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NEW DAY SUNDAY
Police: Suspect in Copenhagen Attacks Killed; Interview with Denmark's Deputy Prime Minister; U.S. Condemns Copenhagen Shootings; Another Blizzard Bears Down on New England
Aired February 15, 2015 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Record snowfall for the month of February. For Boston specifically, more than 1600 flights are canceled and the snow is just starting to pile up, folks.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
PAUL: Always so glad to have your company. I'm Christi Paul.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Martin Savidge, in for Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you.
PAUL: Yes.
SAVIDGE: Good to be with you.
PAUL: So good to have you here.
You know, we are following some breaking news this morning. Police investigating whether the suspect in twin terror attacks at a cafe and a synagogue in the Danish capital acted alone.
SAVIDGE: The suspected gunman was killed just hours ago in a shootout with police at his apartment in Copenhagen. Earlier, they released this surveillance photo of him. It all started yesterday when a gunman sprayed a Copenhagen cafe with bullets, killing one person there. A crowd had gathered for a free speech forum with a cartoonist on al Qaeda's hit list when shots rang out.
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PAUL: It sounds like they are never going to end, doesn't it?
Just ten hours later then, a gunman approached two officers near a synagogue and began shooting. And a bystander was killed in that incident.
CNN's Nic Robertson is in Copenhagen, and Erin McPike is in Washington with the president's reaction. Nic, I want to get to you first. Talk to us about where you are
and the significance of what's happened there.
ROBERTSON: Yes, I'm literally around the corner from the apartment building where the alleged gunman was and was killed by the police. He had returned to his apartment at about 4:50 in the morning here. The police had it staked out from about 11:00 p.m. the night before because of what they had seen on that surveillance footage they realized that was the apartment he lived in or they believed that.
They waited for him to return. When he returned they challenged him and then he opened fire on them. They fired back, killing him.
This is known here as an area that has a high immigrant population here. This is one of the things we're learning here. But, of course, the police have not yet released the identity of this man, nor yet what they believe the motive for the attack could be. But what we have learned from the Jewish community here, is that attack at the synagogue killed a young man, a 37-year-old man, Dan Uzan, was killed who was a guard outside the synagogue.
There was a party there in the house behind the synagogue that night for a young girl and he was -- he essentially was on guard duty when this gunman walked up and shot him dead and shot the two police officers who were there with him guarding that event -- Christi, Martin.
PAUL: Are police pretty certain that this suspect acted alone at this point, Nick, or it's just too to assert that?
ROBERTSON: They believe they got the man who is behind those two attacks. There seems to be little doubt in that at the moment. They haven't declared it 100 percent. However, the police presence in this city is still high. There are armed policemen behind me here and other police spread out through the city. There's still a lot of police officers on duty, because there is a state of heightened alert and caution because they can't, authorities here cannot be sure if there will be another follow-on attack, a copycat type of attack, will somebody else decide to act alone because of this, it's not clear.
So, while police believe they have the man responsible, that they have now killed him, they do take a lot of care and caution, we are being told, that they -- that they don't rest up because there is this concern, of course, that there may be the potential for another attack to follow on from someone else.
PAUL: Yes, very good point. Nic Robertson, thank you so much for bringing us the latest there.
SAVIDGE: And we are learning more about one of the victims. He is 37-year-old Dan Uzan. He was killed outside of the synagogue and he was providing security for a bar mitzvah inside. He was very active in the Jewish society in Copenhagen.
I want to bring in now, Morten Ostergaard. He is the deputy prime minister in Denmark and he joins us now on the telephone. Deputy Prime Minister, thank you for joining us. We're very
sorry for the losses your country has suffered here.
Can you tell me, do you believe the gunman acted alone?
MORTEN OSTERGAARD, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER OF DENMARK (via telephone): Well, at the moment, the police is trying to find out for certain. But what is reassuring anyway is that it appears that it was a lone perpetrator and that the police identified him quickly and now, he's deceased, and, therefore, the investigation now can resume, even though that we have continuously high alert and are -- the police are very vigilant in and around Copenhagen.
I think it's fair to say that the police are fairly certain that they got the man.
SAVIDGE: And given the fact of "Charlie Hebdo," the attack that took place in Paris and certainly with al Qaeda actively going after the cartoonist, do you think that the security was appropriate at this cafe where the meeting was taking place?
OSTERGAARD: Well, I think everybody here is now relieved of the fact that there was a high level of security at the place of the debate, and also that stemming from that attack, there was armed police by the synagogue, because what would of happened if those two places have been left alone without police protection? Then this might have been disaster of even great proportion. So, all of our thoughts and prayers go to the families of the victims, but we also have great respect for the fact that our intelligence community and our police were present and helped make this terrorist attack or prevented this terrorist attack become even more devastating than it was.
SAVIDGE: It certainly has all the hallmarks of a terrorist attack and you used that term yourself. Are you absolutely certain this was, in fact, an act that was carried out motivated by some sort of terroristic cause?
OSTERGAARD: Well, the event at the cafe in Copenhagen was a political debate on freedom of speech. As you've mentioned a Swedish cartoonist were present, so it appears that it was some kind of a political motive behind it. Of course, this is all something that is now being part of the police investigation, but the police have, from the beginning, been investigating this as a terrorist attack.
SAVIDGE: Deputy Prime Minister Morten Ostergaard, thank you very much for talking to us today.
OSTERGAARD: Thanks for having me.
PAUL: The U.S., of course, is condemning the shootings in Denmark and our Erin McPike is in Washington this morning.
Erin, is there any indication the U.S. will help with the investigation or that Copenhagen will even ask? ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christi, that's certainly
possible, but I do want to clarify that the statement that the White House put out last night is only about the first shooting, the one that occurred in the cafe and not in time but the one that happened in the synagogue.
Let me read this statement to you. It comes from National Security Council spokesman Bernadette Meehan, and she says, "The United States condemns today's shooting in Copenhagen. We offer our condolences to the loved ones of the deceased victim and our thoughts are with those wounded in this attack. We have been in close contact with our Danish counterparts and stand ready to lend any assistance necessary to the investigation."
So, what's so interesting about that statement is that it is very cautious. But again, it was only about the first shooting. But the statements that we have seen from other world leaders have been much stronger and much more in-depth. And, of course, as you may know from the past week, President Obama and the White House have come under a little bit of scrutiny because President Obama, of course, referred to the second attack in Paris after the "Charlie Hebdo" attack, the one that happened in the kosher deli as random. And you are hearing from other lawmakers that anti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe.
So, we will be looking today to see what more we get out of the White House and how they characterize the totality of yesterday's events, Christi and Martin.
PAUL: All right. Erin McPike, good to see you this morning. Thank you.
SAVIDGE: The other big story that we are following, the blizzard in Boston. Snow already falling across the Northeast. We are going to go there live.
Plus, the cease-fire in Ukraine. It's now in effect, but will it hold? An update coming up.
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SAVIDGE: All right. Let's show you some new overnight video in from Boston, which is just getting slammed. This morning, there's another blizzard that is bearing down on that city, a city that has just set a new record after weeks and weeks of snow. This new snowstorm is affecting millions of people, not just Boston, but all across New England.
PAUL: Right. In fact, in Ohio, take a look at the scene here. Three people died while they were driving on some pretty treacherous roadways. Obviously, this has contributed to the weather there. Among the victims on this one, a pregnant woman and her unborn child.
SAVIDGE: And then the airline travelers, they're also feeling the storm's effects with more than 1,600 flights, I think, at this point cancelled. And among those hardest hit airports, and no real surprise, Boston Logan there really getting plowed under, and New Jersey's Newark Airport.
PAUL: We do have crews spread out throughout Massachusetts. CNN's Will Ripley is in Cape Ann. You see there on the left.
But we want to begin with correspondent Cristina Alesci who is in Boston.
And, Cristina, I know you've been out there for about three hours. How have you seen this thing evolve? Does it snowing harder now? It looks to be.
CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, my goodness. Yes, it is. It's coming down about 1 to 3 inches an hour. And this morning, when I got up, the roads were cleared. And now, you can't see the road any more. The plows haven't been able to make it through.
This morning, Boston set a record. It's the official snowiest month on record here. You know, just to give you some contacts, this has been the fourth storm in as many weeks. As you can see here, this huge snow pile is 80 inches of snow. It's the snowiest winter in -- I think the seventh snowiest winter in Boston. It's just incredible. The city has been trying to dig out, every aspect of life has been affected, from getting around transportation, you know, the mass transit system has been shut down a few times already, including today. And residents had to get their cars off the street yesterday. There was a 10:00 p.m. parking ban in effect. Not to mention, there are plenty of concerns like rooftops and snow accumulating on rooftops is a major concern here.
Also, keep in mind, residents are nervous about power outages because the wind is supposed to be really whipping up. This morning, it was blowing about 22 miles an hour. When it gets that high, you get visibility concerns because the wind is just taking all of this very powdery snow and kind of blowing it all over the place and that what creates the visibility pattern problems.
And as you can see here, more snow. This is what I'm talking about. It's just snow on top of snow and it's really making it hard, especially for small businesses because employees can't get there. So, that means they are shutting down their businesses. Customers can't get there. Revenues are down.
The governor saying it should be Valentine's Day week to help these businesses recover some of those lost sales, and as bad as it is here, it could get even worse by the coastline. That is where my colleague Will Ripley is right now, in Cape Ann.
Will, how's it going over there?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Cristina.
Well, unlike you guys in Boston which got a bit of a break overnight from the snow, it just kept falling here on Cape Ann. In fact, in Gloucester, just down the road, they have recorded a foot of fresh powder since this storm began. And the winds are really whipping right now. This is our gustometer, which is recording sustain winds of about 20 miles an hour.
But I have to tell you, when we woke up here in our bed and breakfast, in Rockport, the wind gusts were so strong, they were actually shaking our beds. And all of the crew in our rooms experienced this. In fact, you see one of the wind gusts here right now.
The Atlantic Ocean behind me, you can't see it. It's all white caps. The waves are crashing in. The visibility near zero here as well and it's expected to stay that way even after the snow has stopped falling. The reason for that, there is so much fresh powder on top of these huge mounds of packed powder that you're going to have a rare situation where you have limited visibility even after the snowfall, which is going to make driving very dangerous.
And it's the reason why roads here in Rockport are closed right now and are going to stay closed until 5:00 a.m. tomorrow. You can't see it because it's hidden by the tree line but there is a bulldozer trying to carve out a path on the road to our hotel. It's so narrow, Christie and Martin, you can barely drive. You just have maybe a foot or so on each side of the SUV.
As the locals would say, guys, this storm is wicked.
Back to you.
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SAVIDGE: Will and Cristina, thank you both very much.
Forget the gustometer. Just listen to the wind --
PAUL: I know, you can hear it, for heaven's sakes!
And, you know, Cristina was talking about the businesses there and wanting to extend Valentine's Day. I was reading that there was a place yesterday, a restaurant called the Fire Place, that delivered dinner for the first time in 14 years.
The guy said, I have a Ford truck, a willing wife, and a special Valentine's Day menu, so I thought I would have fun.
SAVIDGE: Bam.
PAUL: So, they're bring dinner to you when they can, but it doesn't like they're going to be able to do much of that either, Ivan Cabrera.
IVAN CABRERA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, I rather a snow plow to come right at (INAUDIBLE) because you know the secondary roads, I mean, it takes a while from living there so many years. We've got to clear out the interstates and then we get to the roads.
Look at this radar right now, guys, incredible stuff coming out of Boston right now. We're talking about thunder snow that is ongoing as we speak. Go ahead and move this forward ahead for me, Michael, so we can see the NL2 radar and depict the heavier bands moving through Boston.
Right now, incredible scenes right now. Not only are we getting the snow but thunder snow. And the National Weather Service is now reporting snowfall rates 2 to 4 inches an hour, and in the last hour, we have already picked up 3 inches of snowfall across the region to hear.
In fact, we're getting word from the National Weather Service as well that we have in Plymouth, which is right down across the cape here because of the strong winds coming in, we are talking about two feet of water that has now made it into the esplanade of Plymouth. That is from the National Weather Service, and that is what we were concerned about because of that north wind that comes in and the water gets pushed out.
Look at the lightning bolts coming down here. Incredible stuff. You see the purple hues coming in purple there, that is indicative of the very heavy snowfall going in Boston right now -- an amazing scene.
And we have several more hours of several more inches, so this is not going to be done. And then when the blizzard, as far as the snow coming out of the sky is done, we are still looking at blizzard warnings that extend all the way out to Worcester, Mass, and blizzard warnings. That is unbelievable scene there because with you see the snow that is on the ground there as you saw with some of our reporters there that is going to get picked up.
You don't need snow coming out of the cloud to get a blizzard and that's exactly what we have going. And then, of course, the wind chills, dangerous stuff there. You saw that woman in the live shot?
You got to walk the dog, I understand, but try to limit that activity because by the time we get into tomorrow, this is what you're dealing with, wind chills between 20 and 30 below zero by the time we get into Monday morning and then, we're going to be tracking another storm that is going to be moving in through the region here.
So, yes, the winter of 2014-2015 going down in the history books. We are number seven right now for the snowiest weather. I think we're going to get to the top five. No question.
PAUL: You do?
CABRERA: Absolutely. Yes.
PAUL: All right. And you made a very good point. Please remember your pets. Bring them inside, don't let them.
CABRERA: And check on the elderly and your folks because they lose power with these temperatures. Really dangerous stuff.
SAVIDGE: Yes, very good point. Thanks.
PAUL: Thank you, Ivan, so much.
SAVIDGE: And another story we are continuing to watch closely this morning is that cease-fire. It is in effect in Ukraine. The question is, will it hold? In our next half hour, we'll go there live to get an update of the reports of new shelling.
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SAVIDGE: Good morning. Welcome back.
Here is a look the other stories that are developing right now.
PAUL: Yes, cease-fire in Ukraine is holding it seems. But there's the threat of and raveling at any moment. The truce between Ukraine and pro-Russian levels started 14 hours at this point. Now, CNN crews have heard small gunfire in the street of Donetsk. Others are reporting minor ceasefire violations around the conflict zone.
SAVIDGE: An Iraqi tribal leader says ISIS militants are gaining ground and Anbar province could collapse at any time. The tribal leader has called for more U.S. military intervention. So far, U.S. helicopter gunships had supported the troops in the battle near al- Asad airbase. One expert says this may indicate mission creep because the Iraqi military is not up to the task.
PAUL: Conservationists work feverishly to save a large pod of whales that beached themselves in New Zealand yesterday. Look at this -- at least 103 of them have already died as a result of this beaching. Now, this stranding of large sea mammals isn't new in New Zealand. This year alone, at least 85 incidents have been reported, but officials say usually it's just one or two whales or dolphins. Large-scale strandings like this are extremely rare.
SAVIDGE: The FAA plans to release new rules governing the use of commercial drones today. So far, commercial use of drones has been banned, except for some very rare exceptions. Drones have been a serious problem in recent years because of several close calls with passenger airplanes.
PAUL: Our top story, we continue to get reports on the latest on those attacks in Denmark. Police say they shot and killed the suspected gunman who murdered two people and wounded five others there in Copenhagen.
SAVIDGE: We will bring you a live report from the scene, next.
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PAUL: Dozens of gunshots is what you're hearing there. Almost sounds as though it won't stop, right? This was at a cafe in Copenhagen, as terrified people ran for cover there and that's where a gunman opened fire, killing one man. SAVIDGE: The victim: a 55-year-old filmmaker. He was attending
a free speech forum along with cartoonist on al Qaeda's hit list and he told others how important it was to be there at that event. Hours after he was killed, a gunman opened fire on two police officers near a synagogue in Copenhagen. They survived and a bystander was killed.
PAUL: The suspect is dead now as well, killed in a shoot-out with police overnight.
CNN's Nic Robertson is there in Copenhagen and standing, we understand, right near where the suspect was shot dead by police.
So, tell me what you know about where you are and what is happening with the investigation at this point, Nic.
ROBERTSON: So, Christi, I've just been talking with a local politician here and she describes this area to me as having a high immigrant population, an area that is quite socially deprived, also with a high sort of young population here as well.
Now, what happened was the suspect gunman returned to his house, his apartment which is really just behind this block of buildings you can see behind me here.
