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Minneapolis in Mourning After Two Children Killed in School Shooting; CDC Chief Ousted Less Than a Month After Being Sworn in; Florida Official Says, Everglades Detention Center Likely Empty Within Days. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired August 28, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Breaking news, an update on the investigation in Minneapolis, the shooting that killed two young students, what we're learning now at 9:00 A.M. the very time when kids should be arriving at that school.

Happening now, chaos at the CDC as the White House moves to fire the director just weeks into her tenure. She was just approved by the Senate and confirmed. So, it doesn't appear that she's leaving though she was fired. Others have already quit in solidarity. There are reports this is all over a fight on vaccine policy.

And alligator Alcatraz is at closing soon. A top Florida official says the detention facility in Florida's Everglades may be empty within days.

Kate and Sara are out. I'm John Berman with Erica Hill. This is CNN News Central.

All right, breaking this morning, new reporting and new eyewitness accounts from the deadly school shooting in Minneapolis. The new year at Annunciation Catholic School had barely begun when this tragedy struck. Two children, eight and ten years old, were killed. 17 other people were injured, including 14 children, 3 adults. Obviously, they should have been a day to celebrate as the kids arrived inside the church on their first week. They soon found themselves sheltering under the pews as the shooter opened fire through the windows from outside. Police say the killer barred at least two of the doors with 2x4s to keep everyone from escaping.

Now, I just spoke with Vincent Francoual. His 11-year-old daughter, Chloe, was inside when the shooting began. He told me she's scared to go back to school.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VINCENT FRANCOUAL, DAUGHTER AT MASS WHEN SHOOTER OPENED FIRE: We had a session with the counselor and she told the counselor that she thought she was going to die on that day. So, you know, we're really at the bottom, you know, and there's no really any rule of books for it, so we're just going to do the best we can. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: There's no rule or books. Our thoughts go out to all of those families.

There is new reporting on the investigation. We know the shooter is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot, police examining what they call a hate-filled manifesto left behind, and they've executed search warrants at multiple homes linked to the killer.

I'm joined now by John Miller saying, CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, and Darrin Porcher, a former NYPD lieutenant.

John, let me just start with you on what you were learning this morning, the very latest.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, the investigation today takes a dramatic slowdown in that it appears the shooter acted alone. It appears, and this is a question that will be probed as they keep going, that no one else had direct knowledge of this. So, now, since there's no one to prosecute, the searches have been conducted. They'll be spending days, if not weeks, getting into electronic devices, analyzing more.

But the shooter prepared for investigators what he wanted them to see, the extensive writings in the notebook, which was written in Cyrillic texts. So, it literally had to be decoded into English, and then the plain English note to his family. There are questions in there because, you know, we have referred to it as law enforcement has referred to it as a manifesto.

But it doesn't give us a lot of clues as to some political grievance or cause. It's mostly in terms of the copy about his suffering, his grievances, his unhappiness in life, which gets us to, all right then, why that target, why a Catholic school, why a school that he attended where his mother worked as an employee, especially when you look at the video and what he has written on these firearms is anti-black, anti-Jew, anti-everybody. It doesn't really single out Catholics except to say one magazine says this is for the children. Another magazine says, where is your God now?

And the direction they're going in, in terms of targeting, is he picked that target as opposed to his high school or some other place because it would be the most terrible in terms of victimology.

BERMAN: What questions do you have this morning, Darrin?

DARRIN PORCHER, FORMER NYPD LIEUTENANT: Well, the questions are endless, but one of the things that I look to is the fortifications that we should have in place in these institutions of learning, more specific to the religious schools. You generally don't have these that happen at the religious schools.

[09:05:00]

They happen more so in the public schools, with the exception of what happened in Tennessee in the past. But at the same token, what fortifications could be in play? I think to the triangulation of having an armed security officer outside as well as drone technology and surveillance cameras. So when you have that triangulation, what it does is it helps.

In addition to that, we had a manifesto that was produced, and I think that the social media community can do much more in terms of looking at this content and having this blocked as opposed to being introduced to us as a common public. It appears as if this was a copycat attack. And we see this happen far too much. And I believe that what these communities can do more, more so specific to the schools, is focus on the triangulation that I spoke to.

BERMAN: John, you know, as authorities are going through this and you laid out the fact that this appears to be at this point one person who acted alone, what are they trying to find out and what will they do with this information?

MILLER: You know, that might be the most important question today, because it gets to the question that has been echoing through your segments earlier today with Andrew McCabe, with the father that you interviewed who said his eyes burned from tears, is what did we miss? What could have been seen? What can we do?

All of this information that's going to be gathered, what's in his phone, what's in his computer, what was in those documents? What does the video mean? Who is he referring to with all those names? I mean, we know a lot of that, because it feeds into BAU, Behavioral Analysis Unit, FBI, those are the profilers. You watch Criminal Minds or Mind Hunter, those people exist in real life. And they take that and they build the common threads of these shooters.

Right now, today, while we wait forever for politicians to figure out gun control legislation and all that, that may never happen. But right now, today, you can go to fbi.gov/prevent. And they tell you these are the signs, these are the people who you can approach if you don't want to call the police, these are the things you can say, these are the typical indicators. They have videos, they have examples, they have written documents, they have, you know, cards. All the resources are there.

And more attention needs to be pushed towards the, not just, why didn't some -- 85 percent of these cases, they have what you call leakage indicators to others, to friends, to family, that they're about to do something, but people don't always recognize it was leakage until after the event when suddenly it's crystal clear. This is how to spot that.

BERMAN: Look, I don't know if it's infuriating, depressing, or all of the above here, but the fact that this killer had written about previous mass shootings. What does that tell you?

PORCHER: I mean, as I mentioned the earlier part, the copycat component is germane here. When we looked at Uvalde and also when we look at Parkland, the shooters started in the parking lot. They started shooting at the particular location. And this is something that's been spot lit when you look at this egregious manifesto as it relates to is him supporting his actions, when we speak to the hate crime, because this is -- in essence, this is a hate crime. It's targeted towards African Americans, people of Jewish faith.

It really begs the question as to why a Catholic institution was picked. But bear in mind, as John mentioned, he went to that school and his mom also worked there. So, I think that we need to have a more hard line interview with the mother to find out if she, in fact, did know something, and if she did know something, she should be prosecuted accordingly.

BERMAN: Well, again, at this point, no evidence of that, but I assume that is among the many questions being asked this morning.

Darrin Porcher, John Miller, thank you to both of you. Erica?

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: We are also hearing of course, from school officials, from elected officials in the wake of the horrific shooting. Some really striking comments from the principal speaking out about the two young victims who were killed, saying, quote, we lost two angels today. He also took the opportunity to turn that grief into a call for action. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW DEBOER, PRINCIPAL, ANNUCIATION CATHOLIC SCHOOL: We can't change the past, but we can do something about the future. There's an African proverb that says, when you pray, move your feet. So, I beg you, I ask you to please pray, but don't stop with your words. Let's make a difference and support this community, these children, these families, these teachers. Never again can we let this happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Joining me now is Minnesota State Representative Emma Greenman. She represents the area where the school is located. We appreciate you joining us this morning.

I can only imagine what a night it's been. I know you were also at the vigil yesterday. Just give us a sense this morning, how is the community holding up?

STATE REP. EMMA GREENMAN (D-MN): I mean, you wake up on mornings like this and you have a split second of hoping of waking up and remembering, and there's, you know, families, two families that are going to wake up without their kids there, and dozens more who are going to wake up and have kids who are afraid to go to school, who have injuries, who have all of these things.

[09:10:13]

And what we know is we're not unlike many communities around the country who have had this happen and experienced it. So, we are just trying to hold really close in our hearts right now to the families, the communities, the Annunciation community. HILL: The father of one of those children who is now afraid to go back to school, her name is Chloe, she's 11, spoke with my colleague, John Berman, a short time ago and talked about what this means moving forward and who he feels he can count on now. I just want to play a little bit of what he had to say for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCOUAL: I don't think we can count on our government or any kind of elected official right now because it's always the same prayer and thought when, you know -- so I'm not going to count on them. I'm just going to count on my neighbor. I'm going to count on my family. I'm going to count on my friend.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: We've heard so much about what a strong community this is, the neighbors, the friends there. When you hear though from someone like Vincent who says he can't count on his elected officials, how does that strike you? What do you do with that in this moment?

GREENMAN: I think that he's responding from a place that a lot of people feel when they hear hopes and prayers. And I am glad you played what the principal said, when you pray, move your feet, because I think that it's going to take all the whole community and it's going to take elected officials acting with more courage than they have had.

Here in Minnesota, we passed just a year or two ago red flag laws, universal background checks, and we need to get serious about these weapons of war on our street. And I think that all of these parents should have an expectation, but also wait for what comes next after the hopes and the prayers. because these kids were literally praying and they're not going to have a future that looks the same and two won't have a future at all because adults have failed to prioritize their protection over guns.

HILL: To that point, what you said is a failure to prioritize their protection. Where do you see an opportunity, because this is all -- obviously, I mean, there is the federal, the state, the local level, there are so many things at play and frankly, sometimes at odds here. Where do you see an opportunity that there is to perhaps bring people together to move forward in a way that does look first at safety?

GREENMAN: So, I think this is a national epidemic. This is Minnesota. We just, you know, had our Earth shattered in the same way that so many other communities have had across the country, and a national problem requires a national response. Here in Minnesota, we (INAUDIBLE) to work on the next set of things, right? You can't have weapons of war available to everybody, and that is what in all of these shootings is the commonality. I think we have to expect more from Congress. I think we need to expect more at the state and local level.

And in a democracy, it's going to take all of us, not just the elected officials. People elect us and they should expect demand and work with us to ensure that we are keeping folks safe every day. People should be able to be safe doing everyday things. Not just going to church or school or the grocery store or walking down on the street. And those are all the places we've seen these kinds of horrific acts of violence.

And yesterday, you know, there were parishioners in that church, there were kids in that church, and we failed to keep them safe as a society.

HILL: Minnesota State Representative Emma Greenman, I really appreciate your time this morning. Thank you. John?

BERMAN: All right. This morning, we're learning more about acts of heroism in the midst of all that horror.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JACOB FREY (D-MINNEAPOLIS, MN): I'm so grateful to the teachers and the faculty at Annunciation that through their bodies on top of children.

DEBOER: Children were ducked down. Adults were protecting children. Older children were protecting younger children. And as we heard earlier, it could have been significantly worse without their heroic action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: One of those older children is Javen Willis, the 13-year-old, speaking out this morning about his experience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAVEN WILLIS, SHOOTING SURVIVOR: Right when I heard the shots, I knew something was off. I didn't think that they would have -- a lot of my classmates thought it was confetti and fireworks, but I didn't think they would have that during the middle of the church service. So, honestly, it was just at that point I was like, I want to try to keep as everybody as safe as possible.

[09:15:02]

So, I told me and my two buddies to get down and to get under the pew. And right when I told them that, it was like a state of shock for me and I knew that I had to try to keep as many people around me as I could safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Hiding underneath the pews.

All right, the race to rescue victims after a huge Russian strike in Kyiv, the search for survivors ongoing at this moment. What does this mean for a peace process that seems to be stalled?

Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. speaking out just moments ago about all the turmoil at the CDC. Why did he turn on the CDC director who was sworn in just weeks ago?

New video of the moments a man allegedly placed homemade bombs outside of a Maryland fire station, the latest on the search for a suspect.

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[09:20:00]

BERMAN: Chaos, drama, and a wave of Uncertainty at the Centers for Disease Control this morning. Overnight. Dr. Susan Monarez was ousted just weeks into her tenure. She was just sworn in. Other officials resigned. They quit after she was pushed out. Now, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. was just on television giving his version of all this.

Let's get right to CNN Health Reporter Jacqueline Howard for the very latest in all the twists and turns. What are you learning now?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: John, yes, it is a time of turmoil at the CDC. But just moments ago, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had this to say on Fox and Friends this morning when he was asked about this exodus of officials that's happening at the agency. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., HHS SECRETARY: No, it has not caught us by a surprise. Again, I cannot comment on personnel issues, but the agency is in trouble and we need to fix it, and we are fixing it. And it may be that some people should not be working there anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWARD: And, John, this all developed overnight with first the ouster of CDC Director Dr. Susan Monarez, which sources tell us followed clashes that she had with Kennedy around vaccine policies, around priorities. We were also told that there was internal pressure from Kennedy's deputy chief of staff, but Dr. Monarez has said she has been following the science when it comes to policies and priorities. And then following the announcement of her ouster, we then saw other top CDC officials saying that they are leaving the agency in solidarity with Dr. Monarez.

And this is what the White House said last night when all of this news developed. The White House said in a statement, quote, Susan Monarez is not aligned with the president's agenda, excuse me, of making America healthy again. Since Susan Monarez refused to resign, despite informing HHS leadership of her intent to do so, the White House has terminated Monarez from her position with the CDC.

In response to that, John, Dr. Monarez's attorney said this in a statement, quote, our client was notified tonight by White House staff in the personnel office that she was fired as a presidential appointee, Senate confirmed officer. Only the president himself can fire her. For this reason, we reject notification Dr. Monarez has received as legally deficient, and she remains as CDC director, end quote.

So, John, all of this confusion is happening right now. There's concern about where the agency is heading with no leadership at this moment. John?

BERMAN: Yes. Where the agency is heading on vaccine policy among many other things, which is very much right in the middle of this heated debate. And Robert Kennedy Jr., the secretary, said this is over personnel issues within the CDC, which he says he can't comment on. Dr. Monarez was just nominated, confirmed, and sworn in, a presidential nomination.

HOWARD: Weeks ago.

BERMAN: And now it's a personnel problem.

HOWARD: Yes.

BERMAN: All right. Jacqueline Howard, thank you very much for all that, a lot of questions remaining this morning. Erica?

HILL: I have a lot of those questions too.

Also new this morning, the controversial migrant detention center in Florida dubbed Alligator Alcatraz by the White House may be empty and effectively shut down very soon. A top official in Florida revealing in an email that that Everglades facility would likely be down to zero individuals in just a matter of days.

CNN's Isabel Rosales is following all of these developments for us very closely. She joins me now. There have been a number, of course, of lawsuits, legal challenges, some of them based on environmental concerns, others about the conditions. So, where do things stand?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's seemingly, Erica, good morning, a never ending saga that might be coming to an end here. This facility at one point held almost a thousand detainees, and this new email exchange is showing that Florida officials themselves expect the facility to be emptied out imminently.

Let me bring you back a little bit. This email exchange came about last Friday when a South Florida rabbi emailed the emergency management chief for the state, Kevin Guthrie, inquiring about access to the facility for chaplaincy services.

Now, CNN obtained a copy of this email from the Rabbi, in which Guthrie replied back to him saying, we are probably going to be down to zero individuals within a few days, suggesting that soon there would be no detainees left and therefore no need for religious services.

[09:25:00]

Now, the significance of this is that, behind the scenes, Florida appears to be moving in the direction of following this order from a federal judge, Kathleen Williams, that ordered in an 82-page ruling that the facility wind down before Halloween, that no detainees be left.

Now, Florida has said that this facility was badly needed due to overcrowding at other detention facilities, and DeSantis framed the shrinking population within the so-called Alligator Alcatraz to a result of uptick in deportations by DHS.

Here's what he said during a press conference in Orlando when he was asked by reporters specifically about this email exchange. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): You know, there's stuff about, oh, you know, they're going after Alligator Alcatraz. You know, the deportations are continuing. DHS is taking people out of there and they're moving them out.

DHS determines who goes into those facilities and who goes out of those facilities based on theirs. We -- although we'd be willing to do it, but we are not the ones actually removing them from those facilities and sending them back to their home country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: Now, Governor DeSantis acknowledged that this ongoing litigation may be a quote influence in the pace of these deportations. It also appears that even with this facility seemingly closing down soon, within a matter of 60 days, that there is a backup option here for the state, which announced just a week or so ago that up north in a rural area between Tallahassee and Jacksonville, they're opening up a so-called deportation depot. Guys?

HILL: Isabel Rosales, I appreciate the reporting. Thank you.

Still to come here, the new details about a possible motive, including disturbing YouTube videos and messages involving racial slurs and anti-Semitic comments, what they could tell us.

Plus, two self-proclaimed religious leaders arrested on federal indictments for their alleged roles in a nationwide forced labor and money laundering conspiracy.

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