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Officials: 3 Killed, More Injured In Seattle Festival Shooting; U.S. Signals Pause In Iran Strikes Will Allow Talks To Progress. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired July 27, 2026 - 04:00   ET

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

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[04:00:35]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: Hey everybody, thank you so much for joining me. I'm Polo Sandoval live in New York and this is CNN Newsroom.

A shooting at a food festival in Seattle. It's left multiple people dead and several others wounded. We'll get you an update in a moment. Plus, the U.S. and Iran attempt to return to diplomacy amid a pause in strikes. And firefighters in France and Spain, they are in a race against time to contain a devastating blaze as a heat wave looms.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from New York, this is CNN Newsroom with Polo Sandoval.

SANDOVAL: Welcome everybody. We are following breaking news out of Seattle, Washington, where at least three people were killed in a shooting on Sunday at a summer food festival. Officials saying that at least four other people were injured and that includes a two-year-old child. The city's mayor calling the incidents an act of horrific violence.

Police saying that one person is in custody after the shooting. They believe that the person may have been shooting at another individual who police are still searching for at this hour.

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ASST. CHIEF TYRONE DAVIS, SEATTLE POLICE DEPARTMENT: This is going to be an ongoing investigation. We're going to be out here for several hours trying to figure out exactly what's going -- what happened tonight. Right now, we believe that we have no outstanding threat to the community. We do have one suspect that is being interviewed. We've recovered two guns.

All victims that are hot -- been hospitalized, are in stable condition. And again, we're going to be out here for several hours trying to figure out what happened tonight. We have a number of agencies that are here to support us with our criminal investigation. And it's ongoing.

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SANDOVAL: Let's begin our coverage this hour with CNN's Reid Binion.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I jumped the fence quickly and I ran.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we saw people storming through the area.

REID BINION, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Witnesses reacting after a deadly mass shooting in Seattle. It happened Sunday at the Seattle center about a block from the city's iconic Space Needle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw families, kids, everyone just like running out of the -- out of the fair.

BINION (voice-over): The shots rang out at an annual food festival that features hundreds of local vendors and live music performances.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was one volley, which we heard. A lot of people didn't react at first because we thought, oh, it must be firecrackers or something. But then there was a second volley.

BINION (voice-over): Two witnesses at the festival said they heard seven to eight shots with another person saying he heard even more.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would say at least two dozen shots. Multiple. It sounded like an automatic weapon.

BINION (voice-over): According to officials, at least three people have been killed. Several others were hospitalized, the youngest just two years old. Harborview Medical Center said late Sunday that all patients suffered gunshot wounds.

In addition to local police and first responders, officers from several agencies, including the FBI, were on scene after the shooting.

I'm Reid Binion reporting.

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SANDOVAL: In the last hour, I spoke to Richard Kolko, he's a retired FBI supervisory special agent, about that shooting on Sunday. I asked him for his assessment of the investigation. Here's what he told me.

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RICHARD KOLKO, FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT (RET.): Thankfully, it's not going to be a terrorism related event is what it sounds like at least reading between the lines with what the assistant police chief said there. Looks like it might be crime related, gang related, as he described it. Two people shooting it out with each other, unfortunately, three people, three innocent people killed and others wounded. So they've got one in custody right now. Plenty of witnesses. I mean, this food festival attracts up to 100,000 people a day. So there's plenty of people that certainly have some information. What they've to do now is pick up the phone and call the Seattle Police Department. And we heard the chief pleading with them to please do exactly that.

SANDOVAL: We know that at least three people have been confirmed dead, several others injured, including that child that we mentioned at the top. What does that tell you about the incident itself at this preliminary stage? And just based on what you're hearing and all of these reports coming from officials, does it look to you that many of the victims there were essentially caught in the crossfire?

KOLKO: I think that's exactly it. I think these were innocent bystanders is how it's going to play out, not targets of the two that were at least two that were involved in the shooting. Very, very sad and unfortunate for those innocent bystanders. But law enforcement's going to work hard.

[04:05:00]

They've got forensic evidence, they've got two guns that they've recovered there, so perhaps we'll get fingerprints. There are videos out there from spectators that shot video so that maybe they'll get some facial recognition. They'll get some witness interviews. They'll just take a little time. But over the next few hours, they'll gather some of that information.

And whether it's cell phone analysis, license plate readers, whatever it is, they'll put two and two together. They'll come up with another suspect there. Their intelligence bureau may already have some information on who person may be.

And then they'll put out what's called a BOLO or be on the lookout. And they'll be asking the community to help identify and locate that person as well as police will be out doing their job to locate them and hopefully be able to arrest that second person and determine if they were involved very quickly.

SANDOVAL: Richard, you've no doubt seen some of the footage, some of the cell phone footage that people, you know, shot that day or actually during the incident on Sunday evening where it shows just a mad scramble of people trying to seek shelter. Seattle police saying that they are, you know, that they're roughly 350 -- I should say that the Bite of Seattle Festival's website says it draws some 350,000 guests over three days of the festival. So just maybe speak to the challenges that police officers face when they're responding to an event that's hosting potentially thousands of families.

KOLKO: Well, this is defending a soft target. This is a thing we've heard about now for years. I mean, there's only so much you can do to make an event like this attractive for people to come to, yet safe for people to be at. You can limit some of the access points. You've got, one, a very high police presence.

Just seeing a police officer in uniform can provide some security. Makes people feel more comfortable. And if anybody has any bad intentions that can, you know, perhaps scare them away.

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SANDOVAL: We do want to turn now to the conflict in the Middle East. U.S. military operations appear to be on hold after nearly two weeks of strikes against Iran. U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Mike Waltz, said that diplomatic efforts have ramped up and that President Trump is giving talks with Iran, quote, some space.

In the meantime, sources say that the U.S. vice president and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have each raised concerns about the escalating war and depleting the U.S. munitions stockpile. And all this comes as the Pentagon updated its casualty tolls for Operation Epic Fury on Saturday. We know now, at least 18 U.S. troops have now died since the war started on February 28 and that another 624 service members have been wounded.

CNN's Eleni Giokos is following the very latest from Dubai.

Eleni, it's good to see you again. So bring us up to speed.

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there's a lot that is going on right now. And most notably, if you have a pause in the fighting, President Trump as well as his advisers taking a moment to really look at the consequences that if they go a long with a lot more airstrikes in Iran what are the consequences? Now, according to sources, the general of the Joint Chief of Staff, Dan Caine, had spoken about the major concern around depleting U.S. munitions that have been used extensively since the start of the war. That was reiterated by the vice president, J.D. Vance. And importantly, other consequences that had been mentioned in these meetings is, you know, if Iran starts to see major strikes on things like power plants and bridges, what happens to the Iranian death toll, the impact of access to food and electricity?

That is all being weighed up because Iran has also vowed to retaliate against Gulf neighbors. And that is a very big concern for the region as a whole.

The other two things that we're really focusing on right now is the Iranian proxy group, the Houthis that have continued to strike Saudi vessels in the Red Sea. The last such vessel was on Saturday morning. Saudi Arabia coalition forces striking military targets in Hodeida. The Houthis say escalation for escalation is what they're going to do. They confirmed that they took responsibility for strikes focused on Yanbu but also in Jazan Province.

We have this satellite image of Jazan Province where you have significant downstream oil facilities base, they're owned by Saudi Aramco, showing smoke, black smoke billowing, which is around 200 kilometers long. Major concern around where the facilities have been struck there. Saudi Arabia hasn't confirmed that, but what it does show is Houthi military capability.

The other thing that we're focusing on right now and we're talking about expansion of a war is that Ukraine has targeted an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea. The foreign minister of Iran, Abbas Araghchi posting a short while ago that Europe now stands the risk of getting involved and dragged into this war. And they say that this incident is not going to go unanswered. So a lot of things happening on the sidelines here as we wait to see what the U.S. plans to do next, Polo.

[04:10:05]

SANDOVAL: Yes. And as we wait to see how long this pause will actually last. Eleni Giokos, as always, thank you so much for your reporting.

Let's get some analysis now and head over to Abu Dhabi with Mina Al- Oraibi. She's editor in chief at The National.

Mina, thank you so much for taking the time to join us.

MINA AL-ORAIBI, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THE NATIONAL: Thanks for having me.

SANDOVAL: Of course. So let's pick up on where my colleague Eleni just left off there, and let's get some of your thoughts on that. Where do you think stand right now? And do you think that this -- that this pause in the strikes could perhaps lead to some diplomatic progress?

AL-ORAIBI: The pause in the strikes, of course, is welcome, particularly for people, civilians who are caught in this war. It is an indication that the U.S. administration wants to give talks a chance to succeed. And they have said that holding back is giving the diplomats that chance. However, the Iranian side has clearly activated the Houthi militants in Yemen.

When the war started in February, the Houthis largely have stayed out of it. This goes back to the Iranian playbook, which is to use different proxies at different times to exert pressure. And this is more familiar territory for the Iranians. Usually they would not get so directly involved in conflict, but have one of their proxies really apply pressure, which is what we're seeing the Houthis trying to do. But also we have a couple of militant groups inside of Iraq also now saying that they will enter the fray.

So it's a very cautious moment to say that we are at a return to the ceasefire. Not fully there yet, but it has been good to see three nights of no direct military action from the American side or the Iranian side.

SANDOVAL: Absolutely. And I'm so glad you mentioned the civilians, too, on all sides here, especially when we're just seeing one escalation after another for nearly two weeks. So then, in your view and your assessment, Mina, how long do you think this pause is likely to last?

AL-ORAIBI: Well, the pause will last as long as there is hope for the talks to change the dynamic. The concern is that the pause only then allows one side or the other to drag it out. There is very little trust from the Gulf here, from the wider Arab world and the U.S. when it comes to the seriousness of the Iranian side to actually bring about a diplomatic resolution. So with very little trust, we don't know how long this can last before, again, this last flare up started because Iran targeted vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

So as long as there can be an agreement not to escalate, let's not forget we're still in the 60-day window that ends on the 17th of August that was set by the memorandum of understanding to get to a longer term deal. We're nowhere near getting to that longer term agreement and deal. And so how long it lasts will depend on how serious all sides are and particularly where the Iranians will stick to what they signed up to, the memorandum of understanding, which is to allow the freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.

SANDOVAL: And it will soon now be what now five months since both the U.S. and Israel carried out those initial rounds of attacks, starting this conflict. And I say this because soon we'll see those two leaders of those two countries meeting again. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heading back to Washington, meeting with President Trump. You know, what will you be looking out for as these two leaders meet? And I'm sure what happens in that meeting will largely determine what the next chapter in this conflict may be.

AL-ORAIBI: Absolutely. It will be important to see what they come out with in terms of statements, but also what is the strategy when it comes for the American interests in this war. Not necessarily the same as the interests of Israel and particularly Prime Minister Netanyahu, who of course is always thinking about the next elections and what would suit him best as a wartime prime minister of Israel. So it will be important to see not only how they deal with Iran, but also Lebanon has been incredibly important.

President Trump just received the president of Lebanon, Joseph Aoun, in the White House. And the Lebanese desperately want to see Israel withdraw from Lebanese territories, but also to have peace come back to Lebanon. So I think the Lebanon element will be important. But of course, the bigger agenda item is Iran.

Palestine, unfortunately, will likely not really be top of the agenda in these meetings, but it is important to the wider dynamic in this region. When it comes to Iran, Prime Minister Netanyahu has been very hawkish, whereas we've seen that President Trump is keen to get to a diplomatic resolution. We've seen them have disagreements before. It'd be interesting to see how they come out of these meetings and whether again, American interest to bring about diplomatic resolution will match what Prime Minister Netanyahu will be advocating for during those meetings.

[04:15:14]

SANDOVAL: You've given us so much to look out for in the coming days. Mina Al-Oraibi, thank you so much for your perspective.

AL-ORAIBI: Thank you for having me.

SANDOVAL: Of course. It's our pleasure.

Well, the suspect in what German authorities are calling an Islamist terror attack at Berlin's pride celebrations was shot dead by police following an extensive manhunt over the weekend. And the attack came just hours after hundreds of thousands attended one of Europe's largest and longest running LGBTQ pride parades.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen has been following this story since it broke, joining us from Berlin. It was an extremely eventful weekend and a tragic one as well, Fred. Where does the investigation stand now? And what else are we learning about the suspect?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Polo. Well, there certainly still are a lot of questions out there. First of all, you're absolutely right. It was an absolutely tragic weekend here in Berlin.

All this, of course, happened late on Saturday night. The authorities are saying shortly before 10:00 p.m. when they say they believe this alleged suspect plowed through a crowd of people in one of the parks in central Berlin called the Tiergarten, which is right next to the route that parade takes, the Pride Parade, the Christopher Street Day.

Now, one of the questions that's being asked is how the car managed to get into the park area, because we were out at seen there for the better part of yesterday and we saw that car lodged up against a tree. It appears as though it went through the crowd at a very high pace before hitting a tree. They then said that the driver got out, apparently either stabbed people or hit them with a machete as the driver then fled the scene.

But one of the things that we've seen over the course of the past couple of days, really in the run up to this pride parade, is that the authorities were putting up barriers in those locations. There was a lot of fencing that was put up as well. So one of the big questions that's being asked and all this happened on a path inside a park, is how the car actually managed to get there so close to the parade route.

And then, of course, as far as the alleged perpetrator himself is concerned, one of the things that the authorities are asking or the politicians are also asking as well, is whether or not maybe this could have been prevented. The police are saying, the authorities are saying that he was known as being part of what they call the Islamist scene here in Berlin. He is or he was of Lebanese origin, but born in Berlin, a German citizen, but also having been known to try and for instance travel to Syria to then potentially join groups there.

So those are questions that are still being asked right now. But one of the main other things, Polo, is whether or not he acted alone because so far the police say they don't know whether or not there might have been a second person inside that car. But of course, as you can imagine, all of this is overshadowed here in Germany right now with a lot of the deep sorrow that is felt by of course, the pride community that turned out in the hundreds of thousands in Berlin to celebrate that pride parade. But in general, the city of Berlin, Germany and of course, many other European politicians have also sent their condolences to the German government as well, Polo.

SANDOVAL: So many threads that you'll be following today, Fred. Do keep us posted. As always, grateful for your reporting all weekend and today. Fred Pleitgen reporting from Berlin. And we're going to have the latest also on a separate not only on that deadly attack at the Berlin Pride celebration in a moment, but much, much more, including some new details. Also on some additional stories that we continue to follow here on CNN Newsroom, including something else that President Trump said here. President Trump often using various mentions of something at rallies. We're going to tell you what he was talking about in a moment.

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[04:22:40]

SANDOVAL: Welcome back to France now, where firefighters are taking advantage of some lighter winds before an oncoming heat wave worsens conditions on the ground. The country is currently in the midst of its biggest evacuation since World War II. That gives you a sense of how many lives have been sort of flipped upside down right now. About 220,000 people have been forced to leave their homes. And all this is flames engulfed communities, forests and fields.

In fact, many are fleeing from France's southwest region, specifically the Gironde and (inaudible) departments. The fires are now just nine miles, or about 15 kilometers from the historic city of Bordeaux. And that's where thousands of people are currently sheltering. That's where the city's mayor is saying that while communities around the city have been evacuated, the city center itself is not yet directly threatened.

And in Spain's Castellon Province, wildfires have already consumed thousands of hectares. It's just one of several regions in the country that's fighting to hold back those flames. Officials are saying that the fires in some areas are the biggest in Spain's recent history.

Firefighting aircraft, you see some of them in action there. They have been sent in by Greece and Italy to try to help emergency crews. And it's now really just a waiting game for residents, all of them anxious to get back to their homes to see what, if anything, has been left by the fire.

For more now, we go to CNN Correspondent Pau Mosquera, who's been following this.

Pau, I see where you are there potentially with some of the people who've been sheltering from some of these flames.

PAU MOSQUERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's it, Polo. Here behind me, you have at least 250 people that have been evacuated from different towns here in western Madrid. All of them have been evacuated over the last few days because the fire has been advancing without control.

The latest that we know, Polo, is that emergency workers have been working nonstop overnight. They have so far identified three active fire fronts. And they're kind of positive because they say that they expect to take control of it over the next few days. But this is going to be not an easy situation. It will be a slow, progressive situation.

And this is why they're still trying to get the control of the perimeter of these fires as to contain as soon as possible.

[04:25:06]

The place we are in right now, Polo, is Villamanta, a town that is located 40 kilometers west of Madrid. And as I was saying, here are hundreds of people that have been offered a place where to sleep overnight and to have lunch and dinner as they cannot get back to their homes. They told me that they are anxiously waiting for news of when they will be able to get back to their homes because many of actually don't know what is the status of their houses, if they have been damaged because of the fire advance or if the buildings are OK.

This is quite a dramatic situation. And the worst of it, Polo, is that temperatures which will start to climb again from this Monday. And also here in Madrid, they are expecting wine gusts off up to 30 kilometers per hour, which will make the task of firefighting a little bit difficult, Polo.

SANDOVAL: Yes, Pau Mosquera, thank you so much for being there and speaking to some of those people who've been particularly hard hit and sort of just watching helplessly waiting to see when they can, as you point out, return. Thank you so much, Pau.

And parts of the northeastern United States, it could see flash flooding this week. In fact, a slow moving coastal storm system. It's expected to bring several rounds of heavy rain. The flash flooding risks they come as the U.S. is already dealing with extreme heats. CNN's Alison Chinchar with your forecast.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Roughly 100 million people are under some type of heat alert both today and tomorrow, all thanks to this heat dome that is set up across the southern tier of the U.S. And in the coming days it's going to start to spread eastward, impacting even more people as we head closer into the middle portion of the week.

Now high temperatures for Monday, you're still looking at several locations in the triple digits. But even places like Denver, Kansas City, Chicago may not reach the triple digits, but they are still well above average for what they normally would be this time of year.

The heat risk map, the focus here is really the red and especially the purple color showing where the biggest impact is going to be from the heat. Now notice in the coming days how the purple color really starts to expand across the Southern plains and even into the Southeast because that's where we're going to start to see the heat spreading in the coming days. Place like Dallas looking at every single one of the next seven days above average.

SANDOVAL: Well, we are now less than 100 days out from the U.S. midterm elections. And now new polling released by CBS News is showing that President Trump's approval rating is basically underwater as Election Day approaches. And that poll finding that 39 percent of Americans approve of Trump's job performance, while 61 percent disapprove. On the Iran war, just 35 percent say that they approve of how the President is handling that conflict. Well, you see, 65 percent are disapproving.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They were saying wind was so wonderful, so wonderful, except you couldn't watch your television. They wanted to watch the debate. Donald Trump against sleepy Joe Biden. Nobody could watch it because the wind wasn't blowing. Remember that?

Darling, we'd like to watch the debate tonight. I'm sorry, the wind isn't blowing. Now, that's one of the great scams of all time.

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SANDOVAL: Well, the thing is, you may not remember it because it didn't really happen. You see, that was President Trump earlier this week remembering a massive television outage from two years ago. Well, the problem is that that outage, well, never really actually happened. As CNN Senior Reporter Daniel Dale explains.

DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: This was President Trump asking Americans to remember something that never actually happened. He made it up. There was no massive television outage on June 27, 2024. That debate was watched by over 51 million people on television alone, including, of course, people in the state that uses by far the most wind power, that is Texas. Republican dominated Texas, which was also the most populous state that President Trump won.

Now, the underlying premise of the story also makes no sense. He's been saying for years that where wind power is used, T.V.s go out, houses can't keep the lights on when the wind isn't blowing. That is not the case. And that's because wind is used as part of a mix of power sources, not as the only source. And also, batteries exist that can store wind for use during a low wind period.

So this debate television outage story, completely false. And the underlying premise, also completely false. But this was far from the only time that President Trump had asked Americans to remember something that never occurred that was a fabrication he had made up. He also did it, for example, last year when he said, remember when I correctly predicted Brexit when I was at my golf course just before the vote, he claimed he was in Scotland. In fact, he went to that golf course the day after the Brexit vote.

So people could not have correctly remembered that prediction because it did not occur. Now, in this past month alone, President Trump has offered a number of anecdotes about history that are just not true. So listen to two claims he made early this month, one about George Washington and one about the Panama Canal.

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