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IDF Intensifying Actions In Central Gaza, Operating In Eastern Rafah; Biden Threatens To Stop Weapons Shipment If Israel Orders Rafah Invasion; Netanyahu: I've Had Disagreements With Biden, But We've Been Able To Overcome Them; Trump Returns To Campaign Trail With Jersey Shore Rally; Fighting Coastal Erosion One Glass Bottle At A Time; Florida Deputy Fatally Shoots U.S. Airman In His Own Home. Aired 12-1p ET

Aired May 11, 2024 - 12:00   ET

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

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[12:00:14]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right. It's been six weeks after Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed into the river. Well, today a plan to use explosives on the debris has been postponed, because of weather. The demolition crew was planning to free the Dali cargo ship from the debris that has been laying across its bow, allowing the ship to eventually be floated and moved from the waterway.

This comes a few days after the sixth and final body was recovered from the water. Investigations will also -- are in --

Investigators will also be having a hearing on Capitol Hill next week to discuss federal response to the catastrophe.

All right. Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All right. We begin this hour with dramatic new developments in the Middle East. Israeli military forces are calling for the immediate evacuations of some neighborhoods in the southern Gaza City of Rafah. The IDF says about 300,000 people have already fled. The orders come ahead of an anticipated IDF ground offensive in an area more than a million Palestinians where they are seeking refuge.

This, on the heels of a new report from the White House, the Biden administration says it's reasonable to assess that American weapons have been used by Israeli forces in Gaza in ways inconsistent with international humanitarian law.

CNN's Scott McLean has more on these latest developments in Gaza.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, new airstrikes in northern and central Gaza have flooded hospitals with a new round of victims. Included amongst them, a journalist, his wife and 12-year-old son. And the death toll may yet still rise, as people search through the rubble of those airstrikes with little more than their bare hands. Searching, at this point, for bodies,

And the video of the aftermath and the chaotic hospitals that have taken in those victims is pretty hard to watch. Many of the victims are children, some of them are very tiny infants.

The IDF declined to comment on the strikes other than to say that it was working to dismantle Hamas and insisting that it follows international law and takes measures to mitigate civilian harm.

That is notable only because the U.S. State Department released a report yesterday, saying that it is reasonable to assess that Israel has not always followed international law.

The IDF just this morning has told people in parts of northern Gaza to evacuate to safer areas and in several districts of Rafah as well to move to a humanitarian zone along the coastline zone where people have pitch tents along the roadway and along the coast. And there is very little in the way of infrastructure to support that volume of people.

The IDF says that there are now 300,000 people there that is the double the estimate that they gave on Thursday.

There are also people in Rafah who are struggling to leave at all. Some are unwilling to go, some are struggling with the logistics of moving around this active war zone, or the cost of moving around. One person told CNN that the situation there is beyond bad.

It also seems like Israel is undeterred by the U.S. pausing shipments of weapons to Israel because of its continued advance in Rafah. The IDF says that it has enough weaponry to go this alone. The Israeli security Cabinet has approved an expansion of the operating area. All of this just as aid into southern Gaza slows to a trickle, if that. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: All right, Scott McLean. Thanks so much.

Let's go now to CNN, Priscilla Alvarez, who's travelling with President Biden in Seattle.

So, Priscilla, Biden warned that he would stop some weapons shipments to Israel if they follow through with that major offensive and Rafah. What are you learning from them as they travel today?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Fredricka. That's what he told CNN for the first time, making the point that he would so continue defensive weapons to Israel, but some other shipments and offensive weapons could be held back if Israel is to move forward a major ground operation in Rafah, that area that has over a million displaced Palestinians.

Now, and what White House officials have been asked what that operation looks like, and at what point it would cross the president's red line. They haven't been able to give that detail or give the parameters of what it would look like saying rather than it would be obvious when it happens. But this, all of this coming against the backdrop of this report by the state department. It was a high stakes report, a highly anticipated one.

[12:05:01]

That just marked another stark moment in U.S.-Israeli relations. And this report with -- that was done by the Biden administration found that "it's reasonable to assess that U.S. weapons have been used by Israeli forces in Gaza in ways that are, inconsistent with international humanitarian law. But, of course, it also came short of saying that Israel violated that law.

Now, this report stemmed from that February national security memorandum that required a determination on this matter, but also whether Israel was withholding humanitarian aid from Gaza in violation of U.S. law. It also did not find that.

But all of this, quite critical of Israel in the way that it's carrying forward, but it did not mandate any actions by Israel or provoke any policy changes by the United States that coming under strict criticism from some of the president's own allies and humanitarian aid organizations.

But all of this taken together, Fredricka, just goes to show the continuing underlying tensions between Israel and the United States as Israel wages its war against Hamas and Gaza, and as we continue to see images of the destruction and the humanitarian toll in that region.

WHITFIELD: All right. Priscilla Alvarez in Seattle. Thanks so much.

All right. Let's talk more about all of this with Susan Glasser, she is a staff writer for The New Yorker. All right, good to see you, Susan. So, was it your calculation that the White House had some intelligence, you know, ahead of Biden revealing that he would impose conditions on military aid if Israel were go -- were to go into Rafah?

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: It certainly seems like the White House wanted and, you know, thought about sending a message this week. Also, the news had become public, it was leaked that last week, even before the Israelis moved in and took over keyboarder crossing in Rafah with Egypt. That the U.S. had made this decision, that Pentagon have made this decision to pause weapons.

I think with that coming out, President Biden took the chance to make a very pointed message to Prime Minister Netanyahu. What I've heard here in Washington is increasing concern from many of the President's Democratic allies, they are absolutely fed up with Netanyahu. They believe that the prime minister of Israel has essentially been flouting the words and counsel and advice, the president of the United States for months now.

And, you know, there was a lot of cheering at Biden's tough words. I think it remains to be seen exactly where the next step is, in part, because it's not yet clear whether and to what scale, Netanyahu and his government are going to follow through with this military operation in Rafah.

WHITFIELD: But, you know, and backing those tough words, the administration, you know, is saying Israel may have violated international law and failing to protect civilians. The U.S. State Department, saying in that written report that Israel, I'm quoting now, "has the knowledge, experience, and tools to implement best practices for mitigating civilian harm in its military operations."

So, the timing of this admonishment, you know, is pretty interesting, right? Following the many campus protests, six months now ahead of the U.S. elections.

Is this a turning point for the administration on how it supports Israel's approach to this war in Gaza?

GLASSER: Well, there is no question in my mind had the one thing that the White House really wants urgently, needs politically, is a ceasefire an end to active hostilities, already, the war has gone on far longer than they thought that it would. That has spilled over into the toxic politics of the American election year.

And what you see right now is a president of the United States, essentially trapped in the middle, trying to thread the needle, pleasing really, very few people at this moment in time you have on the right, overheated hyperbolic complaints, claiming that Biden is abandoning an ally. That he's betrayed, as the New York Post, put it the other day -- America's partners in Israel.

On the other hand, you have humanitarian groups, liberal Democrats, very concerned that he's not done enough to make clear that humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza is an -- is an actual part of U.S. policy. It's an unbearable place to be trapped in the middle at a moment where there essentially is no more rational middle in our politics. So, I think that's what you're hearing from the White House is, please, you know, let's end this right now.

WHITFIELD: Yes, some Republicans are saying, you know, using the word, you know, abandon. And you have some Democrats, some Democratic senators who are saying they're disappointed.

Do you also believe that Biden -- because you wrote that, you know, Biden is publicly daring Netanyahu to defy him? But then, hopefully, we have time for this. Yes. Listen to Netanyahu, who's spoke with Phil McGraw. This is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:10:03]

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER, ISRAEL: I've known Joe Biden for many years or 40 years and more. You know, we often had agreements, but we've had our disagreements, we've been able to overcome them.

I hope we can overcome them now, but we will do what we have to do to protect our country. And that means to protect our future. And that means we will defeat Hamas, including in Rafah. (END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So, that's Israeli prime minister, essentially digging in his heels, right? I mean, how contentious do you think it's about to become between Biden and Netanyahu?

GLASSER: Look, the bottom line right now, Fredricka is that both Biden and Netanyahu have some real political urgency and even a political incentive to get into public dispute with each other. But Biden has got to deal with an increasingly restive left of his party in the middle of the election year.

For Netanyahu, his political survival is on the line. He's vastly unpopular with Israelis. He's got to keep his far-right coalition, the most far right coalition in Israel's history together. So, in a sense, they both have an incentive to get in, you know, an argument with each other publicly and look like they are standing firm.

The tragedy, of course, is the civilians in Gaza continue to suffer and that the hostages not only have not come home, but there's no deal for releasing any more of them. Without that deal, by the way, the war is not going to end and I heard that very loudly from my sources in the White House this week. That's very important point. without a hostage deal, there is no ceasefire.

WHITFIELD: All right, Susan Glasser, we'll leave it there for now. Thank you so much.

GLASSER: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Still to come, powerful. A solar flare could disrupt communications across the globe, but it's also creating dazzling auroras. If you miss the spectacular show in the sky last night, there's still some time to get a glimpse of the northern lights, straight ahead.

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[12:16:41]

WHITFIELD: All right, perhaps, you've always wanted to see the northern lights. Well, guess what, you may now be in luck this weekend. They're on display in a very big way. A slew of solar activity has created dazzling auroras that we're seeing as far south as Florida. That's the good news.

The opposite of that. These flares can also disrupt communications here on Earth. It's the strongest solar storm to hit Earth since 2003. And could affect the power grid as well as satellite and radio communications. The Aurora is expected to last three nights.

Meteorologist Allison Chinchar is tracking the latest from the CNN Weather Center.

OK. So, no one wants the communications disruptions. But everybody wants the light show. ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. And there are so many people --

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: What's -- what the difference?

CHINCHAR: -- who normally would never have this opportunity to see it that are actually getting that chance.

WHITFIELD: Nice.

CHINCHAR: You think about those images we talked about where it's like the palm tree in the snow and how weird it looks, because it's so unusual.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

CHINCHAR: Well, that we're seeing something very similar to this. This image right here taken just south of Jacksonville, Florida. Same thing, you've got the palm tree in the foreground with all of the beautiful Auroras in the background.

Because again, this was such a big storm event, it's spreading to places that normally wouldn't get a chance to see these. But if you missed it last night, you will get a second opportunity to see it yet again tonight.

Again, it's been a big event, we've had a G5, which is the highest end of the scale that you can get. We had the event yesterday, and then another one this morning where it reached those levels. First time since October of 2003.

But the question is OK, I missed it, I want to see it again, when? The key is going to be earlier in the evening. The peak time tonight is really going to be that 5:00 to 8:00 and 8:00 to 11:00 timeframe.

Yes, I'm aware from 5:00 to 7:00, the sun is still out. But basically, what this is saying is the earlier into the evening, you can look, so the minute that sun goes away, that's going to be one of the prime opportunities to see it.

Yes, you can see it later, it's just going to start to diminish rather quickly as we go later on into the overnight hours. So, the earlier is going to be better. Now, the where?

Obviously, the farther north you go, the better viewing you're going to see. But, even places far south, Southern California areas over towards Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas, even into Florida, still have the potential to see some of those beautiful light displays tonight. The exception to that will be wherever we have cloud cover.

And we've got a lot of that expected tonight across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and also the potential for some heavy clouds, and even some rain showers for places like upstate New York, areas of Pennsylvania, and even possibly Vermont too. So, that's really going to be the only thing that really limits this. Now, the reason why we're seeing this, is this yellow dot right here, this is the sun. This is Earth. What you're seeing is the solar wind. So, this right here, this is the first wave that moved through on Friday. Here is the second wave. That's the one that we expect later today, giving us that second opportunity to really see such beautiful lights.

Here is the thing though, the speed at which these are moving is going to really amplify in the strength how far Southies get, but when they do, it's going to be a different color.

Now, green is the most common color of auroras that we see. And also, fun fact, green to the human eye, we are most sensitive to the green color. So, it's the easiest one for us to see, as well.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: I like that one.

CHINCHAR: But, in this case, it's red. It's not dark --

WHITFIELD: I want to see that.

CHINCHAR: Yes, it's the pink. It's the red. This was an image from Fort Lauderdale. Now, I want you go a little bit farther north, you're not just limited to the red, but you're really going to get all the colors.

[12:20:04]

This from Seattle, where they saw the purples, the pinks, the reds, and even the greens as well.

WHITFIELD: Lucky. Oh, it's so exciting. I'm glad we get another chance tonight.

CHINCHAR: Yes, same.

WHITFIELD: All right. Allison, thank you so much. Let's talk more about this and get more insight on this massive solar storm. I'm joined right now by Bill Murtagh, a program coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Bill, great to see you.

WILLIAM MURTAGH, PROGRAM COORDINATOR FOR THE NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION: Good to see you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: OK. So, when many of us hear the word, storm, we are thinking of thunder, lightning, so, help us understand why this is happening the way it is, we're calling it a solar storm.

And which we should anticipate beyond what else and just so brilliantly laid out.

MURTAGH: Yes. So, it's -- it all starts at the sun, as you just pointed out. And that the sun, it's like the earth and moon senses, the North Pole and the South Pole. Negative and positive polarity. But over the course of 11 years, it has a reversal. That's happening right now, we're right in the middle of that magnetic reversal.

Now, what happens during this stage of the cycle, we see the sunspots submerge the sunspots, typically one to three times the size of Earth. The particular sunspot, we're looking at closely now is actually 15 times the size of Earth. So, it's huge. It's complex, and it's producing these big eruptions that are getting shot out into space back to back to back, we've had up to 10 eruptions, all coming towards Earth, impacting Earth's magnetic field and creating these lovely northern lights. And in the southern hemisphere, the southern lights.

WHITFIELD: Wow. So, how can this be tracked, anyway?

MURTAGH: So, we, we have -- we have a 24/7 just that we're proud of the Weather Service. There is just like a regular weather station, we have to be on duty all the time. So, we've got sensors in space, we got cameras in on satellites in space, on the ground. Other types of instruments taken measurements, so we're watching the sun continuously.

And as soon as we see those eruptions coming towards us, we plug it into model, kind of like a regular weather model that will tell you what the weather is going to be like today, the next day to three days from now. We have our own space weather models that help us understand if that eruption we just saw in the sun is going to get to Earth and when -- and how long is it going to take before it gets here.

Everyone wants to know the timing. We want it to happen right at nighttime, so, we could see those northern lights. So, much like a regular weather station, we have those models, we use those, and rely on those models and those observations to make these forecasts.

WHITFIELD: Wow, looking at all these beautiful pictures that people took just by you know, looking out their windows and standing in their yards, et cetera. Do you feel like tonight's show might be as intense as last night's?

MURTAGH: I'm going to go out and see it. I don't think it's going to be as strong last -- I was absolutely spectacular last night. Some of the picture shots were getting from Europe as this -- as the sunset over here, which is marvelous.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

MURTAGH: And then, of course, as you mentioned, we had it here in Florida. We even got some reporting from Puerto Rico -- the aurora. So, it's extraordinary.

WHITFIELD: That's right.

MURTAGH: Now we do have a some more of these eruptions coming towards us, as was pointed out. It was -- so rare to get it as strong as it was last night, for 20 years. However, we will see some. We do expect to see more strong storming. We have a scale, one to five. One is minor five is extreme. The three and four level, strong to severe.

I'd say that's still a good possibility tonight. So, the aurora will certainly be visible in northern tier type states into the middle tier states. I'm not so sure down in Florida, Puerto Rico, again. But stay tuned. Let's see how it unfolds.

WHITFIELD: Oh, I love all the upsides. I wonder are you at all concerned about the potential of the downsides, the communication disruptions?

MURTAGH: Sometimes, everything works just right. This one did. We observed these eruptions, we were -- we recognized or -- they were going to impact the Earth. So, we were able to give the power grid, and other technology owners and operators a heads up 24 hours in advance. If we let them all know, hey, it's something big is on the way. There is going to be big issues. And these folks all have procedures in place to mitigate the effects of geomagnetic storms.

So, the perfect scenario is we detected, we forecasted correctly. All these folks do the right thing with the critical infrastructure, the power grid and the satellites. And then nothing happens to all that technology that we rely on for everything we do today.

So, so, far, so good. Sure, we're seeing effects and GPS communications and whatnot. That's inevitable, but we've essentially mitigated any really significant effects as far as we can tell.

WHITFIELD: All right. Bill Murtagh, we love your enthusiasm. We're excited too.

MURTAGH What? It's a great business, and really interesting. Thanks for having me on.

[12:25:00]

WHITFIELD: It's been a lot of fun. Thank you so much.

MURTAGH: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Straight ahead, former President Donald Trump is out of the courtroom and back on the campaign trail. But why is Trump escalating his attacks on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.? New CNN reporting straight ahead.

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WHITFIELD: All right. former President Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail after an explosive week of testimony in the hush money trial. He is heading to a beachfront rally in New Jersey, which marks the third campaign rally since the start of his criminal trial.

Let's bring in CNN's Alayna Treene, who is in Wildwood, New Jersey, the site of Trump's rally. [12:30:01]

Alayna, New Jersey is not considered a battleground state since Trump lost the state to Biden back in 2020. So, why spend his limited days off campaigning in the Garden State?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: That's right. And you mentioned that this is only the third rally that the former president had held since his trial began. It's also only his second day of campaigning. And so when I've talked to Republicans, they brought up the same point that you did, that it seems kind of interesting that he is choosing to spend one of those days outside of the courtroom in a state that is not considered a critical battleground.

Now, when I talk to the Trump campaign and his advisors, they tell me that, look, part of this is because they can get people from Philadelphia, the Philly suburbs, a place that is a critical battleground to come here. But also they have been to Wildwood, New Jersey, before. This is actually a district in the Cape -- in Cape May County, which is very red. And it actually voted for Donald Trump in the past two elections.

And so they expect a lot of enthusiasm here. As you can see behind me, there's already a big crowd that is forming. And his rally does not begin until 5:00 p.m. But I also want to just mention, Fred, that when I talk to other Republicans, they think there could be another motivation behind this, which is that Donald Trump didn't want to travel far after such a tough and embarrassing week in the courtroom.

They say that, you know, Wildwood is not that far from New York. It's also not far from his Bedminster Golf Club here in New Jersey. And so that also played some sort of role in this as well.

WHITFIELD: And, Alayna, in recent weeks, Trump has stepped up his attacks on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And in a lengthy social media video, the former president called RFK Jr., a Democrat plant. Why is the Trump team so worried about him?

TREENE: You know, it's really interesting, Fred, because the Trump campaign had actually laid out a playbook for this months ago as how they wanted to define Robert F. Kennedy Jr. They wanted to find him as a liberal and conservative clothing. That is what many campaign advisers had kind of used to describe how they would go on offense against him.

However, Donald Trump had kind of a different message. He was saying that he was a nice guy, that he liked him. He wasn't sure if Kennedy's candidacy hurt Biden or his campaign more. However, we've seen that change in recent weeks. Donald Trump has really changed his tone and escalated his tasks against him. And when I talk to the campaign, they say, look, there's a few reasons for this. One is that it's still unclear who Kennedy hurts more. What -- does he hurt Biden more or does he hurt Trump more? That's part of it. They think that it really varies on a state by state basis.

One senior Trump campaign advisor told me that they actually think that he could hurt Trump the most in a state like Pennsylvania. They said that's the way where people are unsure if they want Biden or Trump. But also they think, you know, regardless of whether he could be a huge impact, why not try to weigh him down as much as possible? And that's really why we're seeing these attacks be ramped up by the former president himself in recent days. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right, Alayna Treene, thank you so much. We'll check back with you throughout the day.

[12:33:03]

All right, still to come, police body cam footage reveals the moments leading up to the fatal shooting of a U.S. airman in his home, shot by a sheriff's deputy. What the family is saying, next.

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WHITFIELD: All right, all this week, we're celebrating and bringing you stories of men and women driving extraordinary innovations and changing the way we do business. Well, none of these people are famous, but each one is what we like to call a Champion for Change.

Well, today we head to New Orleans, the city might be known for its legendary good times. But until recently, had no glass recycling program for all those empty bottles. A young Louisiana native is reclaiming the Crescent City's glass into new sand to stem coastal erosion.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANZISKA TRAUTMANN, FOUNDER AND CEO, GLASS HALF FULL: Behind me is what we affectionately refer to as Glass Mountain. Glass Half Full started, like most good ideas, over a bottle of wine. We realized that like every other glass bottle in the state of Louisiana, it would end up in a landfill because we didn't have adequate glass recycling systems.

Glass comes from sand, so we hatched a plan to recycle glass back into sand. Sand is the second most exploited resource after water. The first thing we thought of was coastal restoration because that's where sand is needed in our state of Louisiana. We are losing land at such an incredibly fast rate, about a football field's worth of land every 100 minutes. Our coast in Louisiana is our livelihood.

I'm from a small town in Louisiana, and I grew up a lot around nature, around a bayou. Ultimately, I just wanted to protect the environment and be a part of it. We have pickup programs and we have drop off programs where folks can bring their glass to us. It'll be crushed into a mixture of sand and gravel separated by size. To date, we have recycled more than 6 million pounds of glass, and we will have done about six coastal restoration projects.

[12:40:12]

Bayou Bienvenue is a lot of open water, and we hope in the future that it's restored to a healthy wetland. We partnered with some different scientists and engineers there to test the safety and the feasibility of doing this. And now we're really translating that lab research into action. We have our restoration mix out today. And we'll be using it to build these islands and plant grasses and trees.

We have a ton of partners on the ground to help with restoration projects. Arthur from CSED is one of those partners since they're really focused on work in the lower 9th.

ARTHUR JOHNSON, CSED CEO: The CSED, the Center for Community Engagement and Development, was created as a tool for rebuilding of a community that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Disaster preparedness is so significant here in New Orleans. It's always been a very susceptible community to hurricanes.

Hey there friend.

Glass Half Full and CSED, we've come together to say we're going to address this issue, maybe at a smaller level, but having massive impact.

TRAUTMANN: Arthur and his team, they really bring that community aspect. They know the needs and the solutions that could work. We have free glass drop offs across the lower 9th Ward. We've provided sandbags for folks to use in case of floods. So hopefully being able to utilize that glass that the community brought to us, turn it into a resource that then benefits their community.

A big goal of ours is to be able to replicate what we've done here for other cities and regions. And so our next expansion area is Alabama. Instead of looking at things glass half empty, look at things glass half full. What difference can you make in your community? Once I realized that I could have an impact, I felt like I really found what I was supposed to do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Incredible. A huge impact. Be sure to tune in next Saturday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern for the Champions for Change, one hour special.

All right, it was an act that put an Olympic star behind bars. But do you really know how it happened? Oscar Pistorius, the Blade Runner, premieres tomorrow night at 9 o'clock on CNN.

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[12:47:12]

WHITFIELD: A Florida family is demanding justice after 23-year-old Air Force airman. Roger Fortson was shot and killed inside his own home by a sheriff's deputy. The Okaloosa County sheriff is now releasing body cam video of the fatal shooting, and he's disputing the family's claim that his deputy went to the wrong apartment. We want to warn you, some of the footage you're about to see is disturbing. CNN's Nick Valencia reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Newly obtained police dispatch audio reveals the first call came in around 4:00 p.m. on May 3rd about a physical disturbance in progress.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't have any further other than a male and female. It's all fourth party information through the front desk at the leasing office.

VALENCIA (voice-over): Around 4:29 p.m. the four-minute police body camera video begins with an Okaloosa County Florida Sheriff's deputy arriving on the scene.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was saying that it happens frequently.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But this time it sounded like he was getting out of hand.

VALENCIA (voice-over): A woman at the complex tells the deputy she heard yells and a slap coming from the apartment two weeks ago, but wasn't sure exactly where it came from. Eventually, she directs the deputy to fourth floor apartment 1401, the home of 23-year-old senior airman Roger Fortson, saying the girl who made the call about the physical disturbance sounded scared.

At 4:31 p.m., the deputy knocks once without introducing himself. Roughly 30 seconds later, he knocks again twice. A warning that you're about to see over the next 20 seconds is graphic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Step back.

VALENCIA (voice-over): Fortson, who appears in the body camera video to have a lowered firearm in his right hand, was shot six times to the chest. He survived the initial shooting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 3-12, get EMS to my location.

VALENCIA (voice-over): But was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

MEKA FORTSON, MOTHER OF ROGER FORTSON: My baby was my everything. Roger was my third son. Where we come from, you don't end up what Roger end up.

VALENCIA (voice-over): Adding to their pain, Fortson's family believes deputies went to the wrong address, a claim that the sheriff disputed while defending his deputy's actions. Ben Crump, Natalie Jackson and Brian Barr represent the family. They say the initial police statement was misleading and left out key details of the shooting.

BRIAN BARR, ATTORNEY FOR FAMILY OF ROGER FORTSON: It makes you think this happened outside. That this kid was in the middle of a disturbance. And he did something. He instigated this and lost his life. That's what it makes it sound like. It's sounding like justified.

[12:50:00]

SHERIFF ERIC ADEN, OKALOOSA COUNTY, FLORIDA: We are aware of a press release and other comments that falsely state our deputy entered the wrong apartment and imply that they burst through the door into Mr. Fortson's residence.

VALENCIA (voice-over): During the shooting, the airman was on a FaceTime call with his girlfriend, who Crump says told him there was never a disturbance at Fortson's home. Crump says Fortson had been home alone just 30 minutes before the deputy arrived.

He heard two knocks at the door and when he couldn't see anyone through the peephole, Crump said, citing the girlfriend, then Fortson grabbed his gun which Crump said he legally owned. In the girlfriend's FaceTime video, we hear Fortson struggle to breathe after the shooting as he lies on the floor bleeding out.

ROGER FORTSON, AIR FORCE AIRMAN: I can't breathe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do not move. Stop moving.

VALENCIA (voice-over): The deputy is now on paid administrative leave while the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigates.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA (on camera): The state attorney's office in Okaloosa County tells me that they're going to wait for the FDLE to finish its investigation before they decide whether to pursue charges. I did get in touch with the chief assistant state attorney there in the county who tells me that he did see the video, but he refused to comment, adding that it's too early for them to do anything with the case. He also said that there's no expected timeline as to when the FDLE will wrap their investigation.

Nick Valencia, CNN, Atlanta.

WHITFIELD: All right, joining me now to talk more about this tragic shooting is Derrick Johnson. He is the president of the NAACP. Derrick, great to see you. So, I mean, from Roger Fortson's family, to his attorneys, I mean, this is upsetting for many reasons. How do you see this?

DERRICK JOHNSON, PRESIDENT, NAACP: Well, another example when you don't have any accountability metrics for police officers to de- escalate scenarios. But in this case, the question is what crime was committed, what crime was allegedly committed, and there was no crime. He simply was seeking to answer the door of a police knock.

And at some point we must, as a society, determine the type of nation we would like to be as opposed to what's taken place. In 2023, we had a 10-year high of police involved shootings of individuals, significant number of those individuals were African Americans. And a large number of those individuals were unarmed. When will we stop this madness and address this public policy fiasco where we allow law enforcement officers just to kill people and never be held accountable?

WHITFIELD: This body cam footage, I mean, reveals the deputy knocked on the door at this Fort Walton Beach Apartment that a neighbor, as we saw in Nick Valencia's piece, you know, pointed out, but seemingly with uncertainty. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, FDLE, is going to investigate while the Okaloosa County sheriff's deputy, who is unnamed, is on leave. Does this feel urgent or transparent enough to you?

D. JOHNSON: It is completely untransparent. First of all, you have a neighbor who heard an argument, a domestic disturbance, between two people who are familiar with one another. That person never stated, based on what's been shared publicly, that there was violence that rose to the level of armed deadly force.

Secondly, he was home alone. This neighbor had the wrong apartment. And thirdly, the girlfriend was on FaceTime with him. What crime did he commit to cause this officer to use deadly force? It is legal for an individual to have a firearm in their home. It is legal for someone like him to actually have an altercation so long as no one's life is at risk. And there is no evidence that the apartment that was called was his apartment, and there's no evidence that anyone life was at risk.

WHITFIELD: Do you have confidence in the FDLE leading this investigation?

D. JOHNSON: Unfortunately, we have a history of this nation where law enforcement agencies protect officers who commit these type of crimes in my opinion. There is no accountability. In fact, until we pass the George Floyd Police Reform Act, we're going to continue to see these same type incidents. That's why it's important to make sure that we have a Congress with enough courage to hold bad officers accountable, train good officers on how to de-escalate and maintain a database so law enforcement officers cannot go from agency to agency and commit these heinous crimes.

WHITFIELD: All right. Derrick Johnson, so glad you could be with us. Thank you so much.

D. JOHNSON: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Still ahead, a new U.S. State Department report questions the use of U.S. weapons by Israeli forces in Gaza, how it could impact the Biden administration's support of Netanyahu, next.

[12:55:08]

Plus, an extreme geomagnetic storm is shading the sky with stunning auroras this weekend. So why is this happening? Bill Nye joins us coming up.

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[13:00:57] WHITFIELD: All right. A frightening moment for one of the world's biggest tennis champs. Tennis star Novak Djokovic was hit in the head with a water bottle after his winning match in Italy on Friday.