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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Victims And Gunman Identified In Boulder Mass Shooting; Senate At Impasse Over Expanding Background Checks; Investigation Finds Shocking Police Torture In Belarus. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired March 24, 2021 - 05:30   ET

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

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[05:32:42]

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. This is EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Laura. It's Thursday morning, 32 minutes past the hour. I'm Christine Romans.

And we have been here before, too many times, and the pain again is searing. The only certainty is this will happen again. This time, Boulder, Colorado is grieving after a gunman opens fire in a supermarket killing 10 people.

Authorities have now identified all the victims. They are shoppers running errands, store employees, and a police officer, father of seven, trying to stop the massacre.

Here are a few of the memories victims' friends and families say they'll cherish.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LORI OLDS, AUNT OF RIKKI OLDS: She was giggly and bubbly and just didn't -- you couldn't be sad around her. She wasn't having it.

DEBBIE BRINLEY, KEVIN MAHONEY'S NEIGHBOR: Kevin was incredible. He was an incredible father, an incredible spouse, an incredible neighbor. He was just a wonderful, wonderful man who didn't deserve this at all. We're devastated as a community.

EDWIN HURWITZ, FRIEND OF OFFICER ERIC TALLEY: Eric was somebody who really believed in the mission that he had to keep people safe and to keep the community safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: This morning we are also learning more about the gunman, his troubling past, and his firearms. He's a 21-year-old who was armed with a Ruger AR-556 pistol modified with an arm brace, and a semiautomatic handgun. He's now in custody charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder. Authorities have not yet shared any information on a possible motive, though.

ROMANS: Now, President Joe Biden keeping the White House flags at half-staff, as they were already lowered to honor the victims of the Atlanta shooting. He's also using this moment to make a new push for common-sense gun reform. We'll have more on that in a minute.

But first, let's go to CNN's Dan Simon who is live this morning in Boulder. What are we learning about the suspect's background, Dan?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Christine.

Well, first of all, we know that the suspect, 21-year-old Ahmad Al Alissa, will be in court tomorrow. It will be his first court appearance.

But in terms of his background, according to his own brother, he had a history of mental illness. He thought that people were following him. He was paranoid.

He was also the victim, according to his brother, of bullies in high school. People made fun of him for being Muslim and that made him a social outcast and he was quiet around other people.

[05:35:02]

He also seemed to think that somebody was hacking his phone and he made some posts on Facebook about that.

And we captured some of those pages where he wrote "Just curious. What are the laws about phone privacy because I believe my old school was hacking my phone? Anyone know if I can do anything through the law?" And then he went on to say "Yes, if these racist Islamophobic people would stop hacking my phone and let me have a normal life, I probably could."

We also know that he did assault a student at his high school in 2018 and ended up being found guilty for that assault. He viciously pummeled that student, according to a police report, and the officer noted at the time that there was no apparent motive for doing so.

So you take the fact that he had a propensity for violence, according to his criminal record and some of his past friends have said so, the fact that according to his brother he had a history of mental illness and had access to weapons -- you take those three things combined and then you have a recipe for potential disaster -- Christine.

ROMANS: Dan, what do we know -- what do we know, Dan, about those weapons. I know that some of the police chatter on the radio before they apprehended him, they were worried about an AR-15 long gun. It turns out it was a semiautomatic pistol with an arm brace. What do we know about when he purchased these guns and what they're capable of?

SIMON: Well, these were automatic weapons -- semiautomatic weapons -- and so - one of which he bought six days earlier. So does that suggest that he was planning something in advance? We don't know that at this point because authorities have yet to disclose a motive. But here at the grocery store when he realized that he was cornered,

he placed the weapons on the ground. He also had a tactical vest on. Also stripped down to nothing but his shorts, and then surrendered to police.

Now, when police first asked him some questions, he didn't respond to them. But one thing he did say is that he wanted to speak to his mother, Christine.

ROMANS: Wanted to speak to his mother, all right.

Dan Simon, thank you so much for that troubling story. I'm sure more details will emerge in the days to come.

All right. The Senate, once again, trying to tackle gun reform and once again, at an impasse on expanding background checks here. This is what we go through every time there is one of these tragedies, quite frankly, where we try as a nation to figure out what can be done. And ultimately, nothing is ever done -- right, Laura?

This impasse on background checks is one of those things we grapple with each and every time this happens.

JARRETT: Something that the president tried to deal with as vice president. Something that the Obama administration tried to tackle after Sandy Hook, which is a case that is just unimaginable. But if they couldn't get anything done after that it's hard to see where the progress is going to be, and that is the challenge for the current administration.

So the Senate, once again, trying to tackle gun reform now and once again at an impasse on expanding background checks. Each side dug in accusing the other of theater.

Let's go live to Capitol Hill and bring in CNN's Daniella Diaz. Daniella, President Biden is now pushing for fast action, as we've been saying all morning, on stricter gun laws. So walk us through what's on the table in the House when it comes to gun reform and what are the obstacles.

DANIELLA DIAZ, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Laura, legislation to expand background checks on gun sales has hit a wall in the Senate.

This comes after the House passed two separate gun bills in the House a couple of weeks ago. The first would expand background checks to include transactions between private parties, gun shows, and over the Internet. And the second would close the so-called Charleston loophole by expanding the time before a licensed gun sale can go through when the background check is complete.

And this comes when Senate Republicans have said that they are not behind these measures. They said that these measures would eat away at gun rights. They said that there's other ways to address the crime -- the gun crime that has happened recently.

But not only are Senate Democrats facing Senate Republicans who don't want to get behind this legislation, they have a member of their own party who doesn't want to get behind this legislation -- and that is the usual suspect that we talk about over and over, Joe Manchin of West Virginia. He said that this legislation goes too far on universal background checks. He wants commercial background checks and he is not behind this legislation.

But we always have this issue in the Senate that we go back to as well, over and over, this 60-vote threshold that's needed for any legislation to pass to break the filibuster. And Senate Democrats need these 60 votes for this legislation to pass and right now, they just don't have that.

So we'll be keeping an eye on how this plays out, but it's a matter of whether there can be any bipartisanship in the Senate on this issue.

JARRETT: All right, Daniella. Thanks so much for breaking all that down for us.

ROMANS: All right. So, poverty soared during the pandemic, as you would expect, but it would have been even worse without stimulus last year. The $600 stimulus checks and enhanced jobless benefits from the December aid package cushioned poverty numbers in the second half of 2020. The poverty rate was just over 11 percent in February, down slightly from November.

[05:40:08]

Expect more progress as benefits from the American Rescue Plan are felt by working and low-income Americans. That law represents one of the largest efforts to reduce poverty in the last century. Key measures, like the child tax credit, could cut child poverty maybe by half.

Now, money has started hitting people's bank accounts but the IRS says some couples will get their stimulus checks in two separate payments. The reason, a glitch in the system that divides the payments for married couples where one person files what's called an injured spousal claim. The IRS said the second payment may come the same week or within weeks of the first payment and that couples can check their status online.

Even with unprecedented aid flowing to Americans, the Fed chief, Jerome Powell, said more work needs to be done.

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JEROME POWELL, CHAIRMAN, FEDERAL RESERVE: While the economic fallout has been real and widespread, the worst was avoided by swift and vigorous action. But the recovery is far from complete. So at the Fed, we will continue to provide the economy the support that it needs for as long as it takes.

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ROMANS: The Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, echoed Powell. She points to the fact the economy is still down nearly 10 million jobs, Laura, since February.

JARRETT: Geez.

Now to a CNN investigation that's unearthed shocking examples of torture by Belarusian police showing the extent of systematic violence used to keep in power a regime that even the Kremlin fears being too closely aligned with.

Nick Paton Walsh live outside the Belarusian embassy in London. Nick, what did you find?

NICK PATON WALSH, INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Extraordinary that on the doorstep of the European Union -- Belarus next to it -- two of its most shining members, Poland and Lithuania, we see this sort of systematic brutality. This kind of crackdown since the August election, which was fraudulent, say many observers, and claimed by Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian president.

Soviet-era almost -- the kind of stories you'll hear now. And this report does begin though with a story of extraordinary courage and hope.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH (voice-over): Somewhere through the icy sludge here is the path to freedom. Across the border, an out of what's being called Europe's last dictatorship, Belarus.

Some walk if they can. One man -- we'll call him Sergei -- had no choice but to swim it nearly three miles. Here he stands on sheet ice, free but in anguish of having to flee of just crossing out of Belarus into the safety of Ukraine. He films himself in flippers and a wetsuit to leave evidence of what he tried in case he doesn't make it.

I'll try to crawl there, he says, and hope I won't freeze. I'm navigating by the stars. The feeling is indescribable. I've been going 90 minutes and have a mile left.

Being detained before for protesting and on the wanted list, he had to flee imminent arrest. I can't turn back now.

WALSH (on camera): But as a testament to how bad things have gotten in Belarus that people feel compelled to make this dark, perilous journey -- a run to freedom the likes of which Europe hasn't really seen since the Soviet Union.

WALSH (voice-over): Belarus, caught between Russia and the European Union, has been ruled for decades by autocratic President Alexander Lukashenko. He declared victory in August elections the U.S. said were fraudulent. Huge protests followed and he moved swiftly to crush them.

He and Russian President Vladimir Putin are two peas in a pod when it comes to shutting down dissent, so Putin swiftly helped his skiing partner with $1.5 billion -- another unspecified aid.

Months of systematic repression and torture followed, documented by human rights groups. CNN has detained from defected police officers videos exposing abuse leaked from the police's own archives.

Here, the white SUV is full of activists fleeing a protest crackdown. Riot police pounce, one fires a gun. The ferocity is starting. Some kicked where they lie, another has had his face rubbed into the ground. Most lie incredibly still.

They are then detained. In custody, CNN was told mistreatment ranges from extreme cold and cramped cells to being beaten severely, and sexual assault.

Andrey endured on another day perhaps the worst abuse in the back of a police van. He refused to unlock his phone so they cut open his pants and raped him with a baton.

ANDREY, VICTIM OF BELARUSIAN POLICE BRUTALITY (through translator Walsh): It was hard to move at all because I'd been heavily beaten. He cut my underwear using this knife. He asked me to give the password again, I refused, and then he did what he did.

[05:45:08]

It's not just anger. Police train to do this. We are just seeing it now on a huge scale for the first time. It's touched nearly every family in Belarus.

WALSH (voice-over): Custody is often brutal. Detainees from an October protest were filmed by police and forced to face the wall inside a central police station. Some bleeding, one with seven teeth smashed in, some ravaged by tear gas. Many here told us they were later beaten in custody and some have fled Belarus.

But you can also see a teenage boy motionless on the floor. Witnesses told CNN he had likely had an epileptic fit but the police ignored him, occasionally kicking him and saying are you a boy or a girl. A minor, he was released later.

In these rooms, police are still tracking down protesters. One, we'll call Anya -- you can see her here running from riot police. A stun grenade hit her leg badly. In the hospital, doctors gave her little help, she said, but tested her blood for alcohol and rang the police to say she was a likely protester. She fled home.

ANYA, VICTIM OF BELARUSIAN POLICE VIOLENCE (through translator): I got a phone call from the police asking where I had been. I began making up stories. They said they would come and get me -- a unit of them. And if they take me, I thought, then I can say goodbye to my limbs because no one will look after me.

WALSH (voice-over): Police veracity in Belarus -- a riot squad descending on a car here -- has slowly and quietly swamped a generation desperate for a new life and calling for new nationwide protests on March the 25th.

The U.S. has imposed commonplace sanctions on the Kremlin, its usual writ of fear. It's an early test for President Biden which method will win out. (END VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH: And I should make it clear we asked the Belarusian Interior Ministry responsible for the police, the Foreign Ministry, and the prime minister's office for comment and they declined to give us any.

Tomorrow, a vital day of protests being called in Belarus by the opposition. The real question, has that crackdown, has that fear meant people are less likely to come out onto the streets? And also, too, does the Kremlin feel this sort of brutality is something good to be associated with and do they fear losing, potentially, the sympathies of a younger generation of Belarusians caught in this extraordinary violence?

Back to you.

JARRETT: Just extraordinary reporting. Nick, thank you so much.

We'll be right back.

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[05:51:45]

JARRETT: All right. You may have to send that birthday card to mom a little bit earlier if you want it to reach her on time. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy rolling out a sweeping 10-year plan Tuesday that includes shorter post office hours in some places and longer delivery times for first-class mail.

Now, several top Democrats blasted the plan, and the White House says President Biden's concerns about the Trump-appointed postmaster remain. Democrats had accused DeJoy of trying to sabotage postal delivery just as the party was encouraging people to vote by mail for the 2020 election.

ROMANS: All right, 52 minutes past the hour. Time for a quick check on CNN business this morning.

Looking at markets around the world you can see big losses in Asian shares, and Europe has opened slightly lower. On Wall Street, futures are pointing higher, though.

You know, yesterday, stocks fell after the Fed chief Jerome Powell and Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen said more needs to be done to help the economy recover. There's some concern about the global recovery as cases in Europe rise.

The Dow fell 308 points. The Nasdaq fell just over one percent.

But perspective here. Take a look over the past year. The Nasdaq -- oh, that's up an astonishing 92 percent since the pandemic crash last March. The split-screen is stark. People with money and resources have profited in the last year, but the economy is still in a very deep jobs hole.

You're paying more to fill up the gas tank. At least one forecast now for $3.00 national gas by Memorial Day.

The national average price just hit $2.87 a gallon. That's the highest since May 2019. Here's why. Pent-up demand as Americans creep out of their COVID bubble.

Oil prices rise as the economy recovers and on the supply side of the equation there are unprecedented output cuts. If you live in Pennsylvania, Arizona, and California, you're already feeling this, right? Three dollars a gallon is already there for you.

A COVID milestone of sorts. Americans are drinking less alcohol. Sales fell for the first time in a year last week -- fell. Americans stocked up on alcohol as stay-at-home orders kept people inside. Of course, bars and restaurants were closed. Sales shot up as much as 55 percent in March last year.

Now, as the economy begins to reopen, shopping habits are starting to change. This may be the slowest in a year but people are still buying plenty of booze. Sales of wine and beer are still 20 to 30 percent higher compared to March 2019 -- Laura.

JARRETT: All right. And finally, a history-making day in Boston. Kim Janey, the city's first black and first female mayor, takes office today.

As City Council president, she became acting mayor when President Biden chose Boston mayor Marty Walsh to be his Labor secretary. When the Senate confirmed Walsh Monday, Janey became official. She will be sworn in today.

ROMANS: Fantastic, and congratulations to her.

JARRETT: Surprised it hasn't happened sooner.

ROMANS: You're right.

All right, thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.

JARRETT: I'm Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY" is next.

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[05:59:20]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was up front and I happened to glimpse to the side. I saw a body and I saw that it was Rikki.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The weapon used was an AR-15-style firearm, but still no word on what was behind the violence.

MICHAEL DOUGHERTY, BOULDER COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: The victims were engaged in an everyday act and it turned out to be their last day on earth.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't need to wait another minute to take common-sense steps that will save lives.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Every time there's a shooting we play this ridiculous theater. What happens on this committee after every mass shooting is Democrats propose taking away guns from law-abiding citizens.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To Sen. Cruz, I would say thoughts and prayers are good but they're not enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, March 24th, 6:00 here in New York.

And this morning the country continues.