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Manhunt Focus Shifts to Area West of Prison; 'Credible Sighting' of Escaped Prisoners; Charleston Unites in Healing; Family of Slain Pastor on His Life and Legacy. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired June 22, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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


SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He said the cabin was obviously burglarized. He said, based on that, the search was concentrated in this area, the Mountain View area near -- off of Wolf Pond Road. It's a road nearby that actually leads to another road that leads to Dannemora, where the prison facility is.

[07:00:09] And a district attorney told me here that he believes that law enforcement here feel that it's potentially one of the people who was seen running out of that cabin.

And then last night, we saw a very active search ensue in this area of Owls Head. Hundreds of vehicles. All-terrain vehicles, tactical units, all focused in the wooded areas, it seems. You can see checkpoints behind me where a perimeter is set up.

But the thing that they're focused on, trails, hiking trails and unoccupied homes, which has been something they've been focused on since the beginning of this search more than two weeks ago.

Now, in the meantime, as the search continues here and in other places, the investigation also continues. A 57-year-old corrections officer who worked on the block where Richard Matt and David Sweat were housed, he is now on administrative leave and undergoing questioning by authorities. His attorney telling us yesterday that he received one of the paintings that was made by Richard Matt while he was behind bars.

We already know that there was a focus on these paintings, because Joyce Mitchell, the prison seamstress who's now been charged with helping those two inmates escape, she also received one of those paintings. But Gene Palmer, this corrections officer, his attorney told me, 100 percent, his client denies knowing anything about this escape before it happened -- Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Sara, thank you very much.

Now police are really moving on tips. And they've just been pouring in about possible sightings of the escaped killers, things that are known about them. A law enforcement source close to the investigation telling CNN there was a credible sighting over the weekend near the town of Friendship, New York. That's right on the New York/Pennsylvania border. And that's where CNN's Alexandra Field is for us this morning. And what's going on there right now with it? ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

Look, this tip really rose to the top of the heap even though there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of tips that have continued to pour in.

At this point, the search has wrapped up in Allegheny County. Police say it was an unconfirmed sighting, but it seemed credible. Credible enough to mobilize assets and bring them to this county, some 300 miles southwest of the prison that Richard Matt and David Sweat broke out of.

Over the weekend, people here in Allegheny saw police setting up roadblocks, doing searches from the air, using canines on the ground, even going door-to-door in some neighborhoods after a woman reported seeing two men who matched the fugitives' description on Saturday afternoon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRANDY THOMPSON, REPORTED POSSIBLE SIGHTING: I see a man wearing a dark blue hoodie. He has a reddish brown, scruffy beard and is coming up the railroad tracks. There was another person with him with dark hair, buzz cut, bigger build. My first instinct was fugitives that are on the run. My heart kind of dropped to my toes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD: Police spent two days aggressively combing this area for any sign of the fugitives. They had assured the public here that they would stay in place until they felt the lead had been fully exhausted.

And again, at this point, they say that they have officially wrapped up the investigation, the search here in Allegheny County. But they are keeping patrols in place as a precaution.

At the same time, Michaela, as we see the search now reenergized to the north, if you're taking on new focus and new urgency in Franklin County, we're also hearing that there are more assets that are coming in to join to help New York State Police, including Vermont's tactical unit, which is offering its assistance -- Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Alexandra. We'll stay on this story. Obviously, it's reaching new levels of urgency here.

We want to pivot to our story out of Charleston, South Carolina. That historic Charleston church that endured such a violent massacre. It has reopened with a message of unity and of love. This as disturbing details are emerging about the suspected shooter's past, including a link to an online manifesto spewing racist hate. CNN's Alina Machado is live in Charleston, South Carolina, this morning for us, tracking the very latest developments -- Alina.

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michaela, the focus here in Charleston, as you mentioned, has been on remembrance and healing, even though that hateful manifesto was posted on a website registered to Dylann Roof.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MACHADO (voice-over): Lone-wolf mass murderer Dylann Roof behind bars this morning, awaiting his bail hearing for murder charges, set for October.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is your age?

DYLANN ROOF, MASS MURDER SUSPECT: Twenty-one.

MACHADO: This, as investigators are looking into a 2,000-word racist manifesto on a website registered to the suspect, written before Roof killed nine people during a Bible study inside Charleston, South Carolina's historic Emanuel AME Church, the author writing he became fixated on the idea of, quote, "black on white crime" after Trayvon Martin's death. His online search led him to the online propaganda of the Council of Conservative Citizens.

There, he found, quote, "pages upon pages of these brutal black on white murders." It's not clear what incidents he was referring to.

[07:05:02] The manifesto continues, quote, "Someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world. And I guess that has to be me."

MAYOR JOE RILEY, CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: We've got to use this heartbreak in the most positive way, how we can be better, how we can do more.

MACHADO: In Charleston, Sunday, marchers joined hands to form a unity chain in memory of the nine victims.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Only love can drive out hate.

MACHADO: On Sunday morning, church bells rang throughout the historic city.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (singing): You can lean on me.

MACHADO: Inside the Emanuel AME Church, the theme was healing, not hate.

REV. DR. NORVEL GOFF SR., 7TH DISTRICT AME CHURCH: We, as a group of people, can come together and pray and work out things that needs to be worked out to make our community and our state a better place.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACHADO: There will be several public viewings of Reverend Clementa Pinckney's casket, starting at the state house this week, as the funeral will take place in Charleston on Friday.

Funeral arrangements for the other victims of this massacre are also expected to take place in the coming days. It's also worth noting that the Council of Conservative Citizens

condemns the killings but stands behind the inflammatory content on their website -- Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Alina, thanks so much for all that background.

And we do want to talk more about the victims. We're joined now by family members of the Reverend Daniel Simmons. He was a 74-year- old pastor who was killed in last week's shooting in Charleston. Alana Simmons is the granddaughter of Reverend Simmons, and Daniel Simmons Jr. is the son of Reverend Simmons.

And we are -- we're so pleased to have both of you on the program. And we're so sorry for your loss.

ALANA SIMMONS, GRANDDAUGHTER OF REV. DANIEL SIMMONS SR.: Thank you.

DANIEL SIMMONS JR. SON OF REV. DANIEL SIMMONS SR.: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Daniel, we have learned a little bit about your father. He was a retired pastor, as we said. He was also a Vietnam War vet and a Purple Heart recipient. What else would you like us to know about him?

D. SIMMONS: Well, as the events have been going on over the last few days, you know, the thing that has resonated most has been love. He is a man who would want to see this through. And he would want the country to not just take this and go away after a week. He would want to see it through. So, one of the great things about him, he's -- he likes to complete things that have been started.

CAMEROTA: That is a great message. And we would like to help him with that legacy in terms of talking about it and seeing where this goes.

And Alana, I want to talk about the miraculous thing that happened at that suspect's bail hearing. The -- all of the victims' families, yourself included, you spoke out; and I've never heard messages like this at bail hearings. Let me play for our viewers what you said to the suspect that day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

A. SIMMONS: although my grandfather and the other victims died at the hands of hate, this is proof -- everyone's plea for your soul is proof that they lived in love, and their legacies will live in love. So, hate won't win. And I just want to thank the courts for making sure that hate doesn't win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Hate won't win. I mean, Alana, it's so profound and poignant. Did you rehearse your words? Did you know what you were going to say when you saw his face? A. SIMMONS: No, ma'am, I was speaking from my heart. I was

really inspired by the other families when they got up to speak. The immediate reaction was, "I forgive you."

When we got into the courtroom before everything started, it was almost like a family reunion. Everybody was helping each other and expressing their condolences for the events that occurred and just the aroma of love in the room. Although we were all very sad to be there for the reason that we were there, there was so much love in the room, and it just reminded me that, although this situation came together because of hate, it will go to the next step from love.

CAMEROTA: I mean, Alana, I've covered dozens of bail hearings. They are never like that one.

And Daniel, do you think that this is -- how is it possible -- how is it possible that grieving victims were able to transcend that and talk about love? Is that Charleston that we're seeing? Is it this Emanuel AME Church? How do you explain it?

D. SIMMONS: Well, it's very simple: it's God. You know, God gave the greatest gift to the earth, which is Jesus Christ, his son. And that translates into love.

[07:10:10] So when you have those combinations of things and you have a foundation where you're standing on, as my daughter said, you know, the things that were meant for bad are now to be good.

So you have to understand that it's all about love, and it's all about forgiveness. It's all about what we do. Our Christianity and our faith, we stand rooted in what we believe in. And we walk in what we believe in. So when you are challenged with that, it sets another level.

So we are, in life, we'll be challenged at some point. And so we have to confess our faith and understand that we love Jesus Christ.

CAMEROTA: So Alana, what are we supposed to do with our anger? I mean, we are angry, even those of us who are strangers who didn't lose our grandfathers, we are angry about what happened at that church. How are you both able to transcend that?

A. SIMMONS: Well, it's bigger than what I'm feeling or it's bigger than what we're feeling. It's not about us. It's about the actual victims and what they would want.

And I know if my granddad was still here -- and I know he's looking down on us right now. I know if he was still here, he wouldn't want us to be angry. And knowing him, he'd say, "I'm all right. I'm all right. You just worry about what needs to happen from here."

And so, although we're saddened, you know, I have moments of anger. All of us will have moments of anger. It's just thinking about what's bigger than myself or bigger than everybody else. It's about the victims and what they would want their legacy to be. They wouldn't want their anger. They wouldn't want their legacy to be hate. They would want their legacy to be love and faith and the community.

CAMEROTA: Daniel, what do you think your father is thinking as he watches over you?

D. SIMMONS: Well, first of all, he would thank Charleston for coming together and acting in one accord and walking in unity. Most of all, he loved to work in unity. He's a great organizer, a great administrator. We have gists (ph) of those, and so he would want this to be organized to where his legacy, the other victim -- the other families, everyone, there will be a point that where, as I said earlier, that this will be an ending point and a beginning point.

CAMEROTA: Well, Daniel and Alana, you are such inspirations. You're such paragons of strength for the rest of us. And thank you so much for sharing your story.

D. SIMMONS: Thank you.

A. SIMMONS: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: And a little bit of your father and grandfather with us. Thank you.

D. SIMMONS: Thank you.

A. SIMMONS: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Let's go over to Chris.

CUOMO: All right. We do have some breaking news overnight in Afghanistan. A series of bombing and rocket attacks on the parliament building in Kabul. Lawmakers were gathering there to confirm a new defense minister when the first explosion went off. The blast led to a fierce gunfight between the Taliban attackers and parliament security. None of the lawmakers were hurt.

PEREIRA: Defense Secretary Ash Carter, kicking off a weeklong European trip, is in Germany today, where he's going to attend his first NATO meeting as secretary.

On Sunday, Carter spoke candidly about the bleak outlook for relations with Russia, saying the U.S. and its NATO allies are preparing for a fight that could outlive Vladimir Putin's presidency. This as the European Union says it has extended Russian sanctions through the end of January 2016.

CAMEROTA: The prompter says I'm supposed to say, "Cowabunga, dudes and dudettes." Now we'll see what I'm talking about.

CUOMO: Now you have.

CAMEROTA: All 66 of you. These California surfers just broke the world record for the most people riding a surf board at once. OK. Sixty-six surfers on 42-foot-long board, getting 12 seconds of wave time.

The previous record was set in Australia, when 47 surfers rode for ten seconds. A Guinness World Records judge says the decision on a separate record for the largest surfboard will take a few days.

PEREIRA: We humans are kind of awesomely insane. That's fantastic.

CUOMO: And the records people are incredibly scrutinizing.

PEREIRA: Oh, yes, sure.

CAMEROTA: They're not just going to fall for 66 people on a surf board, they're going to check that.

CUOMO: Oh, no. That's exactly right. Because there's, like, some other group somewhere in the Antilles that think they have it.

CAMEROTA: Right.

PEREIRA: I love it.

CUOMO: So out of a slew of possible sightings, one seems strong enough that it has hundreds of police officers now chasing two escaped killers on opposite ends of New York. Could they be close to tracking them down? They say, maybe.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:18:06] PEREIRA: Well, the search area for those two fugitives on the run in New York state, it has shifted again. After spending the weekend scouring the woods just north of the New York- Pennsylvania border, authorities have now changed their focus back to northern New York after receiving tips about a possible sighting near a campground.

Joining us to discuss all of these developments is former FBI special agent and former Navy SEAL, Jonathan Gilliam.

Good to see you.

JONATHAN GILLIAM, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Always good to be here.

PEREIRA: Glad to have you here to talk through all of this. I kind of want to do a primer on what happened since June 6. I think it is advisable.

So June 6, this initial search area up north, authorities followed this tip to Willsboro. Dogs picked up a heavy scent there and tracked it to Cadyville. Otherwise, there have been few developments.

So then next up, the weekend search we see down in this area, near Friendship. Police Friday announcing that two men matching the description had been spotted the previous week down near the border. State troopers searched that area of Friendship. In fact, police say a woman said they saw two men emerge from the woods, one with a hood on -- put a hood on. The other one dashed back into the woods.

Last but not least where they are right now, near the Adirondacks, right?

GILLIAM: Right.

PEREIRA: This is a ski resort area up here in Franklin County. Tips came in of a possible sighting of some sort of camp. We know a command post has been set up, Jonathan. This is about 47 miles from the Clinton Correctional Facility. Seems like bouncing around.

GILLIAM: Right.

PEREIRA: We know 1,400 leads have come in. Is this how it goes in a case like this? You've just got to follow the hot leads?

GILLIAM: Typically, the -- this amount of leads will come in. What has to be done, though, is as the leads come into the command post, they have to be categorized. They have to be assigned, and then they have to be cleared. If they're not following that process, they can find themselves covering old leads over and over again. They could find themselves giving leads to two different groups, or leads that don't get covered. So you have to categorize these things. This has to be structured that way.

CAMEROTA: OK. Now, we also understand that this area down here, near the Pennsylvania border, essentially, they've halted that search right now. There are some resources, we understand, left in this area in case it nets something.

[07:20:11] Do you agree with calling off that search and just sort of assessing that as a dead lead? What are your thoughts?

GILLIAM: Well, it depends on how they searched it.

PEREIRA: OK.

GILLIAM: And so what I was talking with you about earlier is, you have to -- which I haven't seen. Maybe they're doing it this way, but a lot of the times when you search a lead, a really good lead, there's a couple of things that you have to do.

PEREIRA: OK.

GILLIAM: And so we can go to the board here.

PEREIRA: Go ahead.

GILLIAM: So basically, let's say that the -- this is where the last known point of origin was. You need -- so what you have there is three things. You have a place where you can send a quick reaction force.

PEREIRA: OK. GILLIAM: That quick reaction force can then search out from that

area.

PEREIRA: And how do you determine how far out you search?

GILLIAM: Well, OK, so that's where I'm going to go. So the other thing that you have is you have how far could they have gone walking?

PEREIRA: OK.

GILLIAM: All right. That is, let's say, this area right here.

PEREIRA: OK.

GILLIAM: Since the time of that call.

PEREIRA: Fair.

GILLIAM: That area, you can send a larger group to and search in.

PEREIRA: From the outside in.

GILLIAM: From the outside. Now you've got these two. Looks like a big wheel spoke. Also, you get a third thing, which is...

PEREIRA: Let's do that one in blue...

GILLIAM: OK.

PEREIRA: ... so you can see it.

GILLIAM: You have a blocking force perimeter, what we call in the military, which is a blocking force perimeter. And basically, what you have, this is a big perimeter. And you're not going to have enough men to search. This would be literally thousands of square -- hundreds of square miles.

PEREIRA: Is that air support?

GILLIAM: Air support and, really, this is where you want to really notify law enforcement to be looking in this direction. Right?

So we know they're not going to be coming from that direction. So you should be monitoring, setting up checkpoints for anything that's coming from this direction. Any of the roads, freeways, railroads. Anything that they can get on to move quickly.

PEREIRA: The idea is that here would be on foot. The further detail would be if they had gotten either some assistance, motorized vehicles or got on a train, like we've seen reports that they were seen near train tracks.

GILLIAM: This is all search area. This is perimeter and basically blocking force to not let them go further past that. PEREIRA: OK. So you've been fairly critical that they haven't

followed this procedure.

GILLIAM: I haven't seen it, and I haven't heard it from the people I know that are involved in it.

A lot of this comes down to the quick reaction force, which I don't know if they have that set up or not. But a quick reaction force is somebody, is a group of people, a smaller group of highly- trained individuals that you can get to this point and flood this area, but they have to be looking at the distance they could travel...

PEREIRA: Right.

GILLIAM: ... since the call came in and search inward. I don't see that, and I haven't typically seen that.

PEREIRA: Well, we know that this is not an area they're looking at. This is where they're focusing their efforts right now.

GILLIAM: Right.

PEREIRA: Jon Gilliam...

GILLIAM: You got it. My pleasure.

PEREIRA: ... a pleasure to have you here. Thank you for walking us through that -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Michaela, the hashtag says "#FeelTheBern." Bernie Sanders is who we're talking about. And he's drawing a crowd of thousands in Colorado over the weekend. Is the Vermont senator becoming a force to be reckoned with in the 2016 race? John King will feel the "Bern" on "Inside Politics."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:26:56] CUOMO: Listen up, friends. We have a new lead, a new location and a new flurry of activity in the search for two escaped killers in New York. You're looking at them. Richard Matt, David Sweat, they may have been seen here. Let's show you the map. You'll see Owls Head, New York. It's about 25 miles west of the prison they escaped from. Feds and state authorities from New York and Vermont now searching. We're monitoring the situation for you. We'll give you the latest when we get it.

CAMEROTA: Emanuel AME Church holding its first worship service since the massacre that left nine of its members dead. Thousands of people also gathering on the Arthur Avenel Bridge to join hands in solidarity.

Meantime, disturbing details emerging about the suspected shooter, authorities linking the 21-year-old to an online hate manifesto and disturbing photos.

PEREIRA: Takata's faulty air bags are blamed for another fatality. That brings the total number of deaths now linked to Takata to at least eight. This news coming a day before a Senate hearing on the issue. Lawmakers are set to examine the federal government's role in the investigation, Takata's effort to handle the situation, and how car makers are addressing it. Thirty-four million cars are affected.

PEREIRA: Big fish. Ten-year-old girl goes fishing with her family in Alaska. This is Lily Hornish...

CAMEROTA: What?

PEREIRA: I was waiting for you guys. We're looking at it. Lily Hornish. That's a big flat fish, a 330-pound halibut.

CAMEROTA: She caught that?

CUOMO: Five times her size. And -- which really just burns you up -- she caught it with the first bait that she dropped.

PEREIRA: That's it, girl.

CAMEROTA: Chris is...

CUOMO: Look, I'm happy for her, but I'm also, of course, jealous as a fisherman. That's why I will say, she gets no record, and here's why. She admits Dad helped her pull in that slob, that pig, that monster. Good daddy, of course. But you can't touch the rod of the angler, and then have it be a one-person record.

PEREIRA: She still can know that she pulled in that fish. She caught that fish.

CUOMO: No.

PEREIRA: Yes, she can.

CAMEROTA: He's not going to give it to the 10-year-old.

CUOMO: What an amazing memory. As I saw that thing come up, they're not going to let us talk about this, because we have to go to John King. But in the break, I will tell you how amazing these things are.

PEREIRA: I agree.

CUOMO: Because they're caught evolving, and they're so mean, because they know it.

PEREIRA: Not that we won't be listening to John King.

CUOMO: No, no, no. He knows; he's a fisherman himself. He does a lot of that noodling thing, where he sticks his hand into the hole...

PEREIRA: He does?

CUOMO: ... and pulls out candidates that don't want to talk to him. "Inside Politics" on NEW DAY with Mr. John King. Show them the forearm. He's like a Java Man.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: She gets all the credit for that. I'm looking at that fish, I'm just thinking one thing, lunch.

PEREIRA: Lunch. Mmm.

KING: Put that baby on the grill. Congratulations, that's a great catch. No whining, Mr. Cuomo. That is a great catch for that young lady. No Dad's help next time; we'll call it that way.

Busy day to go "Inside Politics," a lot of consequential stuff to discuss, so let's get to it. With me to share their reporting and their insights, Tamara Keith of NPR, Olivier Knox of Yahoo!

Difficult issues put forward because of what has happened in Charleston. It's a horrible tragedy, and now in the wake of it is a presidential campaign starts to gain steam. Conversations about race, about guns and about the Confederate flag, which has come up again and again and again in national politics, as there's been a huge issue in the state.

Hillary Clinton back in 2007, when she was running for president, said the flag has no place in a public state display. It is on...