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IDF Orders Immediate Evacuation of Neighborhoods in Eastern Rafah; U.S. Report Investigates Israel's Conduct in Gaza; Ex-Trump Fixer Michael Cohen Expected to Testify Monday; NYT/ProPublica Report Trump May Owe $100M Tax Bill For Questionable Tax Break On Chicago Tower; Extreme Solar Storm Prompts Power And Communications-Related Warnings; Students Decry War In Gaza As Colleges Host Commencements; Body Cam Video Of Airman Roger Fortson's Shooting Raises Questions. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired May 11, 2024 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:55]
JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM, and I'm Jessica Dean in New York.
We begin this hour with growing fears in Gaza as tens of thousands of Palestinians flee the city of Rafah amid a looming major assault by Israel's military. Today, the IDF ordering the immediate evacuation of more neighborhoods in Rafah after the Israeli security cabinet approved an expansion of its military operations there.
Satellite images show many of the densely populated tent camps where more than a million civilians have been taking shelter suddenly cleared out within a matter of days. The IDF estimating about 300,000 people have already left that area.
And all of this coming amid a new report from the State Department that says it's, quote, "reasonable to assess" that American weapons have been used by Israeli forces in Gaza in ways that are, quote, "inconsistent with international humanitarian law."
We have CNN's Priscilla Alvarez with more fallout from that report. But first, let's go to CNN correspondent Scott McLean, who has more on the dire situation in Gaza.
Scott, there has been more airstrikes targeting Rafah. What do you know? What's the latest right now?
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jessica. Yes. So this is according to hospitals in Rafah. They say that there were two airstrikes carried out in the city, some 15 people at this point have been confirmed to have died, including women and children. And what is especially noteworthy is that those strikes took place in areas that were not ordered to be evacuated by Israel.
Israel did order several parts of northern Gaza and also of Rafah to evacuate today. All in anticipation of a stepped-up ground offensive in Rafah and that renewed bombing campaign in the north. And I say renewed because there have -- there has been restarted bombing there just this afternoon, according to the IDF, and it comes after there were several airstrikes overnight in Northern and Central Gaza.
These came without warning, though, in the middle of the night. And frankly when can you look at some of the video of the aftermath, in the hospitals which are chaotic, on the strike locations, which are completely destroyed, it is especially hard to watch because there are so many children in those videos. Some of them very, very small. Infants even. Also among the victims is a journalist, his wife and his 12-year-old son. That marks the 143rd journalist to be killed since this war began.
The IDF was asked about those strikes last night. They declined to comment other than to say that they are trying to dismantle Hamas and that they work within international law and they take precautions to safeguard civilians. That's notable, of course though, because it comes just a day after this report was released by the U.S. State Department strongly suggesting that in many cases, the opposite is actually true.
Israel has been pushing those that it's asked to evacuate toward one particular area along the coastline called Al-Mawasi. It is a sandy area, it has dunes there, and very little, though, in the way of infrastructures to support the 300,000 people who have pitched tents in those areas. That's double the number that the IDF estimated on Thursday, 150,000. And inside Rafah, there's already plenty of evidence that, you know, the streets are starting to hollow out.
People are leaving, they're picking up whatever they have and they're going either by car or by donkey cart or in many cases on foot.
And our CNN stringer today, Jessica, was able to speak with one woman as she was leaving today with three young kids in tow and she was very emotional and she said it's horrible. Is the world happy to see this? We can't find a place to stay. We don't know where we're going to go. And she's obviously not even close to the only one -- Jessica.
DEAN: Yes, there are many, many more just like her.
Scott, thanks so much for that reporting.
[16:05:03]
Let's go now to Priscilla Alvarez, who's at the -- in Washington. Actually, she's in Seattle. She's traveling with the president there.
I see the space needle behind you, Priscilla. This highly anticipated report from the State Department stopped short of officially saying that Israel violated the law but it certainly didn't totally let them off the hook. What's the response been?
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jessica. This high-stakes and highly anticipated report came as the president is on his West Coast swing concluding here in Seattle for fundraising. Now, this report was really another moment, another stark moment in the U.S.-Israeli relations. It was put together by the Biden administration and it found that, quote, it's reasonable to assess that U.S. weapons have been used by Israeli forces in Gaza in a way that is, quote, "inconsistent" with international humanitarian law.
But it stops short of saying that Israel violated the law. Of course, this report stemmed from a February National Security memorandum that was required to make a determination on this matter as well as whether Israel withheld humanitarian aid to Gaza in violation of U.S. law. But there has been some pushback here because while the report came to these conclusions and was highly critical, it doesn't provoke any type of U.S. policy change at this point. And it also doesn't mandate any actions by the Israeli government.
So allies to the president have pushed back on this saying that, yes, there are there, it is critical and yet there is no change on the horizon. And of course, all of this, Jessica, comes against the backdrop of the president's interview with CNN earlier this week, where for the first time he said that he's willing to withhold some weapons from Israel if they move forward with a major ground operation in Rafah.
Rafah had been that area where more than a million Palestinians are displaced. Of course, he said that the U.S. will continue to provide defensive weapons. That could change, though, with offensive weapons. So still a lot of questions here in terms of what this looks like moving forward. But what is very clear, Jessica, is that there are underlying tensions that remain between the U.S. and Israel as it wages its war against Hamas.
DEAN: And Priscilla, family members of the American hostages that are still being held met with White House officials yesterday. What did they have to say?
ALVAREZ: Well, according to a White House readout, they expressed a, quote, "immense frustration" over another pause in these ongoing hostage talks in their meeting again with national security adviser Jake Sullivan. And let me read you part of this reread out which says quote, "The families expressed their immense frustration with yet another pause, especially after recent hostage videos showed their loved ones disabled, thin, pale, and under apparent duress."
All of this coming out with the meeting between the families of the five Americans, who are believed to be held hostage. There has been a lot of activity in recent weeks in these, hostage talks with the CIA director going abroad to engage in some of these talks, the secretary of state and even the president and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, all engaging on this, but there is still no deal. It's unclear whether there will be one.
And in the interim, this meeting happening, this week with National Security adviser for the hostage -- the families of the hostages continue to express their concern and frustration.
DEAN: All right. Priscilla Alvarez traveling with the president this weekend on the West Coast in Seattle, Washington. Thanks so much for that reporting.
And joining us now from Tel Aviv is Danny Danon. He's a member of Israel's Knesset, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations. Mr. Ambassador, thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. I
just first want to get your reaction to the State Department report on Israel's use of U.S. weapons in Gaza.
DANNY DANON, MEMBER OF ISRAEL'S KNESSET: Jessica, we haven't seen the report yet, but I can tell you one thing. The way we conduct the war, we take all precautions in order to make sure we minimize casualties for civilians. And we have proved it. You know, the very fact that, as we speak, we're asking that relation to move to a different area, we just show you that, you know, it takes us too long, seven months to operate in Gaza. But that's only because we do it slowly. We try to minimize civilian casualties. And we'll continue to do that.
And I think our friends in the U.S. that are aware of that, they know what's happening here on the ground. And then they should actually look at the fact of what's happening here, regardless of those allegation that we get every once in a while.
DEAN: Right. And they did look at the facts. They had -- it was a long research report and yet the president has warned Israel's government a number of times, the Prime Minister Netanyahu, about the civilian deaths in Gaza, about President Biden's concern and the administration's concerns about the civilian deaths and well-being in Gaza. And he recently withheld a weapons shipment out of concern over these powerful bombs that potentially could have been used in Rafah were over a million Palestinians have fled during the war.
[16:10:01]
Do you think the president has been -- President Biden has been justified in those actions?
DANON: Absolutely not. You know, we are very disappointed, we are confused, because only a few weeks ago we heard from the president saying that he supports Israel, and he understands that we have to operate in Rafah. But he wants to see how we handle the humanitarian aspects. And we have plans how to deal with the civilian population, to move them to a different base before we operate in Rafah.
And all of a sudden we heard those news about holding that shipment and that at the same time when Iran is doubling their shipments to their proxies in Lebanon and we are being attacked by Hezbollah, by proxy of Iran and by Hamas. So yes, we are disappointed, but we will continue the dialogue with the U.S. We are grateful for the support, but at the end of the day, we will take the decisions by ourselves.
We will not forget the hostages, including five American hostages who are being held by Hamas. And we have no desire to go to Rafah. I can tell you as a father of an officer in the military, nobody in Israel is happy to send a family member to fight in Gaza. But we don't see any other option to bring back the hostages and to finish the war. If Hamas will surrender tomorrow morning and will release the hostages, we will definitely not go into Rafah.
DEAN: But those bombs that he withheld, they're some of the biggest that exist in the arsenal. The fallout zone is dozens of football fields. Is that something that you would actually need in Rafah where hundreds of thousands, a million civilians are all kind of huddled together? I know some of them are moving out and you've told them to leave, I understand that. But were you planning to use those in this offensive?
DANON: Well, I don't know. You know, we don't know exactly what we will do and how we will do it. But if you compare to the way that the U.S. fought terrorism, whether it's in Afghanistan or Iraq, sometimes you have to use force to fight off the terrorists, and they are hiding behind civilians. They are committing a war crime by hiding behind civilians. So it's challenging for every democracy in fighting a terror organization to fight when you fight inside a civilian population.
We are doing our best to minimize casualties. We will continue to do that. And sometimes when we get the support of the U.S., it allows us to use sophisticated weapons in order to achieve our goals. If we will not have those weapons, we will continue without those weapons. And I think it will be harder for us and the casualties will be larger. So we would try to avoid it and I believe Israel will continue the negotiations with our colleagues in D.C.
DEAN: And you mentioned the hostages that are still being held in Gaza, that there have been many, many talks to try to get to an agreement for either -- you know, for a ceasefire, a pause in the fighting, and returning some of those hostages. Negotiations apparently are kind of back at square one after the back-and-forth.
Do you think that the Rafah -- what's going on in Rafah, how do you think that's affecting these negotiations?
DANON: I think that if we would apply a military force, we will be able to move forward with the negotiations because look what happened exactly one week ago on Saturday night, we received an offer from Hamas. Basically what they told us that they will release 33 hostages, but they cannot tell us who's alive and who's not. And that was very bad news for us that even 33 hostages that would committee to give us the number of people who are alive.
So that's bad news. I think we will have to use more force in order to get to a deal. That's what happened when we started the war. We put a lot of force. We forced them to negotiate and to achieve an agreement. I hope it will happen soon because we know when we get the testimonials about the condition of the hostages, about the atrocities, and we know that every day more hostages are losing their lives over there.
DEAN: And we're looking at video, while you're speaking we have video playing, too, of big protests against the government in Tel Aviv that happened today. Some calling for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign. Many want the hostages back, a deal to be struck to get those hostages back. And just going off a point you just said, the White House National Security Communications adviser John Kirby told reporters this week that a full-scale invasion of Rafah would actually, in his word, strengthen Hamas. And Hamas' hands at the negotiating table, not Israel's. Are you concerned about that? DANON: Yes. We have, because that's very confusing to hear those
voices coming from Washington. In one hand, we hear that, you know, the U.S. is standing with Israel and at the same time we feel that our hands are being tied behind our back.
[16:15:03]
You cannot win a war like that. You know, Israel, the strongest democracy, the strongest ally of the U.S. in the region, and I want to remind you that when we were caught by surprise on October 7th. We add a ceasefire with Hamas, but they chose to invade our communities, kidnapped innocent people, raped and butchered innocent Israelis. So that's a way that we don't want to have, but we have no other option because if Hamas will stay in power in Gaza, they will put their acts together and they would attack us again. We cannot allow that.
DEAN: Danny Danon, thank you so much for making time for us. We appreciate it.
DANON: Thank you, Jessica.
DEAN: Prosecutors in Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial say they could rest their case by the end of the week, but not before their star witness, former Trump fixer, Michael Cohen, takes the stand. The potential impact of his testimony, plus why the solar storm giving us these amazing images, also has the National Weather Service a little worried about problems with the power grid, phone calls, the internet, and more.
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:20:51]
DEAN: The stage is now set for a high-stakes showdown in Donald Trump's hush money trial. On Monday, his former fixer and attorney turned enemy Michael Cohen is expected to take the stand and testify about negotiating the alleged hush money payment, all to keep potentially devastating news about an affair quiet before the 2016 election.
And on Friday, the judge told prosecutors to tell Cohen to stop talking about Trump in the trial ahead of his testimony after he was taunting Trump on social media with posts like what you're looking at right now.
CNN's Brynn Gingras has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The prosecution continuing to build its case against Donald Trump today, teeing up Michael Cohen's key testimony. Cohen expected to be called to the stand on Monday.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's a lawyer, not a fixer. He was a lawyer. There is no crime, and they failed to show a crime.
GINGRAS: Earlier in the day, Madeleine Westerhout, Trump's former director of Oval Office Operations, cross-examined by the defense. Trump attorney Susan Necheles asked, would you see him signing checks without reviewing them? Yes, Westerhout replied, confirming Trump would sign checks sometimes while on the phone or in a meeting. Westerhout exchanged smiles with her former boss as she left the stand.
MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER TRUMP LAWYER: The next president of the United States.
(CHEERS)
GINGRAS: A flurry of other witnesses taking the stand, too, helping the prosecution lay the groundwork for Cohen.
COHEN: I'm kind of looking forward to it. Sooner this thing starts, the sooner this thing finishes, and that way I can, yes, this too shall pass.
GINGRAS: Analysts from Verizon and AT&T sharing phone records as Trump's attorneys already attempting to sow seeds of doubt. Emil Bove asked, you're familiar with the concept of a pocket dial. These records don't reflect the content of these calls. Correct, an AT&T analyst answered.
Employees from the district attorney's office also introduced text messages, business vouchers, and several tweets from Trump about Cohen, including this one from 2018, the day after Cohen pled guilty to tax evasion and campaign finance violations.
"If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don't retain the services of Michael Cohen," Trump wrote.
TRUMP: Hello, how are you?
GINGRAS: Also revealed, call logs relating to this September 2016 conversation with Trump Cohen recorded.
TRUMP: What financing?
COHEN: Well, I'll have to pay something.
TRUMP: No, pay with cash.
COHEN: No, no, no, no, no. I got it. No, no, no.
TRUMP: Check.
GINGRAS: Cohen claiming the call was referencing another hush money payment for Playboy model Karen McDougal's alleged affair with Trump. Trump not paying close attention to the testimony from later witnesses and was seen using a highlighter and flipping through possible news clippings.
TRUMP: This trial is a scam. It's something that should never happened.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GINGRAS (on-camera): Aside from Cohen, prosecutors say they have one more witness to call before they rest their case, possibly by the end of next week, and then of course it's the defense's turn and the big question remains, will Donald Trump take the stand?
Brynn Gingras, CNN, New York.
DEAN: Brynn, thank you.
And joining me now is John Dean, the former White House counsel to President Richard Nixon and CNN contributor.
John, nice to see you. We are now through another week. This was a big one with Stormy Daniels. We saw some documents and records coming into play. What's been your main take away from the trial up until this point?
JOHN DEAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I've been reading the transcript. I'm about a day or so behind where they actually are. And it's a very powerful case the government has put on in New York. They have really filled in so many of the blanks and they have built such a structure that Michael Cohen can come in and testify. And he's largely corroborated already with either other witnesses who don't necessarily have an ax grind as well as documents. So they have laid a real foundation for this coming week.
DEAN: It has been very interesting to see how they've really tried to buttress anything that Michael Cohen is going to say with, to your point, other people that don't have an ax to grind, that aren't -- don't have as checkered of a history as Michael Cohen does. But knowing that, how much of Cohen's testimony do you think could potentially be undercut by his clear grudge against Trump?
[16:25:03]
Before we had you on, we were showing people, you know, some of the social media posts of him wearing or showing a picture of Trump, you know, a cartoon Trump behind bars, things like that.
J. DEAN: Well, that's going to be up to the jury, obviously, and different people will take it in different ways. The fact that there is a grudge match going on here doesn't mean the jury won't believe him. It will put the burden a little bit higher on him to be persuasive but I've watched Michael testify in front of the House committee several years ago. He was very good as a witness. They tried to impeach him then, the Trump supporters on the panel, and they didn't do very well.
He handles himself well. He has a charisma about him. I think he's being very brave in what he's doing and people will recognize that. It's not easy to take on the Trump team. And particularly when it's a campaign going as well. DEAN: And I'm thinking back to what you just said about how you've
been reading the transcript that you really see this so far as a pretty strong case for the prosecution. It is interesting, and I'm curious if you were surprised by that, just because the conventional wisdom going into this trial was of all the cases against Donald Trump, this one was the flimsy or the weakest. What do you make of that now that we've seen some of it?
J. DEAN: Well, it shows that Bragg was smart to delay and do the case on his own timing and his own schedule after developing facts way beyond where the initial team under Vance and Pomerantz in the New York D.A.'s office had done. This is a very strong case. They tailor it down to what it was really, the offense, which was the false records, which is something that office tries on a regular basis.
There are a lot -- I think something like 400 cases of this nature can go through that office in a year so they know how to try these cases. They know how to read a jury and they're bringing this case. It's good theatre for the jury, but it's also they're getting the essential elements of the case in front of them.
DEAN: And we also heard from Stormy Daniels this week. And at times it was salacious. There was a lot going on there. A lot of detail. And the defense didn't object to a lot of the testimony, even though the judge said he thought they would object more often and more aggressively. But it seems like that could also be a strategy in case they want to appeal a conviction that this could potentially be a place where they could focus on.
J. DEAN: I think that is their strategy, that they want to take things that they feel could be declared to be presidential -- sorry about that. and use those later on appeal to try to overturn a verdict if it comes down against Trump. So whether they're, you know, the sophistication of their doing it, though, is really questionable because on cross-examination, they went in the same areas themselves, it appeared at Donald Trump's request to try to get in and mix it up with Stormy and they did not do well at it.
She actually came out as a very strong witness and her own story certainly held up in front of the jury. So they didn't impeach her in any way as far as the encounter that she'd had with Donald Trump. So I'm not sure it worked. And I'm not sure -- I don't think it will work on appeal.
DEAN: I want to shift gears before I let you go and ask you about a new report from "The New York Times" and ProPublica, and this piece says former president Trump used a questionable accounting maneuver to claim improper tax breaks from his Chicago Trump Tower. And according to an Internal Revenue Service inquiry uncovered by "The New York Times" and ProPublica a years-long audit battle over the claim could mean a Trump tax bill of more than $100 million.
Do you think that that has any impact at this point on any of the current proceedings in New York or any of the other legal cases against him? J. DEAN: Well, obviously, I read this story. It's a lengthy story.
It's a well-reported story, and it's been going on for quite a while, a number of years. We just are now, the public, becoming aware of it through this report of "The Times" and ProPublica, so I don't think it will affect any of the cases that are now pending or that have been -- that so many of them are on the appellate level at this point.
The article does cite the fact that he owes almost a half of $1 billion already in damages for cases he's lost. And just shows how much this would add to his agony if indeed the IRS is holding him to account for this.
[16:30:11]
Maybe this is, again, why he wants to be president because the IRS will back off if he's sitting in the Oval Office. And that's at least $100 million he won't have to worry about.
So it's a fascinating report. We'd know so little about Trump's true finances. He's one of the unique characters in history that has run for the presidency and the public knows nothing about his finances.
So this just adds more to that fuzzy picture we have of what he -- what his own exposures are financially.
DEAN: What those facts are.
All right. John Dean, thank you so much. We appreciate it.
J. DEAN: Thank you, Jessica.
DEAN: It's the kind of storm we haven't seen on this planet in almost 20 years. When and where you can see a rare cosmic show in the night sky thanks to a solar storm.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:35:30]
DEAN: An extreme solar storm is lighting up this weekend, but it also comes with some warnings.
Jining us now, CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam.
Derek, there's a lot of questions, but the pictures are incredible. What is sparking all of this?
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Yes, they've been dazzling and also very rare, Jessica. And you -- good question, what is causing this? Well, it's known as a sunspot.
Do you remember the eclipse last month and we have these specialized glasses. You can go outside, reuse your solar eclipse glasses, point up towards the sun only when you're wearing these glasses, and you can see the sunspot because it is so large on the sun. It's 17 times the size of the earth. And that sunspot is responsible for ejecting solar plasma, these
highly charged particles. That's what it looks like on your screen there. Those are the solar flares that have recently ejected from that sunlight that is visible to the necked eye when you, of course, wear proper protection.
And this is sending these charged particles through the atmosphere via the solar wind. And we've had several different opportunities for this to charge up our magnetic field here across planet earth.
Think of it as almost like a Roman shield deflecting that plasma towards the poles. And that gives us obviously the unique opportunity to experience the aurora borealis or the auroras strophes in the southern hemisphere.
And you know what? We have seen it in places that don't normally experience it, including Florida and including here in my backyard. That's why we're actually here because we are anticipating seeing it once again tonight as another one of these coronal mass ejections heads towards planet earth as we speak.
But you had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity if you witnessed this, let's say, in Florida yesterday or here in Atlanta, Georgia, where I was yesterday.
Now, we have maxed out the scales from the Space Prediction Center. We saw a G-5. That is the highest level of electro and storm activity. And guess what? We're moving right into another very active period.
So once that sunsets tonight, the potential to see more solar activity is definitely on the cards. Probably not as far south as the gulf coast and Florida like we experienced yesterday.
But believe me, we'll be ready for that moment. You could see that greatest chance of viewing here all the way to Nashville and Atlanta. Plenty of clouds for some places.
But you know what? It'll be worth it. If you're in the Pacific northwest, this is what you could be seeing.
Get out tonight, set those alarms, it'll be worth it -- Jessica?
DEAN: It is amazing. Really, really, really neat.
All right, Derek --
VAN DAM: Yes, I agree.
DEAN: -- from your backyard. Perfect. So convenient.
Thanks so much. We appreciate it.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
[16:38:10]
DEAN: As college students around the country finally cross the stage, some of them are using their graduation ceremonies as a chance to voice their frustrations and send a powerful message.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:43:03]
DEAN: College graduation ceremonies are underway across the United States with a few disruptions.
Here's one at Virginia Commonwealth University earlier today where you see dozens of students walking out to protest their commencement speaker, Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin.
At U.C. Berkeley, graduation was interrupted several times today with people in the crowd shouting pro-Palestinian chants.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CHANTING)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I ask that you allow the program to continue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN: Here is CNN's Camila Bernal reporting from Los Angeles.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LOGAN BARTH, GRADUATE, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: There are so many students that are frustrated right now. No matter what side of the conflict you are on -
CAMILA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was a celebration.
(MUSIC)
BERNAL: But it wasn't a traditional commencement.
BARTH: It's a joke that's going around our class. It's kind of funny, but it's kind of sad. Our last normal graduation was eighth grade.
BERNAL: Much of the class of 2024 impacted by the pandemic in high school.
BARTH: And I barely had a graduation. It was, you know, six feet apart, masks, beyond your immediate family. So it was not normal.
BERNAL: And now college graduation also not normal for Logan Barth and many others graduating this year number.
(CHANTING)
BERNAL: Colleges and universities around the country changing, adjusting or even canceling commencement ceremonies citing safety concerns after campus protests.
(SHOUTING)
BERNAL: At Columbia University, the school says they decided to make class days and school-level ceremonies the centerpiece of commencement.
(SHOUTING)
BERNAL: And a similar focus across the country at USC. The university said, "The intensity of feelings fueled by both social media and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East created substantial risks relating to security and disruption at commencement."
ANNA KRYLOV, ASSOCIATE CHAIR IN NATURAL SCIENCES, & PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY, USC: They handled it correctly by closing the campus. And why cleaning, calling police to cleanse the encampment, the interest if some people.
[16:45:08]
BERNAL: And they were trying to avoid this.
(SHOUTING)
BERNAL: At the University of Michigan in Anne Arbor, pro-Palestinian protesters briefly disrupted the university' commencement ceremony.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think I was less concerned with the protests and the encampment impacting graduation. I was more disappointed in the university's response for everything and how they handled things.
(MUSIC)
BERNAL: At USC, graduation events went on without any apparent disruption.
But it still wasn't what many hoped for or expected.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It definitely would have been nice to have like a traditional commencement ceremony, especially for a class who was already impacted four years ago.
BERNAL (on camera): And CNN has been tried back and graduation events all over the country. Aside from Virginia and the U.C. Berkeley protests, things do appear to be calm. That's what we're seeing here at USC. They're very focused some those individuals school graduations.
And the students that I spoke to said, look, despite these efforts to do something different or to make up for that commencement, it is sad and frustrating that the students here did not have that traditional big commencement ceremony -- Jessica?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DEAN: Camila Bernal, for us in Los Angeles, thanks so much for that update.
Still ahead, the family of a black U.S. airman is demanding answers after he was shot and killed inside his own apartment last week by a Florida deputy. The sheriff's office is responding to the family's claims that the deputy went to the wrong apartment.
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:51:16]
DEAN: Body camera footage has been released of the deadly police shooting of an airman in his own home in Florida. Roger Fortson was killed last week by a sheriff's deputy who knocked on the door responding to calls of a domestic disturbance.
Fortson can be seen holding a gun when he opened his door to the deputy, who then began firing. Authorities said the deputy acted in self-defense, but there are questions about the officer's use of deadly force.
And a warning to you, the video is disturbing.
CNN's Nick Valencia has more.
(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.
(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)
POLICE DISPATCH: 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.
(END AUDIO FEED)
VALENCIA: 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: Saying that it happens frequently?
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But this kind of sounding like it was getting out of hand.
VALENCIA: 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.
(KNOCKING)
VALENCIA: At 4:31p.m., the deputy knocks once without introducing himself.
(KNOCKING)
VALENCIA: Roughly 30 seconds later, he knocks again, twice.
(KNOCKING)
VALENCIA: A warning, what you're about to see over the next 20 seconds is graphic.
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Step back.
(GUNFIRE)
VALENCIA: 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 LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Three-twelve, get your message (ph) my location.
VALENCIA: But was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
CHANTERNEKKI FORTSON, ROGER FORTSON'S MOTHER: My baby was my everything. Roger was my third son. Where we come from, you don't end up what Roger end up.
VALENCIA: 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(ph) represent the family. They say the initial police statement was misleading and left out key details of the shooting.
BRIAN BARR, ATTORNEY FOR ROGER FORTSON'S FAMILY: 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 sounded like -- justified.
ERIC ADEN, SHERIFF, 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: 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.
(KNOCKING)
VALENCIA: He heard two knocks at the door, and when he couldn't see anyone through the peep-hole, 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.
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Do not move, stop moving!
VALENCIA: The deputy is now on paid administrative leave while the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigates.
[16:55:03]
(on camera): The state attorney's office in Okaloosa County tells me that they are going to wait for the FDLE to finish their 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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DEAN: All right. Nick, thank you.
Former President Donald Trump, taking advantage of his time outside a New York courtroom to speak to voters. But his choice of location for this rally are using some eyebrows. That's ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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