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EARLY START

Storms Tear Through Midwest; Moments Before the Fatal S.C. Shooting; New Challenges for Iran Nuclear Deal; Apple Watch is Here; Tiger Woods' Up & Down Day at the Masters. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired April 10, 2015 - 05:00   ET

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


[05:00:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And what does he say for whatever job you are trying to get anywhere, he said forget all of the gimmicks. Just make your resume great and specific. How did you show leadership? How did you grow sales? Be specific.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You should be great. I mean, your resume to be great, you have to be impressive. You can't really fake it, right

ROMANS: You can't fake it.

BERMAN: All right. EARLY START continues right now.

(MUSIC)

ROMANS: Deadly tornadoes tearing through the Midwest, the devastating damage and tracking what is still to come live.

BERMAN: New video of an unarmed South Carolina man before he was killed before police. New dash cam video revealing what led up to the deadly chase. That's ahead.

ROMANS: Growing challenges for a nuclear deal with Iran. Iranian leaders and now Congress throwing up new roadblocks. We are live.

Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: Great to see you today. I'm John Berman. It is Friday, April 10th. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East.

We do have breaking news for you this morning. A deadly string of tornadoes tearing across the Midwest. Some dramatic pictures. Look at that truck just getting blown over right there.

The weather service reports at least 14 reported tornadoes across three states. Officials say the path of destruction across Illinois alone was more than 25 miles long.

ROMANS: There was a huge twister in northern Illinois. This is near the city of Rochelle. Officials say the severe storm killed one person in nearby Fairdale. This is another view of the storms in northern Illinois. Residents of this neighborhood ran to their basements for shelter. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINDSEY MANNING, ILLINOIS TORNADO VICTIM: We were here. It was hailing. We actually all kind of thought it was going to miss us. And we started getting calls from people saying tornadoes were headed our way, and we quickly went down to the basement and could feel the tornado right over our house and came up to this.

I feel like it is a bad dream. Something I'd be watching on the news somewhere else. Not in my neighborhood.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Emergency officials say the tornadoes and high winds caused multiple injuries, widespread damage. Take a look at this building leveled in Rockford, Illinois. The fire department saying they are having a hard time getting access to devastated areas because of the damage and the debris.

BERMAN: In Missouri last night, a severe storm blasted through Chesterfield, just west of St. Louis. Fire officials say some 15 buildings in an industrial were damaged, some of them you can see just pretty much destroyed. No one was injured there, officials say it was because it was after business hours, and those who were still around got out as quickly as they could.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID BARNARD, ESCAPED STORM DESTRUCTION: There was a lot of wind and sideways rain. You couldn't really see anything. I started hearing crashing back in the shop area of our building and I went back there and saw that the vents have been ripped out of the roof and back part of the roof was separating from the wall of the building and lifting up, and decided that probably wasn't the best place to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: In Iowa, ominous storm clouds. This is near Clinton, Iowa. In eastern Iowa, another twister there. That storm downed trees and power lines, scattered debris. But officials say, thankfully, there were no injuries.

BERMAN: Meteorologist Derek Van Dam tracking these storms for us. Not done yet.

Let's get the latest -- Derek.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, John and Christine. You know, all of the ingredients were there for a significant weather event. And, boy, did that materialize. In fact, the National Weather Service particularly saying that this would be a particularly dangerous situation and, of course, that's what panned out. You can see the interaction between the very warm, moist and unstable air mass with the dry air mass behind it. Cold front triggered a super cell thunderstorm that moved outside of Rochelle, west of Chicago and crossed Interstate 39. And you saw that footage a moment ago of the 18 wheeler truck flipped on its side. It's just unbelievable, terrifying and extraordinary to see something of this magnitude. You can just tell Mother Nature and its brut force. What an incredible site.

Well, this is the path of the cold front that brings shower and thunderstorm activity at the moment across the mid-Atlantic. In fact, we have an expiring tornado watch box across central portions of Ohio and Kentucky just east of Cincinnati and Louisville. We now have a new severe thunderstorm watch box in effect through 10:00 a.m.

Cold front continues to march eastward. This time, we watch out for the possibility of large hail, damaging winds and isolated tornado from the Mid-Atlantic States, including the nation's capital through Raleigh and Atlanta and south to the Gulf of Mexico and parts of Texas. We do not expect as widespread of a severe event today. However, still important to keep an eye to the sky.

Here goes our cold front and temperatures and winds pick up behind this particular system.

John and Christine, back to you.

ROMANS: All right. Thanks for that, Derek.

BERMAN: This morning, we also have new video that brings new perspective to a police officer shooting of an unarmed black man in North Charleston, South Carolina.

[05:05:03] That Officer Michael Slager is now in jail facing murder charges.

Now, we have a new look at dash cam video just released by state officials. Now, it does not show the shooting itself, but it does show very important moments that led up to it. Walter Scott is pulled over and questioned by Officer Slager.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OFFICER MICHAEL SLAGER: Do you have your license, registration and insurance card?

WALTER SCOTT: (INAUDIBLE)

SLAGER: What's that?

SCOTT: I got my license, but (INAUDIBLE)

SLAGER: OK, let's start with your license. The reason for the stop is your brake light's out.

SCOTT: Oh, OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: These are the moments before the shooting, very important.

CNN's Brian Todd is in North Charleston, and breaks down for us what this all means.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, the latest development in this case is a dramatic one. The release of the dash cam video from the squad car of Officer Michael Slager. The video shows what appears to be a routine traffic stop.

Walter Scott's vehicle pulling into the parking lot of an Advance Auto Parts Store, Officer Slager getting out, going over to the car, talking to Walter Scott on the driver side, talking to him for several minutes. Then, Slager comes back to his vehicle. Walter Scott appears to get out of his vehicle briefly and put his hand up and but then he goes back in the vehicle. A few seconds later, Walter Scott emerges from his vehicle on this videotape and is seen taking off running to the left side of the screen.

That is the extent of that videotape. We don't know why Walter Scott took off running. That is a key gap that has to be filled in this case.

Another new development we have just interviewed another witness. We have exclusively interviewed a witness to come forward to talk about what she saw on the day of the shooting. Gwen Nichols is her name. She was in the neighborhood.

She saw a scuffle between Walter Scott and the officer. She did not witness the actual gunshots. She said they scuffled a little bit, and then saw Walter Scott go into the vacant lot where he eventually was shot.

She did hear the gunshots, though, and she described to us how she felt when she heard them.

GWEN NICHOLS, WITNESS: I started to cry. Sorry. I started to cry because I thought about the altercation with my son, and it could have been my son. It could have been any one of these young black men around here.

TODD: Gwen Nichols referred to her son there because she says her own son had his encounter with the North Charleston police that was somewhat similar. That his son was pulled over for a routine traffic stop and they ended up kind of roughing him up a little bit and arresting him. So, she could relate to what happened to Walter Scott on that day -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Brian, an interesting look at that video.

Now, this morning, we are also hearing from the mother of Michael Slager, the officer now behind bars. While holding back tears, she offered this to the family of the man who her son is accused of murdering.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAREN SHARPE, MOTHER OF MICHAEL SLAGER: I just -- I just have to let it be and hope God takes care of everybody involved. Not only my family, but the Scott family, because I know they're grieving, just like I'm grieving.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: In an interview with ABC's Steve Osunsami, Karen Sharpe said her son loved being a police officer and that murder is just not in Slager's character.

ROMANS: All right. Cracks are starting to appear in the framework for a nuclear deal with Iran. Here in the U.S., the Senate is closing in on a plan that would give Congress a chance to review that deal, which might complicate negotiations. In Iran, the supreme leader says he will not agree to a deal unless economic sanctions are lifted on day one. Iran's support of Houthi rebels in Yemen is now also a complicating issue.

CNN senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen is following the latest developments live from London.

We knew it would be difficult, just getting a framework -- an agreement for a framework was difficult, now, these external pressures really mounting.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You're absolutely right, Christine. And one of the things we have to keep in mind is that the framework was reached, but it was barely reached. I mean, they went over the deadline to reach that agreement. Of course, there are still things that are going to be difficult to work out, running up that June 30th deadline when a final deal is supposed to be in place.

And now, you have the supreme leader, the guy who calls the shots in Iran, coming out and saying he's not very optimistic that a deal can be reached by that deadline by June 30th or a deal can be reached at all.

The Iranians feel that some of the things the U.S. has said are part of the interim deal are not accurate. They feel for instance that sanctions, as you said, should be -- should go away immediately after the deal is implemented. Of course, what the U.S. is saying, they believe that sanctions should be phased out as Iran complies with every aspect of the final deal that's supposed to be in place.

[05:10:07] But there is another detail as well that could be a big problem going forward. There are some very high level Iranian politicians and generals going on in the media in Iran yesterday, saying that they believe the checks of all of this, the inspections that are supposed to take place, will not happen in the country. They say, for instance, military sites would be off limits to any sorts of inspectors. That is something that seems to run against what the U.S. is saying. Of course, the U.S. is saying inspections would take place everywhere inside Iran.

So, there is a lot of negotiating to be done. Iranians, of course, have a lot of hard liners within their country that are very pessimistic about any sort of final deal going forward. And it's certainly an audience the supreme leader will have been catering to as well. But it is going to be a very difficult road ahead leading to that June 30th deadline, Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Fred Pleitgen, thanks for that, Fred.

BERMAN: A new study out this morning says there are major gaps in airport security nationwide. The investigation by the Associated Press finds 268 perimeter breaches since 2004 at some of America's busiest airports. This could be an understatement, too, because Boston's Logan airport refused to release any kind of security information. Authorities say it is neither financially nor physically feasible to keep all intruders out.

ROMANS: All right. Time for an early start on your money this morning.

Dow is up for the year. One good move away from 18,000, but corporate profits could foul that up. Profits likely fell for the first time in six years. We're going to have a week or so of earnings coming out that could mess things up.

All right. Apple taking pre-orders starting this morning for the Apple Watch. Look at this. You can try one on at Apple stores today. They're customized with different bands, different faces. It's the company's first new product in five years, the first new product since Steve Jobs died. The watch starts at 350 bucks, goes all the way up to $17,000 for the solid gold version.

Early reviews find it hard to get used to, but worth it. It is meant to unshackle you from checking your phone all the time. Some complaints about battery life. It's meant to sort of, as one reviewer said, transcend technology into jewelry and really make you rely on this, not the phone. I had worried that maybe it was going to be redundant, why do you need a phone and a watch? This is meant to be the thing you use more.

BERMAN: The irony is I stopped wearing a watch because of my iPhone, right. And so, now, they want me to get the watch back. It's interesting.

ROMANS: It taps you and it alerts you in different ways and different things that are happening. So, you technically wouldn't have to be looking at your phone all the time. Someone liken the way we look at our phones like smoking used to be. You know, you are constantly fidgeting and looking at the phone, even when you don't necessarily need to. The watch is meant to stop that.

BERMAN: Normally when people tap me, I get annoyed. But, you know, we'll see. Exactly. Now, I can buy a phone to do that.

ROMANS: All right. Twelve minutes past the hour. As the jury deliberates the fate of former NFL star Aaron Hernandez, charged with murder, new drama unfolds in the courtroom. We'll explain, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:16:08] BERMAN: Breaking news this morning. At least one person is dead after twisters ripped across the Midwest. At least 14 tornadoes reported in Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri. One person was killed in northern Illinois where a tornado shredded homes and toppled trees. In a St. Louis suburb, a violent storm damaged 15 buildings and a twister to touch down in eastern Iowa, spared a densely populated areas, but it did wreck havoc on trees and power lines.

ROMANS: Developing this morning, new incidents of police officers accused of using excessive force. Video has surfaced of a man being pummeled by officers in San Bernardino County in the bizarre horse back pursuit. This purportedly the beating went on about two minutes, involved as many as 11 officers. The man being hit is identified as 30-year-old Francis Posuk (ph) was struck although his hands were behind his back, hard to see it there. The incident stemmed from an identity theft investigation. An internal investigation has been launched in this case.

BERMAN: A California power company facing the largest penalty in U.S. history. State regulators ordering Pacific Gas & Electric to pay $1.6 billion for failures leading up to a deadly 2010 gas pipeline blast in the suburb of San Bruno. Eight people killed, remember that, 38 homes flattened. The company still faces more than $1 billion in federal crimes, has committed to spend at least $3 billion to improve its pipeline safety.

ROMANS: Deliberations resume today in the Aaron Hernandez murder trial. This comes as an employee at a local TV station was ordered to appear before that judge. Two jurors said they were followed by a local news van. Now, the judge ordered the media away as the panel works toward a verdict in the case.

CNN's Susan Candiotti picks up the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: After deliberating more than 15 1/2 hours over three days, the jury in the case against Aaron Hernandez still has not yet reached a verdict. Now, considering that they have more than 430 exhibits to look over and testimony from 135 witnesses, it's easy to understand why jurors are taking their time.

Now, there was another development in the case, two jurors thought they were followed by an unmarked car. When they reported it to the court and the car belonged to a Boston television station. Now, the judge has now banned that television station's photographer, in particular, from covering the trial anymore.

However, the jurors were asked whether they thought this incident would affect their ability to deliberate and they said no. So, the trial will go on. Deliberations will continue this day on Friday from 9:00 in the morning until 1:00 in the afternoon -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Thanks, Susan.

BERMAN: All right. Tiger Woods came in to the Masters. He was hoping to get his game back on track after two months off. How did he do and who has really set that place on storm? Amazing performances at Augusta in day one.

Andy Scholes has it in the bleacher report, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Tiger Woods back in action at the Masters, sort of. There was some good tiger and there was some bad tiger. But mostly a lot of mediocre tiger, after taking two months off.

ROMANS: Andy Scholes, never mediocre, has more in this morning's bleacher report.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, guys.

You know, I actually consider Tiger's run a success for two reasons. He did not get hurt and he is still in the mix to make the cut. Now, Tiger had some bad shots in the round one. And at point, he did get a little frustrated. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, Tiger!

TIGER WOODS, PRO GOLFER: To the right (EXPLETIVE DELETED)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: That was Tiger on 15, hitting it into the pine straw. He saved par on that hole and ended the day at 1 over.

Your leader after round one is 21-year-old Texan Jordan Spieth. He shot 8 under, which is the best opening round at Augusta National in 19 years. Spieth is the youngest player to lead the Masters after round one. He's going to tee off today at 10:00 eastern. Tiger gets going at 10:30. So, it's going to be another exciting day in round two in Augusta.

Be sure to tune in to "All Access at Augusta: A CNN Bleacher Report Special." It's going to be hosted by Rachel Nichols. It's going to be airing Saturday afternoon, 2:30 Eastern, right here on CNN.

NBA MVP frontrunner Steph Curry can hit three-pointers from anywhere against the blazers. And he didn't stop there. Curry knocking down eight threes in the game, breaking his regular season three point record in the process. He ended finishing with 45 points in the game. The Warriors beat the Blazers, 116-105, for their league leading 64th win of the season.

All right. Bad news for the Atlanta Hawks. Guard Thabo Sefolosha suffered a fractured fibula and ligament damage during a scuffle with New York police. He is now going to miss the remainder of the season and the playoffs. Sefolosha and Pero Antic were arrested and charged for trying to prevent police for setting up a crime scene following the stabbing of Pacers forward Chris Copeland outside of a New York City night club. Copeland is in stable condition following surgery yesterday.

At Yankee Stadium, fans got to see something that they hadn't in a long time, an A-Rod home run.

[05:25:04] In the sixth inning, A-Rod homering for the first time since September of 2013. He received a nice ovation from the crowd and A-Rod said after game, he felt like he needed a Google Map to run the bases that it's been so long. The Yankees losing that game 6-3 to the Blue Jays.

All right. Duke stars Okafor announcing he is heading to the NBA. He could be the top pick to in the June draft. Seven Kentucky Wildcats also announcing heading to the NBA. That roster will be different next year as it has been in the past few years.

BERMAN: They will build it again. They will be back deep in the tournament again.

Andy Scholes, great to see you this morning.

SCHOLES: All right.

ROMANS: All right. Deadly, deadly storms barreling across the Midwest. The damage done and what comes next, right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Deadly destructive tornadoes tearing through the Midwest and communities there destroyed. Look at the truck toppling over by the force of the winds. We are tracking all the latest breaking developments in these storms, live.

ROMANS: Also, new video shedding new light on the deadly police chase. The moments before Walter Scott was shot and killed. We'll show you that ahead.

BERMAN: Nuclear roadblocks. Leaders from Iran and Congress casting new doubt that a nuclear deal can be reached. We are live with new challenges this morning. That's ahead.

Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm John Berman.

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It's 30 minutes past the hour this Friday morning. Nice to see you here, everybody.

Breaking news this morning: a deadly, deadly string of tornadoes tearing across the Midwest. That outbreak including at least 14 -- 14 reported tornadoes across three states.