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Three Killed In Racially Motivated Shooting In Florida; Tropical Storm Idalia Barrels Toward Florida; 3 U.S. Marines Dead, Several Injured In Aircraft Crash; Russia Investigative Committee Confirms Prigozhin's Death; Trump Pushes For Delay Amid Requests For Speedy Trial; Tropical Storm Idalia Barrels Toward Florida. Aired 2-3p ET
Aired August 27, 2023 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:00:32]
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello everyone. Thank you so much for joining me this Sunday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
And we begin with new information about that racially-motivated attack in Jacksonville, Florida. Three people were shot dead inside a Dollar General store yesterday by a gunman who police say acted on a disgusting ideology of hate.
The Jacksonville sheriff held a press conference just moments ago. Listen in.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHERIFF T.K. WATERS, JACKSONVILLE SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Good afternoon.
I'm here to provide the public with an update of the currently available information regarding yesterday's tragic shooting. Homicide detectives have been working around the clock to gather information and evidence.
There's still a great deal of work to do before the investigation is completed. This briefing is only a recitation of verified information.
I want to begin by honoring the three precious lives that were lost yesterday. Angela Michelle Carr, 52 years old; Anolt Joseph or A.J. Laguerre, Jr., 19 years old; and Jerrald De'Shaun Gallion, 29 years old.
Yesterday homicide detectives completed the next of kin notifications of victims' family members. We continue to pray for the loved ones of those who were lost through this maniac's acts of senseless violence.
The office of the medical examiner positively identified the shooter as Ryan Christopher Palmeter. The shooter was 21 years of age when he committed yesterday's atrocities. He lived with his parents in Orange Park in Clay County, Florida. To our knowledge he had no criminal arrest history. As I said yesterday, he did have a Baker Act petition from 2017. This
petition occurred in Clay County. And it appears that the shooter was held for 72 hours under the Baker Act provisions and then released without further involuntary commitments.
Homicide detectives have been able to establish a timeline of events up to and including the shooting. On 7/6 of 2017 he was Baker Acted in Clay County. On 4/6 of 2023, the FFL transfer to Orange Park gun in (INAUDIBLE) of a Glock 20 Generation 4 10 millimeter. On 6/22 of 2023, the FFL transferred to Wild West Guns and Gold Palmetto State Armory, PA 15 556 millimeter, AR-15 type rifle.
On 8/26 of 2023 at 12:48 in the afternoon, the suspect arrived at E.W. behind the library in a gray Honda (INAUDIBLE) and he dons his bulletproof vest.
During this time a TikTok video of the suspect getting dressed at EWU with no time stamp on that TikTok video.
At 12:55:10 EW security backs into a parking spot in the same parking lot as the suspect. At 12:57:49 the suspect leaves EWU, south on Pierce Street (ph) and then west on Kings Road. At 12:58:17 EW security follows our suspect out of the parking lot. Between EW security leaving the parking lot and shots fired, 911 call at Dollar General.
At 13:08:04 EW flags down GSO officer and says there's a suspicious person on campus -- a white male, heavyset, wearing a gray tank top, black shorts, bulletproof vest and blue latex gloves in a tan KIA. That was the description they thought. They thought he was in a KIA.
The officer states he's researching the vehicle and the subject to see if there was any calls for service active or pending and in the process of writing a Be on the Look Out or a BOLO when the suspect -- when the shooting goes out.
At 1:08, an 11-round shot spotter activated. At 1:08:13 the suspect is on video in a parking lot in front of the store shooting into a black KIA and murders the first victim, Miss Angela Carr.
The suspect enters the Dollar General store and engages the second victim, a young 19-year-old victim, Anolt Laguerre.
[14:04:53]
WATERS: At 1:08:24 multiple witnesses exit the rear door of the store. At 1:08:47 the suspect exits the same rear door. At 1:09:06 one round shot spotter goes off.
At 1:09:13 the suspect enters the same rear door. At 1:09:30 the suspects shoots at a security camera several times but misses.
At 1:09:50 the first 911 call goes out. At 1:10:30 victim Jerrald Gallion enters the store with his girlfriend. At 1:13:05 one round shot spotter initiates again. At 1:13:10 the suspect shoots a third victim, Jerrald Gallion. At 1:13:12 the suspect chases a witness Elvicia Campbell (ph) through the store, shooting at her, but does not strike her. At 1:13:25, Elvicia. Campbell exits the east door of the store.
And at 1:13:37 the suspect shoots out the rear door on the east side of the building.
At 1:13:43, a four-round shot spotter initiates. At 1:13:47 the suspect re-enters the building and walks back toward the office. At 1:14:23 the suspect enters the office.
At 1:18 the suspect texts his father and says use a screw driver to get into my room. The father enters the room and finds a last will and testament of the suspect along with a suicide note on his laptop.
At 1:19:21 the officers entered the building and begin to clear just 11 minutes after this whole ordeal began.
Patrol clearing the hallway when the officer hears a single gunshot. We believe that's when he killed himself. At 1:41:03 EWU's security Marcus Williams calls to notify GSO.
At 3:45 -- 3:44:24 our SWAT officers confirmed that the suspect is down. Homicide detectives have gathered surveillance footage -- video footage from the Dollar General which captured the shooter's rampage. I'll share portions of that video right now.
Again, out of respect for the victims' families, we are going to cut this video short. We will not be showing their loved ones and what happened to them inside the store.
Rather these video surveillance excerpts, details some of the shooter's movements outside and inside the Dollar General.
As you'll see form the video footage, the shooter outfitted himself with a tactical vest which he covered with a short-sleeve button-up shirt. He created a facial covering and donned gloves for his attack.
This investigation is ongoing and I will provide you with additional information as it is established and verified.
I want to thank our law enforcement partners for their continued support in this investigation.
As our community collectively grieves this tragedy, this agency will continue to diligently investigate so that we can provide victims' families and our community with as many (INAUDIBLE) we can.
Our community is grappling to understand why this atrocity occurred. I urge us all not to look for sense in a senseless act of violence. There's no reason or explanation that will ever account for the shooter's decisions and actions.
His sickening ideology is not representative of the values of this Jacksonville community that we all love so much. We are not a community of hate. We stand united with good and decent people of the city. We reject this inexcusable violence. And this agency will not rest until this investigation is complete and
every available avenue of accountability has been exhausted.
I'll be happy to answer any questions after we view this video.
Again, the video is rather short because I don't think some of the things that are on there are appropriate for television. It's not meant to entertain or be insensitive to our victims and our victims' families.
So I wanted the people to be able to see exactly what happened in this situation. And just how sickening it is.
I'll answer any questions if I can.
Yes, sir.
(INAUDIBLE)
WATERS: We have no information that he worked at that store.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sheriff, we're hearing reports from witnesses that the gunman let two white women out of the store without firing at them before he opened fire. Have you been able to confirm anything like that?
[14:09:51]
WATERS: He let -- from what I'm understanding from our lieutenant here, he let several people out of the store. Why, I don't know. Some of them were white. I do believe there was a couple that were not.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did he give a warning before he started shooting?
WATERS: No. When you see that -- when you see him walk out on the sidewalk and he points that gun at that car, he fired 11 rounds at that car. He did not give any warning. He just did it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And when he was inside the store, someone has told me he said, if you don't want to die, leave the store. Did you --
(CROSSTALK)
WATERS: Those are all statements that we're looking into, trying to confirm and verify.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sheriff, will there be any double down on police presence in that area or any other areas within Jacksonville to prevent potential copycats.
WATERS: We're staying very diligent and vigilant in our community and making sure people -- and this is what we talk about. This is why I'm talking about it so much. I want people to be paying attention. I want people to see -- anything you see that may be strange out there, we don't expect anything like this to happen again. We hope that it never happens again, but we also ask our community to be on the lookout and just be aware of the possibilities.
We don't think -- again, there's no information that gives us any belief that this is going to happen again. But of course, we're always going to be paying close attention.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- you mentioned earlier that this gentleman here initially went to Edward Waters University. From your investigation so far, is there any indication why he specifically went there first?
WATERS: It looks to me that he went there to change into whatever he needed to change into. He had an opportunity to do violence at EWU. He did not.
There were people very close, in very close proximity. He did not do anything there. He backed off --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sheriff, after reading that manifesto, how difficult is it for you to stand here and process this hate crime that entered your community, very similar, almost a year after that the horrific shooting in Buffalo, similar in nature?
WATERS: I can tell you it angers me as a sheriff, as a member of this community. No family should ever have to deal with something like this.
Anyone who enters into a store and does this to perfectly innocent people -- one doing his job, a couple of customers -- is baffling to me. It's very difficult for me to watch and I've seen a lot over 32 years.
And I don't ever want to have to see it again. And I don't like it. And we are going to make sure that we work as hard as we can to stop these kind of things from happening again.
That's why we're paying very close attention to -- just doing so much to try to determine what exactly led to this.
The manifesto is, quite frankly, the diary of a madman. He was -- he was -- I mean he was just completely irrational. But was it rational thoughts. He knew what he was doing. He had 100 percent -- he was 100 percent lucid. He knew what he was doing.
And again, it's disappointing that anyone would go to these lengths to hurt someone else.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Could you explain -- are there any (INAUDIBLE) that would provide just exactly back in 2017, why he was Baker Acted?
(CROSSTALK)
WATERS: No, he didn't have the guns back in 2017. He was only 15 at the time. There's no -- there was no flag that could have come up to stop him from purchasing those guns.
As a matter of fact, it looks as if he purchased those guns completely legally. And all the FFLs did what they were supposed to have done to make sure that there were no issues.
Therein lies the difficulty. When a person grabs ahold of a gun with hateful intentions, it's very difficult to stop that from happening.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to make sure I have this all in one place in terms of sound here. Can you just tell us, (INAUDIBLE) where did those firearms come from? Were they legal guns? And were they legally (INAUDIBLE).
WATERS: They were 100 percent legal. And as we -- as I stand here with you today, they were legally possessed. There was nothing indicating -- again like I said, it appears that the dealers that sold those guns to him did it legally. They did what they were supposed to have done.
One was Wild West Guns, one was -- what was the other one?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One was Wild West Guns and the other was Orange Park Gun and Pawn.
WATERS: So it appears they did everything that they were supposed to do as a gun dealer. There was nothing indicating that he should not own guns.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So then standing here, as you stand in the podium, he possessed these legally? We know what he did with them. What could have been done? What should have been done?
WATERS: Well, we have to stop people that have bad intentions. Guns -- the story is always about guns. Just people are bad. This guy is a bad guy. If I could take my gun off right now and lay it on this counter, nothing will happen. It will sit there.
But as soon as a wicked person grabs ahold of that handgun and starts shooting people with it, there's the problem. The problem is the individual.
Now guns are tools that people use to do horrible things. But it's the individuals that wield these things. So we're working hard to try to stop that.
[14:14:53]
WATERS: But in this situation, in this case, there was nothing illegal about him owning the firearms.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- are you worried this might have implications on the community of a racial divide locally or even nationwide? WATERS: I don't think so. I don't think there's a racial divide in our
city. And actually, I work along with some of the best people in the entire world.
And it doesn't matter what color they are, what they look like, we're banded together as a community to fight these issues. I don't think there's a racial issue. I know there are racial issues with some people.
But as a whole we're standing here together because we're concerned about the same thing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aside wicked people and evil people, what we call -- what about mental illness? Even the legislation that Governor DeSantis signed a few months ago, people are concerned about anybody with mental issues. And this person seems to have a little bit of history that was seeable. What can we do about that locally or statewide or (INAUDIBLE)?
WATERS: We have to do a better job of background checks. They're going background checks. They do exactly what they're supposed to do. But there's nothing there to indicate that he shouldn't own a firearm then there's something else that needs to be done.
But really what needs to be done is people need to tell us when they see or they hear these things rising up in an individual. I don't know if anybody knew how he really felt. We haven't ran into it yet. We're still looking.
But yes, that's my answer to that. I mean mental illness is there but not everyone that's mentally ill, grabs a firearm and kills people for no reason.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 11-minute response from (INAUDIBLE), what are the lessons early on that GSO can take from yesterday's even of racial violence that moving forward to respond (INAUDIBLE) hopefully not again. WATERS: Well, we responded very quickly. The reason he went back into
the store is because there was a canine officer at the door waiting for him, looking for him.
So we responded very quickly. We have to just remain vigilant. We have to remind people to call us. It doesn't matter what it is. If it looks weird, if it looks strange, call us, tell us, so that we can respond.
If it looks like he's putting on a bulletproof vest, if it looks like he's putting on gloves, you have call us and let us know.
I appreciate the security guard at EWU flagging down the policeman and tell him about it. Pick up that phone, dial 911. Get on the phone with a dispatcher because we can get real time updates and find out what's going on and we can respond that much quicker. Those are some of the things we've learned.
Of course we're learning more and more every time, unfortunately, just some of these things happen. So now we're going to study it, we're going to continue to study it, we're going to continue to work until we find out exactly the entire history of the thing and then we'll put some things into practice, we'll continue to work and make sure we can respond as we did just there yesterday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you had any time to look into his disposition to violence in the past with his family or friends?
WATERS: I can tell you this, there was no criminal record, nothing. No criminal history, nothing. He had a domestic violence call at his house with his brother.
(CROSSTALK)
WATERS: We'll handle that. So we understand how to investigate. So we're going to continue to investigate this. But what I'm telling you is, where it stands right now there was nothing that we could have done to stop him from owning a firearm, a rifle or a handgun. There was no red flags. All right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Sheriff.
WATERS: Thank you all.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right. That was earlier the Jacksonville sheriff, T.K. Waters.
Let's go now to CNN correspondent Isabel Rosales who is joining me live from Jacksonville, Florida.
Isabel, this community is simply torn apart by this horrific, tragedy -- hate-filled tragedy. What are you hearing directly from people?
ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Fred, today was Sunday service where the faithful come together and worship. And that did happen today.
But they were also forced to confront this horrible situation that has happened in their own community.
We went to the Sunday service at St. Paul AME. And what we gathered from the community is that they were shocked and disturbed and just trying to grapple with this act of violence.
We also heard from the lead pastor that there were actually students from the HBCU where the shooter showed up first that actually came to get some healing, some understanding, and they prayed together.
Hear what the lead pastor has to say about service today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. WILLIE BARNES, SENIOR PASTOR, ST. PAUL AME CHURCH: The community is rocked, the community is reeling. There are people that are hurting about this. There are people hurting not just because they lost loved ones, but
they're hurting because they're thinking about how their own bodies, black bodies are in danger or jeopardized because simply of their identity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[14:19:57]
ROSALES: And I think it's really important to state the names of the lives lost. This is Angela Carr, again 52 years old; Anolt Laguerre Jr., 19 years old and Jerrald Gallion, 29 years old.
The sheriff we learned from him that the shooter did obtain his guns legally from two different gun dealers.
The sheriff also describing just the rampage that was caught on camera from inside of that Dollar General saying that he showed up, the shooter, in a tactical vest in a mask with an AR-15 style gun and a Glock.
We remember from the pictures yesterday, that gun had swastikas on it. Shot somebody outside in their car and then two others within the Dollar General, Fred.
WHITFIELD: It's hard to believe, hard to grapple with and still difficult to hear all the details that the sheriff is now able to reveal as well and seeing depictions of this shooter.
Isabel Rosales, thank you so much.
Let's talk more about all this. The president and CEO of the NAACP Derrick Johnson released a statement earlier today which reads in part, "As we continue the march for freedom in Washington, hateful actors continue to carry out the white supremacist agenda in Jacksonville claiming the lives of black Americans in the name of an era we refuse to go back to."
I want to bring in now, Wisdom Cole, the national director of the NAACP Youth and College Division to discuss this further.
Wisdom, I mean this is heartbreaking and it's just hard to grapple with. This happening in Jacksonville, Florida as thousands were gathering in the nation's capital to mark the 60 years since the march in Washington.
And yesterday was, you know, a pledge to continue the fight for freedom and equality, and then this.
What are your thoughts today, especially after hearing even more details about how the suspect targeted black people, left behind evidence that he hated them, and even with swastikas on his guns.
WISDOM COLE, NATIONAL DIRECTOR, NAACP YOUTH AND COLLEGE DIVISION: Today brings feelings of deep sorrow and grief, but it also brings a lot of questions. To the governor who has waged war on black America we must ask how
many black lives must be lost in the hands of white supremacy before you choose to put people over your political agenda. To the federal lawmakers who refuse to act, how many lives must be claimed in the hands of inaction before you pick up the pen and do your job?
What kind of world are we creating for our children? You know, there's an HBCU nearby where young people are now feeling traumatized and struggling to go back to school because they are in an area where they see themselves being the targets.
The young people I serve are tired. They're tired of living in fear. They're tired of witnessing violence. But most of all, they're tired of their so called leaders who refuse to protect them.
WHITFIELD: I mean this was pure terrorism. You know, wearing tactical gear, firing at the car parked outside the general store with a 52- year-old female victim inside, shooting dead a 19-year-old young man. Police say even chasing down a woman in the store who was hit but not killed. But she will forever be traumatized just as the students of EWU will be. But thankfully the security stopped him there.
What have you heard about what this has done to the community there, and especially the young people attending that HBCU at EWU? This was happening as they were moving in for the semester.
COLE: You know, this year there's almost an average of two mass shootings per day in America, and this is continuing to happen, especially as young people return back to school, as they're beginning their semester as they are working to build their career.
This is just another fear and pressure put on them as they struggle to survive in America. You know, this is something that is a direct result of white supremacy. It's happening across our nation and it must be addressed at all costs.
WHITFIELD: So this suspect lived with his parents in nearby Clay County. The shooting happening in nearby Duval County.
We're hearing from the sheriff there that he legally possessed guns, but even a person who legally possesses guns with hateful intentions, that person really cannot be stopped unless people who see any kind of exhibited behavior are able to speak up first.
But listening to the sheriff, it seemed in this case it was nearly unavoidable, unless we hear more from the family members or people in this shooter's life who will then be able to say that he exhibited this kind of behavior or articulated this intention. What is America to do at this point?
[14:24:56]
WHITFIELD: When you hear that? When you hear that he legally possessed these weapon, but he had hateful intentions which perhaps couldn't be stopped?
COLE: You know, he may have legally possessed the guns, but the laws are clearly ineffective.
I also want to express my deep disagreement with the Jacksonville sheriff's statement regarding guns. Guns are the problem. A lack of commonsense gun laws is the problem. And the harmful narrative expressed by the sheriff are part of the problem.
You know, we want to make sure that we're providing a world where everybody is safe. But if we're not taking these problems head on and actually putting registration that will protect people, we are not doing our jobs.
WHITFIELD: Wisdom, if you could, are you in a position to tell me a little bit more about EWU, Edward Waters University?
COLE: You know, the students there and the students at every HBCU across the nation over the last couple years have been faced with problems such as this, you know, from areas where there's school shootings nearby, to bomb threats, to attacks solely based on the color of their skin.
You know, we have to do the work necessary to protect our young people, especially as they pursue their education. What are we doing to ensure that they're graduating into a world where they can actually get the jobs that they've been preparing for? What are we doing to ensure that these young people are prepared to take on these challenges, but also continue to put pressure on our elected leaders to do what is right?
WHITFIELD: Wisdom Cole, national director of the NAACP Youth and College Division, thank you so much for being with us today.
This just in. Tropical depression 10 has strengthened to form tropical storm Idalia. And it's setting its sights on Florida's Gulf Coast.
CNN's Allison Chinchar is in the CNN weather center with more on this. Allison, what can you tell us?
ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's moving very slow. In fact, Fred, you could actually walk faster than Idalia is currently moving.
It's moving north at about 2 miles per hour. The average human, for reference walks about 3-4 miles per hour.
The sustained winds right now, about 40 miles per hour but it's what we anticipate the storm to do over the next 24-48 hours is really what is key.
Now, you'll notice the position point for tomorrow morning is not that far off from where it is now. But once we get to Monday afternoon, that's when we anticipate the storm to really start taking off and heading into the eastern gulf of Mexico.
When it does, it's going to enter a more favorable environment, low sheer and also very warm sea surface temperatures.
So you've got that increase in intensity expected where we expect this storm to get up to at least a Category 1 hurricane before making landfall likely somewhere between Tampa and Pensacola early Wednesday and then eventually making its way off into the Carolinas.
Rain is going to be one of the big factors with this storm, (INAUDIBLE) from Tallahassee to the Outer Banks, 4 to 6 inches. But some areas could see 8 or even 10 inches with this storm.
Wind also a concern especially the coast line. But even once this moves inland, you're still going to be looking at power outages possibly in Georgia and the Carolinas.
We also have another storm, this is hurricane franklin, sustained winds of 100 miles per hour. This is going to slide up the Atlantic before curving back over towards Bermuda in the coming days.
WHITFIELD: All right. Allison Chinchar, thanks so much.
All right. Still ahead, three U.S. marines killed during a military training exercise. Details about the aircraft crash straight ahead.
Plus Russia officially confirms that Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is dead after his plane crashed last week. What this means for the mercenary group going forward.
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[14:32:55]
WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back.
Three U.S. marines were killed and several others injured after their osprey aircraft crashed during military exercises in northern Australia. Officials say five marines were sent to the hospital in serious condition.
CNN senior national security correspondent Alex Marquardt is with us from Washington with more on this.
Alex, what are you learning?
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, we're still awaiting more information as to why exactly this osprey crashed. We do know that there was some 23 personnel on board when this crash happened on Sunday morning local time in Australia. The crash was on Melville Island, which is an island off of Australia's northern coast near the city of Darwin. There were three U.S. marines who have been confirmed dead. At least five were seriously wounded. They were taken to a hospital in Darwin. Several other marines, according to a local official, were treated at the scene.
Now, this osprey was taking place -- taking part in a routine training. There's an exercise called exercise predator's run where U.S. troops train alongside Australian forces and forces from other countries. So, this was not anything that was out of the ordinary. The U.S. sends marines to Australia as part of a rotational force, around 2,500 U.S. Marines normally take part.
We have heard from the Australian prime minister who offered his condolences to the U.S.
Here's a little bit more of what the prime minister had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTHONY ALBANESE, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: Our focus as a government and as a Department of Defense is very much on incident response and on making sure that every support and assistance is given at this difficult time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUARDT: So, Fred, this osprey that crashed on Melville Island, it was one of two U.S. ospreys that took off from the same site in Darwin. The other was fine. Now, the osprey is a unique aircraft in that it has rotors on each wing. It can fly like a helicopter, takes off like a helicopter, and then it can -- then it can fly forward like a plane.
[14:35:01]
We have heard from the rotational force, the marine rotational force that, as I mentioned, was this contingent that these -- that these marines were a part of. They say they're still investigating the reasons for this crash. So that really is the big question right now, and we are still waiting to hear from the Pentagon which so far has not released any statement -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right. Alex Marquardt in Washington, thanks so much.
Russia investigators say genetic testing confirms that Wagner mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was among the ten people killed in a plane crash on Wednesday. Authorities previously said his name appeared on the passenger list but stopped short of confirming his death.
CNN's Matthew Chance is in Moscow for us.
Matthew, what's the latest?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, that's right. I mean, it's been a few days now. It was Wednesday since that private jet belonging to Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner group plunged into the ground between Moscow -- when it was on a flight to Moscow and St. Petersburg. It was caught on video tape. People recorded it on their cell phones.
And on board, there were ten people. Everybody on board was dead. And the passenger manifest included the name of Yevgeny Prigozhin. It's now been confirmed for the first time after genetic tests on the human remains recovered from the crash scene that Yevgeny Prigozhin was indeed on board, and they've forensically confirmed he's dead. I mean, the reason is -- one of the reasons there's been so much
caution when it comes to this, because there's been other plane crashes in the past, one in 2019, for instance in an African state in which Yevgeny Prigozhin was also meant to be -- was also on the manifest. But he didn't actually die. He wasn't on the plane at all. He popped up a few days later saying, no, I'm not dead.
And so, you know, there was -- you know, h often put his name, for security reasons, put his name on passenger lists and didn't take the plane. On this occasion, though, it was a flight that he was on along with several of his senior deputies and, of course, three crew members, seven people from Wagner, including one of the founders, Dmitry Utkin, the head of security, people like that.
They're all now confirmed to have been killed in this plane crash. The reason for the crash, the biggest mystery in Russia today. And the Russians -- the Russian authorities say they have launched an investigation to try, they say, to get to the bottom of it.
WHITFIELD: Uh-huh. All right. Bring us that information when you get it.
Matthew Chance in Moscow, thanks so much.
All right. Coming up, back in this country, Georgia's racketeering case against former President Donald J. Trump and his co-defendants faces its first major test tomorrow. We'll discuss the critical hearing next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:42:19]
WHITFIELD: Tomorrow will be another pivotal day in court for Donald Trump and his co-defendants. In Washington, D.C. the judge overseeing the federal election subversion case against Trump will hear arguments over when to schedule that trial. It could start as soon as January.
And then in Atlanta tomorrow, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows will argue his case in Georgia should be transferred from state to federal court. And if he succeeds, Trump and other defendants will likely try to do the same.
With me now to discuss this is J. Tom Morgan. He is a former district attorney for DeKalb County, Georgia, which borders Fulton County.
J. Tom, great to see you.
So, you filed a brief with other former judges and prosecutors arguing that the Fulton County indictment of Mark Meadows should stay in state court and should not move to federal court. Explain why you all did that and what your point of view is.
J. TOM MORGAN, FORMER DISTRICT ATTORNEY, DEKALB COUNTY, GA: Good to be with you, Fredricka. Yes, I, along with several other district attorneys and judges, both Republican and Democrat, filed a brief arguing this case should stay in state course. Just because Mr. Meadows, and his case will be heard tomorrow, are government officials, it doesn't mean -- and get a government paycheck doesn't mean that they are working within the scope of their employment when they come down here to Georgia to try to interfere with an election.
Also, the U.S. Constitution, Fredricka, makes it very clear that the elections are to be supervised by the states and Congress. The executive branch has nothing to do with state elections. Yet these gentlemen were down here in Georgia trying to change the vote count, and Georgia wants to hold them responsible.
WHITFIELD: Okay. Let's move on to the next list because we got a lot of things we want to cover as it pertains to these. So, as it pertains to the speedy trial motions now, the judge granted one of the co- defendants, Kenneth Chesebro, an October 23rd trial date. And now, former attorney Sidney Powell, she, too, wants a speedy trial.
Do you expect those two case also be combined? And if so, how might that October trial ultimately impact Trump and the other co- defendants?
MORGAN: Yes, I do believe these cases will be tried since they were indicted together. There's no reason to sever them in separate trials. Court efficiency is very important. Georgia law requires that the trial start -- that is the jury selection, it should be joined. Both parties sign on to the indictment before the end of the term. This term will end on November 3rd.
[14:45:02]
So, again, court efficiently will demand both these cases start and I'm sure the judge will keep both of these cases together.
WHITFIELD: So, as we look at all the co-defendants up there, why is it that some would want a speedy trial and others have remained mum?
MORGAN: Well, a speedy trial would be filed by the defense for two reasons. First, as sort of a bluff. Is the prosecutor really ready to try this case? You know, they can withdraw their speedy trial demand up to the time the trial starts.
The other is finances. If you let this case drag on and every motion has to be heard with every defendant and every defense counsel present, it would take a lot of time and a lot of money by these defendants. So, I'm not surprised some of them are saying let's get this over with and get it over quickly.
WHITFIELD: On readiness, do you feel like the District Attorney Fani Willis is ready to -- if, with an opportunity, to move all those cases sooner rather than later?
MORGAN: Sure, Fredricka. Absolutely. I know Fani. She's had 2-1/2 years to prepare. And she said she's ready to go
forward. She's not bluffing. She's ready to take this case before a Fulton county jury as quickly as possible.
WHITFIELD: All right. The Georgia RICO statute, I mean, it's much broader than the federal statute. How does this in your view empower the district attorney, Fani Willis, as you know her well?
MORGAN: Very much so. I prosecuted the first corrupt public official in Georgia, one of our Georgia sheriffs, under the RICO statute. Coincidentally, the attorney who wrote our indictment, John Floyd, wrote the indictment involving Mr. Trump and these other 18 defendants. The Georgia RICO statute is very broad, Fredricka.
In fact, it allows the prosecutor to put in more evidence of more crimes than the federal statute. It's a powerful tool used by prosecutors across the country to go after corrupt organizations and people who participate in corrupt organizations. This case is a perfect example for the use of RICO.
WHITFIELD: J. Tom Morgan, glad you could be with us. Thanks so much.
MORGAN: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: All right. Be sure to tune in for election 2024, the campaign and the courtroom tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
Still ahead, Maui County says that power company's inaction led to the loss of life in the catastrophic wildfires. The companies are fighting those claims. The latest as residents and officials search for answers, next.
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WHITFIELD: I want to take you straight to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on the updating of a tropical storm.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), FLORIDA: -- perpetrating violence of this kind is unacceptable and targeting people due to their race has no place in the state of Florida. Casey and I extend our condolences to the victims of their -- and their families on behalf of the entire state of Florida.
I've spoken with Jacksonville Mayor Deegan, Sheriff Waters and President Faison from Edward Waters College. We will work with Dr. Faison to ensure the college has adequate security, just like we've done when our Jewish Day schools have been receiving threats. We're not going to allow in the state of Florida our HBCUs to be targets for hateful lunatics like the guy yesterday.
Now, with respect to the Tropical Storm Idalia. It is currently 80 miles off the coast of Cozumel, with 35-mile-per-hour winds. It will become a hurricane by late Tuesday afternoon. Landfall is currently expected along the Big Ben region on Wednesday and it could arrive at the state of Florida as strong as a category 2 hurricane. The storms, of course, as we know, these things can wobble so Floridians along our Gulf Coast should be vigilant, even if you're currently outside the cone and indeed you could see impacts if you are in a place that's outside the cone.
We issued an executive order yesterday to allow prep time and to stage resources to be able to respond to the storm's aftermath. Our emergency operations center here in Tallahassee will go to a level one, 24-hour around the clock starting at 0700 tomorrow. Please listen to your local officials. If you look at this Big Ben region, the models are probably more in agreement than we had Ian last year. But these things can shift. There's still some uncertainty out there.
So, please, just heed the warnings of your local officials. Continue to watch the news. If you are in the path of this storm, you should expect power outages so please prepare for that, particularly if you have one, if this storm ends up coming in the Tallahassee region, there's a lot of trees that are going to get knocked down, the power lines are going to get knocked down. That is just going to happen. So, just be prepared for that and be able to do what you need to do.
If you are power dependent, particularly the elderly or others with medical needs, please plan on going to a shelter. These -- some of these counties are going to be announcing that they will be opening shelters. I would imagine in the next day or so. That will be a good decision because the chance of you losing power if a category 2 hurricane hits is very, very high.
In terms of resources, we have mobilized 1,100 national guardsmen and they have at their disposal 2,400 high water vehicles as well as 12 aircraft that can be used for rescue and recovery efforts. Power, we are going to start -- the power companies are going to start pre- staging linemen starting on Monday, and we're going to have probably not as many as we had for Ian because the track of the storm is different and the number of people affected is likely to be less, but there is going to be a significant amount of linemen that are going to be stationed and ready to go.
And so, what we would say to the municipalities and other electric outfits is please be willing to accept this mutual aid so we can get the power back on as quickly as possible. When we did hurricane Ian, the places that accepted the mutual aid early, they got the power back on a lot quicker. So, please, these resources are going to be there. Let's all work together to get the power back on.
Clearly, we've had instances in the past where it dragged on and there were a lot of people without power, particularly in Tallahassee in a 2016 storm. We want to avoid that. The linemen are going to be there. And we want to put them to work and I know that -- I know that all the residents will really appreciate that.
So, please accept the mutual aid. Contact Kevin Guthrie if you have any questions about that but we are going to have power outages and so, we want to get the power back on for all Floridians as quickly as possible. We are likely going to be staging the majority of our resources in Marion County and parts of north Florida and that's going to give us the flexibility in case the track changes to be able to mobilize resources where they need to go.
The Florida Department of Transportation has now allowed expanded weight and size requirements for emergency transport so they're going to able to bring in more supplies on trucks than they otherwise would be. Please just be vigilant and watch -- watch the weather channel, watch the news and listen to your local officials.
We're going to continue to have briefings, you know, as the days go on. Here, if you want to know how can you prepare, go to floridadisaster.org/getaplan, floridadisaster.org/getaplan.
You have time to make the preparations. You're going to see on that web site all the things that are recommended that you do, but I would say, again, if you are in the path of this storm, expect -- expect to lose power.
WHITFIELD: We are listening to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis there encouraging residents to pay attention to all the updates of tropical storm Idalia.
And as he took his life press conference, you also heard a portion of his statement, in response to that hate-filled deadly shooting in Jacksonville yesterday. The governor saying we won't allow our HBCUs, in reference to the HBCU campus where the person threatened and before going on to the General Dollar store. The governor again saying we won't allow our residents to be targeted by hateful lunatics like the guy yesterday, unquote. That from the Florida governor.
We'll be right back.
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WHITFIELD: Officials in Hawaii are taking extra precautions in the wake of this month's deadly wildfires. Yesterday, people in the small neighborhood on Maui's Kaanapali were ordered to evacuate due to a brushfire. That order has since been lifted. More than two weeks now after the deadly wildfires, residents and officials are still trying to figure out the cause. And Maui County is pinning the blame on local utility companies, claiming their inactions caused loss of life.
Joining me right now to discuss is Frank Pitre. He served as co-lead counsel on behalf of the victims of the deadly California wildfires in 2017 and 2018. He helped to secure a settlement in one of the lawsuits against California utility company PG&E for its mismanagement of electrical operations.
Frank, glad you could be with us. Thank you so much.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday, Maui County alleges that the utility company's inactions caused loss of life, severe injuries, complete destruction of homes and businesses, displacement of thousands of people, and damage to many of Hawaii's historical and cultural sites. Are they making a strong case?
FRANK PITRE, REPRESENTED WILDFIRE VICTIMS IN LAWSUIT AGAINST PG&E EXECUTIVES: Absolutely. These are lessons that any utility company who's been paying attention for the last decade would have foreseen as both what I call predictable and preventable. As far back as 2007 we learned the lessons in San Diego of what happens when you don't take preventive measures like having a power safety shutoff system with a warning system of residents, you know, at least days if not at least 72 hour in advance so they can, A, plan for evacuations, B, plan to have their power shut off and prevent the loss and destruction of lives.
It happened again in California in 2015, again in 2017 and altogether the toll here is that over 150 lives have been lost, 10,000-plus structures destroyed all because a utility does not have in place a power safety shutoff system. And it is so easy to do. PG&E was able to put it together, you can imagine this, within eight months of the 2017 fires and that program had been in existence since 2010 in San Diego.
