Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Chicago Teen Killed as Boy Laid to Rest; Carson Questioned on Connections to Diet Supplement Company; Are U.S. Flights at Risk of Explosions. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired November 10, 2015 - 14:30   ET

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


[14:30:00] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: You just spoke at the funeral today. How is his family doing?

SUSAN JOHNSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CHICAGO'S CITIZENS FOR CHANGE: His family is devastated. They are coming together around the death, but it will be years before the family can make any serious kind of recovery from this sort of loss. Our program responds to every homicide in the city. So we have been out both last night as well as for the 9-year-old's murder.

KEILAR: You were out last night in response to other incidents?

JOHNSON: Yes.

KEILAR: Tell us about that. You meet up with families, you respond to murders. What is the assistance that you're able to provide these families?

JOHNSON: So we're an independent organization that's been doing this work for five years. Most recently under contract with the Chicago Department of Public Health. In that relationship, we are dispatched by Chicago police and answer every homicide. We provide immediate crisis intervention and then we provide comprehensive services including supportive counseling and coping tools for families for at least six months and often through our community of survivors indefinitely.

KEILAR: Tell us a little bit about Tyshawn and the family and what you said in a way to remember him.

JOHNSON: Tyshawn was a beautiful, loving boy, who enjoyed school and video games and basketball. He was a typical 9-year-old. As I prepared for my role in his funeral this morning, I thought about Emmitt Till, only four years older than Tyshawn at the time of his death and what contempt we had for the victim that we couldn't get anybody to come forward. Then after an acquittal of two men, they gleefully told a magazine they had actually executed Emmitt Till.

Now we have another incident. When will we stop having such contempt for the victims and begin to show compassion. Not only in the immediate aftermath, which is what my organization does, but in our funding of public schools. In the way that we fund social services. Here in Illinois we're fighting a political battle in the state capital, which has nothing to do with the social services desperately need in the community around us here. It seems as though we continue to have contempt for the people we lose, even when it's an innocent 9- year-old child who had nothing to do with the conflict he was caught up in.

KEILAR: Real quick before I let you go, you talked to the family. Are they getting any leads about who might be responsible for the death?

JOHNSON: There's a heavy reward out there. I think it's $56,000. The leads are slow to come in. We're still waiting and hoping that someone is going to turn himself in or someone who knows information is going to come forward. This is a neighborhood where people are afraid of gangs and do have some reason to be fearful. But as father said in president funeral today, we have to come forward. We have to find our voice. It is lacking compassion for the victim not to come forward.

KEILAR: Definitely hear you on that. Our hearts are breaking with you and the family. This is just an incomprehensible loss.

And we appreciate you being with us to appreciate it, Susan Johnson.

JOHNSON: Thank you for your attention.

KEILAR: We're going to turn next and we're going to talk politics. Ben Carson prepping for the debate after a week of heavy scrutiny about his past. CNN spoke with him about his ties to a controversial diet company. Hear what he told our investigative correspondent.

Plus, as the U.S. gets more confident that a bomb took down that Russian passenger jet, are American flights at risk? CNN goes inside a bomb factory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is how many feet per second we're talking about?

[14:34:13]RYAN MORRIS, OWNER, TRIPWIRE: 30,000.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Ben Carson could be hit with more questions during tonight's debate about his ties to a controversial dietary supplement company. You may recall in the last debate Carson said he had no relationship with this company called Mannatech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN CARSON, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & RETIRED NEUROSURGEON: I didn't have any involvement with them. That's total propaganda. This is what happens in our society. Total propaganda.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KEILAR: Our senior investigative correspondent, Drew Griffin, did a little digging. He found that Carson did have a relationship with the company spanning nearly a decade. So Drew did what he usually does, which is track down the candidate

and try to get some answers. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: We're here to talk about a subject that your campaign manager said you don't want to talk about.

CARSON: What's that?

GRIFFIN: This Mannatech thing. I have to ask you given your stature in the medical community, why were you involved at all, whatever the relationship was, in a company that was selling a product that the Texas attorney general says is a sham product?

CARSON: Remember, they contracted me to give a speech. I do not go into great depth when I get a contract. I go off and do the speech. I often never get sick. I constantly warned them not to use me as an endorser and some associates took the tapes and put them on websites and stuff like that. There's nothing I can do to control that.

[14:40:09] GRIFFIN: Weren't you concerned at the time even after this was 2007-2008 that they were using your image?

CARSON: I didn't know they were doing that.

GRIFFIN: Do you endorse that product for its benefits? I just talked to a microbiologist who says there's no scientific proof this works.

CARSON: It may not. All I say I take it because I almost never get sick anymore and I used to get sick a lot, so I like it.

GRIFFIN: This product is $200 a month or so. You would recommend?

CARSON: I take it for myself. I have never gotten into the process of endorsing anything officially. I have made it clear I wasn't going to do that. If you're trying to get me to endorse the product, I'm not going to do it.

GRIFFIN: I'm trying to get you to answer a question that a microbiologist --

(CROSSTALK)

CARSON: I am just telling you, personally, I have found nutritional supplements to be good.

GRIFFIN: Are you concerned there's no clinically proven study that says --

(CROSSTALK)

CARSON: I do not endorse it for anybody else except for me.

GRIFFIN: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call the hook in news. We saw Drew getting bumped out of there from that interview.

He's joining us from Atlanta.

I wonder what's your takeaway here, Drew? Mine is that he needs to Google himself. And also maybe he needs to know what an endorsement is because he sounds like he gave you one.

GRIFFIN: We're seeing Ben Carson still struggling with being a national front runner in a presidential campaign where he's going to get grilled on everything he has done in his past. We're also seeing Ben Carson trying to say one thing, but the facts show the other thing. Two things are happening. One, this nutritional supplement, there's no clinical testing done anywhere to say it works to help anything. The company had to stop saying after a lawsuit in Texas that it cured cancer, that it cured Down's syndrome and helped with major maladies in life. The other thing is Ben Carson gave four speeches to this company. He was on promotional videos with this company. And up until he decided to run for president, his image was front and center on this company's website. Now that sounds to me like a relationship. He says it's not and had no idea that they were using his image. We leave it up to the viewer to decide.

KEILAR: Do you think he's being disingenuous when he said he had no idea and is pleading ignorance here?

GRIFFIN: He was paid for one speech, $42,000. The three other speeches the company gave an undisclosed amount of money to his charity foundation. We can't find any financial connection other than that to Mannatech. But to say you didn't know they were using you on their website, I would find that hard to believe.

KEILAR: Great report, Drew Griffin. Thank you so much for that.

Kitchen clock timer, a wristwatch, even a phone can be used to set off an explosion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(EXPLOSION)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Up next, how just a half pound of dynamite could cripple a passenger plane.

Plus, caught on tape, a dramatic police chase caught on tape. The suspect slams her car into a police officer's cruiser. We have more of this video, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:47:59] KEILAR: New developments in the investigation into what brought down that Russian passenger jet. U.S. officials are nearly 100 percent certain this was a bomb that downed this flight, but still big questions remain about how this was done.

CNN's Miguel Marquez went to the experts to learn more. While watching this, just keep in mind a triggered device for a bomb can be as small as a wristwatch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(EXPLOSION)

MARQUEZ: That explosion, a half pound of dynamite, a conventional explosive mainly used in industrial settings. It packs a massive wallop.

(EXPLOSION)

MARQUEZ: The explosion moving about 19,000 feet per second. It could easily cripple a passenger aircraft.

(on camera): It seems too simple.

MORRIS: Yeah, it is. Well, when the bad guys make the improvised ones, it's the same process. You can see how fast it could be done.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): C-4, more powerful than dynamite.

(EXPLOSION)

MARQUEZ (on camera): That is how many feet per second we're talking about?

MORRIS: 30,000.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): That's just over a half pound of C-4, a plastic explosive, also conventional. Tough to go out and buy in the United States, but in some countries, a similar explosive can be bought on the black market.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Joining me to discuss this is CNN safety analyst, David Soucie, a former FAA safety inspector.

David, this video is eyebrow raising. You see how small this is, the power that's in something this small. How sophisticated devices like this, how easy are they to make and to hide?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, as far as of the ease of hiding, can you get into it into a secure identification zone or area in an airport. That's a sterile zone. Getting this past something and into a sterile zone, the ability to put a detonator in, this is not a super sophisticated piece of equipment, but it just needs to be ignited with some kind of ignition device.

[14:50:09] KEILAR: So it's pretty easy to make. It's just a matter of getting it past security, right?

SOUCIE: Yeah, that's the mitigation of what security does. It's a matter of can it get on the airplane or not and that's where they have been trying to mitigate that?

KEILAR: So if you had this bomb on a timer, can you give us a sense about what the timing would be or would it have to be detonated in person? How would this be done?

SOUCIE: Well, there's a couple of different ways to detonate a bomb like this. One of them is what they call a barometric pressure device, which simply put, it's like a balloon. As you go up in altitude, the balloon gets bigger. The balloon expands and makes contact at a certain altitude. That's one way to do it. Those aren't used commonly anymore. Those are about remote devices or controls or a phone that communicates to the device. So the other way to do this is the timer. Timers aren't historically haven't been used often because it's hard to judge when the airplane is going to be at its most critical flight phase. So we have had bombs before they were detected because it went off either before or after the flight, and the timer because of the delay. We have seen that in the past, too. Not too distant past. So the RF frequency devices, like in a phone, it's pretty archaic as well, it's very fragile, because other things can interfere with that.

KEILAR: David Soucie, I know we're going to be talking to you in the days to come.

Thank you for being with us.

An Oklahoma police officer is really lucky to be alive after a woman under pursuit crashed into his cruiser at full speed. The crash and the suspect's bizarre behavior all captured on video.

CNN's Michaela Pereira shows us the incredible footage and what happened next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STACY: Stop! Stop!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Caught on tape, dramatic video of a high-speed chase near an elementary school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Body cam footage capturing the shocking moments before a woman who stole a vehicle ran her car into a patrol officer's patrol car Friday afternoon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STACY: Stop! Stop!

(SIRENS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: It shows the officer, Matt Stacy, laying down tire spikes, but the SUV is not showing any signs of slowing down, but accelerating near the officer at nearly 40 miles per hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STACY: Stop! Stop!

(SIREN)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE CARTER, CHIEF, SAND SPRINGS POLICE DEPARTMENT: This officer had less than three seconds to make a decision what to do.

PEREIRA: The video shows him get back up and pursue Stacey Ann Bunty.

STACY: Name is Bunty, Stacey.

PEREIRA: This footage from another officer's body cam shows Stacey Bunty popping out through the sunroof, ignoring police, and yelling obscenities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SHOUTING)

STACY: Do not move your hands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: After disobeying several orders --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STACY: Taser, taser, taser.

(SCREAMING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: -- Stacey was tasered.

Miraculously, Officer Stacy walking away from the incident with minor cuts and bruises.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Stop! Stop!

(SIRENS) (END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was pretty wild. It is amazing that he didn't get injured severely.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Michaela Pereira reporting for us there.

Next, Donald Trump says this is a strange election. And tonight, a new chapter, from stabbings to Starbucks, why the Republican debate could change the entire race.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[14:58:34] PAMELA BURRELL, ARMY VET ON A MISSION TO HELP HUNGRY VETS: This is what we do.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Pamela Burrell knows what it's like to go hungry. The 52-year-old Army veteran has made it her mission to make sure no one else does.

BURRELL: It's like an ultimate high, like an unconditional high.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Today, she's helping prepare meals for families drawing on her experience as a cook in the Army.

That's when Burrell life took a terrible turn. A friend looking after her two daughters while she was serving overseas killed her 4-year- old.

BURRELL: She was thrown down the stairs. I have memories. It hurts sometimes.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: The single mom fell into a deep depression. She lost her job and even tried to take her own life.

BURRELL: It was a project mom. Going into the military was supposed to make things better for my family and myself.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Burrell and her other daughter lived on the streets for years until they found a charity dedicated to ending homelessness. She got an apartment and treatment for PTSD, but she still thought about her friends on the streets.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's bringing someone on the street that she met in the park and saying can you help them.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Her dream is to own her own restaurant, buy a home and continue to help veterans.

BURRELL: To me, it's just the right thing to do. It's the way I was raised.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[15:00:04] KEILAR: Top of the hour now. I'm Brianna Keilar, in for Brooke Baldwin.