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Gunman Held Grudge Against Town; Boos Greet A-Rod In Chicago; Massive Manhunt For Alleged Killer; Three People Dead In Town Hall Meeting; No End To Severe Weather Threat; George W. Bush Had Heart Surgery; Shark Week Equals Big Business; Fort Hood Shooting Suspect Gives Opening Statement

Aired August 06, 2013 - 13:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

A man is on the loose after allegedly killing a woman and a child and burning down a house. The woman's two children are missing. The manhunt across California, up next.

And a quiet rural community is shattered after a man opens fire at a town hall meeting. The alleged shooter, a man who police say held a grudge against the town.

Then A-Rod, he's been suspended for alleged involvement in a banned drug operation. Could major league baseball have done more to prevent this?

This is CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Police discover a horrible scene. This is inside a burned out southern California home. Once firefighters put out this raging fire, you see it there, a woman and child were found dead inside. Well, police believe a friend of the mother's took off with two other children. The home is about 40 miles east of San Diego. Now an Amber alert is out for these kids, a 16-year-old girl and her eight-year-old brother.

I want to bring in Miguel Marquez who joins us from San Diego. And first of all, you've got a homicide investigator joining you to talk a bit more about what we have learned and where do we think these kids might be?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's a very, very complicated situation and investigators here wanted to get as much information out as quickly as possible about James Dimaggio. They believe this is the individual who has those two kids with him at the moment. An Amber alert, or an alert to all police agencies both on this side of the border and on the Mexican side of the border, has gone out because of where this happened, not very far from the Mexican border.

I want to bring in Glenn Giannantonio, the Lieutenant with the San Diego County Sheriff's office. You're heading up -- your office is heading up this investigation. What can you tell us about where you believe these individuals are right now?

GLENN GIANNANTONIO, LIEUTENANT AND HOMICIDE DETECTIVE, SAN DIEGO COUNTY: Well, unfortunately, we don't have any clear direction as to where they may have headed. We do believe that the children are with Dimaggio, one or both of the children. At this point, we're not even sure of that. We believe he was driving the Nissan Versa, the blue Nissan Versa. And at this point though, it -- he may have switched vehicles. They may be taking public transportation. We really just don't know.

MARQUEZ: There was a concern that he may be headed to Mexico. He may be headed for Canada. Do you have -- were there reasons -- obviously Mexico because it was very close to the border. Why Canada?

GIANNANTONIO: Well, it would be a logical -- it would be logical for us to assume that he would head towards Mexico if he's on the run. It's so close -- we're very close to the border here. He may be trying to throw us off and head the opposite direction and head towards Canada, thinking possibly that the Canadian authorities and the citizens in Canada might not be looking for him like they are here in Mexico.

MARQUEZ: One person found dead in that rubble was not only -- well, the two people found dead in the rubble was Miss Anderson but also another child. What can you tell us about that person?

GIANNANTONIO: At this point, we can just say that there was a child -- a child's remains found in the rubble. We have not been able to identify the child. At this point, we don't even know if the child was a male or female. We'll be working on DNA analysis. We're trying to rush that to get it -- the identification if it is one of the two children as soon as possible.

MARQUEZ: All right. Lieutenant, thank you very, very much for joining us.

GIANNANTONIO: You're welcome. Thank you.

MARQUEZ: Very, very intense man hunt here. They are hoping to get out as much information as possible and hope that they can bring this to a -- to a resolution, a happy resolution, soon. Back to you.

MALVEAUX: Yes, it's so tragic. Do we know anything more about the relationship between the suspect and the mother?

MARQUEZ: Apparently, he knew the kids -- according to members of the family, he knew the kids for many years since they were almost born. So, this was somebody that -- everybody I have talked to says completely out of character for this person. They don't understand how this has happened. They are in great shock at the moment and trying to put together the pieces and trying to understand what happened. The father of these two kids is coming in from another state right now. A lot of moving parts to this and police hoping that they get a break as soon as possible -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right. Miguel, such a sad story. Thank you, we appreciate it. And we're going to continue to follow that story.

A small Pennsylvania town now, it prided itself on never making the headlines. Well now, it's in the center of another tragic story. It's another sad story. Light night -- late last night, a gunman walked into a town hall meeting, this is in Saylorsburg. He opened fire. It -- this is about 70 miles north of Philadelphia. Three people were killed after he started the shooting and police say it could have been worse if the shooter had actually not been stopped.

Poppy Harlow, she is joining us from Saylorsburg. And, Poppy, what have we learned about the victims and how this all came about?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Suzanne, more and more evidence is pointing towards the fact -- and police say the suspected shooter was motivated by the fact that there was a property dispute, believe it or not. He was kicked off of his land and he'd been fighting with the town about it for about 20 years or so. And he was very angry about it. Went in behind me to this town hall meeting last night and just started shooting. We're told that he shot about 28 rounds out a long rifle then went back out of his -- to his car to get a smaller gun and to shoot more. But I want to talk about the victims in this because you've got three people dead. James LaGuardia, 64 years old, he perished; Gerard Kozi, 53 years old; and also Dave Fleetwood, 62 years old died in this shooting. Three more were injured. And when you talk about this story, you have to talk about the heroism because it was really two men who saved the lives of everyone else in there because they tackled the gunman to the ground. Here is how police just described it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE RIVENS, LIETENANT COLONEL, PENNSYLVANIA STATE POLICE: This could have been much worse had we not had the quick actions of two individuals who interceded and stopped this from being much worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: And I talked to the one of the men who did that, Suzanne. He didn't want me to use his name. He didn't want any glory from this. He just did what he needed to do, brought the gunman to the ground. He and another man were able to hold him on the ground, tied his hands behind his head with a jacket until authorities could arrive. Just amazing. Three deaths, three injuries but at least there were not more.

MALVEAUX: Yes, I know he doesn't want attention but, boy, I'd love to know more about that guy, that hero. I mean, really, just -- I hope the community certainly will do something for him. It is extraordinary what he has done, his act of bravery. Poppy, thank you, really appreciate that. Poppy reporting from Pennsylvania.

HARLOW: Sure.

MALVEAUX: We've got parts of the United States facing the threat of more severe weather today. So, this is a massive storm cloud. This is over Kingman County, Kansas. This is an area that has been pounded over the week or so. Chad Myers -- Chad, tell us what we are watching, what we are seeing here because that is pretty tough stuff. CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, very high cloud tops, 55, 60,000 feet tall, meaning there's an awful lot of water in the cloud. If you have 11 miles of cloud, that can make high -- that can make rain coming down, you can get an awful lot of rain coming down all at the same time in the same place and that's what we had last night over parts of Missouri. Just notice that spot right there near the town of Waynesville. It rains for hours. Very heavy rainfall. This is 3:00, 4:00, 5:00, 6:00, 7:00, still raining all the way up until even this afternoon. It's still raining in some spots of Missouri. Flood warnings all the way across now from Alabama back into Kansas.

Let me show you some pictures out of Missouri that we're just kind of rolling in on so we haven't seen too much about this. But water rising. We have feet of rain coming down in spots here in the past 10 to 15 days. And this has been a wet season for a lot of people. You're going to hear a lot of things about this saturated ground. No place for the water to go. And now, we're back into Kansas seeing the water from over the weekend. It has just been one storm after another along a stationary front. Like a stationary bicycle, stationary fronts don't move.

So, these storms are popping up in the same spots that we had storms yesterday and the day before. And now, the trees are saturated, the roots are wet are things are going to begin to fall over especially in some if the wind. Waynesville, here's Missouri. This is the purple spot here, that's six to 12 inches of rainfall right through this area all the way down to the boot heal of Missouri, Fort Leonard Wood. The big number for 24 hours, seven and a half inches of rainfall in just one day. And that's just one day. It has been raining for weeks in this area.

MALVEAUX: That is a -- that's a lot of water there. Chad, thank you. I appreciate it.

Coming up, George W. Bush has heart surgery. The road ahead up next.

And then, a bomb shell in the rumored romance between JFK and Marilyn Monroe. A new book claims Jacky Kennedy once told her husband's alleged mistress, quote, "You want him? You can have him." The details this hour.

Plus, we know sharks can be terrifying but movies like "Jaws," (INAUDIBLE), well, they show that people also love them. And as Discovery Channel's shark week keeps proving over and over again, sharks equal viewers. How it's big business behind the bite. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Former President George W. Bush is now in a Texas hospital. He is recovering from a heart procedure. Now, doctors placed a stent in his heart after they discovered a blockage in an artery. Now, his spokesman says that the surgery was a success and that the former president, he's in high spirits. He's expected to go home tomorrow.

Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta, he's on the phone with us. And, Sanjay, tell us about the procedure. What do we understand? What does it involve here?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, this is a -- it's a pretty commonly done procedure, first of all. You know, you have about a million people who have what's known as an angiogram every year and more than half of them have done some sort of procedure of the heart. One thing, typically, you know, people have some sort of problem that -- you know, they may be having chest pain or they may be having some sort of difficulty with exercise or something like that before they have a procedure like this. And then, they end up either going to the doctor, getting a stress test or something and then eventually leads to a stint. But that's sort of -- it's a pretty commonly done thing.

MALVEAUX: And, Sanjay, having covered him for eight years, he is a health fanatic. He used to run, of course, and then he used to bike. So -- and then, he eats pretty healthy. How does this happen, something like this happen, a heart blockage?

GUPTA: You know, it is a -- heart disease is still one of the biggest problems, you know, in the developed world. It's certainly the biggest killer in men and women in the United States. Everyone develops some degree of blockages or what we know -- call hardening of the arteries as they get older. So, it is -- it is common even in people who are pretty healthy. We don't know what his cholesterol level has been, if he's been on medications for that, these sorts of things. But all those things that we talked about, Suzanne, in terms of a healthy diet and activity, those all still play a very important role here.

MALVEAUX: And can you tell us about this procedure, if it's risky at all, the stint procedure? I mean, it sounds like you say it is pretty common.

GUPTA: It is common. But, you know -- and I think we have an animation to show this. But typically it's done because somebody is having some sort of symptom, you know, whether it be pain while they exercise or decreased -- shortness of breath. But take a look at the animation. Basically, you're finding a blockage in the arteries there, and then often times just inflating a balloon to sort of open up that artery. The stint is put in to basically hold that artery open longer term and sometimes it even has some medicine in there to basically keep that artery from closing off again. But that, again, commonly done thing. And it's much more common over the last decade or so.

MALVEAUX: And, Sanjay, I know this is -- this is not something that -- you know, you don't treat the president. But, clearly, when you see something like this, is it a sign that he might have heart problems in the future, potentially a heart attack, if you see this blockage early on?

GUPTA: Well, you know, it's an interesting, maybe not intuitive answer. And certainly you'd think that somebody who has heart disease is certainly going to have a higher likelihood of developing problems down the road. But you often find that can be true but it's sort of a bit of a wakeup call. Again, as you pointed out, Suzanne, we've always known him to be conscious about his health, but there are things that could be tweaked, so to speak. This is the time that people typically do that. So he's at higher risk of heart disease having had this problem but he may be more likely to address things early on and prevent.

MALVEAUX: All right. Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, thanks as always for calling in and joining us. We appreciate it.

The attack on 9/11, it was terrorism obviously, but the government is calling the 2009 massacre at Fort Hood, Texas, quote, "workplace violence." Well, one victim feels betrayed and let down. We're going to explain what the latest from the shooting suspect Nidal Hassan's trial.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: An army psychiatrist charged in the Fort Hood massacre delivered his own opening statement. This was just a short time ago. Major Nidal Hasan told the military panel, "I am the shooter."

Now, Hasan is charged with killing 13 soldiers and wounding 32 others. This is back in 2009, a shooting rampage. Well, he's acting as his own attorney during the court-martial which means he could end up questioning some of the people he's accused of shooting.

Ed Lavandera, he's joining us to bring us up to speed on what has happened so far in this trial. It's absolutely fascinating the fact he could actually question some of the victims.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And that's what a lot of victims are really not looking forward to at this point. But at this point, Suzanne, it's also not really clear exactly how Major Hasan is going to conduct himself throughout the rest of this trial. The prosecutor opened up the trial this morning with an hour-long opening statement, meticulously and painfully detailing the path that Major Hasan carried out the day of the shooting and how he systematically attacked the soldiers in the building where 13 people were killed and more than 30 others wounded.

And then Major Hasan stood up and ,in less than a minute, gave his own opening statement where, as you mentioned, he said, he opened off by simply saying, "Clearly the evidence will show that I'm not the shooter." And then he went on to talk about the mujahideen and try -- mujahideen trying to create the perfect religion. And also he said that the evidence will only show one side, "The evidence will show I was on the wrong side as a U.S. soldier and that I switched sides."

So clearly Major Hasan not interested in arguing against the facts that are laid out against him, trying to use this trial to make his own points that he wants to make. We'll see to what extent he's able to do that. The judge has placed very severe limitations on what he can argue. So we'll see how that goes in the weeks ahead.

MALVEAUX: And so, Ed, just to be clear he said he is not the shooter, correct? LAVANDERA: He is -- he flat out admitted right out of the gate that he was the shooter.

MALVEAUX: That he is the shooter. OK. And some of the victims of this shooting are obviously upset because this was now classified as workplace violence, not terrorism. And one of people that is particularly upset about this, Police Sergeant Kimberly Munley. She helped take down Hasan. So why is this so significant? Why is this important that they're calling this workplace violence and not terrorism?

LAVANDERA: Well, it comes down to a question of benefits for a lot of these soldiers who have had to deal with the aftermath of this and the recovery with all of this. And also what does not settle well with them is the fact that Major Hasan, throughout all of this, which is now four years, has retained his rank as a major and also the salary benefits that come with that.

So lawsuits involved with all this as the courts try to figure all this out. But it's one of these things that the victims and soldiers in this case have left a very bad taste in their mouth.

MALVEAUX: Oh yes, we're going to be following this every step of the way. Ed Lavandera, thank you, Ed, for reporting from Texas.

And prosecutors, they are calling him one of the most vicious, violent, calculating criminalse ver to walk the streets of Boston. Well now James Whitey Bulger could soon find out his fate. Stay with CNN for the latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: The State Department has a message for Americans in Yemen: Get out and get out now. This warning follows two suspected U.S. drone strikes that killed four al Qaeda militants in Yemen.

Now the country is at the center of concerns about a possible terror attack. U.S. intelligence officials intercepted a message between the leader of al Qaeda and operatives in Yemen telling them to do something. Well, today, military planes carried about as many as 90 Americans out of the country. The evacuation included nonemergency government workers as well as other Americans. The U.S. embassy in Yemen, it is closed this week because of concerns of a possible terrorist attack that could be imminent. Eighteen other embassies in the Middle East and Africa are closed.

This, an amazing story, has all the ingredients of a classic heist, a movie if you will. This is a fancy hotel. This is in Cannes, France, and a thief making off with $136 million worth of jewels that belonged to a billionaire. Nothing more than a smash and grab when this thief pulled the gun, grabbed the jewels and ran. But now Lloyd's of London, the insurer, says it's willing to pay to get them back. It's put up a reward of $1.3 million for their safe return.

And now both sides, they have rested their case in the James Whitey Bulger trial. We are now in verdict watch. That is right. Deliberations are under way and the prosecution portrayed Bulger as a murderous thug who terrorized Boston for years. Well, the defense said he had immunity for some crimes but denied that Bulger was a killer or a government informant.

Deborah Feyerick's been watching the trial unfold.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): James Bulger came face-to-face can members of his underworld, men he had not seen in over two decades brought in to testify against him. Bookies like Dick O'Brien talked about the thousand of dollars he had to pay Bulger in so-called weekly rent payments to stay in business. And drug traffickers like William Linholm testified Bulger and his cronies put a loaded gun to his head before extorting a quarter million dollars for a piece of the business.

And it was Bulger's former partners who took center stage, key eyewitness to the crimes they committed together or shared stories about after. Hitman John Martorano implicated Bulger in 13 murders, describing his crime boss firing a machine gun at a victim he'd lured to a phone booth. Mob enforcer Kevin Weeks saw him strangle a woman with his bare hands, the girl's eyes rolling into her head as her lips turned blue.

Bulger's long-time crime partner, Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, described the perverse high Bulger seemed to get after torturing and killing several, one of whom begged for a bullet to the head after Bulger failed to strangle the man with a thick rope.

Yet what bothered Bulger most were not claims he was a killer, a criminal, or extortionist. What bothered him was when Flemmi testified that, without doubt, both he and Bulger were FBI informants -- the worst possible thing someone from South Boston could be.

Bulger's criminal enterprise grew because of government corruption. A key prosecutor, FBI agents, state troopers all on Bulger's payroll providing information on rivals and compromising official investigations. Bulger lost his temper several times when called an informant but otherwise the men he had known so well, he treated as if they were dead to him.

Bulger's lawyers mounted a small defense with respect to most of the murders. They focused instead on refuting the idea Bulger was an informant, and they tried to cast doubt on Bulger's role in killing the two women. Defense lawyers suggested in the end it wasn't about finding Bulger not guilty but holding the government accountable for FBI corruption nearly two decades ago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Deborah joins us from Boston. This has been absolutely an amazing, fascinating trial to cover, Deb, as I know. The judge now read the jury instructions this morning. So what are the jurors considering now? FEYERICK (on camera): Well, the jurors are considering a whole range of charges including racketeering, conspiracy, extortion, money laundering, murder, 19 of them that they're going to have to decide on. They've had the case for a little under two hours. The jury was paying attention to a lot of colorful testimony from the likes of killers, convicted felons, and even bookmakers and loan sharsk.

So as you mentioned, it was a very interesting trial. Whitey Bulger in the court; he will be there just in case the jury sends out a note so he's entitled to be inside the courtroom so everybody's staying pretty close to the door. Suzanne.

MALVAUEX: And Deborah, finally here, you've been covering this for quite some time. How have these jurors reacted to some of the gory details that we've been hearing about these allegations and these murders?

FEYERICK: A number of the jurors wiped tears from their eyes. There was a lot of emotional testimony. The victims' families have been in the court. It put a face to the names that the jury is considering.

This is the verdict form and next to the racketeering acts, which are the murders, which is the names of the dead, Al Plumber (ph), Michael Malano (ph), Brian Haloran (ph), Eddie Connor (ph). The jury, when they decide a murder has opinion proven or not proven, they will know who it is they are talking about.

MALVEAUX: Deborah Feyerick, thank you so much. We're on verdict watch. Thank you.