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CNN Headlines: Three Killed In Shooting At San Diego's Largest Mosque; Musk Loses Case Against OpenAI; Hawaii Doctor Convicted Of Attempted Murder Asks For New Trial. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired May 19, 2026 - 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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[05:31:50]

BRAD SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: It is half past the hour. Let's hit the refresh button on our top stories.

Another set of storms are expected to war through parts of the country today. It was so bad in parts of Michigan yesterday the wind was able to flip a small plane over like a toy. The severe weather is moving farther east today. Wind and hail will be the biggest threat there.

Also, federal investigators are digging into what caused a deadly cargo plane crash in Kentucky. The NTSB is holding hearings this week on a UPS jet that lost an engine just seconds after takeoff from Louisville last November. The plane only reached about 30 feet in altitude before crashing, killing 14 people.

And three people are dead after a shooting in San Diego at the city's largest mosque. Police are investigating it as a hate crime. CNN's Kyung Lah has more on what we know about the suspects and the investigation so far.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: The San Diego police chief says that the investigation here really kicked off when the mother of one of the suspects -- a 17-year-old suspect -- reached out to police. She said that her son was missing, her car was missing. She believed that her son was with a companion, they were dressed in camo, and that she was concerned about what her child might do.

CHIEF SCOTT WAHL, SAN DIEGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: She believed her son was suicidal and she began to share information that several of her weapons were missing, her vehicle was missing, in addition to her son.

LAH: At this point they said the motive appears to simply be hate. They don't have anything more specific than that. They pointed out to writings left on one of the weapons. The mother's suicide note that she recovered from her son also had some writings about racial pride.

As far as the people who were killed, there were three men who are associated with the mosque and one of them who has not been identified yet by name, but he is someone that this entire community knew. A lot of the children who came here thought of him as their protector. A big man who they saw every day as they entered the school, passing through the mosque, going into their primary school.

And I want you to listen to what the father of one of the children had to say.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I truly know in my heart from knowing that man that he was sacrificing his life and took that bullet knowing that I'd rather take it than the kids. And that is what makes me emotional.

LAH: He ended what he had to say to us by saying he wasn't sure what would have happened had that security guard not been there to protect the children.

Now, investigators say that they will continue to chase all the leads. They expect to have much more throughout the day.

Kyung Lah, CNN, San Diego.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SMITH: Thank you so much, Kyung.

Police say that they're investigating the deadly attack as a hate crime.

CNN's John Miller explains this tragedy is eerily similar to other recent hate crimes.

[05:35:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: This fits into a pattern that we know fairly well. Writing hate speech on the weapon. Leaving the notes. The target selection of a mosque. Shooting at a landscaper at random during the getaway.

Very similar to the New Zealand attack from 2019 by Brenton Tarrant who, in that case, killed 51 people and shot 40 more. Where he wrote hate speech all over the weapons. In the Buffalo case in 2022, Payton Gendron. He wrote hate speech all over the weapons, even mentioning Brenton Tarrant. I wouldn't be surprised if you saw one or both of those names turn up in the writings in this case.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SMITH: CNN's chief law enforcement analyst John Miller. Thank you so much.

Well, critics have long accused the Trump administration of weaponizing government agencies but it's now trying to turn the tables using a similar term to compensate supporters that the White House claims were targeted by the Biden administration. President Trump's Justice Department has announced a nearly $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund to benefit his allies, which could include the January 6 rioters who stormed the Capitol. He claims his backers have been treated brutally and downplayed his involvement in the fund, which will be paid for by American taxpayers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yeah, I know very little about it. I wasn't involved in the whole creation of it and the negotiation. But this is reimbursing people that were horribly treated, horribly treated. It's anti-weaponization. They've been weaponized.

I do believe there has to be compensation for people that were destroyed. You have families absolutely destroyed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: This comes as President Trump's approval rating hit a new second-term low. A new poll from The New York Times and Sienna College found only 37 percent of those surveyed are satisfied with his job performance. That's in line with CNN's poll of polls, which puts his approval rating at 36 percent since late April.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will be in the hotseat on Capitol Hill. He's appearing before Senate lawmakers to discuss the DOJ's budget request. But some are looking for those tough questions to come forward after the agency announced the $1.8 billion fund to compensate Trump allies who were targets of previous investigations.

Blanche has also come under ethical scrutiny. CNN recently reported that he was told last year to recuse himself from DOJ matters involving Trump. There will also likely be some questions over how the DOJ has handled the release of the Epstein files.

A doctor convicted of attempted manslaughter after allegedly trying to kill his wife on a hike in Hawaii wants a new trial. Gerhard Konig says that the jury misunderstood the court's instructions and misapplied the law.

Several jurors spoke out after the verdict and said they did not believe he intended to kill his wife, but Hawaii law requires the jury to unanimously find intent to kill in order to convict someone of attempted manslaughter. Konig's defense team argues that those jurors' statements confirm they misunderstood the law.

He's expected to be sentenced in August and faces up to 20 years in prison.

South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh, whose murder convictions were just thrown out, is now suing the court clerk at the center of that ruling. In a new federal lawsuit, Murdaugh accuses former clerk Becky Hill of improperly influencing jurors during his 2023 trial.

The State Supreme Court -- they're saying that he was denied a fair trial. The court unanimously vacated those convictions last week in the killings of his wife and son, calling Hill's actions serious enough to taint the verdict.

Hill has not been charged with jury tampering but in December of 2025 she pleaded guilty to perjury, obstruction of justice, and misconduct after allegations that she shared sealed evidence with the media, lied under oath, and used her position to promote a book about the trial. She was sentenced to three years of probation.

Here's what Murdaugh's attorney says is behind the lawsuit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM GRIFFIN, ATTORNEY FOR ALEX MURDAUGH: The purpose of this lawsuit is to hold Becky Hill accountable for what she did. She has not been held account at all for her conduct. And two, is to investigate exactly what she did, which we'll be able to do through the course of civil litigation. She's yet to be thoroughly investigated by the state and she's not been held accountable by the state, and that's what we hope to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: CNN has reached out to Hill's attorney for comment.

Meanwhile, South Carolina's attorney general says his office plans to retry Murdaugh as soon as possible, keeping this high-profile case very much alive.

[05:40:00]

An ICE agent facing charges of assault related to a shooting last January in Minneapolis. Prosecutors in Hennepin County are charging Christian Castro with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of false reporting a crime. Castro is accused of shooting two Venezuelan immigrants during last winter's stepped up immigration enforcement operation.

The two men were facing federal charges after federal investigators accused them of violently attacking an ICE officer. The Justice Department later dropped the charges and ICE admitted two of its agents made false statements about the incident under oath.

The threat of severe weather moves east today. The storms that blew through over the last 24 hours were strong enough to snap trees in half in parts of Michigan.

Meteorologist Melissa Nord has more on what is coming today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA NORD, AMS METEOROLOGIST: More reports of tornadoes and really large hail in the Plains. And as we head into Tuesday, we're going to see this front marching further east as it meets up with that warm and humid air mass. Additional storms are going to redevelop as we head through Tuesday afternoon and evening where that warm and moist air meets up with our incoming cold front.

Now, for Tuesday though, the risk of severe weather not quite as high on Monday. We have a level two risk in this yellow color from Syracuse all the way through Detroit, who saw severe storms on Monday afternoon. Also, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and down towards Dallas-Fort Worth we could see additional severe weather.

There are storms ongoing overnight with more of that damaging wind threat now but then going into Tuesday we add more heat and humidity to the pot, and that adds more fuel to the storm, so they'll regenerate in the afternoon, producing damaging winds and those clusters of thunderstorms. And then for Wednesday and Thursday, storms move further east.

Now, in advance of the front there is a lot of hot air. We saw record highs set on Monday -- Philadelphia, also Raleigh and Washington -- Dulles International Airport. Tuesday, once again, mid-Atlantic up into the northeast. We've got lot of areas that are dealing with heat advisories and potential record high temperatures. One more day on Wednesday before finally that front passes through, bringing a brief cooldown -- much welcomed cooldown as we look towards the end of the week leading into the holiday weekend.

For example, Boston -- you can see 93, that forecast high on Tuesday. It will be in the 90s as well in New York City and out towards Washington, D.C.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SMITH: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth presented the Purple Heart to soldiers wounded in a 2003 grenade attack in Kuwait. The Purple Heart is awarded to service members who are wounded or killed by enemy action. Secretary Hegseth said the honor was long overdue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We value them. We value them so much that the secretary wants to fly down to personally pin these on. Long overdue. Actions taken, merit shown, in some cases years and decades ago that should have been recognized and celebrated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: Next on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, jumping into a monkey enclosure in a zoo in Japan gets two Americans arrested -- the same zoo where Punch the monkey lives. We've got those details coming up.

And Target is making some moves to lure customers back into the store. What you can expect to see later in the hour.

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[05:47:45]

SMITH: A jury in Oakland, California found that Elon Musk waited too long to sue OpenAI and its leaders. It took them just 90 minutes to determine that the lawsuit he filed was barred by the statute of limitations. They advised the judge of their verdict and the judge agreed with the jury.

This case threatened to derail the creators of the ChatGPT app just as the company planned what could be a blockbuster IPO here. Musk helped co-found and fund OpenAI to the tune of $38 million in its early years.

He sued CEO Sam Altman, company president Greg Brockman, and OpenAI in February of 2024. He accused them of unjustly enriching themselves when they shifted to a structure that includes a for-profit arm. OpenAI's attorneys argued the company's mission hasn't changed and that it's still run by a nonprofit foundation board.

Let's go around the globe for a look at stories making headlines, and we start in Maldives where teams of expert divers have now located the bodies of all five people killed in a scuba accident.

The Italian divers disappeared last week while exploring underwater caves in the Indian Ocean. The diving instructor's body was found the day of the accident and the other four were found on Monday. A military diver was also killed on Saturday while participating in the recovery mission. Crews are now preparing for a dangerous operation to bring the remaining bodies to the surface.

And two Americans are facing charges in Japan after one jumped into the zoo enclosure where the monkey that's named Punch and who became a viral sensation is living. This video showing the moment when one of the men who was wearing a full-body mascot suit jumps down into the enclosure. The zoo was forced to close this part of the enclosure and cancel some children's events.

The two Americans were detained for obstructing zoo operations and will be sent to prosecutors tomorrow. They deny all allegations. There are no reports of any of the animals being harmed.

[05:50:00]

Well, still to come on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, a popular porch swing sold at Costco is being recalled. We'll tell you what the problem is straight ahead.

And an Ohio couple dumpster diving find themselves trapped in a sticky situation in a trash compactor. That story and more next. Don't go anywhere.

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SMITH: At least 10 hantavirus cases now all linked to a cruise ship outbreak, and health officials say that the concern is how this virus can spread. A Canadian passenger is the latest to have a positive test result after traveling on that ship where several people got sick and three died.

[05:55:05]

Dozens of passengers are now being monitored across multiple countries, including the U.S.

And health officials -- they stress the overall risk is still low but they're watching closely as travelers return home.

In today's Money Express, heads up. Costco has issued a recall alert on thousands of its porch swings.

Let's go right to Maribel Aber for the latest details there. Maribel, what do we know?

MARIBEL ABER, CNN CORRESPONDENT, MONEY MATTERS: OK, Brad. So thousands of these porch swings -- they were sold at Costco -- being recalled for posing a serious injury risk. The product, made by Agio Menlo, features a swing beneath a canopy frame. The company says the swing seat can detach while in use causing a potentially serious or lethal fall. The reports at least -- the reports say at least eight injuries so far.

Customers can return the swings to Costco for a refund or contact Agio Menlo for a free replacement kit. Full details are on the company's website.

Target announced plans to spend $5 billion on store renovations and new construction this year. It says millions will be earmarked for increased employee training and wages. New features include specialty in-store shops like Target beauty studios and elevated home decor displays. The retailer's CEO says the investment represents a "new chapter of growth." While its stock has risen recent -- in recent years, supply chain hurdles, marketing missteps, and software consumer spending have slowed recovery.

Hey, Starbucks' newest merch collection is hopping onto store shelves nationwide today. It features Miffy, a storybook white bunny. It was created by a Dutch artist in the 1950s. She's considered a childhood staple across much of Asia and Europe, according to the coffee chain. Her popularity in the U.S. has been growing in recent years, driven by Gen Z's interest and viral trends.

Now, the Miffy lineup includes plushies, mugs, tumblers, totes, and more. It's all for a limited time, so hop on in, Brad.

You know, Brad, the Dutch have been into this setting of trends for a really long time. Remember the tulip -- I know you know this money guy -- the tulip mania.

SMITH: Yes.

ABER: Sixteen hundreds.

SMITH: Of course.

ABER: I mean, that's the first bubble and here they are in another bubble with Miffy.

SMITH: Well, my question for you is do we believe that Labubu walked so Miffy could run? ABER: Ooh, that's a good one. But can Miffy hand onto my bag? That's what I need to know.

SMITH: That's a -- that's a good question. It's seems like there's always some plush toy that we're trying to get sold, but it is a cute one. We'll see how it does at Starbucks.

Maribel, good to see you. Thank you.

ABER: Thank you.

SMITH: Let's take a look at some of the other stories making news across the country.

We start first in Austin, Texas. Authorities say that three teenagers are now in custody after 12 separate shootings over the weekend. According to police, they stole a gun and four vehicles and randomly shot at four apartment homes and two fire stations. Four people were wounded. All are expected to be OK.

And take a look at this. You're looking at the aftermath of a house explosion in Illinois. It left one person dead and two others injured. It happened Sunday in Wonder Lake. That's about 70 miles northwest of Chicago.

One neighbor described what he heard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little after 7:30 last night we were watching T.V. and just a loud explosion -- windows and everything. Just -- we knew it was not fireworks. Jumped up off the couch and looked out the window and you could see debris falling from the sky -- boards, shingles, papers on fire. And it's a shock to see how much damage and other people -- the carnage that is created from it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: Two other homes were also damaged. Authorities are trying to figure out what led to that explosion.

And talk about bargain hunting gone wrong. An Ohio man and woman had to be pulled from a trash compactor at the Dayton Mall after a worker switched it on and heard screaming. Rescue crews dug through the garbage to get them out and amazingly, they weren't hurt. Police say that the pair were dumpster diving and now they've been banned from the mall for a year.

And this Missouri school is giving new meaning to double trouble. Five sets of twins enrolled in kindergarten at the same time. That is 10 kids and every pair a boy and girl. The principal says that when the first twins registered it was funny. By the fifth set it was officially a trend. The middle school split them into different classrooms -- probably the only way to keep deja vu under control.

Even thinking about it myself growing up, I don't know that I've ever been to a school, even college, with that many sets of twins. What a lucky school, I suppose, in Wentzville, Missouri there. A lot to come and a lot that we're expecting from those children going forward.

Well, that does it for CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS. I'm Brad Smith. "CNN THIS MORNING WITH AUDIE CORNISH" starts right now.