for me, a tragic day for many. >> good morning. it is wednesday, april 8th. welcome to "way too early." i'm amy holmes. we begin this morning in north charleston, south carolina where a police officer is charged with murder after opening fire on a man as he ran away. and as we've seen in a series of recent incidents, it's raising issues of race and the use of deadly force by law enforcement. the shooting occurred on saturday and was captured on video by a bystander and provided to "the new york times." it shows the officer firing his weapon eight times, and we should warn our viewers, it contains graphic images. [ shots ] the officer is 33-year-old michael t. slager a five-year veteran of the department. the man killed is identified as walter scott, a 50-year-old african american. the officer says he first fired his taser, according to police

reports, after scott ran from a car during a traffic stop. as the two men struggle the stun gun wires appear to be extending from scott's body according to "the new york times." the "times" also reports an object. it's not clear whether it's the stun gun. it's either tossed or dropped to the ground as the men scuffle. then the video shows scott turns to run and is about 20 feet away when the officer draws his gun and fires. according to a police report the officer then radios into dispatch saying "shots fired and the subject is down. he took my taser." as the video continues, the officer then places mr. scott in handcuffs. he then returns to where the two men initially struggled and picks something off the ground. the officer then returns and drops the object near scott's body. "the new york times" highlights that portion of the video.

>> the police report says officers performed cpr, but in the video, there are no attempts to resuscitate mr. scott, who remains handcuffed and face down for several minutes. the police department and federal authorities both responded quickly to the incident which comes after several high-profile controversial shootings involving white police officers and african american civilians. the u.s. justice department is already involved saying the fbi will investigate along with the state law enforcement division and south carolina's attorney general. it's the 11th time this year someone in south carolina has been shot by a police officer. on monday an attorney for slager said he opened fire because he felt threatened and that he followed all procedures but that attorney now says he no longer represents him. as we said earlier, slager was arrested and is now facing murder charges. if convicted, he could face 30 years to life in prison or the death penalty. >> when you're wrong, you're wrong.

and if you make a bad decision don't care if you were behind the shield or just a citizen on the street you have to live by that decision. and so we as a city want the family to know that our hearts and our thoughts are with them our prayers are with them. anything that we can do for them we're here to do. >> this is not the first time michael slager has been accused of not following police procedures. he's faced two complaints in the past including once in 2013. in that case a man claimed the officer shot him with a taser without justification. slager was cleared of using excessive force and the suspect was not arrested. as for walter scott, there was a family court warrant out for his arrest at the time of the shooting. according to "the post and courier," he had a series of arrests for failing to pay child

support. scott was accused of assault and battery once in 1987. despite their grief, scott's family is speaking out and praising officials for charging slager. >> we can't get my brother back and my family is in deep mourning for that but through the process of justice has been served. and i don't think that all police officers are bad cops but there are some bad ones out there. and i don't want to see anyone get shot down the way that my brother got shot down. we've all seen the video. if there wasn't a video, would it have been -- would we know the truth? or would we have just gone with what was reported earlier? but we do know the truth now. turning now to washington and reports that russia was behind a cyber attack on the white house's computer systems last year.

the white house disclosed the breach after it happened last october, but now officials are confirming to nbc news that it was russia that was behind the hack that reportedly included access to the president's private schedule. the cyber attack came in the wake of u.s.-imposed sanctions on russia over its actions in ukraine, leading to widespread speculation that they were the perpetrator. now that speculation has been confirmed confirmed. the hack allegedly didn't impact any classified information. it was a dark day around the nation's capital tuesday, where widespread power outages were felt throughout washington, d.c., and maryland. southern maryland electric cooperative says the outage was caused by a downed transmission conductor in maryland affecting customers across the region. oprah winfrey was speaking at the maya angelou forever stamp dedication in washington when all of a sudden, the lights went out. >> i am honored to be here to stand as her daughter sister friend at the unveiling of the

maya forever -- forever -- stamp. >> even the white house lost power for a short period of time before backup generators kicked right on in. the power went out during the state department briefing on the iran nuclear deal. department spokesperson marie harf continued the session in the dark. thousands of visitors were forced to leave the smithsonian museums for hours before electricity was fully restored. white house officials say there is no link to terrorism. and just like that ted cruz has company in the field of 2016 republican presidential candidates. kentucky senator rand paul made it official tuesday, launching his campaign in front of a ballroom full of supporters in louisville, kentucky. he began by laying out what he believes is wrong with washington today, arguing that both parties are to blame. >> i have a message! a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words. we've come to take our country back.

the washington machine that gobbles up our freedoms and invades every nook and cranny of our lives must be stopped. as i watch our once great economy collapse under mounting spending and debt i think what kind of america will our grandchildren see? it seems to me that both parties and the entire political system are to blame. [ cheers and applause ] if we nominate a candidate who is simply democrat-light what's the point? why bother? >> paul went on to describe his vision for america and its role overseas. >> i envision an america with a national defense unparalleled undefeatable and unencumbered by overseas nation-building. i see an america strong enough

to deter foreign aggression, yet wise enough to avoid unnecessary intervention. i see an america where criminal justice is applied equally, and any law that disproportionately incarcerates people of color is repealed. today i announce with god's help, with the help of liberty lovers everywhere that i am putting myself forward as a candidate for president of the united states of america. >> senator paul has a busy week ahead of him with scheduled trips to new hampshire, south carolina iowa and nevada on his calendar. the only other candidate in the field, senator ted cruz welcomed him into the republican primary on twitter. president obama started to ad-lib during the easter prayer breakfast, and some of his critics didn't like where he was going. the off-script moment came toward the end of his remarks when the president took issue

with some members of his own religion. here's what the president had to say during tuesday's morning event. >> i do reflect on the fact that as a christian, i am supposed to love and i have to say that sometimes when i listen to less than loving expressions by christians i get concerned. but that's a topic for another day. where there is injustice -- i was about to veer off. i'm pulling it back. >> the president also took heat back in february when he invoked the crusades during a prayer breakfast when discussing islam and terrorism. now let's turn to business. u.s. stocks fell slightly tuesday, but u.s. oil prices reached a new high for the year up another 3%.

cnbc's steve sedgwick joins us live from london. steve, new numbers came out yesterday on february on job openings. what do they tell us about the economy and how they could affect the markets? >> amy, really good to speak with you today. they tell us it is still very patchy out there. we could say on the good news front that new job openings are at a 14-year high. that is great news but there are a couple of subsectors that are more disparitying. quips rate fell the number of people who are willing to quit at the high that is the more job opportunities there are out there. so, it's still a very low level and lagging from previous recoveries from big downticks in the economy. another figure which is important is the hiring rate. that's only at 3.5% and that should be a lot better by this stage of the growth story and the fact that we've got a 5.5% handle on the overall unemployment rate. now, got a massive deal on the oil sector. on this side of the atlantic could affect energy stocks in the u.s. royal dutch shell, which has big assets in fracking in the u.s. as well has offered a 50%

premium to buy bg. this could be in the region of $270 billion, closing the gap on the industry number one, exxonmobil. of course, a lot of people saying these deals are being done because the low price of oil means the companies have got to cut cost and royal dutch shell and bg announcing the biggest deal we've seen in oil and gas in ten years. >> and steve, there is good news on the way for american drivers this summer. you know we love our cars. what can you tell us about that? >> the driving season. well, it's upon us almost isn't it? well last year the average price for national regular gasoline was $3.59, amy. this year there is an expectation from the energy department it's going to be as low as $2.45. that is great news for american families. they're going to get around about $700 more to spend on other things because that's the reduction we're expecting in 2015 compared with 2014. so the driving season is boosted by those low prices. and of course as we saw in the previous story, it's causing a lot of problems with the companies, and hence, they are looking to amalgamate more.

but great news for american drivers. >> all right, steve. thanks a lot. a lot of american families will like that news. still ahead, tiger woods talks about his hunt for his fifth green jacket. and why the winner of espn's march madness brackett won't be getting the $20,000 prize. those stories and a check on weather when "way too early" comes right back. kurt cobain, the lead singer of the enormously popular rock band nirvana was dead. apparently, he was a suicide at the age of 27.

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i have had the good fortune to serve two presidents. i have had the fortune of being elected to congress. being mayor of the city of chicago is the greatest job i've ever had and the greatest job in the world. >> that was chicago mayor rahm emanuel last night thanking voters for electing him to another four years. he scored a decisive victory in the windy city's first-ever mayoral runoff election against jesus garcia but it was not an easy victory for the mayor. he failed to hit 50% six weeks ago, and over the course of the campaign, he raised more than $20 million. garcia also proved to be a tough challenger by focusing on progressive issues, such as higher wages. mayor emanuel praised his opponent last night for running a "excellent campaign." >> you just saw an election between both a grandson of an immigrant and an immigrant, which is why we are the greatest

city in america. and don't let anybody ever tell you -- around the world, there is no other city than an immigrant from mexico and the grandson of an immigrant from moldova could both run for the highest office of this great city. that is why we are the greatest city. time now for sports and a three-peat. the connecticut women's basketball team are national champions for the third straight season. the huskies outscored notre dame by ten points in the contest. uconn's kaleena mosqueda-lewis and moriah jefferson each tallied 15 and breanna stewart earned honors for most outstanding player for the third time. the 63-53 victory over the irish marks coach geno auriemma and the huskies' tenth title, matching coach john wooden for the most titles in college basketball. >> some people are going to say this is really really great and

historic and an unbelievable achievement. and some people are going to poo poo it. so, as you can tell by some of my comments in the last couple weeks, i've lost the ability to care, give a damn what people think. tiger woods spoke to the media yesterday about his return to competition ahead of what will be his 20th masters on thursday. >> feel like my game is finally ready to compete at this level, at the highest level, and i'm excited to be here. i worked my [ bleep ] off. that's the easiest way to kind of describe it. i worked hard. i had to have all facets of my game come around and they all have. and we've spent a lot of time a lot of work on this and it's finally paid off. now let's get a check on your weather with nbc meteorologist bill karins. >> got some potty mouths in sports today, huh? >> oh, my!

>> geno and tiger. >> this early in the morning. >> a shocking development on "way too early." good morning to you, amy. unfortunately, today we're going to be dealing with severe weather out there today, even tornadoes. we've had some bad storms the last couple days. st. louis has seen flooding, a lot of hail reports. the worst weather this morning, the kind of weather sending the dog scurrying underneath the bed, peoria and bloomington, illinois. large hail and damaging winds possible with those storms. and as we continue through the day today, we have a large area of the country that's under a slight risk an enhanced risk of severe storms. everywhere in that orange coloring, including wichita, oklahoma city, joplin springfield area tulsa, and even including st. louis late tonight has a chance of really bad, severe weather, including isolated tornadoes. the timing of it looks like to be the peak between about 4:00 and 8:00 p.m. that's a radar image at 7:00 p.m. notice that's not a large concentration of storms but we will see scattered strong storms. i know we'll have a ton of storm chasers out there. if there's any tornadoes during the daylight hours, i'm sure we'll have pictures of them. and this is a two-day event, for the most part. and as we go into thursday that

severe weather risk includes the big cities of chicago and st. louis, and that will be sweeping towards indiana late in the day and we could even see some isolated tornadoes with that too. and we've been very fortunate and lucky so far, amy. this spring we've seen very few tornadoes. other springs have been much worse, so we'll see if our luck runs out tonight. hopefully, it won't. >> all right. a little silver lining there. bill karins, thank you. we appreciate it. still ahead, why burger king is picking up one couple's wedding tab. and british prime minister david cameron currently locked in a tough re-election battle but could this picture be his undoing? lewis is here to explain. ♪ in this moment your baby is getting more than clean. your touch stimulates her senses and nurtures her mind. and the johnson's® scent lather and bubbles help enhance the experience. so why just clean your baby when you can give her so much more™? know your financial plan won't keep

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♪ now let's get a check on the morning's other headlines with louis bergdorf. >> thanks so much amy. nice to have you here. now, when duke won the men's ncaa championship game monday 12-year-old sam holtz also won. the sixth-grader's brackett beat over 11 million others to win the espn brackett challenge. holtz explained his methodology on espn. >> during the regular season i really don't watch that much basketball. >> of course not. >> well i like notre dame. like, that's my favorite team and i do watch a couple of their games, but that's really it. and i came to the bracket -- i

normally just picked whoever i liked, whoever had the highest seeds, and i did study a little bit before. >> he just didn't study for the test and he hit a home run. holtz is ineligible to claim espn's top prize, a $20,000 gift and a trip to maui's international basketball tournament because he's under 18. i say give the kid the trip and the money. now, let's go across the pond to london, where critics pounced on british prime minister david cameron this week after cameron was caught using a knife and fork to eat a hot dog on the campaign trail. cameron cameron's critics also claim the photo was taken at an easter barbecue. it's further evidence of his failure to connect. his opponent was also photographed in a unflattering position with a bacon sandwich. be careful when running for office in england. here in the united states, burger king is picking up the wedding tab for joe burger and

ashley king. the burger-king wedding went viral last week. the "journal" ran their story and they ingaugement photo. it's very sweet. the couple has been nicknamed burger king since the first grade and the real burger king caught wind of their story and the chain tweeted that they had something special for the love birds, a check to cover their entire wedding as well as personalized bk gifts. amy, i think that's a heart-warming story. i love it. i want a burger king wedding. >> thanks, louis. we appreciate it. that does it for me this wednesday edition of "way too early." now let's bring in mika for a preview of what's coming up on "morning joe." good morning mika! >> thank you very much. there's a lot to cover this morning. we're going to go live to north charleston, south carolina where a police officer is charged with murder this morning after this video was released of him shooting an unarmed man in the back as he tries to run away. we'll speak with a reporter for "rt charleston post and courier" for the latest on the investigation. and some democrats are

defying president obama, now working with republicans on a bill to give congress more say in the iran nuclear agreement. does boxing in the president undermine his negotiating power? congressman steve israel and senator tim kaine will join us to talk about that. plus presidential candidate rand paul traveled to new hampshire today. we'll have new reporting on his strategy to take on hillary clinton and his answer to critics who claim paul is too weak on foreign policy and national security. that and so much more coming up next on "morning joe." ♪ i love my mileageplus® explorer card. we're saving our united miles... ...for a trip to hawaii. we love free checked bags. i've saved $75 in checked bag fees. no foreign transaction fees means real savings. we can go to any country and spend money the way we would in the u.s. one of the best things about priority boarding is you can just get on the plane and relax. i put everything on the explorer card. i really want my united miles.

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non-insulin victoza. it's covered by most health plans. ♪ it started with a routine traffic stop. >> police say the victim fled down the street and into this field. >> where officer slager fired eight times. >> that wasn't an animal that he killed. he was my son! >> i can tell you that as the result of that video, he will be

charged with murder. >> tonight, officer slager is behind bars and he has been denied bail. i am putting myself forward as a candidate for president of the united states of america. >> president of the united states. >> senator rand paul launched his presidential campaign. >> too often when republicans have won, we have squandered our victory. that's not who i am. >> paul's world view could be a stumbling block with the waning of the republican party. >> i will do whatever it takes to defend america from these haters of mankind. >> they lack a focus on foreign policy. i think they are afraid of him for a lot of other reasons he wants to expand the party. >> we have to return to our populous roots. i like cruz and paul. >> you can't like all of them. >> today begins the journey to take america back. >> well he