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Police: Racist Massacre Shooter Had Plans To "Continue His Rampage"; Ten Killed In Racist Massacre At Grocery Store In Buffalo; Finland And Sweden Announce They Will Apply For NATO Membership; Ukraine: Russians Concentrating Forces Around Severodonetsk. Aired 3- 3:30p ET

Aired May 16, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:02:08]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: It's the top of the hour on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Alisyn Camerota.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: I'm Victor Blackwell in Buffalo, New York.

Police here say the suspect in that that racist rampage that ended with the death of 10 people plan to keep killing beyond the Tops market if he'd not been stopped. Now, authorities say this suspect is 18-year-old white man drove more than 200 miles to this neighborhood to kill, to kill black people. Many in the community here and across the country are outraged that there is another mass shooting apparently driven by white supremacy.

CAMEROTA: And, of course, the tributes are already pouring in for the victims who were killed. They're all black Americans ranging in age from 32 to 86. The family of one victim, Ruth Whitfield, speaking out and a loved one collapsing during the news conference overwhelmed by grief. One of Whitfield's sons then called out the hate and racism that investigators say motivated this shooter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAYMOND WHITFIELD, SON OF SHOOTING VICTIM: For those people who do not see us, how dare you not see us as Americans. We stand here on the blood, sweat and tears of our ancestors ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Amen.

R WHITFIELD: ... and she taught us to be proud of that fact.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Amen.

R WHITFIELD: Okay?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And proud of it.

R WHITFIELD: She was unapologetically an African-American princess, okay? (END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Victor, I know that's just one family, of course, and you're learning more about what the shooter had planned beyond this.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Buffalo Police Commissioner told me this morning that there's some documentation that the shooter had plans to possibly start shooting in other places, another large superstore. Now, investigators believe the suspect was in Buffalo the day before the shooting, did some reconnaissance at the Tops friendly market and he also told us that they're going through this 180-page racist rant that the shooter posted online.

Now, in it, the self-described white supremacist and fascist anti- Semite, allegedly had been radicalized by reading online message boards. They also revealed that he chose the Tops market because of its location in a majority black zip code 14208.

Now, authorities said that the accused gunman was already known to law enforcement after he made what they're describing as a generalized threat to his high school in June last year, a school spokesman told us that that was about murder suicide. Listen to what else the sheriff here told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF JOHN GARCIA, ERIE COUNTY, NEW YORK: His high school post graduation project was murder suicide. So the State Police arrived at his house at that point last year. He stayed at a facility, I don't - I'm not sure if it was a hospital or a mental health facility for a day and a half.

[15:05:01]

But where were the red flags for him to be able to purchase these guns legally and we have to get better, but we can't keep on saying that we have to get better and the - as police, we can only do so much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: All right. Let's turn now to CNN's Omar Jimenez with the latest on the investigation. What are you learning?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's still a lot to go through at this point. A lot of different factors at play and a lot of the clues are likely coming from that 180-page worth of writings where this shooter allegedly outlined in chilling detail a plan that was then carried out about a year later.

But authorities are also going into this man's background, where this AR-15 was purchased and whether it was modified, perhaps. We also know as you heard some of those Sheriff's statements a few moments ago that a year ago he was investigated by the New York State Police for a school project about murder suicide that prompted a visit to a local facility. Then a year later this racist attack as outlined in this shooter's own writings allegedly. Now, moving forward, at the heart of this is civil community. Of course grieving the loss of 10 of their own taken in a matter of moments, gunned down in a matter of moments, I should say. Among them, 86-year-old Ruth Whitfield who was on her way back from caring for her elderly and sick husband when she stopped at the grocery store. Her son heard about the shooting called and called her but never got a response. Take a listen, I spoke with him earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARNELL WHITFIELD JR., SON OF BUFFALO SHOOTING VICTIM RUTH WHITFIELD: She didn't deserve to be treated in such a manner as she was. I mean, she didn't deserve that. She was a beautiful person. We're still in the midst of this thing. Nobody can take her place and so we have to live the rest of our lives having lost our mother to this senseless, heinous, evil crime and that's hard to fathom, that's hard to digest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: Now, Whitfield is the former buffalo Fire Commissioner here and he and his attorney Ben Crump say they plan to pursue legal action in this. As for the shooter, he pleaded guilty to first degree murder of the weekend expected back in court on Thursday and then, of course, we expect President Biden to visit with the families tomorrow.

BLACKWELL: All right. Omar Jimenez, thank you so much.

Listen, 10 people that lives gone here and we have discussed how this impacts individual families. But as we learned at the top of the show, this impacts the community on a large scale. These were puzzle pieces in this community in this world, the beloved grandmother of six as well we know one who battled breast cancer a few years ago, a grandson plan to surprise her with flowers, perfume, a home-cooked meal and you see her on your screen here. Pearl Young 77 years old worked for years as a substitute teacher in the Buffalo Public School District.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMIE SMITH, FRIEND OF BUFFALO SHOOTING VICTIM PEARL YOUNG: She was always giving. For over 25 years, she was in the Central Park Plaza in Buffalo, New York running a food pantry, giving and helping and being faithful to her church. She was at a prayer breakfast and I grew up knowing the sites to go to for a breakfast on a Saturday morning and they've kept that tradition going and then she decided to go to the grocery store and this is just - it's crazy to me how you can leave a prayer breakfast and then go into something like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Geraldine Talley was one of the 10 killed in the shooting on Saturday. She was 62 years old. Joining me now are two members of her family to Tamika Harper and Kaye Johnson, Geraldine's nieces. Last hour I spoke with Lakesha Chapman. Thank you for - at this time being with me.

Tamika, I read that you said that she was more than your aunt. She was like a second mother to you.

TAMIKA HARPER, NIECE OF BUFFALO SHOOTING VICTIM GERALDINE TALLEY: She was my aunt, my second mom.

BLACKWELL: What are you feeling right now?

HARPER: I'm feeling angry. I have so much anger - I'm so angry. I feel like our hearts was just ripped out of our bodies. My aunt was the nicest - nice woman in the world. She would give her shirt off her back for anyone, anyone.

BLACKWELL: And Kaye, what are you feeling?

KAYE JOHNSON, NIECE OF BUFFALO SHOOTING VICTIM GERALDINE TALLEY: Completely devastated. I don't know, every time I close my eyes I just imagine what my aunt last thoughts was.

[15:10:01]

JOHNSON: She didn't get a chance to think, blink, nothing. This is just devastating. All the family that lost--

BLACKWELL: Tamika, what we've learned is that this man came here, not obviously knowing your family members, but was just looking for black people specifically. When you heard that detail, what did you feel? What did you think?

HARPER: It goes so much deeper for me. I was actually on my way here to pick up some chicken for my mom and my sister. We had a date that we had at three o'clock ...

BLACKWELL: On Saturday.

HARPER: ... on Saturday. And I was on my way here and I got caught up and didn't get here when I wanted to get here. My son caught me and all this happened on my granddaughter's birthday. So my son and his baby mother called me to come pick them up so that they could take my granddaughter to the zoo. So I said I'm not going to even go to Tops first, I'm just going to go get them and they'll ride to Tops with me, so I that's what I did.

It took them about 20 minutes to come out the house as always and I proceeded to come to Tops. On my way here, there was a police car that came - pulled up behind me. I'm like, "Oh, gosh, why is he pulling me over?" So I pulled over thinking I was being pulled over and he sped past me and I'm like, "Oh." So I continue to come here.

And when I got here, I've seen police, firefighters, ambulance, I'm like, "Oh, my god. What was going on?" So as I'm saying that, my daughter in love said, "There's an active shooting at Tops right now." And I said, "What?"

So as soon as she said that I got a call from my mom. My mom was crying. I said, "Mom, I'm good. I'm okay. I didn't make it in the store. I never even within there yet." She said, "No, your grandma aunty Geri is in there, and (inaudible) can't find her, they can't find her."

So immediately I started calling her phone non-stop. I started (inaudible) my god, because I knew God will get through this. I knew God will bring my aunt out there alive, because she was so good of heart and she didn't deserve this, so I know she will be walking out of that store. I know she was walking. I know she was going to walk out of there. But unfortunately she didn't. She didn't. She didn't.

BLACKWELL: Kaye, how will you remember your aunt?

JOHNSON: Birthday just passed not too long ago and my aunt made me a birthday card, I'm in nursing school. And everything was just like my little nurse and everything. I'm just going make sure (inaudible) and strong for her. This is crazy. I cannot believe that this happened in our city.

HARPER: And we hear about this all the time and my heart has hurt so many times with different families, because we hear it happens. It happens.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

HARPER: But this right here - and I'm a strong - we're strong family, we are. But I tell someone else, this right here, this is the straw that broke the camel's back, because I'm done. I'm speechless. I'm numb. I don't know what to say, what to the thing. I can barely sleep. I have to be strong for my mom. I have to be strong for her children. I have to be strong for my aunts and my uncle that survived. How can I go? How can I?

BLACKWELL: Just one of 10 families that are feeling the pain that you're feeling.

HARPER: Yes, one of the (inaudible) and my heart broke also of the nine other families, especially the families that had to witness the video of their loved ones' last moments. So happy that I didn't have to witness that and my heard breaks for them even more.

BLACKWELL: Well, Tamika, Kaye, our condolences to your family for the loss of your aunt. I thank you for spending a few of these really vulnerable moments with us. Thank you. Thank you.

President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will be with the victim's families tomorrow at a ceremony today for public safety officers. President pay tribute to the families.

[15:15:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No one understands more than all of you here today the pain and anguish those families in Buffalo feel. But if they were pulled into a - as if - when it happens, at least in my experience, you feel like you're pulled into a black hole inside your chest and everything, everything, you can't - and it's hard. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: With me now is a woman who survived this horrific mass shooting, Fragrance Harris Stanfield. You were inside the market.

FRAGRANCE HARRIS STANFIELD, TOPS EMPLOYEE WHO SURVIVED SHOOTING: Yes.

BLACKWELL: Your daughter was there, 20-year-old daughter.

STANFIELD: Yes.

BLACKWELL: You stopped to get some ice cream, I read.

STANFIELD: Absolutely not.

BLACKWELL: And - no? No? What happened?

STANFIELD: I'm working for Tops.

BLACKWELL: You work there, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Tell me what happened.

STANFIELD: No, that's okay.

BLACKWELL: Tell me what happened.

STANFIELD: My daughter and I are both customer service leads at Tops.

BLACKWELL: Okay.

STANFIELD: And we were working. She was at easy (ph) scan, I was at register six. I had just checked out a customer. I bent down to get something off the floor and suddenly my stress point became very, very, very, very sensitive. I almost couldn't even touch my neck, couldn't understand what was going wrong. I turned around to tell my daughter who was standing next to me, before I could say anything we heard shots.

And we're just - everybody stopped in the front end. We live in a community where we hear gunshots so you're not sure if it's going to involve you. So we just stopped moving, which is what we do to see where it's coming from. When we saw the security guard backing up to engage with his weapon, he was still alive at that point, when we saw him that alerted us to start running.

BLACKWELL: And then ...

STANFIELD: I grabbed for my daughter's arm and began running. I never looked back. I ran down to the end of the lanes and Morris, another CSL said to the back. So I turned, made a sharp turn to turn to the back. A lady in front of me dropped her keys her daughter was in front of her, she knocked me to the side I stumbled, but stayed on my feet. Ran a little bit further than her daughter getting momentum just shoved, not intentionally, but shoved me to the ground.

I laid there I thought I was going to perish right there and then somehow I got up. Got up thrust everything off of me, including my shoes and just ran and kept running until I got all the way through the two sets of doors to the back door where we had to wait Morris who was trying to open the back door and he was successfully able to open that door and we ran out and ran down the street.

BLACKWELL: Did you ever see the shooter?

STANFIELD: I never saw the shooter.

BLACKWELL: And I read it was just chaos in the store, obviously, hearing the shots, people running ...

STANFIELD: People running. You could hear that the shots were coming closer because he wasn't inside when I was still in the front end. I didn't realize my daughter wasn't with me until I got to the back and finally looked behind me and she wasn't there. I knew she was still in the store, didn't know where.

You - I could feel she was in there, so something's telling me she's alive, but I'm not sure. I knew if I went back, either I could - she would be found if she's hiding because I'm looking for her or I would perish and she would see me be killed, so ...

BLACKWELL: Can you tell me where you know there's a shooter, you're separated from your daughter, what are you feeling and thinking about her safety where she is?

STANFIELD: I'm thinking, I'm praying she's safe. I've taught her how to make yourself small and invisible and be safe and thank God she remembered and that's what she did. She made the decision that she didn't think she could run fast enough because she was in panic mode and so she shrank and got small and hid.

And I praise God that he had his hand covering her because the gunman walked past her twice. She witnessed two people get shot, one who survived, one who did not and she heard all the rest of the gunshots that occurred.

BLACKWELL: I understand that you and your daughter are going through counseling.

STANFIELD: We are.

BLACKWELL: What ...

STANFIELD: I was just there a moment ago.

BLACKWELL: This may seem like a question with an obvious answer, but do you need counseling to get past the sounds of this building? Do you know if you'll ever be able to go back in and work there?

STANFIELD: I'm definitely going back in the building.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

STANFIELD: I don't know how I'm going to feel once I do that, so I can't say what will happen next. But I feel like I have to go back in the building. Much like I've been here, I can't seem to leave here. I just feel like I need to be here. For me, for my co-workers, for my family, the healing process, this is just the way that I'm healing right now.

But I will go back because I don't want him to have that type of victory. Whatever evil came upon him to make him want to do this, he's not going to win with this community and this is our store. This is our community and we will control that.

BLACKWELL: All right. Fragrance, thank you so much for ...

STANFIELD: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: ... sharing your story with me for a few minutes. Thank you.

STANFIELD: Thank you.

[15:20:00]

BLACKWELL: Alisyn, back to you.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Victor, it is so hard to hear the raw grief of all of these family members and employees just trying to make sense of how their lives have been ruined in just the space of a few minutes by a horrible and hateful person.

To hear Fragrance just tell you that she's had to teach her children to become small and invisible in this country, because you just never know when you're going to be the victim of a mass shooting and just the raw grief that the other families are dealing with, it's all so overwhelming. And I mean, as they've said so eloquently, it just feels so hopeless at times.

BLACKWELL: Listen, I was counting in the car talk with my producer. I've done 15 of these, at least the ones I could count. And we keep having the conversation about Democrats will say guns, Republicans will say mental health and nothing will change. And I'll probably do another one this year. Family after family having nowhere to go with their grief.

We'll get into a political conversation later, but is this the way we're supposed to live? Are we destined to just keep doing this city after city? Have we just resigned that this is what we are going to be. I'm going to give it back to you.

CAMEROTA: Yes. We share those sentiments. I know some days it feels like that. We'll be right back right after this, more with NEWSROOM.

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[15:26:01]

CAMEROTA: Ukrainian forces are advancing in northern Ukraine as Russians retreat from that region. One Ukrainian unit north of Kharkiv says it has reclaimed territory and reached the Russian border. You see the fighters shared video here that shows them carrying that blue and yellow stake to the border line. CNN Sam Kiley is in the Kramatorsk region in eastern Ukraine. That's where Russia is intensifying its attacks. So Sam, tell us what's happening where you are.

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, here in Kramatorsk all eyes are on Severodonetsk which is about an hour's drive, an hour and a half drive north of where I am, because that is where the Russians have really been concentrating their assaults over the last couple of weeks really, particularly as they seem to have been withdrawing from that battle around Kharkiv.

There's some indications that they've been trying to punch through with that attempted river crossing across the Donets which resulted in disaster for the Russians with the Ukrainians catching them on the hop effectively crossing that river, destroying a large amount and we know from satellite imagery now that their claims of having destroyed 70 to 80 vehicles, including tanks are true and therefore the numbers of dead Russians there must be pretty high on top of that.

But nonetheless, the Russians have continued to intensify their bombardment of Severodonetsk because that is the last major town on the northern side, if you like, or the Russian side of the Donets River, which arguably is going to be the main line of defense for Ukrainian forces. But they're not breaking through and that is the key issue here.

I've been in Kramatorsk now for several weeks and there's been a bit of Russian gain here and there. There have been frequent attacks attempts to try and punch through the Ukrainian defensive lines. But effectively, almost all of them have failed or made very, very small, incremental advances at very considerable cost. And it is that cost that the Ukrainians for now are trying to extract from the Russians while they wait for the new weapons to come in from NATO and other allies, which they hope will turn the tide very much in their favor, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Well, Sam, let's talk about that because is there a larger significance to Ukrainian fighters winning in Kharkiv? I mean, can they - can that city go back to functioning or is this an emotional win?

KILEY: Well, it's clearly emotionally and spiritually symbolic of great (inaudible) for Ukrainian forces and indeed the whole national movement, something not quite as exciting for people as the successful defense and withdrawal of Russian forces around the Capitol Kyiv.

But it does mean that the Russians is very clear now from their behavior on the battlefield and destroying bridges during their retreat means that they've got no intention of counter attacking, that they're effectively abandoning the Kharkiv front, that's the second largest city in Ukraine. It's the largest city of predominantly Russian speakers with at least 75 or 80 percent speaking Russian as a mother tongue.

I'm in Kramatorsk, though, which is a - in a sense - more Russian city and that remains something that they want to try and capture, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Sam, thank you for all that information and reporting.

Back here, the accused Buffalo shooter cited white replacement theory as his motive. That's a racist belief system that's found a home in mainstream politics and Fox TV, more on that next.

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