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Hurricane Laura Hits Coast as Category 4; Seventeen-Year-Old Arrested in Fatal Shooting During Kenosha Protests; Wisconsin State Investigators Release Timeline of Jacob Blake's Shooting. Aired 9- 9:30a ET

Aired August 27, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:25]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A very good Thursday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto. And welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world.

The breaking news this morning, Hurricane Laura has slammed into the Gulf Coast as a category 4 storms packing winds of up to 150 miles per hour. This is the most powerful hurricane to hit the state in more than a century.

Look at this in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Wind gusts so strong it pushes over an RV. The Golden Nugget Casino in Lake Charles, pieces of its roof blowing through the air like confetti.

We're getting some first images this morning now in the daylight after forecasters warned of a, quote, "unsurvivable storm surge."

Hundreds of thousands in Louisiana and Texas without power. That storm, though, we should note has weakened now as it's come ashore.

Also this morning, federal investigators have launched a civil rights probe into the police shooting of Jacob Blake. 29-year-old black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Protesters took to the streets for the fourth straight night after Blake was shot in the back multiple times, eight times his lawyer says, in front of his three young children. Authorities have just released a timeline now of the shooting.

We are also getting new information on the Illinois teen arrested in the shooting that left two people dead during Tuesday night's protest. Kyle Rittenhouse, there he is, with his weapon, charged with first- degree intentional homicide.

Why was he there?

First, let's start with the destruction left by Hurricane Laura. CNN's Gary Tuchman, he is in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Gary, tell us what we're seeing there. Looking prior to this, real warnings about a very deadly storm. Any sense that they've dodged the worst of this?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, it felt like a night that would never end. It was a real-life hell skate. 150-mile- per-hour winds make a lot of scary noises, buildings shake. We were staying in that Golden Nugget Hotel that you're talking about for part of the worst of this hurricane. I was on the 12th floor, 120 feet up, and it felt like an earthquake and then aftershocks continuing for two hours.

The good news we can tell you right now, this is very encouraging, the sun just came up about an hour and 15 minutes ago, so far, here in the state of Louisiana, there are no reports of any deaths or any injuries.

Now that very well likely change. As we speak search and rescue patrols are out on these waters, out in other waters throughout the state looking for people who need help. They're having some calls for people who need to be rescued.

We are here in southwestern Louisiana by a river that yesterday we were standing by doing live reports. This was a beach. You could see that's the volleyball court. It is now in the Calcasieu River, a much bigger river than it used to be. And that was the concern, that this was going to have record flooding levels. Indeed there's a huge flood here, but the concern was that the storm surge would perhaps be as much as 20 feet.

You can see here, there is some flooding, but there are no reports of any storm surges here in this part of Louisiana near Lake Charles that are anywhere near that high. What we do know is there's extensive damage to houses and buildings. For example, this casino, L'Auberge, 750 rooms. You can see part of the siding of this hotel has been peeled away.

And that gives you an idea, though. Lots of reports here at Lake Charles of heavy damages to houses and buildings, but like we said we hope there are not casualties here. The biggest concern we have is to the parish to the south of here, and that is Cameron Parish. Cameron Parish only has about 5,000 people and this parish it's about 195,000 people. Most people evacuated.

They're smart, too, because during Hurricane Rita 15 years ago, we took a boat ride passed -- in the Gulf of Mexico past that parish the day after the hurricane. Every single building we see they're heavily damaged or destroyed. This hurricane was much more powerful than Hurricane Rita. We're very worried about anyone who stayed there and so far, rescue workers haven't been able to get to that parish -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I was there during Rita as well. I remember.

Gary Tuchman, thanks very much.

Joining us now is Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser.

Lieutenant Governor, we appreciate you taking the time this morning. We know you've got a lot on your plate. We know it's early because you're going to just be getting first reports from some of those more remote areas, but tell us what you know now about the extent of damage and if there may still be any casualties.

[09:05:02]

LT. GOV. BILLY NUNGESSER (R), LOUISIANA: Well, you know, further south on the coast, as first responders make their way down there, we're anxious to hear because that's where the large tidal surge was expected. The good news is it wasn't what we expected, 20 feet.

But the stories of some people staying were very concerned. One family I talked to at 3:30 this morning 50 miles from the coast, as they felt their roof being lifted up, said they will never ride out another storm. And hopefully they're safe as well. So we know some people stayed and we hope no one lost their life.

SCIUTTO: Yes. It's a constant thing when we cover these storms. So many folks just don't listen and that puts a strain, does it not, on first responders.

NUNGESSER: Absolutely. You can't go out in the middle of a storm and the next morning when you get light, you hope you go back and find people, no deaths. And that's what we're hoping this morning and praying that the people who did stay survived it. The good news as I said was the storm surge wasn't what expected. And you talked about Rita. I was down there after Rita as well. And there wasn't much left standing and this storm was far worse than that. So we're hoping for the best.

SCIUTTO: For sure. And we wish you luck as you go out there and you make contact with people.

Let me ask you now what Louisiana needs most from the federal government, but also we got a lot of people watching now, maybe there are ways they can reach out and help.

NUNGESSER: Right. You know it's a double -- we're still dealing with the COVID-19, so finding housing for people that lost their homes is going to be a challenge. You can't put them in a large shelter. The governor, you know, put them in hotel rooms where we could. But long term finding these people a place to live whether it's in trailers, we're looking at possibly putting people in our state parks.

That's going to be a challenge to make sure we keep them safe from COVID-19 as well as finding a roof to put over their head.

SCIUTTO: Understood. Did you find that the concerns about the pandemic added to people's reluctance perhaps to leave their homes, they didn't want to go to the shelters?

NUNGESSER: Well, we were heard that early on from a lot of people. They were fearful of being put in a large shelter and that's when I think the decision was made to move into hotels across Louisiana so the families could stay together, be isolated. and not be in large groups. And I think that was a wise move in FEMA to support those moves to hotels instead of large shelters, helped a lot of people make the decision to get out.

SCIUTTO: Understood. Everybody's adjusting as they go. All right. So folks who are in Louisiana right now might be watching this broadcast. What do you want to say to them, folks in coastal areas, as to what they should do now?

NUNGESSER: Well, you know, we'll get through this. You know, it's tough. Unfortunately Louisiana's been very good. You know, this year is the anniversary of Katrina. I rode it out. Not a very wise choice, 14 miles from the eye in Plaquemines Parish and thought there was no end in sight after that devastating storm, but we always come back better than ever.

It's going to be a while, it's going to be a long haul to get back where we were. But Louisianans reach out as does the rest of America. Always reaches out to help us rebuild.

SCIUTTO: They do indeed. You guys are tough down there, but we do wish you luck because we know it's going to be tough next few days and weeks.

Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser, thank you.

NUNGESSER: Thank you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, right now in neighboring Texas more than 100,000 people are waking up without power. This after Laura slammed into parts of that state as well. These pictures here they were out of Crystal Beach. You'll see flood waters swamping dozens of homes. Roadways along the coastline. The National Hurricane Center warned that the storm surge there could spread up to 30 miles inland in parts of southeast Texas. It's very low there.

Let's get the latest on the track of the storm, CNN's Chad Myers in the CNN Weather Center.

First, Chad, I do want to know where it's headed next, but we've been speaking the last couple of days as it was coming towards the shore. Was it less powerful than expected?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I think the wind was more powerful than expected, but the fact that it went from a tropical storm to a very strong cat 4 so quickly, you didn't have that building of the bubble. You didn't have the building of the storm surge whereas Katrina was a cat 5 in the southern Gulf of Mexico. It was a cat 5 for a while and then came on shore as a cat 3 but had that cat 5 bubble underneath it. So that's why we didn't get to the 20. Maybe somewhere around 11.

This turned into a wind damage storm, Jim. This didn't turn into a storm surge. Now Cameron Parish is a mess. And I was just talking with my producer, and he said, do you think that, you know, we're going to say it dodged a bullet? Because it was only nine or 11 feet, and I said, I said, Dave, you know, if the water is two feet over your house, or 12 feet over your house, does your house survive?

[09:10:12] SCIUTTO: Yes.

MYERS: And the answer was no. Just because it wasn't 20 doesn't mean that the houses on Holly Beach and Cameron are still in good shape. It still was a devastating effect. But what happened was when it finally got to Lake Charles, that's when the wind was over 120 for a solid hour. And I said, that's like an EF-2 over your house for an hour, but almost more like a derecho for an hour at 120 because the wind was coming from the same direction.

I'm seeing pictures, and I'm forwarding them, I'm tweeting them out that I'm getting them from Lake Charles and the damage is devastating. This is not a miss.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

MYERS: This is a direct hit. It's just going to take us an hour or two to get reporters out there because there are so many trees and power lines down we can't even move.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

MYERS: We can't get away from these hotels and these hotels that were built not that many years ago, they were very strong, also got significant damage. So this is a one-two punch with the rain and the floods from the south and Cameron, but only 4,000 people. And then the wind damage to the north.

SCIUTTO: Yes. It's a good point. Let's wait until we see what folks find out in the outer limits of this.

Chad Myers, we know you're going to be on top of it. Thanks very much.

MYERS: You bet.

SCIUTTO: Still to come this hour, we're learning more about the 17- year-old boy charged in the deadly shooting, that's him there, that took place during a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Apparently patrolling the streets as something of a vigilante with a group of armed men.

And the professional sports world is taking a stand, a rare one, a broad one, here. Games across the U.S. are called off as teams protest the shooting of Jacob Blake. Could the NBA season be effectively over?

We're going to have much more on that widespread protest there. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:00]

SCIUTTO: Right now, several developments out of Kenosha, Wisconsin, including new details about the 17-year-old -- that's right, a 17- year-old arrested after shooting two people during protests. Two people dead. Kyle Rittenhouse charged with first degree intentional homicide. His Facebook page highlighting his affinity for guns, police and President Trump.

Reports indicate he was part of an armed militia working they say, to protect property there. Police are now investigating this video taken moments after the shooting to see whether or not, it is Rittenhouse walking there in the middle of the street with his hands up in front of police, they let him pass.

This as CNN learns that Facebook failed to shut down a page that was encouraging citizens such as Rittenhouse to take to the streets of Kenosha. Also raising concerns this morning, comments from Kenosha's police chief seeming to defend the arrival of armed vigilantes in his town.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN MISKINIS, KENOSHA POLICE: Everybody involved was out after the curfew. I'm not going to make a great deal of that. But the point is the curfew is in place to protect. Had persons not been out involved in violation of that, perhaps the situation that unfolded would not have happened. So the last night, a 17-year-old individual from Antioch, Illinois, was involved in the use of firearms to resolve -- do excuse me, to resolve whatever conflict was in place. The result of it was two people are dead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: To resolve the conflict. More on that in a moment, but first, there are also new developments in the shooting of Jacob Blake which sparked all this. Of course, the man -- the black man shot in the back in front of his children. Investigators have now finally released a rough time line of what they see happening in the months before a police officer shot him in the back.

Those are his young sons there, they were in the car as it happened. CNN's Shimon Prokupecz is in Kenosha following all the fronts. Shimon, what details are police releasing about Blake's shooting. I spoke to his lawyer yesterday who said he did not have a weapon. Police now claiming that there was a weapon in the car. What do we know?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME & JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right. Just because there was a weapon in the car does not mean that Mr. Blake was using it in any kind of a threatening way, and that's what's not clear.

Police finally came out after days of not saying anything, the authorities here finally came out and revealed some information. And one of the things as you said that they revealed was that they found a knife inside the vehicle that he was using. They also say that Blake told them that he had a knife. But what they don't explain is what he was doing with that knife.

Were the officers feeling threatened with the idea of this knife being in the car? Because we still don't have an explanation really as to why the officer grabbed Mr. Blake by the back, by the shirt and then shot him several times. Seven times, he was shot. Police saying that yesterday. They also said they were going to the home to this location on a domestic dispute.

But we don't know what exactly escalated it to the point where Mr. Blake would be shot seven times in the back. Officers also were -- used a taser, authorities here said, to try and handle the situation. That didn't work. It escalated. But again, Jim, it doesn't still explain, the days that we have waited to get answers from the police, still does not explain why they shot this man seven times in the back.

SCIUTTO: OK, so now we have another shooting, two people dead. The perpetrator of this, the 17-year-old white male, he's in custody. Hard to discern what exactly the police chief was saying there. He seemed to be saying that they welcome the vigilantes or were saying that they might be doing some good to resolve the conflict? Well, what is the police saying and what's the latest on the 17-year-old now charged with homicide?

[09:20:00]

PROKUPECZ: Right, almost sympathetic Jim, right? To the idea of these vigilantes running around here on the street. This is an open carry state, so the police really can't enforce laws that would prevent people from carrying weapons here.

They were carrying them out in the open. We saw a video of officers just clearly walking by, driving by a lot of them. What we learned yesterday that Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old, he ultimately surrendered himself to the Antioch police which is about 10 miles or so from here. What's not clear yet obviously is how he got here. What sparked him? What caused him to come here?

We know that there was a Facebook page that was advertising, encouraging people to come here to act as vigilantes, to protect property. And so what we don't know what his connection is to this group, how he came across them. It could be on Facebook, but Facebook says they don't see anything that indicates that he was liking anything on their pages, that he had joined their discussion group.

The other thing obviously is the weapon. He's 17 years old, it's unclear at this point how he got his hands on that weapon. That is something investigators are looking at as well. He is now in custody over in Antioch, in Illinois. He is expected to make his first court appearance on Friday for an extradition hearing which will bring him here, eventually to Kenosha where he is charged with intentional murder as an adult. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Lord -- Shimon Prokupecz, good to have you on the story, thanks very much. With me now is the Kenosha County Board's supervisor and district attorney, Andy Berg. Mr. Berg, thanks for taking the time this morning. Is there any place for --

ANDY BERG, BOARD SUPERVISOR IN KENOSHA COUNTY, WISCONSIN: Good morning, thank you for having me --

SCIUTTO: Armed vigilantes from outer state in your community? Do you see them as -- the police chief there was saying --trying to resolve the situation? BERG: Well, I mean, using his same logic, if he wasn't here, we

wouldn't have had the situation occur. We didn't have vigilantes walking around our streets, we wouldn't have had that situation occur. How many businesses did they actually protect other than those that were boarded up or already burned down.

SCIUTTO: Yes, do you welcome the arrival of vigilantes, what is your position, are they welcome there --

BERG: No --

SCIUTTO: In Kenosha?

BERG: Absolutely not. I mean, there are some folks in our community that do welcome them, some of them that may have enticed them, but absolutely not. The overwhelming majority of us do not want anybody coming from out of town to come in to burn down our city or to riot or loot or to do vigilante, so --

SCIUTTO: So what happens now, right? I mean, it's an open carry- state, so constitutionally, police can't stop them. I mean, how do police bring both the rioters under control and these groups coming from outside the state? What are they going to do about it?

BERG: Well, I think last night was part of that, between the law enforcement's presence and the community saying that we don't want them here. There was nothing going on last night. It was very peaceful protests that were going on until about 1 O'clock in the morning, at least. And as far as I know, there was no damage last night.

SCIUTTO: Do you feel you need a statement from the president on the arrival of vigilantes? Because it's not the first time we've seen it, it's not the only community where we've seen this happen around the country. Do you need a clear statement from Washington, saying this is not how we handle these things, that's the job of police.

BERG: I don't know if the statement is going to make a difference. I don't think even think that it would even come to that point. I don't think that he's actually going to make a statement for Kenosha, Wisconsin. I mean, yes, I don't see the necessity in that nor do I even see him stepping forward --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

BERG: To do something like that.

SCIUTTO: OK, let's talk about local leadership, then I'm going to show you some video here, this is how the police reacted to the arrival of these groups. They were handing out water bottles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No laser pointers either. No laser pointers. They think that's gone too.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SCIUTTO: Thinking -- seeming to welcome them. Are police, therefore,

partly responsible for allowing these folks to come in?

BERG: Well, you heard in the statement that if the protesters and the rioters weren't there, then we wouldn't --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

BERG: Have that situation. Well, why are you even allowing -- if we have a curfew, why are you allowing people to walk through our streets --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

BERG: With weapons? I mean, that's a threat in itself, just having somebody that are standing there with a weapon. But I'll pass curfew and still carrying a weapon. I mean, no. I don't think --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

BERG: I don't agree with it.

SCIUTTO: By the way, just for folks who are watching that video, that gentleman in the grey T-shirt there with the weapon is Rittenhouse who after this point, later carried out that shooting.

[09:25:00]

Let's talk about the investigation into the shooting of Blake now. Where does that stand? Police seem to be saying there was a knife under his driver's side seat, witnesses say and his lawyer says that he was not threatening the police at any time. Where does the investigation stand?

BERG: As of right now, I'm not sure where the investigation stands, but I mean where else -- was he may be reaching down to get his keys out of his car? I mean, there's a lot of speculation that can still be coming -- that can come out of this, how far was the knife underneath his -- underneath his seat?

SCIUTTO: Do you -- looking at that video yourself, consider this a justified use of force by police from what you know so far?

BERG: From what I know, I'm not going to say that it's justified. He had -- he walked almost 280 degrees around that vehicle, and at any time, he could have been physically taken down to the ground --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

BERG: Knowing that he already told them that he had a knife. I don't --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

BERG: Agree with it. SCIUTTO: Tell us about the fears of Kenosha residents more broadly.

You have said that many have left the city to find refuge. Tell me about the level of fear and concern in the community right now.

BERG: Well, a lot of people have left the community. They have gone west of the Interstate to go visit -- to be with family because they're afraid of what's going on. There are individuals --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

BERG: That I've seen pictures that they've actually set up their rifles in their garages to protect themselves. There's folks that are carrying more often around here now. And just everybody is kind of -- a lot of people have hunkered down, but last night was hopefully a good showing that things are starting to slow down and hopefully it passes through the weekend.

But we still need to consider the fact that we're still not listening to what our community members are saying and our more diverse districts, and we need to kind -- we need to listen to them to actually make changes to what they're saying.

SCIUTTO: If folks feel the need to have guns in their garage, right, to respond to this, who's to blame for this -- who do you place the lion's share of the blame for this?

BERG: I think that could be looked at from both the local level and all the way to the national level. And the need to try to exploit certain situations and work on people's emotions when I don't think things are as -- for some folks, things aren't as bad as things actually are portrayed, but for many folks in more diverse districts, absolutely, we still need to work on those areas.

SCIUTTO: Who are you saying is exploiting this?

BERG: Well, you can look at it from a lot of the political aspects. From the president himself and from folks that are taking the situation -- taking situations in our lives and just making them bigger than they actually need to be.

SCIUTTO: Yes, Andy Berg, thanks, we wish you and your community the best of luck as you try to find some peace here.

BERG: Thank you, I appreciate you having me.

SCIUTTO: Well, a federal official tells CNN that the CDC was pressured from the top down by the Trump administration to change its guidance on coronavirus testing to reduce the amount of testing. Why some experts say that unexplained change threatens public safety, your safety, that's ahead.

And we're moments away from the opening on Wall Street, futures mixed this morning, investors waiting for a speech from the Fed chair, this as we learn that another 1 million Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits in just one week last week. We're going to see how markets react to all of this, stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)