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New Day

Fugitive Cop Killer Captured; Nurse Defies Ebola Quarantine; Friend of Kaci Hickox Speaks Out

Aired October 31, 2014 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Fugitive no more. One of the FBI's most wanted fugitives waking up behind bars. The massive 48-day man hunt coming to an end in the woods of Pennsylvania overnight. Where was he hiding, how did authorities catch up to him? We have it all ahead.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And quarantine battle. Insisting she's perfectly healthy, nurse Kaci Hickox defies her quarantine to go for a bike ride. Maine's governor vowing to use the full extent of his power to enforce it. How will the standoff end?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Fury in Ferguson. The city's police chief telling CNN he's not going anywhere, despite reports that he's going to step down. If a grand jury does not indite Officer Darren Wilson, will violence once again erupt in Ferguson?

CUOMO: 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 this Friday, October 31. Happy Halloween.

Boo! Nothing.

CAMEROTA: I'm in my ceremonial orange, as you can see.

CUOMO: And I'm dressed as a man who's generally confused. It is 6 a.m. in the East. I know that. I'm Chris Cuomo. Alisyn Camerota.

And up first, a real-life boogeyman will not be a threat to trick-or- treaters this Halloween because a massive manhunt for one of the FBI's most-wanted fugitives is finally over. After seven weeks on the run, Eric Frein now in custody in Pennsylvania, captured at an abandoned airport hangar in the Poconos Thursday night.

CAMEROTA: Police say Frein was not armed; he surrendered without a fight. He is accused of killing one Pennsylvania state trooper and wounding another, and the crime scene was right outside the same police barracks where he is now being held. CNN's Miguel Marquez is live at the courthouse in Milford,

Pennsylvania, where Frein will appear this morning. What's the latest, Miguel?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, there, Alisyn.

Authorities say that they have a very, very strong case against Eric Matthew Frein, saying that the gun that they eventually found in his hideout, his stash, matches the casings that they found in other areas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ (voice-over): The manhunt finally over.

COMMISSIONER FRANK NOONAN, PENNSYLVANIA STATE POLICE: We have stated that early on, that we would not rest until his capture was made. Tonight we have made that major step down the path to justice.

MARQUEZ; After nearly seven weeks on the run, suspected cop killer Eric Matthew Frein now in custody, facing a murder charge.

RAYMOND TOMKIN, PIKE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: It is my intention to file notice to seek the death penalty for Eric Frein.

MARQUEZ: The 31-year-old self-taught survivalist was caught hiding in an abandoned airport in the Pocono Mountains. A U.S. Marshalls Special Operations team was clearing the area near a hangar, spotted Frein walking across the airstrip, and surrounded him. According to law enforcement, Frein, caught by surprise, surrendered, hands up. Identifying himself, he was apprehended unarmed but had two guns and knives in a hideout.

NOONAN: If he got out of those woods, we were very concerned that he would then kill other law enforcement, and if not them, civilians.

MARQUEZ: The search for the now-captured fugitive began 48 days ago on September 12, when Frein ambushes the Pennsylvania State Police barracks in Blooming Grove, shooting and killing Corporal Bryon Dickson and injuring Trooper Alex Douglass.

Police investigate numerous possible sightings, discovering personal effects in various hideouts, from pipe bombs go cigarettes to supplies, clues to Frein's whereabouts, but under the cover of dense woods, he evades capture.

An enormous sense of relief for the community with Frein now behind bars, arrested in the very handcuffs that belonged to the officer he gunned down and driven back to Blooming Grove in his police cruiser.

NOONAN: All of us in the state police and Governor Corbett just thought that, if we had that opportunity, that would be a very fitting tribute to Corporal Dickson and a message to all law enforcement that we would never rest until this -- this fugitive was apprehended.

(END VIDEOTAPE) MARQUEZ: Now there were hundreds, if not thousands of individuals involved in the search for Eric Matthew Frein. And they did catch a lucky break in some ways. Of course, they make their own luck out here. The unit that happened to be on duty at that time searching through that area, they may have had just a clue, a small clue that Eric Frein was out there. They went in, and they were the exact right individuals to bring him to justice -- Chris.

CUOMO: Miguel, your point is well taken. These manhunts can go on for years. We see it all the time.

So let's get perspective here, bring in Tom Fuentes, CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director.

Tom, thank you for joining us. What do you see when you look at how the U.S. Marshalls were able to discover this man and exactly how they did it, really so quickly?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Good morning, Chris. Well, I think one of the keys to finding out how much intelligence they had, how certain and how much lead time they had will be the officer's handcuffs, that they just happened to coincidentally have those handcuffs at that airline hangar to use on him? Or did they have a pretty good idea and have that area surrounded that he was within that area and then maybe wait until he walked out of the hangar to get him so he'd be away from his weapons.

CUOMO: And they got even without him taking a shot, although he was armed to the teeth and had these pipe bombs. So it does seem like either they caught him by surprise, or the guy had been worn down.

Now, people will say, Tom, "Come on, it took them weeks. There were thousands of guys. They should have caught him a long time ago." How difficult is it to find an individual in circumstances like these?

FUENTES: Well, I think those people should go out in the woods and look for something and have a personal idea how tough it is. You can walk within a foot of somebody and not see them in that kind of dense forest.

And the police have the other disadvantage. They couldn't just use large numbers of the local population like you would use to find a lost child, let's say. You had an individual that could kill from 500 yards away. So that any officer crossing a road or standing in an open area could easily have been ambushed by him. And that changed a lot of the dynamics of the search for him, knowing that he had that capability and had already used it to kill one police officer.

CUOMO: Strong point. They couldn't canvass in long lines as they usually would, both because of terrain and because of the ongoing threat. Does it mean anything to you that, for a while, he was hiding not far if an area of where his family had a home? Does this suggest that maybe this guy got too much credit for being a survivalist?

FUENTES: I think so. I think when you see the video of him in the documentary, and some of the other pictures of him, you see somebody who's a wannabe warrior. He's in the military uniform with his "Top Gun" sunglasses hanging. So I think he was as much a wannabe warrior, but not a real one, and a wannabe survivalist, but not quite a real- enough one, that he didn't have the capability of staying in the woods on his own, especially with winter approaching and nighttime temperatures below freezing. He had to find shelter. He had to find food beyond his, you know, living like a survivalist.

CUOMO: This means a lot on many levels. Let's discuss a couple. Let's look at the community first. This was very hard for these folks here. Schools were closed. Imagine the symbolism. The eve, Halloween, coming up and a real boogeyman in the community. How big a deal was this to remove the threat?

FUENTES: I think it's an enormous deal. Not just changing the dynamics of Halloween, one particular day that kids enjoy. But just in general, the people in the area, the possibility that, especially as I mentioned, him looking for winter shelter meant that he could easily have invaded somebody's home and taken them hostage or killed a family. You know, the closer they got to him. Or at least the sense that he would have that they were getting close, the more he would be like a caged animal.

So he could hijack a car; he could take over a house; he could ambush law enforcement. He just would become more and more dangerous the longer he was out there.

CUOMO: My suspicion was that he was not going to make it out of this alive. And yet we saw some real maturity here from officials. As you pointed out, they had the handcuffs that belonged do the deceased officer. They brought him back to the barracks where that officer had been stationed. This obviously mattered to them, and there's clear symbolism in those moves as well, no?

FUENTES: Right. And if I could add one thing, the -- you know, we say that it was the FBI's Most Wanted List, the top ten list. The reason for using that is that it's basically a way to advertise a fugitive on a worldwide basis. And what it also does, is it adds an automatic $100,000 reward to anyone leading to his capture that's not a law enforcement officer.

But the actual lead and the actual arrest was made by the marshal's elite tactical operation team. And, you know, tremendous credit goes to the marshals in their discipline. They made that arrest, and they're going to be able to debrief him.

And it showed that here you have somebody that gunned down two police officers, killing one of them. And yet, you know, they could have let him get back to his weapons, which would then justify shooting and killing him. But they didn't. They took him down without incident.

CUOMO: A job well done and done the right way, and now we will see the man brought to justice. Tom Fuentes, thank you very much this morning. Have a good weekend.

FUENTES: You're welcome, Chris.

CUOMO: Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right, Chris. She warned everyone she would not be held in quarantine, and she was true to her word. Nurse Kaci Hickox venturing out of her Maine home with her boyfriend there. They were going for a bike ride, to exercise her body and her civil rights.

The couple was trailed by police the whole way, and the media. The state's governor still vowing to use all of his authority to keep her confined.

CNN's Jean Casarez is tracking the latest developments live from Fort Kent, Maine.

Good morning, Jean.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Kaci Hickox remains behind me in this home. A state police squad car remains here also. You know, the governor said yesterday that there had been hours of negotiation to try to reach a resolution in all this. Attorneys from both sides. He even seemingly said that he would let her jog, ride her bike, so long as she stayed within three feet of anyone.

But this morning, still, no resolution.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ (voice-over) A bike ride making headlines around the country.

KACI HICKOX, NURSE: I'm not afraid.

CASAREZ: Fearless nurse Kaci Hickox, defying authorities' Ebola's quarantine, putting some in a rural Maine community on edge.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just fear.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It scares me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't want to bring it home.

JIM MAIKA, NEIGHBOR OF KACI HICKOX: Until 21 days go by, she's not going to be absolutely positive. So that means no one else is.

CASAREZ: Hickox doesn't complete her 21-day isolation until November 10. In fact, it has only been a week since the nurse returned from treating Ebola-stricken patients in Sierra Leone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The state police have their marching orders.

CASAREZ: The governor of Maine, Paul LePage, says he is going to use the fullest extent of the law if she gets too close to the public.

GOV. PAUL LEPAGE, MAINE: I don't want her within three feet of anybody.

CASAREZ: But LePage also wants to keep Hickox herself safe, ordering a police escort to keep guard 24/7.

LEPAGE: Tempers get flaring when people get scared. The last thing I want is for her to get hurt.

CASAREZ: Hickox says she has done nothing wrong. And her boyfriend says they rode in the opposite direction from the town, and she hasn't even stepped foot inside a store. In fact, the pair ate in. Pizza was delivered to them.

TED WILBUR, HICKOX'S BOYFRIEND: We are not trying to put anyone at risk. We're not trying to push any limits here.

CASAREZ: Maine is now one of nine states with quarantine measures beyond CDC guidelines. Whether or not stricter quarantine laws are the right move may impact mid-term elections only a week away, as several of the states' governors are running for re-election.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ: And Governor Paul LePage right here in Maine on the Republican ticket, is in a hotly contested re-election effort. President Obama actually came to Maine yesterday for a Democratic fundraiser but didn't mention what's happening right here in Fort Kent -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Hmm. Interesting. Jean Casarez, thanks so much for that background. And stick around for a few minutes, because straight ahead we'll have a CNN exclusive for you. We're going to speak to one of Kaci Hickox's best friends to find out what she's thinking today and what she's really like.

You know, there's been so much question about who this woman is. Is she normally defiant? Is she normally this brave to fight city hall on such a public stage? So we'll find out.

CUOMO: Did she know what she was getting herself into?

CAMEROTA: All good questions.

PEREIRA: Because oftentimes it can start one way and can end another.

CAMEROTA: Sure.

PEREIRA: That will be a great conversation.

Shall we take a look at some headlines?

CAMEROTA: Let's do that.

CUOMO: Please.

PEREIRA: Good morning and happy Halloween to both of you. Let's take a look at those headlines at 11 minutes past the hour.

We are now learning more about the plane crash, the plane that crashed into a flight training building at a Kansas airport, igniting a deadly fireball. Four people were killed: the pilot and three others who were inside that building. The FAA says the pilot reported losing engine power. He was trying to turn around and return to the airport. Five other people were injured.

Israel is partially reopening the Temple Mount in Jerusalem today. Officials say Muslim men under 50 will still be restricted to prevent violent demonstrations. Israel barred all access to the site Thursday for the first time in decades following the shooting of an activist rabbi. The move triggered an angry response from Palestinians and from neighboring Jordan, the official custodian of that site.

In Syria, small forces of Iraqi Kurdish fighters has entered the battle against ISIS in Kobani. It's the first of a larger group of 150 troops expected to join the fight to try and save that town. All this comes after fierce clashes with ISIS militants unsuccessfully trying to capture the border crossing point, the only gateway in and out of Kobani.

All right. I have to show you this. I've seen a lot of things in my time. But this? Yes. This is Rockaway, New Jersey. If the postman is in the area and families and children, two massive black bears captured in video in a knock-down, drag-out brawl on a quiet residential street. It apparently went on for something like six minutes. It happened back in August. The video was just uploaded to YouTube.

Wildlife experts who have seen this video say these are likely males that are fighting over a hot girl in the area. You know, they want -- a female bear in the surrounding area, and this is territorial battle.

But I've seen a lot of things. I've never seen that.

CAMEROTA: It's cool.

CUOMO: I grew up in Queens. I saw guys fighting on the street all the time over some good-looking woman.

PEREIRA: These are bears. These are bears.

CUOMO: Bears? Men? Bears are more sophisticated on many levels.

CAMEROTA: You're right.

PEREIRA: You think this is a more sophisticated fight?

CUOMO: You saw no shots to the groin...

PEREIRA: OK.

CUOMO: ... fair fighting.

PEREIRA: All right. You're an amazing man.

CUOMO: Let the best -- the best bear win, I say.

CAMEROTA: All right. She vowed she would not be kept inside, nurse Kaci Hickox defying a quarantine. This morning the state of Maine is making her an offer to end the stand-off. What is Kaci's next move? We will speak exclusively to one of her best friends.

CUOMO: People in Ferguson, Missouri, are preparing for word of an indictment or no indictments, and the ideas of what may come are scary. Right now many there want the police chief gone, and he's telling them to prepare for disappointment. Chief Thomas Jackson speaks exclusively to CNN ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did not go into town. We did not go into the grocery store. We are not trying to get anyone sick. We are -- we -- we don't believe that we can get anyone sick. And we -- we are not trying to put anyone at risk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK, that was the boyfriend of nurse Kaci Hickox, who this morning is refusing to quarantine herself in Maine. Her boyfriend spoke last night to CNN's affiliate, WCSH, and he pointed out that he and Hickox have avoided contact with other people, except of course, the swarm of media and the police escort that was following them during their Thursday morning brief bike ride.

This as the governor of Maine announced that he's prepared to, quote, "exercise the full extent" of his authority to confine nurse Hickox.

Well, joining us this morning, exclusively, is Roger Ornelas. He is one of Kaci Hickox's closest friends.

Good morning, Roger.

ROGER ORNELAS, FRIEND OF KACI HICKOX: Good morning. How you doing?

CAMEROTA: Doing well. Great to have you with us. When is the last time you talked to Kaci?

ORNELAS: I actually spoke to Kaci last night after her now-famous pizza delivery.

CAMEROTA: Yes. The famous bike ride seen round the world, the famous pizza delivery seen around the world. Can she believe the situation that she finds herself in?

ORNELAS; I know she thinks it's all very, very big for her. It's not something that she expected at all when coming back from -- from her aid work. She thought that she was going to come back and just go right into her normal life that she lived it, approximately a month ago. And she did not expect any of this at all to occur. And neither did us, consequently, as well.

CAMEROTA: Of course. I mean, she's normally a private person. But can you tell us what she's like? Because in public, we see this woman who seems very resolute about her decision. Some might even say defiant. Some people on social media, in particular, have claimed that she's an attention-seeker. What is your friend like?

ORNELAS: She's one of the best people I've ever met in my entire life. I've known her for about 15 years. First met her in college and when she was in nursing school. And she's just one of the most magnanimous people I could ever talk about.

And that's probably why I'm here today, is that I have nothing but good things to say about her. She's spent multiple times in my house. You know, days after holidays. Days before holidays. Birthdays. She actually flew in when my son was first born, just to see him. Because it's a very exciting tile, and she's just a part of our family.

CAMEROTA: So, Roger, how do you explain what she's now doing? Being in the middle of this media maelstrom, how is she -- how is she so resolute? And when you talk to her behind the scenes, is she as strong as she seems?

ORNELAS: She -- when I actually first was speaking to her when she got back into the country and was in the airport. And they were -- I was on the phone with her literally when they came to get her to take her to the hospital. And it was -- it was a little scary for me. Because she -- you know, I hear this voice in the background saying, "Ma'am, you need to come with us."

And she says, "I'll call you in a few minutes." And she hung up, and I didn't hear anything from her for about 12 hours.

So when we talk, she -- she's not as resolute as people think. She really is, she's just a normal person trying to lead a normal life, and that's what she really wants. She wants to get back to her life.

But I think that for her, this is -- this is something that she really believes in. She believes that she is doing good work, both here domestically and abroad. And she just -- she wants to -- she wants to be treated like a normal American person who is, you know, doing a job and coming back and wants to go right back into the same thing that she did, you know, five weeks ago.

CAMEROTA: Well, one of the things, one of the sentiments that's echoed, certainly on Twitter and social media is, you know what, 21 days, big deal? I mean now, starting today, it would only be 11 more days. Why not just stay inside, just sequester herself, even if the science suggests that she wouldn't infect anybody else? There is a level of public anxiety. Even the governor of Maine last night was echoing the sentiment and expressing frustration with her decision. Listen to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEPAGE: Her behavior is really riling a lot of people up. And you know, I can only do what I can do. And we're trying to protect her. But she's not acting as smart as she probably should.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CAMEROTA: He says she's not acting as smart as she should and her behavior is upsetting people.

ORNELAS: Uh-huh. When the CDC to me, you know I'm not a scientist. They're the people that we put our faith in to let us know what we need to do and how we need to do things. The Centers for Disease Control suggest that she's fine. And she -- she can be out in the public and not transmit the disease until she's admitting or she's showing symptoms. The fever, the gastrointestinal disorders.

And so, if we're going to put our faith in science and look to them for answers and suggestions of how to do things, you know, I put my faith in the CDC and what they say, and that she's doing what Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, has also suggested, as well. They're the experts. You know, the scientists are the experts, in what I assume.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Roger, last, what do you think is going to happen over these next 11 days? What do you think Kaci is going to do?

ORNELAS: Well, you know I was at work yesterday, and somebody said, "Hey, your friend went on a bike ride."

"How did you know that?"

"Well, it's on the news."

"Oh, OK."

So I guess -- I guess I'll find out when it happens. She -- I know she believes very strongly in the science and what she -- what she did over there in West Africa. And she is -- she's not going to do anything to harm herself or others or put anybody else in danger.

If she was here in Texas, I would have no problem inviting her over to my house, having dinner, giving her a big old hug, you know, just because she's one of my best friends and love her to death. And to me she's more than a friend. She really is family.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

ORNELAS: My son will probably call her Aunt Kaci. So -- it's -- to me she's not going to do anything that's going to harm herself or others, and she's going to be sound in the science and continue to do the good work that she's been doing.

CAMEROTA: Well, Roger Ornelas, we really appreciate you taking time for us this morning to give us a little insight into what your friend Kaci is like. Best of luck to you. Thanks so much.

ORNELAS: OK. No problem. Thanks. You guys have a good day.

CAMEROTA: You, too.

Let's go over to Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Alisyn. The Ferguson, Missouri police chief says he is staying, and that's making things even more tense as word of the outcome of a grand jury hangs in the air. Does the chief think he can control Ferguson if there's no indictment? We have an exclusive CNN interview right ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Ghastly. Spooky, scary. I'm not talking about the costumes; I'm talking about the weather coming this way this weekend. Did you get that?

CAMEROTA: Nice Halloween motif.

CUOMO: Thank you very much. Meteorologist Indra Petersons, save me from myself.

INDRA PETERSONS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You guys get that? For the record, it was not me saying this was horrible that it was getting cold? I think we all know, yes, it is going to be very cold. Arctic air not even just sliding to the East; also sliding down to the south. We're talking about temperatures going below freezing and even some chances for snow by this weekend.

So let's hash it all out. Here we go. Already seeing some of the showers in through the Ohio Valley. But the story's not really the showers. It's really about that cold air, which is talking about the rain totals. They're only about an inch or so. It needs to be cold enough, and then that's where things change, right?