Return to Transcripts main page

NEW DAY SUNDAY

Sanders Closes In On Clinton; Carson Edging Closer To Trump In Iowa; Fan Dies From Fall At Braves Game. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired August 30, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Developing this morning, that man there, the suspect, now in custody for what police are calling an execution style killing of a sheriff's deputy in Texas. We'll tell you about the investigation this morning.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: And new poll numbers out, Donald Trump continues to surge. Bernie Sanders closes the gap with Hillary Clinton. How Iowans seemed to be shaking up the race.

PAUL: Plus a horrific moment in Bay Fall, a fan falls from the stands at a Braves-Yankees game and dies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: People were really disturbed. The guy fell and he fell very hard. It was not good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: You could imagine what it was like for all of those families there.

BLACKWELL: Yes, the kids who were nearby.

PAUL: My goodness. We'll tell you about that one, but first we do want to welcome you on Sunday morning. We're always grateful for your company. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you. This morning we're starting with the Texas man who's facing capital murder charges in the ambush and fatal shooting execution style of a sheriff's deputy.

Here's what we know. Police says the suspect, Shannon J. Miles, has been in custody since yesterday. Police say people who live in that area near the scene of the shooting helped lead the police to him.

Deputy Darren Goforth was putting gas to his patrol car near Houston when he was shot in the back multiple times. This happened Friday night. Authorities describe this as a, quote, "cold-blooded execution."

Hundreds of people attended the vigil. They lit candles, prayed for the 47-year-old, a father of two, husband as well. Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman says right now police are trying to determine what could have motivated this killing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF RON HICKMAN, HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS: We have not been able to extract any details regarding a motive at this point. As far as we know, Deputy Goforth had no previous contact with the suspect. It appears at the outset to be clearly unprovoked. Our assumption is that he was a target because he wore a uniform.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Let's bring in Nick Valencia now. First, the suspect, what do we know about him?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have been taking a closer look at the suspect, 30-year-old Shannon J. Miles. He has a history of arrest and offenses in the state of Texas. His criminal history, it's a pretty lengthy one. Charges include resisting arrest, trespassing, evading detention, and disorderly conduct with a firearm.

He's now facing capital murder charge for what police say is his role in the execution style killing of a veteran of the Harris County Sheriff's Office, a ten-year veteran, Darren Goforth, who's survived by a wife and two children.

He seemingly was caught off guard as he was pumping gas on Friday night in the Houston area. Goes inside the gas station, comes outside, according to witnesses, Shannon J. Miles pulls the trigger when this deputy was not looking and continues to pull the trigger as this deputy was on the ground -- guys.

PAUL: Now we were talking yesterday about the fact that there was a traffic stop 30 minutes before that, that has been deemed not to be connected, right?

VALENCIA: That's right. So they were looking into this line of investigation whether or not this accident 30 minutes before played any role into this execution style killing. From what it seems now, police say that too much time had elapsed for it to be connected at all in this shooting.

They do believe, though, that the deputy was shot simply for wearing a uniform. They call it absolute madness and though, they haven't officially declared a motive, they believe that this deputy was gunned down simply because he was a law enforcement official.

BLACKWELL: All right, Nick Valencia, thanks so much.

PAUL: Thank you, Nick. I want you to listen here to what Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman said at a news conference yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HICKMAN: Our system of justice absolutely requires law enforcement be present to protect our community. So any point when the rhetoric ramped up to calculated cold-blooded assassination of police officers, it has gone too far. We've heard black lives matter. Why don't we drop the qualifier and say lives matter? And take that to the bank.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director, Tom Fuentes joining now. Tom, we've been hearing the sheriff say this now about last 24 hours and saying they believe he was shot because he was wearing that uniform, but they say they can't get a motive out of the suspect they have in custody.

What would they need from that suspect other than a confession to determine what was exactly what happened? What if the suspect never talks and they don't know?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I think that's true, Christi. Right now, part of the investigation would include going back through every arrest that officer made, every major event he attended.

[06:05:09] Did he ever have any kind of a dealing with Miles in the past that it would appear to be personal retribution on him as an officer individually? So far they've found none of that.

So the only indication they have and unless the suspect tells the police more definitively why he did it, that's what they have to go on. They can see any other reason than a police officer on the street in uniform and available to be killed if somebody wanted to.

PAUL: It because it was so brave, I mean, the man stood over him after he shot him once and he fell to the ground and he continued to shoot him. This is the thing. You were a beat cop, we know. Help us understand what the conversations are inside police departments right now and the mentality of police on the street. What are they thinking after an incident like this?

FUENTES: They're conflicted right now, Christi, because one of the problems is you heard the event last week in Birmingham where an officer had his gun taken away from him and was beaten into unconsciousness with his own weapon and later said that he hesitated because of all the rhetoric.

He knew if he pulled the trigger and shot an unarmed black man that his career would be over and if he would be in court and that would be -- you know, he knew what would face him even if it was a justified shooting, it wouldn't look like a justified shooting, so he hesitated.

On the other hand, these events happened where you can be ambushed or you can be also ambushed even if it is a traffic stop or it is going to a family disturbance or a robbery. When you walk into a situation, you don't have the ability to know what's behind the closed door, behind the walls of a home or the interior of a car.

So any time an officer is involved in his daily duty, he's completely vulnerable. We've had 22 police officers shot to death in this country already this year. That's about on average for what we have going back from last year. It's just incredible.

Many officers know that rhetoric that's out there of the police, you know, what do we want, dead police. When do we want it, now. When you hear that in major protest down the street, that just spawns other people that may be borderline to attack.

PAUL: Tom, we know that his criminal history included charges of resisting arrest, trespassing, evading detention, disorderly conduct with a firearm, now that may have been violent, but nothing else particularly violent there in the history -- does somebody with a history like that, would you expect them to escalate to do something like this?

FUENTES: Certainly. What we don't know, Christie, is whether those charges were reduced as a result of plea bargaining, disorderly conduct with a gun? You know, what does that mean?

PAUL: Right. Tom Fuentes, so appreciate you being here. Thank you, sir.

FUENTES: You're welcome.

PAUL: We'd love to hear your thoughts about this whole thing. Please tweet us or go to our Facebook page. Do you think there is a war on police right now? And how do we balance all the concern and the passion that are going on, on both sides of this issue at the moment?

BLACKWELL: The top of the 7th inning, Yankee Alex Rodriguez walking to the plate when a fan fell from the upper deck. You've got to hear the details of this story.

PAUL: Hillary Clinton is still in the lead for the Democratic presidential nomination, but Bernie Sanders is closing in. How his climb in the polls could be a concerning sign for the frontrunner.

BLACKWELL: And Governor Chris Christie announces one element of his immigration reform plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We let people come into this country with visas. And the minute they come in, we lose track of them. I'm going to ask Fred Smith, the founder of FedEx, come work for the government for three months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: All ahead on NEW DAY Sunday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:12:37] BLACKWELL: All right, 12 minutes after the hour now. Important numbers and changes here for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in Iowa, check out this new survey from the "Des Moines Register" and "Bloomberg Politics."

Bernie Sanders cutting Clinton's once commanding lead among Iowa Democrats, the likely caucus goes here to just seven points. The former secretary of state has lost a third of her support since May.

PAUL: OK, then let's talk about the GOP pack. Ben Carson edging a little closer to Trump here, the real estate mogul now at 23 percent in the critical early voting state while the retired neurosurgeon is in second at 18 percent.

BLACKWELL: All right, Jason Johnson is here for us now with more, a political analyst and professor of Political Science at Hiram College. Jason, let's take in these numbers first, Clinton, we talked a couple of months ago and you said everything's baked in the cake. Clinton's been in public life for 25 years. The numbers aren't going to change.

JASON JOHNSON, PROFESSOR, POLITICAL SCIENCE, HIRAM COLLEGE: Do you have video of me saying that?

BLACKWELL: I wasn't going to do that. But what's going on with Clinton now?

JOHNSON: It's called Bernie Sanders is popular. But she's still leading. Unless Hillary Clinton starts to lose her lead, this is still hers to win. Here's the thing, 14 percent of the people, 14 percent of Democratic caucus voters in Iowa are still saying they're undecided. They're not undecided.

The catch is, is there a Barack Obama here? No. There's no candidate who's that new, that galvanizing, that amazing to people. Will Bernie Sanders competitive? Yes, but I don't see him winning this caucus. I still think Hillary Clinton is going to win Iowa.

PAUL: What about Biden? He was 18 percent and he's not even in the race yet.

JOHNSON: Right. Well, here's the thing, if we really want to know if Hillary clinton is doing bad, if there's some serious problems, Biden would enter this race. The only reason Biden is getting into this race is if he has a chance to win. The fact that he hasn't means that Hillary Clinton is still seems strong amongst most establishment Democrats.

PAUL: All right, let's look at the two outsiders on the GOP side here. We've got Trump and Carson on top for Republicans. Why these two specifically at this point, do you think?

JOHNSON: Well, one, if you look at Donald Trump, he's always been popular. Ben Carson has been running ads and he's been spending a lot of time there and they are at 23 and 18 percent.

[06:15:06] But here's what's key. On August 31st of 2012, Rick Perry was at 29 percent. Michelle Bachman was at 18 percent.

PAUL: This means nothing. This was pre-season. Nobody cares. No one's really put out their best stuff.

BLACKWELL: You say it means nothing, but I will say this, part of this survey asked respondents, Republicans and Democrats if they are happy, satisfied or unsatisfied/mad as hell, right. Maybe that supports this outsider theme with Trump and Carson.

Let me read you some of the numbers from the Republicans who are angrier about certain things and Democrats according to this poll, Barack Obama, unsatisfied or mad as hell, 96 percent, Hillary Clinton 93 percent, U.S. government, 90, their own party, Republicans in Congress, 75 percent.

Does the passion this mad as hell element elevate them, push them to the polls, and keep them committed after that first round of the caucuses?

JOHNSON: Here's the thing, when it comes to a presidential campaign when it gets down to two people no one has ever won a presidential campaign by having people vote against the other guy. That passion, when it's 96 percent are satisfied with Donald Trump or Scott Walker or Jeb Bush, then you can say it's something great for Republicans. Now it's going to help for outsiders, for fundraising, but you don't want an unhappy party.

BLACKWELL: All right, Jason Johnson, good to have you back.

PAUL: We'll see you next time.

JOHNSON: Definitely.

PAUL: Listen, another political headline for you here. Presidential hopeful, Chris Christie says if he's elected president, he's going to track undocumented immigrants like FedEx packages. Listen to what he said in New Hampshire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIE: We let people come into this country with visas and the minute they come in, we lose track of them. So here's what I'm going to do as president. I'm going to ask Fred Smith, the founder of FedEx, come work for the government for three months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Christie is not the first politician to cite FedEx as a model for addressing illegal immigration. Virginia Representative Barbara Comstock and Newt Gingrich have made similar suggestions in the past.

Security changes are being made after a group of Americans helped stop a terror attack on a train in France. We'll tell you what is finally being done.

BLACKWELL: He made history as the first African-American to play the lead in "Les Miserable." But the 21-year-old is now found dead. Details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:21:15]

PAUL: The fan who tumbled off the upper deck of Turner Field where the Atlanta Braves play has died. Police are investigating what caused this man to fall head first onto a concrete walkway. Matt Johnson from our affiliate WSB spoke to a witness who just rose from where the man landed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: That looked like a fall that would kill someone.

MATT JOHNSON, WSB REPORTER (voice-over): Adam Staudacher was just ten rows away when a man fell from the upper deck of Turner Field to the first level of seats.

UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: He fell on his head from easily 50 feet onto concrete.

JOHNSON: A broadcast of the game captured medics performing CPR on the man at around 9:00 at the top of the seventh inning.

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: A fan fell from the upper deck.

UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: They were doing CPR from the moment that they got to him and they were still doing it when they left.

JOHNSON: Another witness tells me the man was near the railing as Yankees player, Alex Rodriguez, took the plate. The man fell in Section 202. Even fans nowhere near that section started to get word that something serious had happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a big commotion for the most part.

JOHNSON: Witnesses tell me they're hoping the man makes a miraculous recovery, but say they can't help but fear the worst.

UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: People were really, really disturbed. The guy fell. He fell very hard. It was not good.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Again, thank you to Matt Johnson reporting from our affiliate WSBN. We have word that the man died at the hospital.

BLACKWELL: All right, let's bring CNN sports, Andy Scholes. Andy, the real important question, why? Do we have an answer to that yet?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORT: Victor, this is a big game. Everyone wants to see the Yankees. Alex Rodriguez is a designated hitter. He doesn't play the entire game. That was the first time fans got to see a-rod on the field. This man was yelling at A-Rod. He went to the railing and something went wrong and he fell over. According to reports, it's 50 feet from the upper deck all the

way to where he fell. He apparently hit the wires that hold up the netting behind home plate on his way down, which also caused injuries. Apparently there was no delay in the game. The game just went on as normal. No one on the field noticed.

The Braves released a statement on the man falling. They said we have received confirmation that the fan involved in the accident in tonight's game has passed away. The Atlanta Braves offer their deepest condolences to the family. The police did add that they do not suspect foul play.

PAUL: It's amazing he didn't hit anybody else, first of all. This isn't the first time something --

SCHOLES: This is not. Just a couple of years ago at a Braves game a fan fell 85 feet. The police ruled that suicide. And another man fell and died. After that death the Texas Rangers did a complete analysis of the ballpark and all of the railings and they did make some changes. We'll have to see what safety measures they put in place.

BLACKWELL: Andy Scholes, thanks so much.

Here's a look at stories making headlines now 24 minutes after the hour.

PAUL: Talking about French experts who say they have not figured out whether this plane wing belongs to MH370. Investigators know the part does come from a Boeing 777, but they still need to identify a number on the inside of that flaperon.

BLACKWELL: Subway is denying they ever knew anything about Jared Fogle sexually assaulting children.

[06:25:05] According to the "Huffington Post," a former owner of a franchise says she tipped off the former CEO of Subway about Fogle paying for sex with minors. He accepted a plea deal earlier this month and will serve between five and 12 years, according to that deal.

PAUL: A rising star who made history on Broadway suddenly fell to his death. He died yesterday after he fell from a fire escape. He was the first African-American to play the lead role in a Broadway production of "Les Miserables." What he called, in fact, his dream role.

BLACKWELL: A suspect is in custody for an execution style killing of a Texas deputy sheriff. Our legal expert weighs in on the charges against him and the legal battle ahead.

PAUL: Also ahead, security increased on international trains in Europe after that terror attack was foiled in Northern France. What they are doing now to try to keep people safe.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)