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Pentagon is Reviewing Reported Near Collision With JetBlue Flight; Rob Reiner's Son Arrested in Parents' Killings; Brown University Shooter Still at Large, Detained Person Released; Brian Walshe Found Guilty of First-degree Murder in Wife's Death; FBI Arrest Four People in Alleged New Year's Eve Bombing Plot. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired December 15, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": -- near collision involving a JetBlue flight in the U.S. Air Force refueling tanker. This happened off the coast of Venezuela on Friday. The JetBlue pilot says the military plane crossed its flight path without its transponder turned on and that forced the JetBlue pilot to stop his climb. In a statement to CNN, U.S. Southern Command says it's aware of the report, it's reviewing what happened.

And a new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": The search for a shooter who killed two students at Brown University, wounding nine others, is still underway. Why police released a man they detained on Sunday and where this investigation heads now. Plus, Hollywood legend, Rob Reiner and his wife Michele found dead inside their home. L.A. Police say their 32-year-old son, Nick, is now jailed on suspicion of murder.

KEILAR: And then later, Brian Walshe found guilty. He was just convicted of first-degree murder in the killing of his wife. What to expect when he's sentenced. We are following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

SANCHEZ: We begin this hour with a Breaking News out of Los Angeles Police. They're arresting the son of iconic filmmaker Rob Reiner on suspicion of murder. Nick Reiner now in jail on $4 million bail. The L.A. District Attorney's office says they are reviewing the case to determine potential charges.

KEILAR: On Sunday, a family member found the bodies of Rob and his wife, Michele, in their home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. CNN's Josh Campbell is live for us in L.A. Josh, are police revealing more about their investigation at this point?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, we do know that this is a murder investigation, that according to LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell who spoke just a short time ago and announcing that the couple's son is now in police custody. As you mentioned, he's being held on $4 million bond on suspicion of murder. I talked to a law enforcement source last night who said that after the bodies of the couple were found there at their Brentwood home, police were interviewing a family member as part of that investigation.

We know that they were working throughout the night in order to try to build that case. The son eventually arrested and that was announced today. It was indeed for suspicion of murder. Where the investigation goes next, we are still waiting to see. We were told, as you mentioned by the D.A., charges have not yet been filed, with their office, by their office. That's not unusual. Sometimes there are a couple days that might pass before we actually see the formal presentation of charges.

But of course, the details we're looking for, one, he was actually interviewed by police, the son, Nick, did he say anything? Did he admit to anything? Or is this a case where they're purely going to have to go off of forensic evidence that they process at the scene? All of that remains under investigation right now.

Meantime, we are hearing this outpouring of grief and support for family members from fans, from the Hollywood community, from politicians. We did get a statement in from the family yesterday, which I'll read to you. They say that it is with profound sorrow that we announce the tragic passing of Michele and Rob Reiner. We are heartbroken by this sudden loss and we ask for privacy during this unbelievably difficult time. And you can imagine, obviously, a tragedy here befalling the Reiner family and so many obviously, who loved the couple, both in their own right made their mark on Hollywood.

They will certainly be remembered. Those outpours will continue even as we continue to gather information on the investigation, see where that part leads next, guys.

SANCHEZ: And Josh, as we await more details, take us through how these high-profile cases are handled at the LAPD and what exactly they would need to take the couple's son into custody.

CAMPBELL: Yeah, so this is a police department that is certainly no stranger to high-profile cases, including celebrity death cases. Los Angeles Police Department has a, what they call, a robbery homicide division that will specialize in trying to determine whether a death was suicide, whether it was accidental, whether there's actually evidence of some type of murder. And it appears it's that latter category where this is falling. What they would need, absent some type of confession from this individual, who by the way, I should note, we are working to determine whether he has attorney representation, is there other evidence at the scene?

We know that authorities were waiting for a search warrant yesterday before going in. They will be processing that home from top to bottom, looking for ,potentially any type of murder weapon, any other evidence that would place this, now suspect, there at the scene and possibly culpable for the two alleged murders here that we see. So all that going on behind the scenes right now, and again, they have to be methodical. There is now a prosecution that they will have to pursue that has to hold up. And as we've seen in past LAPD cases, they go step by step, try to gather as much evidence as they can in order to build the strongest case possible, guys.

KEILAR: All right, Josh, thank you so much.

CAMPBELL: You bet.

SANCHEZ: We're standing by to see if police are going to give an update on the urgent manhunt happening right now for the Brown University shooter.

[14:05:00]

Few details have been shared since officials announced last night that a man they had in custody was no longer a person of interest. Investigators say this is a video of the suspect who gunned down two students, wounding nine others nearly 48 hours ago. Police are going door to door in some neighborhoods, we've learned, requesting more footage,

KEILAR: CNN's John Miller is with us now. John, what are you hearing from sources?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, a lot of time and resources were used up yesterday, trying to prove or disprove the involvement of the person of interest that they had in custody, for almost 19 hours until they were pretty certain that they had disproved it. So with his release, the focus today is basically on reset which is, while those resources were focused on dealing with that potential person of interest, there were other things that weren't getting done.

So now, triage, which is what are the leads that we had that still need to be covered, and detectives are focused on that. Second, what are the new leads that have come in, in response to appeals to the public to call in? And third, as Boris mentioned, expanding that video canvas to banks, ATMs, any commercial establishments, houses, ring doorbell cameras, traffic cameras, the flock camera system which is something that Providence uses to see if they can isolate a better image than the one that they've put out of a suspect from behind, so that they can share that with the public and try to crowdsource has anyone seen this person or know who they are.

So, there's nothing stalled about the investigation. Everybody is very active. It's all about moving forward with covering those leads and getting a better picture.

KEILAR: Yeah, that's right. How much does it hinder a manhunt, John, when you're not able to release any clear details of this person's face right away?

MILLER: Well, there have been cases, as you know, where they've had no images of anything, or any idea of what they're looking for. And then they've had to rely on shoe leather, forensics, everything else. In this case, they're struggling with the idea that in a world, and think of the cases we know, Luigi Mangione, the Charlie Kirk assassination. We live in a world of cameras and they have found themselves in a difficult position where either the cameras that they have access to don't seem to have captured the image, or they haven't found the cameras that have. So, that's why there's -- part of their focus today is that door to door sweep, saying can we look at what footage you have at the time we think this person could have passed by here.

SANCHEZ: The question that lingers to me, John, is what officials have seen or what they need to see to determine that there's no longer a danger to the public because they're essentially saying that there is no immediate danger, but if the suspect is still out there, how do they know that?

MILLER: So they don't know that. It's an assessment based on judgment. But as you know, from our experience here at CNN, typically, these terrible incidents resolve in three ways. Either the person is confronted by responding law enforcement and neutralized, the person may take their own life as we've seen in a number of those cases as law enforcement arrives, or the person surrenders. In this case, we have a different scenario. This is a person who struck and seemed to be very intent on being undetected and by getting away. So, their assessment is that while there is still some danger that that person hasn't been apprehended, that that person, the perpetrator wanted to put some distance between himself and this afterwards.

Now, Providence, Rhode Island is not a stranger to crime. They've had many shootings and they've had gang violence, they've had all kinds of things where the next day, life has to resume and go on. And I think that they are taking the tact in this case that the person wanted to get away may not constitute an immediate threat. But moreover, they've canceled classes, they've sent the kids home. So what they've really done is reduce the target picture.

SANCHEZ: John Miller, thank you so much for bringing us up to speed on that. Still to come, Brian Walshe found guilty of killing his wife, Ana. W, at the jury decided -- why the jury decided to convict him of first-degree murder.

KEILAR: And a tragic mass shooting in Australia, how Sunday's attack could lead to even more gun restrictions there? We'll have that and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:14:29]

SANCHEZ: Massachusetts jury has convicted Brian Walshe of first- degree murder in the January 2023 death of his wife, Ana. The panel deliberated for a relatively short amount of time, only about six hours over two days before they returned their decision this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Foreperson [ph], in the matter of the Commonwealth versus Brian Walshe, Norfolk Superior Court Criminal Indictment 2023 0091, as to count one wherein the defendant, Brian Walshe, is charged with murder in the first-degree. What say the jury? Is the defendant guilty or not guilty?

[14:15:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guilty.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Guilty of what, sir?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Murder in the first-degree.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Murder in the first-degree. So say you, Mr. Foreperson?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Guilty of murder in the first-degree, so say all deliberating juries?

CROWD: I do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Walshe's conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. He'll also face additional prison time for pleading guilty to misleading police and illegally disposing of his wife's body. Let's talk about this now with Daniel Medwed, a Law Professor at Northeastern University. First Daniel, I wonder if you were surprised by how quickly the jury deliberated.

DANIEL MEDWED, LAW PROFESSOR, NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY: No, I wasn't very surprised by the duration of the deliberations. There was overwhelming evidence suggesting that he disposed of the body, that he dismembered the body, and that suggests murder. What took some time, possibly what took the six hours, was to parse the difference between first-degree murder and second-degree murder, the two charges that were on the table.

SANCHEZ: To that point, I mean first-degree murder implies premeditation. It is clear that the jury felt they had enough evidence for that, but it's not quite cut and dry, is it?

MEDWED: I think you're right. In Massachusetts, premeditation, Boris, requires evidence of real reflection, weighing the pros and cons, planning beforehand. But because there was no chance for an autopsy due to Brian Walshe's behavior, the prosecution didn't have that much evidence to support premeditation. Therefore, they had to present circumstantial evidence, evidence that he had a motive to kill her because of stresses in the marriage. People often kill because of love or money, here there may have been both a love and a monetary motive. So it wasn't the strongest evidence of premeditation, but there were some breadcrumbs for the jury to follow to get there.

KEILAR: Yeah, a lot of circumstantial evidence. And obviously, the jury was convinced there. They only asked one question while they were deliberating. It was about this picture of Ana Walshe on a rug in the Walshe's living room that was later recovered in a dumpster that was covered in Ana's blood. This is it right here, you're taking a look at it. How do you think this evidence played into their decision? MEDWED: I think it may have been relatively pivotal, Brianna, and here's why. The prosecution didn't know about cause of death. They couldn't prove the how, but they did have evidence that there was blood found on that rug. Ss to show a visceral image of Ana Walshe on that rug and then to compare that with the bloodstains on the rug maybe gave the jury a sense of how she died. It completed a picture that wasn't crystal clear without that evidence.

SANCHEZ: Daniel, the defense didn't really present much at all during their portion of the trial. Walshe didn't testify in his own defense either. What do you make of that decision?

MEDWED: Well, it's not uncommon, Boris, as you well know, for a defendant to assert his Fifth Amendment privilege against self- incrimination and not testify. But what was unusual here and maybe damaging to the defense is that the defense intimated at the outset that Brian Walshe would testify. In the opening statement, the defense said, you will hear about how Brian Walshe discovered his wife who had suddenly died. And so to essentially suggest that to the jury and not deliver on your promise by not putting him on the stand may have sealed the fate of the first-degree murder charge.

KEILAR: And Daniel, he still has to be sentenced on two other guilty pleas that the jury didn't even know about. They weren't told about it so as not to prejudice them that he had pled guilty. This includes misleading the police and also improperly disposing of a body. What are you looking for in that sentencing?

MEDWED: Well, I think, Brianna, he might get up to 20 years for misleading the police. It typically carries a 10-year sentence that's enhanced to up to 20 years by virtue of the murder conviction. And he could get another three years for the improper conveyance. That's the language in Massachusetts, the disposal of the body. And that would be on top potentially, of course, for his life without the possibility of parole sentence for the first-degree murder charge.

KEILAR: Daniel, really interesting day, obviously, to see this all resolved here. And we'll be looking toward that sentencing. Thanks for joining us.

MEDWED: Thank you so much for having me.

KEILAR: Still to come, the Brown University shooter is still on the run. What led police to release some -- release someone that they called a person of interest and show this video of someone they are considering a suspect here. We'll talk about where investigators are looking right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:24:24]

KEILAR: Local officials investigating Saturday's deadly shooting at Brown University tell CNN they're essentially back to square one after releasing a person of interest. Without offering any details, the Rhode Island Attorney General said the evidence now points in a different direction. That leaves police out canvassing neighborhoods in Providence and asking businesses and residents to share their camera footage in the hopes of finding clear images of the suspect. Right now, investigators say this is the clearest image that they have of the suspected shooter.

SANCHEZ: Joining us now is former FBI Deputy Director and CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst, Andrew McCabe. Andy, thanks so much for being with us.

[14:25:00]

This morning, the Mayor of Providence emphasized to John Berman that there's no immediate threat to the community, but obviously, a killer is still out on the loose. Can you help us square that? ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST AND FORMER FBI

DEPUTY DIRECTOR: Yeah, I think it's a fairly optimistic statement on behalf of the mayor in an effort to kind of quell some of the nerves that are certainly on edge in the community right now. It's likely based on the fact that they don't have any current credible intelligence about a follow-on attack or another similar threat. And so based with that lack of credible threat information, usually people can make that statement.

But, as you've pointed out, Boris, the fact is they didn't have any credible threat information about this attack before it happened either. So, I think probably people are unfortunately, very reasonable in their concerns about what happens next here.

KEILAR: How are you seeing where they're at in this investigation? Are they really back to square one or is it just kind of like a matter of time? Because we know now cameras are everywhere. It's hard to imagine that there isn't some footage of this person.

MCCABE: I think both of those things are true. They're definitely back to square one. You see them doing things that normally you probably would've seen them doing a day earlier had they not been distracted by the fact that they thought they had their person in custody. They're out there doing those canvases, desperately looking for better video capture. They have apparently no relevant video capture from inside the building. And then we have only that one clip that we've all seen many times, which is not helpful because it just shows his back.

So, this is absolutely the most important effort that's going on right now. But there are other things they can be doing, they are probably doing, like trying to narrow down almost kind of like the technique you saw used successfully in the D.C. January 6th bomber case. You want to create and constantly narrow down a population of potential subjects. You could do that by looking at license plate readers in the area, coming up with a list of vehicles that were seen in that area at or around the time of the incident. Then you trace those back to their owners and you start looking at those people one by one.

You could do the same thing with looking at -- you could look at, hotel reservations and start identifying people who were staying in the area. That's a real long shot. But these are all the sorts of like super resource-intensive investigative efforts that once you've done them all, you can start layering that data on top of each other and trying to cross -- correlate it to see if you can come up with a good suspect.

SANCHEZ: Andy, I wonder what you make of this person that was a person of interest in the case that was detained and then ultimately freed. How often does that happen in an investigation? Especially, given that we'd heard from FBI Director Patel, that the FBI used cell phone data to geolocate that person of interest that ultimately wound up getting released?

MCCABE: Yeah, Boris, my strong suspicion here is that they received some sort of a tip, whether that came into the FBI or the local police we're not sure, but they received a tip that likely included a phone number for this person. And then the geolocational data was used simply to find that phone. And that's what brought them to the hotel where he was ultimately taken into custody. You would've been committing malpractice had you not taken all those steps and very aggressively and quickly vetted that particular tip.

So, I think they absolutely did the right thing there and that the -- the fact is that this does happen sometimes. If you look back at the Charlie Kirk assassination, there were -- there was at least one person I can think of, possibly more than one person who were taken into custody in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. And one at least who the FBI director went pretty far -- leaned pretty far forward saying that we had caught our man and it wasn't in fact the person, and those people were ultimately released from custody.

So in these cases, it does happen. It's frustrating for everyone, but they need to just keep soldiering forward.

KEILAR: Yeah, Virginia Tech, they were pursuing someone else in between the two shootings. So I think, in a way, these are the things so many people reflect on as they have these worries about what could happen next. We're learning, Andy, as well, the FBI has arrested four people, it says, were planning this New Year's Eve bomb plot in Los Angeles. They've been identified as members of what's called the Turtle Island Liberation Front, which has an anti-government ideology. And the FBI Director is saying they were targeting five separate locations across Los Angeles. Tell us how you're seeing the scope of these alleged plans and this group behind it.

MCCABE: It's really a classic FBI operation. You can tell there are incredible details in the complaint, which has now been unsealed by virtue of the fact that these folks have been in court. --