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Police: Man In Law Enforcement "Catfished" Teen Before Killing Her Family; University Of Idaho Students Return To Class With No Arrest In Case; Adobe: Online Sales Hit $9.1B Record High On Black Friday; Fauci Warns RSV Could Become Public Health Emergency In U.S.; Community Health Groups Fear Being Left Out Of CDC Grant Program; Beckham Jr Removed From Plane For Not Complying With Safety Protocol. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired November 28, 2022 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[14:32:35]
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Authorities in California think a catfishing incident led to a House fire, a kidnapping and a triple homicide.
A 28-year-old man from Virginia pretended to be someone else and then developed an online relationship with a teenager girl.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: According to Riverside P.D., he then traveled to California and killed her mother and grandparents and then took the girl from her home.
CNN's Camila Bernal joins us now.
Camila, the girl we understand is safe. Tell us how that happened.
CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Alisyn and Victor, thankfully, she is OK. But this all started with this online relationship.
This 28-year-old man, Austin Lee Edwards, he gets her personal information through this online relationship and that's how he's able to travel all the way from Virginia to Riverside, California.
Police say he parked his car at the neighbor's house and walked over to this teenager's house. That's when he kills both grandparents and her mother.
He then walks back to his car with this teenager. And there's someone that sees this and calls 911 because they say there's something weird happening there, reporting a woman in distress.
At the same time police, also receiving calls about a house fire in this neighborhood. And when fire arrives to the house, they find the three bodies.
The neighbors, of course, remembering these victims in this horrific case. Here they are.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want everybody to know how loving they were. They don't deserve this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To make sure that they have peace as they're going through this process of heartbreak and of a loss, of not just one person, but three.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERNAL: It is heartbreaking.
But, thankfully, police connected the dots after they found the bodies. They were able to see this online relationship and started looking for Edwards.
There was a police pursuit. He lost control of the vehicle. We know that's when the teenager was able to escape. And police say he pointed a gun at the sheriff's helicopter and that's when they shot him and killed him.
The shocking part of all of this is that he was a cop himself. He was hired by the Virginia State Police. He went to the academy, graduated earlier this year, and now he was working for the Washington County Sheriff's Office.
So, of course, people wonder how does all of this happen with an officer himself -- Alisyn, Victor?
BLACKWELL: Many shocking elements of this story.
[14:35:00]
Camila Bernal, thank you for the reporting.
CAMEROTA: Meanwhile, University of Idaho students are returning to school following Thanksgiving break. It's been two weeks since four of their classmates were fatally stabbed in a home near campus. Police have yet to name a suspect.
BLACKWELL: CNN's Veronica Miracle is on campus in Moscow, Idaho.
What are the students saying about coming back to campus.
VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn and Victor, the University of Idaho is allowing students to stay home for the rest of the semester and do distance learning. There's only about two weeks left of classes, but they can do so.
But when we walked around campus and we spoke to students, many wanted to come back. They said after doing virtual learning for the last few years because of COVID, the last thing they want to do is be at home, even though coming back here to campus is uncomfortable.
There's fear and uncertainty in the air. There still has not been a suspect arrested. There's been no motive, no weapon found.
There's definitely a sense of discomfort. But students wanted to come back and be back with their classmates.
It's hard to tell, though, how many students have decided to stay at home. We've asked the University of Idaho. They say they're not surveying those students. They're able to come and go as they please.
We definitely get the sense it is emptier here on campus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HAYDEN RICH, UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO STUDENT: A sad setting, kind of quiet. Most people are friendly, but now it's just kind of quite. Most people are friendly but it's just, I don't know, people are kind of sketched out, not aware of the situation.
MIRACLE: Does the campus feel emptier?
RICH: Yes, definitely, definitely.
LEXI WA, UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO STUDENT: I tend to learn better in class anyway, so.
MIRACLE: Do you feel safe coming back?
WA: Well, with all the campus security and them upping that up and with Safe Walk, and I have a lot of friends here. I never really go anywhere by myself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MIRACLE: That Safe Walks Program she's talking about is here year- round. It's a 24/7 security program where students can call and a security guard will escort them to and from wherever they need to. It seems like a lot more students are taking advantage of that.
There's also a massive police presence here on campus. That definitely seems to be putting students' minds at ease.
As far as the investigation, there have been no substantial updates and we're still awaiting that.
There's going to be a vigil on Wednesday for those four murdered students for anyone who has decided to come back to campus -- Victor, Alisyn?
CAMEROTA: It's just so mysterious and so unsettling.
Veronica, thank you very much.
BLACKWELL: It's Cyber Monday. There are plenty of discounts online if you're shopping there. But are you really getting a good deal when you factor in inflation?
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BLACKWELL: Online Black Friday sales in the U.S. hit a record-breaking $9.1 billion this year. That's according to Adobe Analytics. It's a solid start to the holiday shopping season despite inflation. Online shopping is expected to stay strong today.
CAMEROTA: CNN's Alison Kosik joins us now.
Alison, what are the expectations today?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Expect another record breaker. It's expected consumers will wind up spending anywhere from $11.2 to $11.6 billion just today just online.
If that happens, it could be the biggest online shopping day of the year. If not ever. All that from Adobe analytics.
This comes after a really strong week of online shopping. We saw on Thanksgiving Day, people were not only eating the Turkey and sweet potatoes, but they were spending a lot, spent $5.2 billion online, and then Black Friday, of course, over $9 billion online spent there.
Where are people going for the deals? The deals seem to be just about everywhere. I saw on Apple, if you buy specific products on Apple, you can get a gift card with your purchase. That's really unheard of to see Apple do that.
Target is having price match guarantees. I'm seeing deep discounts on Amazon and Walmart for everything, guys, from things like TVs and the iRobot. You know, that thing that moves around, which I really want by the way.
(LAUGHTER)
KOSIK: Because I want to put my cat on top of it and let it roam around my kitchen and do the vacuuming, you know, when I'm at work.
CAMEROTA: I feel like you're going to get about 50 of them since you've announced --
(LAUGHTER)
CAMEROTA: Prepare yourself.
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BLACKWELL: That's been out for many years now.
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KOSIK: I know.
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KOSIK: It's something I really don't need. It's a want, you know? BLACKWELL: OK. Well, you'll get it now.
(LAUGHTER)
BLACKWELL: So the shopping I've done over the past couple of days has been for myself.
KOSIK: I'm a lot like you.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
BLACKWELL: Is there a downside to all of this?
KOSIK: There is. There's a weird trend that's happening here that I'm seeing consumers do. They're dipping into their savings to make these purchases, relying heavily on credit cards.
This is a bit disturbing because you see the interest rates on these credit cards, the APRs, they are at all-time highs, at 19 percent.
And especially if you go with the credit cards that are the store credit cards. Those APRs can go even higher, up to 26, 29 percent.
Which I say stay away from those cards. If you want those cards, use the discount they offer with those cards. But make a pact with yourself to pay off that balance when you get that first bill. My advice.
CAMEROTA: Great advice.
BLACKWELL: Thank you, Alison.
KOSIK: You got it.
[14:44:45]
CAMEROTA: All right, Dr. Anthony Fauci says RSV cases are at a critical point nationwide. He warns this may become a public health emergency. What every parent needs to know.
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CAMEROTA: Dr. Anthony Fauci warns that the rapid spread of RSV infections could turn into a public health emergency.
BLACKWELL: He says the U.S. is already starting to see an early surge of both RSV and the flu. And parts of the country are already severely overwhelmed.
CNN's senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, is with us now.
What's driving this warning?
DR. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: What's driving this warning is the hospitals are becoming full with flu patients, with RSV patients, and still we have hundreds of people each day being hospitalized with COVID.
With RSV, here's the big problem. You have so many children being hospitalized with RSV that when children need routine surgeries, for example, CNN did a story with a child who needed a scheduled heart surgery and couldn't get it when she was supposed to have it because the beds were so full.
Let's take a look at flu numbers because that shows you the other hospitalization burden going on right there.
[14:50:03]
If you look all the way to the right, you see that high bar. That's the hospitalization rate so far this season for RSV. The other shorter bars, that's at this point in the season for other years.
In other words, this year at this point in the season, it's higher than it's been in more than a decade. This is really a burden on hospitals.
CAMEROTA: Yes. We can see that really illustrates it well.
So, Elizabeth, tell us about this. The CDC is about to give out billions of dollars in public health grants to help marginalized communities, but some fear they'll never see a dime.
What's that about?
COHEN: That's right. There are community groups that are not a part of the government. They're not a part of a university.
They're grassroots community groups that really the Biden administration relied on in order to get messages out during COVID and even before COVID, would rely on them because they were part of the community.
They know how to speak to the community. They are members of this community.
I want to introduce you to one of those groups that's called Dia de la Mujer Latina (ph). They're based in Texas. It's a group of Latina women that talk about cancer and infectious diseases, and all sorts of things for more than 25 years.
For COVID, they set up a call center and they got a letter of thanks from President Biden saying, you did great work during COVID.
They then applied for a grant, not from the CDC but from another federal agency. And that agency said, wow, this is a great application, but we're not giving you any money.
And so they are really concerned. They and other groups say, wait a second, you want our work, you want us to do things, but you're not going to pay us. So the head of that organization, her name is Venus, and she said we
will always be in the kitchen. We'll never be invited to the dining room table. That's how we feel.
In other words, you want us to do the work, but you don't want to pay us.
We asked the CDC about this. They weren't involved in Venus' application. But they have this $4 billion that likely is not going to see community groups really soon. It might later, but there are some doubts about that.
And the CDC spokesperson said, "We are confident that grant recipients will fund and work with community-based organizations in their communities."
In other words, the CDC says we're giving money to health departments. And we think that -- we hope that -- we've asked those departments to give community groups money, but there are no promises -- Victor, Alisyn?
CAMEROTA: I'll take it, Elizabeth.
Thank you so much for explaining all of that.
BLACKWELL: Jay Leno was back on stage this weekend. It's been two weeks since he suffered significant burns in that gasoline fire.
He's the former "Tonight Show" host who performed in front of a sold- out crowd at a comedy club in southern California.
Now he appeared to be in good spirits and he joked with photographers outside.
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JAY LENO, COMEDIAN: I got two shows tonight. Regular and extra crispy.
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LENO: Thank you and good night, ladies and gentlemen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh.
(CROSSTALK)
LENO: Never thought of myself as a roast comic.
(LAUGHTER)
LENO: Thank you. Thank you. Good night. Thank you very much, you guys.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: So Leno was working underneath a car earlier this month when he suffered burns on his hands and face. The 72-year-old underwent two surgeries to treat his burns. He is scheduled to perform three additional shows in December.
It's good to see him doing so well because it sounded at first like it was really serious.
BLACKWELL: Yes. Even some of the pictures with his nurses and the doctors, you can see the scars there.
But Jay, when he was doing the show, had the shows on the weekend. He likes to stay busy.
CAMEROTA: I guess so.
[14:53:31]
BLACKWELL: All right, just one day before their crucial World Cup match, Iran is calling on FIFA to ban the U.S. from competing after the U.S. Soccer Federation shows solidarity with Iranian protesters. We have more on this ahead.
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BLACKWELL: NFL star, Odell Beckham Jr, was removed from a flight in Miami yesterday morning. Now police say he refused to buckle his seat belt, and he was going in and out of consciousness, which then prompted the flight crew to worry he was having some medical emergency.
CAMEROTA: Beckham's attorney claims the football player simply fell asleep.
CNN's Leyla Santiago is at Miami International Airport.
Leyla, what have you learned?
LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We know he was escorted off the plane because there's video of it. We see that.
But it's what led up to being escorted off that flight where there are still a lot of questions and, quite frankly, some conflicting reports.
Let's start with police, right? They are saying, before the flight even took off, the flight crew was trying to wake him up to fasten his seat belt. He was in and out of consciousness. There were issues there that prompted them to call it a medical emergency.
And once officers arrived, they say that they asked him to get off the plane. He wouldn't get off the plane. They got everybody off the plane eventually. He was escorted individually.
Now when you ask his attorney, quite a different story here, Victor and Alisyn. He says this was all very unnecessary and actually pointed to the fact he was just sleeping.
Let me read to you his statement. He says, "The overzealous flight attendant refused to simply allow Mr. Beckham to fasten his set seat belt and proceed with the flight. Instead, immediately removed everyone from the plane."
This was a flight heading to L.A. from here in Miami. It was delayed several hours as a result.
[14:59:54]
And we should also mention that, at this point, there's no indication that there's any sort of investigation or any charges at this point either.
But still a lot of questions as to what exactly happened that led to the video that shows he was escorted off of that flight.
