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Accused Georgia School Shooter to Appear Live in Court for Arraignment; Father of Accused Georgia School Shooter Also to Appear in Same Court as His Son after Being Charged with Involuntary Manslaughter in Connection to Allowing Son Access to AR-15 Rifle. Trump Expected in Court for E. Jean Carroll Appeal Hearing, US Sees Increasing Risk of Russian Sabotage of Key Undersea Cables. Aired 8- 8:30a ET.

Aired September 06, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

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MAYOR ERIC ADAMS, (D) NEW YORK CITY: I think it's important to allow the process to take place. Right now, this review is showing that we're compliant with it, and we're going to continue to do so. And this is what I've done all my life. I'm going to, I know what I'm going to do, and that is information that's needed to show that I have always followed the law, we're going to give that information.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now, Adams is up for reelection next year. Of course, those who are vying for the top spot here in New York City taking jabs at this latest news. It is important to note, though, John, that there has been no criminal charges, no any charges filed yet about any of those people that we just mentioned, including the mayor.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, a lot going on, though. Brynn Gingras, thank you very much for that.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: New information for you. We are standing by for the first court appearances in just minutes of the 14-year-old accused of killing two students and two teachers at a Georgia high school. And we've just learned that his father, who was also arrested and charged in this case, will be in the same courtroom just an hour later.

Also breaking this hour, one of the most anticipated job reports possibly since the pandemic that could change the game for mortgages, credit rates, and possibly the presidential election and as well.

And show me the money, the Harris campaign's richest overflowing of a major August haul, nearly triple that of Donald Trump's.

I'm Sara Sidner with John Berman, Kate Bolduan out today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

BERMAN: All right, and we are standing by for the first court appearance from the suspected Georgia school shooter. We did learn moments ago that this will no longer be virtual. The 14-year-old will appear in person. We also just learned his father, who is also charged in this case, will appear in court in-person after his son.

Let's get right to CNN's Rafael Romo outside the court. A lot of new information coming in, Rafael. What do we expect?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: That's right, John, a lot of new information here, and we're now less than 30 minutes away from the first hearing for the suspect. It will happen here at the Barrow County courthouse at 8:30 a.m. local time. And in a new development, we have now confirmed that 14-year-old Colt Gray, will make his first appearance in person and not virtually as previously announced.

And we have also just confirmed that the father, 54-year-old, Colin Gray, will be arraigned at 9:30 a.m. eastern local time, meaning only an hour later here at the same courthouse in the same courtroom. Colt Gray has been charged with four counts of felony murder. He has been held at Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Center. In a significant development overnight, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirmed that Colin Gray, the father of the Apalachee high school shooter, has been arrested and charged in connection with the crime. And the 54- year-old is now facing eight counts of cruelty to children in the second degree, two counts of involuntary manslaughter in the second- degree, and another four counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Why did authorities decide to charge the suspects father? This is what Georgia Bureau of Investigation director Chris Hosey had to say about it.

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CHRIS HOSEY, DIRECTOR, GEORGIA BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION: These charges stem from Mr. Gray knowingly allowing his son, Colt, to possess a weapon that he is in custody at this time.

The arrest was made when we had the probable cause to make the arrest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And overnight, we have also learned that both father and son had been on law enforcement's radar for at least two years. In July of 2022, John, the family was evicted from their home, and as part of that eviction, sheriff's deputies collected three guns including an AR-15 rifle for safekeeping, weapons that were later returned to the family. In May of last year, deputies interviewed both Colt and Colin Gray after the FBI flagged online threats at an unidentified location, but the sun denied any involvement.

And last December, Colin Gray purchased the gun that was allegedly used in the mass shooting, as a holiday present for Christmas for his son. John, Sara, back to you? BERMAN: Yes, it's going to be a busy morning there, Rafael. Please

keep us posted as you see things develop. Sara?

SIDNER: A remarkable development there.

With us now is CNN senior law enforcement analyst and former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, also with us CNN security correspondent Josh Campbell. Josh, I'm going to start with you first because you have some new reporting. There were these writings by the suspect. What did you find out about what was in those?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, law enforcement sources tell us that after the shooting, authorities executed a search warrant at the home of the shooter, and in his bedroom, they found various writings they believe that he had authored that made reference to past shootings, including the 2018 massacre in Parkland.

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And in talking to experts, this is so common when you look at past shooters. When Andy and I were FBI agents, we had a colleague named Katherine Schweit who helped pioneer the FBI's active shooter response program. She was on yesterday with our colleague, Brianna Keilar, and she made the point that, look, teenagers don't start out as five-year- olds who just want to become shooters. But what we see so often, particularly aggrieved children, perhaps so those who are experiencing some type of mental health struggle, they look at past shooters, they conduct research. As Katherine had mentioned, they emulate the clothing that they wear, the type of ammunition, the type of weapon that they use, their techniques.

And so sad that we've seen this before. So it's not that surprising in this case that we see those past references to pass a shootings. CNN also reported yesterday that the shooter had a social media account that had made reference to the Sandy Hook shooter. So sadly, this is so common.

And of course, looking ahead, the question, well, what can parents do about it? There's this question about how much privacy should a child have, particularly in their own bedroom? So many times we see in these shootings that aggrieved children have the warning signs there. Only a concerned parent would actually look.

SIDNER: Those are really good points. The parents do have some role in at least trying to see what their children are up to.

Andrew, we do know that the FBI did contact his family just last year because of a tip about some of the child's writings concerning school shootings, and the parents at the time, they were they were told that he didn't really have access two guns, so nothing came of it. And now here we are. Can we extrapolate that the reason that the father is now charged and charged with something that no other parent in the country has been charged with in one of these mass shootings, which is second degree murder, as well as involuntary manslaughter, can we extrapolate that the reason these charges came is because eventually he did allow his son to have a gun and knew, because of the past visit from law enforcement, that he was having these ideations?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Sure, Sara. So there's a few things that we know absolutely. We know because of the statements made by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation folks that he's been arrested because of his knowingly giving or enabling his son to have this weapon. So we know that it's based on that. It's a little bit harder to line out exactly what the charges are addressing factually because we haven't seen the indictment or the affidavit supporting the indictment yet.

But I can tell you that the crime of -- it's a little odd because we know there's only two counts of second-degree murder, and we know we have four victims. Under Georgia law, it's defined, second-degree murder is defined as when in the commission of cruelty to children in the second degree, a person causes the death of another human being irrespective of malice. Cruelty to children in the second degree, sorry for the law lesson here, is a crime that is committed when someone with criminal negligence causes a child under the age of 18 cruel or excessive physical or mental pain.

So those two second-degree murder charges are likely relative to the two student victims of the shooting, the two students who we know have -- are now deceased. But again, we'll have a better understanding of exactly how all this its works when we do finally get to see a copy of the affidavit or indictment.

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SIDNER: I want to go back to you now, Josh, in this particular case, and we talked about the father so being charged. We just talk about how unusual this is, that you have a father and son, they're going to be in the same courtroom one after the other, one an hour after the other, appearing before a judge, both of them charged in a mass shooting.

CAMPBELL: Well, you know, this makes me wonder whether this perhaps as a new trend that we're going to see with prosecutors around the country. We know, for example, in the case of the Oxford high school shooting in Michigan, both of the shooter's parents were prosecuted in that case that pertained to access to the weapon. All three of us, sadly, covered that 2022 mass shooting near Chicago at a July 4th parade, where the shooter was eventually taken into custody. But they learned that police had visited the home of the shooter because there were concerns that he would conduct some type of violence. But then after that, his father allegedly allowed him access to a weapon, essentially signed off on him getting permit for a weapon. That father just pleaded guilty to recklessness.

And so again, you have to wonder if this is a trend we're now going to start seeing. It reminds me a lot of the fentanyl epidemic. We're starting to see prosecutors go after dealers, for example. If their product kills someone, they're being charged with murder.

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So I think this is the justice system coming in and bringing all that it has to bear to try to ensure that this doesn't happen again.

SIDNER: And we keep seeing it happen. Andrew McCabe, we did actually appreciate the law lesson. I did, certainly. And Josh Campbell, thank you both so much. Appreciate it. John?

BERMAN: Me too.

SIDNER: John did too. See?

BERMAN: All right, this morning, Donald Trump, speaking of law lesson, will be in a New York courtroom to appeal a verdict that found him liable for sexual abuse. In a CNN exclusive, U.S. intelligence monitoring increased activity from the Russian military, concerns now over sabotage of critical infrastructure.

And we are just a few minutes for the biggest jobs report of the year. This could have a huge impact on everything from your car loan to the presidential election.

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[08:15:19]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: In just under two hours here, we expect to see Donald Trump off the campaign trail and back in court in New York.

The former president and his team won a federal appeals panel to throw out the $5 million jury verdict that found him liable of sexually abusing and defaming writer, E. Jean Carroll.

CNN's Kara Scannell is outside court where we expect to see Trump very shortly here.

Kara, what can you tell us about what's going to happen in court today?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT :Yes, Sara, so Donald Trump will be arriving shortly to attend this appeals court argument. He'll be squaring off against E. Jean Carroll to appeal that $5 million verdict and a jury finding that he had sexually abused Carroll and defamed her when he denied it and criticized her appearance.

So, both sides will only have about 10 minutes to make their arguments. Trump's lawyers are expected to say that the trial judge made mistakes by allowing two other women who had accused Trump of sexual assault for testifying and also allowing the jury to hear the "Access Hollywood" tape where Trump is caught on that hot mic making comments about how he can just easily grope women. They are saying that never should have come in.

Carroll's lawyers say that that is all evidence of Trump's MO and that it was fair game for the jury to hear that. We're not expecting a decision today. This will just be the oral arguments.

And unlike some of Trump's other appearances in court like his criminal trial, there are no cameras in this courthouse. So, he will not be able to make comments in the hallway or address the cameras here, but he is expected to head to Trump Tower later today where he is going to have a press conference.

Now, as I said, no decision expected today and Trump is not required to be here, but he's choosing to be here during his campaign to make this appearance, where only those of us inside will be able to see him -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, Kara Scannell, thank you for that reporting there. Trump expected anytime soon -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, they're in the money, the Harris- Walz campaign raising nearly triple what the Trump team raised in August and the first ballots of the presidential election are due to be mailed out today, but we are learning there is a delay. So, standby for new information on that.

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[08:21:35]

BERMAN: So, new exclusive reporting this morning.

Two US officials tell CNN the US has detected increased Russian military activity near undersea cables. This raises concerns that they could be trying to sabotage infrastructure that is critical for global communications.

With us now, CNN anchor and chief national security analyst, Jim Sciutto. Jim, this is your reporting. What have you learned here?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: This is something the US, John, is watching with enormous concern and it's really two things that the US has detected increased Russian activity around these key cable choke points around the world, particularly in Europe.

But also that they believe that Russia may now be more likely to carry out acts of sabotage against these undersea cables.

A US official told me the following: We are concerned about heightened Russian military activity worldwide and that Russia's decision calculus for damaging US and allied undersea critical infrastructure may be changing.

That's the key phrase, decision calculus. They believe that Russia may be more likely to carry out operations now to damage these cables, they have an entire unit set up to do so. It is known as the General Staff Main Directorate for Deep Research. It goes by the initials GUGI -- G-U-G-I.

This has been around for a long time, but what's notable here, John, is that they then adding additional resources to this group which operates, as you see there, surface ships, submarines, and naval drones, additional resources to this unit, even in the midst of the Ukraine war. So, even as it's devoting so much to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine,

it has maintained this unit highly secretive one, highly protected one as a priority for the Kremlin.

BERMAN: So, an attack or sabotage or something like these undersea cables, what will the impact of that be?

SCIUTTO: I think folks aren't aware of just how much of our lives depend on these cables. The vast majority of internet traffic around the world travels on cables laid on the bottom of the ocean, fiber- optic cables.

And that's not just for you and me sort of Googling stuff, right? It's for communications, civilian communications, government communications, military communications, but also all the things and industries that depend on that kind of traffic, internet and communications traffic, including financial markets, entire industries, the energy industry.

Also, in Northern Europe, you have undersea cables that carry energy between countries including among American allies. So, an attack that would disable or damage those cables would have enormous effect beyond just things you and I tend to use on the internet, right?

There is so much in the world today that depends on that and that is why the US is making quite clear, to view any attack like this as a major escalation and they're watching very closely.

I'll tell you, John, I was on a NATO patrol in the Baltic Sea last spring. And at that time, they told me they were watching Russian ships. We could see them on their radar as they were sitting above these key choke points and they said they're not doing that for fun, right? They're doing that because they are mapping and they are making plans at least for attacks like this.

BERMAN: I remember that trip, that puts that in context, obviously, a new reason for very serious concerns.

Jim Sciutto, your exclusive reporting, thanks so much for sharing it with us.

SCIUTTO: Thanks.

BERMAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, ahead, a judge has ordered a temporary pause on ballot distribution in North Carolina. When voters in that critical swing state can expect absentee ballots in their mailbox.

And we're just minutes away from seeing the August Jobs Report, the last major indicator before the Feds expected rate cut this month, we'll talk all about it. coming up.

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[08:29:55] BERMAN: All right, you are looking at live pictures right now from

Winder, Georgia, inside the courtroom.

Any moment now, the 14-year-old suspected of killing four people at that Georgia high school will appear in person in court.

His father is also charged in the case now, expected to be in the same courtroom just an hour later.

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