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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Biden Announces New Rockets And Munitions To Ukraine; Shanghai Eases COVID Restrictions After Two-Month Lockdown; Behaviors To Look For In Potential School Shooters. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired June 01, 2022 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:32:58]
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Arming Ukraine. President Biden announcing plans to send more rockets and more munitions to Ukraine. In a New York Times op-ed, the president writes the goal is to seek, quote, "A democratic, independent, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine with the means to deter and defend itself against further aggression."
CNN's Melissa Bell live from Ukraine for us this morning. Melissa, what is the range of these rocket systems being sent by the U.S.? And it doesn't go quite as far as the Ukrainian government would like, does it?
MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: Nor does it go quite as far as the Russians had feared. And I think that's the point, Christine, is that a compromise has been found that allows the United States to help Ukraine's fight to try and push back the Russian advances that have been made so far without crossing any red lines that would signal to Moscow that it's time to intervene against NATO more heavily.
The range that we're talking about is around 49 miles, so we're talking both long-range rocket systems but also targeted munitions. And that is going to be a massive relief to the Ukrainian forces that have been saying all along this front line -- this long line that divides now those Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine and the rest of the country. They've been saying look, at this stage, we're being outmanned and outgunned.
Here, where I'm standing in Zaporizhzhia, a perfect example. The closest village in Russian hands is 30 miles away. Now, what we've been seeing these last few days is just south of there. Some of those villages to the south of Zaporizhzhia being hit by Russian artillery, but also by those Russian long-range rocket systems that they have in their hands.
So what the Ukrainians have been saying is that without those particular kind of weapons we are at a massive asymmetrical advantage in places like this one and all along that line -- north of here, where Sievierodonetsk is falling even now to the Russian hands, but also to the south where Ukrainians are now launching a counteroffensive, Christine. ROMANS: Yes, and the -- and the president of Ukraine is just begging
for help because its ports are closed, its grain can't get out of the country, to say nothing of the territory that is being seized.
[05:35:00]
Melissa Bell keeping on top of all of it for us. Thank you, Melissa -- Laura.
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Beginning today, China is easing COVID-19 restrictions in Shanghai.
CNN's Steven Jiang is live in Beijing for us. Steven, good morning. What exactly does this loosening of restrictions really mean for Shanghai?
STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Laura, it means we are actually seeing the actual return of hustle and bustle in many streets in the city, which is actually a bit surreal to see after so long.
Now, of course, the state media here has been highlighting peoples' excitement, hopefulness, or even gratitude towards the government. But what we are hearing from many residents is many are basically still going through various stages of PTSD if you will, still angry with the local authorities, demanding a public apology for their mishandling of the lockdown. But that is unlikely to come given the root cause of the catastrophe in Shanghai's -- really, the Beijing leadership's zero- COVID policy.
And many Shanghai residents also realize even though many of them are now regaining some degrees of freedom of movement, they are actually faced with increasingly pervasive and invasive COVID control measures that are here to stay, including getting tested every 72 hours to have access to most public places, including public transportation. And also, the cost and need to scan those so-called location QR codes to allow the authorities to track your every move. Not to mention, you could be placed under lockdown again if a positive case emerges in your residential community -- Laura.
JARRETT: All right, Steven. Thank you.
ROMANS: To Italy now where activists are standing up to the Mafia. They are refusing to pay protection money after a rash of bombings and arson attacks in the southern province of Foggia. But as CNN's Ben Wedeman reports, there is a price to pay for those who say no to an offer you're not supposed to refuse.
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LAZZARO D'AURIA, BUSINESSMAN: (Speaking foreign language).
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "I've always stayed away from here because it makes me bitter," businessman Lazzaro D'Auria tells me.
D'AURIA: (Speaking foreign language). WEDEMAN (voice-over): Two years ago, three of his trucks and other equipment were torched after he said no to Mafia bosses here in the southern Italian province of Foggia, who demanded more than $200,000 a year in pizzo, slang for protection money.
D'Auria now has round-the-clock police protection. He says paying pizzo is still the rule in Foggia but change is afoot.
D'AURIA: (Speaking foreign language).
WEDEMAN (voice-over): "The population is beginning to understand that they shouldn't pay," says D'Auria.
D'AURIA: (Speaking foreign language).
WEDEMAN (voice-over): The Mafia, however, is fighting back. Police suspect the Mafia was behind 11 arson and bomb attacks in January on businesses, including Anna Aprile's flower stand outside the main cemetery in the provincial capital, also called Foggia. She and her sons have since repaired the damage.
ANNA APRILE, FLORIST: (Speaking foreign language).
WEDEMAN (voice-over): "No one ever asked us to pay anything," Anna insists.
APRILE: (Speaking foreign language).
WEDEMAN (voice-over): The Foggia Mafia is really a collection of often warring crime families living off extortion, drugs, and arms smuggling.
PAOLO SIMA, FOGGIA POLICE CHIEF: (Speaking foreign language).
WEDEMAN (voice-over): "One of the characteristics of the Foggia Mafia is its extreme violence," says police chief Paolo Sima. "There have been eight Mafia wars in the city of Foggia."
In recent years, the authorities have woken up to the growing threat of organized crime in this relatively poor, underdeveloped part of the country; yet, their efforts are often stymied by omerta, the southern Italian law of silence. Fear and family loyalty ensure many residents see nothing and say nothing when the authorities come calling.
In Foggia's main outdoor market, our questions about the Mafia are dismissed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language).
"No, we don't know about those things," she tells me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
WEDEMAN (voice-over): "There is no Mafia," says this man.
But cracks are starting to show in the wall of silence thanks to a brave few.
Daniela Marcone is the leader of Libera, an anti-Mafia group. Her father was shot at point-blank range 26 years ago. An official with the Finance Ministry, he was investigating dubious business activities. His killer has never been found.
The more active she has become, the more ominous the threats against her.
DANIELA MARCONE, ANTI-MAFIA ACTIVIST: (Speaking foreign language).
WEDEMAN (voice-over): "I've received anonymous letters," Marcone says. "Some were really nasty in which the tone was always mind your own business, change city. Go live somewhere else."
Some Mafia bosses have been put behind bars but that might not be enough warns Foggia's chief magistrate Ludovico Vaccaro.
[05:40:04]
LUDOVICA VACCARO, CHIEF MAGISTRATE, FOGGIA: (Speaking foreign language).
WEDEMAN (voice-over): "Unfortunately, prison is very porous," he tells me. "There is a lot of osmosis between inside and outside. Prison doesn't ensure an interruption of criminal activity."
Someone shot a bullet through the window of one of Alessandro Zito's businesses after he refused to pay pizzo. He left Foggia with his family fearing for their lives.
On this day, he's back in town, a member of a newly-formed group of businessmen who have had enough of extortion.
ALESSANDRO ZITO, BUSINESSMAN: (Speaking foreign language).
WEDEMAN (voice-over): "Civil society is changing," he says, "because people are tired. Because this situation is no longer livable."
In the evening, we joined the police on patrol. After January's spade of attacks, checkpoints have become a frequent sight. The fight against the Mafia here has only just begun.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Foggia, southern Italy.
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ROMANS: All right, Ben. Thank you so much for that.
All right, just ahead, this sign spotted in California. That's right -- $8 gas.
JARRETT: Oh my goodness.
And spotting the warning signs in troubled teens. The profile of a school shooter, next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:45:32]
JARRETT: Here we are again. A young man, angry, isolated, with some false belief about weapons filling some sort of hole. Later, cues along the way, either on social media or in person. It's the profile of a mass shooter. Not always consistent, but the progression of behavior has a pattern.
That's what our next guest has found. Marisa Randazzo has interviewed mass shooters in prison and studied their behavior. She is the former chief research psychologist for the U.S. Secret Service and executive director of threat management for ONTIC. So nice to have you on EARLY START this morning.
We're really looking forward to getting your expertise on this because you say most school shooters are on what you call a pathway to violence, meaning we may actually be able to stop them if we knew what to watch for. Tell us more.
MARISA RANDAZZO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THREAT MANAGEMENT, ONTIC (via Webex by Cisco): Yes. So, in years of studying school shootings and interviewing school shooters in prison, and then most importantly, actually working active cases over the past 25 years of a child who's threatened in school, one of the things that my colleagues and I see time and again is that the behavior that these kids show beforehand is very consistent and it's behavior that we can look out for.
So, typically, when someone is going to carry out a school shooting, what we've seen beforehand is that they come up with some idea to do harm, and they're trying to solve some sort of problem often. They plan it out in more detail and their planning behavior is actually observed by people around them -- by peers, by friends.
They tell other people beforehand, and this is so critical. They tell people through social media, homework assignments, in person. They tell other people but it's usually other kids. They tell other people about their violent plans before they get to the point of carrying it out, and then actually, they implement the plan itself.
So, in the field of behavioral threat assessment, which is where I come from -- I'm originally from the U.S. Secret Service -- we look for evidence or signs that someone's on that pathway to violence and we try to figure out why. What problem are they trying to solve? And then try to get them the right help to solve that problem through a nonviolent means.
ROMANS: Yes. No problem they have justifies the wreckage that happens when they go on one of these school shooting sprees.
RANDAZZO: Right.
ROMANS: But if along the path of violence you can figure out what it is that's happening, maybe there's some sort of intervention. You and your colleagues have spoken to school shooters in prison as we noted, and you said that they often say they didn't want to carry out the shooting but they did it anyway. You say it's not that they're indifferent to the shooting but ambivalent, right? There's a part of them that wants to do it and there's this other part that doesn't. Tell us more.
RANDAZZO: Yes. Well, I think that's a really important point is that when we have interviewed school shooters in prison and, again, worked active cases of someone who is planning one but didn't get to that point, is that we hear them say part of me wanted to do this or felt like I had no other option. I couldn't see a way out of my despair -- of feeling like my life was over. I couldn't see another way out but part of me didn't want to do this at the same time.
So when we're looking to prevent -- when I'm working with someone who has made a threat, I look to see what's that part of them that doesn't want to do this thing -- this horrific thing that they're planning to do.
JARRETT: You know, this whole discussion about training is obviously going to be sort of in the ether now in the way that it is after every one of these shootings.
I wonder since you've studied this so closely and you actually talk to people, what do you think is missing from the discussion, and what's missing from some of the programs that are already out there?
RANDAZZO: We've done such an amazing job as a country over the past several decades since Columbine of providing behavioral threat assessment training to school personnel, to mental health professionals, and law enforcement that works in schools.
But a missing piece is that local law enforcement. Your local police department, your sheriff's office typically don't get training in threat investigations in threat assessment. Federal agents do. Local and state often do not. It's a big missing piece and it's a gap that we can fill pretty quickly.
ROMANS: You think that most of these young men are suicidal, right, or suffering from depression. There's something --
RANDAZZO: Yes.
ROMANS: -- along the way. You also recommend a depression assessment at every doctor's appointment.
[05:50:05]
RANDAZZO: Especially for boys and young men, depression doesn't look like what we think about in a Hollywood script. It's actually very active. Signs of depression are anger, rage, an attraction to hate and hate-filled ideas -- even extremist ideology. That can be a symptom of an underlying, undiagnosed clinical depression.
And the vast majority of school shooters and mass shooters that we know of are actively suicidal or despondent at the time they carry out their attack. So, tools and resources that can help prevent suicide can be very effective in preventing these events as well.
JARRETT: It's so important to be clear that it doesn't look like what we necessarily think and that --
ROMANS: Right.
JARRETT: -- this stuff is not inevitable. This stuff -- this can be disruptive.
RANDAZZO: Yes.
JARRETT: We just need to go about it in a smart way.
Marisa, thank you so much for getting up for us.
We'll be right back.
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[05:55:36]
ROMANS: All right, it's Wednesday. Let's get a check on CNN Business this morning.
Looking at markets around the world, Asian shares mixed. Europe has opened narrowly mixed. And on Wall Street, stock index futures searching for direction here.
Look, markets fell yesterday, ending another down month. Investors really in fear here of high inflation and a Fed that must raise interest rates to cool it.
Oil prices surged after the European Union announced an agreement to ban almost all crude oil imports from Russia. Energy stocks, the worst-performing sector in the S&P 500.
All right, red-hot housing still. U.S. homes prices surging even more in March. Buyers are racing in to lock in home loans before the average mortgage rate hit 5%. Home prices rose -- these are prices -- look at that -- year-over-year, up 20%, Laura. This is -- these numbers are just --
JARRETT: Staggering.
ROMANS: They're seeing the sharpest year-over-year price change in more than 35 years.
And look at Tampa. Those prices up the most, soaring almost 35% from the year before. Phoenix and Miami not far behind.
All right, take a look at this. Eight dollars for a gallon of gas at a Chevron station in downtown L.A. The average price in L.A. County is above $6. Nationwide, the average price per gallon of unleaded jumped five cents overnight to $4.67. JARRETT: All right. The Stanley Cup Conference Finals opened with a 14-goal thriller in Colorado.
Coy Wire has more in this morning's Bleacher Report. Hey, Coy.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Laura.
The Colorado Avalanche and the Edmonton Oilers starting the Western Conference Final with a bang, scoring the third-most goals of any game won in Stanley Cup Playoff history.
Colorado pouring it on in the second. The Oilers stumbling all over themselves with Andrew Cogliano hammering it home, putting the Avs up 7-3. But the Oilers keep drilling. Less than 30 seconds later, Leon Draisaitl to Connor McDavid for the quick one-timer. They bring it to within 7-6.
But with 50 seconds to go, Av's backup goalie Pavel Francouz withstanding an avalanche. But he and Colorado hang on, winning a thriller 8-6. Fourteen goals in this one scored by 13 different players.
Tonight, 8:00 eastern, it's the Eastern Conference Final with the Rangers hosting the two-time defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning.
Let's go to Paris where the king of play isn't coming off his perch anytime soon. In one of the greatest rivalries in all of sports, Rafael Nadal takes down top-seeded Novak Djokovic in a four-hour, four-set thriller that started in May and ended in June just after 1:00 a.m.
It's Nadal's 23rd win against a world no. 1, more than any man or woman in the ATP or WTA. He's just two wins away from a record- extending 14th title at Roland-Garros.
And Coco Gauff reaching her first-ever Grand Slam semi-final. The 18- year-old powering past fellow American Sloane Stephens in straight sets. Gauff celebrating her high school graduation under the Eiffel Tower in just a week. Now she's two wins away from her first major title.
All right, let's to go Nationals-Mets yesterday. Starling Marte with a shot to deep center. And candidate for catch of the year, this guy. Look at this -- a one-handed, bare-handed catch, and holding his son in the other hand. His name is Alan Alcantara. He says he didn't have time to put his 1-year-old son Levi down. He's there with his other 2- year-old son as well.
He says they weren't able to use gloves all the time in the Dominican Republic where he grew up, so he knew he had a chance of catching this one.
His wife is expecting a third child, Laura and Christine, and he was there with his church group. He gave the ball to his pastor who is a huge Mets fan.
JARRETT: I love how that toddler doesn't even turn around. He's just unphased. As long as it's being held it doesn't care.
ROMANS: Nice to see you, Coy. Thank you so much.
JARRETT: Thanks, Coy -- appreciate it.
ROMANS: All right, that's it for us. Thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.
JARRETT: I'm Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY" starts right now.
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