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CNN NEWSROOM

Chicago Police Make Arrest in Child's Murder; Turkish Leader Requests Meeting with Russian President; Syria Praises Anti-Rebel Airstrikes by Russia; Chicago Protesters Hope to Disrupt Black Friday; Shoppers Hunt for Black Friday Deals; Hollande Leads France in Mourning Victims; Kremlin Says No Plans to Meet with Turkey. Aired 9- 9:30a ET

Aired November 27, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:04] BERMAN: Happy Thanksgiving Day after, Carol Costello.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: You too. To you two.

NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM. Putin says he's ready to work with an American-led coalition to fight ISIS. But don't call it a done deal yet.

Also, a 9-year-old boy lured into an alley and murdered. Now an arrest for the killing of little Tyshawn Lee. Who killed him and why?

Plus, Black Friday protests in Chicago and New York over black men killed by police. But in dangerous and fluid situations, how do cops make the call?

(On camera): Are you Miguel Richardson?

(Voice-over): I wanted to find out.

(On camera): Stop moving now. Get on the ground. Show me your hands. Get your hands out of your pocket.

(Voice-over): Shoot, don't shoot? What would you do?

Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me. We are following breaking news out of Chicago. That's where officials say an arrest has finally been made in the murder of a 9-year-old boy. Tyshawn Lee was gunned down earlier this month to what police call a gang-related shooting.

CNN's Rosa Flores has more from Chicago. Good morning,.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol, I just got off the phone with Chicago Police Department and they confirmed that a man named Corey Morgan has been arrested and charged on the killing of the -- that 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee. Now the charges first-degree murder.

I was out on the scene right after that happened, covering this story, Carol, and I can tell you that there was a lot of frustration in that neighborhood because you walked in that alley where this killing happened and you could still see the blood. You could still see a very gory scene. And people there had been talking about the possibility that a gang member had lured this child into an alley and then killed him.

And then of course we heard from police that that was their theory. They believed that a gang member has actually lured this child into an alley when the child was simply wanting to play basketball, and then shot and killed this child.

Again, from police here in Chicago telling CNN that a man named Corey Morgan has been arrested on first-degree murder charges involving the killing of Tyshawn Lee.

COSTELLO: So it was like an execution style killing. So why did the suspect shoot this little boy? Have police determined that?

FLORES: You know, their theory has been from the get-go that this individual that lured this child into an alley had some sort of altercation, some sort of problem with this child's father. And so that's what they had been exploring. That's what they confirmed later. That indeed this was a gang-related killing. But instead of the killing of a gang member, it was the child of a gang member.

Carol, and that is what's so disturbing to people in this community and they were asking for neighbors to come forward because I was there. There are homes all over and around this alley. And so they were calling for people to come forward and say what they saw. People there in that community, Carol, told us. You know, someone saw something. They must come forward. But as you might imagine when it is a gang-related activity people there were a little scared about coming forward and telling police what they knew.

COSTELLO: All right. Rosa Flores reporting live from Chicago this morning.

In the fight against ISIS Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged his support to fight alongside the West against a common enemy but there is a catch. Putin says the West may not be ready to fight alongside Russia.

In the meantime Turkey trying to mend its relationship with Russia after shooting down its warplane. The Turkish president, Recep Erdogan, has requested a face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin while both of them are in Paris on Monday. The proposed meeting sure to be intense as Putin slams the shootdown as an active betrayal amongst allies and says Russia is ready to defend itself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (Through Translator): It did not even come into our minds that we could have been struck by a party that we consider to be our ally. We consider Turkey to be a friendly country. We did not expect such an action. And that is why that strike was unexpected. And now we realize it is possible, because a soldier has died, that we need to have a security for our air force.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: We're following the story from everything angle but we start with Matthew Chance in Russia, where Putin is raising questions about how Turkey knew where the Russian jet would be when its pilot shot it down.

[09:05:13] Matthew, what are you learning this morning?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Vladimir Putin is essentially leveling allegations at the United States was somehow implicated in this Turkish shootdown of the Russian Sukhoi 24 bomber, and saying that we -- that Putin saying this, look, we tell the Americans where our planes are operating, where our pilots are working. We expect them to pass that information on to their allies.

And if that's the case and they did pass it onto the Turks and the United States knew that that was the Russian plane that the Turks had targeted and intercepted and took down. And so a bit of criticism there. Quite a lot of criticism from the Kremlin towards the United States. But the majority of the fury that is being felt by many Russians but particularly Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, at the moment is being directed at Turkey.

In the last few minutes, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that the visa-free travel regime between Turkey and Russia will now be canceled. This is quite a big announcement that from now on Turkish citizens will need a visa to travel to Russia. Previously they didn't.

If that's reciprocated it could have a big impact on Turkish tourism because there were 3.2 million Russians that traveled to Turkey last year to go on holiday to the coastline there on vacation. And mainly they do that because they don't need a visa to go there. If they need visas from now it's going to make that much more difficult and really potentially have an impact on the Turkish tourism industry.

Also that meeting that you mentioned between President Erdogan of Turkey and Vladimir Putin in Paris when they're there to attend the climate summit in French capital next week, the Kremlin now saying it is not planning to have that meeting despite a direct request that was made by President Erdogan to the Kremlin shortly after the plane was shot down. And so it just gives you an indication of just how much distance, how much animosity there is right now between the Turks and the Russians.

COSTELLO: All right. Matthew Chance reporting live from Moscow for us. In Syria officials are praising devastating airstrikes like these that

Russia says it carried out against ISIS targets across Syria. Syria's Foreign minister is calling them, quote, "hundreds of times more effective than those made by the American-led coalition."

Barbara Starr is following that part of the story from the Pentagon. Good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. I think you will find that Pentagon officials continue to say that the Russian airstrikes are very different than U.S. airstrikes. The Pentagon making the case continuously that U.S. airstrikes are more precise, that they take more care in the -- in avoiding civilian casualties, and that U.S. weapons are precision-guided.

The Russians they say are dropping unguided, undirected bombs and so their strikes are not very precise in the U.S. view now. But this is really just the least of it because of course the U.S. contends that the Russians are not really striking ISIS to any large extent as the U.S. is. They are striking rebels opposed to Bashar al-Assad. So two very different things at play here.

The U.S. also watching very closely the Russians moving in those S400 anti-air missiles. Once that system goes operation, the Russians will be able to control a good deal of both Syrian and Turkish air space and there may have to be some changes to how the U.S. warplanes operate in order to deal with that -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I'd also like to ask you about something strange coming out of Syria, because, you know, remember when the Russian war jet was shot down and it was a rescue mission under way to rescue the surviving pilot or pilots. Supposedly Iran had a role in that. Can you explain that for us?

STARR: Well, Iranian and Russian state media are reporting indeed that the man who commanded that operation was one of the chief commanders of Iranian Revolutionary Guard core, a guy named Major General Qasem Soleimani. Now this is someone the U.S. keeps an eye on very closely. A very strong, very powerful figure in the IRGC inside Iran. He regularly in recent months has moved in and out of Syria.

A U.S. official telling me they have no reason to doubt that he may have been one of the organizing figures behind that rescue of the Russian pilot.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Barbara Starr reporting live from the Pentagon for us this morning.

In Africa, Special Forces in Mali have arrested two men they believe helped carried out last week's deadly hotel attack. Officials say a cell phone found at the Radisson Blu Hotel connects both suspects to the scene. The men are believed to be around 30 years old. But the army would not give any more details than that. Nineteen people were killed in that attack. An extremist group with links to al Qaeda has taken responsibility. [09:10:03] And ISIS says it's behind the shooting at a Shiite mosque

in Bangladesh. This according to a U.S.-based monitoring group. One person died in the attacks, three others were injured when gunmen opened fire on worshipers during early evening prayers. It is not the first attack ISIS has claimed responsibility for in this country. But Bangladeshi officials have denied the terror is active within its border.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Black Friday a day of shopping. But in Chicago, a day of marching. Protesters getting ready to take to the streets again over the shooting death of a black teenager.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Tensions expected to be high in Chicago this morning. Protesters are gearing up to march on the city's luxury corridor on Black Friday. They're protesting an officer's killing of teenager Laquan McDonald. Demonstrators say they're hoping to disrupt shopping today and highlight their own demands. Those demands include the resignation of the police commissioner and a federal investigation into the Chicago Police Department.

[09:15:08] CNN's Ryan Young is following the protests. He joins us now live from Chicago.

Good morning.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

A lot of questions about this, because obviously, this is the Magnificent Mile behind me. A lot of people focused on this for Black Friday. They come here to shop from around the world. We've seen tourists out already.

Look, it is a rainy day. So we can't see whether or not the fear has really impacted people. But folks are really upset about Laquan McDonald and the idea is religious leaders plan to march down this roadway.

A lot of protests have been focused on the south side far, on the south side of Michigan Avenue. Now, they're really coming up north. Today, that's all going to change. And in fact, a lot of people are making impassioned pleas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FATHER MICHAEL PFLEGER, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST & SOCIAL ACTIVIST: I would like to see Michigan Avenue stores take a big hurt tomorrow, businesswise. And how can you say that, it affects the whole city? So does murder.

You can't keep asking people trust the system, trust the system. The system is not working.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Carol, you can hear the anger in some people's voices, I can honestly tell you. Look, they want to have an effect down here.

People talk about two sides of Chicago. One side where there is a lot of violence and a gang war going on, and then another more profitable side of the Chicago. And that is represented right behind me with this Magnificent Mile, where a lot of people travel to spend their money. And now today that may change when the leaders walk up and down the streets -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Ryan Young, reporting live from Chicago this morning.

Even as protesters look to disrupt Black Friday shopping, millions are still poised to hit the stores on one of the busiest days of the year. Many are already getting a head start on stores that are actually open on the day of after Thanksgiving.

CNN's Cristina Alesci is live at the Macy's flagship store in New York's Herald Square.

Good morning.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

The frenzy has started. We've seen crowds all morning filing into the Macy's Herald Square, obviously, one of the biggest, most iconic retailers in the country.

I just spoke to the CEO. He said that they opened their doors at 6:00 p.m. last night. They haven't shut them. And from 6:00 p.m. last night to 11:00 today is going their biggest day of the year, period. Full stop.

This is how important Black Friday is to retailers across the country who have not seen the American consumer really come back in the way that they would like to see the American consumer spend. So clearly it is very important day for retailers. And things even though there are a lot of crowds here in Herald Square things are fairly orderly. Not the case in the rest of the country. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALESCI (voice-over): Overnight, an all-out battle at stores across the nation, just hours into the brutal chase for bargains.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got my fist up if somebody tries to steal something from me.

ALESCI: In Louisville, Kentucky, Black Friday madness. Two men punching and tearing at each other's t-shirt inside a major city mall.

Tempers flared at this Walmart in El Paso. Holiday shoppers appear to flight over flat screen TVs, even taking on store security.

The yearly stampede filling into the front doors, a welcome sight for retailers, hoping to cash in on the holiday frenzy. Sales expected to reach $80 billion in the U.S. The average American spending close to $400 throughout the holiday weekend, with some brick and mortar stores now handing out a select number of tickets to people in line for the hottest items.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're able to ticket numbers one through whatever number we have. In that way, it stops a lot of the chaos from happening.

ALESCI: Some shoppers camping out for days.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've been here since Tuesday night at a 9:30.

ALESCI: All in effort to nab the great deals like this 50-inch flat screen TV at Best Buy marked down nearly 75 percent off.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's exciting if it's something that you want and it's worth it, why not go and get it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALESCI: So, clearly, Carol, electronics are big on Black Friday with heavy discounts on TVs and phones. But people here are going to be filing into the Macy's mainly for clothes and handbags and fragrances. Americans will spend or expected to spend $3 billion today alone.

And as far as the violence that we're seeing in some stores across the country, we haven't seen that yet. Mainly because a lot of these retailers actually have their own security forces out there, kind of keeping people orderly, saw that earlier this morning, really having people file in one line and opening doors in orderly fashion and really streamlining the amount of people in the crowd that are here today, Carol.

[09:20:10] COSTELLO: That's a good thing.

Cristina Alesci, reporting live from New York City this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, as protesters gear up to take to the streets over police shooting, I wanted to have a deeper understanding of what's behind an officer's decision to use lethal force. So, I took a police training course to find out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO (voice-over): If this were a real emergency, I'd have died.

(on camera): I didn't want to shoot him. Even when he had the gun on the table, I didn't believe he would shoot me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: France paused today to remember the 130 victims of the Paris terror attacks that happened exactly two weeks ago.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS) [09:25:18] COSTELLO: French President Hollande led his nation in the solemn ceremony at one of France's most revered historic sites, the burial place of Napoleon. He called November 13th a day of betrayal.

CNN senior international correspondent Jim Bittermann joins us live with more.

Good morning.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

In fact, it was quite a moving ceremony. It was for the families of the 130 victims, but as well the 350 who were injured were there, as well as their families and a cross-section of the political life here in France, virtually every political strife you could imagine, what every political current was represented in the stands today. They all wanted to show national unity and that is something that President Hollande spoke about in his speech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCOIS HOLLANDE, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): I wanted to say quite simply these words, "France will be alongside you. We will unite our forces to calm the pain. And after burying the dead, we have to repair. To all of you, I promise you, solemnly, that France will do everything to destroy the army of the fanatics who carried out these crimes".

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: Quite strong words there from the president, and showing a lot of resolve. I think that is what he wanted to show. But we heard these kind of things after terrorist attacks before. And I think people are waiting to see whether the president can actually carry this out -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Jim Bittermann, reporting live from Paris, thank you.

(MUSIC)

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello.

Thank you so much for joining me. This just in to CNN: the Kremlin is saying it has no plans for a face-to-face meeting between the Turkish president and Vladimir Putin, even shutting down suggestions that the pair could talk on the phone. As Putin appears to shut the door on Turkey he says he's willing to open it for France and the West, coordinating attacks with groups within Syria.

So, let's talk about this. I'm joined by CNN security analyst and former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, Juliette Kayyem.

Welcome, Juliette. JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY ANALYST: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Is Russia really opening the door to this coordinated plan of attack with U.S. coalition forces over Syria, or is he just talking?

KAYYEM: He may just be talking but I view this as good news at this stage. What people have to remember is, the Turkish/Russian has been going on for centuries between two major empires, the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire.

We have to view what happened with the downing of the jet as just a brief moment in time. Putin is known to want to show his might and show his strength by doing somewhat stupid things at various times, like stop travel, stop trade.

Let him do that is my theory. Let him blow off the steam, show his strength, and then take the long view. And it seems at least by saying that he's going to continue the discussions with the West, he'll isolate Turkey, let him do that for a short while and then we move forward, because we have to keep our eyes on the prize, which is clearly Syria.

COSTELLO: Is that all Mr. Putin plans to do, do you think? Because the Russian people are quite angry that that Russian warplane was shot down by Turkey, and that Russian's citizens were lost in this war on ISIS or Assad or whoever Putin is fighting within Syria.

KAYYEM: Well, you have to remember about Putin, here is a man that after the United States passed legislation, targeting some of his nationals for human rights violations, he stopped the adoption to the United States of disabled children. This is his thought process.

So -- but then over time things ease, and I think that is exactly what we as the United States and as Western -- the Western coalition just has to let him blow off this steam. It is going to impact trade. It is going to impact tourism.

But I think the long-term is, if we get too engaged with this fighting, or this, you know, this moment in time of the downing of the jet, we will lose sight of the long term strategy here, which is some resolution of Assad and Assad leaving Syria whether voluntarily because the Russians give him or out or because he can't survive what's going on there.

COSTELLO: All right. Julia Kayyem, thanks for joining me this morning.

Still to come on the NEWSROOM: a day after taking hit for mocking a reporter's disability, Donald Trump says he deserves an apology.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)