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Hurricane Dorian Nears Bahamas, U.S. East Coast; Five Dead, 21 Injured in Texas Mass Shooting; Hong Kong Protesters Hold Airport Rally after Violent Night. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired September 01, 2019 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:00]
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ALEX WOODS, WITNESS: There's a shooting going on in Odessa, Texas. They're shooting right there.
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JULIE VICKNAIR, WITNESS: Oh, my God, he's fixing to shoot.
(INAUDIBLE)
JOEY VICKNAIR, WITNESS: Y'all get down.
JULIE VICKNAIR: Oh, my God.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of a sudden, you could hear the popping sounds, you know, of gunshots.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cars with bullet holes show the path of destruction left in Midland and Odessa.
LARRY SHORES, SHOOTING VICTIM: I got one on my door and one went through and ricocheted right here through my wrist and I can't get it out because it is a piece of metal.
BETO O'ROURKE (D-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is no reason that we have to accept this as our fortune, as our future. And yet, functionally, right now, we have.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This storm track continues to have a lot of movement and uncertainty.
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Time has pretty much passed if Bahamians were hopes to evacuate or seek refuge, it's now too dangerous to leave. There is simply no escaping Dorian.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is NEW DAY WEEKEND with Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: We are following two breaking news stories, moments ago we got an update from the National Hurricane Center on Hurricane Dorian. So first this is still a dangerous category 4 storm. It's headed directly toward the Bahamas.
The exact path for the U.S. is unclear but the track has shifted west a bit, meaning that more of Florida is back in the cone.
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: We're also watching the breaking news out of Texas, where the investigation is going on this morning of at least five people who were killed in a mass shooting that started after a traffic stop in Midland-Odessa; 21 others were injured.
This was a rampage that ended when police shot and killed the gunman in a movie theater parking lot. The shooter is believed to be a white male in his 30s.
BLACKWELL: So the National Hurricane Center says that Dorian -- and this is a quote -- extremely dangerous.
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PAUL: Obviously we have a big story we're watching is the investigation that is now going on this morning after violence in West Texas. A shooting rampage started with a traffic stop. It ended with five people who are dead, 21 others who are injured.
BLACKWELL: So after shooting a state trooper during that traffic stop, investigators say the suspect drove down the highway, randomly shooting other victims. According to shorts he then stole the mail truck, killed the driver before being cornered by police near a mall and killed in a shootout.
[05:05:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JULIE VICKNAIR: Oh, my God, he's fixing to shoot.
(INAUDIBLE)
JOEY VICKNAIR: Y'all get down.
JULIE VICKNAIR: Oh, my God.
Cody, are you down?
JOEY VICKNAIR: Are you shooting at that man and lady right there?
JULIE VICKNAIR: I don't know. I don't know. I can't see.
Oh, my God. I think they got him. That looks like a -- a mail thing. JOEY VICKNAIR: (INAUDIBLE).
They definitely neutralized the target.
JULIE VICKNAIR: This is crazy. Somebody is on the ground.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: CNN's Ed Lavandera with us now from Odessa, Texas.
Ed, we know police haven't identified the gunman publicly, they say he is a white male in his mid-30s.
Have they not identified him and they are just not releasing that?
I mean, what do we know about the reasoning for keeping some of that so close to the vest?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's the most that we know at this point. Obviously there is a great deal of investigative work that is going into the background of this shooter, trying to determine the motivation.
But this was a wild and surreal shooting spree that started in Midland, Texas. Midland and Odessa separated by about 20 miles, these two state troopers attempted to pull over the suspect on a traffic violation.
And before the car even came to a complete stop, the gunman was already firing out of the back window at those state troopers, injuring both of them, and then continued to drive around town.
And in a couple parts of Odessa that we've been in so far, Christi and Victor, it really is surreal to see kind of the number of scattered crime scene areas that are roped off and taped off as police look for bullet fragments in various parking lots and the sides of streets.
That is really something that we have not seen before in any other kind of mass shooting of this magnitude. But this is a shooting spree that went on for some time, that had law enforcement officers urging people across the city to take shelter, to get off the streets immediately and to not be outside.
Those warnings created a great deal of fear across the city, as law enforcement officers tried to track down the suspect, which, eventually they did, on the northeast side of Odessa in the back of that movie theater parking lot.
But it wasn't before this suspect had taken over a U.S. Mail postal truck and continued the shooting spree. One woman here in Odessa described what it was like coming face-to-face with the gunman.
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SHAUNA SAXTON, WITNESS: We hear this pop, pop, pop. But it was loud and you could feel the -- the percussion. Is that what it's called? And I said to Dan, I'm like, is that -- did that car just backfire?
And he was like confused because it didn't really sound like a car backfiring and right -- oh, God.
I looked -- I looked over my shoulder to -- left and the gold car pulled up and the man was there.
And he had a very large gun and it was pointing at me. And in that moment the only thing I could think about was driving away really fast. But there were two cars in front of me.
I started honking my horn. I started swerving, just trying to -- and we got a little ahead of them and then for whatever reason the cars in front of us parted a little and I aggressively made my way away from the gold car.
And right when I did that, I heard three more pops. Three more shots. Just right there. And the thing is, is that if I had not looked over my shoulder, I wouldn't have seen it and I wouldn't have reacted. At the moment, I was just really running for my life and we came back home.
And all this time we're trying to process what this guy was doing. And then we find out that it was a random shooter and we got really lucky today.
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[05:10:00]
LAVANDERA: You can sense there so vividly the nerve-racking panic that many of these people faced in these moments of shooting. In the end, five people dead, 21 injured. One of the dead, according to the Ector County School District here in Odessa, is an Odessa public school student.
And one of the injured is a 17-month-old child who was airlifted to Lubbock, Texas, north of here and is in satisfactory condition.
BLACKWELL: Ed Lavandera for us in Odessa. Thank you.
As Ed mentioned that this now crime scene stretches so far. Typically in these mass shooting incidents it's a location, a shopping store.
PAUL: A building.
BLACKWELL: A building, a movie theater. This stretched on for miles.
PAUL: Multiple crime scenes that they have to look at and so many people, because of the breadth of the crime. There are so many people that witnessed it and are just trying to reconcile that this morning. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The shooter was pulled over on the interstate by a DPS officer, that's when he shot the officer and then took off and started shooting randomly and then everything happened after that.
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SHORES: Just driving around, a normal day. And then I hear the gunshots. It was at least 10 shots. I got one on the door and one went through and ricocheted right here through my wrist and I can't get it out because it is a piece of metal.
That is where my legs normally are when I am driving and I am just thankful that both shots had missed me. That's all I'm thankful for. That's all I got to say now. That's all I'm thankful for, that all I got is a scratch with a metal piece in me and that's it instead of a bullet hole.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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RUSSELL TIPPIN, MEDICAL CENTER HEALTH SYSTEMS CEO: Anybody that hears the sound of my voice, you need to grasp onto your loved ones and hold onto them and you need to pray for this town and all the towns and the families and the victims involved.
You need to hold onto them because this is a scary incident and nobody is guaranteed tomorrow. And if you are here, you can hear my voice, please take a minute to stop and give your thoughts and your prayers to all the families and the victims of this tragic incident.
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JAY HENDRICKS, KOSA ANCHOR: We just kept our microphones on so we could get you up to date because, once again, this is not something we thought would ever happen here.
There are more officers with guns in here. I just saw them. This is still active. I just saw three deputies coming by with guns drawn. So we don't know if perhaps someone is in here. Again, this is very active here in the mall. So I'm going to keep here -- let's see.
I'm being told there's more information on the Midland Facebook. So let me go back to the Midland Police Department Facebook. Bear with me because we're trying to get all the details that we can.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).
HENDRICKS: Uh-oh. OK. So we've got to disappear. Hang on. We're going to keep our mikes on so we can get you up to date. We're told to get out of here.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I noticed a lady on the ground in front of a car, a gold car. The window was broken so I thought maybe she had been run over. So I put my car in park and I jumped out, thinking maybe she needed CPR or something.
When I had walked up to her she was already gone, so that's when I got -- I started walking to my car and the people that were huddled, crying, told me to get in my car and go home because there was an active shooter still on the street.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Joining us now retired FBI supervisory special agent and CNN law enforcement analyst, James Gagliano.
James, we talked about shootings at movie theaters, confined spaces, even outdoor festivals or entertainment districts.
But when it stretches on for miles, in the context of hardening spaces, how do you do that?
What do you do with preventing something like this?
JAMES GAGLIANO, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, Victor, here we are in the wake of yet another mind-numbing mass casualty incident. By my count, we have covered now four in the last five weeks. All of them appeared to have happened on weekends.
And, yes, to your point, this is a really difficult one just because of the length, the space, the bandwidth of the crime scene. We know that it spanned about 20 miles between Midland and Odessa, Texas.
Now not just from the ballistics perspective -- because the police have got to track down or attempt to track down every round that was -- that was released either from a rifle or a pistol during that gun battle -- but also witnesses and victims need to be interviewed.
Obviously you have to go back and track all the usual social media, you know, digital footprint-type items. This is going to take some time.
And I think it's going to require all hands on deck at the federal level with the FBI and the ATF, at the state level with the Texas Department of Public Safety and certainly at the local level with the local police departments, Victor.
PAUL: I want to ask you about one word that seems to be missing in all of this, when we hear about any incidents that escalate.
[05:15:00]
PAUL: Often they start with a routine traffic stop. We're not hearing that word "routine." Do you get the sense that -- what does that tell you, first of all,
that that word is missing?
GAGLIANO: Yes, I want to be real careful, Christi, because it's hard in the wake of these incidents to really kind of read too much into that. But I hear you. And your point here is essentially, first of all, there is no such thing as a routine traffic stop.
And we've talked many times before, that I felt much safer during my career when I was lined up on a door in a dangerous situation with a barricaded hostage situation with a SWAT team than making a traffic stop by myself, like uniformed police officers do.
Look, the big thing here, the big what that everybody is looking for here is, was this premeditated?
Did this individual leave the house loaded for bear, as they would say in Texas, and then wait to do something so that police would be forced to pull him over, make a traffic infraction like go through a stop sign or blow through a stoplight and look to be pulled over to begin a rampage?
Or was this a spontaneous eruption of violence, something that was organic, somebody -- and in Texas a lot of people travel with weapons in their vehicles -- did something trigger him or cause him to -- I hate to use the term snap -- but something trigger him to want to engage in a gun battle and kill innocents?
That's the million dollar question right now.
PAUL: All right. James Gagliano, we always appreciate your insight. Thank you for waking up early for us this morning.
GAGLIANO: Thanks, guys.
BLACKWELL: The other breaking news we're following, Hurricane Dorian set to hit the northwest islands of the Bahamas today. The storm preps are finished, the people who live there, who decided to stay, are bracing for the beginning of what's described as a life- threatening storm. We have a live report from the island of Abaco.
PAUL: And the 5:00 am update tells us that the storm has taken a more westerly track again. South Carolina is watching this storm very closely because they are essentially in that cone of the possibility of getting hit. We're taking you live to Charleston.
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PAUL: Listen, in just a matter of hours, Hurricane Dorian is going to be near or over portions of the northwestern Bahamas. This storm, Allison called it high end category 4. [05:20:00]
PAUL: Sustained winds up to 150 miles per hour but gusts up to 185 right now.
BLACKWELL: Look at this, you've seen this scene before, people who live there spent the day on Saturday, sandbagging to protect their homes, boarding up windows. Officials say if Bahamians in evacuation areas are staying in their homes, they are now on their own.
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DEIRDRE FOX, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, LONG ISLAND, BAHAMAS: Some, of course, will refuse to leave but we made it clear to them that, if this come in as a category 4, there's only a window of opportunity of assistance. The police will not be coming for you in the middle of a hurricane.
You will have to hunker down if your head is hard and stubborn and you will not move, you'll have to hunker down after a certain time because nobody will render assistance to you.
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BLACKWELL: Hurricane Dorian is extremely dangerous with life- threatening storm surge, heavy rains, high winds. One of the islands already feeling some of the effects is Abaco.
PAUL: Theo Sealy is a reporter with Eyewitness News Bahamas there.
Thank you so much for being with us. We certainly appreciate having you here and your perspective, Theo.
What are you experiencing right now?
THEO SEALY, EYEWITNESS NEWS BAHAMAS: Right now, my camera crew and I are stationed at the Dumbest Town (ph) Fish Fry, which sits just on an open dock area. I'm not sure if you can hear the wind and rain outside. But it's heavy gusts of wind at this time.
And pockets of rain have been falling. Weather started to deteriorate sometime around 11:45 so just before midnight. The weather started to deteriorate on the island. If you are unfamiliar with the geographical makeup, we are currently in central Abaco.
The weather conditions are expected to deteriorate as morning approaches. The most recent weather update from the Nassau Meteorological Department indicates that the winds, as you just said, will reach up to about 150 miles per hour.
The center of the hurricane at the last update, which would have been at 2:00 am, it located the storm just about 95 miles away from Abaco. So definitely we will be feeling this ferocious storm in just a matter of hours.
As expected, the wind and the rains will pick up. Forecasters are estimating that this storm is going to dump anywhere between 10 to 15 inches of rain.
So you can imagine, the 10 to 15 inches of rain, coupled with the sea swells, which they expect will be in excess of 6 to 10 feet, a lot of this island will experience extensive flooding, especially low lying areas this morning.
BLACKWELL: Theo, how many people -- I know it's an estimate, you don't have any hard numbers -- but an estimate of how many, a percentage maybe, of people who left the islands, who got out of the way, who evacuated as instructed.
SEALY: Now I just want to make it clear that not all persons on Abaco were asked to evacuate. They were just speaking about person in the cays. So the Abaco Islands are like -- there is the mainland Abaco and then there are the cays.
The prime minister would have issued a mandatory evacuation notice for persons residing on those keys to evacuate as of yesterday. Again, you travel to the island of Abaco yesterday, just asking persons to really take those warnings and the evacuation notices to heart.
I have the most recent statistics from those evacuation efforts and I'm going to have to tell you that a lot of persons decided to stay on those cays. When we look at Sweetings Cay, there are 125 people that are on that cay, only seven persons heeded to the warnings and evacuated that cay.
On Grand CAYLOR: , there are 400 persons that reside on that cay and out of the 400 persons, only 88 persons left.
Now, in addition to the cays the prime minister had issued the mandatory evacuation for, there are low-lying areas and unregulated communities in the Bahamas, actually specifically in Abaco, where undocumented and documented nationals reside.
And these areas are very well known for being prone to flooding. And so we walked through those areas today for about one hour with a blowhorn, with a Creole translator, trying to send a message, that no matter your nationality at this point, as the prime minister said, they just want you to evacuate and get to higher ground and safe shelters on the island.
It's unfortunate that a lot of persons in these cays did not heed the warnings for whatever reason and a lot of them are left on the cays who did not heed the warning.
PAUL: I was listening earlier this morning, they were saying the window to leave now, even if you wanted to try to evacuate, that has come and gone so they are stuck where they are. Theo Sealy, thank you so much for the great information and do take care of you and your crew there.
SEALY: Thank you for having me and I extend my condolences to America on the tragic incident that happened in Texas as well.
PAUL: Theo, thank you so much. BLACKWELL: Thank you.
PAUL: Really appreciate that.
[05:25:00]
PAUL: So we're keeping track of that investigation that Theo just talked about. This mass shooting in Texas, five people are dead, another 21 injured and investigators are there right now.
Eyewitness Alex Woods was right behind the movie theater as police and the suspected shooter exchanged fire. His story in his own words when we come back.
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BLACKWELL: We're following two breaking news stories. Let's first start with Hurricane Dorian. The National Hurricane Center is calling it an extremely dangerous category 4 storm.
It's expected to hit the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama later today but beyond the Bahamas the path has shifted a bit to the west and could bring it closer to Florida. Tropical storm warnings are in effect right now for parts of South Florida, including Vero Beach and West Palm Beach.
PAUL: We're also, of course, watching the breaking news out of Texas. Investigation going on this morning after at least five people were killed in a mass shooting. This came from a routine traffic stop in Midland is how it started; 21 others are injured.
This rampage ended when police shot and killed the gunman in a movie theater parking lot. The shooter is believed to be a white male in his 30s according to police.
BLACKWELL: The witness to the Texas shooting captured the moments when police killed the suspected gunman in a parking lot of that movie theater in Odessa.
PAUL: CNN's Ana Cabrera spoke with phone with that man, Alex Woods, and you are going to see some of the dramatic moments that he was able to capture on his cellphone.
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ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: I want to show you new video that we just got in from the shooting there in Odessa, Texas. Watch this.
[05:30:00]
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WOODS: There's a shooting going on in Odessa, Texas. They're shooting right there.
Oh, he hit the barrier. The cop just hit the barrier.
Get down, get down, get down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get down, get down, get down.
WOODS: Stand still. He shoot him, he shoot him.
Oh, he's killed him. He killed him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) the shooting?
(INAUDIBLE)?
WOODS: Oh, he's shooting him up. He hit the barrier.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: OK, that video was taken by Alex Woods outside the Cinergy Entertainment Complex. We understand that is where the gunman was shot and killed. And Alex, that witness joins us now by phone. Alex, while intense to watch that video, to hear you. Walk us through what you saw starting with what made you begin recording.
WOODS: Well, we had arrived about five minutes before the shooting had begun and the police were heading up towards the hospital which is next to movie theater.
Next thing you know, I hear a pop so I put the camera to where the theater is at and I just see a bunch of gunfire going on and I could see the officer walking up to the mail van and discharging his weapon into it. And I believe that is when the shooter was killed.
CABRERA: Wow. What was going through your mind?
WOODS: It was a very surreal moment. It's - I never thought it would happen in my life.
CABRERA: I imagine you're pretty shaken up still now.
WOODS: A little bit, yes.
CABRERA: Yes. Did you - did you happen to get a look at this man who was the shooter?
WOODS: No I did not. CABRERA: And what was the situation like around you and you talk about
the mail van and the person who is shooting who was eventually killed, were there a lot of people in the vicinity? Was this - this man opening fire and shooting all over the place? Help me understand what was happening.
WOODS: So when they had arrived about five minutes before the shooting at the gun, I had no clue the shooter was even there. There was just police everywhere and there was a bunch of people behind the theater in the field walking and next thing you know, this gun fire is going off.
So it just all happened so quickly, it was all - it was a lot to take in.
CABRERA: Is it clear whether the gunman was able to harm people at the theater before police encountered him?
WOODS: When we had arrived five minutes earlier, it was just police everywhere so not that I'm aware of.
CABRERA: And where are you - where are you now and what can you see?
WOODS: Well, I'm outside of Odessa mall and there are many police around it and it looks like they're evacuating the building, it looks like. There's many people running out of it earlier see police parked out front of - right now.
CABRERA: Have you had a chance to speak with any law enforcement officials, I imagine that they may be interested in speaking to you as a witness?
WOODS: I have not had a chance to speak to them.
CABRERA: What is your plan now?
WOODS: I don't know.
CABRERA: I so appreciate you taking this time to talk with us. Given officials are saying, they can't rule out another shooter being out there possibly. You know, they're telling people to you know be extra cautious. They're telling people to still stay indoors, to stay inside to stay off the streets until they have more additional information.
So I just wanted to pass that along to you so I want to make sure you stay safe and I would encourage you to reach out to law enforcement and share your video with them as well. I'm sure they would be interested. Alex, thank you for taking the time with us. I'm glad you're safe and let's all hope this is all over.
WOODS: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: Now to the latest on Hurricane Dorian and its projected path.
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[05:35:00]
PAUL: Listen, Chef Jose Andres has restaurants in the Bahamas. He and his organization, World Central Kitchen, they are known for helping feed people who need help in the aftermath of natural disasters such as hurricanes. This time he and his teams are riding out the storm with them, though.
BLACKWELL: So Chef Jose spoke with CNN about their plan for helping Bahamians after Hurricane Dorian.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOSE ANDRES, WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN: Our plan is very easy, let's feed anybody who's hungry. We already have great plans in the Bahamas, one of the great resorts, I have a restaurant here.
But they're great partners, they only care right now about helping any person in the Bahamas that may need help. So they're giving us a lot of support.
And what we do is simple. We already have many partners, obviously, in Abaco, in the second biggest city, in Freeport. We already know where we're going to arrive. We already have assets like food. We have water. We will be bringing more food and water with us.
But we do it very simple. The government of Bahamas has many shelters in both islands, in the north. And hopefully we'll go there and we'll support the people on those shelters and anybody else that may be in the island in need of food and water.
That's what we do. That's who we are. We are many chefs and that's what we do. We believe that just adapting and feeding one person at a time, one plate at a time, we can solve an issue.
And we have teams. Some of these amazing people behind me, they've already been in Puerto Rico. We were expecting a big hit in Puerto Rico. At the end, luckily for everybody in that island, the hurricane moved north and Puerto Rico somehow is being saved.
So the entire team went to Florida. And we began getting ready. We thought the hurricane was going south to Florida, almost going to the Keys. But as we see now, it's moving north and east.
And so we have the entire teams in Florida that is moving north and almost getting ready also to answer to South Carolina and North Carolina and, who knows, even north of that.
But right now, we felt that we had to be right here in the Bahamas, helping the great people of Bahamas. And that's what we do every time because sometimes a disaster is so big that even if the government prepared for everything, chaos happens.
And what World Central Kitchen does very well is adapt to chaos and we are able to assist anybody who may be in need of food or water. That's what usually we do. We wait but we keep moving nonstop.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: South Carolina is under a state of emergency as Hurricane Dorian approaches. CNN's Leyla Santiago is in Charleston.
LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor, the city of Charleston will be activating its emergency operations center this morning. How else they're preparing coming up.
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[05:40:00]
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BLACKWELL: Well, the Bahamas are going to feel this storm first but South Carolina is under a state of emergency as Hurricane Dorian approaches.
PAUL: Residents there are being told, get ready for strong winds, get ready for storage surges. CNN's Leyla Santiago is in Charleston, South Carolina.
Leyla, I think you are the prime example of how this storm has moved and how confusing it's been to people. You were in Miami yesterday.
SANTIAGO: Right.
PAUL: You were in Cocoa Beach before that.
SANTIAGO: Right.
PAUL: Now you are all the way up in Charleston.
What are you hearing from people there today?
SANTIAGO: Right. It has been so erratic of a storm to follow and I think people are taking note of that, sort of the mood here has been that there is enough time for people to prepare. But there's also enough time for things to really change and for Dorian to take another path.
So that said, the city of Charleston is getting ready, the city council had a conference call yesterday in which they all talked about preparations. They have water pumps that are in place because flooding is a very big concern. They also said that they will be opening the emergency operations center in a matter of hours, 8:00 am today.
I want to read you this statement from the mayor of Charleston, he says, "While the exact path of Hurricane Dorian is still subject to change, this is a large powerful storm and we need to prepare for the worst, even as we hope for the best."
I will say that at the hotel where we are staying we noticed immediately that they had flood panels already up, again, flooding always a major concern here in Charleston. As far as other preps, we know that some folks are taking advantage of the weekend to go and get the supplies they need should Dorian head this way.
Listen to one woman who talked about the way that her family is preparing. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've noticed that some people are starting to buy water and I think the traffic in the grocery store has picked up a good bit. I believe that my husband bought some water this morning and said that it looked like they were already raiding the shelves. So I think we bought 10 gallons but we will need it for the rest of the season.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANTIAGO: For the most part the stores that we've been to seem to be pretty stocked up but I suspect that as folks wake up this morning that could change -- Victor, Christi.
BLACKWELL: Leyla Santiago for us now in Charleston, South Carolina. Thank you.
[05:45:00]
BLACKWELL: Right now hundreds of protesters are flooding into Hong Kong's international airport, shutting down the main transport routes to one of the world's busiest hubs. Police have warned them to leave immediately. Let's go now to Will Ripley, who is near the scene of another fire now for a second day.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Victor. So this is the road that would lead to Hong Kong's International Airport. The reason why we came here is because public transportation going directly to the airport has been suspended.
The reason why it was suspended: protesters were trying to get into the airport for a demonstration today, a demonstration that is illegal because the airport is closed to anybody who is not traveling.
So what have protesters done?
As of just a few minutes ago, there were thousands of them who came from the airport along this road, completely stopping traffic on this road to the MTR station nearby. We know that police are also approaching this area from multiple directions.
So to try to slow the police down, what we've seen the protesters do is build barricades just like -- just like this one here, barricades that they have now set on fire as you see. So not only will police not necessarily be able to cross with their equipment but they are going to have to call in firefighters.
That is complicated by the fact that a lot of the roads around here are complete gridlock. More when we come back.
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PAUL: A situation going on in Hong Kong this morning. They suspended a main public transport line to the international airport, authorities have, after hundreds of pro democracy protesters overwhelmed the travel links. Right now protesters are setting fires in the streets.
BLACKWELL: CNN's Will Ripley is live in Hong Kong.
Will, what are you seeing around you?
RIPLEY: It's extraordinary because you have this barricade the protesters have set up, set on fire, just like we saw them do last night on Hong Kong island. We are near Hong Kong's airport, this road would take you there. But it's been completely blocked off by protesters.
They weren't able to bring their protests inside the airport because security is so extensive so they've taken the protests outside. If people want to catch a flight, they have to take a train to the MTR station, about five minutes' walk.
And we've actually seen people with their spinners walking across this bridge making what could be an hour's walk to get to their flight. That's what people are having to do at the moment.
Even though Hong Kong protesters have not succeeded in causing any flight disruptions or cancellations inside the airport, outside it is utter chaos. I want to show you what the scene looks like here because you can see all of these buses, all of these cars, they've all been here for more than an hour that we've been out here.
They have not moved an inch. You can hear the one vehicle that does sometimes get through are ambulances, protesters have managed to make way for emergency personnel.
But they've been sending alerts to each other on social media that riot police are moving towards this area in multiple directions.
We presume that firefighters are also now going to have to be called to the scene here and we have protesters preparing for what could be yet another evening of fighting here in Hong Kong, another evening of disruption -- Victor, Christi.
BLACKWELL: Getting into the evening hours, nearly 6 o'clock.
PAUL: Will Ripley, thank you so much. You and the crew take good care there.
BLACKWELL: We're also getting the latest information on the mass shooting in Odessa, Texas, Midland as well, that left five people dead, 21 injured. Another shooting rampage in the U.S., strong reaction from several 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. We will hear what they are saying this morning just ahead. (MUSIC PLAYING)
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[05:55:00]
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PAUL: The Bahamas are starting to feel what Hurricane Dorian is bringing to it now, the Abaco Islands are being hit with tropical storm force winds. Grand Bahama could see a storm surge of up to 20 feet.
BLACKWELL: We don't know if Dorian will make landfall in the U.S. But the latest forecast shows its path has shifted to the west, putting parts of South Florida back into that cone of uncertainty.
PAUL: And this morning authorities in West Texas are spread out over a massive crime scene there, where five people were killed and at least 21 others injured in a shooting rampage.
BLACKWELL: Authorities say the shooting spree started with a traffic stop between the cities of Midland and Odessa, Texas, and ended with a man dead outside the mall, the gunman. It is the second mass shooting in Texas in less than a month.
PAUL: Authorities have not revealed a motive for yesterday's shooting but we are seeing renewed calls from lawmakers across the country and in Texas to do something about the spread of gun violence across the U.S.
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KELTON SELIGER (R), TEXAS STATE SENATOR: The problems we had today weren't simply caused by the presence of guns in our community.
It's why the governor has impaneled a commission on public safety to look at situations like this and answer questions, what are the root causes and how can we address them long before it comes to violent instances like the one that happened today.
As a gun owner, I find it easy enough to buy and own guns of every description. I don't know that that's necessarily the answer. But we need to understand all the options and all the things that we need to do to address situations like this.
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BLACKWELL: 2020 presidential candidates, the Democrats, are reacting to the shooting in Texas.
We have this from Andrew Yang, he tweeted, "We are the only country that struggles with gun violence at this level. Other countries respond to tragedy. We must as well. Our people deserve better than to live in fear and be struck down at random. We are better than this. We will do better for our kids." PAUL: Kamala Harris tweets, "Keeping the Midland and Odessa community and victims in my thoughts and prayers. Grateful to first responders who ran into harm's way. I'm sick of this. America is sick of this. We need to act."
BLACKWELL: Also on Twitter from Elizabeth Warren, "I'm heartsick for the victims of this latest mass shooting in Odessa and Midland. We shouldn't have to live with this near daily fear and horror. We've already lost far too many to gun violence. Congress must act now."
PAUL: And former Vice President Joe Biden tweeting, "I'm heartbroken, sickened and angry. Weeks after the horror in El Paso, another community in Texas has been terrorized by gun violence. Enough. We must end this epidemic."
And former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke was blunt.
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BETO O'ROURKE (D-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Don't know what the motivation is. Do not yet know the firearms that were used or how they acquired them. But we do know this is (inaudible) up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes!
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O'ROURKE: We do know that this has to stop (INAUDIBLE). There is no -- there is no reason, there is no reason that we have to accept this as our fortune, as our future, as our fate. And yet, functionally, right now, we have.
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BLACKWELL: From Senator Cory Booker, "Beginning on day one in office, I will take executive action to reduce gun violence, closing dangerous loopholes in gun sales, cracking down on gun manufacturers and investing in communities impacted by gun violence."
PAUL: And candidate Julian Castro from Texas, of course, he is from San Antonio, talked with CNN last night.
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JULIAN CASTRO (D-TX), FORMER HUD SECRETARY, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: we need common sense gun safety legislation, universal background checks, limiting the capacity of magazines, a renewed assault weapons ban.
As your viewers know, the AR-15 especially has been, unfortunately, the weapon of choice of many of these shooters. Those are weapons of war and don't belong on the streets.
In addition to that, we need to do things like institute a seven-day waiting period for the purchase a firearm.
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WOODS: There is a shooting going on in Odessa, Texas.
Oh, God, they're shooting right there.
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JULIE VICKNAIR: Oh, my God, he's fixing to shoot.
(INAUDIBLE)
JOEY VICKNAIR: Y'all get down.
JULIE VICKNAIR: Oh, my God.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of a sudden you could hear the popping sounds, you know, of gunshots.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cars with bullet holes show the path of destruction left in Midland and Odessa.
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