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tv   Erin Burnett Out Front  CNN  May 28, 2013 4:00pm-5:01pm PDT

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you can follow us and what's going on on twitter. tweet me @wolfblitzer. i'm filling in for anderson cooper on "ac360." until then, thanks for watching. "outfront" starts right now. "outfront" next, america's defense compromised. according to a report, chinese cyber spies breached more than two dozen american weapons systems. an inferno at seas. passengers were scrambling for safety. what was it like in their own words tonight? and a major setback for george zimmerman's defense. let's go "outfront." good to see you. i'm brooke bouldaun.
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hacked by the chinese. according to a report obtained by "washington post," chinese hackers breached more than two dozen american weapons systems that are essential to our national defense. among them, you have the fa-18 fighter jet, a combat trip, the aegis ballistic missile defense system and the advanced patriotic missile batteries. u.s. defense and other officials, they're downplaying the report saying that some of the information is dated. but if chinese cyber spies are able to obtain some of america's most sensitive weapons technology, isn't that a national security concern? outfront with me, colonel cedric latten and kevin mandia is a top cyber security expert who did a separate report this year on chinese military hackers.
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gentlemen, welcome. colonel, let's begin with you. from everything i have read, the biggest fear here, obviously, if this is all true, the chinese stealing, stealing our sensitive information about the specific weapons systems and then if and when there's a conflict, they would have an edge. i want you to tell me how much of an edge they would have. >> well, brooke, it's very, you know, it's hard to say exactly how that edge would manifest itself, but if you start going in to each of these weapons systems, the ones you outlined plus a whole dozen other weapons systems on the list, you could have a significant effect on the event of a future battle because what you would do is go in to things like the source code for the weapons systems and all of them basically computer driven and at that particular point when you needed to, you could change the way that weapons system works potentially and if that happens a fumultitude of times, it could possibly affect
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the outcome of a potential conflict. >> what can the pentagon do about this? kevin, the crux of the public report, "the washington post" got their hands on the confidential report and the crux of the report is that the pentagon is unprepared for a full-out cyber attack. does that make you nervous? >> you know, i know we're doing everything we can about it but here's an unfortunate truth is that technology and how we advance our technology growing faster than safeguards for that technology and always is a gap and never going to get it infinitesimal and always some risk to cyber espionage. >> it is that gap that perhaps is what the chinese have, you know, seized upon. colonel, back to you. let's run through again just for the viewers who may not be familiar with the weapons systems. as you mentioned, there are dozens of others but it's the f-35 joint strike fighter, the black hawk helicopter and many
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of us are familiar with by just news, the f/a-18 fighter jet and the aegis ballistic missile defense system. how critical, sir, are these to our national defense? >> extremely critical. for example, let's take the joint strike fighter. that's the quintessential new american weapons system for the first part of this century. it costs $1.4 trillion so far. it's been plagued by a bunch of cost overruns and the reason for the cost overruns is because of many new added features to the aircraft and plus it has to not only meet air force requirements but marine and navy requirements, as well and then the foreign requirements so the program costs a lot of money. every time that something like this happens where the chinese or others get in to the weapons system and hack in to the plans for that weapons system, it means that new plans have to be developed and those costs go up even further. >> the thing is, you know, we know this, the chinese espionage, we are not breaking
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news here. this is not new. we know that the concern surged. we know that the administration experien expressed a concern to chinese governments. let's end with you, kevin. roading the "the washington post" piece, this is what the chinese government insists he does not conduct espionage and the government spokesman complained that beijing is a victim of u.s. cyber attacks. what more can the u.s. do? >> well, i think it's time to embrace that this is the new normal. the chinese constantly make the denials even though they have one of the most controlled internet presences on the planet so they're very well aware of what's going on coming out of their networks. we have to be mindful of the security gap we have, keep closing the gap as fast as we can and we have to give the best fight we can. there's no single technical answer to solve this. there's going to be diplomacy and nontechnical ways to address the issues. >> colonel, final thoughts beyond closing the gap? >> it's absolutely key and make
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sure that we have the right policies in place and what that means is real national cyber strategy to take in to account everything that kevin just said plus also develops a public and private partnership that we really don't have in this country like some other countries have and that's going to be the key to success in this area. >> okay. gentlemen, thank you so much. i appreciate it so much for coming "outfront" tonight. i appreciate it. still to come, explosions were heard as a cruise ship burst in to flames. passengers aboard the ship, they share their stories tonight. plus, an american woman, a mother of seven, arrested in mexico. the charge? smuggling. 12 pounds of pot in to the country. but do the charges really add up? and a major setback for george zimmerman's defense. what the jury will never get to see. i want to make things more secure.
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here we go. the second story "outfront." harrowing tales of the inferno at sea. tonight, passengers who were aboard royal caribbean's "grandeur of the sea" and describing to us what's described as an ordeal. passengers report hearing explosions and scenes of panic as they watched lifeboats being lowered in to place. erin mcpike is out front in baltimore where the passengers are finally heading home tonight. erin, tell me what you've
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learned as far as the fire goes and where it started. >> reporter: well, brooke, they don't know the cause yet of the fire. what they do know that it was in the mooring area of a deck on the back of the ship. what i talked to some engineers today and they say when there does happen to be a fire on a ship sometimes and sometimes they're common they tend to be in the kitchen of the ship or the engine room but the place on the back of the deck was just not very usual and so it's under going an investigation right now. it's dry docked in the bahamas and undergoing repairs there, brooke. >> what about the passengers? what about -- let me get this number. 2,224 passengers. what about royal caribbean response in getting them home? >> they started chartering flights today. they had hoped to get all 11 of the chartered flights back in to baltimore today. as far as we know, only two of
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the flights have made it in but the passengers on some of those flights seemed to be in good spirits when cnn talked to them earlier today, brooke. >> good, good. erin mcpike, thank you. and jennifer dobson was a passenger on royal caribbean's "grandeur of the seas" and back many baltimore tonight. he joins me. jennifer, jennifer, welcome home. first and foremost. glad you're safe. take me back to the moment when you were notified something was terribly wrong. what happened? >> yeah. it was about 3:00, 2:45, 3:00 in the morning. alarm starts going off. i wake up my husband. we look at each other like, is this really happening? go out in the hallway. we were traveling with nine other people and we weren't ginn the opportunity to knock on their doors and make sure they were getting up. we were told to get upstairs. the crew in the hallway outside our room was in their pajamas,
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gym shorts and no one quite knew what was going on yet. we run up to the muster station and it was just kind of surreal. i've been on a lot of cruises and have never had anything like that happen. and at one point i looked over the side of the ship. i kind of got myself out of line and could see the water glowing from flames. >> wow. >> and i knew it wasn't a small flame. to make it glow that much behind the boat. so, got back in line. i saw them lower the lifeboats, prepare the lifeboats. they started instructing us on how we were going to board. they give you a seasickness pill before you get on board. i was pretty sure we were about to get off. >> so you end up hanging out in the bahamas for a little bit until you're able to get out of there and head home. when you talk about the flames you see reflected in the water and then you get off the ship and you see what we have been
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showing, the charred boat and the windows just gone. >> oh, yeah. >> did you have any idea it was that bad? >> it was crazy. the way they described it didn't seem that bad. the morning of, i went on the top deck to look over and see what i could see and didn't look that bad. get off and it was just surreal. i can't believe we were on that boat. the fire started on three and that's where my room was. >> oh. >> so, luckily we were mid ship and pretty far away from it. i met some other families that their room was destroyed and their things were not in good shape because that's where they fought the fire from. >> jennifer, throughout this whole thing, how was the crew with you all? >> amazing. >> yeah? >> i don't think i could have asked anything else of royal caribbean. they stayed calm. they brought us water. they brought us soda. they arranged for people to sit down if they needed to sit down. for four hours of standing on the side of the ship, i'm pretty
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sure the people in front of me were always smiling, answering questions. they took panicked passengers with ease. i couldn't say more about how they handled everything. >> that's wonderful. just ten seconds i have to ask. are you going back, cruising again? >> i will cruise again. >> cruising again. jennifer, thank you so much. still to come tonight, an arizona mother in a mexican jail tonight accused of smuggling more than 12 pounds of marijuana. her family says the whole thing, a big con job. plus the latest of the london terror attack investigation. did authorities have information that could have prevented that tragedy? and wow. a newborn baby. look at this. found alive in a sewer pipe. we will show you more images from this dramatic rescue. she got a parking ticket... ♪
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our third story "outfront," arizona mother held in moment ka claims she's been framed. she is in mexican jail tonight accused of trying to smuggle more than 12 pounds of marijuana back in to the united states. but the thing is her family says this whole thing is a huge mistake. and the pot found under her seat on a commercial bus, yeah, they say that wasn't theirs. casey wian is "outfront" tonight. casey, maldonado was in court today. what happened? >> reporter: we're outside the family home in arizona. they're all trying to get her released from a mexican jail. as you mentioned, there was a court hearing today.
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been going on since 10:00 local time this morning. four different witnesses we know of so far have testified at that court hearing. the family hoping that she might be released as early as today. court officials say that's not going to happen because tomorrow scheduled to testify are the mexican military personnel who apprehended the woman and initially her husband gary. they're supposed to take the stand tomorrow and tell their side of the story. of course, gary has made allegations that they were asked to pay a $5,000 bribe to mexican officials to secure her release. he gathered that money up by the time he got the money up, she was already shipped off to jail. one legal expert tells us this is just another example of mexico's difficult struggles to try to reform its legal system. >> it's quite typical. the court system, the judicial system there is even more
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corrupt than the police. and when you're brought in to a judicial proceeding, you don't get to face your accuser. you don't have an automatic right to a lawyer. you may be held before you're brought to trial for some weeks. and it's a closed proceeding. and the result is -- it really makes the inquisition appear like "judge judy." >> about getting money here. so, the military was only one there at the check point so from what i hear, that's a regular occurrence. >> reporter: now, we are expecting a ruling on her future from that judge in mexico by friday. if he decides to hold her, this is scary, brooke. she could be held up to four months before trial. >> seems like in mexico you are guilty until proven innocent.
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you are outside of the family home. what are they telling you? how optimistic are they? >> reporter: well, they are optimistic. i'm in e-mail communication with family member who is say that they're reading through interpreters of the court proceedings this morning is the prosecution's case is very weak. that according to the family. and of course, they say she is absolutely in no way involved in drugs so they're optimistic that she is going to be released but as you mentioned you just never know in mexico. >> and finally, casey, we were hearing today that, you know, this husband says that he had given or been asked to give this $5,000 in cash and, of course, they're saying that she was absolutely set up. that she was framed and in addition to that, a mexican official agreeing. so what exactly would she have to prove? >> reporter: well, what you've got to remember is that mexican official who spoke to cnn who didn't want his name used expressing outrage and surprise
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that this case even has gotten this far, the mexican judicial system operates in many different pockets. local, state and international officials and don't always agree and there has been a long standing problem with corruption, bribes at every level of the mexican judiciary. officials have been trying to clean it up but according to the family and the experts, this is an example of how it just hasn't happened so far. >> casey wian, thank you so much. you'll be following it for us. still to come tonight, george zimmerman on the defense. a judge bars his legal team from introducing evidence to reveal a different side of trayvon martin. plus, a teenager in custody tonight after police found a supply of explosive devices hidden in the floor boards of his bedroom. what he was planning to do and the strange excuse his parents have come up with. meantime, tonight, shout-out. the view from inside a tornado.
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welcome back to the second half of "outfront." tonight, we start the second hour of our show with stories we care about where we focus on our own reporting from the front lines. so, beginning with this. one of two men wounded by police at the scene of that grisly attack on a british soldier was discharged from hospital today. 22-year-old is now in police custody. the second man wounded, michael who was scene in this video here bloodied hands, meat cleaver in
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hands is under guard in the hospital. he was arrested in kenya back in 2010 and known to british sentence services but that doesn't mean he was well-known. this is according to former cia official phil mud who tells us the british facing threats. a congressional committee subpoenaed the state department for documents leading to the talking points of benghazi to explain the deadly attack on the u.s. diplomatic compound. krorgt republican congressman issa, the state department refused multiple requests to provide the communications amid the administration's other scandals. law professor turley of george washington university tells us the obama administration would be wise to turn over these documents to avoid the appearance of stonewalling. fast moving wildfire in california's santa barbara county scorched 1,800 acres up
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from 1,000 acres monday afternoon. u.s. forest service spokesman madson tells us the flames are 10% contained. 900 personnel are in place to fight the fire and white fire as they call it is moving in to the back country. u.s. home prices, they're seeing the biggest gains in seven years. new report shows that the s&p case-shiller index rose in the first quarter but -- here's the but, chief economist of zillow tells us numbers in large metro areas with housing booms on one hand and foreclosures on the other skewed the numbers. he says the bottom line -- these appreciation rates will slow down. our fourth story "outfront" a pretrial set back for george
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zimmerman. a florida judge overseeing this case against the neighborhood watchman is barring the defense from introducing some key evidence about trayvon martin at trial, including his familiarity with guns, previous marijuana use and his history of fighting. zimmer sman accused of murdering the 17-year-old in february of 2012. and plans on using the information to back up his claims of self defense. cnn's david mattingly is out front tonight in sanford with the story. >> reporter: photographs of trayvon martin looking tough, flaunting an apparent fondness for marijuana and guns. they paint a disturbing even dangerous picture of a troubled teen. but in spite of the threatening image they might project, these pictures won't help the man who killed him. attorneys defending george zimmerman failed to convince a judge these photos are vital in their arguments to a jury that zimmerman killed martin in self
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defense. a pretrial victory for martin's family. >> this information was not relevant. it was inadmissible. and so, we have to not let people get away with trying to pollute a jury pool. >> reporter: but if potential jurors have seen the pictures in public they will not be allowed to see them in court. judge deborah nelson denied the introduction of trayvon martin's disciplinary records of school, text messages of his phone, possible evidence of prior drug use, nor his apparent interest in guns and fighting. defense attorney mark o'mara defended his decision to make the information public. >> the public opinion was swayed by a false presentation of this case way from the beginning, the defense had nothing to do with that. the state didn't have much to do with it but the martin family through the handlers presented a picture of trayvon and george wholly inaccurate and the
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evidence sort of shows that. >> reporter: jury selection is still two weeks away. what affect the public image of martin might have on picking a jury remains to be seen. george zimmerman chose not to attend the hearing. afterward his brother made a personal appeal to prosecutors. >> i am calling on the state of florida to do the right thing. the only just thing, what should have been done long ago. i believe the time has come to withdraw the charge of murder in the second degree. >> and david joins me tonight in sanford. and when you look at the series of rejections that the judge handed the defense, it's easy to think that their job of defending zimmerman just got harder. is that the case? >> reporter: well, it does look that way but when you talk to his defense attorney mark o'mara, he says that he's actually feeling comfortable with the way things came out. the judge send a message with the rejections. she was saying she wants the trial to be about george
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zimmerman's statements, his actions and the evidence that was gathered about that fatal encounter between him and trayvon martin that night in sanford last year. mark o'mara says if this ends up being about the facts and n this case for the trial, he feels confident that the jury will go along with their belief that george zimmerman was acting in self defense. >> okay. david mattingly, thank you. i want to continue the conversation because today's rulings welcomed news to the family of trayvon martin and their attorney benjamin crump. here they were. >> we told you it was not evidence. it was information that the defense lawyers put up. we have to respect the rule of law. we have to respect the rules of evidence. we have to be responsible, all of us. and when people put something out there, we have to challenge it. >> but how will the rulings ultimately impact the case
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against george zimmerman? joining me now paul cowan and sunny hostin. and martin najime for us in florida. welcome to all of you. paul, let's begin with you because these rulings would seem to hurt george zimmerman's case when it comes to backing up his claims of self defense. do you agree with that? >> no. i totally disagree. i have to take a contrarian view on this. i think it was an enormous victory for the defense in court today and i'll tell you why and a stra steenlgic brunder by the prosecution. the prosecutor brought up the text messages with a motion to prevent the defense from mentioning this stuff. and you know something. under the rules of evidence, the defense would never have been allowed to bring any of this stuff up because the rule in self defense cases is the bad character, the alleged bad character, of the victim is not
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admissible unless the defendant knew about it. because it's all about what you perceived when you fired the shots. if you don't know the guy, his background isn't going to, you know, influence your opinion to fire a shot. and here, brooke, what happened was as a result of this hearing, everybody in seminole county knows that trayvon martin wears a gold tooth, uses drugs, is seen holding a gun possibly. brags about fighting. the prosecutors have tarnished his entire reputation before they start picking the jury. >> does anyone disagree with paul? sunny or mark, do you disagree with him? >> yeah. it seemed to me that when mark o'mara was arguing these motions, it was a foregone conclusion. he knew that this information wasn't coming in but i'll say this to paul's point. it was masterful that the defense got this out there
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because now the jury pool, the perspective jurors do know a different side of trayvon martin. they have seen i'm sure many of these text messages, the photographs of trayvon martin holding a gun and i that could be helpful to the defense. >> mark, this is pretty big today, the fact the jury will not see the crime scene. how does that play? >> that didn't surprise me. really, very few of these rulings surprised me. as was stated, most of this is known to be inadmissible. it's going to be very close to impossible to replicate the weather conditions, the time it occurred and all the relevant factors that make it relevant for a jury to view this. so that didn't surprise me at all. you can replicate it pretty much with a video and matters such as that. i will say, though, this ruling allowed to have happen is that it streamlined the case. the case basically is supposed to now be only about the facts that occurred at that fateful
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moment. why is that important i think forensics dictate the case. the closeness in range as it relates to the shot, the fatal shot. those are going to become relevant and i think the defense needed to make the record but i think planning and anticipating going forward on the forensics. >> now, paul, the judge did agree to hold a hearing on whether the state failed to turn over some evidence including photos of a firearm in someone's hand and deleted text messages. how could this help the defense? >> in the end, i don't think they're going anyplace with that. even if there was a ruling in favor of the defense, what would the punishment be? they won't dismiss the charges against george zimmerman. it's turned over in advance of trial so in the end that plays not a bad way for the defense or the prosecution. it will mean nothing ultimately. >> sunny, what will you be looking for? >> i don't necessarily -- i'm
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sorry. >> i mean, brooke, i think paul is right. if anything comes out of it, perhaps sanctions. >> yeah. >> there was, you know, a lot of discussion, of course, in the courtroom today about that and a witness that came up and testified. very, very dramatic. but ultimately, the judge will deal with it on june 6th and if anything comes out of it, i suspect could be sanctions. >> mark, jump in. what were you going to say? >> i think that there's going to be fireworks on june 6th over this issue. you're accusing a prosecutor of pros coo toirl misconduct for hiding the ball, for hiding evidence in a murder case, in a homicide case. i do think that ult matly at the end of the day it's much ado about nothing but i think we'll have an early fourth of july at the court hearing because the things supposedly held back and came forward through an employee at the state attorney's office as we understand it i think that's very significant if, in fact, they make a claim, they can prove that that wasn't turned over timely then i think that will be the last vest and
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of hope that the defense has to say we need more time to get in to what else might have been held back. i don't think the judge will grant it but sets a good record that if they're hiding the ball and proving that the state was holding back evidence, that's a significant issue that could have a play in the event of a conviction. >> okay. paul, final question to you and the prosecutors requested multiple times, gag order. denied. did that surprise you? >> yeah. it does surprise me. there's so much publicity poisoning the well as the judge i would be concerned and imposed for a gag order. they continue to talk about trayvon martin's background, continue to say things that, in fact, help their case ultimately. i'm a little surprised there's no gag order this close to the trial. >> hmm. paul callan, sunny hosten, mark nejame, thank you all so much. appreciate it tonight. still to come, an oregon teenager under arrest suspected
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of planning what he hoped would be bigger than columbine. his mother says there's a medical condition that explains everything. a manhunt in kentucky for the killer behind the ambush of a police officer, the officer's widow shares her emotional story tonight. and a newborn baby found alive inside this sewer pope after it was flushed down the toilet. he's okay. we'll show you the images of this dramatic rescue. mine was earned in djibouti, africa. 2004.
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we're back with tonight's outer circle where we reach out to our sources all around the world and we begin with china where this newborn baby boy found alive inside the sewer pipe after being apparently flushed down a toilet. on their official social media account, authorities say they have found the mother who tells them she regrets what she did. tonight, the baby is recovering in a hospital and we have the incredible story here of this baby's rescue. >> reporter: the dramatic rescue began after cries from a fourth
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fly apartment toilet. alarmed neighbors saw a tiny foot and called the fire department. unable to pull the baby out, rescuers went to the floor below and sawed away the entire section of sewer pipe. but still the baby remained wedged inside. sewer section and baby were taken to the local hospital. where firefighters and surgeons working together carefully began removing the pipe piece by piece. an hour later, success. a newborn baby rescued. the after birth still attached. chinese made yeah said he's a baby boy. now in stable condition. >> unreal. and now let's check in with wolf blitzer sitting in for anderson tonight for a look at what's ahead. mr. blitzer, good to see you.
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>> a pleasure always, brooke. thanks very much. much more on the breaking news tonight. another storm system unleashing at least four tornadoes. already in kansas tonight. we are going to speak with a storm chaser who's right in the middle of it all. also tonight, this explosion rocking a suburb of baltimore. >> back up. >> a train carrying chemicals hit a truck, caught fire and blew up. you will hear from an eyewitness. potentially incriminating evidence left unexamined sometimes for decades. rape kits sitting on the shelves while the clock is running out on potentially convictible rapists. all that coming up at the top of the hour. >> thank you. meantime, our fifth story "outfront" tonight, shocking details about this alleged columbine copycat. his name, 17-year-old grant accord. made the first court appearance just this afternoon and
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according to prosecutors he wanted to outdo the 1999 massacre at columbine high school that left 15 people dead. court records detail his plan to use a stash of homemade explosives including nay palm and molotov cocktails. the target, the teen's high school in albany, oregon. miguel marquez was in court earlier. tonight, he comes out front. what evidence did prosecutors use to back up their claims? >> reporter: well, they found a lot of evidence in the secret stash in the mom's house underneath the floor board and carpet and not only six bombs but also the notebooks and in the affidavit that they released today it explains some of his plan. i'll read parts of it for you because it's shocking to even think of. 7:30, leave home with stuff in trunk. 11:00, drive to smoke spot to gear up. 11:10, get gear.
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walk towards school with airport stock. blasting out a car and background music planned. drop double and unzip bag and begin firing. the russian grim reaper is here. enter the school and shoot and throw bombs throughout the school. kill myself before s.w.a.t. engages me. chilling stuff. >> incredibly chilling. thank goodness police stopped him. how did they know about the plot? >> reporter: there was a tipster. it turns out it was a high school classmate of mr. accord's who heard him talking about it. other classmates heard him talking about bombs before. but they had -- didn't think much of it. apparently he was very quiet, they didn't really pay much attention to him. this one student, though, toad his mom about it. his mother called authorities and they were able to spin out the investigation from there. the investigation is still going on. and one thing that was really amazing to see in court today is
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this, you know, 17-year-old, 140-pound gawky kid accused >> but then you have this mother, you know, from what i've read, she's come out, this is according to her lawyer, saying that her son suffered from this very rare form of obsessive come pulsive disorder. i talked to a political psychologist today who said, you know, it's caused by strep throat. what exactly is the mother saying about that? >> yeah. look, the mother's not blaming everything on that but is saying she has dealt for several years with this. apparently, i'm told by some people who know the family that he was diagnosed with this condition. it is a reaction that the immune system has to things like strep bacteria infections and it can be very, very debilitating in some people but other doctors we spoke to said they have never seen anyone react like this kid.
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>> miguel, thank you. next, a kentucky police officer ambushed, shot to death. now his widow is speaking out. officer jason ellis was repeatedly shot after stopping to clear some kind of debris from the middle of the road over the weekend. the manhunt for his killer continues. we are "outfront" with that story tonight. >> reporter: ask amy ellis what she misses most about her husband. >> his goofy smile. the way he always made us laugh, his smell, just being able to hug him and kiss him and just seeing him with our boys. >> reporter: jason ellis, a police officer in kentucky for the last seven years, was killed early saturday morning on his way home from work. he was 33 years old, the father of two young boys, and amy's best friend. she says they had been inseperable since meeting in college 12 years ago. >> there's no words to express
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the sadness that i have, the anger that i have. >> reporter: authorities aren't sure if ellis was targeted or if his killer intended to shoot whoever stopped to clear debris from the freeway exit ramp where he was ambushed, obviously taken by surprise, his weapon was still holsterred when he was found. his boss, the chief of police, is vowing revenge. >> i can assure you we won't give up on this person until we have him either in custody or in the front sight of one of our weapons and i personally hope the latter is the choice. >> reporter: a memorial of flowers and balloons sits in front of the bardstown police department. there was a vigil monday night. hundreds showed up. the officer's 6-year-old son lit the first candle. >> he knows that daddy's not coming back but we will see him again one day in heaven and he got hurt yesterday, and that's when he started letting it all out.
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he just screamed and screamed and screamed. he wanted his daddy and we all sat there and cried with him and said we know, we do, too. >> reporter: the pain of losing her husband is easy to see on amy's face. she struggled as she spoke with reporters but says she finds comfort in her faith and in the outpouring of support she's received from the community. >> it's overwhelming. i can't even explain how good it makes me feel that people are honoring him, you know, through this horrific tragedy. >> reporter: a tragedy that has shaken a young family to its core, and the killer is still at large. police say they have no one in custody or any solid leads. there is a reward being offered for information leading to the killer's capture. brooke? >> so sad. thank you. still to come tonight, race car technology that could save your child's life. i want to make things more secure. [ whirring ] [ dog barks ] i want to treat more dogs.
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three, two, one. standing by for capture. the most innovative software on the planet... dragon is captured. is connecting today's leading companies to places beyond it. siemens. answers. tonight, an innovative idea that is putting children in the same seats as pro race car drivers. sound dangerous? it's not. it just might actually save a
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life. last week, ahead of sunday's indy 500 race, erin got a first-hand look. >> reporter: for most athletes, winning a championship is the ultimate accomplishment but for scott dixon, it's keeping his two little girls, tilly and poppy, safe. >> you want your kids to be safe. >> reporter: he's a two-time indy car series champion, an indianapolis 500 winner and the winningest driver in the history of the indy racing league. while you may not know him, he's a household name among indy car fans. dixon's success hasn't come without some bumps in the road. in 2003 he had an accident that could have ended his career. >> broke my wrist and ankle, fractured my pelvis. >> reporter: last year he crashed again. this time, the outcome was very different. he walked away almost unscathed after slamming into a wall and crushing the side of his car. >> the technology has changed
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from, you know, the foeams they used to put together to carbon fiber seat ths that had no give them, now they make the seats that slow down at a slower pace and a longer pace so you don't have the big jolts and big impacts. that for me was a big break-through. >> reporter: the foam that saved dixon's life is now being used for an entirely new idea. car seats for children. the company that created the innovative foam used in indy cars including dixon's, bald spot sports, partnered with engineers to build a car seat called the advance 70. it protects young children inside impact crashes. so is it really safer? julie valise helped test the car seats. she's a consumer safety expert for safety first. >> side impact crashes are about one in four on the road. while they may not be the ones that happen most often, they do tend to be the most violent, and
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that's why side impact protection is so important. the advance 70 is not only superior in safety, it is affordable for parents. >> reporter: dixon is buying in. he isn't taking any chances with his two girls. >> as we all know, it's a part of everyday life, there are crashes. for me it's more about peace of mind. that's what we tell them, they're very safe, they're just like daddy's race car. >> thanks so much for being with me tonight. "ac 360" starts now. breaking news tonight. new tornadoes touching down. late details on damage and why the next 24 hours could be brutal. also, what it sounds like and feels when you're in a storm chaser catching the storm he's chasing. watch this. >> ears are popping. >> that's the view from inside a