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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Prosecutor Killed Outside Courthouse; Scare in the Air; Ready for Some Rest: Hillary's Last Day; 14-Year-Old Georgia Student Recovering from Gunshot; Beyonce Preps for the Super Bowl
Aired February 01, 2013 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Armed and dangerous. The hunt is on for the masked man who gunned down a prosecutor in front of a courthouse.
ZORAIDA SAMBOLIN, CNN ANCHOR: Scare in the air. A 737 makes an emergency landing after the captain passes out in the cockpit.
BERMAN: Wow!
All right. So, kicking and screaming. One woman's ugly display in the back of a police -- Oh, my. Yes, that's not a good idea. Caught on camera.
SAMBOLIN: Wow.
BERMAN: Yes. It's not going to make it any easier for you, lady.
All right. Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm John Berman.
SAMBOLIN: I'm Zoraida Sambolin. It is Friday, February 1st already. Can you believe it? Thirty-one minutes past the hour.
A top story this morning is a manhunt. It is on after a prosecutor was gunned down in an ambush right outside a Texas Courthouse. One or possibly two suspects are on the run right now. Mark Hasse, a prosecutor in Kaufman County, about 30 miles outside of Dallas, killed after being shot several times as he got out of his car in the courthouse parking lot yesterday.
Authorities are pleading for lead. The FBI is now helping in the case, as well, and they want to know if this is revenge for a case that he was handling. Drew Griffin is live in Kaufman, Texas this morning. What's the very latest on this?
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE UNIT CORRESPONDENT: Zoraida, I can't tell you how small a town this is, which makes this all the more surprising. Mark Hasse was showing up for work in this parking lot yesterday morning about eight o'clock when this whole thing unfolded. According to the police chief, there was a slight altercation and then shots fired.
They had no knowledge that he was under any death threats or being threatened by anyone at the time. Here's what the police chief said yesterday about this case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF CHRIS ALBAUGH, KAUFMAN POLICE DEPARTMENT: It appears that the individual intended to hurt him, but whether or not that was just because it happened on him on the street of that moment or because he had intent, we don't know that yet. We're pursuing all of those possibilities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: Certainly, Mark Hasse, 57 years old, a prosecutor since 1982, Zoraida, didn't feel that he was being threatened in any way. He was merely showing up for work. They don't really have any leads that they're leading us to. They had multiple witnesses, but because they were telling so many different stories, they're really not even sure if this was one or two people involved in the shooting.
We expect to learn more later today, this morning, at 10:00 a.m. at a news conference. But right now, this small town wondering who could have shot and killed a prosecutor yesterday morning.
SAMBOLIN: He did handle a lot of violent crimes, gang related. I'm not sure what I'm hearing here, but I don't know if you're hearing it as well. He did handle a lot of violent crimes, didn't he?
GRIFFIN: Well, you know, there are only 13 prosecutors that work out of the district attorney's office here. So, he handled all kinds of crime. A caseload -- average caseload would be about 380 cases. At the time, he was handling a DUI case, but he has handled many drug cases, some White supremacy cases, lots of violence. He was a top prosecutor.
He actually was a prosecutor in Dallas for many, many years before coming here to a much smaller operation in Kaufman. They're looking through all the past cases that could possibly figure out if this was retribution or not. You know, the sheriff yesterday said they just really don't know. They're still poking through the cases, also looking at his personal life, anything they can to just come up with a lead.
SAMBOLIN: All right. Drew Griffin, live in Kaufman, Texas this morning for us. Thank you very much.
BERMAN: Thirty-four minutes after the hour. At least 11 people are dead after a truck loaded with fireworks for this month's lunar New Year exploded Friday on a bridge in Central China.
The blast caused a 260-foot part of the overpass to collapse, sending several cars over the edge. State-run China national radio says there could be as many as 26 fatalities.
SAMBOLIN: All right. It was a scare in the air after a pilot actually passes out in the cockpit. The Alaska Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Seattle had to be diverted to Portland after it happened. The first officer was at the controls as Flight 473 landed safely just after 9:00 last night.
Once on the ground, EMTs quickly boarded the plane to attend to that pilot. Since the captain was unable to taxi the plane to the gate, the aircraft had to be towed there instead.
BERMAN: And this is a pretty scary case of who's flying the plane. The Dutch Airline Transavia says its investigating after a pilot of a 737 was locked out of the cockpit and couldn't get back in because the co-pilot was asleep at the controls.
SAMBOLIN: Oh, my goodness!
BERMAN: So, this happened back in September on a trip from Greece to the Netherlands. The plane did land safely in Amsterdam. That is just crazy.
SAMBOLIN: Crazy. Two in a row there, huh?
All right. If there is a list of things not to do when in police custody, this should be on that list. A woman in Ohio kicking out the window of a police cruiser. Crazy. Giving officers a shattered -- oh, glass shower. Even after the window was out, she continued kicking.
Police say the woman had just been arrested for allegedly assaulting her mother. And they say, it's an ugly example of the influence of too much alcohol. I would say so.
BERMAN: It's just bad --
SAMBOLIN: She's in a lot of trouble.
BERMAN: She's in a lot of trouble. It's not going to get any easier for her.
So, this morning, Hillary Clinton wakes up as Secretary of State for the last time. She reveals her biggest regret of the past four years, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAMBOLIN: Welcome back. Thirty-nine minutes past the hour. "GUNS UNDER FIRE." Our Anderson Cooper's town hall on gun wasn't short on passion from both sides of the issue. That special tackled everything from access to guns, mental health, the definition of the Second Amendment, violence in the media, including video games.
An NRA board member and a survivor of the Virginia Tech rampage had starkly different views on universal background checks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDY FROMAN, NRA BOARD MEMBER: There's a cost to this kind of basically bureaucracy. Why should a law-abiding citizen who isn't a problem, who's not a criminal, should have to go through additional background checks? Why should we spend scarce law enforcement resources spending money on background checks of law-abiding people who aren't the problem?
COLIN GODDARD, VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTING SURVIVOR: I just don't understand why the first idea put forward to something might help at the last second, like, we can do better than that we're doing now, and we can do things in advance, weeks and the months beforehand, to keep a dangerous person and a gun from combining in the first place. You know, we don't take that seriously. We don't do background checks to some people like that's nuts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAMBOLIN: Anderson handed that special by trying to look for some common ground there, but the only consensus was that more needs to be done and that this conversation needs to continue.
BERMAN: It is the final day on the job for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Clinton says she is ready for some rest after logging almost a million miles in the air since taking the job four years ago. Of course, questions remain about Clinton's plans for the future, especially 2016.
Jill Dougherty now with more on Secretary Clinton's farewell to the State Department.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wherever Hillary Clinton went in the world, there were rock star expectations.
HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: Will you have me back if I come back?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
CLINTON: Oh, good.
DOUGHERTY: Her texts, her hair styles, her glasses, went viral. She said she didn't care.
CLINTON: I feel so relieved to be at the stage I'm at in my life right now, Jill, because, you know, if I want to wear my glasses, I'm wearing my glasses. If I, you know, want to pull my hair back, I'm pulling my hair back.
DOUGHERTY: Clinton tried to press that reset button with Russia.
CLINTON: We worked hard to get the right Russian word. Do you think we got it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got it wrong.
CLINTON: I got it wrong.
DOUGHERTY: But it got loss in translation. In Burma, she saw the birth pains of democracy, but the fatal attack in Benghazi, Libya was her greatest regret, she says.
CLINTON: I take responsibility.
DOUGHERTY: Prompting a rare emotional outburst.
CLINTON: What difference at this point does it make?
DOUGHERTY: She won praise from the man she tried to beat in the presidential election.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think Hillary will go down as one of the finest Secretary of States we've had.
DOUGHERTY: But will she run in 2016? The answers only prompt more speculation.
CLINTON: I have absolutely no plans to run.
DOUGHERTY: She flew almost a million miles, visited 112 countries, kicked up her heels, threw back a few drinks on the side. A month of illness grounded her at the end.
CLINTON: For me, it truly is a bittersweet moment to leave this room for the last time as Secretary of State.
DOUGHERTY: Enter the next Secretary of State.
JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE-DESIGNEE: American foreign policy is not defined by drones and deployments alone.
DOUGHERTY: John Kerry, tall, distinguished, gray-haired, son of a foreign service officer.
KERRY: If you're trying to get some daylight between me and Secretary Clinton, that's not going to happen here today.
DOUGHERTY: As his confirmation hearing showed, the policy is likely to remain the same, but the personality will change. More straight laced with a hint of humor.
KERRY: I'm taking it for the Red Sox. I'm taking it for the Patriots.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DOUGHERTY (on-camera): And that personality of Hillary Clinton, really, in a way, I think you could say overshadows almost any job that she's had. So, it's going to be fascinating to watch this last day and then the days coming -- John, Zoraida.
BERMAN: So, Jill, what are the plans today at the State Department? Are we talking like a big cake and a tearful goodbye or a party? What's going to happen?
DOUGHERTY: You know, it will be like the very first day, and I was there. I remember it very well. It's going to be at the -- what they call the C street entrance where they have all the flags, and she's going to say goodbye. And it couldn't be quite emotional. Don't know exactly what she'll be saying, but obviously, thanks and standing room only when she arrived four years ago. I'm sure it will be that way today.
BERMAN: It will be quite an event. Jill Dougherty, you'll be there. Thanks for being with us this morning. Take care, Jill.
SAMBOLIN: So, it happened not once, but three times across the country in just a matter of hours, if you can believe it. Cars and trucks piled up after chain reaction crashes. We have more, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAMBOLIN: Forty-seven minutes past the hour. Let's get you up to date. Here's Christine Romans with our top stories.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning again, you two.
We begin with an intense manhunt to find the person who gunned down a prosecutor outside of a courthouse, and there may be more than one suspect out there. Investigators are looking into the possibility assistant D.A. Mark Hasse was targeted because of a case he was working on. His boss says he may have been working on as many as 300 different cases.
A Georgia middle school student is recovering this morning from a gunshot wound to the head. It happened at this Atlanta middle school Thursday afternoon. Authorities say an armed officer working there ended the school shooting when he ripped the gun from the shooter's hands. The suspect, another student, is in custody. No one else at the school was injured.
Wintry weather has wreaked havoc across several highways in the Midwest. Look at this. A monster chain reaction crash involving several big rigs closed to seven-mile section of Interstate 70, west of Indianapolis. That is amazing. Between 40 and 50 vehicles were involved. No one was killed, but 10 people were injured in that pileup.
This was the scene near Detroit where three people were killed and up to 20 injured in another chain reaction accident on I-75. That's right. Also, in Michigan, this violent crash split the car in two, leaving half of the sedan on the road, the other half off in the woods. The people in the car actually survive --
SAMBOLIN (voice-over): Oh my gosh!
ROMANS: -- with no serious injuries, the car split in two.
SAMBOLIN: That I was not expecting. That is nothing short of a miracle.
BERMAN: Crazy pictures. Thank you, Christine ROMANS: You're welcome.
BERMAN: And glad to see you recovered from the Bradley Cooper incident.
ROMANS: I have so far yet (ph).
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: So, if you're traveling this weekend, keep an eye on the weather. It's your return trip that you might need to worry about. Indra Petersons is in our Weather Center this morning. Good morning, Indra.
INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning. Yes, that chill is still with us. And we are going to have some chances for snow throughout the weekend. I did want to talk about a cold that is right now. Chicago with the wind chill, negative 16 below. Ouch, right? Take you down all the way to the southeast.
Orlando also, right around 33 degrees with that wind chill. So, definitely, cold air still in place. About 30 degrees below in Ohio Valley, down even to the south and the southeast where currently 15 below average. So, definitely some cool temperatures are with us. As we go through the afternoon today, take a look at what your highs are expected to be. D.C. around 34, Atlanta today, only 39 degrees.
We're going to be seeing some gusty winds here as well. So, with the wind chill in the afternoon. This is what it is feeling like, Columbus today 9, Minneapolis, negative 12, International Falls, negative 24. Now, here are some of these storms I was talking about. We're going to be talking about a couple of lows making their way through as we go through the afternoon.
Overnight tonight in through tomorrow, and then, it looks like a second storm will also make its way through Saturday night in through Sunday. So, you can easily tell here. Here comes that cold, dry air, not a huge snow maker, by any means. Remember, all this cold air is very dry. And there here comes the second one.
So this, again, just enough to bring a couple of flurries out there, but again, it's that cold air that we're going to be dealing with throughout the weekend. Sorry about that, guys. It's not me.
SAMBOLIN: No kidding.
BERMAN: Yes. I guess it's not your fault. All right. Indra Petersons, thanks very much.
SAMBOLIN: All right. Forty-nine minutes past the hour. She's one of the brightest young stars in Hollywood. Jennifer Lawrence is favored to win an Oscar later this month for her starring role in "Silver Linings Playbook."
Last night, J-La, as she's known, and her "Silver Linings" director, David O. Russell, were Piers Morgan's guests. So, it was the first time that she had seen video of her wardrobe malfunction at the SAG Awards. Check out her reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENNIFER LAWRENCE, OSCAR-NOMINATED FOR "SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK": It's a tiered dress, which I didn't understand until I was like, "Why can I see my thighs?"
(LAUGHTER)
LAWRENCE: Yes. That's the design of the dress. So, I guess if you put it on somebody with the coordination of my level, that's what's going to happen.
PIERS MORGAN, CNN ANCHOR: What I loved the pictures there of Naomi Watts and Nicole Kidman just sharing the horror as a woman. Never mind anything else of what could have been catastrophic. You dusted yourself down and move on.
LAWRENCE: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
LAWRENCE: Just move on. Pants fall off, and you just keep moving.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: The best was Piers' dramatic re-enactment of what happened there, right?
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: As he was trying to -- you know, using charades to show us what happened there.
ROMANS: Bradley Cooper was in that movie, am I right?
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: Bradley Cooper was in that movie.
ROMANS: Bradley Cooper was in that movie.
BERMAN: Oh, man, that kind of morning here. Fifty-one minutes after the hour. And Beyonce says read my lips.
(LAUGHTER)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEYONCE, SINGER: (SINGING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAMBOLIN: Oh, yes, girl. She can sing, huh?
BERMAN: About a week and a half late. Her loud and proud answer to the lip syncing controversy. Any questions? We're going live to the big easy next.
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SAMBOLIN: Welcome back to EARLY START. It was Beyonce's star- spangled response to all of the controversy over her lip syncing at the inauguration. At a news conference yesterday, Beyonce, who is headlining Sunday's Super Bowl halftime show, answered her critics like this in song.
CNN's Carlos Diaz actually witnessed it live. He is in New Orleans this morning. No lip syncing, right?
CARLOS DIAZ, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: No. Not at all. And Zoraida, I got to tell you. As you know, I covered Hollywood for roughly a decade for the TV show "Extra" before coming over to CNN and HLN.
And I got to tell you, yesterday, Beyonce provided with me, by far, the coolest moment I have ever seen when it comes to celebrities in Hollywood, because basically, here we, we're the press, we're ready to go. Come on, Beyonce, come on out. We're going to pepper you.
(CROSSTALK)
DIAZ: Exactly. And then, she's like, you know what? Let me sing it. Here you go.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEYONCE: (SINGING)
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
BEYONCE: Any questions?
(LAUGHTER)
DIAZ: Let me just say what everyone is thinking. That was the first "in your face" of the Super Bowl. You walking out here and nailing that national anthem.
BEYONCE: Thank you so much.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
DIAZ: Did all of that flak, unnecessary or not, affect what you're doing at halftime?
BEYONCE: I always sing live. If there's -- this inauguration was, unfortunately, a time where I could not rehearse with the orchestra, actually because I was practicing for the Super Bowl, so it was always the plan.
DIAZ (voice-over): And after her singing was done on this stage, Beyonce wanted to make sure she explained to everyone why she used a backing track at the presidential inauguration. BEYONCE: I am a perfectionist. Due to the weather, due to the delay, due to no proper sound check, I did not feel comfortable taking a risk.
DIAZ: But will Beyonce be lip syncing at halftime when the world is watching this Sunday?
BEYONCE: I am well-rehearsed.
(LAUGHTER)
BEYONCE: And I will absolutely be singing live. This is what I was born to do.
DIAZ: Beyonce kept tightlipped about a rumored Destiny's Child reunion and a possible cameo from her husband, Jay-Z, at halftime, but Beyonce definitely answers some butterflies.
BEYONCE: Of course, I'm nervous. It's the one thing when I'm no longer here, it's what they're going to show.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DIAZ (on-camera): I can tell you right now, by the way, Zoraida, I was third row for that as you saw.
SAMBOLIN: Yes.
DIAZ: And she was singing and there was no lip syncing going on and that's why I could not understand the flak in the first place. The girl can sing!
SAMBOLIN: Of course she can.
DIAZ: So, you know, I mean, if she used a backing tracker or lip synching, you know, that's OK. I thought it was an amazing moment yesterday.
SAMBOLIN: Can I just say, she looks smoking hot, too. And I heard her say, Carlos --
DIAZ: Well, I mean -- yes?
SAMBOLIN: It was always the plan. It was always the plan, which was interesting.
DIAZ: Yes, exactly. All right. Zoraida, back to you and your "Mad Men" dress, which looks very nice this morning.
SAMBOLIN: Oh, well, thank you very much. I appreciate that. We'll talk to you soon. Thank you.
(LAUGHTER)
SAMBOLIN: All right. So, next hour on EARLY START, canine counter programming to Sunday's Super Bowl? We'll meet some of the stars of the Animal Planet's "Puppy Bowl." We got puppies everywhere in the studio.
And CNN will be live tomorrow on the eve of Super Bowl XLVII with kickoff in New Orleans as CNN bleacher report special. It is hosted by Rachel Nichols and Ernie Johnson. That is Saturday afternoon, 4:00 Eastern right here on CNN.
And we've got some late night laughs now. I can say that. Stephen Colbert has his game face on for the main event this weekend, all the commercials.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE COLBERT REPORT": And me, I love them, especially this teaser, for Taco Bell.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLBERT: Wow!
(LAUGHTER)
COLBERT: Seeing that old man get hurt --
(LAUGHTER)
COLBERT: -- really makes me crave some Mexican food --
(LAUGHTER)
COLBERT: -- or some taco bell.
(LAUGHTER)
COLBERT: You know, even Mercedes-Benz is getting in on the ad for the coming ad action.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLBERT: Oh! That really targets their key demographic.
(LAUGHTER)
COLBERT: Fourteen-year-old boys making $500,000 a year.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAMBOLIN: So true.
(LAUGHTER)
SAMBOLIN: EARLY START continues right now.
