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CNN International: 3 Killed in Michigan State University Shooting, Suspect Dead; U.S. Officials Reveal New Information on Objects in Sky; Judge to Release Parts of Georgia Grand Jury Report; Ukraine in Focus as NATO Defense Ministers Meet Today; More Than 36,000 People Dead in Turkey and Syria. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired February 14, 2023 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Bianca Nobilo.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Max Foster joining you live from London. Just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Spartan hearts hang heavy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We started a barricading effort, go, go, go, everybody just trampled through. Everybody got out of there. They ran over here. Some went over there. It was horrible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not just an issue for the United States but one for the rest of the world.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is no, again, no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Establishing himself as the true conservative in the race. There is no doubt his advisors say he is running.
RON DESANTIS (R) FLORIDA GOVERNOR: We will fight the woke in our schools. We will never ever surrender to the woke agenda.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo.
FOSTER: It's Tuesday, February 14, 9:00 a.m. here in London, 4:00 a.m. in Michigan, where the threat is over thankfully for students and faculty on Michigan State University's campus after a mass shooting that left three people dead.
NOBILO: Five others have been wounded and they were transported to a local hospital where they are all in critical condition. University president says students and staff are in mourning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERESA K. WOODRUFF, INTERIM PRESIDENT, MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY: Tonight, our spartan hearts hang heavy. This is a day of shock and heartbreak here across our campus and our region. It's something that is quite unimaginable but has been imagined in other places and other times, but we just can't imagine that it's here. We're devastated at the loss of life and we want to wrap our warm arms around every family that is touched by this tragedy. And give them the peace that surpasses understanding in moments like this. Our campus grieves. We will all grieve. And we will change over time. We cannot allow this to continue to happen again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Well, police released this photo of the suspect a few hours after the shooting. A squad car noticed the man matching the description on campus a short time later. Officer say the man pulled out a gun and fatally shot himself. University police say their early warning system saved lives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS ROZMAN, INTERIM DEPUTY CHIEF, MSU DEPARTMENT OF POLICE AND PUBLIC SAFETY: We do have a robust and comprehensive safety plan on campus. Like the chief said, we have a lot of buildings and every building is built differently, constructed differently. But we have assessed and we continue to assess our security features within those buildings. In this instance today, we relied very heavily on our notification systems. We know that during an incident involving an active shooter, that providing clear instructions to the community in terms of actions to take is very important. And that's why we pushed the information out very quickly that there was an incident occurring, to shelter in place, to run hide fight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: Eyes on the ground in East Lansing helping with the investigation. Police say the first 911 call came in at 8:18 p.m. local time. Officers were on the scene within minutes and located several victims. Here is what some of the students told CNN affiliate WXYZ.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's terrifying man, it really is. We don't know what to do it all. We're just listening to the police scanners hoping for the best.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You never think it's going to happen until it actually happens. You know, you think you're safe and then -- we all thought we were safe on the second floor in the cafeteria, but obviously we weren't, we were told to evacuate. We all ran out. It was terrifying. It was pretty scary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: More on the suspect now in the investigation Maureen Halliday from CNN affiliate WILX.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAUREEN HALLIDAY, WILX REPORTER: What we know so far is the suspect is a 43-year-old man, he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound off of Michigan State University's campus, this happened in the city of Lansing. Right now, police are working to figure out the motive behind this shooting. We are told that the suspect had no affiliation with the university. They have not released the man's name yet but we are hoping over the next few days to get that information.
As for the victims, three people are confirmed dead, two were shot and killed inside of Berkey Hall -- which is an academic building. the third fatality happened inside the MSU Union which is adjacent to Berkey Hall. There are five other people who are in critical condition this morning. Police are not releasing their identities. We do not know what they are students or affiliated with the university.
[04:05:02]
Police say that they are hoping to release more information about the victims that are in critical condition this morning.
Michigan State's campus is going to be closed over the next two days, that means there are no classes, no sports, no activities that are going to be happening. MSU is offering counseling services to students, families and faculty. They want to make sure that everybody goes into this healing process and has the resources available to them.
Police are going to bring us another update at 8:00 this morning. We are hoping to receive more information on the suspect, his possible motive and on the victims. Of course, we'll keep you updated. Reporting in East Lansing, I'm Maureen Halliday -- Max, Bianca.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: Police say the two buildings where the shootings happened at Michigan State were open to the public during business hours. CNN senior law enforcement analyst Andrew McCabe explains next steps for investigators.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: The FBI and their colleagues are going through the history of this person to try to understand what his motivations were, to try to understand what brought him to this moment in this community at this time. You know, Michigan State, this community is struggling to understand why they are the latest in what is a uniquely American experience and understanding and experiencing a mass shooting in their midst. But it is the job for law enforcement to understand as much as they can about what brought this person to this moment and this mass shooting. (END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Well, students were understandably terrified when they heard the shots and got emails telling them to shelter in place. Conner Anderson says he and his friends were listening to the police scanner to stay safe.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CONNER ANDERSON, MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY STUDENT: I was in the cafeteria, which is on the second floor, got a text from somebody saying that there had been a shooting. It was on the opposite side of campus though. So basically we were in lockdown and everything was calm. And then everyone was listening to police reports and heard that the shooter was getting closer to our location. Still thought we were safe, but we started barricading the doors at some point, we heard there were shots at Hubbard.
And then the S.W.A.T. and cops came in and they all told us to get out of the cafeteria. So we all stormed down the stairs and had our hands up walking out. They had us go to the nearest bus stop and as the shots got closer, they had us run to a parking garage and we were kind of stranded there for a little bit until we got waved out by the cops.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, were you hearing shots?
ANDERSON: Personally no, but people were.
CAMEROTA: That's terrifying, Connor. That's really scary. How many kids would you say were there -- in the dining hall at that moment?
ANDERSON: I'd say 200, 300 at least.
CAMEROTA: I mean, what a scary situation on every level because then once the police say, OK, you guys have to run out of here, was that, you know, chaos?
ANDERSON: Oh, it was complete chaos. I mean, we all had to go down one stairwell before getting trampled and everything. So, we've only got one exit and it took a while. I try to stay in and, you know, (INAUDIBLE) to stay safe.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: And we're still waiting to get more information on the shooting and we'll bring you that as it happens of course.
FOSTER: There are still a lot of unanswered questions surrounding the three objects shot down over the U.S. and Canadian air space over the weekend. But U.S. officials are sharing the little they know so far.
NOBILO: In the coming hours, the Senate will get a classified briefing about the three objects, that's in addition to another classified briefing on China on Wednesday. The White House is bringing in former National Security Adviser John Bolton too. They'll discuss possible spy balloons that flew over the U.S. during the Trump presidency. FOSTER: CNN's Oren Liebermann has more now from the Pentagon.
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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More questions than answers after U.S. fighter jets roared into the skies above North America for the third time in as many days with a mission, shoot down something.
JOHN KIRBY, COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMAND, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: We assessed whether they posed any kinetic threat to people on the ground. They did not. We assessed whether they were sending any communication signals. We detected none. We looked to see whether they were maneuvering or had any propulsion capabilities. We saw no signs of that.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): Here's what we know so far about the objects in the sky. According to the U.S. officials the object shot down 10 miles off the coast of Alaska on Friday was a metallic object that broke up into several pieces when it fell to the sea ice from 40,000 feet. The second object shot down over the Yukon territory on Saturday appeared to be a balloon with a metal payload hanging underneath. According to a Pentagon memo sent to lawmakers Monday and obtained by CNN, it crossed near sensitive U.S. sites at 40,000 feet before it was downed. And the third object shot down Sunday afternoon over Lake Huron was described as an octagonal object. This one traveling at only 20,000 feet.
LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We are going to confirm what they are once we collected the degree. But to answer your question, we've not recovered any debris from the three most recent shoot downs.
[04:10:00]
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): The aerial objects were detected following the shootdown of a much larger Chinese surveillance balloon two weeks ago with a payload the size of three school buses. NORAD adjusted its radar systems to effectively make them more sensitive. And radar is set to spot and intercept Russian bombers are now picking up smaller slower objects.
JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: Obviously, there is some sort of pattern in there, the fact that we are seeing this in a significant degree over the past week is a cause for interest and close attention.
KIRBY: One of the reasons that we think we're seeing more is because we're looking for more.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): National security adviser Jake Sullivan will lead an interagency team on how the U.S. handles unidentified objects that are a safety or security risk. One thing we do know --
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There is no, again, no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): The Pentagon says the latest objects didn't pose any direct threat to people on the ground. But according to multiple sources, even allies of President Joe Biden worry about the silence from the commander in chief.
KIRBY: We have been I think as transparent as we can be. I won't speak for the president's personal speaking schedule, but I mean, he has been deeply engaged in every one of these decisions.
LIEBERMANN: As for the ongoing recovery efforts for the balloon off the coast of South Carolina, the Chinese surveillance balloon, a defense official says a, quote, significant portion of that balloon has been recovered. A salvage vessel has been on the scene there since Friday. But divers haven't been able to work every day because of the conditions of the water there, rough seas essentially, but they have been able to recover again a significant portion and that includes the structure and some of the electronics that will be analyzed by the FBI.
Oren Liebermann, CNN, in the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Now the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release a key gauge of inflation today. January's Consumer Price Index that shows how much American households are paying for a mix of goods and services. Economists predict in January prices will be up 6.2 percent over the past 12 months and that will be further evidence that the pace of inflation is slowing. But let's see how all of that as the key themes today is feeding into the U.S. futures. Mixed as you'd expect.
NOBILO: This week a judge in Georgia is set to release parts of a grand jury report which focuses on efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. And it's expected to include an introduction and conclusion to the panel's findings and will describe concerns that they had about possible perjury. CNN's Sara Murray has this.
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SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: A judge in Georgia says parts of a special grand jury report that looks at efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia can be made public later on this week. But only parts. The judge said the special grand jury that has been looking into efforts by the former president and his allies trying to determine if any crimes were committed, most of that is going to stay under wraps. Including most importantly, whether the special grand jury recommended that anyone should face charges as part of the investigation.
But the judge says that the introduction and the conclusion and another potentially important section of this report can be made public, a section about whether any witnesses potentially perjured themselves when they came before the special grand jury.
The judge wrote that the special purpose grand jury discusses its concern that some witnesses may have lied under oath during their testimony to the grand jury. Because the grand jury does not identify those witnesses, that conclusion may be publicly disclosed at this time. So, that's coming on Thursday.
The judge did not want the meat of this report released because a number of people who went before the grand jury they're not allowed to have their lawyers with them in the grand jury. He mentioned that there could be people named in this report who never appeared before the grand jury, former president Trump would be an example of one of those. Either way this ruling is making Fani Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County who's been overseeing this investigation, pretty pleased. She said she has no plans to appeal this decision. She said last month that her decision on whether she is going to bring charges against anyone are imminent.
Sara Murray, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: NATO's secretary-general says Ukraine must get the weapons it needs to, quote, win this war.
FOSTER: That coming from Jens Stoltenberg -- coming as Ukraine's defense minister gathers with his counterparts from NATO for two-day meeting in Brussels. And at this hour the Ukraine defense contact group meeting, these are live pictures for you. You can see there the U.S. Secretary of Defense at the center of that image. Nic Robertson is following those developments for us from Warsaw, Poland for the very latest -- Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, Max, we're expecting as well, of course, the Polish Defense Minister to be there attending that meeting. Poland, f course, has had a very hawkish line pushing NATO allies and partners to provide Leopard 2 tanks for Ukraine. Of course, that's now in process.
[04:15:00]
Training here in Poland began about a week ago, they are accelerating the training for 105 Ukrainian soldiers, 21 different tank crews are being trained in Poland at the moment on the Leopard 2s. And the defense minister there outlining a proposal he'll be announcing here today.
There are of course a number of different Leopard 2 tanks being provided from across NATO's allies and partners and little surprise, some are different versions to others. Poland is providing something called the Version 4. What Poland will be suggesting is that they lead the way in the training for bringing together a brigade of the Version 4. There'll be a brigade the Version 6 potentially led by Germany -- that's unclear at the moment.
But I think the big thrust, of course, here that we'll hear the Ukrainian defense minister is the continuing quest to get fighter jets. Nobody is taking that request off the table. No country is ruling it out completely, but it does seem to be sort of slow in the process at the moment. The tanks of course went through a similar slow process to get authorized to be give to Ukraine. But what Jens Stoltenberg has been talking about is perhaps the
underlying issue here, it's a war of attrition, Russia has huge resources, it's expending those resources in terms of ammunition, men, material. What NATO isn't doing so far is providing Ukraine with enough ammunition to sustain it in the long term in the fight. Ukraine is using more than NATO allies and supporters are actually providing. Actually manufacturing. So, there's a step change required. We've heard this discussed before but we're now sort of getting into that long term strategic planning and the NATO secretary-general pushing to speed up and increase armament production.
OK, Nic Robertson in Warsaw, thank you. We'll be following the developments out of that meeting.
NOBILO: New Zealand is under a state of emergency for only the third time in its history. Relentless wind, rain and waves are battering the North Island as Gabrielle inches closer to the country. The declaration enables the government to provide additional resources. Meteorologists predict that gale-force winds impacting the north and south islands will gradually taper off by Wednesday afternoon.
FOSTER: What a month they are having.
NOBILO: Absolutely, and we should remind our viewers as well, that of course this is the end of summer in New Zealand, but they've had deluges of rain. Cyclones are quite rare as well.
FOSTER: Still ahead this hour, northwestern Syria may soon get more access to earthquake relief at least. Details on a new agreement from president by Bashar al-Assad.
NOBILO: Plus, officials have now publicly released body camera videos from the night Alex Murdaugh's wife and son were killed.
FOSTER: And later, why Florida's governor is setting to pull all advanced placement courses from the public school system.
[04:20:00]
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FOSTER: Eight days after a powerful earthquake leveled parts of Turkey and Syria and left at least 36,000 people dead, the UN says rescue efforts are coming to a close. Now emergency crews are set to focus to getting more help to the victims who survived.
NOBILO: In Syria the president has agreed to open two additional border crossings from Turkey to deliver aid to the rebel-held northwest.
FOSTER: It comes after UN aid chief Martin Griffiths met with Bashar al-Assad to discuss relief efforts. Griffiths said the UN would also help move aid to the Northwest from government controlled areas like Aleppo which was also severely hit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MARTIN GRIFFITHS, UN EMERGENCY RELIEF COORDINATOR: I have been hearing stories here in Aleppo this morning that chill you with what happened on those early hours of that terrible day. And what is the most striking here is even in Aleppo which has suffered so much these many years, this moment, that moment, a week or more ago, was about the worst that these people have experienced.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: Earlier today emergency crews found two more survivors in Turkey and carried them out of the rubble. One of them is a teenager who was reportedly located when the search team heard his voice under the debris. CNN's Nada Bashir joins us now from Istanbul. Nada, eight days on in stark contrast to the untold devastation and tragedy of these earthquakes, there are these miraculous stories of discoveries and rescues still.
NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Absolutely, Bianca, and we have search and rescue teams still working around the clock in southeast Turkey hoping to find survivors. Some rescue teams saying in the early hours of Tuesday that they are still hearing voices beneath the rubble, that there is still hope that survivors are still there buried beneath the rubble.
And as you mentioned, we've already seen rescues taking place today. Survivors being pulled out. The story of a 10-year-old girl who was rescued from beneath the rubble in the early hours of Tuesday morning more than a week on since the earthquake struck southeastern Turkey. But of course, these rescues, finding these survivors is becoming less and less frequent. Any window for finding survivors is closing very quickly. And that has been the warning of course in Turkey.
In northwest Syria the White Helmets have been leading on that rescue efforts have said now for days that they are no longer holding out hope of finding survivors. They've already declared a week of mourning, flags are flying at half-mast there and the rebel held northwestern territories. Now they are focusing this as a recovery effort and that will certainly soon be the case here in Turkey.
But we are still seeing search and rescue teams from across the globe flying into the country to take a part in that effort. A team from Australia is coming in now with specialist equipment to support the search and rescue efforts. But of course, as this now shifts into more of the recovery effort, there is a real emphasis, there was also an urgency and focus on the humanitarian aid program offering that assistance to those who have been impacted by the earthquake.
[04:25:03]
Thousands and thousands of people now left homeless as a result of this earthquake.
And we were actually visiting an aid donation distribution center in Istanbul, one of two key hubs in this city that has already sent more than 200 trucks full of aid onwards to southeast Turkey. They say that they have around 20,000 volunteers working around the clock to sort through these donations.
But the message from the coordinators there is that they simply need more. This is not enough. They need more support from the Turkish government and more support from the international community. They do not want to be forgotten. But it has to be said that the aid coming into Turkey is far more robust than what we have seen in northwest Syria.
And as you mentioned, there have been calls for more crossings to be opened, the U.N. has agreed with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to open two more crossings from Turkey into northwest Syria in order to get that aid across to rebel-held territories. We've seen a significant amount of aid being thrown into Damascus, but there is a question of cross-line transfers. Getting it from government controlled territory into that rebel held territory. That hasn't happened yet -- though the Syrian government claims that it is open to this happening and that will be a key focus over the coming days. For now though, the message from the White Helmets and volunteers in northwest Syria is that this is simply too little too late -- Bianca, Max.
NOBILO: Nada Bashir in Istanbul, thank you.
FOSTER: High wind alerts have been issued by the National Weather Service for much of southern and eastern United States. It's impacting as many 18 million people in more than a dozen major cities across the country. The alerts come as we're monitoring two winter storm systems that are impacting parts of the Western U.S. CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam has the details.
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: The meteorologists at the CNN Weather Center Heat are monitoring two separate storm systems that will impact the country from west to east, and many locations feeling the impact of the storms. I'll do my best to differentiate between the two because they are indeed two completely different storms.
There is the first low pressure kind of trucking through the Four Corners regions, lots of snow throughout the area. And that's going to move towards the upper Midwest through the next 24 hours bringing a rain/snow mix depending on where you are located.
The other low pressure and associated cold front kind of entering the equation across the Pacific Northwest. This is the secondary storm that's a little bit more powerful and will bring us a chance of severe weather across nation's midsection come the middle to second half of the workweek. In fact, you can kind of differentiate and separate the two storm systems with our winter weather alerts.
The first storm again moving through the Four Corners, it's got its eyes set on the Upper Midwest, that's where we have winter storm watches in place.
The secondary storm system, the more powerful storm moving across the Pacific Northwest bringing snowfall with winter weather alerts stretching from Billings to Portland. Lots of energy associated with these two separate systems. We have over 70 million Americans with high wind alerts, this includes St. Louis, Dallas all the way to El Paso and Los Angeles. Lots of rain too. You can see on the warm side of the storm. Showers are possible through the middle the week from Chicago to St. Louis. There is the snow on the cold side of the first storm. And then the snow piles up once again across the Colorado Rockies and throughout the Pacific Northwest. You can see the first kind of storm moving through and then our secondary more powerful storm system that will interact with warm humid air.
And we know what happens when that takes place. We get that collision of air masses and the severe weather chances start to go up. We have a slight risk of isolated tornado activity, damaging winds, and large hail Memphis to Shreveport and Little Rock -- this is for Wednesday. But let me point you into the direction of Thursday, more -- several tornadoes, I should say, according to the warnings from the Storm Prediction Center where you see this shading of yellow, that includes the Gulf Coast to the Ohio River Valley as a cold arctic blast of air settles in. It will be short lived, but nonetheless, you will feel it in places like Chicago, New York as well as Detroit.
NOBILO: Newly released data is providing insight into the mental health challenges that teens in the U.S. have been facing since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collected responses in the fall of 2021. And it found that more than 40 percent of high school students said that feelings of sadness and hopelessness prevented them from engaging in regular activities for at least two weeks of the year. 57 percent of teenage girls said that they felt persistently sad or hopeless and about 29 percent of teenage boys said that they felt the same.
FOSTER: Horrible research, isn't it. Really depressing.
NOBILO: Yes, and we're only just starting to get more studies because it was quite limited before.
NOBILO: Another new study as well found that changes to school nutrition standards made in 2010 significantly decreased the body mass index for kids and teenagers. Researchers found an overall decrease in BMI in the period following the implementation of the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act. Overall BMI decrease was seen across ages and income levels. Previous research showed school-provided meals were linked to childhood obesity.
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