether it be Las Vegas, whether it be Newtown -- how do you try to make sense of or look at it as a microcosm, you know, of a problem, of something that still needs to be addressed?

I mean, how do you get at it? Is it a cultural thing? You know, is it about access? Is it -- I mean, where do you begin? Once you've comforted one another or unify, where do you begin with grappling with what is the root of this problem? Why is this happening? Why does it continue to happen, no matter where you are geographically across the United States?

ROUSE: Well, you know, I study sociology at Virginia Tech and I want to tell you, we look at it's the structure of our society. And the structures of our society tells us that we will not have the structure in place unless we have commitment and investment in our humanity.

That's where we need proactive (INAUDIBLE). That's where we need to start at is to get back to understanding and tolerating our differences and having enough patience and humility to recognize that. You know, that's where the investment needs to be made because laws are just laws on the books. They're structures for us to live by but it doesn't negate that our humanity should come first.

And that's something that I want to make sure, not only here in Virginia Beach but in our country. We get back to valuing the men and women and whoever they want to be, whoever they can be, that we tolerate them.

You know, I think that is what our country is built on. It's, you know, it's the land of the free, the home of the brave. We have to be brave. We can't let acts like this, you know, make us so fearful that now we're scared to take a step or now we're putting ourselves in the hole and just covering the roofs over our head and hoping this doesn't happen again.

No, we must stand tall and embrace the diversity. We must do so together. We must come together and Virginia Beach will do that.

WHITFIELD: Virginia Beach councilman Aaron Rouse. Thank you so much.

ROUSE: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Appreciate it. Of course, all of our hearts are broken for you and your community. Appreciate it.

ROUSE: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Ahead, an all-out gun battle between police and the shooter. Next, what we're learning about the shootout that played out right here in Virginia Beach.

[11:13:58] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHIEF JAMES CERVERA, VIRGINIA BEACH POLICE: Once they identified him, he identified them, he immediately opened fire. We immediately returned the fire. And again, I want everyone to know that this was a long term -- lack of any other term -- running gun battle with this individual. This is not what is traditionally a police-involved shooting. This was a long term, large gun fight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back, I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Virginia Beach and that was Virginia Beach's police chief talking about the quote, "long-term running gun battle". Police officers had engaged with the suspect before they were able to finally shoot and kill the man and stop his deadly rampage. But not before he took the lives of 12 people at a municipal building right here in Virginia Beach.

I'm standing in front of one of many, there are about 20 municipal buildings at this entire campus now. It was Building Two where the shooting took place. With me now is James Gagliano, who is a retired FBI supervisory special agent and a CNN law enforcement analyst.

James -- glad you could be with us. so police say they recovered several weapons and higher capacity magazines as well as a suppressor at the scene. They located weaponry here on the scene as well as at the person's place of residence.

So what does this tell you about the level of planning this individual may have had?

JAMES GAGLIANO, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, Fred, first of all, the police have done in my estimation a masterful job thus far in first of all interdicting the gunman. And unfortunately 12 innocent souls were lost.

But they got to him as quick as they could. They engaged in a long- running gun battle with him and were able to stop him because he would have obviously done more damage.

How do we know that? Well, the police have been kind of circumspect and I think a little reluctant to fully release all the details of the weapons that were recovered. They have stated that a .45 was recovered and that appears to be the weapon that the gunman used to take all those lives, injure all those people and even strike a police officer.

Now, I carried a .45 caliber pistol when I was in the FBI for 25 years. They're sometimes chambered so that you can have seven rounds in a magazine or if it's a double stack, maybe 14 rounds in there.

[11:19:58] What the extended magazine does, it increases the capacity. So the gunman could have loaded up a number of these and gone in there with 40, 50, or 100 rounds of ammunition and if he was competent in any way at doing a reloading procedure, obviously kill more people and wreak more havoc. And that appears to be what happened.

As far as the silencer goes-- that's kind of a misnomer. They're really called suppressors, sound suppressors. And what it does is it changes the report of the round, so that individuals that heard the pop-pop-pop may not have responded the same way they would have, Fred, if they had actually heard the actual pistol rounds going off.

I think it wasn't until the police got on him and conducted an exchange of gunfire that a lot of people actually realized what was going on -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: There was a press conference just a couple of hours ago. Is it your feeling that investigators know more about this individual than they let on? Because they made it very clear they wanted to spend more time on the victims and survivors. And they were quite reticent about revealing much more about the gunman.

Is it your feeling that they do know, they have a fairly complete picture about that person's actions, who they are, the motivation? It's just that they're not willing or ready to reveal that?

GAGLIANO: I agree with you 100 percent -- Fred. And as I've said, they were masterful in how they interdicted the gunman and went to the scene. They went to the sound of the guns, which is what cops have to do now.

They gave an initial press conference in the immediacy, in the immediate aftermath of the actual shooting. That's to let the public know that the threat is down and that they do not fear that there are other gunmen out there or more danger.

They gave a later in the evening, I think 9:30 last night where they fleshed out in more detail what had happened. They described this as workplace violence.

And then they had a press conference this morning where they went into more detail.

And obviously, Fred, it was so just heartbreaking to look at the list and the pictures and the names of the victims. They were old, they were young. They were black, brown, white. They were male and female. Fred -- as I've said all morning -- they were us.

And I think that's the hardest thing that this police department is grappling with right now -- the people that went in there to interdict this man and then last night the crime scene folks from the FBI, from the Virginia State police, from the Virginia Beach police department -- their lives will be irrevocably changed too. It's going to be very heartbreaking for those folks to go about their jobs going forward.

WHITFIELD: Yes. And they were all public servants who have served between 11 months and 40 years.

James Gagliano -- thank you so much.

GAGLIANO: Thanks -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: And stay with CNN as we talk with police investigating this workplace shooting. What have authorities so perplexed about the gunman's motive?

I'm Fredricka Whitfield. CNN's special coverage continues.

[11:22:54] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back. I'm Fredricka Whitfield here in Virginia Beach, Virginia where 12 people were killed in a deadly shooting at the city's municipal building yesterday. It's one of more than 20 buildings similar to what you see behind me.

Police are still investigating the circumstances, what unfolded. But we did hear from officers and the city manager and the mayor and police chief earlier today that they have identified the shooter. And he was taken down after an aggressive shootout with police authorities.

A 40-year-old, he was a Public Utilities engineer, a current employee, for some matter that has not been revealed to the public yet. He was a disgruntled employee who had some issues with his workplace. He had been working here for some 15 years.

He carried out a shootout with a .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun, also had a rifle. And Later on when authorities went to his place of residence they also noticed and uncovered quite the arsenal of weaponry as well as magazines. We'll have more about the victims and the investigation coming up.

We also want to get you up-to-date on the day's other news. For that we're going to turn to Boris Sanchez in Washington -- Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there -- Fred.

Plenty of news to get to. But we start with Mexico's president offering up a diplomatic response to President Trump and his threats to hit Mexico with tariffs if the country doesn't increase enforcement at the southern border. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, also known as AMLO, said on Friday, quote, "I believe President Trump will understand that this is not the way to resolve things."

This comes as an administration official confirms that President Trump ignored his own son-in-law Jared Kushner's advice against issuing the threat.

For more on all of it, let's bring in CNN's -- or rather Elaina Plott. She's the White House correspondent for "The Atlantic". Elaina -- thank you so much for joining us.

ELAINA PLOTT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "THE ATLANTIC": Thanks for having me.

I just said you're a part of CNN, you're welcome to join us at any time, obviously.

I want to ask you about this reporting about Jared Kushner trying to warn President Trump to stay away from the threat of tariffs. Doesn't threatening Mexico with tariffs hurt the chances of the U.S. ratifying the USMCA -- this NAFTA 2.0 deal that they spent, what, two years negotiating?

PLOTT: Right, and it's not just that they spent two years negotiating on it. It's one thing that Mick Mulvaney told me a few weeks ago in his office, that they actually think they can get passed before 2020 and claim one more legislative victory.

So I think that's why you're seeing people like Jared Kushner who took a lead role in negotiating that deal really panic about this. And they're hoping that this was just something than was an outgrowth of Trump being upset about the Mueller news last week, and he thought this was a meaningful way to change the narrative and that within two weeks, he will have backed off of this.

But White House officials are quite worried right now.

SANCHEZ: I can imagine it. It's interesting you mentioned Mick Mulvaney because he was asked about the threat of tariffs and he essentially said these are two different things. USMCA is one thing and these tariffs are another.

The President likes tariffs. We've seen him go after China pretty aggressively. But Mexico isn't China. They're not stealing intellectual property. They're not building islands on the Gulf of Mexico, right.

So what does this message mean to the rest of our allies, to Canada, if the President is so willing to do this over the issue of immigration with Mexico, what does it mean for them?

[11:30:00] PLOTT: Well, it means a lot for them in terms of what can we face tariff-wise, if there's something entirely unrelated to that that the President doesn't like. But take that substance aside, you know, one of the reasons people like Lighthizer were so kind of just floored by the President's announcement is that it's not even that -- whether they agree with it. They don't have time to alert our allies in advance as to how this might impact them.

This, of course, is the reason that in part why Gary Cohn resigned when Trump decided last minute to slap on those steel and aluminum tariffs. There was no advance warning to our allies in Europe as to how this would impact them.

So beyond just, you know, countries worrying about getting tariffs slapped on themselves, I mean this impacts the global economic cycle in much greater ways when there's no forewarning.

SANCHEZ: One of the most fascinating things about all of this is that the administration really hasn't set benchmarks for what they want Mexico to do. They don't have any goals that Mexico can accomplish to then say, all right, we won't slap you with these tariffs.

They're supposed to have a meeting on Wednesday, Mexican officials, administration officials. Do you think we'll finally see some benchmarks? What do you think will come from that meeting.

PLOTT: I think, Boris -- you know as well as I do covering this White House, there's no way to know because the benchmarks for these kind of tariffs, those in a normal administration would have been outlined before an announcement of this kind of threat.

And rather, with this White House, we see this so often. Trump kind of decides on a whim, whether it's on Twitter or in a press conference when he's feeling good to issue a threat like this, and then sort of the protocol and the paperwork, as it were, gets done on the back end.

SANCHEZ: Right.

PLOTT: So I think there's no way to know what we'll see ahead of Wednesday.

SANCHEZ: Expect the unexpected. Elaina Plott, White House correspondent for "The Atlantic" -- thank you so much.

PLOTT: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: We still have plenty more to report.

Ahead, more questions than answers in that deadly workplace shooting in Virginia Beach. We'll talk live to a state delegate who knows that area very well.

Fredricka Whitfield live in Virginia Beach on the other side of this break.

[11:31:57] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back. I'm Fredricka Whitfield live in Virginia Beach, Virginia -- a city reeling from a mass shooting that claimed the lives of 12 people and sent terrified workers scrambling for cover.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARTON: We were all just terrified. We almost kind of felt like it wasn't real, that we were in a dream. You hear this all the time on the news, but you don't think it's ever going to happen to you. And then when it actually happens, it's almost like an out of body experience and you're just -- you're just terrified because all you can hear are the gunshots.

And you're wondering if he's going to come in where you're at or if he's, you know, going to come in your office or where you're at or where your friends are at. It's just -- we all know each other and that was the biggest thing, was just trying to make sure everybody was ok.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And here's what we know at this hour. These are photos of the 12 people who were killed. All of them city employees except for one, a contractor. Four workers who were injured are hospitalized.

Joining me right now Virginia state delegate Kelly Fowler. You've been in office now just barely two years. Your husband, a sheriff's deputy, works in a building just a few, you know, paces away from Building Two where the shooting took place yesterday on a Friday.

He wasn't at work yesterday. But tell me about your thoughts on how close this was for you, for your family, what your initial reaction was when you heard the shooting had taken place.

KELLY FOWLER, VIRGINIA STATE DELEGATE: Of course. I found out because people were asking me if my husband was ok. And I didn't know what they were referencing, so I had to kind of figure it out. And to find out that it was so close and he was off work.

So he was safe, and we let everybody know he was safe. But then the fear sunk in when we realized it wasn't just injuries, it was deaths. And we just -- I got to people as soon as I could to kind of comfort and get information. That was my goal right away.

I don't know how I could do it. So I wanted to be there and be available to the families.

WHITFIELD: You're a public servant as a delegate, your husband is a public servant as a sheriff's deputy. Talk to me about the close-knit community of being a public servant. And then to hear the gunman was an employee here and would unleash this terror and this deaths on colleagues.

FOWLER: Actually, I sat with someone who works in the city, in that department that I know pretty well. We got to know each other in the last couple of years really well in Public Works. And she just -- she had barricaded herself in her office. And she couldn't go home, she just was staying and waiting for information.

And I can understand, we sat together. And I can't imagine -- I think everybody has a connection here in Virginia Beach, everybody knows someone that knows someone, and is connected. So it definitely is hitting everyone hard.

But we're determined to work together -- local, state, federal -- to bring, you know, some clarity and to be supportive and to -- this can never happen again. That's what we're going to do moving forward. I know that.

WHITFIELD: So then talk to me about what your realistic expectations are about what kind of action could come from this to help promote safety, a sense of security that people felt they had but now they feel that's been shattered.

FOWLER: At this time I know we're working together, so working with the governor. The governor came right away from Richmond. And we're working with state agencies and federal, to make sure that we're supportive up front, making sure we're putting those services in place so that we can -- to help people. That's our number one goal right now.

And then moving forward, whatever it takes so that it never happens again. So that's going to take some coordination. And I wouldn't say I have the answers. I know that we're going to need to coordinate and work together to figure out how we make this never happen again. That needs to be the goal.

WHITFIELD: How much hope do you have in that? Because following countless shootings, I mean people have lost count of how many, but certainly haven't lost sight of the impact and what it has done to all citizens of this nation.

[11:39:57] To hear that, ok, well, people are going to work together and they want to do everything, but then shortly thereafter, there is a complaint by so many who say, not enough has been done or nothing has rectified the situation. Some people feel forgotten after these mass shootings.

How -- what kind of commitment can you make to your constituents that this won't be the case in which that happens?

FOWLER: My commitment is ultimately to the long term goals as well. I know we have very short term goals which are just being supportive. We have even little bit longer goals which would be working together and coordinating how we make sure this doesn't happen again.

But there is an even longer goal which I think Councilman Rouse spoke about earlier, which is the community. We need to focus on that community aspect where we can't just do the short term fixes. We're committed and determined to work together on every level to coordinate that and I know that that's what we're trying to show.

Already we've already got the local. Now we've got the state and with the governor here as well. And then we're bringing in the federal, and we're going to do long, long term solutions.

WHITFIELD: All right. Virginia delegate Kelly Fowler -- thank you so much.

FOWLER: Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it.

WHITFIELD: And our hearts, of course, go out to everyone here.

The main question on officers' minds, why did this happen? What they're looking at to try to determine a motive, coming up.

[11:41:16] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We'll get right back out to Fredricka Whitfield in Virginia Beach. But first we wanted to update you on some severe weather.

Right now parts of the central U.S. are awash in flooding and fear -- fear that already unprecedented water levels will seep into even more homes. More than eight million people along the Mississippi, Arkansas, and Missouri Rivers are under a flood warning. Arkansas, one of the hardest hit states -- hundreds of homes there already saturated. And there's still more rain in the forecast.

Let's bring in meteorologist Allison Chinchar. Allison -- just how much more rain can they expect?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Unfortunately, Boris, several more inches. When you take a look at the extended forecast which is the last thing that these folks really need right now.

This is the amount of rain that has already fallen. The target point here, that bright pink color you can see on the screen, that's in excess of 10 inches of rain. But there are some spots localized in there where you see the white -- they've picked up over 20 inches of rain.

So again, now when we start talking about adding more systems into the mix, this is the last thing they need. You have 300 river gauges, those are all the dots you see here, that are either at or above the flood stage.

One of those in particular, this is the Arkansas River at Dardanelle, that's where that levee breached. Here you can see the water rising due to the floods. And then you see this quick drop-off. That drop off is due to that levee breach because at that point that water has elsewhere to go. It's now flowing into the communities and lowering in the river itself.

However it is now starting to go back up because of all that water upstream is still now flowing into it. And now we also have more water to add into the mix.

Here is a look at that -- across that same region, you're talking widespread amounts of about two to four inches. Boris -- one other thing to note. Today is June 1st, the official start of Atlantic hurricane season. And we already have a storm system that we're keeping an eye on. This one in particular right here has about a 50 percent chance of developing into a tropical depression over the next few days. NOAA is calling for an average season this year of about 9 to 15 storms.

SANCHEZ: Something to keep an eye on. Allison Chinchar in the CNN Weather Center -- thank you so much.

Still ahead, more fallout from the Mueller report. CNN obtaining the full transcript of a voicemail from President Trump's attorney to the lawyer for Michael Flynn. Did what was said during that call amount to obstruction of justice?

We'll be right back.

[11:47:29] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We are getting new insight into Robert Mueller's Russia report and potential obstruction of justice by the Trump team. The Justice Department has released a voice mail transcript from one of the President's attorneys to the attorney for former national security advisor Michael Flynn.

Now, in that transcript, Trump's attorney John Dowd said, quote, "It wouldn't surprise me if you've gone on and made a deal with and work with the government." This is to Flynn's attorney. But if it quote, "implicates the President, then we've got a national security issue or some issue not only for the President but for the country".

He then asked for a heads-up and get this, "Dowd also wanted to remind Flynn about this, quote, "The President and his feelings toward Flynn".

Former special assistant to Robert Mueller and CNN legal analyst Michael Zeldin joins me now. Michael -- thank you so much for joining us this Saturday.

How potentially damaging could this transcript be to the President -- Michael?

MICHAEL ZELDIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: What Mueller said in his report was he had no way of knowing whether or not the President was the one who asked attorney Dowd his private counsel to reach out to Flynn and he said issues of attorney-client privilege prevented him from plenty of that.

So I think that because Mueller has decided that he can't breach attorney-client privilege to find out whether the President was behind this phone call, there is nothing that's going to come of this to legally implicate the President.

SANCHEZ: So maybe it's not illegal but certainly it's hard to find it ethically responsible to have the attorney for the President reminding Michael Flynn's attorney in what high regard the President holds, Michael Flynn, and asking for a heads-up as to whether he's cooperating with the investigation? ZELDIN: That's right. The part that is problematic may not be

obstruction of justice, but has an uncomfortable feel to it is the call from the attorney which says, essentially, we don't know whether you're cooperating but just remember how much we like you.

Those two things said back to back do raise the appearance that the counsel for the President was trying to influence Michael Flynn's cooperation or level of cooperation and that is exactly what Mueller wrote in his report.

SANCHEZ: Now federal prosecutors have refused to comply with the judge's order to release transcripts of Michael Flynn's conversation with Russia's ambassador, former ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak. Isn't that unusual? Why do you think they refused to follow that order?

ZELDIN: Well, it's unusual that there was the order in the first instance. Usually they do not ask for the public disclosure of confidential wiretaps that the government issues so that is the first part that's unusual.

The second part here is that the government has said, look. That which was on that phone call does not factor into our sentencing recommendation so you, judge, really don't need it to make a final determination about what to do with Flynn when he comes before you shortly.

And so the implication here is that the government says to the judge, really we don't want to disclose confidential methods by which we secure private wiretaps and you don't need it.

SANCHEZ: Well, I guess the question is, you know, while he was having that conversation with Sergey Kislyak, the Obama administration had imposed sanctions on Russia for election meddling and the implication or the indication coming about this phone call is that Flynn essentially asked Kislyak for the Russians to hold tight and not respond in kind to those sanctions.

I mean don't you get the sense that it contradicts what the President has said about being the toughest person on Russia?

ZELDIN: Well, that's right. And what we have here from Flynn is potentially interfering with U.S. Foreign policy when he is not part of the government and the President denying any knowledge beforehand of that call, both of which don't seem to sit well with me.

SANCHEZ: All right. Michael Zeldin -- thank you so much for the time.

[11:54:59] We still have more questions than answers in that deadly work place shooting in Virginia Beach. CNN anchor Fredricka Whitfield is live on the scene -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Thank you so much -- Boris. Still so many unanswered questions, particularly what are the details about this disgruntled worker who goes on a rampage here at these municipal building, killing at least a dozen workers right here in Virginia Beach. We are live on the scene. Our special coverage continues next.

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WHITFIELD: Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for being with me.

I'm Fredricka Whitfield for CNN's coverage of a deadly workplace shooting right here in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

It's an all too familiar scene -- right here in Virginia Beach this time. Twelve people murdered in the deadliest mass shooting in the United States this year. Four other people are injured after police say a disgruntled employee started indiscriminately shooting at a city government building. And now, once again, a community is in mourning.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The lives of 12 people were cut short by a senseless incomprehensible act of violence. I have worked with most of them for many years. We want you to know --

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