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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Witnesses Videotape Escape From Captivity; Castro Brothers Break Their Silence; Mother's Day Parade Shooting; 12-Year-Old Brother Under Arrest; IRS Targets Tea Party
Aired May 13, 2013 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A CNN exclusive. Ariel Castro's brothers speak out about the brother accused of kidnapping and raping three women in Cleveland. They call him a monster.
ZORAIDA SAMBOLIN, CNN ANCHOR: Manhunt under way. Three men suspected in a Mother's Day shoot-out injuring 19 people during a parade.
BERMAN: Please respect our privacy. Leila Fowler's step-mother on the devastating news of her step-son's arrest suspected in killing his eight-year-old sister.
SAMBOLIN: On that note, we're going to say good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Zoraida Sambolin.
BERMAN: I'm John Berman. It is Monday, May 13th, 6:00 a.m. in the East. A very big morning for us here.
Up first, the moment Cleveland police stormed into Ariel Castro's home, it was captured on tape. This marked the end of a decade of torture and abuse for three women in captivity. And take a look at the cell phone footage taken by two eyewitnesses. They were right down the street just seconds after Amanda Berry had escaped. You're going to see this all in a moment.
Also new this morning, it's very big CNN exclusive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do you worry now that people will always suspect that you actually did have a role?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Straight ahead, Martin Savidge's riveting interview with Onil and Pedro Castro. They were brothers of kidnapping suspect Ariel Castro. The men say they're being hunted right now like dogs. They're in hiding. An awful lot going on this morning.
First, we want to get right away to Susan Candiotti in Cleveland. We're going to start with that video that we're just seeing for the first time this morning, the two young women who shot that video of the police rushing in to Castro's home. Susan, it turns out they thought they were in trouble with the cops, but it was a totally different thing altogether. SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And who could blame them. They're driving down the street. All of a sudden they see police lights behind them. They pull over. Think what did we do wrong? And then it became perfectly clear seconds later that police didn't care a thing about them, they were focused on this house over my shoulder.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI: And where did you see her, Amanda and her little girl?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coming down the street.
CANDIOTTI: And then everything unfolded right here?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): These two women happened to turn on to Ariel Castro's street and found themselves smack in the middle of an amazing escape to freedom.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Amanda walking down the street with a cop right when the cop asked her who are you, she passed us and said Amanda Berry.
CANDIOTTI (on camera): When you heard the name Amanda Berry and you knew exactly --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Me and her looked at each other and we had goose bumps and then we pulled up our hoodie and like, you know --
CANDIOTTI: Goose bumps.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It hit us quick.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When she said Amanda Berry I saw it in her eyes and I knew it was really her. She had tears coming down her face.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Jasmina pulled out her cell phone and rolled video as police ran to Ariel Castro's house looking for other victims. Then her phone ran out of power.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've seen Gina coming down the steps shaking real, real, real hard, like she was cold and they took them to the ambulance.
CANDIOTTI: They watched Gina Dejesus, Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and her daughter taken away by ambulance. On Mother's Day, special prayers of thanksgiving at Holy Family Catholic Church for the women's freedom --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight, Gina Dejesus.
CANDIOTTI: The crisis management team stepped in to represent the women at no charge, pleading for privacy, but passing along the victims' thanks -- from Amanda. JIM WOOLEY, ATTORNEY FOR CLEVELAND VICTIMS: I am so happy to be home with my family.
CANDIOTTI: From Gina.
WOOLEY: I want to thank everyone for all your prayers.
CANDIOTTI: From Michelle.
WOOLEY: I am healthy, happy, and safe, and will reach out to family, friends and supporters in good time.
CANDIOTTI: Castro's home now finally boarded up, sealed as evidence. A city councilman allowed to stand in the backyard overcome by what the women endured for a decade.
BRIAN CUMMINS, CLEVELAND CITY COUNCIL: You can't help but feel like, you know, the presence of -- of this enormity of -- of the event. I mean, it's unbelievable.
CANDIOTTI (on camera): What did you picture in your mind's eye of what those women went through as you stood back there?
CUMMINS: It's just horrors, absolute horrors.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI: And a police car remains on duty parked outside that house around the clock. So, make sure no one disturbs that crime scene area. As people continue to come here throughout the day, to get a look at this house for themselves, remember the victims, and remain unbelievable in their own minds, in everyone's minds here, that they were able to survive this horror here.
BERMAN: The whole thing still unbelievable. Susan Candiotti. The defendant, the suspect, I should say being held right now on $8 million bond. What are the next legal steps for Ariel Castro?
CANDIOTTI: Well, he's sitting there in that jail cell all by himself. The sheriff said he's only had a couple of visitors since Friday, some lawyers who came to see him. Don't know whether they've been hired or not. But the next step, of course, is waiting for that grand jury indictment to be coming down. We don't know exactly when that will be, but he's sure to face a ton of charges -- John.
BERMAN: All right, Susan Candiotti in Cleveland for us this morning. Thanks so much, Susan.
SAMBOLIN: And now an interview that you will only see on CNN, Pedro and Onil Castro breaking their silence about their brother Ariel. The 10 years of torture he allegedly inflicted on his victims and the impact his madness has had on them. Here's Martin Savidge with a CNN exclusive.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: What is your brother to you now?
ONIL CASTRO, ARIEL CASTRO'S BROTHER: Monster, hateful, I hope he rots in that jail. I don't even want them to take his life like that. I want him to suffer in that jail, to the last extent. I don't care if they even feed him. What he has done to my life and my family's.
PEDRO CASTRO, ARIEL CASTRO'S BROTHER: I feel the same way.
SAVIDGE: To the both of you now he no longer exists?
ONIL CASTRO: Right.
PEDRO CASTRO: Yes.
SAVIDGE: He is gone?
PEDRO CASTRO: He is gone.
SAVIDGE: Almost as if he was dead.
ONIL CASTRO: Yes. Monster is a goner. I'm glad that he left the door unlocked or whatever he did. Whether he did it on purpose, maybe he wanted to get caught. Maybe time was up. Maybe he was inside too much he wanted to get caught. But if he did it that way he shouldn't have let them pick me up and put me in a car if he knew that was going to happen.
SAVIDGE: If you could talk to Gina, you could talk to Michelle, you could talk to Amanda, and in a way you are, I guess, what would you say?
PEDRO CASTRO: I would -- I would tell her -- I would tell them that I'm sorry that you had to go through this. That I was -- I was thinking about these girls being missing, and I'm just grateful that they're home, and you know, out of that horrible house, and I just -- I just tell them that I'm sorry for what Ariel done.
Because see -- not much -- Felix, I know him for long time, and when I find out that Ariel had Gina, I just -- I just broke -- I just broke down because it's shocking. Ariel we know this guy for a long time Felix.
SAVIDGE: This is Gina's father.
PEDRO CASTRO: Yes, Felix. Felix Dejesus. And you got his daughter? And you go -- you go around like it's nothing, you even went to the vigils? You had posters? You give his momma a hug and you got his daughter captive?
SAVIDGE: Onil, same thing?
ONIL CASTRO: The same thing. I just want also the families to get the justice to the fullest extent, and I don't want to see anything like that happen to anybody in this world. This has torn my heart apart. This has killed me. I am a walking corpse right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAMBOLIN: You can stay with CNN the entire interview with Pedro and Onil Castro airs at 7:00 Eastern on "STARTING POINT" including the final words Ariel Castro said to each of them after he'd been arrested. These guys, you know, can't go back home.
They've received death threats, but there's one thing that I really want to point out because everybody's saying, how could they not have known they were in that house? But his very own daughter, Ariel Castro's own daughter had also been inside the home.
She had asked to go upstairs to the bedroom and the dad said no, it's a mess. I'm not going to let you up there. So this didn't just happen to them. It happened to a lot of other people. Musicians were in and out of that house.
BERMAN: A web of lies. This interview was riveting. Do not miss it. We'll show it in its entirety coming up 7:00 Eastern Time.
It's 8 minutes after the hour right now. We are also following developments this morning in New Orleans. Police are vowing to make swift arrests after gunmen opened fire on a neighborhood Mother's Day parade. Nineteen people were wounded including two children. CNN has just obtained video of the actual shooting. Listen to this.
That's awful. Witnesses saw three suspects running from the scene of the shooting. CNN's Alina Machado is live in New Orleans for us this morning with the latest on the manhunt going on right now. Good morning, Alina.
ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. All we know at this point is that as you mentioned police continue to search for three suspects who were seen leaving this scene. We also understand that police believe all of the shots that were fired came from different guns.
Now this all happened yesterday afternoon around 1:30 as the parade was making its way down here, Frenchman Street in the Seventh Ward. This place was packed with people who were out here celebrating that parade and also celebrating Mother's Day. We have two eyewitness accounts for you. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody started running and running and running and we wondered what was going on in the shooting.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just opened my door today and two guys just collapsed right down my steps, you know, and me and my daughter did the best thing we can to revive them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACHADO: Now police say 19 people were wounded, two of those people are children. They are 10 years old. The good news in all of this is that police believe the wounds are not life threatening. In other words, these people are expected to survive. Now shortly after the shooting, the mayor of New Orleans held a news conference. He is vowing to get to the bottom of what happened here. He is also encouraging the community to come forward and help with the investigation. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITCH LANDRIEU, NEW ORLEANS MAYOR: We have mothers that were shot, sisters that were shot. We have little children that were shot. These kinds of incidents are not going to go unanswered. We're going to be very, very aggressive. There were hundreds of people out there today. So somebody knows who did this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACHADO: The shooting comes as New Orleans continues to deal with violence. The city has the highest per capita murder rate among large cities and it's worth noting that the police department here is offering a reward in hopes that that will help get to the bottom of what happened -- John.
BERMAN: It's $10,000 I'm seeing. Alina, this was Mother's Day, any idea about a possible motive?
MACHADO: That's something that police are still trying to figure out, exactly what led to this shooting. We do know that from the FBI, the FBI does not believe that this was an act of terrorism. They are naming this as an act of street violence. We hope that police will be able to figure out exactly what led to this violence, as they continue talking to people who were out here, and who may know more about what happened -- John.
BERMAN: Alina Machado for us this morning in New Orleans. Appreciate it.
SAMBOLIN: It's 11 minutes past the hour. New developments this morning in the murder of 8-year-old California girl Leila Fowler, her 12-year-old brother arrested for allegedly murdering his sister.
Their stepmother Crystal Walters posted a brief message on Facebook saying, quote, "Thank you to those who are standing by us in this devastating time for our family. And thank you for respecting our privacy during this time. We need a little space. Happy Mother's Day to all."
CNN's Dan Simon is live in Valley Springs, California, following just this tragic development. Good morning to you, Dan.
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Zoraida. For two weeks this community was on the lookout for a killer, someone who randomly barged into a home and stabbed and murdered a 12-year-old little girl. At least that's what the community thought. Now according to the sheriff it wasn't random at all.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SIMON (voice-over): In the days after her killing, an emotional candle light vigil to remember 8-year-old Leila Fowler, known for her bubbly personality.
AMY HASSELWANDER, PRINCIPAL, JENNY LIND ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: Leila was beautiful and strong. She was kind. I remembered that Leila liked purple.
SIMON: Leila's family among the mourners, seen here was her 12-year- old brother, the one who had told police that an intruder stabbed his sister while they were home alone, and their parents were at a Little League baseball game. A story authorities now say was a lie.
GARY KUNTZ, CALAVERAS COUNTY SHERIFF: At 5:10 p.m. detectives arrested Leila's 12-year-old brother at the Valley Springs Station and -- on charges of homicide. These types of cases require a certain amount of time and it was our commitment to make sure that we did a thorough job as possible.
SIMON: The family remained visible throughout the investigation. Leila's mother spoke about the closeness between her son and daughter.
CRYSTAL WALTERS, LEILA FOWLER'S STEPMOTHER: He never like pushed her around like big brothers and sisters do. He never like was ever was mean to her.
SIMON: In the immediate aftermath of the killing two weeks ago, his usually serene Northern California community of 7,500 went into a near frenzy, as nervous residents believed a killer was at large, and wondered whether there would be more victims.
PATRICIA CAMBELL, RESTAURANT OWNER: I've lived here 33 years. I've never seen anything like this happen. We've had bad things happen in our community, but never like this to a little child.
SIMON: Patricia Cambell owns a popular diner in town. She and everyone else we talked to her were shocked at the turn of events.
CAMBELL: It's bad enough to lose one of your own children. I can't imagine losing one, two by the hand of one of my own. I couldn't imagine that.
HENRY KING, VALLEY SPRINGS RESIDENT: It was surprising, but I kind of had a feeling that it might be him, you know. A lot of people don't want to look at it that way, you know, but it seems like family, you got to look at the family first, for me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIMON: Well, authorities are not releasing the brother's name because he is, in fact, a minor. The main question today is why? What would motivate someone to do this to his little sister? Hopefully, we'll get some more answers today -- Zoraida.
SAMBOLIN: That just makes absolutely no sense. Have investigators found a murder weapon? SIMON: Yes, that's a great question. We know that after the murder occurred, evidence was taken from the home, DNA evidence, as well. We're told, or at least reportedly, some knives were taken away from the home. But we don't know if those knives, in fact, linked the 12- year-old brother to the murder of his sister -- Zoraida.
SAMBOLIN: No doubt that community is reeling from this. Dan Simon live in Valley Springs, California, for us. Thank you.
BERMAN: All right, 14 minutes after the hour right now. Coming up, the news that has Washington all at Twitter this morning, the IRS targeting the Tea Party and this morning new details, new outrage later on this developing story next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SAMBOLIN: Good morning to you. Welcome back to EARLY START.
It is outrage. It's growing this morning as new details emerge about how the IRS specifically targeted Tea Party groups. On Friday, the IRS admitted that it made mistakes over the last few years, while trying to process requests from groups seeking tax exempt status.
CNN's Dan Lothian has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(CHANTING)
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tea Party and other conservative groups that rose to power early in the president's first term were unfairly targeted for special scrutiny by the IRS. And some agency officials knew as early as June 2011, according to an IRS audit that sources tell CNN is expected to be released this week.
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: This is truly outrageous. And it contributes to the profound distrust that the American people have in government.
REP. MIKE ROGERS (R), MICHIGAN: I don't care if you're a conservative, a liberal, a Democrat or a Republican, this should send a chill up your spine.
LOTHIAN: The audit will show IRS agents singled out groups, some with "Tea Party" or "patriot" in their names, that had applied for tax- exempt status. Despite protests by these groups, the IRS had previously denied any unfair targeting.
DOUG SHULMAN, IRS COMISSIONER: There's absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back-and-forth that happens when people applied.
LOTHIAN: The IRS now says its, quote, "senior leadership was not aware" of the special scrutiny at the time of that hearing. But with the results of the audit about to become public, the agency now says officials were just trying to deal with the large influx of new tax- exempt requests. Quote, "Mistakes were made initially but they were in no way due to any political or partisan rationale. We fixed the situation last year."
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney says the president expects swift and appropriate steps to address any misconduct if it is found.
JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: What we know about this is of concern. And we certainly find the actions taken as reported to be inappropriate. And we would fully expect the investigation to be thorough, and for corrections to be made, in a case like this.
LOTHIAN: Dan Lothian, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: Twenty minutes after the hour.
Coming up next, what to expect in your portfolio as Wall Street rallies.
SAMBOLIN: How would you like to find this on your front porch, on Mother's Day, ladies? We'll have much when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: Minding your business this morning. It has been an amazing run on Wall Street. The Dow, NASDAQ, S&P 500, all up big time, 13 percent to 15 percent this year. The Dow's hit 18 record highs. However, stock futures indicate a lower opening today.
SAMBOLIN: Meantime, we have another big story for you. Bangladesh wages could soon rise after last month's building collapse of a garment factory that killed more than 1,100 workers.
Our Christine Romans has been following this story.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I know. You know, we are addicted to cheap clothes in the U.S. and Europe and those clothes by and large come from Bangladesh and if you doubled the wages of those workers, it would add just a few cents to the price of your apparel. That's according to a U.K. union group.
As it stands textile workers in Bangladesh are paid $38 a month. Wages last rose back in 2010. In China, for example, a textile worker makes $138 a month. Those cheap wages mean cheap clothes for a voracious American and European market addicted to fashion as it's called.
But after that factory collapse last month in Dhaka, American retailers are facing consumers who are furious over the conditions under which clothes are made.
That rubble, that rubble, there's a direct connection from that rubble to the hangers in your closet. Bangladesh textile minister said that the government's going to start talks with labor groups and factory owners about raising wages for those garment workers. Factory owners don't want to do it. They don't want to raise wages. An E.U. trade commissioner calls this whole system modern slavery. Others say working in a factory -- clothing factory is the best, only option for women in Bangladesh because they have no alternative.
In many cases, these women have to borrow money to get money from their next paycheck just to make it through so just really low wages. The E.U. has warned Bangladesh to make its factories safer or risk access to the U.K. market. That's where most of the clothes for Bangladesh go. Ninety-eight percent of American clothing comes from overseas. And Bangladesh is rising quickly among the top exporters to the U.S. right after China and Vietnam.
Bangladesh's clothing industry is booming so much the contract to overtake China within the next seven years.
So, a lot of consumers --
SAMBOLIN: That's outrageous.
ROMANS: I know. I mean, you just -- look, I was just in H&M over the weekend, and every single shirt I saw, $15, $14, $13, made in Bangladesh. And I was watching women looking at these labels just like I was, and all of them putting the shirts right back on --
SAMBOLIN: I appreciate you raising awareness about that. I really appreciate it.
What's the one thing we need to know about our money?
ROMANS: This is commencement season and the class of 2013 has a better chance than any of the last four years to get a job. That's good news.
SAMBOLIN: Give us the bad news.
ROMANS: I want to give everybody one piece of advice -- if you've got a college senior, if you are a college senior, please Google yourself and start planning for social media. Recruiters and hiring management are telling me they're not giving job offers based on what they're seeing on social media.
BERMAN: Do you know who has given a big time commencement address in the last week or so?
ROMANS: Me. I was out of state this weekend. It was really fun.
BERMAN: I'm sure it was --
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: Thirty-four hundred graduates, congratulations to all of them. Best of luck.
BERMAN: Twenty-six minutes after the hour. And coming up on EARLY START, more of CNN's exclusive interview with Ariel Castro's brothers. Why they say they feel like victims now, too. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
