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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; NYU Student Detained by North Korea Speaks Out; Secretary of State Kerry in Africa; ISIS Claims Responsibility for Texas Shooting. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired May 05, 2015 - 04:30   ET

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

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 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.

[04:30:00] 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 that Phoenix mosque that both men attended say they are in shock. The mosque president Usama Shami says that Elton Simpson was a regular until about five years ago. That's around the time the FBI arrested him on the false statement charge. The mosque president also says that 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 that 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 that they were holding to the French magazine "Charlie Hebdo". And 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 the event, the Dutch politician named Geert Wilders, is a long time ally of Pamela Geller. Shortly after the event, Wilders was on a flight back to the Netherlands, where he has a history as a critic of Islam. Wilders has repeatedly been called for banning the Koran and was placed in an al Qaeda hit list for directing a film that many considered anti-Islamic.

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 takes issue with the request that the former secretary appear before the House committee twice -- once to focus on Benghazi and second time 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. The former secretary is preparing to appear before that committee 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 Secretary Clinton being influenced by sizable foreign donations to the family foundation.

President Obama 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 the secretary of defense. He previously commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan and was instrumental to overseeing the drawdown of U.S. troops there.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee running for president. He will announce his candidacy later this morning, in his home town of Hope, Arkansas. President Bill Clinton also from Hope, Arkansas, by the way.

Governor Huckabee ran back in 2008. He won the caucuses in Iowa. He actually won seven states total. 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.

Time now for an early start on your money. Cristina Alesci is here with that.

[04:35:01] CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, futures are lower right now, really pulling back from yesterday's gains. The S&P added six points then. It's now less than 1 percent away from its record. The Dow and NASDAQ are also close to record territory, thanks to a really strong manufacturing report.

And one story I have been watching, McDonald's finally unveiled some details on how it's going to reverse that slide in sales. The company said it will cut costs by franchising more of its restaurant and, quote-unquote, "modernizing" its brand. Although I was really surprise, it offered few details otherwise. One note, it's testing out flavors like jalapeno and pico guacamole.

But investors, they were not impressed by the plan. The stock ends up falling instead of the pop that they were expecting. It fell by about 1.6 percent, John.

BERMAN: They're going to have to see some numbers of those profits, I think.

ALESCI: Exactly.

BERMAN: Thanks, Cristina.

Baltimore's top prosecutor is defending charges against police officers implicated in the death of Freddie Gray. That as President Obama tries to bridge the divide with young black men and police. We will tell you what he said overnight with David Letterman.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: 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. As you can see, the incident attracted a crowd.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[04:40:02] 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: In Baltimore, charges against those who participated in the riots last week, particularly setting the first, they could get a lot more severe. The charges against them could get more severe. Federal authorities say that some of the fires as you can see here were deliberately set with intent to harm. 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 the death of Freddie Gray, police officials in the city say they were stunned. They insist they were working around the clock on their investigation. And they accuse state attorney, Marilyn Mosby, of a rush to judgment. The Fraternal Order of Police also claimed she has a conflict of interest.

In an exclusive interview with CNN, Mosby was quick to brush aside all 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, 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: So, the man who took the cell phone to film video of Freddie Gray's arrest is speaking out. Kevin Moore was Freddie Gray's friend. He says that Gray's screams haunt him every night. He admits to being very nervous about what he 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, that is his initiative that meant towards young minority men.

The president offered his thoughts on the chaos in Baltimore in his eighth 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 who are 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 with citizens and police. The president says 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 some supporters, they 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. 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 the Tamir Rice's death.

The 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.

[04:45:01] The suspect, Demetrious Blackwell, was arrested and now faces upgraded charges of first-degree murder.

Convicted Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was brought to tears as relatives flown in from Russia testified in his defense. Three cousins and two aunts took the stand on Monday telling jurors that Dzhokhar was a kind and sensitive child who cried while watching "The Lion King." The jury in the penalty phase of the trial must decide if Tsarnaev will get life in prison or the death penalty.

Prosecutors in Colorado present their case in the trial of the Aurora movie theater shooter James Holmes. He killed 12 people and wounded 70 in the 2012 attack there, an injured couple on the stand on Monday. They are the latest victims to 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.

Strong thunderstorms in the forecast. I want to get straight to meteorologist Pedram Javaheri for an early look at the weather -- Pedram.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, good morning, John.

Some of these storms mean business this early morning hours. Look at West Texas across the Central Plains, the Midwest, and strong thunderstorms, lightning strike into the early morning hours. Kind of showing you how active the area is from Davenport out towards Chicago. Expect some wet weather to start off your Tuesday morning.

But the area with the largest concern for severe weather for 2 million people in West Texas, Amarillo and Lubbock. They're in line with some large hail damaging winds, being the predominant threat.

But the temperatures as warm and mild as it gets. Minneapolis room temperature gets up to 80 down in Charleston. While New York City, some showers, 81 degrees with those southerly flow in place. But we'll call for the nice conditions in the country as far as sunny skies right there across Southeast and also portions of the Great Lakes pushing on in to say, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Temps in Chicago warm up into the 80s before the cooling trend back towards seasonal values. While in New York City, hope you enjoy it, a little bit of a cooling trend on Wednesday, and then July-like temperatures push into the forecast by the weekend -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Our thanks to Pedram for that.

New this morning, a remarkable CNN exclusive, inside North Korea. Our reporter speaks to an NYU student who was detained for illegally entering that country. Why does this student say he did it? How is he being treated? What happens to him next in the oppressive regime?

We are back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:51:06] BERMAN: A remarkable CNN exclusive for you. A New York University student who is in detention right now in North Korea is speaking out exclusively to CNN's Will Ripley. Twenty-one-year-old Won Moon Joo is a South Korean citizen, a permanent resident of the United States who lives in New Jersey or lived in New Jersey.

North Korea's government news agency says that Joo crossed illegally into North Korea from China last month -- a claim that the young man seemed to concede to Will Ripley in an interview overnight in Pyongyang.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILL RIPEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Why did you go to North Korea?

WON MOON JOO, STUDENT BEING HELD BY NORTH KOREA: Well, I thought by my entrance illegally, I acknowledge, I thought that some great event could happen and hopefully that event could have a good effect in the relations with the north and south.

RIPLEY: So, what kind of great event did you think could happen?

JOO: I'm not completely sure yet. I hope I will be able to tell the world how an ordinary college student entered the DPRK illegally, but however, with the generous treatment of the DPRK, I will be able to return home safely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Joo said the interview was his first contact with the outside world since he was detained. He is obviously under the control of the North Korean authorities. He told Will Ripley he has not been informed whether he will face charges, but he is, quote, "willing to accept any punishment." Secretary of State John Kerry is warning the world's youngest country, South Sudan, is at grave risk. There's been violence there, civil unrest and a food crisis threatening the future of the country.

CNN's Robyn Kriel following the secretary's trip through Africa from Nairobi.

Good morning, Robin.

ROBYN KRIEL, CNN AFRICA CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Yes, Secretary of State Kerry had some extremely harsh words for the two warring factions of South Sudan, as it were yesterday during his press conference. That would be Salva Kiir of South Sudan and his archrival Riek Machar.

I just want to read what the secretary of state said. He sharply criticized Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, saying they have not chosen to make the compromises needed for peace.

He also said in a radio interview that they need to come to their senses.

(INAUDIBLE)

KRIEL: We understand as well as that the secretary's visit is going to encompass a large amount, an essential element of his visit is going to be the regional security situation. He spoken a lot with Kenya's leadership about regional security cooperation, about how to best tackle as it were al Qaeda-linked insurgent group al Shabaab, which started as a Somali insurgent group, but has now spread to different countries. You will remember the Garissa attack about a month ago.

Secretary of State Kerry paying his tributes to those victims as well, as to those in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings yesterday. He is expected in Djibouti tomorrow.

BERMAN: All right. Robyn, thanks so much, reporting from Kenya.

Other news right now, Baltimore, it is tough place in the country for poor children to escape poverty. We'll tell you why, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:58:06] BERMAN: All right. The breaking news this morning, just moments ago, we learned from a radio report that ISIS is claiming responsibility for the shooting attacks in Garland, Texas. Two men tried to shoot their way into a meeting, a contest to draw cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Both shooters were killed.

Again, ISIS claiming responsibility on their radio channel. We're going to have much more details on this new claim and the significance in just a few minutes. So, stay with us.

First, though, let's get an early start on your money. Cristina Alesci is here with that.

ALESCI: Well, things are looking up right now. Futures are pointing higher. That's off yesterday's gains. Stocks rose for the second straight day. The S&P 500 gained six points closing less than 1 percent away from its record. The Dow and NASDAQ close to a report territory thanks to strong manufacturing reports.

Baltimore is the toughest place in the country for poor children to escape poverty. That's according to new Harvard study. The average income for a 26-year-old nationally is $26,000. That's about 17 percent more than a young person in Baltimore and 28 percent more than young men in Baltimore. Neighborhoods, of course, no surprise, with two-parent homes, less raise in economic segregation, and are the most socially upward mobility possible.

Comcast is offering a new way to share video. It's called Xfinity share. It lets users stream video from their phones, straight to other users' TVs. This comes after other streaming apps like Meerkat and Periscope have been gaining in popularity.

I know you haven't tried either of those, but something tells me you're going to get on them soon.

BERMAN: I'm just getting use of the Twitter and Facebook stuff.

All right. Cristina, thanks so much.

EARLY START continues right now.

(MUSIC)

BERMAN: The breaking news this morning. Just minutes ago, we learned that ISIS is claiming responsibility for the shooting in Texas, where two men tried to shot their way into a contest to draw cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.