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Erin Burnett Outfront

Death Toll Climbs to 145 in School Attack; New Details of 16- Hour Siege in Sydney; Friends of Alleged UVA Rape Victim Dispute Details of Her Story; Cops Kill Man at Walmart, Then Interrogate Girlfriend; Feds Investigate Threat from Group Behind Sony Hack

Aired December 16, 2014 - 19:00   ET

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

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: OUTFRONT next, terrorists slaughtered 132 school children gunning them down within minutes. The gunman said to have enough ammunition to go on for days. Could have happen here.

Plus tonight, an OUTFRONT inclusive. A special investigation into the Rolling Stones story about a gang rape at the University of Virginia. New details that you've never seen about the woman who made the horrific accusations. Her friends speak out. This is a story you must see to believe.

And the Sony hackers with a chilling message. Remember the 11th of September, 2001. They are threatening to attack Americans on Christmas Day. Let's go OUTFRONT.

Good evening. I'm Erin Burnett and OUTFRONT tonight. The breaking news, 132 children slaughtered at their school by terrorists. In a warning heard around the world, including right here on American shores, a U.S. official tells CNN that the scope of the attack was quote, "unprecedented." Thirteen others were also killed during the hours' long siege at a school in Pakistan. The attackers were members of the Pakistani Taliban. They burst into a large auditorium. You can imagine the scene, students were sitting there taking an exam, sitting there, sitting ducks. They were gunned down within minutes. A Pakistani military official says, the terrorists had ammunitions to last for days.

And tonight we are also learning new details from another major terror attack, the deadly hostage situation in Sydney. We are learning about exactly what went on during that 16-hour siege.

First though we go to Barbara Starr, she's at the Pentagon with the latest on the terror attack at that school. Barbara, it really does, it just makes you stop and feel sick to your stomach when you imagine these kids quietly taking an exam, sitting there in that room. I know this happened in Pakistan. The group though has a long history of targeting the United States that was responsible.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Erin. Absolute horror here at the Pentagon of what happened in Pakistan. This is a group well-known to the U.S. military, the TTP or the Pakistani Taliban have a long history of brutal violence and being behind attacks here in the United States. Back in 2010 they were said to be behind the failed attempt to set a bomb in New York's Times Square. In 2009 they attacked a CIA base in Afghanistan killing seven CIA agents there. They have repeatedly vowed to attack the United States. Whether they are capable of actually lunching an attack overseas outside of Pakistan would remain to be seen but today's events inside of Pakistan, absolutely horrific. Condemnation from around the world about what they have done. They have claimed this is a revenge attack they launched against the Pakistani military for coming against them, but the U.S. view very strongly is that it wants to see Pakistan succeed in putting these Taliban leaders completely out of business. The U.S. security interest here of course is to have a stable Pakistan, and the Pakistani Taliban interest has sewn as much havoc as possible -- Erin.

BURNETT: Barbara, thank you very much. And the attack in Pakistan is the second major terror event in two days. Both attacks and locations that so many people go to every single day. A school and a coffee shop. Tonight, we have learned more about the two victims at yesterday's attack at a cafe in Sydney. Thirty four year old cafe manager Tori Johnson, local reports say, he actually trying to wrestle the gun from the hostage-taker when he was killed in that attack. And 38-year-old Katrina Dawson. According to local reports, a mother of three was killed trying to shield a pregnant friend from the gunman. Also tonight, witnesses speaking out, giving chilling new details about that 16-hour siege. We have them here now for you. Andrew Stevens is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Live breaking news for us right here in the middle of the CBD in Sydney. Heavily armed police are personally converging on Martin Place --

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This was how much of Australia first heard of the country's deadly hostage crisis as it unfolds across the street from the seven network studios in the heart of Sydney.

TONY FOX, HEAD OF NEWS GRAPHICS, SEVEN NETWORK: Within minutes the whole newsroom, we just came out to a window --

STEVENS (on camera): And the woman you saw in the -- how would you describe it?

FOX: It will remind me for the rest of my life, she was shaking and I can't think of what was going through her mind.

STEVENS (voice-over): Camera Greg Parker says, police asked him to stay behind. The -- cameras trained on the crisis unfolding across Martin Place.

GREG PARKER, CAMERAMAN, SEVEN NETWORKS: Backing the police sort of command where they were asking for specific shots, so we would put on Kevlar vests and came down and relocated cameras.

STEVENS: Parker crouch with the snipers capturing the despair of the hostages and the growing agitation of the gunman. The images transmitted not to air, but to police H.Q. Seven stayed on air moving to a back-up location across town.

CHRIS WILLIS, DIRECTOR OF NEWS SYDNEY, SEVEN NETWORK: We've always have a plan, we called it the disaster recovery plan where we might be evacuated and how do we keep it going. So after the initial confusion, the police rushing in and saying we're going to evacuate the building, and we thinking, hang on, we're going to keep this on air as well, we gradually started implementing that bit of the plan.

STEVENS: For nearly 16 hours, Parker kept the cameras rolling. The end came quickly. A single gunshot and six seconds later, he said, he saw Special Forces entering the cafe.

PARKER: It was like nothing I've ever seen before. The moment he crossed the line of taking down a hostage, it was a forced action from police. In my mind and probably in anyone else's seeing it, I don't think they'll going to sit around and wait for another hostage to have the same fight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STEVENS: And Erin, this is the scene here in Sydney. It is just about 11:00 in the morning and if you look behind me you see this ever-growing field almost now of flowers. A memorial, a shrine to the people who lost their lives and also an act of defiance, a solidarity move if you like Erin for the people of Sydney to come together to show that they are not going to be changed by this attack. This terror attack by what is described now as a lone gunman. That they are going to continue to live their lives as they always have. But it has been a very, very tragic reminder that Australia will not be untouched by the acts of terror we do seeing increasingly around the world now. The people here though say they are defiant and I will continue to go on as before -- Erin.

BURNETT: Andrew, thank you very much. A poignant picture there. Look at those flowers.

And now the former FBI assistant Director Tom Fuentes and the retired U.S. Army General James "Spider" Marks. Okay, good to have both of you. Tom, let me start with you. This is image is now in the mind of Americans. Because every person goes to a local coffee shop. When you see the video of all those flash bangs going off, those commandos storming into the cafe, think about your own cafe, your own coffee shop. It is a terrifying thought. Can America truly be ready for this kind of situation and attack?

TOM FUENTES, FORMER FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Well, in a way, Erin, yes. Because the readiness is to deal with really any hostage situation and the response to it would be very similar, no matter who is holding the hostages and why. You would try to determine that, obviously. But, you know, the standard steps taken by a S.W.A.T. team and then an on-scene commander to set the perimeters to gather intelligence and determine how many hostage takers, how many hostages, the whole setting, you know, that would be similar to any of our agencies around the world dealing with this.

BURNETT: Spider, one expert told me that he thought something like this would happen within the United States within months. Is there any way to stop it?

MAJOR GENERAL JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Well there is no reason to believe that it wouldn't happen. We have an open society. We've achieved a level of freedom that we don't want to eliminate. We don't want to further reduce. We certainly lived through that post-9/11 and we created new procedures that have been in place and we've created a new normal. In fact, there is some -- we've given up some of our freedoms and we've learned to adjust to those. But to Tom's point, we certainly have the inherent capability to respond but the real issue is, how do we get ahead of that? What are the institutions? What are the intelligence-sharing aspects that we can have in place, what can we do of a priority that would make it that much more difficult. We can't stop something like this everywhere but we can certainly make it a heck of a lot harder through the diligence of a number of agencies that are involved in -- routinely involved in this type of activity.

BURNETT: Counterterror -- former CIA counterterror Director Phil Mudd told me yesterday, there could be a thousand or more people in the united states right now that would be capable and want to do this. Just, you know, putting a number to it, I think makes you pause. It is a little bit dumb founding. You know, Tom --

FUENTES: Erin, if I could add real quick, a thought here. You know, the Australians broke up a plot that involved multiple people just three months ago in September and it was orders from at-large from, you know, at large from ISIS to -- in a downtown area of Sydney and in the same Martin Place, grab an innocent person off the sidewalk and behead them and put that out on the internet. Now, the authorities were able to break up that plot because multiple people were involved, extensive communications between the different people, were involve and they were able to track it and intercept it. But when you have one lone person to try to read that person's mind and there are thousands of people that are sociopaths and criminals and have records and demonstrate, you know, pro-ISIS type statements, to read their line of when they're going to cross the line and take an active step of what the police there and here cannot do.

BURNETT: Spider, you know, Barbara Starr reported in this horrific attack the slaughter of 132 children today that the terrorists and Pakistan had enough ammunition and not school to siege it for days. They had supplies, they had food, they had gone in with that intent. An official told CNN the size and scope of that assault is unprecedented. We know that the Pakistani Taliban has a long history of targeting the United States, even the recent attempts in Times Square. Could an attack here be a real possibility?

MARKS: Oh again, absolutely. There is every reason to believe that the United States is vulnerable. The key issue remains our ability to stay engaged at multiple levels in terms of our exchanges, our intelligence exchanges that exist and the transparency that we can achieve through diplomacy and through presence. The United States has to have a physical presence that allows us to better understand what the threats might be elsewhere so that we can prevent those that are home-games from the Pakistani to being home games in the United States. Again, it is a level of engagement. It is what I call a new normal. We are in a situation now, Erin, where we must accept this type of behavior as normal, not shirk away from it, but in fact it should still us intellectually and emotionally in terms of being engaged much more aggressively, so we can get ahead of this stuff.

BURNETT: All right. Well, thanks very much to both of you. And I think we all can accept it and not going to be seen as normal the first time if it does happen here. OUTFRONT next, our exclusive investigation into the Rolling Stones story about a gang rape at the University of Virginia. Friends of the woman at the center of this story are speaking to CNN, questioning important parts of her story and whether they were fabricated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Did you suspect at that time that this guy maybe didn't exist?

RYAN DUFFIN, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA STUDENT: No. At the time, it all seemed very real.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: That exclusive report is next. Plus surveillance video of a black man in an Ohio Walmart shot and killed by a white police officer while he was holding an air rifle, a toy. His father is OUTFRONT tonight.

And the Sony hackers now saying they will attack American movie goers who go to see Sony's Christmas release, "The Interview." Promising a 9/11 type of attack.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: An OUTFRONT investigation tonight on exactly what happened at UVA on the night a student claimed she was gang raped at a fraternity. The story was first reported by Rolling Stone and sent shock waves to the campus and around the nation. Tonight we have stunning details about the woman who made these explosive charges. CNN has spoken to three friends of Jackie and they now believe that she may have fabricated important parts of the story she told the magazine, including the man at the center of all of the allegations. So did that student, who she claims took her to a party where she was gang raped, even exist?

Sara Ganim has this special OUTFRONT investigation that you will see only here on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GANIM (voice-over): The night a brutal gang rape allegedly happened here at the UVA campus, the victim of the attack known as Jackie, told her story in vivid detail to two friends. Ryan Duffin and Alex Stocks

DUFFIN: Her lips were quivering and she looked like really frightened and looks like somebody who had just been through some really tragic experience. I've never seen anybody look like that before, I really hope that I never have to see anybody look like that again.

GANIM: The two friends who identified themselves from the Rolling Stone article say Jackie describes the attack as they sat at a picnic table outside of a dorm. But they say the story she told that night was much different than the rape that Rolling Stone published.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: There are definitely some major holes in the story, and I think that was pretty clear in the Rolling Stone piece that, you know, was almost too perfect of the story.

GANIM: To understand all the differences, you have to go back to the fall of 2012 to details that Ryan and Alex told CNN, details that never made it into Rolling Stone. Alex Stock, Ryan Duffin and another freshman Kathryn Hendley were all friends together with Jackie and all of them say that Jackie had a crush on Ryan.

DUFFIN: I think it was pretty clear from the get-go that she was much more interested in me than I was in her.

GAMIN: So Ryan was happy for Jackie when a few weeks into the semester she announced that a third year in her chemistry class asked her out on a date.

ALEX STOCK, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA STUDENT: Here is Jackie who is, you know, a girl who historically didn't get a whole lot of attention from guys and you've got, you know, this third-year -- and she was very excited about that obviously.

DUFFIN: So I don't remember whose idea it was to kind of, you know, just scope out this guy and see if he was okay.

GAMIN: Jackie gave Ryan and Alex a phone number, supposedly of that third-year and they began texting the number. Jackie said his name was Haven Monahan. That name would come up again later.

DUFFIN: We texted him and pretending to be some other girl who in his chemistry class. I'm not saying it was the best plan but that's what happened.

GAMIN: These are the text messages purportedly from Haven. He says, "I really like her, describing Jacki as super smart, hot, into the same music as him."

(on camera): Did you suspect at that time that this guy maybe didn't exist?

DUFFIN: No. At the time it all seemed very real.

GANIM (voice-over): Jackie said she had a date with Haven on September 28th, 2012, the night that Rolling Stone said Jackie was gang raped. Later that night Jackie called Ryan.

DUFFIN: She said something bad happened and could I come meet her in-front of her dorm. GANIM: Ryan and Alex met Jackie at a picnic table outside the

first year dorm.

DUFFIN: It was like, she'd been crying, she was shaking really obviously just scared about something. She said that she was on a date and her date parked in front of his fraternity house, she said that her date said he was going up to his room to get something and asked her if she wanted to go in and she said, yes. She then said that when she went into the house and went up the stairs, her date locked the door of the room once they got in there and she said that there were five other men in the room who she was then forced to perform oral sex on.

GANIM: But details from the Rolling Stone story don't match with the details from friends. In the article, Jackie graphically described a brutal gang rape, involving seven men instead of five and she doesn't mention oral sex. The article also described her date as a man named Drew who she met while working lifeguard shifts together at the university pool. But remember, back in 2012, her friends said she told them his name was Haven and they met in chemistry class. The article also has other inconsistencies according to the two friends.

(on camera): The article says that she was beaten, hit in the face, that she was barefoot, that she was bloodied and that her face was obviously beaten. Is that true?

DUFFIN: No. I didn't notice any sort of physical injuries, I didn't notice a lack of shoes. I didn't really notice anything that was consistent with the physical description that was in the article.

GANIM (voice-over): Perhaps, the biggest discrepancy of all was the reaction of the friends that Jackie portrayed for Rolling Stone. The article says, the three friends launched into a heated discussion about the social price of reporting Jackie's rape. The article, quote, Cindy, whose real name is Kathryn Hendley saying, "her reputation will be shot for the next four years. And she's going to be the girl who cried rape and will never be allowed into any frat party again."

(on camera): Kathryn wasn't even part of this conversation?

DUFFIN: No.

GANIM (voice-over): Kathryn didn't want to appear on camera but confirmed to CNN that she was not part of that conversation. Both Ryan and Alex told us they tried desperately to convince Jackie to call police but she made the decision not to report what happened. The two friends say, they slept on the floor of Jackie's room the next two nights to make sure she was okay. Five days later in one of the strangest twists to the story, Ryan received an e-mail from Haven Monahan the date who Jackie said orchestrated her gang rape.

DUFFIN: The email was called about you, it was from Haven Monahan at Haven.Monahan@yahoo.com. And it looks like, Haven had written, you should read this, I've never really read anything nicer in my life with a page worth of, you know, just an essay that Jackie had written about me. Which seemed really weird to me even at the time because here is somebody who allegedly just, you know, led this brutal sexual assault on a friend of mine and now he is just going to e-mail me this thing about me?

GANIM: Jackie told her friends that Haven Monahan dropped out of school after her rape but we've checked and no Haven Monahan ever attended the University of Virginia. In fact, we couldn't find a single Haven Monahan in the entire United States. The pictures of Haven that he texted Ryan, we found photos matched a man with a different name who went to high school with Jackie in Stafford, Virginia.

STOCK: There is a very good chance whoever I was texting was Jackie. There is a definite possibility.

GANIM: You heard that right. Jackie's freshman friends now believe there may never have been a man named Haven who took her on that date and who supposedly set up the brutal gang rape. Despite all of this, all three say they still believe it is possible that something very bad did happen to Jackie.

DUFFIN: I think it is very possible, yes. I still think that it is extremely, extremely possible. If it only because the reaction that she had on that night seemed so strong and seemed so genuine that I still think it is difficult to believe that she would have been acting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GANIM: Erin, Jackie's attorney, she declined to comment on all of this and Rolling Stone says, they are still going back trying to fact-check the details that Jackie gave them in the article they published. Now that group of friends that you saw just now, as many friends do as they go through college, they stopped being friends, they stopped hanging out but they say that happened long before the Rolling Stone article was published.

BURNETT: And Sara, do you have any idea where Jackie is and how she's been reacting to all of this, you know, publicity. Obviously the Rolling Stone article is one thing but all of this that came after certainly not what she ever expected.

GANIM: Right. Yes. She is seemingly in hiding. I mean, she hasn't given any public statements or talked publicly at all but she has talked to some of her friends and we've talked to those friends, one of them told us that she is very overwhelmed that she did not see all of this coming, the fallout of this article. And another person she talked to was Ryan, who you just saw described being her friend that night and hearing what she had to say. He said, she talked to him but really what she said was she apologized for the way that he was portrayed in Rolling Stone -- Erin.

BURNETT: Sara, thank you so much. Fantastic report.

GANIM: Thank you. BURNETT: And joining OUTFRONT now. Dr. Drew Pinsky, host of

HLN's "Dr. Drew On Call." So Dr. Drew, based on this new reporting, her friends say Jackie may have made up the person who took her on a date. They say, she could have been the one texting and e-mailing them when they actually thought they were communicating with this upper classman. I mean, this would be an elaborate hoax if it's true. What do you think?

DR. DREW PINSKY, HLN HOST, "DR. DREW ON CALL": It would be an elaborate hoax and it really puts her, if indeed she did this, in a really quite a wild category of either criminality or extreme manipulation and lying like such as somebody with really a bad personality disorder, or just sort of a dumb kid trying to get the attention of a young male. But the reality is that this kind of behavior is more likely to be attached to some real problems.

BURNETT: And especially, I mean and obviously, their theory is, her friends theory is, they say she did this to get one of them jealous, one of the boys jealous because that is why they think --

PINSKY: Right. And that is a possibility. But if you add it to the other distortions that follow in the allegations of rape, then it starts to paint a little bit of a different picture.

BURNETT: Right. And as you point out this whole allegedly happen, her story two years ago, so she's now still telling the story to the media. Now Dr. Drew, that gets to a question I have about this. Jackie is still a student at UVA. So, if this story is truly as manufactured as her friends say and some reporting has shown. You know, for example the fraternity didn't even have a party the night that the alleged, this happened, how can someone function extensively normally at a school like this University of Virginia while suffering by the severe issues Jackie may have.

PINSKY: Well, you know, again, she is still relatively anonymous amongst the students so no one would necessarily know she was the person had done this. But I think you're asking, how could somebody who had been through such a profound trauma function at a high level in an academic institution. And it's a viable question. However, it is not necessarily the case that she would have to step out or she might have stepped out for a brief period of time and sort of reconstituted or maybe taken a lighter load. There were many ways she could have gone on and survive. And we got to remember, even at colleges there are age-specific treatments available where they really do capture these kids and do a great job with them.

BURNETT: And you talk about, you know, how incredible this would be if this was some sort of personality disorder. And, you know, her friends say, look, that even though they say she embellished the story, made a lot of it up to the Rolling Stone, they still believe something happened to her. Is it possible something did?

PINSKY: Yes.

BURNETT: And my question to you is, if it did, would it have necessarily been sexual to cause this kind of a story to come out? PINSKY: Yes, I think it would. This is not at all uncommon that

somebody distorts a traumatic experience, particularly if they had childhood trauma. In this particular case, the kids that are reporting what they saw that night may be absolutely correct, that something might have happened to this young girl, that re-traumatized her but it might have been something far milder than she experienced or reported. It is not unheard of at all for people who have been trauma survivors to severely distort their experiences and then to have very clear memories of the distorted experience. They could literally pass a lie detector test but it is pure distortion.

BURNETT: Dr. Drew, thank up very much.

PINSKY: You bet.

BURNETT: And OUTFRONT next, surveillance video of the shooting and death of a black man holding a toy rifle in a Walmart killed by a white police officer. Our guest tonight the victim's father.

And the Sony hackers now threatening 9/11 attacks on moviegoers at Sony's big Christmas comedy "The Interview." That is ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: New developments tonight in the fatal shooting of a young black man by a white police officer in an Ohio Walmart. The family of 22-year-old John Crawford is filing a wrongful death lawsuit against Walmart and police. Crawford was holding an air rifle he had picked up off a shelf when police who thought it was an active situation entered the store and shot him. The police officer was not indicted by a grand jury.

Adding to the family's outrage, new video we now have shows police interrogating Crawford's girlfriend just after he was shot, accusing her of lying and threatening her with jail time.

Here is our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

911: Sir, what's going on?

CALLER: Gunshots in the store.

BURNETT (voice-over): Gunshots and a 22-year-old black man, John Crawford, lay dying on the floor of a Walmart in Beaver Creek, Ohio, shot and killed by a white police officer as seen here on surveillance video almost immediately after they approached him. Crawford had been in the store for several minutes, holding a gun and talking on a cell phone.

A witness named Ronald Richie (ph) called 911.

CALLER: There is a gentleman walking around with a gun in the store.

911: Does he got it pulled out?

CALLER: Yes, he's like pointing it at people.

911: What does he look like?

CALLER: He's a black male probably about 6-foot tall.

BURNETT: Police were dispatched to the store, thinking they were headed to an active shooter situation based on the witness who called 911. They didn't know Crawford it was a toy gun he picked up in the store.

Five weeks later, the 911 caller told "The Guardian" newspaper, at no point did he shoulder the rifle and point it to somebody. He also said something similar to our CNN affiliate WHIO.

RONALD RITCHIE, EYEWITNESS WHO CALLED 911: He wasn't actually like holding it to shoot somebody.

BURNETT: Ronald Ritchie does not return our calls for comment, and neither the police or the state attorney would talk to us about Ritchie, who is an important witness to the case.

Crawford's girlfriend had been waiting in their car. After the shooting, police questioned her, accusing her of lying, asking her where Crawford got the gun, even saying she appeared to be high on drugs.

POLICE: Do you understand that we're investigating a serious incident and you lied to me and you might be on your way to jail?

Where did you get this gun?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, I don't know.

BURNETT: Later in the 90-minute drilling by police, word came that Crawford had died.

POLICE: Well, to let you know, unfortunately, John has passed away as a result of this. What happened there wasn't a good thing.

BURNETT: Less than two months later, the grand jury's decision was announced.

MARK PIEPMEIER, LEAD PROSECUTOR: The grand jury deliberated and they returned no indictment. They decided that the police officers and the police officer in particular that fired the shots was justified in doing what he did.

BURNETT: This weekend, Cleveland Browns wide receiver Andrew Hawkins honored both Crawford and Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old from Cleveland also shot and killed by police. Hawkins said he meant no disrespect to police.

ANDREW HAWKINS, WIDE RECEIVER, CLEVELAND BROWNS: The number one reason for me wearing the t-shirt was the thought of what happened to Tamir Rice happen to my little Austin scared the living hell out of me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: Very poignantly put.

And joining me now is John Crawford III's father, John Crawford Jr., and the family's attorney Michael Wright.

I appreciate both of you being with us tonight.

John, I know it has to be hard to watch the videos again. But we do have new video and this is of the interrogation, police interrogating your son's girlfriend just after she -- he was shot. She is pressed repeatedly about where your son got the gun and here's a brief clip of what happened there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POLICE: Why did he have a gun in the store?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know.

POLICE: Does he carry a gun?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know.

POLICE: Don't tell me I don't know, because that is the first thing I know something isn't telling me the truth when they say that kind of thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: John, when you see that, how do you feel?

JOHN CRAWFORD, JR., FATHER OF JOHN CRAWFORD III: I'm absolutely speechless. I'm just -- words can't express to you when I saw that clip on MSNBC last night. It's just ridiculous. It just -- it is a frustrating thing and I'm extremely, extremely infuriated behind it.

BURNETT: Michael, we are all watching this. I wanted to play another exchange the officer has with John's girlfriend. Let me play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POLICE: Your eyes are kind of messed up looking and you seem lethargic. I don't know if you are upset or not, I just want to make sure --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Accusing her of being on drugs. My question to you, Michael, is what do you make the fact that this interrogation was going on for 90 minutes after John Crawford was shot, when police shot him they still weren't aware at this time that the gun was a toy gun?

MICHAEL WRIGHT, ATTORNEY FOR JOHN CRAWFORD III'S FAMILY: And that is a great question. We believe that at the point of this interrogation that the officers' already knew it was a toy gun. They had shot and killed Mr. Crawford. They already collected the gun. So, the fact that they interrogated Tasha after they knew that this was a toy gun, it's unbelievable.

It was as if they were trying to get Tasha to illicit or to say something that would help cover up or justify why they unjustly shot and killed John Crawford III.

BURNETT: John, the Cleveland Browns wide receiver, you just heard him speak about, you know, he wore the shirt with your son's name on it, justice for Tamir Rice and John Crawford, during his warm- ups on Sunday and he talked about Tamir Rice who is 12 years old, because he was worried this could happen to his son.

What does it mean to you that he put that shirt on and wore it, even though the police union in Cleveland called it pretty pathetic and have demanded an apology?

CRAWFORD: We're eternally grateful. It shows to me, you know, he has most respect. It shows to me that he's definitely a man's man, in my opinion and in my family's opinion. He understands and he's aware of what is going on in today's society and he's not afraid to take a stand. It shows me he's a morally and ethically sounded person. You know, he comes from a great family and a great state of beliefs for him to exhibit that.

BURNETT: Today, I know you announced a federal civil lawsuit against the police, the city, Walmart, and they've given us some responses. The city of Beaver Creek told us, quote, "We believe the evidence will prove the officer's actions were legally justified." And Walmart said in part, quote, "Out of respect of everybody involved, we believe it is not appropriate to discuss the specifics of the matter, but we can say that our associates acted properly."

I put this to you both. A grand jury has already chosen not to indict. Mr. Crawford was shot, of course, almost immediately when police arrived at the Walmart. The question I have for you is, do you think this would have happened if there Crawford were white or do you think that this is not about race?

WRIGHT: Well, I'll answer that question. We believe that had Mr. Crawford been white, he may have gotten a little more time to respond to the police officers.

These officers came in, saw Mr. Crawford and shot him on sight. They didn't give him the opportunity to live. They didn't give him the opportunity to respond to any commands that may have been -- that may have been given to him. They came in the store, they saw him, Mr. Crawford was standing in the same place in Walmart for five minutes prior to the officers coming in and shooting him. He was not walking around the store, he wasn't waiving the gun.

He was on this cell phone pointed facing the shelves when the officers came in and just shot him on sight.

BURNETT: All right. I thank you both very much for being with us tonight.

And next, the Sony hackers evoking 9/11, threatening to attack Americans on Christmas Day when the studio releases a movie called "The Interview".

Plus, Bill Cosby's daughter speaking out about her father and attacking his accusers. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Breaking news, federal authorities are investigating a chilling threat from the Sony hackers after a group warned all Americans to, quote, "remember the 11th of December 2001." Now, the group claims to be, quote, "guardian of peace" and it warns it will attack anybody who sees the movie, "The Interview", which is actually a dark comedy about two Americans who take part in a plot to kill the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: The CIA would love it if you could take him out.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Huh?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: Take him out.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Like for drinks?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Like to dinner?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Take him out of town?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: No, take him out.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: You want us to kill the leader of North Korea.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: What?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Pamela Brown is OUTFRONT with new details on the threat by Sony hackers -- Pam.

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, the FBI is investigating a threatening message purportedly from the Sony hackers, promising a bitter fate to anyone who sees the controversial North Korean comedy "The Interview", set to release on Christmas Day.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: The CIA would love it if you could take him out.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Huh?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: Take him out.

BROWN: The message said, "Soon, all of the world will be what an awful movie Sony Pictures Entertainment has made. The world will be full of fear. Remember the 11th of September 2001."

CRAIG A. NEWMAN, MANAGING PARTNER, RICHARD KIBBE & ORBE: With this hack in particular, information is just leaking out day after day, and now, they've got all of these threats against people if you go see the movie, be careful. They are threatening the families of Sony employees. I mean, this is taking hacking to a level we've never seen before.

BROWN: A leaked seen from "The Interview" shows the gruesome attack on North Korea leader Kim Jung-un, something the country has strongly condemned. U.S. law enforcement sources tell CNN the strong suspicion is that the reclusive country is the instigator of the hack and possibly outsourced it to a group elsewhere, as retaliation for the controversial film.

Tonight, the FBI is scrubbing Sony's computer system, trying to gather enough evidence to definitively point the finger at the hacking culprit.

NEWMAN: It is a complex nuance investigation and it involves not just going into your I.T. systems but the more sophisticated hackers have gone through multiple structures to get to where they've gone to. So, it's not something that Sony is going to solve in a day or a week or a month.

BROWN: The hack attack has had a devastating effect on the entertainment company, with an avalanche of leaks, revealing personal information of employees and salacious e-mail exchanges of A-list celebrities.

U.S. law enforcement sources say it's believed the Sony hackers began penetrating Sony's computer system as early as this past summer, but it wasn't until later the company reported it to authorities who began investigating in November.

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BROWN: And in the wake of the threat today, purportedly from the Sony hackers, we learned the stars of "The Interview", James Franco and Seth Rogen have pulled out of all press conferences today and tomorrow. Also, Erin, we learned today that there was a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of former Sony employees, basically saying the company was negligent and didn't do enough to protect its computer system, Erin.

BURNETT: That's pretty frightening. Everyone should think about what it means for everyone else in this country, too. This risk.

Thanks, Pamela.

And next, another Cosby family member speaking out. We're going to hear what his daughter has to say about the many allegations against her father.

And Jeanne Moos on the royal baby. His shoes -- yes, those shoes, are selling like hotcakes.

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BURNETT: New developments tonight: Bill Cosby will not face charges after a woman claimed he molested her when she was 15 years old at the Playboy Mansion. Prosecutors say the 40-year-old case doesn't fall within the statute of limitations because back then, it was a misdemeanor.

This development comes just as Bill Cosby's daughter releases a statement supporting her father.

Jean Casarez is OUTFRONT with more on what Evin Cosby is saying.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With Camille Cosby already stepping forward in defense of her husband, now their daughter, Evin Cosby, is attacking her father's accusers writing on her Facebook page. "There will always be jealous, vengeful and crazy people out there to break anyone down."

His daughter also defended his character, telling Access Hollywood, "He is the father you thought you knew. 'The Cosby Show' was my today's TV reality show. Thank you. That's all I would like to say."

Sexual assault activists are outraged.

SIL LAI ABRAMS, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ACTIVIST: The fact that, again, women are being used again, put out front to take the hit for him is very, very disconcerting.

CASAREZ: Camille Cosby remains silent even as the number of alleged victims continue to grow. Now, Camille has come out describing the man she met in 1963 and married a year later as "a kind man, a generous man, a funny man and a wonderful husband. He is the man you thought you knew. A different man has been portrayed in the media over the last two months. It is the portrait of a man I do not know."

Camille Cosby has a history of defending her husband when Autumn Jackson was convicted of extorting up to $40 million from Cosby in 1997 claiming he was her father, Camille stood by her man, even after he admitted in court to an extramarital affair with Jackson's mother in 1974. Saying through her publicist --

DAVID BROKAW, PUBLICIST FOR BILL COSBY: All personal negative issues between Bill and me are resolved years ago.

CASAREZ: Now, Camille is comparing allegations against her husband to news coverage of an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia. "The media were quick to link that story to stories about my husband, until that story unwound."

ABRAMS: For her to bring in the UVA rape case, what was that about? I mean, we're talking about over -- almost two dozen accusations and allegations with a consistent pattern over decades versus one rape allegation.

CASAREZ: Camille concludes her statement with the most important question of all: "None of us will ever want to be in the position of attacking a victim, but the question should be asked, who is the victim?"

Bill Cosby is the one who many say can step forward and answer that question.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CASAREZ: Now, Erin, you started with the piece with the news that we just got. The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office decided they will not bring criminal charges against Judith Hough, alleging sexual molestation by Bill Cosby. It's a 40-year case. I don't think that's unexpected, but remember, there was a civil suit that was filed several weeks ago that at this point is still going forward.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Jean.

And next, Jeanne Moos as Prince George steps out, and his shoes are selling out. Yes, those things. We're going to tell you why.

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BURNETT: Like his mom, it seems everything Prince George wears is an instant hit. Here's Jeanne Moos.

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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You're looking at the royal shoe sales man. Now, we all know that whatever Prince George's mother wears tends to fly off the racks, yet a Tori Burch jacket or a coat by the fashion house Goat.

But when the palace released three adorable Christmas photos of the prince, shoppers were swept off their feet by his shoes. Sales of this unisex navy blue leather shoe with a buckle skyrocketed.

DENISE ALDOUS, BRAND MANAGER, START-RITE: It's ten times more than this time last week.

MOOS (on camera): She says with a smile. ALDOUS: I'm happy. I'm hoping 20 times tomorrow.

MOOS (voice-over): First Walking Shoes, they're called, made by a company manufactured shoes for two centuries. The name that's resting under the little prince's foot?

ALDOUS: Start-Rite England.

MOOS (on camera): Now, your kid can walk in the shoes of a prince for less than princely sum of 57 bucks.

(voice-over): And shoppers didn't just go gaga over the prince's shoes. George's $26 sweater vest decorated with the London Guard completely sold out, from a store called Cath Kidston that listed it under Gifts Fit for a Prince.

The folks at the shoe company had already been tipped off that Kate had visited a retail store with Prince George in tow and purchased their shoes. But when they saw the Christmas photos with him wearing them --

ALDOUS: Oh, we were jumping up and down. Yes, we certainly were. We were wanting to jump on the highest mountain possible.

MOOS: With most mesmerized by his rosy cheeks, who knew Prince George's subjects would be falling at his feet?

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: Well, whether you like his shoes or his style or not, he is one precious little boy.

Thanks so much for watching. And be sure to DVR OUTFRONT so we can watch us anytime.

Anderson starts now.