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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Texas Shooting: Terror Connection; Clinton Ready to Testify on Benghazi, E-Mails; Huckabee Set to Launch 2016 Campaign; Obama Relaunches Mentoring Non-Profit. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired May 05, 2015 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:12] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Terror connection. New information about the gunmen who tried to attack the contest to draw cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Why the FBI was watching one of these men for years and his connections to people in ISIS.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman. It is Tuesday, May 5th. It's 4:00 a.m. in the East. Christine Romans is on assignment this morning.

And we have new details this morning about the attack on that contest in Garland, Texas. It was a contest to draw a cartoon to the Prophet Mohammed.

There is new information about the two men killed by police as they apparently tried to shoot their way into the event. Police say that even though the gunmen wore body armor and carried assault rifles, a local police officer was able to bring them down with his service pistol.

Officials say the two gunmen drove to Garland from Phoenix, Arizona, where they were roommates. There were also signs perhaps of their motives.

Just before the attack, one of the gunmen posted a tweet linking himself to ISIS.

CNN's Kyung Lah is in Phoenix with the latest -- Kyung.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, this is the apartment where the two men were roommates. We are learning more about each of them.

Nadir Soofi is one of the gunmen, a Pakistani source with knowledge about the family speaks to CNN saying that Soofi has a Pakistani father and a mother described as a white American. When they divorced, he and his brother moved with their father to Pakistan. He went to a prestigious elite school in Islamabad. And then, suddenly, he and his brother decided to leave the country. We don't know exactly why.

We know from his mosque that Soofi had a pizza shop here. He also had a son. We also know more about Elton Simpson, he is the other gunmen. He has

a criminal record. In 2011, he was convicted of lying to federal authorities. At the time, the investigation tried to stick him with an international terrorism charge. That did not come to fruition.

His family is not Muslim. We hear from his mosque that he converted around high school age.

And even though he did have that conviction in 2011, the president of his mosque says that he didn't have any displays of violence. He didn't have any warning signs that he could see.

Investigators have now combed through the apartment. They have been walking out with box upon box of evidence. They are trying to make the connection between what happened with these men and how they turned into lone wolves -- John.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Our thanks to Kyung Lah in Phoenix.

As you heard Kyung say, members of the Phoenix mosque where both gunmen went -- they say they are in shock. Mosque president Usama Shami says that Elton Simpson was a regular until five years ago, that's around the time the FBI arrested him with a false statement charge. The mosque president also says a few months ago, Simpson stopped going to services at all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

USAMA SHAMI, PRESIDENT, ISLAMIC COMMUNITY CENTER OF PHOENIX: You have, you know, two members that they didn't show any signs of radicalization or any signs of even thinking about those things in that manner. So, when that happens, it just shocks that, you know, how good did you know these people? That's a question that people ask themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Simpson's family has released a statement that calls the shooting a senseless act of violence. The statement says, "As a family, we do not condone violence and proudly support the men and women of our law enforcement agencies. We are sure many people in this country are curious to know if we had any idea of Elton's plans. To that we say, without question, we did not. Just like everyone in our beautiful country, we are struggling to understand how this could happen."

The organizer of the Texas event is defending it. Pamela Geller compared the cartoon contest to the French magazine "Charlie Hebdo". She told CNN's Jake Tapper that Monday's attack proved how necessary the event was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAMELA GELLER, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FREEDOM DEFENSE INITIATIVE: We held an event in defense of free speech. The objective was first to show depictions of Mohammed over the past 400 years, where they didn't slaughter people for drawing them in pieces of art work. So, we know that this is being used by Islamic supremacists who seek to impose the Sharia restrictions on free speech in the West.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Right.

GELLER: And it's working. It's working because the media won't run cartoons. If the media had run cartoons in 2005, if all the media had, there would never have been this power given to it. Now, anyone that runs cartoons is targeted.

TAPPER: OK.

GELLER: But if all the media had run it, you couldn't kill everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The keynote speaker at that event, right wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders is a long time ally of Geller's.

[04:05:02] Shortly after the event, Wilders was on a plane back to the Netherlands, where he has a long history as a critic of Islam. Wilders has repeatedly call for banning the Koran and was placed in an al Qaeda hit list for directing what is considered an anti-Islamic film.

Hillary Clinton is ready and willing to testify about the Benghazi attacks and her use of personal e-mail while she was secretary of state. But she is willing to testify just one time. Her attorney is taking issue with the request that the former secretary appear before the House committee twice -- once to focus on Benghazi and again to discuss her e-mails.

In a letter to the committee chairman, the attorney says there is no basis, logic or precedent for such a request. Mrs. Clinton is prepared to appear as early as May 18th.

The State Department says there is no evidence that any actions taken by Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state were influenced by donations to the Clinton Foundation or speaking fees for former President Bill Clinton. The statement comes as a new book raises questions about the secretary influenced by sizable foreign donations to the family foundation.

President is expected to nominate Marine Corps Commander Joe Dunford to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He will succeed General Martin Dempsey who was retiring. In his new post, General Dunford will be the top military advisor to the president and his secretary of defense. He previously commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan and was instrumental in overseeing the drawdown of American troops there.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is set to make another run for the White House. He will announce his candidacy later this morning, in his home town of Hope, Arkansas. Do you know anyone else from Hope? Oh, yes, Bill Clinton. Small town, right?

Governor Huckabee ran back in 2008. He won the Iowa caucuses. He won contests in seven states overall. He is the sixth declared Republican candidate in 2016. This comes a day after retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina entered the race. Getting to be a bigger field.

Happening right now, Baltimore's top prosecutor defending the charges against six police officers accused in the death of Freddie Gray. This as President Obama unveils a new plan to bridge the gap between young black men and police.

That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALTIMORE: A tense scene on the streets of Baltimore. Police arrested a man with a gun on Monday, in the same area where Freddie Gray was taken into custody last month. Somehow the suspect's gun went off. Exactly how is not completely clear. The incident did attract a crowd.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. COL. MELVIN RUSSELL, BALTIMORE POLICE: We checked him out. We finally stopped him. We get the weapon back. It is a revolver. And that revolver, there are three cartridges, one of them are spent. One of them are spent, meaning it has been fired.

We have a medic that arrives. He gets to the medic, he doesn't want to go with the medic. He is checked out thoroughly by the paramedics. He has no injuries on his body whatsoever. No injuries whatsoever. He is not shot.

He did not want to go with the ambu but they took him anyway. We have the weapon. He was with medic crew, and our police officers right now.

That's the beginning of the end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, in Baltimore, charges against those who rioted last week or at least those who participated in certain forms of violence could get more severe. Federal authorities say that some of the fires you are looking at right now, they say some were deliberately set with intent to harm. What that means is that charges could rise to the level of attempted murder.

When Baltimore's top prosecutor announced the arrest of six police officers in connection of the death of Freddie Gray, police officials in the city, they say they were stunned. They insist they were working around the clock on their investigation.

And some members of the officers' union accuse state attorney, Marilyn Mosby, of a rush to judgment. The Fraternal Order of Police also claimed she had a conflict of interest. In an exclusive interview with CNN, Mosby was quick to brush aside that criticism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARILYN MOSBY, BALTIMORE STATE ATTORNEY: My job is to seek justice and to apply justice fairly and equally to everybody -- no matter what their color or their creed, their religion, their ethnicity.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do you think you can do that beyond the reasonable doubt, in perhaps the biggest case of your life?

MOSBY: Absolutely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The man who took the cell phone video of Freddie Gray's arrest, he is speaking out. Kevin Moore was Freddie Gray's friends. He says Gray's screams that day haunt him every night. He admits to being very nervous about what he has just recorded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You were afraid to come forward with that video.

KEVIN MOORE, SHOT VIDEO OF FREDDIE GRAY ARREST: Yes, yes. I was at first, because the police, man, they have their ways of handling things. You know what I mean? Quote/unquote. These guys don't care what it is. If it's going to bring negativity to their image, they will do whatever it takes to sweep it under the rug.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Moore is a member of the group called CopWatch. He says as long as he has breath in his body, he will be watching the police.

President Obama says he will spend the rest of his life working to help America's most impoverished urban communities. The president visited the Bronx on Monday to relaunch My Brother's Keeper, which is now a non-profit initiative that mentors young minority men.

The president offered his thoughts on the chaos in Baltimore in his eight and final appearance with David Letterman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You have a situation in which too many communities don't have a relationship or trust with the police. And if you just have a handful of police not doing the right thing, that makes the job tougher for all of the other police officers out there. It creates an environment in the community where they feel as if rather than being protected and served, they are the targets of arbitrary arrests or stops.

And so, our job has to be to rebuild trust. And we put forth a task force made up of police officers but also young activists who've been protesting in Ferguson or here in New York. They came up with some terrific recommendations about collecting data on what happens when there's a shooting involving police, what are we doing in terms of things like body cameras. And so, there are some very practical, concrete things we can do to make the system work better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The president says he is not interested in assigning blame for the mistrust between citizens and police. He just wants to see results.

New calls for justice for Tamir Rice in Cleveland. It has been more than five months since police shot and killed the 12-year-old boy. His death was ruled a homicide, but no charges have been filed. Rice's family and supporters held a rally outside the city's justice center. They want to know what's taken so long.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PETTY, TAMIR RICE'S UNCLE: In less than .78 seconds, two shots was fired.

[04:15:00] They said they told him to put his hands up three times. That could not have happened from what we saw in the video.

We want justice for Tamir. Tamir was only 12 years old. He will never go to the prom. He will never kiss a girl. He will never drive a car.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: A spokesman for the sheriff's office in Cuyahoga County says there is no update on the status of the investigation in Tamir Rice's death.

A 25-year-old New York City police officer who was shot in the head while on duty this weekend has died. Brian Moore has been in critical condition or was in critical condition since Saturday when he and a fellow officer were shot while trying to question a man in Queens. The suspect, Demetrious Blackwell, was arrested and now faces upgraded charges of first-degree murder.

Lewd conduct charges dropped against an actress from the movie "Django Unchained" and her boyfriend after they pleaded no contest to disturbing the peace. Daniel Watts and celebrity chief Brian James Lucas also agreed to write a letter of apology to LAPD officers that they accused of mistreating Watts because she is black. The two were detained last September by officers responding to a call about a couple having sex in a car.

Let's get an early start on your money right now. Cristina Alesci here with that.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Futures are lower right now, pulling back from yesterday's gain. The S&P 500 added six points. It's now less than 1 percent away from its record. The Dow and NASDAQ are also close to record territory. They show a strong manufacturing report.

And we got some details on McDonald's turnaround efforts, its efforts to reverse sliding sales. The company says it will cut costs by franchising more restaurants and that will, quote-unquote, "modernized" its brand. Though I got to say, I was really surprised it's offered few details and it's testing out flavors like jalapeno and pico guacamole.

So, we'll see. They have to come up with something, right? Give people more choices.

BERMAN: Times are tough for McDonald's.

Investors not impressed with the plan, were they?

ALESCI: No, the stock was actually down by 1.6 percent. I think the company really wanted to see a pop. They were not able to get it.

BERMAN: All right. Cristina Alesci, thanks so much.

Forecasters are eyeing a low off the Southeast coast that could turn into a tropical storm. I want to go straight to meteorologist Pedram Javaheri for an early look at the weather.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, good morning. John, yes, the potential for tropical storm developing in the coming couple of days and you take a look at the data since 1851. Only 120 tropical storms have formed in the month of May. Of course, the season beginning, of course, early portion of June.

Storm system, the potential exists. Now, we know it could be a tropical storm, it could be a tropical depression, it could be a hybrid storm at this point. It's too early to tell.

But what we can tell you, certainly gusty winds, rough seas and heavy rainfall. If you have interest in the Carolina coastline in the coming couple of days, sea surface temperatures especially down across the Florida Strait conducive for the tropical storm formation in the coming couple of days. And you notice the model do want to take it just offshore, but it's still making it a rough go across some of the coastal communities by Wednesday on into Thursday.

Some severe weather to tell you about around West Texas, about 2 million people dealing with some active thunderstorms this morning. Amarillo, Lubbock, Midland, Abilene seeing some strong weather for its thunderstorms concern this morning.

But take a look at these temperatures. How about near record temperatures across some of the areas around the Northeast, mid-80s possible around the nation's capital. Even New York City, some showers in the picture, but it does dry up and temperatures remain mild for the latter portion of the week, John.

BERMAN: Where are those May showers we're looking for?

All right. Pedram, thanks so much. A dramatic day in court for the Boston marathon bomber. What finally

brought Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to tears. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:22:28] BERMAN: A dramatic turn in court in the sentencing phase of the trial for Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. For the first time, Tsarnaev showed emotion as relatives flown in from Russia to be character witnesses testified in court.

Let's get more from CNN correspondent Alexandra Field in Boston.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, it was subtle, but it was the most emotion we have seen from the Boston marathon bomber. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev seemed to tear up while one of his aunts was on the stand. She was so inconsolable, crying and hyperventilating, that she wasn't even able to testify.

But the jury did hear from five other relatives, all flown in from Russia, aunts and cousins who testified about the little boy who they hadn't seen since his family moved to the United States when he was 8 years old. But they remembered a young Dzhokhar as a kind and quiet gentle boy, one who liked to watch the movie "The Lion King", and who they remember crying when one of the characters died.

The family also testified it's customary for younger siblings to look up to older siblings, to follow in their footsteps. And thy talk about the last time they saw Tamerlan Tsarnaev back in 2012 when he visited Russia. One cousin recalled that it had become clear to her that he had become radicalized in his thinking about Islam. Attorneys also called friends of Dzhokhar from high school and college to talk about the young man they once knew as the defense fights to save Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's life -- John.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Thanks to Alexandra Field.

In Colorado, prosecutors are continuing to present their case in the trial of accused Aurora movie theater shooter James Holmes, who killed 12 people and wounded 70 in the 2012 attack. A couple took the stand on Monday, the latest victims who recount the horror for jurors. Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. If convicted for the most serious charges, he could get the death penalty.

The FBI now investigating terror ties for that gunmen who tried to ambush a contest to draw cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. What we're learning this morning, next.

[04:24:29]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Terror ties. New information about the gunmen who tried to attack a contest to draw cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

Baltimore's top prosecutor is defending charges against the police officers she says are involved in Freddie Gray's death.

And new this morning, a CNN exclusive: inside North Korea. Speaking to an NYU student detained for entering that country.

Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm John Berman. About 28 minutes past the hour right now.

We have details this morning about the attack on the contest in Garland, Texas. The contest to draw cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. There is new information about the two men killed by police as they try to shoot their way into the event.

Police say that even though the gunmen were wearing body armor, they were carrying assault rifles and firing those rifles, a local police officer was able to bring them down with his service pistol. Officials say the two gunmen drove to Garland from Phoenix, Arizona, where they were roommates. There are also signs perhaps of a motive. Just before the attack, one of the gunmen posted a tweet linking himself to ISIS.

CNN's Kyung Lah in Phoenix with the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAH: Well, John, this is the apartment where the two men were roommates. We are learning more about each of them.

Nadir Soofi is one of the gunmen, a Pakistani source with knowledge about the family speaks to CNN saying that Soofi has a Pakistani father and a mother described as a white American. When they divorced, he and his brother moved with their father to Pakistan. He went to a prestigious elite school in Islamabad. And then, suddenly, he and his brother decided to leave the country. We don't know exactly why.

We know from his mosque that Soofi had a pizza shop here. He also had a son.

We also know more about Elton Simpson, he is the other gunmen. He has a criminal record. In 2011, he was convicted of lying to federal authorities. At the time, the investigation tried to stick him with an international terrorism charge. That did not come to fruition.

His family is not Muslim. We hear from his mosque that he converted around high school age.