officials say truancy is a major problem. parents who can't afford the fine would have a community service option. ♪ ♪ ♪ -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >> hello again, everyone. i'm fredericka whitfield. we're tracking tropical storm isaac as it heads toward florida and the gulf coast now. high winds and rain have already downed trees and power lines in haiti. at least two deaths are reported there now. isaac brushed past cuba last hour bringing a little more than just a little bit of rain to the island nation and it's now moving into warmer water and that's where things get uncertain for the u.s. gulf coast. how strong will isaac get? and when will it hit potentially? florida is under a state of emergency right now as isaac approaches. this is orlando that you're about to see. the city has set up places where

people can peck up sandbags. more than 100,000 bags are available should the area be hit by isaac. let's bring in jim feldman in key west, florida. so, jim, there have been evacuation orders imposed there in the keys? >> reporter: they're encouraging visit o people who troaveled hee to the keys to leave and they've added flights to try to get people out today, but once the last flight leaves this evening they'll close the airport down and there's only one way to get in and out of the keys and that is u.s. route one. it's 120 miles back to the mainland of florida. if you're leaving they want you on your way now. the storm shutters are going up and they've opened four shelters and encouraging anyone who lives on a trailer or especially anyone who lives on a boat to get out and stay in the shelter. some people are not deterred at all, and i spoke to a guy named paul who came from chicago. are you going to evacuate, paul?

>> no. >> reporter: why not? >> we came here to have a good time and not going to let a little hurricane get in the way. savor life time experiences and we'll have some fun with it. >> reporter: the mayor here tells me they've been lucky before with hurricanes and they hope to be lucky again with isaac. >> let's hope so, indeed. thanks very much, jim feldman, keep us posted in the keys. tropical storm isaac still drenching haiti. officials confirm at least two people have died, but they are concerned the death toll will rise as authorities search tent cities in port-au-prince. gary tuchman is in port-au-prince and he described the harsh conditions there. >> the people who live in this large tent city have lived a tough life. most of them have lived here since two and a half years since it's been made tougher. the storm has tapered off from tropical storm isaac and what

we've seen in this camp what we're seeing throughout haiti, lots of flooding problems and lots of destroyed 10s and it's the only home that these people have. >> later on this hour we'll be talking to a u.n. humanitarian official who is also on the ground in port-au-prince trying to help the storm victims there. >> what everyone wants to know now is where is this storm going? what kind of potential does it have? let's bring in meteorologist jennifer delgado. right now tropical storm, is it inevitable that it will all become a hurricane? >> fredericka, it is very likely. right now it is a tropical storm, but we don't want people to think this is a storm and i can ride this out and the problem is it will be moving in a favorable environment and we're expecting this to strengthen much more. right now the winds are at 60 miles per hour and i want to point out to you, heavy rainfall coming down in port-au-prince and you can see from cuba, they'ric picking up heavier rain and that's associated with a disturbance that's being

enhanced by tropical storm isaac right now. as i show you on the radar, the rain is capturing that and in key west where our jim spelling was, rain is coming down with a lot of lightning there and more rain on the way and let's talk more about the warnings and watches in place and in pink, we're talk about a hurricane warning and for sunday we're expecting in the tropical storm conditions. that includes key west. as we go into the afternoon we're talking potential for hurricane conditions and anywhere you see in blue and that includes miami and that's a tropical storm warning. so now you really want to know the track of this system and as we show you, as we go through the future, notice sunday at 8:00 a.m., 65 miles per hour and as it gets through key west the national hurricane center at 75 miles per hour and we have a big change. when it moves into the gulf of mexico, notice warmer waters as we said favorable environment likely a category 2 and this could be very dangerous, and

everyone from new orleans all of the way over toward the western part of florida, they really need to pay close attention to the track of the system and of course, it weakens and this is wednesday 8:00 a.m. still and potentially as a hurricane category 1. as we've been saying you never, ever focus on the exact track and there is a cone of error there and a lot of models now are in better agreement taking it through the gulf of mexico and certainly some of them have it in a westward motion. i can tell you, the track of the system may not be certain yet, but we are going to be looking, fredericka, at a lot of rain coming down. some of these locations 10 to 20 inches of rainfall. incredible and that will lead to flooding and you have to add storm surge on the western coastline of florida. as we could go through the next couple of days this could be a very dangerous system. >> some of the cities in the coastline in the southern tip, not good drainage, and 20 inches is significant. keep us posted.

more developments today now in the shooting near the new york empire state building, police say all 19 people hit on the street were hit by police gun fire. let's get to jason carroll. >> that was confirmed to us early today by new york city police commissioner ray kelly. there was speculation in terms of how exactly those nine innocent bystanders were hurt. three were struck by bullets, six were struck by fragments. police surveillance video captures the shooting in front of the empire state building. 58-year-old jeffrey johnson suddenly appears to pull a gun when confronted by two police officers. police fire, johnson goes down. amateur video shows a different angle. johnson is still moving after being shot and he dies a short time later. nine bystanders are hurt after the shooting. >> when i turned around i saw a

guy and he brought a gun. i guess he shot at the police officer and the police officer shot him and one of them shot me in the arm and i fell. >> none of the bystanders' injuries were life-threatening. police fired 16 rounds and were quick to explain why so many innocent people were hurt. >> there were flower pots and other objects so when they fire the bullets fragmented and that's what caused the wounds of the bystanders. >> police say the shooting happened moments after johnson shot and killed a former coworker, 41-year-old steven ercolino. johnson was an accessories designer at hazan imports and he had a long-standing grudge with ercolino over sales of his designs. witnesses say johnson used his .45 caliber pistol to shoot ercolino in the head and kept firing at him. >> we heard pops, pops, and

there are construction sites and we thought it was metal and we heard four more shots and we were, like, okay, that's gunshots and we all kind of turned over and we saw a guy in a gray suit walking away. >> his neighbors say he lived alone in this apartment building in new york's upper east side with his cat and one recently died. >> i'm in shock. i can't believe it. he was the nicest guy. i think he snapped or something. i don't know. >> there have been some questions about exactly where he got the gun from, where johnson got the gun from. he purchased it legally in sarasota, florida, back in 1991. however, he did not legally have a permit to carry the gun here in new york. fredericka? >> you mentioned there was some longstanding dispute between johnson and ercolino. what were some of the exchanges they may have had? >> reporter: we are hearing more about that.

apparently ercolino filed some sort of a police complaint against johnson basically saying that johnson had threatened to kill him and also, fredericka, johnson in turn had also filed a report against ercolino. so it turns out they must have had some sort of a grudge against each other that that got to a point when both of them ended up going to the police and filing report against each other. fredericka? >> jason carroll, thanks so much. midtown manhattan. have you downloaded one of the political campaign apps for your smartphone? there's some concern they could be invading your privacy and what's next for the legacy of tour de france champion lance armstrong? we go in-depth on the doping scandal. ♪

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so that wherever your duty takes you, usaa bank goes with you. visit us online to learn what makes our bank so different. >> all right. here's what's going on across the world today. the casualty count is rising following a massive blast at an oil refinery in venezuela. the oil refinery was early saturday killing at least 26 people and injuring 82 others. a gas leak reportedly sparked the blast causing significant damage to the refinery and nearby homes. venezuela is the fifth largest

exporter of crude with the u.s. being one of its biggest customers. no word on what, if any, the blast could have on oil prices. on to syria now, activists say august is the deadliest month in the country's 17-month crisis. more than 3700 people have been killed with still one week left to go. >> meanwhile, government troops are bombarding aleppo again and rebels claim the syrian military has increased aerial shelling in civilian areas. >> now to the doping scandal that could cause cycling champion lance armstrong all seven of his tour de france titles and his legacy perhaps. right now in columbia, maryland, a charitable cycling event and what's going on right now. the anti-doping agency slapped him with a lifetime ban from competition yesterday for illegal -- for allegedly doping. let's bring in jonathan mannman

and still saying allegedly because nowhere on the books is it proven that he was doping. >> just the opposite. he insists he's never doped and he was probably the most tested athlete in sports history. hundreds of doping tests and he never -- >> right. >> he never failed a doping test. he's not giving up anything. he's saying i'm just tired of fighting you guys. i am tired of saying no. in a sense and this is maybe the crucial thing. he's not waving a white flag. he's giving them the finger. >> the u.s. anti-doping agency is saying we're looking at him abandoning the fight as admission of guilt. >> unless you keep fighting and participate in the process they say that you deemed your submitting. the process is unfair. the u.s. justice department investigated lance armstrong. they empanelled a grand jury. they got the food and drug administration. >> capitol hill. >> four federal agencies tried,

sought and investigated and he's saying if you look fairly the way they did i will come out clean. i'm not fighting the usada because there is no way that i will get a fair hearing. >> they're recommending he be stripped of his titles and it's the international cycling union that would make the determination, right? >> the crucial decision, and they were in court saying the u.s. ada has no jurisdiction. like lance armstrong, they were saying f this is true, show us the proof. lance armstrong says i haven't seen the evidence against me. i know i've passed these tests. for the time being usada says he has to be stripped of these teetheses and the international cycling union said he won seven tour de france jerseys and he keeps them until we learn otherwise. >> it looks favorable for armstrong and that coming from the international cycling union which says until you prove it and still no proof.

>> it kind of does. the live strong events that are going on across the country are still going on. he raised more than $40 million last year, and raised more than $40 million a year before. he's not just a sports legend. he's a legend in the fight against cancer. they're doing it and it's not up t to me to know he did it. i stood on the podium seven times and even people who came in second from lance armstrong, they don't want to take the yellow jersey away from them. at least one of them came forward and he was caught doping. number 2 is caught doping, and number 3 is caught doping and who do you give it to? leave it alone. lance armstrong won. >> interesting. now what then, potentially? lance armstrong came out with this very detailed statement saying everyone knows i won these seven jerseys, et cetera. i will continue fight for example my family and i'll continue fighting for people with cancer, for my foundation

and i still want to prove that i'm the most fit 40-year-old on the planet. >> and he can still do that. he's racing today. >> he can't be in any internationally sanctioned event. he's out of the ironman competition and he wanted to do that and he was doing very well and he's still doing local events and doing publicity events and once there is a final decision, but for the time being, lance armstrong is the seven-time champion of the tour de france and the usada still has to prove its case to the rest of the world and he's got his mind made up. he's still vowing to live strong. >> thanks so much. appreciate that. i know you follow the ins and outs of everything in the world of biking, not just lance armstrong, but everything else. thanks so much. appreciate it. >> maybe it's an offer of a big return on an investment or a

phone call asking for money for a charity that you perhaps have never heard of. some of these have the markings of a scam targeting seniors in particular. we'll show you and the seniors in your life how to protect yourself. y. like others who braved the sky before her, it took a mighty machine, and plain old ingenuity to go where no fifth grader had gone before. ♪ and she flew and she flew, into the sky and beyond. my name is annie and i'm the girl who dreamed she could fly. powered by intel core processors. ♪ in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our anniversary matter to you? because for 200 years, we've been helping ideas move

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we've heard the warnings, as america's population of seniors grows so are the number of scams trying to steal their mono pep here's how damaging it could be. a new survey from the certified financial planners board shows that seniors who do get caught up in a scam lose an average $140,000. ken and darya dolan are personal finance experts and we are so excited that you're back. ken, you are back better than ever. we'll talk about some of these scams. >> i want to take a second to thank you and all of cnn team for your support. darya has done a wonderful job, but for my family and friends and this is for my nurse and all of the gang, i want to thank them very, very much. i am now cancer-free. i may have to borrow some hair, fred. >> that's okay. >> hair or no hair, i'm glad you're back. >> we have hurricane dolan back.

congratulations and we are so glad you're back. thanks for your prayers. >> absolutely. let's talk about some of the scams and beginning with identity theft and this happened to you all and you all know what to look for. so many of us are subject to identity theft or scams like this. what happened to you guys? >> i get a phone call from a bank i never do business with asking me if i opened up an account as i'm sitting here in the palm beaches in florida, if i opened up an account in long island new york at a sears, and i said no, that's not me. they said we didn't think so so the next thing i know i now have a seven-year fraud alert on all of the my credit reports, but thank god the bank was diligent because i was using one of these services that never told me. >> bottom line, fred, is if we can have our identities stolen, although only once, anybody can. the bottom line is protect your social security number, protect your home address and protect

your passwords and give as little informational most anyone that you can and be very, very careful and there are smart people out there stealing your identity and no matter what you do because i haven't lost anything to have this happen. >> so there you go. >> this is a big business, scamming people and another way in which people do it is they may give you a phone call. they send you something in the mail that says you can get this great return on this investment. what are the signs to look for? >> any time you see an unusually high rate of return, i don't care how good they make it look. >> cds are paying less than 1% and you'll get 10%? >> or 7% or something you could have gotten a number of years ago. please use that as a warning bell. quick case in point i took my mother who had a cd that was maturing to a bank locally. >> to roll the cd. >> and of course, we sit down and he didn't know whoes of and

he says i have something that we can do a little bit better for you. it's a guaranteed bond and so i was interested. i said oh, really? it's guaranteed? who guarantees it? >> watch out for her. >> and he said the corporation. >> i said, excuse me, time out. there is no such thing as a guaranteed corporate bond. so what did you do? did you just hang up? do you not have the dialogue with anyone? >> no, we were in the bank so she ended up with cds. >> if you hear insider information and getting in on the ground floor, fred. hills, head for, comma, hills! >> and this happens so often, both my parentis and know it's what happened to them and someone calls and they represent a certain organization. we want you to make a donation on the phone. it is so easy. you can do it right now. then what do you do? >> i just tell them, you know what? say thank you and click. what do you advise? >> the problem is, seniors are

too nice and often times they haven't had a family member to talk to so here is a nice person on the phone. the first thing you need to do if it is some charitable organization or purported to be charitable organization, i would be happy to make a donation if you send me your material. >> ask for material as a start and then hang up. >> okay. >> then say in the mail you do receive something about a sweepstakes or, you know, there's a check. you hadn't entered anything and suddenly you get a check and it looks enticing and it looks legit and they say don't cash it. what do you do? >> the bottom line, fredericka whitfield, if you didn't enter a sweepstakes you didn't win a sweepstakes and the winning check is illegal and you could be in trouble. if you didn't enter, you didn't win and if you get asked for money up front to claim a sweepstakes prize, not legit.

>> if you see sweepstakes bucket in a store somewhere, sign up and win a free airplane flight to the virgin islands, don't fill those out because oftentimes that's used to get name, addresses and pert nebt information. just don't do it. >> last, but not least, i know we're tight here. the nigerian letter still works. please send us money and i'm a nigerian official with some bribes and some -- >> isn't that a shame? we have to be so suspicious of everything. >> or your bank account number. >> yes! >> and it works. people are still doing it. >> quickly, we even got an e-mail from a friend of ours that it wasn't sent by him saying he was in an airport in london and that somebody had robbed him and he needed money. >> believe half of what you hear, fred. >> delete, delete, delete. hang up! no contact. period. just be rude. that's the way it's got to be. ken, darya, but never rude to

you, so we appreciate you being back and thanks so much. you all have a great one. good seeing you both. we're also tracking tropical storm ice beinga. there are hurricane watches for florida's east coast and in haiti the storm is making a miserable situation even worse there especially for people still living in tent cities and we'll hear from a man trying to help out. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] you've been years in the making. and there are many years ahead. join the millions of members who've chosen an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. go long. to help protect your eye health as you age... would you take it? well, there is. [ male announcer ] it's called ocuvite. a vitamin totally dedicated to your eyes,

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a tropical storm is the last thing an already vulnerable haiti needs, but tropical storm isaac slammed into haiti today, heavy rain and strong winds lashing at the southern coast. hundreds of thousands of people are still living in tents after that deadly earthquake in 2010 and now they're in need of help from the international community. kevin kennedy joins me right now. he's acting -- he is the acting united nations humanitarian coordinator, if i have that right. so mr. kennedy, you are also the team leader who has led the united nations response to hurricane katrina. give me an idea. no one expected people in tent cities to be able to farewell in

a tropical storm. so how do you help the people there who just keep getting hit by one devastation after the next? >> the disasters are something that plague haiti and the earthquake of 2010 was extraordinary. so far, though, i think we're faring reasonably well, fredericka, in our response and our response is the government of haiti which is in the league here plus the u.n. agencies and plus ngos and past organizations and our immediate concern at the moment is the possibility of more rain to come later this afternoon or this evening. we can possibly get another ten inches and should that happen we'd be very concerned about flooding in the low-lying areas and those adjacent. >> mr. kennedy, i'm sure that the people living in port-au-prince and any other area that's receiving this u.n. help, they're grateful for the immediate response when

something like this happens, but long term, what, if anything, is really being done to help with the infrastructure. two years after the earthquake and people are still living in tent cities by way of hundreds of thousands. can they ever hope to be in a solid structure? >> yes, i think so, fredericka. >> bear in mind, we started with 1,500 camps and 1.5 million people in camps. today, theria a little under 400,000 people in camps so progress has been made and two-thirds of the people have moved on to more permanent structures. one of the problems that's unique to haiti and is big here is of land ownership. only about 5% of land in haiti is property registered title. so it is okay to build temporary shelters in the land that's owned by somebody and may not own illegal sense, but has it,

but to build permanent structures is more difficult. i would add one thing to the list. one of the neatest programs that we're running and i've settled 17,000 families in the last year is the rental subsidy program. for about $650 per year per family, you can rent the space in the existing dwelling that has tried to stand up in another earthquake. >> so, mr. kennedy, if the haitian government is not going to do it or can't do it in terms of, whether it's building a greener, you know, buildings or buildings that are in a better position to sustain earthquakes or natural disasters, then is it incumbent upon or how confident are you that the u.n. and the international community can come together with the cohesive plan to actually start breaking ground on building some structures so that people can feel safe when a storm comes

their way or an earthquake? >> i would say, frederick a it's a government of haiti solution and i think we can improve on the international, but it really needs to be a local solution. bear in mind that since the earthquake, and since the new president last year, if only we had an actual government with the prime minister, and three months. so i think in the last few months we collectively made a lot of headway in the various flaws and various measures to put it in place in the right kind of programs to reap a long-term solution. >> kevin kennedy, thanks so much for your time. i know people are grateful for the efforts of the wen and other ngo organizations trying to help the people there and trying to stabilize what is still a vulnerable situation for too many in haiti. appreciate your time. all right. here in the u.s., florida is

right in isaac's path and that's a pretty big concern especially for the organizers of the republican national convention. the four-day, vent kicking off monday in tampa. cnn political director mark preston is in tampa. so mark, when you look at the map and see that this storm might share the outer bands with tampa, it means upwards of 20 inches of rain, what, if anything, can convention organizers do to keep things going as planned? >> reporter: there's no question it will get very wet, very quick here, fredericka. they're concerned of high winds in the tampa area and we expect flooding from the outer bands of this storm as it marches its way up into the gulf coast. you know, when i was on the phone with an official who has been on all of the briefings with the governor and convention officials and with the local officials here in the city, and this was made very clear and there was no discussion about

evacuating the 50,000 people who would be here in tampa and they do think there will be any reason to do that and they feel safe enough that the storm will have that kind of effect here in tampa and there is one concern, however, about bridges closing down and that concern is actually getting delegates to the convention center and not away from the convention center when we had such high winds tampa. they do in other parts of the country and sometimes bridges close down and that's what they've been looking at right now, fredericka. >> the reason was why some modifications have been made in the programming and apparently, that is not the case and when ann romney was scheduled to speak at the convention and what are the changes imposed there and where? >> well, fred, was there a little bit of a political curfuffle what we saw yesterday. what happened is ann romney was scheduled to speak on monday, and she started off and her husband would close it on thursday evening and however,

the three broadcast networks have decided not to cover the convention at all especially during the time when ann romney was to deliver her speech. she's such a good surrogate and so good on television that convention organizers in the romney campaign wanted to show case her to the largest audience possible that they could sox, so they switched her to tuesday night right before chris christie gives the keynote and here's the rub. they were thinking of moving her to thursday night and she would be the one to introduce her husband to the nation and however that spot would be held by marco rubio. he's very well respected among latinos and cubans here in florida and if mitt romney is going to win in florida, he needs the cuban vote and there was some discussion about it. was ann romney who earlier this week went on nbc news talking about how the race to the white house shouldn't go negative. and then the birther issue comes up yesterday and mitt romney

brings it up referring to his birthplace, just take a listen to what that moment was all about. >> i love being home in this place where ann and i were raised, where both of us were born. ann was born in henry ford hospital and i was born in harper hospital. no one's ever asked to see my birth certificate. they know this is the place that we were born and raised. >> okay. so what is romney the camp saying? how are they explaining that moment now today? well, they're saying that it was unscripted and in fact, the governor addressed it yesterday just a few short hours after he had made that remark in michigan and he had an interview with cbs news. let's hear about what he had to say that, fredericka? >> why did you say that? we're in michigan and ann and i were both born in detroit and our little humor always goes a long way and so it was great to be home to be in a place where

ann and i had grown up and the crowd loved it and got a good laugh. >> this was a swipe at the president and i was wondering why you took it. >> no, no swipe. there was no question about where he was born and he was born in the u.s. and this was about us and coming home. we have to have humor to campaign, as well. >> you threw red meat at the conservative wing of the party. >> no, this is about being home in michigan, the place where we were born and raised. >> reporter: i'll tell you what, you know what? it's fair to say that the romney campaign has had a very difficult time staying on message this week and it hasn't been their fault. there's been a lot of focus todd aiken, the missouri senate candidate who has caused controversy for the republican party. this storm right now that is heading toward the u.s., this is one thing, fredericka, this is one comment that mitt romney actually has to take some responsibility for for taking his campaign off message. >> okay. thank so much, mark preston. appreciate that. don't forget this

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>> this is cnn breaking news. this sad information that we are now just getting confirmation from the family of neil armstrong at the age of 82, the first man to walk on the moon has died. we don't have any other details about the circumstances of his death and at the age of 82, we do have confirmation from the family from family members now. aviation expert with pbs' "news hour," miles o'brien, formerly from cnn, back with us on the phone now joining us from vero

beach, florida. miles, clearly, this is an iconic figure in american history, in space history. this was the one small step for man, giant leap for mankind. tell me more about his legacy and if you know anything more about the circumstances of his death? >> reporter: one giant loss for mankind, fredericka. this is a towering individual, and when the historians many years from now, many centuries from now write the history books about our era, neil armstrong will probably be in the first paragraph. if you think about it. it's one of the great accomplish ams of our time. neil armstrong, as best we know from the family died of complications subsequent from having heart surgery a few weeks ago and at the age of 82 he has left us. he was really an engineer's engineer, a modest man who was always uncomfortable in his

singular role as the first person to set foot on the moon. he understood and appreciated the historic consequence of it, and yet was never fully willing to embrace it. he was modest to the point of reclusive. you could call him the j.d. salinger of the astronaut corps. in the course of my time at cnn i tried, on numerous occasions, to get him to sit down for lengthy interviews with me and on one occasion in the context of the flight of john glenn on the space shuttle back in 1998, got walter cronkite to help me write a letter to neil armstrong and always refused and it's interesting. in 2004 i had the high honor of being asked by the sitting sewnian air and space museum to bestow an award on neil armstrong, an achievement award. you know, you talk about are you

sure you want me to do that kind of moment and i did that and i had the most pleasant evening with he and his wife, and my wife at the time. we had dinner with him. it was a delightful evening. he was -- we talked about family. we talked about kids. we talked about life. we talked about everything, but what was it like to be on the moon which he clearly didn't want to talk about. it was very interesting. i left that evening thinking he was my best buddy, and a few months later in the same building at the air and space museum, upon the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the moon landing, i arrived with the cnn crew in tow and i said neil, it was miles with the camera and he did a 180 and ran away from me. that sums him up. he was a quiet, engaging, from the midwest kind of guy with

western root, but when it came to public exposure when it came to this great accomplishment of his, he ran. he literally ran from it and part of it was he felt as if this was an accomplishment of many thousands of people, and it was, and he took the lion share of the ed krity and he felt uncomfortable about that. kind of like being an anchor person on television. those of us in front of the camera get a lot of credit for the work that happens behind the scenes and the difference is oui happy to accept that credit and neil armstrong never would. >> miles, just underscoring some of your messages there, i want to read a portion of the statement that came from the family which really does underscore, you just describe, he was a modest man who was uncomfortable in this role. the family saying this, quote, we are heart broken to share the news that neil armstrong has passed away following

complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures. neil was our loving husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend. neil armstrong was a reluctant american hero who with always believed he was just doing his job. he served his nation proudly as a navy fighter pilot, test pilot and astronaut. he also found success back home in his native ohio and business in academia and became a community leader in cincinnati. that's just a portion of their statement and they did go on to talk about his advocacy of aviation exploration throughout his life and never losing his boyhood wonder of these pursuits. you really did just crystallize in your encounter with him and what the family has felt for so long. >> yea, neil armstrong was a young man and he looked up at the sky and saw a barnstormer and never lost the bug for aviation. many of the apollo astronauts will tell you a very similar

story, and he pursued the technological side of it and embraced -- he was a test pilot's test pilot and, you know, i remember that same night i was telling you about, he gave a speech which was almost like a scholarly report on the state of aeronautical engineering. it was an extraordinary speech and it was not one of these boilerplate speeches that you so often hear from people who are famous who just go around and, you know, deliver them to rubber chicken dinners. it was something that he had clearly spent many hours speaking about and shared it and want this crowd at the air and space museum to think about. it was extremely provocative and just regaling with tales of what it was like to go to the moon. in a sense he rejectioned that in every way. the flipside of this was that

reluctance, that modesty, in a sense robbed future generations, those of us who were alive knew who neil armstrong was. if you ask walk on the moon, they will probably tell you lance armstrong. the fact is, some people criticized him over the years for not embracing the role model aspect of that particular historical moment. and so, you know, today is not a day to talk much about that, but that is something to think about in the future, is what is the responsibility of a role model. >> yes. that speaks a lot to him and his approach to that history-making moment and what he did with it thereafter. miles o'brien, always good to hear your voice. thank you for recalling the life and legacy of neil armstrong dead at the age of 82.

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and they're backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee. so go to legalzoom.com today and see for yourself. it's law that just makes sense. mourning the loss of an icon, 82-year-old neil armstrong has passed away. his family confirming this to cnn. he died of a cardiovascular procedure whose complications resulted from that is what the family members say. this is the man known for the one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. walking on the moon, the first to do so in 1969. you heard from miles o'brien of pbs' news hour, formally of cnn, recall his encounters with kneel armstrong saying he was actually a very modest man, reluctant to

embrace the role of the man embodying the first man to walk on the moon. john zarella has also had encounters with this iconic legend of a man, neil armstrong. john joining us right now. john, you covering space there from florida, what was your encounter like with neil armstrong? >> reporter: well, fredericka, most of what miles said, very, very private person. very down to earth. he really shied away from the spotlight. you know, his public appearances were very, very rare. i saw him, i guess it was a couple years ago for the last time that i saw him, and he was attending a 40th anniversary reunion of the apollo 14 mission. and he was also very good about that when he was in good health.

and he would make sure, as most of the apollo astronauts did and the mercury astronauts, they would always go to those events up at the kennedy space center. and he was there and very gracious and took pictures with everybody. of course, everybody wanted their picture with neil. so you know the kind of pressure he was always under whenever he was out in the public. everybody wanted their time with neil armstrong. and i know that, even on the big anniversaries of the apollo 11 mission, he would go to those, he went to the 25th, i recall, very well, up in washington, d.c. and again to the last one that they had for the 11 astronauts of the apollo 11 crew, but beyond those big events, those big public events, the times that you saw him, the times that people would have to spend with him were always during those moments when he was

with the other apollo astronauts that, of course, they had shared such a tremendous bond together. and you always felt the sense that he was very comfortable, very much at home in those surroundings. one thing about neil was that, unlike the other apollo astronauts, they were all members of the astronaut scholarship foundation out of the kennedy space center, which races money for college scholarships. but neil was always the one who would never sign autographs for anyone. he always felt like that was wrong to do that. one of the things that you'll never see is any piece of memorabilia autographed by neil armstrong, very, very rare. >> wow, that's fascinated. john zarella underscoring the legacy of the man who said his accomplishment of walking on the moon was not his but the accomplishment of many. we'll have much more on the death of 82-year-old neil

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