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Bomb Suspect Leaves Boston; Carjacking Victim's Riveting Story; Boston Memorial on Bolyston Street; Parents of Suspects Leave Dagestan; Interview with Kevin White, Survivor of Boston Marathon Bombings

Aired April 26, 2013 - 11:00   ET

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


ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield, live in Boston.

I want to switch gears and begin with some other breaking news that comes out of Nashville right off the beginning of this program. One of our country's greatest country music singers, George Jones, has died. It's breaking as we speak. George Jones' public relations firm is releasing that he died today at Vanderbilt University Medical Center after entering the hospital about a week ago with a fever and irregular blood pressure.

Country Music Hall of Famer had so many hits that so many people remember, including "She Thinks I Still Care" and "Tender Years," and "He Stopped Loving Her Today." His career also included a very rocky marriage to another country music legend, Tammy Wynette.

George Jones was a member of the Grand Ole Opry. He was also a Kennedy Center honoree. He dies at the age of 81 and will be well remembered by so many country music fans and non-country music fans alike.

Want to bring you back to Boston now where a week ago today all of these people that you can see behind me, some milling about, some wondering what this scene looks like down at Boylston Street, and the memorial that has now been set about. They were not moving around and mingling freely one week ago. Greater Boston was on lockdown. It was on edge while people were searching and police were searching for ordinates, for a bomb, for a suspect, a suspect that they captured late at night on a trailered boat.

And it has been such a week since. And that captured suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is once more the story of the hour because after six nights at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Dzhokhar has finally been moved out of this city and he's been moved here to Ft. Devens.

It's a federal prison camp, it's a medical facility --

(NO AUDIO)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ashleigh, we want to tell you that we are here at Ft. Devens, the medical center is here. This is an area that's run by the Bureau of Prisons. And they -- they have a sort of a modest medical facility here. They don't do extensive surgeries, but they do have a high security area.

And we are told by a spokesperson who's been reaching out to Elizabeth Cohen that, quote, "There's an excessive amount of medical practitioners on hand." Dzhokhar Tsarnaev moved over night. Clearly this was done with a lot of forethought. You know, they needed to get him out of that hospital and to an area where he is secure, where he is away from other patients. And we know that there was -- the U.S. Marshals were the ones who are in charge of the transport here. Doctors accompanied him, again, they really have to make sure that they keep him as stable as possible.

It's not clear exactly how long they're going to keep him at this particular facility. But right now they're just sort of playing it day by day, week by week to see how his condition progresses. To see how his recovery also progresses. No indication as to whether he will receive visitors here or whether - or whether his federal defender who's not been assigned to him will also come here to meet him.

The chances are that federal defender, his lawyer, will indeed have access to him. Now we were able -- we're given sort of a rare opportunity to take a look at a number of messages about 2.5 years worth of tweets from Tsarnaev's Twitter feed. And they really paint an interesting picture. Clearly some or others are -- some are more interesting than others, but that really comes with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK (voice-over): The picture that emerged is of a young man proud of his Chechen roots, eager to visit what he calls his homeland. A country he'd left as a child. Quote, "A decade in America, already I want out," he tweets in March 2012. The 19-year-old college student was planning to return to Dagestan last summer, arriving just as older brother Tamerlan was returning from a six-month stay there, but his plans fell through.

Quote, "My passport is not going to come in time," he writes. He complains that his mother is trying to arrange a marriage for him. Quote, "She needs to chill out. I'll find my own honey," he tweets.

His trip canceled, Tsarnaev instead takes a train to Washington, D.C. via New York, complaining about a noisy child, and noting, "New York looks ill from afar, but zoom in and it gets real dirty."

Messages and a photo from the time shows Tsarnaev visited New York again with friends around Thanksgiving. Quote, "New York is so ratchet on Black Friday it's ridiculous. I'm to bed soon."

Religion seems to have been of growing importance over the last year. Tsarnaev seems amused people mistakenly think he's converted. Quote, "Brothers at the mosque either think I'm a convert or that I'm from Algeria or Syria." On another occasion, he shares, "Spent the day with this Jamaican Muslim convert. My religion is truth."

Other tweets are of special interest to investigators. A full year before the bombing, Tsarnaev writes in native Russian, quote, "I will die young," unquote. Several months later in August, he writes, "Boston marathon isn't good place to smoke." And in January of this year, quote, "I got those brothers that I'd take a bullet for. In the leg or the shoulder or something. Nothing fatal, though."

Finally, a week before the attack, quote, "If you have the knowledge and the inspiration, all that's left is to take action."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: Now while his brother was in Dagestan Tsarnaev, the younger Tsarnaev got a message from the Kozlov Center. And that is -- that takes you directly sort of to a Chechen Web site. I clicked on to it just a short time ago and there's a big article there that says, quote, "Chechens' mother accuses FBI of cold-blooded murder." There's also an interview that Dokka Abu Usman, that is the head of the Caucasus Emirates, the Chechen rebel group, and he makes clear that the U.S. has a $5 million bounty for him -- Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: All right. Deb, thank you. It'll be fascinating, Deb, to see how long that suspect, that now defendant is going to stay at that facility because it's been the best kept secret all along. And the next one is where he ends up pending trial.

So here is a story that -- it belongs to be above the fold on the "Boston Globe" this morning. The headline read, "A Fearful, Surreal 90-Minute Ride." OK, this all happened in an instant. You have a 26- year-old guy who pulls his car over to answer a text. We should tell you what kind of guy it is in the first place.

Seconds later this -- this man finds himself smack dab in the middle of every one of the biggest headlines that this city has been plagued with. He has just been carjacked by the two most wanted men in America. The Boston bombing suspects.

And now, Danny, that's the name that he's going by, is telling the story of what his ordeal was like and it is nothing short of riveting.

I'm joined now by Eric Moscowitz who's a reporter for the "Boston Globe" who did this exclusive with Danny. He's also an awesome reporter. Known you for a few years out on the beach.

ERIC MOSCOWITZ, REPORTER, BOSTON GLOBE: Thank you very much, Ashleigh. Yes.

BANFIELD: OK. Take me to that moment, if you will. And do the "Readers Digest" version so to speak of what happened after he pulled over and got a tap on that window.

MOSCOWITZ: Absolutely. And I'm really glad for Danny's sake that you mentioned that he had pulled over to text because the thing that comes across from Danny is that he's a really good, decent, soft spoken guy. And he doesn't know what to make of the situation.

And so, you know, I think part of his worry right now is how the world will perceive him. And in that situation he did everything right you could possibly imagine. But in that very first moment, he thinks, why are these guys -- why is this guy coming up to my window? You know, is it -- is it to exchange insurance paper work?

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: Is he in trouble -- sure.

MOSCOWITZ: You know, did they bump each other? And very quickly the guy knocks on the window. Danny can't hear him. You know being trusting of people, he lowers the window to hear him better. And very quickly, Tamerlan reaches in, unlocks the door, gets in and flashes a silver handgun like with a magazine. And -- it doesn't identify himself by name, but he identifies himself as the Boston marathon bomber. And says he's also just killed -- a Cambridge police officer that night.

BANFIELD: So this began the 90 minutes that he would spend not only with Tamerlan, the older brother, but ultimately he would end with up Dzhokhar as well, the suspect now. So how did that play out? There were two vehicles. What happened?

MOSCOWITZ: So first, you know, Danny knows it's a robbery. Then he realizes it was a carjacking. It's -- they're driving quite a ways before he realizes that --

BANFIELD: It's not a carjacking, get out of the car.

MOSCOWITZ: No. Danny didn't get out of the car.

BANFIELD: It's a carjacking, stay in the car.

MOSCOWITZ: Right. So they ask him for his money. He doesn't have that much cash on him. They asked him for his credit cards and his debit cards, his wallet, and they tell him to drive. So, you know, Tamerlan has the gun on him, says don't do anything stupid. Danny is driving, he's terrified. You know, he hasn't gone very far, he's starting to weave a little bit. I mean, and think about it. How any of us should reach. This is a 26-year-old who's been back in the country for two months. Previously had come here for three years.

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: He's from central China, right?

MOSCOWITZ: From central China. He'd come here to study engineering for three years. He'd gone back. He just come back. He had a new car. He was just driving to blow off steam. Suddenly he finds the marathon -- one of the marathon bombing suspects, you know, pointing a gun and tell him to drive. He can't stay in the lane and so Tamerlan says relax. That was one of the -- I mean, you know, just doesn't want any attention on the car. So then they're driving. Eventually they take the car to a quiet place where they parked and consolidate what Danny think is luggage, heavy objects from their car -- in his car.

BANFIELD: He can see the transfer of these bags.

MOSCOWITZ: Well, he can't see it because they told him not to watch him or they'll shoot him. He tells Danny to get from the driver's seat to the passenger seat and then --

BANFIELD: And they said, don't look at us.

MOSCOWITZ: They said, don't look at us.

BANFIELD: Or we'll kill you.

MOSCOWITZ: Exactly. So Danny is now in the -- in the shotgun seat, looking straight ahead, you know. He doesn't look back but you can hear and he's seeing -- he sees Dzhokhar walk up to his window, so he's now -- he sees Dzhokhar.

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: He knows there's a second --

MOSCOWITZ: He knows there's a second guy, but they're behind him, taking heavy objects from their trunk, putting them in the back of his SUV. He assumes it's luggage. We know now it was not luggage. He then get in the car, all driving together. Tamerlan behind the wheel, Danny still in the front right, Dzhokhar behind him. And they're driving around, you know, and that's when -- I mean, it really gets harrowing.

BANFIELD: So one of the things that I read in your piece, which is by the way such a great reading if you're not in the Boston area, get it online and read this account. He gets a text from a friend. Danny gets a text from a friend in Mandarin. The suspects know right away he's got a text. He's got to respond in some way. And how did the suspects command him?

MOSCOWITZ: So -- and, you know, if you'll picture it, Danny's phone is still plugged in the car from where he had started to send that text and never got through before. And so now he's got this text. Tamerlan takes the phone, directs Danny to show him where he has, like, an English to Chinese dictionary app on his iPhone 5. And Tamerlan writes, you know, I'm sick. I'm staying with a friend tonight. It translates into Chinese characters. You know he taps it copy, paste it into the message and sends this Chinese message to --

BANFIELD: To Danny's friend.

MOSCOWITZ: To Danny's roommate. Yes. And --

BANFIELD: Ostensibly as Danny.

MOSCOWITZ: Ostensibly as Danny. You know, it comes through in stilted language that Danny would use. Even though it's in Chinese.

BANFIELD: Sure.

MOSCOWITZ: And so, he got a text back. No response. And there's a call, no answer. There's another call. It's the roommate's boyfriend calling. And you know, Tamerlan tells Danny to answer, but he says, if you speak in Chinese, if you say a word in Chinese, I'll kill you. Because he knows that if Danny speaking in Chinese, he can't understand and he could be --

BANFIELD: So now Danny is going to answer in Mandarin-speaking phone call.

MOSCOWITZ: Yes.

BANFIELD: Speak English, it's even more bizarre.

MOSCOWITZ: Yes. Exactly. Never in a million years would Danny talk to this person on the other end in English.

BANFIELD: In English.

MOSCOWITZ: And yet, they're speaking in Mandarin and he -- has to say, you know --

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: I'm sick. And I'm going to stay with a friend. Yes.

MOSCOWITZ: I'm sick. I'm with a friend. I got to go. You know --

BANFIELD: Keep in mind, let's just remind the viewers at the stage of this odyssey that we've been through.

MOSCOWITZ: Yes.

BANFIELD: This is a point where Tamerlan has ostensibly been on the run for several days and know -- he knows he's the most wanted man in America.

MOSCOWITZ: Yes.

BANFIELD: Probably hasn't slept much.

MOSCOWITZ: But they've been hiding in plain sight for a couple of days. It's not until that afternoon that the pictures get revealed.

BANFIELD: Right.

MOSCOWITZ: So Danny is the first person to spend any considerable time that we know with them after they've been identified as the suspect.

BANFIELD: And perhaps the only.

MOSCOWITZ: And perhaps the only. Yes. Presumably the only.

BANFIELD: And perhaps an incredible witness in any kind of criminal case against Dzhokhar at this point.

MOSCOWITZ: Yes. Because there's two hours between when, you know, we believe they killed the MIT police officer around 10:30 and a little more two hours on when the shootout happens. And almost all of that time is the carjacking. There's about, you know, 15, 20 minutes on the end -- on the end where Danny gets out finally to safety. He makes his break. Seize this moment. Gets to police. Because of his phone, because of the tracking in the Mercedes, they're able to track it down in minutes.

BANFIELD: In minutes.

MOSCOWITZ: And they had indicated -- I mean, they had not specifically said, but they had given Danny the impression that they wanted to go to New York, which is why they had taken his car, why they wanted money, they were looking for gas --

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: He overheard them saying Manhattan. Even though they were speaking in their native tongue he overheard them.

MOSCOWITZ: Yes. There were two clues. So they're --

BANFIELD: Amazing.

MOSCOWITZ: Yes. Yes.

BANFIELD: So I just want to let -- I just want to let our viewers know that you had the wherewithal to ask him, how did you make that decision to get out of the car? He had -- he was lucky. It was a cash only place. Brother number one had to go in and pay cash.

MOSCOWITZ: Yes.

BANFIELD: Brother number two puts the gun down to adjust the GPS. Danny takes that split second to jump and run and he made it. It's a good thing.

MOSCOWITZ: Yes.

BANFIELD: And congratulations for being able to (INAUDIBLE) and get that story and bring it -- and please give him our regards. I'm sure he's going to be going through a lot in the coming days.

MOSCOWITZ: I will. Yes. It's a privilege to speak to Danny yesterday. And I've been texting with him a little bit.

BANFIELD: It's nice to see you again, too.

MOSCOWITZ: Yes. It's nice to see you.

BANFIELD: Good to work on this story with you, Eric.

MOSCOWITZ: Thank you. Thank you.

BANFIELD: Congratulations.

MOSCOWITZ: Take care.

BANFIELD: You too. Cheers.

Amazing and perhaps one of the biggest clues as to who these two were, where they were, and perhaps that could have stopped what might have ultimately happened in New York City. If that was able to be pulled off at all.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev isn't the only member of his family who could be on the move today. As it turns out, his parents are also traveling. Not where we expected, we thought they'd be coming here, but we're going to take you live to southern Russia just a moment, though.

First, though, I want to show you some of the pictures of what's going on behind me. This is the memorial that's been set up. What I had found so remarkable and this is coming from someone who just months was at Newtown where, you know, memorials sprung up so quickly after the tragedy there. What I have found really remarkable is the varying degrees of things that people have left behind.

I have seen messages from Canada. Messages from Guatemala. From Puerto Rico. I've not only seen what you typically see the flowers and the candles and the stuffed toys but I've also seen the T-shirts and the shoes, the shoes with the messages -- written on them. Ball caps. Flags from everywhere. A wonderful message board has been set up for people to leave their notes behind if they just happen to be passing by without something to leave at this memorial.

And then also, I just want to just draw your attention to one of these things. I saw one of those T-shirts that you often get on vacation that says, "Wish you were here," and it says, "Wish you were here, Sean." I can only imagine that's referring to Sean Collier, one of the four who were killed in the terrible events of the week last week.

We are back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: The father of bomb suspects Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev was expected to be making his way to the United States. In fact, right about now. He was supposed to be coming here from his home in southern Russia.

But instead, there's been a change of plans. He and the suspects' mother did pack their bags, but they left Dagestan, that region. And now we don't seem to have any immediate plans or know of them, anyway, for them to leave Russia.

My colleague, Nic Robertson, is in the Dagestan capital -- Dagestani capital right now.

So, Nic, why did they leave where you are, where did they go, and how do we know that they may even -- their son is with the M.E. in a morgue here.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it does sound all strange and bizarre. And certainly we've heard conflicting accounts from them all week about what they plan to do, when they plan to do it.

At the press conference yesterday, the father said, I'm leaving for the United States. I want to see Dzhokhar, my son. I want to be there for Tamerlan's burial.

After that press conference, we heard he was taken ill, that his wife called an ambulance for him. And later or earlier this morning our time, we heard from the wife, who said that both her and her husband left Dagestan; they are somewhere else in Russia, and right now they have permanently or indefinitely put on hold the husband's planned trip to the United States.

It really does appear that perhaps his illness is kicking in, that he's just not able to travel. And that's all we have on it at the moment. But what we do know from both the parents, that they both still really consider their sons to be innocent and everything that's happened around them to be a conspiracy theory.

BANFIELD: Nic, I need to ask you about what it's been like covering not just the father but particularly the mother, because I think my colleague, Jake Tapper, put it best in a program before this one.

He said the histrionics that are coming out from the mother of these two suspects are, at the very least, remarkably offensive to a lot of Americans who are listening to her, preaching that America stole her children and that she sent them here to be protected by us and that somehow we have wronged her.

What else are you hearing from her?

And how is that being digested where you are?

ROBERTSON: She's very defensive. There certainly is a coterie of people here who believe that there is some kind of conspiracy theory, but I wouldn't say it is the larger majority of people.

I think a lot of people look at her and, A, see a grieving mother, but also see what a lot of other people see, and that is that there -- she gives the appearance of wanting to say some things and not offering up the whole truth, if you will, on other issues.

I asked her at the press conference about Misha, this person who so influenced her son, Tamerlan, to make him become more religious. She described how, when Misha came into the house, she also felt embarrassed by his sort of prayers and religious nature. And after that, she started praying.

And I said, OK, explain to us. Explain to us how that happened. What precisely did he say?

And she looked at her husband and they looked at each other, and there was -- she was silent for a while. And there was really no straightforward answer, no sort of he said this or he did that, that really convinced. And you got the idea that there are things that she wasn't really saying.

And I think there's a perception here that she knows more. And while some people would say yes, a grieving mother, others feel, look, they see her pain, but they know that there is more to hear and more to be explained from her, Ashleigh. BANFIELD: So it is distressing at the very least, Nic, to hear what she's had to say and to hear the tone of her -- in fact, I want to just ask if we can just run one of those quick interview sound bites that you've been supplying for the last several hours, because I think if you don't see it, if you don't see her tone, it is hard to tell.

Have a look at this and we'll talk on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZUBEIDAT TSARNAEVA, SUSPECTS' MOTHER: And when he is laying down there, already killed, truly killed -- oh, my God. I wanted to -- I wanted to scream.

(CROSSTALK)

TSARNAEVA: To scream to the whole world, what did you do? What have you done with my son? He was alive. Why did they need to kill him? Why didn't send him to the, you know, Guantanamo or whatever? Why did they kill him? Why? Why did he -- why did they have to kill him? They got him alive, right? There he was in their hands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: I think if you ask the officers who were facing gunfire and IEDs and ordnance under an extraordinary night of aggression, they will say the answer is clear as to why they had to take them. One alive, one dead; Nic Robertson, excellent reporting from Dagestan. Please let us know if you're able to track them down in their newer location.

In the meantime, there is a family that is standing just -- you know, standing by just within where I am at this point, feet away from the first explosion at the Boston Marathon.

I'm on the street and it is hard to they are now just two weeks later able to tell their story, an entire family that was affected, that was hit and injured this bomb. Their story of recovery and defiance in the face of what someone wanted to be terror and maybe it wasn't. Coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Kevin White was spending a beautiful day with his mother and his father near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, and then the first bomb went off.

All three of them were wounded by that explosion.

Kevin's father, who is a Vietnam veteran, has now lost his leg as a result of his injuries. And our John Berman was lucky enough and the Whites were kind enough to share their story about what a horrific ordeal they went through.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KEVIN WHITE, BOSTON BOMBING VICTIM: My arm -- this is where they pulled out the biggest chunk of shrapnel right there. And then I have all of these little BB marks, all up and down here and all over here. This -- it's all -- you see all these round welts. And then over on this side, there's more of them. And then there's -- all up through here. This is where I got really hit the hardest.

So it's interesting because they're -- when I went to the hospital Sunday, they actually had the round pieces of metal in them that looked like BBs basically.

I'll always have them for a memory, I guess, you know.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Some memory.

KEVIN WHITE: Yes.

BERMAN: So 2:50 pm in the afternoon on marathon Monday, what happens?

KEVIN WHITE: Well, you know, from what I recall, we were close to the finish line and kind of meandering, stopping, starting, stopping, starting. And suddenly there was this loud explosion, which to me sounded very metallic and almost like had an echo to it. And I saw a huge flash of light, blinding, and then just dark.

BERMAN: This is a picture of right after the race. Show me where you are.

KEVIN WHITE: I am right here. I kind of got blown away from the blast by about 5 feet. And my father is in the red, lying down. And my mother is right next to him, over him. And you can see that the blast happened right around there.

BERMAN: Mary Jo, I have to say, it had to be terrifying.

MARY JO WHITE, BOSTON BOMBING VICTIM: It -- the sound was just unbelievable.

KEVIN WHITE: Yes.

MARY JO WHITE: That was --

KEVIN WHITE: It was just --

MARY JO WHITE: It was just like we were in another world.

BERMAN: And then the uncertainty, not knowing for hours.

MARY JO WHITE: Yes.

KEVIN WHITE: That was the hardest part, I think, was, you know, not knowing where they were and calling around and trying to find updates and just being kind of helpless and powerless to the -- that was difficult.

BERMAN: The explosion goes off and what happened to you? MARY JO WHITE: It was the explosion and our clothes were torn off and I could not find Kevin at all. My husband, Bill, was on ground next to me. But I didn't know where Kevin was and I couldn't see him.