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Russian Plane Crash in Egypt Kills All 224 Onboard; GOP Campaigns to Demand Debate Changes; U.S. Special Ops Troops to Aid Syrian Rebels; Feds Probing Officer's Fatal Shooting Of South Carolina Teen; Hillary Clinton Talks Gun Control In South Carolina. Aired 11a- 12p ET

Aired October 31, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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

[10:59:53] COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Speaking of heating up, guys, we are here at Auburn where about an hour from now, a sellout crowd will be filling be up Jordan Harris Stadium behind me for an SEC slugfest, 21st rank Old Miss will try to keep title hopes alive when they tussle with the Tigers who have beaten them in five straight match-ups. We have football in the air, a little bit of food in the air and a lot of fun -- Alison, Victor back to you.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: Food, football and fun -- my favorite three Fs. Thanks for watching. We're going to throw it on over to Fredricka.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: End it there.

Hand it over to Fred for the next hour of NEWSROOM.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Ok. We'll try to have a little fun and probably --

KOSIK: Some food and a little football later right.

WHITFIELD: -- well, maybe some food in between commercial breaks.

BLACKWELL: All right. A couple of snacks.

KOSIK: Yes.

WHITFIELD: There you go. All right. Thanks you guys. Have a great one.

All right. It is the 11:00 Eastern hour. I want to welcome our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. NEWSROOM starts now.

And we begin with this breaking news. A Russian passenger jet carrying 224 people has crashed in Egypt and the Russian embassy in Cairo is now reporting there are no survivors. All passengers are believed to be Russian and Ukrainian.

Investigators have arrived at the crash site and bodies are being removed from the wreckage. The plane crashed on the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula. The Airbus-321 took off at about 6:00 a.m. local time from Sharm el-Sheikh, a resort town on the Red Sea. It was bound for St. Petersburg, Russia.

CNN's Ian Lee is live for us now in Cairo. So Ian, what more can you tell us about the area in particular where this plane went down?

IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: All right. Fredricka -- this is in the northern central part of the Sinai Peninsula near a town called El Hasana. This is an area that is very mountainous which will make it difficult for recovery crews to piece together and go through this wreckage, try to find bodies of those people who were killed. But also, try to find that black box really to figure out what went wrong that caused this plane to go down.

The Egyptian prime minister, along with several members of his cabinet, had made it to the site of the crash. They are meeting there with emergency personnel also to oversee the situation.

Now this plane took off a little bit before 6:00 a.m., was traveling for about 20 minutes at an altitude of over 30,000 feet. That's when the plane disappeared. Now, the rate of descent we're hearing topped 6,000 feet per minute as it came tumbling down crashing just in that northern part of Sinai.

Now, 15 bodies have been removed from the site of the crash. They are on their way to Cairo. Right now, authorities are also trying to identify the remains of the people so that they can be returned to their family members as well.

So a lot to go through but, really, officials trying to figure out what exactly went wrong -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: So, Ian, you said 16 bodies have already been recovered. So talk to me about that region. Because it is a great understanding that that particular area is lawless, described by some, and that it would be difficult for investigators to try to retrieve any kind of debris or even bodies. Tell me how these 16 bodies were able to be recovered.

LEE: This part of Sinai, the northern part of Sinai has seen an insurgency for the past two years roughly, an ISIS-aligned insurgency where hundreds of people have been killed and the fighting to kind of underscore that, the jet -- the remains where the crash site was discovered by Egyptian military aircraft that were flying over the area at the time.

Now, we do not know the cause of this. We do not want to say that these militants had any hand in bringing down the aircraft. Frankly, we do not know what brought down this aircraft. But it will make it more difficult for emergency personnel to operate in that area because of this insurgency. We know that roughly 45 ambulances were dispatched to the scene of the area to sift through that.

At this point though, we can expect a very heavily military presence. This is a militarized zone where we would expect a lot of security personnel there right now, securing the area, especially when you have the prime minister and the minister of defense on the ground there. And so recovering the bodies, it is going to be now for the emergency personnel just to go through the wreckage and sift through it. Try to figure out who is who and what we are learning from just the makeup of this airplane.

We know that from the Egyptian prime minister -- 138 were women, 62 were men, and 17 were children. This is a plane that was going back to Russia -- most likely just taking people who are in Egypt on holiday. We get a lot of these sorts of flights coming in here and so again, just a tragic way to end their trip.

[11:05:07] WHITFIELD: All right. Ian Lee, keep us posted as you learn any new information about this.

All right. Let's talk more about what we do know. CNN aviation analyst, Les Abend with us now. He is also a pilot.

So Les, when you hear Ian talk about this flight roughly at 30,000 feet then suddenly disappearing from radar and then plunging some 6,000 feet per minute -- what goes through your mind about the possibilities of what could have been happening, why it would have gone down?

LES ABEND, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, first of all, Fredricka. I mean this is all preliminary information. You know from doing reporting on this that a lot of this can be speculation. And we don't quite have all the details at this point in time.

If indeed that's accurate where you've got at 6,000 feet a minute rate of descent that is pretty rapid. It's not an uncontrollable situation but it is disturbing to me just by virtue that this all occurred up at cruise altitude. Cruise altitude is really a non-stress environment for us as pilots. That's the terminology we use.

Take off and landing is where, you know, is where the most intense part of our activity is. So if you had an emergency, you would have time at cruise altitude to determine exactly what is going on, you know, what the problem may be and go through a checklist and then determine whether you have to divert to another airport.

WHITFIELD: And then we understand reportedly the pilot may have communicated technical difficulty. That doesn't sound like typical pilot speak. How do you interpret that? And if there were trouble, that a pilot could discern, what instead, would they usually communicate?

ABEND: Well, yes. Richard Quest brought this up on an earlier hour. And it is a good point. However, I am not totally convinced that, if that, indeed, was stated to air traffic control from one of the crew members in the cockpit. They may have been trouble shooting or going through a checklist and they hadn't quite determined what the problem was so they couldn't quite be definitive about it.

So, you know, it is hard to say at this point in time. At some point, we may get a release of the air traffic control transmissions in addition to the radar record of what the airplane did, you know, from altitude, direction, and so on and so forth.

WHITFIELD: Right.

The history of that plane will also be looked into really with keen eyes. What we understand, according to airbus, is that this plane was produced in 1997. It has accumulated 56,000 flight hours and nearly 21,000 flights. What does that mean in terms of age or stress on a plane, the fitness of a plane overall?

ABEND: 1997, that's just about not quite 20 years old. In airplane years, it is really not a lot of time. Airlines do what we call progressive maintenance. They continually maintain the airplane. There is a checklist, at so many hours certain things have to be done. So I wouldn't -- it is still a relatively new airplane.

The Airbus A-321 is the stretch version as we have been talking about on earlier segments and it is the newer version of the Airbus A-320 family -- very reliable airplane. They're flying all over the United States, all over the world.

WHITFIELD: Ok, Les Abend -- thanks so much. We'll check back with you as we learn more information. Thank you.

All right. Still ahead, take a look right now. Live pictures -- Charleston, South Carolina. Hillary Clinton there at the podium. We'll take you there next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Live pictures there in Charleston, South Carolina. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton there stumping in Charleston. We're going to continue to monitor her comments there and we'll bring you any news that comes out of it.

All right. Meantime this weekend 10 GOP presidential candidates are stumping in Iowa. And tomorrow, several of the campaigns will meet in Washington to see if they can take more control of the debates from the Republican National Committee.

Let's go to CNN's Sunlen Serfaty in Iowa. So Sunlen -- the campaigns are huddling tomorrow and I understand in large part because Ben Carson kind of got these candidates together and said let's meet to talk about how we can have better control of these debates especially since the RNC has suspended relations with NBC over the February debate.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right -- Fred. There is certainly a lot going on here around the debates. First and foremost, tomorrow in Washington, when many of the campaigns will meet -- really, they are trying to exert some control over the upcoming debate on the Fox Business Channel in less than two weeks.

And during that meeting tomorrow, they excluded the RNC. So, it certainly says a lot that they really want to take back some of the control from the Republican Party. Push forward, suggest changes in the next debate that they can be happier with after that widespread unhappiness this week with the CNBC debate.

This all happens while the RNC is making moves of their own, really suspending their partnership with NBC for their February debate. That's getting a little revenge, so to speak, against NBC because of the CNBC debate this week. The chairman, sending a letter to the top brass at NBC saying that the moderators engaged in gotcha questions. He says they were petty, mean-spirited, designed to embarrass our candidates.

NBC has responded. They say that they are disappointed by this move, that they will work, they say, in good faith to try to remedy this. Certainly, Fred a lot of uncertainty and a lot of unhappiness about these debates -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: So Sunlen, is it clear whether NBC or any other network is kind of continuing negotiations or up in the running for hosting that February debate? Because while we know that statement is to suspend the relationship with NBC, because of the February debate, it doesn't necessarily say that NBC will no longer even able to have discussions with them?

SERFATY: That's right. Well, we'll see where this goes next. That statement was sent by the RNC chairman on Friday and NBC they quickly responded saying that obviously that they're disappointed. They'll work to try to remedy this. But there is definitely no resolution.

It will be interesting to see what comes out of Sunday's meeting where all these campaigns will gather in Washington. Campaign managers really trying to come up with, in their opinion, some creative solutions. The candidates have been out on the trail really blasting the last debate format. They say it's gotcha questions and they want longer questions and answer sections. So it will be interesting to see how this really forces the hand at the next debate and of course, that NBC debate in February -- Fred.

[11:15:10] WHITFIELD: All right. Sunlen Serfaty -- thanks so much out of Iowa.

Let's talk more about this. Joining me right now from our Washington bureau, conservative talk show host, Hugh Hewitt who was part of our CNN GOP presidential debate in September. Good to see you -- Hugh.

HUGH HEWITT, RADIO HOST: Hey Fredricka. Good morning. You are doing quite a good job with that airline story. What a tough story to cover.

WHITFIELD: Oh, I know. It is, indeed. You know, preliminary information so it is still unclear exactly where it is going but very sad situation for that Russian plane going down in Cairo or in Egypt, I should say. We will keep people updated.

So, Hugh, how do you interpret this? Is this the candidates saying they are very upset with NBC suspending -- having the RNC suspend their relations with NBC for the upcoming debate or now when you hear this meeting among some of the candidates' campaign folks tomorrow but the RNC is not part of that meeting? It is difficult to discern who's angry at whom here.

HEWITT: Well, Reince Priebus went out on the stage at CNBC and blasted CNBC for a poorly-produced, badly-mangled debate. And I think it is generally agreed, maybe there are some outliers, that it was a catastrophic production on a technical level. Alice Stewart (ph) just mentioned last hour that there were even sound problems and the time division was way off.

That didn't happen after the CNN (inaudible) media group debate in which I participated. And I think there are a couple of differences. Number one, Jake was a strong moderator who tried to keep the timing fair but proportionate between frontrunners and people who are way back in the pack.

Two, everything was fact checked. CNN's fact-checking department overwhelmed me with data.

And three, we rehearsed. And Mark Preston lived in my head for three weeks. He's the executive editor of CNN Politics. And I learned that CNN has done this 20 times. And guess what, practice matters. So the candidates have to be careful.

CNN delivered 23 million viewers. On top of that millions more online and millions more listening on the Salem Radio Network. The candidates don't want to lose that audience. They can't ask for the opportunity to bore America to death with talking points.

WHITFIELD: I don't know if it sounds like the candidates are, you know, really arguing about that. I mean they clearly must see the value in having these debates except when you have Donald Trump who says, we want these debates to be time-managed, we want them to be shorter. And then you have Ben Carson who says, there are too many. We want fewer debates.

So it is difficult to discern, you know, where the value is being placed. Is it an issue of control -- a control in how these debates go? Or is it an issue of (inaudible) people

HEWITT: I don't think you are going to get an agreement. You are not going to get an agreement that there were too many debates because there were complaints when the 12 scheduled came up that those were too few.

You're not going to get an agreement that everyone should have the same amount of time because frontrunners want more time. What you are going to get an agreement on, I think you'll see a statement of principles that the questions ought to reflect the expectations. And what Alice Stewart said last hour --

WHITFIELD: But then what does that mean about control of these candidates? I mean surely, no one is going to agree to a debate where the candidates are delivering the questions. I mean that sounds unrealistic.

HEWITT: Absolutely not.

WHITFIELD: But it sounds like some of the candidates want to play a role in the types of questions that are asked.

HEWITT: That's unacceptable. It doesn't do any good to the party. The GOP primary voter wants to see how their candidates do in an electability situation with tough questions. I have interviewed them 70 times on my radio show. They have never had one question. They have to be ready to answer very difficult questions. I have never given anyone a question in advance.

And that shows the line they have to walk here. They can't ask for patty cake to play with debate moderators or journalists center, right or left. They have though the right to know what the question set generally is going to be and to expect good technical production and fairness.

That first question by John Harwood -- and I have got no grief against John Harwood. But to call Donald Trump a comic book player is unusually, ideologically left-wing cartoonish. And I think it set the tone for what became a catastrophic moment for CNBC.

And I think the people who won out of that -- Rubio, Cruz, and Christie -- were the people who dealt with what was happening on the stage best. That's a skill set but not one that was expected to have to be displayed that night.

WHITFIELD: Ok. So discussions have now been formed about what to do come February. But there is a November 10th debate. How do you see that kerfuffle of this last CNBC debate and perhaps the success of some of the other debates, including those that have taken place here on CNN -- how might that influence what we see on November 10th?

HEWITT: Well, I think that with regards to Reince Priebus and NBC. My prediction is that he is going to sit down with Andrew Lack -- a very successful news guy and they're going to agree that, you know, Chuck Todd and Rich Lowry from "National Review" and maybe Tom Brokaw are going to run it. And everything is going to go fine because NBC knows how to run a debate.

[11:19:55] Fox Business, it is going to be an interesting situation, whether or not they practice as much as CNN. I don't think it is going to affect our December 15th debate at the Venetian. I don't think it's going to affect our debate in March in Florida.

I think it is really going to up the game of the technical side and just some general understanding that this is supposed to serve the GOP primary voter, not the Hillary Clinton campaign.

And at the end of the CNBC debate most Republicans, and I'm a conservative Republican, thought that was put together. Those panelists were asking questions on behalf of Hillary Clinton to embarrass and destroy Republican candidates. That did not happen at our debate. I don't think it's going to happen at future debates.

WHITFIELD: All right. Hugh Hewitt -- thanks so much. Always good to see you. Appreciate it.

HEWITT: Thank you -- Fredricka. WHITFIELD: All right.

Speaking of exciting presidential races, guess what, it has been 15 years since the most dramatic presidential election in modern history -- the recount of 2000. You can relive all the drama if you want to at a CNN Special Report "BUSH VERSUS GORE: THE ENDLESS ELECTION". That airs Monday night at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Within weeks now, U.S. troops are heading into battle zones in Syria. U.S. Special Operations Forces will be heading to Kurdish-controlled territory in northern Syria. A group of less than 50 will be working with moderate rebel groups in their fight against ISIS. These are groups the U.S. has already been arming and training.

And as CNN's Chris Frates explains, the White House says this is not a shift in strategy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[112504] CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Obama secretly told Defense Secretary Ash Carter a few months ago, he wanted faster progress in the war against ISIS in both Syria and Iraq and to come up with a plan -- a U.S. official says.

Now, the President has ordered a small number of Special Operations soldiers into northern Syria to help local forces fight ISIS.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The President does expect that they can have an impact in intensifying our strategy for building the capacity of local forces inside of Syria to taking the fight on the ground to ISIL.

FRATES: The teams, no more than 50 troops total, could include members of the Army's elite Delta Force and Green Berets, as well as Navy Seals.

Their mission: to provide ammunition, communications, intelligence and supplies to local Arab and Kurdish forces on the ground. Until now the President had long said he would not put troops in combat, especially in Syria. And the White House insists that's still true.

EARNEST: The forces do not have a combat mission. This is not in any way an attempt to diminish the risks that they will face or the bravery that they will need to summon to carry out these operations.

FRATES: Secretary Carter did not discuss the ground troops while meeting service members in Alaska Friday night. But he did say ISIS is one of the biggest threats.

ASHTON CARTER, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We have to beat ISIL. We are going to beat ISIL. These guys are evil. We are as I said the noble and they are the evil. We are the many and they are the few. And fundamentally, we are the strong. So we will beat them. And we're doing that now and figuring out how to get better at it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRATES: The Special Operations Forces are expected to be sent from Iraq across the border into northern Syria. The U.S. will use F-15 and A-10 jets launched from an air base in southern Turkey. All part of an effort to help anti-ISIS forces eventually take back ISIS' self- proclaimed capital city of Raqqa.

But make no mistake here, Fred, Obama wanted to avoid putting troops on the ground where they will likely end up in combat situations. And just today, the State Department announced the U.S. will provide about $100 million in new aid to the Syrian opposition. The money will provide support to local officials, first responders and other kinds of civil needs. And since 2012, the U.S. has given almost $500 million in aid to the Syrian opposition -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Wow. All right. Thank you so much -- Chris Frates. That gives us a lot to redirect some details on our interview coming up right now with Lt. Col. Rick Francona, a CNN military analyst and a former U.S. military attache in the Middle East including Syria.

All right. So good to see. So those are some incredible stats and numbers hearing from Chris there to know how much has already been invested to assist Syrian opposition forces and that more is now on the way.

So there have been U.S. military air missions involving Syria. But with these 50 U.S. troops being sent to Syria, whether it be in a support capacity or otherwise, is this the first of this nature that you know of that so many U.S. troops would be on the ground to assist in this manner and possibly engage?

LT. CO. RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: You know, this is the first step. And I hope we don't get into mission creep. Those of us who remember the Vietnam era, this is how we started in Vietnam. We sent advisers in. We sent U.S. Army Special Forces. So we have to make sure that we don't engage in mission creep.

But I think the President is doing the right thing here. These Army Special Forces are trained to do just this. This is the core mission for the Army Special Forces, going into an area, the foreign internal defense mission. They will set up military units. They'll help them organize. They'll train them. They'll provide communications intelligence.

One thing they can do is help them do a better job in calling in air strikes. We have not done a good job in leveraging American air power against the targets in either Syria or Iraq. It has been over a year and we really haven't put much of a dent in the ISIS structure. I think if we can get that facet of it going, it may make a real difference.

WHITFIELD: So the White House maintains that this is not a change in strategy. And listening to Chris there in his report where he says, these troops, these Special Forces, might likely come from Iraq -- already based there in Iraq and then redirected to Syria. Is that why the White House is able to say it is not a change in strategy, because these are U.S. troops that are already in the region?

FRANCONA: Yes, I think they are parsing the words here. This is a major shift. I won't call it a change in strategy. Let's call it a change in tactics. The strategy is still the same. It's to degrade and defeat ISIL. We are going just at it a different way. And putting boots on the ground in Syria is a major shift in the President's initial concept of operations.

[11:30:05] I wouldn't go so far as to say it is a shift in strategy. But it is definitely an upgrade of the tactics.

WHITFIELD: What are your greatest worries here? I know you said you actually liked this idea in large part. What would be elements of this plan that makes you most nervous?

FRANCONA: Well, 50 is not a big number. These are highly trained people. They are used to working in small groups. They are used to going sort of behind the lines. But 50, you are out there kind of alone. So I am worried about one of these units getting cut off or coming up fire.

WHITFIELD: So 50 is a small number in your view?

FRANCONA: I think it is a small number. Hopefully, we don't get into incremental buildup. If 50 would make a difference that would be great. We need the leverage, the air power. These guys are very good at that.

WHITFIELD: All right, Col. Rick Francona, always good to see you. Thank you so much.

FRANCONA: Have a good day.

WHITFIELD: All right, straight ahead, more on our breaking news, a passenger plane going down in Egypt killing everyone on board. We have a live update on the latest including what might have brought that Russian plane down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: More on the breaking story we are following. New details surrounding the crash of a Russian passenger jet going down in Egypt, the Russian Embassy in Cairo is now reporting none of the 224 people on board have survived. All passengers believed to be Russian and Ukrainian.

Here is what we know right now. The plane crashed in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula. The Airbus 321 took off at about 6:00 local time from Sharm el-Sheikh resort town on the Red Sea. It was bound for St. Petersburg, Russia.

Just 23 minutes after takeoff, Egyptian air traffic control lost contact with the plane. Russian media reporting that the pilot radioed to report technical problems and requested a landing at the nearest airport. CNN however cannot corroborate some of the details of that reporting.

[11:35:10] A Metro Jet official says the airline plans to fly relatives of the plane crash victims to Egypt. Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has declared a day of mourning for Sunday.

Let's bring in CNN aviation analyst, Peter Goelz. He is the former managing director for the NTSB. Peter, good to see you. It is difficult to discern what verifiable information. This took place in a difficult part of Egypt.

Some are calling it a lawless area. We understand from our own reporting that Egyptian military may have gotten to the crash location to retrieve some of the bodies, something like 15 or 16 bodies have been retrieved.

So talk to me about how complicated this kind of investigation becomes, particularly you are talking about a very mountainous terrain and you are also dealing with control complications. How do investigators go about this?

PETER GOELZ, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: It is going to be very challenging. There will be an international investigative team with the Russians and the Egyptians at the point. They will need security.

Their two top priorities will be to recover the victims' remains and to get the flight data recorder and the voice recorder back to a laboratory to see exactly what was happening in the final moments of flight.

It disappeared off the radar screens at 31,000 feet is very disturbing. That is almost generally that is always the safest portion of flight, less than 15 percent of accidents occur or begin at cruise altitude.

Takeoff and landing are the challenging points. This is going to be an interesting and difficult investigation.

WHITFIELD: It does sound like that indeed and so you're talking about 30,000 feet. That is kind of the calm area of flying for many pilots. That reportedly went down something like 6,000 feet per minute.

Will that kind of tell you that when the plane did go down, that it was intact meaning when it does hit ground, the debris field might be tighter than, say, if the plane broke apart during its dissent and trying to locate those boxes would be complicated?

GOELZ: That's a great question. We are not sure yet. You will have to look at the radar tracking and see whether there were any large pieces of the aircraft that separated. Cruise altitude is very deceptive.

You know, the plane would have been on auto pilot at that point and there is a tension between piloting skills and the automation of today's aircraft. The A-321 is a fully automated plane. Pilots don't hand fly at cruise altitude very much at all.

There have been cases in the past. The Air France 447 accident in which occurred at cruise altitude in which they had technical issues. A speed indicator was off and they could not diagnose it. It will be interesting to see how the crew, from the voice recorder, addressed whatever problems they had.

WHITFIELD: So that last point that they may not be able to diagnose it, may explain why you hear a pilot say, technical difficulties as opposed to something very specific.

GOELZ: That's right. There is a relatively modest margin of error at 31,000 feet. You can get into trouble awfully quickly and you have got to take the correct steps to get yourself out of it. If pilots don't know exactly what they are facing, it can be a problem.

WHITFIELD: All right, Peter Goelz, we will leave it right there. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

GOELZ: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, on the other things we are following, actress, Leah Remeny says that scientology was her entire life. You'll hear next why she decided to leave that life and the controversial church next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:44:12]

WHITFIELD: All right, meantime now, lingering questions about a fatal shooting of a teenager by a South Carolina police officer. Newly released police car dash cam video gives a clear picture as to what happened in July as Officer Mark Tiller approached the car during a drug sting.

Tiller says 19-year-old Zachary Hammond tried to run him over. Now, the local prosecutor has determined the officer should not be charged but a federal investigation still continues. CNN's Nick Valencia is here covering the case for us, very complicated it seems.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very complicated, not if you talked to the parents they see cold-blooded murder in the case. They say the solicitor had made up her mind even before she leveled her ruling that there would not be any charges filed against Lieutenant Mark Tiller.

They are pushing for federal charges. We have to warn you that the video that you are about to see could be considered graphic by some.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[11:45:08] VALENCIA (voice-over): You can hear the tires screech as Lt. Mark Tiller pulls into the fast food parking lot. In less than a few seconds, gunfire, the two shots killed the driver, 19-year-old Zachary Hammond. He was unarmed. Investigators say he had drugs in his system and packaged cocaine in his pocket. Listen as Lieutenant Tiller described why he opened fire. The police dash cam video from July shows what Seneca South Carolina Police say was a drug sting.

The target, the passenger of the car, 25-year-old Tracy Morton, she was on a date with Hammond at the time of the shooting. Her sobs can be heard as an officer stands over Hammond.

The video was released weekdays before Lieutenant Tiller is cleared of wrongdoing. After a careful consideration of the facts of the case, the solicitor writes in her ruling, "I have determined that no criminal charges should be filed against Lieutenant Mark Tiller at the state level."

She continues, "This has been a very difficult case. No parent should ever have to bury their child."

ANGIE HAMMOND, MOTHER OF ZACHARY HAMMOND: We are disappointed by investigation that seemed more focused on attacking the victim, Zach, than investigating the shooter.

VALENCIA: At a press conference, Thursday, Hammond's parents and attorney say the blame for the fatal shooting rests solely on Lieutenant Tiller.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You would need a set of glasses that doesn't even exist to say that Lieutenant Tiller was in danger of being struck by that automobile.

VALENCIA: In an interview shortly after the shooting, the Seneca police chief defended his officer.

CHIEF JOHN COVINGTON, SENECA, S.C. POLICE: You know when you sign up to be a police officer that there is the potential that you may have to use deadly force.

VALENCIA: Choking back tears, Hammond's mother says the video proves her son should not have been shot.

HAMMOND: Zach cared more about Tiller's life than Tiller cared about Zach's.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: The attorney did get back to CNN only to say that his client acted in self-defense and that the solicitor's decision supports his position.

Meanwhile, I mentioned that I spoke to the Hammonds. They say they have not gotten over this. This is something that's affecting them, will continue to affect them. They cry every single day. They don't think their son should had been shot and killed in this situation.

WHITFIELD: This is tragic. All right, thanks so much. Nick Valencia, keep us posted on that. All right, we'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:51:42]

WHITFIELD: All right, Presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, is spending a second day in South Carolina. She's attending a grassroots event joined by the Charleston mayor, Joe Reilly. Clinton spoke about veterans, fair wages, and the deadly shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston back in June.

Our senior Washington correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, is live for us now in Charleston. Jeff, Clinton made it known where she stands on gun control today.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: No question, Fredricka. That was a central message of Secretary Clinton's speech in South Carolina. As you said, she did collect the endorsement of Charleston Mayor Joe Reilly.

He's been the mayor of this city for some 40 years and endorsed Barack Obama eight years ago. Today, he said he was signing on to the Clinton campaign. He said that she is a fighter for the middle class.

But Fredricka, I was struck by her language and her talk about gun control. Of course, this city endured that tragic shooting in June. Nine people killed at the historic AME church. She talked about that and why we need stronger gun control laws. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Was not entitled to buy a gun, but they found that right after he committed those murders. We've got to close that. I mean, why are you in such a hurry to buy not a hunting rifle, but a killing machine?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Now, that is certainly a powerful message here in South Carolina and elsewhere, but Secretary Clinton has been talking more and more about the need to reform the criminal justice system and also have more gun control.

It's one of the distinctions she's drawing with her chief Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders. She did not mention him at all today, of course.

But by talking about that Charleston shooting, she certainly is raising that issue here in the minds of these South Carolina voters, Fredricka. So certainly a powerful message on that and other things as she campaigns here in South Carolina -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And then what's the next stop for her while in South Carolina? We're looking at the pictures of she and Mayor Reilly, who's been mayor there forever. He was the mayor when I was working as a local reporter there in Charleston, South Carolina. As you said he's there for 40 years and this is his last term. What's next for her? Will she be staying in Charleston or moving on in other parts of the state?

ZELENY: Well, she is wrapping up her event here. She just left the stage, just a few minutes ago. She'll be leaving Charleston and she'll be going home back to New York for the weekend and a big week of fund-raising coming up next week.

And she'll return to the campaign trail in Iowa on Tuesday. Of course, those Iowa caucuses kick off this road to the White House in less than 100 days. But this South Carolina primary, the first in the south primary comes after that.

She believes this is a place where she needs to have a firewall if she, you know, wants to withstand this challenge from Bernie Sanders, who's stronger in Iowa, and of course, in that New Hampshire primary -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much in Charleston, South Carolina. We have so much more straight ahead in the NEWSROOM and it all starts right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:58:05]

WHITFIELD: Hello, again, everyone. And thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. We begin with breaking news. A Russian passenger jet carrying 224 people crashing in Egypt and the Russian embassy in Cairo is now reporting there are no survivors. All passengers are believed to be Russian and Ukrainian.

Investigators have arrived at the crash site and bodies are being removed from the wreckage. The plane crashed in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula. The Airbus 312 took off at about 6 a.m. local time from Sharm el-Sheikh, the resort town on the Red Sea. It was bound for St. Petersburg, Russia.

CNN's Ian Lee is live for us now in Cairo. Ian, what more are we learning about how those bodies are being retrieved and how they're going about investigating what happened here?

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, this hour, we're hearing and seeing on social media a claim by ISIS that they were involved in downing this Russian airplane. Now, we've put that to Russian and Egyptian officials. Both have said that it is without merit that that did not happen.

The Egyptian authorities that we spoke to earlier today talked along the lines of a mechanical issue. Both saying that foul play was not suspected in this incident although, ISIS has made this claim.

It is also important to note that it would be very difficult for them to carry out such an attack. Is just does not have the sophisticated weapons it would take to bring down this plane. So right now, we have ISIS' claim and Russia and Egypt refuting it. So we note that Egypt's prime minister was at the site of the crash to oversee the emergency operation.

Emergency personnel sifting through the wreckage, trying to find black boxes, trying to find bodies, over a dozen bodies have been brought to Cairo.

Right now, they're going through the really gruesome task of trying to identify the people and so that they can be reunited with their loved ones.