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U.S. Cities Brace for Possible Unrest When Video is Released; First Responder Testifies in Murdaugh Murder Trial; Families of Crash Victims Speak on Boeing Fraud Case. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired January 27, 2023 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster. If you're just joining us, let me bring you up to date with the top stories this hour.
The city of Memphis, Tennessee is expecting to release graphic video on Friday to show the violent account between police and 29-year-old Tyre Nichols earlier this month. Nichols died of his injuries three days later. Now all five officers have been charged with second degree murder as well as other serious offenses.
At a candlelight vigil last night Nichols' mother pleaded for non- violent protests after the video is made public. Police across the country are bracing for protests in their city and monitoring the developments in Memphis very closely.
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Past experience has taught many communities to be prepared. For more on what's happening now across the United States here's CNN's Whitney Wild.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WHITNEY WILD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What is so clear from our reporting is that law enforcement around the country is very aware this may cause a national shared pain. And they understand that people may be inclined to act upon that pain hopefully peacefully but sometimes not.
The Major Cities Chiefs Association -- one of the leading professional law enforcement organizations -- has convened several calls with dozens of member agencies to share information. Memphis police as well as the Tennessee bureau of investigation provided some information on those calls according to sources.
And to give a few examples of how law enforcement agencies are preparing here in Washington, D.C., police have met with members of the clergy. They're adding police staffing throughout the city.
On Capitol Hill police are adding staffing as well. In Atlanta officers are going to be on 12-hour shifts. Agencies such as Minneapolis, Nashville and Los Angeles police are telling CNN they are closely monitoring the situation in their own cities as well as in Memphis as they develop their own operational plans. The Major County Sheriffs Association told CNN multiple sheriff's
departments are talking to community and faith based leaders ahead of this video's release. Trying to embrace the community and they added that their organization is engaging with intelligence command staff around the country at various departments to ensure there is an accurate flow of information both to law enforcement and then through law enforcement to the communities. Because in these moments accurate, clear information is so critical, especially when a country is bracing for what could be a very horrific video.
Whitney Wild, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: The communities have been demanding to see the video footage that will be released in the coming hours. At that vigil in Memphis on Thursday night Nichols' mother said those marching to demand justice for her son should remain peaceful. Earlier she remembered Nichols as a loving son.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROWVAUGHN WELLS, TYRE NICHOLS' MOTHER: My son -- nobody's perfect, OK? Nobody. But he was damn near. Ok. He had my name tattooed on his arm and that made me proud because most kids don't put their mom's name, but he did. My son was a beautiful soul.
RODNEY WELLS, TYRE NICHOLS' STEPFATHER: All I know is my son was a great, great kid. He didn't deserve what he got. Now what he deserves is justice.
ANTONIO ROMANUCCI, ATTORNEY FOR TYRE NICHOLS' FAMILY: He was a human pinata for those police officers. It was an unadulterated, unabashed, non-stop beating.
PAMELA MOSES, MEMPHIS BLM FOUNDER AND ACTIVIST: We want to know, (INAUDIBLE) it could have been your son. It could have been you. Don't gavel me, I'm here to let you know I can speak without it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: We'll have much more on this story in the coming hours. CNN's Don Lemon will speak with the Tyre Nichols family on CNN THIS MORNING" during the 8 a.m. Eastern hour.
NOBILO: China's consulate in San Francisco says five of the seven people killed in Monday's Half Moon Bay shooting with Chinese nationals.
FOSTER: The suspect, 66-year-old Chunli Zhao is also a Chinese citizen. He is charged with seven counts of murder and one count of attempted murder before the attack.
NOBILO: The White House held a moment of silence on Thursday during an event marking the Lunar New Year. The Half Moon Bay shooting is just one of at least 40 mass shootings this month. More than in any other start of the year on record.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Silence is complicity. Silence is complicity. We cannot be silent. I will not be silent.
[04:35:00]
And one more thing, we're going to ban assault weapons again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDON TSAY: President Biden
BIDEN: I wanted to call to see how you're doing and thank you for taking such incredible action in the face of danger. I don't think you understand just how --
FOSTER: There's President Joe Biden calling the man who disarmed the suspect in the Monterey Park shooting to thank him for his act of bravery.
The first responder on the scene of the killings of the South Carolina wife and her adult son meanwhile testified on Thursday. The officer told the court when he saw in his initial interactions with the suspect, Alex Murdaugh who is accused of the murders. CNN's Dianne Gallagher reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Alex Murdaugh openly weeping in court today watching body cam video from the first law enforcement officer on the scene of murders of his wife and son that he's accused of committing. A stark contrast to the way the officer described his demeanor that night.
SGT. DANIEL GREEN, COLLETON COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: He was upset but I did not see any visible tears.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): The body cam video, when graphic in nature, only shown to the judge, jury and attorneys. Sargent Daniel green, the first responder to arrive, describing the scene.
GREEN: I could see the male victim laying on the ground to my left as well as the female victim on the ground to my right. There was a large deal of blood that had pooled around his body. There appeared to be a large amount of blood around each of them as well as brain matter.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): As well as his immediate interaction with Murdaugh.
GREEN: His immediate reaction was to start telling me about an incident that had happened with his son with a boating accident.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's been getting threats. Most of them have been denounced, stuff we didn't take serious. You know, he's been getting punched. I know that -- I know that's what it is.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): The defense leaning into that as a possibility that someone else had a motive to kill.
RICHARD HARPOOTIAN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY FOR ALEX MURDAUGH: But Mr. Murdaugh indicated to you that the threats made Paul.
GREEN: He did.
HARPOOTIAN: That he even got in a fight once about it.
GREEN: I believe he said punched.
HARPOOTIAN: Punched is OK. And so, on the scene he believed that Paul's death was connected to someone angry about the boat case.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): But that immediate interaction significant to the prosecution's theory for Murdaugh as well. It dates back to a 2019 boat crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach. Murdaugh's son, Paul, was charged and awaiting trial for allegedly operating the boat while drunk. Mallory's family sued Alex Murdaugh. Prosecutors say that lawsuit threatened to unveil years of Murdaugh 's financial misdeeds.
CREIGHTON WATERS, LEAD PROSECUTOR: And within a few minutes, he's the one who brought up the boating incident. Is that correct?
GREEN: He did.
WATERS: He offered that right out of the gate, a possible explanation for what happened here. Is that right?
GREEN: Yes.
WATERS: Nothing further, your honor.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): Murdaugh even mentions the boat crash in previously unreleased portions of the 911 call played Thursday in court.
MURDAUGH: He's been being threatened.
HARPOOTIAN: What did you do to preserve those?
GREEN: The tire tracks? Nothing.
GALLAGHER (voice-over): Meanwhile, the defense worked to paint the crime scene as messy and at times chaotic.
HARPOOTIAN: So, nobody attempted to determine whether those Maggie's footprints, Paul's footprints or at least that night there was no effort by you or your department to preserve those?
GREEN: By me, no. I cannot speak for everyone else.
GALLAGHER: Court will resume on Friday morning with the prosecution continuing to question from its long list of witnesses. Dianne Gallagher, CNN, back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: Visibility drops down to zero as a wintry weather creates chaos on Wyoming highways and more bone chilling weather is on the way for the Western U.S.
FOSTER: Plus, demanding justice, families of the victims of two deadly Boeing crashes say the plane maker must be held accountable. We'll hear from them next.
[04:40:00]
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NOBILO: The holiday meltdown at Southwest has cost the airlines dearly. The company reports a $226 million loss in the fourth quarter of last year and warns of more red ink in the first quarter of this year too.
FOSTER: Millions of passengers left stranded last month when Southwest canceled more than 60,000 flights over eight days. The CEO of rival United Airlines says Southwest system's desperately need an upgrade.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT KIRBY, CEO, UNITED AIRLINES: You can't run an airline like it's 2019. And the reason is because the system is just stressed to the max. There's strains everywhere whether it's security, or FAA staffing, or systems, having enough pilots. And when something happens, the straws are much more likely to break the camel's back. And you've seen it over and over with other airlines having, you know, either bad operational issues or sometimes, you know, going all the way into meltdown.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: Southwest says it's testing software fixes where its crew scheduling system and is cooperating with a U.S. Transportation Department investigation.
FOSTER: Plane maker Boeing pleaded not guilty in a U.S. federal court on Thursday to charges of conspiring to defraud the United States over the safety of its 737 Max jets.
NOBILO: The families of the victims of two deadly crashes involving the airliner, the arraignment is the beginning of their efforts to find justice for their loved ones. They're objecting to a U.S. Justice Department agreement which would resolve the agreement into the design of the jets.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NAOISE CONNOLLY RYAN, LOST HUSBAND IN 2019 ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES CRASH: Nobody should have to go through this. We're here today to make a statement, no apparent crash on whatever that takes.
ZIPPORAH KURIA, LOST FATHER IN CRASHED ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 302: It's been three years but for everybody standing here, for all of these people, we are still stood at March 10th. We are still stuck on that day.
CLARISS MOORE, LOST DAUGHTER IN 2019 ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES CRASH: We live in a pain and distress, unstable ground and yet the murderer walking free, going home to their loved ones.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: The crash of a Lion airflight 610 and Ethiopian Airline's flight 302 killed 346 people from all around the world. Both of those planes were 737 Max jets from Boeing.
FOSTER: And so far, no one from the plane manufacturer has been held responsible. One man who lost his brother tell CNN's Larry Madowo, it's unacceptable.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Family members I've spoken to want Boeing and its executives held criminally responsible for what they see as cause in the death of 346 people in the Indonesia crash in 2019 and Ethiopia crash in 2019.
I spoke to one family member who lost his in brother Ethiopian Airlines crash, the Flight 302.
TOM KABAU, BROTHER OF ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 302 VICTIM: We are put in a position whereby there was no other choice but death by those who didn't knew and continued after the Lion Air crash. They continued to conceal the safety issues and the defect for profit.
[04:45:00]
MADOWO: You lost your brother in Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. You're also lawyer in Kenya. So, you know the law.
KABAU: Yes.
MADOWO: Who do you hold responsible for his death?
KABAU: I hold responsible the Boeing corporation and in particular the senior executives who made the decisions for that.
MADOWO: To be clear, you want the senior executives who are in charge of Boeing at that time to go to jail?
KABAU: Certainly. And that will be a very important milestone not only for accountability for the deaths directly it caused but also the good of the safety.
MADOWO: These family members feel that the settlement that the Trump Justice Department arrived at with Boeing shields the company and that should be thrown out. They also especially take issue with what they feel as the Boeing narrative after the Lion Air crash in Indonesia and the Ethiopian Airlines crash that appear to blame it on pilot error. These were third-world pilots who didn't know how to operate these aircraft. These family members say Boeing deliberately manufactured a defective aircraft and should pay for that. People should go to jail, they tell me.
Larry Madowo, CNN, Nairobi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Freezing barely begins to describe really what millions of Americans will be facing in the coming days.
NOBILO: Winter weather alerts are in effect from Colorado to Washington state because of an arctic front that's slowly moving across the West. The weather is already wreaking havoc on highways in Wyoming where it led to numerous crashes. Nine Western states are expected to see heavy snow including up to five feet in the mountains while wind gusts could reach up to 70 miles an hour in some areas. That can create wind chills as low as minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit which could cause frostbite in as little as a half an hour.
FOSTER: To Japan now where some are calling the record low temperatures hitting the country, a once in a decade cold snap.
NOBILO: Kyoto registered a bone chilling minus 16 degrees Celsius, about 2 degrees Fahrenheit. In central Tokyo the lowest temperature was not as bad but still a minus 3 Celsius, about 26 degrees Fahrenheit. Meteorologists are urging people to watch out for blizzards, heavy snow, frozen roads and turbulent ocean waves. They say that the cold front is expected to weaken on Friday but then gain more strength again on Saturday.
The U.S. is looking into making COVID-19 vaccinations more like a yearly flu shot, including a potential single shot that could immunize against both. The idea is part of a new simplified vaccine strategy recommended by advisors to the Food and Drug Administration.
FOSTER: Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax all say they're in the early stages of testing a single shot for both COVID and the flu. In the meantime the FDA advisory panel voted unanimously on Thursday to have all vaccines use the same formula targeting the same strains regardless of the manufacturer. The FDA must sign off on the panel's recommendations before it goes into effect.
The health ministry in Malawi says a cholera outbreak has left more than a thousand people dead in less than a year. More than 31,000 cholera cases have been reported across the South East African country.
NOBILO: The situation is not as deadly in Kenya but still critical. The World Health Organization says people who fled drought and conflict and sought refuge in Kenya have pushed the death toll from the cholera outbreak there to 79. There are more than 4,000 cases reported in Kenya since the outbreak began in October. And today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day which also marks
the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp. It's a time to honor the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis whose other victims include minorities, the disabled and LGBTQ+ individuals. The husband of U.S. Vice President, the second gentleman, Douglas Emhoff is visiting key sites in Poland and Germany this week including Auschwitz -- where my grandfather was imprisoned for 4 1/2 years.
FOSTER: It's a big day in terms of memories.
U.S. President Joe Biden released a statement reading: As we join nations around the world in bearing witness to this dark chapter in our shared history, we also honor survivors and their stories pledging to always remember and keep faith with that sacred vow -- "Never again."
NOBILO: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from London. We'll see you after the short break.
[04:50:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NOBILO: A state of emergency has just been declared in New Zealand's capital due to major flooding caused by heavy rain and storm. This was the scene at the city's airport earlier. Officials in Auckland are responding to over 400 emergency calls.
FOSTER: The raging waters have forced many there to evacuate their homes and seek higher ground. New Zealand's meteorologist department says even more rain is expected over the next few days as well. Already more than triple the average January rainfall has fallen in a single day.
NOBILO: And of course, this is right in the middle of summer in New Zealand. So, it is all of summer's rain, is what they're saying.
FOSTER: It seems to have really caught them out.
We now know who will face off in the women's final on Saturday at the Australian Open tennis tournament. Elena Rybakina, the reigning Wimbledon champ is through to her second grand slam final. The 22- year-old was born be in Moscow but represents Kazakhstan and beat to time Australian open champion Victoria Azarenka in Her semifinal.
NOBILO: Rybakina will face Aryna Sabalenka after three grand slam semifinals defeats. The 24-year-old from Belarus has finally booked her place in a major final after straight sets win over Magda Linette of Poland.
FOSTER: The father of Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic is responding to criticism for posing with supporters of Vladimir Putin outside an arena at the Australian Open.
NOBILO: Video shows him standing next to a man holding a Russian flag with prudence face on it, wearing a T-shirt with a Z, symbolizing were support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
FOSTER: The elder Djokovic says his family, quote, has lived through the horror of war and we wish only for peace. I have no intention to be caught up in this.
[04:55:00]
He also says he's watching the match right now from home so there's no disruption.
NOBILO: Of course, the political context of this is quite interesting, with Serbia long being torn between closer ties with the West and its fraternal bonds they have with Russia. And in Belgrade, the capital, there are quite a few rallies in support of Putin when Russia invaded Ukraine. So, that's why it's particularly sensitive and volatile.
FOSTER: Yes, and he says he just sort of ended up there but obviously it feeds into that national debate.
The maker of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky is facing a lawsuit because many bottles of the alcoholic beverage don't actually contain whisky.
NOBILO: We're talking about the mini bottles of fireball -- seen here -- not the original. The smaller bottles are commonly found in gas stations and super markets.
FOSTER: And the label on the miniature bottles describe it as a malt beverage with whisky flavors. The $5 million lawsuit filed in Illinois accuses the company of false advertising.
And if you're the kind of person who can't get enough of the smell of WD-40, you're in luck -- who are those people?
NOBILO: I was just going to say, who are those people?
FOSTER: Mechanics maybe. The unique aroma can be yours without spending hours in the garage or the workshop.
NOBILO: A New York art collector has created the smell of the lubricant any cologne. Smells like WD-40 retails for $48 plus shipping. And according to the group's website it's already sold out. What household product would you like to smell like?
FOSTER: I just want to say the genius is in the title, Smells Like WD- 40.
NOBILO: Yes.
FOSTER: Modern --
NOBILO: Monkey wrench and grease or something really manly?
FOSTER: We're being moved on.
NOBILO: Yes, before we go, all of us here at CNN want to say a very special good-bye to our director tonight, Dave Anderson. Dave has been directing at CNN for 35 years. And today is his last day and this is his very last show before he retires. So from all of us here in London and those with you, Dave, in Atlanta, we wish you many, many happy returns on your retirement.
FOSTER: He will enjoy it.
NOBILO: And we'll miss you.
FOSTER: Thank you for joining us here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster.
And I'm Bianca Nobilo. "EARLY START" is up next right here on CNN.
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