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New Day

School Shooter Captured After Prison Break; U.S. Surveillance Flights Over Syria And Iraq; Pistorius Guilty Of Culpable Homicide; ESPN: Rice Told Goodell About Punch in June

Aired September 12, 2014 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: T.J. Lane and two other inmates escaped from the Allen Correctional Facility.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, a notorious school shooter escapes from prison. A massive man hunt to capture him. He infamously smiled when sentenced for killing three. How did he get out?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Also breaking, Oscar Pistorius found guilty of culpable homicide in the killing of his girlfriend, but cleared of premeditated murder. How much time will he serve?

CUOMO: Happening now, the U.S. flying surveillance flights directly over Syria, scoping out potential ISIS targets. This as CNN learns ISIS' fighting force may be twice the size previously thought. We are live with the latest

Your NEW DAY starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan, and Michaela Pereira.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to NEW DAY. It is Friday, September 12th, 6:00 in the east. Michaela and I clearly here at helm. Kate under the weather.

PEREIRA: She's just feeling a little ill this morning so she's at home resting.

CUOMO: We don't have that breaking news for you. We have a lot of other breaking news for you. Listen to this, fortunately, the manhunt for a vicious school shooter over in Ohio. The man is TJ Lane.

He's now back in custody this morning after a brazen escape nearly six hours they had to look to find this guy. You remember him, infamously flaunting his crimes, wearing a shirt that read killer smiling when he was sentenced.

Lane is serving three life sentences for shooting spree at his high school in Chardon, Ohio, in 2012 left three students dead. CNN Ted Rowlands is following the breaking developments live in Lima, Ohio. They got lucky they found him -- Ted.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They set up a perimeter and I guess they were lucky, they found out he had escaped in a relatively short order and set that perimeter, Chris, but there are still a lot of questions. First of all, how did TJ Lane get out? And second, is this the right facility for him?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROWLANDS (voice-over): A massive state-wide manhunt overnight after three convicts escaped the Allen Oakwood Correctional Institution in Ohio, including notorious killer, TJ Lane.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He did scale our perimeter fence and again, this is an ongoing investigation.

ROWLANDS: One inmate was quickly apprehended while Lane was on the run for nearly six hours. He was eventually cornered just 100 yards away from the prison where he escaped. And taken back into custody without incident.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I personally saw him, he never said anything at all.

ROWLANDS: Lane killed three students in 2012 at the age of 17. By opening fire at Chardon High School wearing a t-shirt that said "killer." At his sentencing where he received three life sentences, he caused outrage by wearing another "killer" t-shirt and smiling.

At the scene of Lane's crimes, classes were canceled this morning. The school superintendant saying support services would be offered. Extra patrols were also offered to the families of Lane's victims.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We immediately contacted the victims' families of the Chardon School shooting, we worked closely with the state, federal and local law enforcement to insure the safety of our county residents.

ROWLANDS: Though the facility where Lane is being held is not a maximum-security prison, a fact that will be reviewed in light of the escape according to the warden, the warden was quick to defend the prison and emphasize Lane's recapture.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously I'm not happy that it's happened. I mean, no warden in my position would like something like this to happen. But the facts are, I'm happy to announce that we have Mr. Lane back in our custody.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROWLANDS: And Chris, it goes without saying that people in Chardon were not happy that this happened, either. However, I'm sure they're breathing a sigh of relief this morning that he's back in custody -- Chris.

CUOMO: Probably going to ask some questions about what the right qualifications for him as a prisoner also. Make sure they have him in the right kind of custody. Ted, thank you very much for bringing us up to date on this. Appreciate it -- Mich.

PEREIRA: Chris, we turn to the battle against ISIS now. CNN has learned that U.S. military planes are currently flying over Syria. Surveillance flights over Syria, looking for potential ISIS targets inside that country.

All of this as we learn that the terror group may be much larger than previously thought. Secretary of State John Kerry gets more Arab allies to sign on, so many developments in this ongoing struggle.

Joe Johns joins us now from the White House with details on all of this. It's really interesting and frightening to understand that the numbers are far bigger of the ISIS militants than we thought -- Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is, Michaela. And you know, this sounds like a war, a little more intel on why they say they're not calling it that. A source telling CNN the administration does not want to elevate the international status of ISIS any more than has already occurred and that's why they say they're not calling it a war.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS (voice-over): This morning, U.S. surveillance flights over Syria are under way. The military now developing potential targets for future air strikes against ISIS militants. A U.S. official has told CNN.

This, as CNN learned the CIA's estimate of the size of ISIS doubles, between 20,000 and 30,000 fighters. And the number of westerners in their ranks, up to 2,000, including about a dozen Americans.

Secretary of State John Kerry in the Middle East, building a coalition, nine Arab nations signing on in the battle against ISIS. Saudi Arabia agreeing to train anti-ISIS fighters, but none of the nations expected to participate in military strikes.

JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I think that's the wrong terminology.

JOHNS: In an interview with CNN's Elise Labott, Kerry took issue with this action being called a war.

KERRY: What we are doing is engaging in a very significant counterterrorism operation. And it's going to go on for some period of time. If somebody wants to think about it as being a war with ISIL, they can do so. But the fact is, it's a major counterterrorism operation that will have many different moving parts.

JOHNS: Moving parts including money to arm Syrian rebels to fight ISIS.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have deep concerns about us investing taxpayers' dollars, $500 million to a group of rebels we're not sure how it will be used to our benefit.

JOHNS: But many parts of the president's plan receiving skepticism on Capitol Hill.

REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: An F-16 is not a strategy. And air strikes alone will not accomplish what we're trying to accomplish.

JOHNS: With one House Republican and former Air Force surveillance pilot in Iraq predicting a long slog.

REPRESENTATIVE ADAM KINZINGER (R), ILLINOIS: I think we're looking at a multi-year war in front of us and I hope the American people are patient for it. Anything short of destroying this group are going to lead to many problems in the future.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Congressional force authorization debates are often agonizing theatre for the party in control of the White House. But without it, some are saying the White House is running the risk of being accused of acting outside the law -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, Joe Johns with all of the latest. We'll be following this and discussing it further now with Chris.

CUOMO: Let's try to figure out what this means practically on the ground as these operations begin. Let's bring in Retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. Colonel, it's good to have you back on the show.

You are a strategic war analyst so help me understand something -- how is this not war what we're about to do and have already started doing, against this group?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET): Well, Chris, good morning. It's a really hard to define it as not being a war because for example, take a look at Korea. We don't talk about the Korean police action. We talk about the Korean War back in the early 1950s.

So what you're looking at here is a form of conflict. The difference is, is that counterterrorism operations used to be done completely in the shadows.

But in recent years, especially under this administration, what we've decided to do as a nation or at least the administration has decided to do is to bring these counterterrorism operations to the forefront and publicize them more than was the case in the past.

CUOMO: This is a big headline because the reason for battle fatigue among United States citizens isn't because they're afraid to fight or afraid to sacrifice, nobody has done it the way the U.S. has in the past. They don't trust what they've been told in the past. This goes right to the heart of it.

So tell me what's your take, Colonel? Is he saying this isn't a war because he doesn't want to embolden ISIS and make them feel special or is this about the administration being careful about their position, vis-a-vis, the constitution and Congress?

If they call it war too much, that means that they do need more approval than they wish to seek right now?

LEIGHTON: Well, I think it's both, actually, because Secretary Kerry has a foreign audience. He has all of the people that he's trying to bring into his coalition, all the Arab nations that Joe Johns talked about in his report. You have that on the one side.

On the other side, you have the congressional piece, and what they're afraid of is triggering the war powers resolution. So when that happens, if there is a war powers resolution or one of the other things that Congress has not been called on to do in recent years -- that is, to actually declare war -- we are incredibly reluctant to do that.

And both the Bush administration and the Obama administration have been incredibly reluctant to go in and actually call these things what they are and they are wars. Especially if you're on the receiving end of U.S. air power and U.S. air strikes.

CUOMO: Right. We've been advising people from the beginning that when you start keeping your eye on your Congress, you should be pushing them to vote. If you're going to talk about it and they have opinions about whether it's right or wrong, the constitution makes it clear.

They should be declaring war and they should be voting on it. We'll leave that to another day. Let's talk about the immediate action -- surveillance is going on, Colonel. This is your strong suit.

You know about surveillance. What are they doing? How hard will it be to identify targets?

LEIGHTON: Well, it's going to be somewhat difficult. Now the advantage that surveillance flights have, Chris, is that they can operate very well in open spaces. For example, you look at the open desert that exists in part of Northern Syria and Northern Iraq.

That's great for surveillance flights. It's harder to camouflage yourself in those areas if you're a target of those surveillance flights. But it is not impossible. So what is going to happen is we're going to be doing a lot of surveillance flights, a lot more than has previously been the case.

What they're going to try to do is they are going to try to figure out exactly how ISIS works. Not only where they are, but who is working with whom. How they're doing it, and why they're doing it. And then with that idea, they will develop a targeting package.

And then those targeting packages will be what is used to actually affect the air strikes that will go forward if they do go forward in Syria. And the same is true of course with Iraq. Technically, it makes no difference where you're doing these kinds of things. But that is exactly what will happen. They will use surveillance to gather intelligence, to find out what ISIS is up to, and they will do so in a very thorough way.

CUOMO: It's also interesting, they're saying they'll use the surveillance to figure out how many people they're fighting against. No small irony, that when the administration wanted ISIS to be a JV player, they put the numbers very low.

Now that they're taking all this action and want Americans with them, they're saying it may be twice the size as they thought before. Hopefully, they'll get their information right so the ground war goes the right way.

Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you very much. Look forward to getting your help as we go through this process.

LEIGHTON: Absolutely, Chris. Thanks for having me again.

CUOMO: Anytime, anytime. A lot of news this morning, right back to you, Mich.

PEREIRA: All right, Chris, and some breaking news now, Oscar Pistorius has been found guilty of culpable homicide. A judge in South Africa ruling he unintentionally, but illegally killed his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. He was found not guilty of premeditated murder.

The verdict, sending shock waves throughout the courtroom, the country of South Africa and beyond. Want to go straight to CNN's Robyn Curnow who is live outside the courthouse in Pretoria to give a sense of what the reaction was like inside that courtroom -- Robyn.

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, well, yes, we were inside the courtroom as usual. It was hot, stuffy, claustrophobic, and as usual, silence as the judge was giving that verdict. No obvious reaction, no cry out of surprise from anyone in the gallery or from Oscar Pistorius when she found him guilty of culpable homicide.

It was only after the judge left the room, Michaela, that some of Reeva Steenkamp's friends, a cousin, cried, gentle tears, there wasn't a lot of obvious emotion, Oscar Pistorius and his family sort of hovered around, unclear what to do next.

What then happened was Oscar Pistorius was taken by South African Police down into the cells of this building behind me. This is while the judge decides whether or not to revoke his bail, or whether to extend his bail to a sentencing hearing that will be in the next few weeks or months.

So it's not over yet and we're expecting to know whether or not he will be given bail in the next half an hour to an hour. We'll update you on that when we get it.

PEREIRA: All right. We will go back to you in South Africa when that information becomes available. Robyn Curnow, thank you so very much. Obviously something we're going to wait to see and find out. We'll be talking about it with our legal minds here.

Another story that's very important to us -- a new report says NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell knew about Ray Rice's elevator knockout punch months before he says he did. All of this as the Ravens play their first game since this new tape surfaced. Might not believe some of the people who were wearing Ray Rice jerseys.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Now to the latest in the Ray Rice case.

Several sources telling ESPN that Ray Rice admitted to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell back in June that he punched his then- fiancee in a hotel elevator.

Andy Scholes was at the Ravens game last night. He is in Washington with more.

So much to get to. Being at the game last night, I'm curious what the atmosphere was like.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: It was a very good atmosphere for Ravens fans last night. But the story seems to take another turn every few hours. Roger Goodell continues to be under fire. Many people don't believe what he's saying. And amidst all the controversial the Ravens had to get back to work.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCHOLES (voice-over): The Baltimore Ravens taking the field for the first time since their teammate, Ray Rice, was let go amid a domestic violence controversy.

In a new report, four sources tell ESPN that Rice met with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell back in June admitting he punched his then- fiancee, Janay Palmer, in a casino elevator months before TMZ posted the surveillance video.

On Tuesday, Goodell told CBS News that Rice's account of what happened was ambiguous compared to what the video showed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What was ambiguous about her lying on the floor, being dragged out by her feet?

ROGER GOODELL, NFL COMMISSIONER: There was nothing ambiguous about that. That was the result that we saw. We did not know what let up to that.

SCHOLES: A number of current and former players calling for Goodell to be held accountable is growing by the day.

JONATHAN VILMA, FORMER NEW ORLEANS SAINTS LINEBACKER: Roger Goodell failed to act, plain and simple. He failed to act. There should be consequences.

SCHOLES: And former Philadelphia Eagles running back, Brian Westbrook tweeting, "Being a leader is not a part-time job, if Goodell holds players to a high standard, he should be held to that same high standard."

Mere hours before Thursday night's kickoff, CBS officials nixed a pre- corded Rihanna opener, considering the singer's own history of domestic abuse at the hands of ex Chris Brown. Instead devoting time to a discussion about the abuse scandal rocking the NFL, culminating with James Brown making a powerful plea.

JAMES BROWN, CBS COMMENTATOR: According to domestic violence experts, more than three women per day lose their lives at the hands of their partners. So, this is yet another call to men -- to stand up and take responsibility for their thoughts, their words, their deeds, and as Deion says, to give help or to get help, because our silence is deafening and deadly.

SCHOLES: After defeating the Steelers, the Ravens voiced their support for their ex-teammate.

DENNIS PITTA, BALTIMORE RAVENS TIGHT END: He's always been unbelievable in the community here. And people have really grown to love him and they support him, as do we. We acknowledge the mistake he made.

TORREY SMITH, BALTIMORE RAVENS WIDE RECEIVER: Ray is still a great guy, you know? You know he made a mistake. You take away those two minutes of his life and you look at a model citizen, a model man.

SCHOLES: Fans also showing loyalty to rice by wearing his jersey.

BOBBY MCDONALD, BALTIMORE RAVENS FAN: I stick behind Ray Rice 100 percent. And I will rock this jersey every day until he is back on that field.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a situation that is between his wife and himself. And I feel that everybody should leave them alone and let them deal with the situation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHOLES: Michaela, I was shocked to see so many Ravens fans wearing their Ray Rice jerseys last night. There were hundreds, surprisingly, most of them were women. And the ones I talked to, they were much more mad at the NFL and Roger Goodell than they were mad at Ray Rice.

PEREIRA: Hmm, interesting, though, how this situation has created a much larger conversation about domestic violence, something that we want to continue here obviously. Andy Scholes, thank you so much for giving us insight into the game and the atmosphere there.

Turn it over to you, Chris, for further conversation here.

CUOMO: Mick, we have to wonder, we some of what we're hearing the fans say, play into the fact of how we're tone-deaf when it comes to domestic violence and maybe the NFL fell prey to that as well. Let's get some perspective. Let's bring in Mike Pesca, host of "The

Gist with Mike Pesca" on "Slate", and George Martin, former New York Giant, author of "Just Around the Bend", which we're going to discuss, and, of course, former president of the NFL Players Association.

Mike, let's get one thing straight right now. There's a great distraction going on. We have two great distractions -- one is we're distracting ourselves with the cultural problem we have with domestic violence. It's not recognized the right way by society. We're seeing it play out in real-time.

The other distraction, the NFL, did they see it? Did they not see it? Was it delivered? Who got it, was it Roger? Was Roger somewhere else?

It's a distraction because -- isn't it true, Mike, whether or not they saw it or who got it, they didn't need to see it to know what was on it and that is the problem.

MIKE PESCA, HOST, THE GIST WITH MIKE PESCA ON SLATE: Yes, the Ravens owner said the videotape changes everything, it should have changed nothing. It was pretty clear that this unconscious woman was in the elevator with only one other man, and that man is the one who made her unconscious. Clear because that's what the police report said, Ray Rice even said it.

The entire investigation was done, sort of worst practices of how you talk to a domestic abuse victim, Janay Palmer was in the room with her husband, she said oh, I was part of it perhaps, and they put way too much creed innocence the maybe it takes two to tangle argument, which anyone who knows about this, you can't do that.

And you're absolutely. They've set up this dynamic, where if you can't prove that he saw it, it's very hard to prove a negative, it's very hard to prove that with a huge organization, you can't prove that, well then maybe how do we fire Roger Goodell? We should be thinking about it a lot more globally, I think.

CUOMO: George Martin, if we were talking about performance-enhancing drugs right now, the rationale, that -- well, maybe I had something to do with it, but I don't really know what was happening, would never fly. That person would go down.

Now, they're saying should Roger Goodell go down? I am not naive enough to believe there's a chance he's going to go down right now, because the owners control his fate. But here's my question, Goodell has said over and over again, for instance when he punished Sean Payton, the New Orleans Saints coach, if you didn't know, you should have known. I'm suspending you for a year.

Where is that level of accountability with him?

GEORGE MARTIN, FORMER NFL PLAYER: Well, the saying, what goes around should come around. And here we have a situation where the league is denying having seen the video and as such, they feel as if they don't have any responsibility. But I say bunk to that. I think number one, that they should look at

this as a larger context. I mean first of all, they issued obviously a sentence against ray and then they came back and somewhat of a double-jeopardy, now they're, they've totally disallowed him to play. But I'm saying, is this a systemic problem, Chris, or is this something isolated?

And if it is a systemic problem, what are we doing for it? We've had our visceral response, we've had our and outrage, but now what is the National Football League doing to address this problem on a broader context? That's the question.

CUOMO: Quick take, do you think Ray Rice will play again and should play again?

MARTIN: I think using my NFL position, I think that he's earned the right to be a Baltimore Raven. He should play again. But I think there should be some stringent circumstances surrounding this play.

And I think the worst part of it, his thousand-wife is going through the process all over again, figuratively. She's already gone through it literally and now she's going through the pain and suffering of it again.

PESCA: She's being re-victimized. And, by the way, I believe in redemption and mercy. But when the punishment phase is so screwed up, you can't get to an efficient redemption. I resent that.

CUOMO: And, by the way, what makes it more complicated, the penalty from the league is six games, they said we're going to up it now. Six games, how do you hold him out indefinitely?

PESCA: There's no due process, this has been the characteristic of everything Goodell has done. There's a couple things that -- even in their statements, they think they're clarifying this or getting on the right side, they show their unbelievably ignorance.

There's no talk about maybe I need not to be judge, jury and executioner, maybe I don't need to make all these decisions. And the other big thing that galls me, is we see talk of, well, from this point forward, we've learned. Well, we've met with women's organizations.

Last year, Jovan Belcher killed his girlfriend. At that time, you didn't have a serious discussion? You know, the Giants owner John Mara said, well, now, we're going to go forward. It shouldn't be now. It should have been then.

This is not just the shame of punishment. It's the shame of process.

CUOMO: And I agree with everything you're saying. However, does all the emotion out of what you're saying get taken out by the fact that this is the NFL, it's not Congress, it's not Apple, it's a sport and a violent sport and many believe they shouldn't be in the business of disciplining their players. If we look at history, George Martin, 14 guys who have some kind of DV, domestic violence case hanging over their heads and collectively 13 games have been taken from them? This is something that the league has turned a blind eye to. The fans seem to think it's OK right now.

So, do you change?

MARTIN: Well, I think first of all, Roger Goodell has to step up and demonstrate some leadership. They talk about safeguarding and protecting the brand of the National Football League.

Chris, the actions that they've shown so far are anything but safeguarding and protecting the brand. I think there's an element running roughshod and I think the NFL has to step in and address this on a broader level, not just individual level.

CUOMO: So, short answer -- I want to move on to something about George. Goodell is not going to go, right?

PESCA: He's made so much money for them. They paid him $44 million.

CUOMO: And that's what it's about. This is a league about making money, it's not about giving instruction to society about how to treat women.

PESCA: An instruction that the courts don't give, 59 players have been involved in violence or sexual aggression during his tenure against women. I think I counted one who did jail time, it was three days.

CUOMO: And if you want to be angry in the situation, think about the cops. They have the videotape about the assault. They did not make the case.

Why not? They would have done it in a regular case. Why not here? Is domestic violence given the respect it deserves? Think about.

George Martin, something else for us to think about, you're a big man, you look great, you look like you could play today. You make Pesca look like a really little fish.

Now, you walked 3,000 miles across this country for a great cause and it has to do with your new book. Tell us.

MARTIN: Well, first of all, my journey "Just Around the Bend" for 9/11 is really an act of reciprocation for the people who responded so valiantly, 9/11, you know, 13 years ago. I felt as if these heroic figures really deserved something more than just a dinner or a golf outing.

So I came up with a journey for 9/11 to walk across the United States to bring call attention to their plight and to raise money for them. I'm proud to say my actions resulted in raising over $6 million for them.

CUOMO: $6 million. MARTIN: Thank you.

CUOMO: You get the Mickey round of approval. Berman can't clap, he's a Patriots fan, he's a deeply jaundiced individual.

How long did it take for you to do the walk, how much weight did you lose?

MARTIN: It took nine months. I lost 40 pounds. I went through 27 sneakers, traveled through 13 states.

CUOMO: Wow, that's pretty. You make Forrest Gump look like a chump.

Very well done. George Martin, thank you for being an example on the field and off

Pesca, always a pleasure. Have a good weekend.

Now, another big story this morning, the fight against ISIS making some very strange bedfellows, OK? The administration is trying to build a coalition in the Middle East and arm rebels. And the question is, who can they trust? Will they wind up doing business or making war with people who aren't really friends?

We have more on the breaking news as well -- guilty, but not of murder. Oscar Pistorius convicted of a serious charge in the death of his girlfriend. How much jail time could the blade runner face? We have a legal team breaking it down as we speak. You'll get it ahead.