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Person of Interest Detained After Two were Killed in Brown University Shooting; Deadly Attack Targets Australia's Jewish Community Celebrating First Night of Hanukkah; Brown Student Also Survived High School Shooting; Jewish Community Mourns Victims of Australia Shooting. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired December 14, 2025 - 20:00   ET

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

[20:00:00]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: Identified as 24-year-old Benjamin Erickson of Wisconsin. Two people were killed, several others injured in that shooting. Tonight the community gathering for what was originally set to be a menorah and Christmas tree lighting ceremony.

Here's Providence Mayor Brett Smiley earlier tonight. We'll hear from him in just a little bit.

Also, thousands of miles away, a targeted shooting at Australia's Bondi Beach, which officials are describing as terrorist attack, terrorizing Jewish people gathered together. At least 15 people were killed, dozens others -- dozens of others injured in that attack. Hundreds of people were gathered there to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah when the shooting began. Here's one eyewitness.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRENT TUR, LIFEGUARD: We thought it was fireworks at the start, and then next second, we see people lying on the floor. So a kid gets shot. It was probably the worst thing I've ever seen. I ran back up to the shore, making sure everyone was all right. Went up to North Bondi. Saw that unfold. Everyone was running. Everyone was recording. We went back down and then unfortunately, I saw a couple dead bodies and it was the worst feeling. Words can't describe it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: We're going to go back to Sydney in just a moment. But first we're going to start in Providence. We're going to go to CNN's John Berman, who has been there for most of the day for more on this investigation.

John, what is the latest?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The latest on the investigation is a 24-year- old man is in custody as a person of interest. Benjamin Erickson is a resident of Wisconsin, but was taken into custody about 25 miles south of where I am here in Providence, in the town of Coventry. Erickson is, according to his LinkedIn profile that CNN has identified, an Army veteran served several years in the Army infantry as an experienced marksman, served for a period of time in Washington, D.C., at Arlington National Cemetery.

The military tells us he had no overseas deployments and left the military with the rank of a specialist. Now that LinkedIn profile is particularly interesting, also because of what it says about his studies. He studied in courses in Wisconsin, but the LinkedIn profile that CNN identified and linked to this person also says that he either planned to or was studying here at Brown University. The university has not confirmed that. What was said by officials over the last day was that this person of interest was not currently a student here.

That left some to wonder and to still wonder whether he had been a student in some capacity in the past. If that's the case, that would provide a link. The first known real concrete link between this individual in custody and the university itself. He walked into a building here on Hope Street, right behind me, half a block away, the engineering building, the shooter did at, 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, opened fire in an economics study session, shooting, killing two people, injuring nine more.

The identity of the victims has still not been made public because as of earlier today, we were told that all the families had yet to be reached. Until that happened they were not going to go public with that. They haven't made a public statement about the identity of the person of interest, this Benjamin Erickson, either. But CNN has identified that person through our conversations with sources.

Jessica, as I said, he was taken into custody at a hotel in Coventry at 3:30 a.m. When they took him into custody, they found two weapons in his possession, a revolver and a nine millimeter Glock. That Glock had a laser sighting on it as well. What they're doing now is they're trying to match the shell casings from this crime scene to the weapons, and perhaps link DNA evidence as well.

As of now, this person has not been charged, remains a person of interest, though authorities make clear they don't consider there to be any kind of threat to the community now. So that, Jessica, tells you where their head is.

DEAN: Yes. And that is great news, especially from where we were at this time last night. I know you all -- none of us have gotten an update from authorities. Do we have any insight, read, into how they tracked this person of interest down, or is that still kind of a mystery at this point as well?

BERMAN: It's a great question, Jessica, and one we continue to ask. You know, there has been a suggestion by Kash Patel and others that somehow they were able to trace a cell phone. Maybe that brought them to that hotel. It was a tip from local police to the FBI, but we're not exactly sure how they either focused on that cell phone to begin with if that is the case, or ended up at that hotel.

It's just unclear because the only piece of information that authorities released came overnight with that, you know, 10 second odd video of the person of interest walking on the street that was a street right behind me, by the way. But it was hard to make that person out in that video.

[20:05:03]

Our John Miller and others have reported that they've cased the scene here, and there are restaurants, and there are other buildings nearby that may have had video footage as possible. They have footage from some of those buildings that they were able to identify the person and then follow them up as well. And then there's also the possibility, and we just don't know enough yet that maybe someone, if this person was a student here, maybe someone recognized him, gave them the tip they needed to begin that down that road, you know, pull on the thread enough to find his cell phone and maybe track him to that hotel.

But I will tell you, we've been asking students since this name came out if they'd ever heard of this person, or a 24-year-old who'd been studying here like this that meets the description and they all say no. So we just don't know enough yet. That does remain one of the key questions. How do they find him? Also, why did the shooter pick this classroom? How did the shooter know that there was a study session on a Saturday afternoon in a building?

It just seems to some unlikely that it was just, you know, a chance that he ended up there. Maybe it was targeted. We just don't know yet. That also, Jessica, one of the key questions.

DEAN: Yes. That's a big one. It is pretty specific, though, that's for sure. And then, John, I know I mentioned you've been there all day long. I know you've been talking to a lot of people in the community. I know your son was there overnight, I believe, visiting a friend. So glad he's OK. But how are people responding?

BERMAN: They're shaken. I mean, this is a -- this is a small state. I mean, literally the smallest state in the country. But it's a relatively tight community. Everyone knows each other. Almost everyone has a connection, if not to someone who was in the classroom, someone who was in the building. Everyone on this campus, if not the whole city, was sheltering in place all overnight. So they've all been through a lot.

Add to that, add to that loss, the fact that now classes are over, the final exams, final presentations have been canceled. So the students here are in the process of mourning and processing the tragedy, are also trying to get home, maybe much sooner than they had thought. So they're going through an awful lot right now. They're resilient. But, you know, they're kids. They've been through a lot.

Many of them were in a building in a small room overnight, sheltering in place, following this all on their phones. It's going to be some time, Jessica, I think, before they work through this, which is understandable.

DEAN: Yes. No, we were just talking to a doctor about that. These things take a lot of time to process.

John Berman, thank you so much. We really appreciate all of that.

And we're joined now by former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, who is a CNN senior law enforcement analyst.

Andrew, thanks for being here tonight. Look, as John just laid out, we do know some -- we know more than we did yesterday about this person of interest, that's for sure. But we don't know a ton. There are still some pretty gaping holes. But authorities believe he traveled from Wisconsin to Providence, Rhode Island, to carry out this shooting. What does that piece of information tell you? And what are you gathering from what we do know?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, it's a great question. And that's a really, really instructive fact, the distance that this person traveled. I'm sure you're familiar. So many of the investigations that we talk about, the big hurdle for prosecutors and investigators is usually proving intent. You have to have the requisite intent to be guilty of any particular criminal offense.

Here that will not be the problem because of information like this. Some it is, you know, it strains credulity to think that someone could travel from Wisconsin to Rhode Island and get involved in a shooting, and that having not been an intended act and an intended result. So proof of -- that sort of -- those sort of facts go strongly support proof of intent. What will be the investigators' bigger challenge here is tying the person of interest who they have in custody with the shooting, with the location of the shooting, where the act actually took place.

We haven't heard anything yet about recovering a weapon either in the room where the shooting took place or in the, you know, area around the location of the shooting. We know that two weapons were recovered in the hotel room, but we haven't heard any information that those weapons are consistent with the weapon that was fired in the room. So those are the kind of details that investigators are looking for now.

They want actual hard evidence. They want DNA, they want witness testimony. They want video, if that's possible, that will put this person in that room doing the shooting.

DEAN: And that kind of leads to, I think, my -- the answer to my next question, which is right now this person is considered a person of interest. Authorities have been quite specific in that language. Really, you know, being very careful to use that language. What takes somebody like this from person of interest to suspect?

MCCABE: That's a stop that I don't think we're ever going to see.

[20:10:00]

The person of interest has really kind of taken over as the preferred law enforcement verbiage for someone who you are actively investigating. We don't typically refer to people as suspects anymore. I think that kind of terminology sometimes is thought to be too, you know, preliminarily, you know, biased and that it can, like, make someone who simply under investigation look like the person who committed the crime.

You are going to hear this person referred to as a POI or person of interest until they are actually indicted, and then they become the defendant. That's my guess here. But that's the way these things have gone recently.

DEAN: Got it. And in terms of, I know the FBI has been involved, they've been helping, they've been assisting. These are likely going to be local charges, because of the state line piece of it. Is that -- does that bring in federal charges? What should people expect if this does progress?

MCCABE: I think you should expect to see local charges first. State charges, homicide charges. And those will be really the primary charges here. It's always possible for the feds to come in and layer on a federal charge at some later date, some sort of denial of constitutional rights or civil rights, things like that. There's all kinds of different options.

But they're not in a rush to do that. Their main goal right now is to help the police in Providence and in Rhode Island collect the evidence they need to make the best case they possibly can get. I think a perfect example of this is the use of what we call the CAST team, the Cellular Analysis Team, to actually locate that phone last night, which is what brought the federal agents into the hotel to take the person of interest into custody.

As John relayed, we don't know exactly what the nature of the tip was that kind of unearthed that information, but I think it's highly likely that someone who knew this person phoned into law enforcement, phoned the tip line, maybe hit the FBI's 1-800 number and provided the phone number of the person they were concerned about because it would have been too early for the CAST team to have a number to work with that was such a, you know, specifically identified with the person of interest. So that's my -- that's my strong suspicion as to how that tip unfolded.

DEAN: Yes. And so beyond, again, the FBI director saying that they were able to use that cell phone data to geo-locate this person. But beyond being able to geo-locate them, what else can that sort of information, once you have that phone number, what else can you get from that?

MCCABE: Well, you not only can get obviously the location where he was in the hotel last night, but if you have the right number and if he was actually carrying that phone during the commission of the crime, then you can geo-locate him to that building. You could also geo- locate him to the route that he took leaving the building if, in fact, the person of interest is the person who was on the video clip that we saw released by the police yesterday.

So you could use that same sort of geolocational data to not just find the guy in the hotel, but to actually work backwards and put him at the scene of the crime within a certain degree of, you know, variance. But it's still very strong circumstantial evidence, very similar to the evidence that we saw in the January 6th bomber case just about a week ago.

DEAN: Yes. MCCABE: Very similar geolocational technique.

DEAN: Where they were able to kind of place that person at those various locations at the right time. Interesting stuff.

MCCABE: That's right.

DEAN: All right. Andrew McCabe, thanks so much. We appreciate it.

MCCABE: Thanks.

DEAN: Still to come, a deadly terrorist attack in Australia during a Hanukkah celebration. And today, the nation and the Jewish community are mourning and searching for answers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY ALBANESE, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: What we saw yesterday was an act of pure evil. An act of antisemitism, an act of terrorism on our shores.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:16:11]

DEAN: We are getting some new details about that deadly attack in Sydney, Australia, targeting the Jewish community there. Authorities say at least 15 people were killed in the shooting. Dozens are in a hospital. More than a thousand people had gathered together to celebrate the first day of Hanukkah along Sydney's Bondi Beach. Police say there are two suspects, a father who had six firearms licensed to him, and his son. They also tell us the father is now dead while the son is in critical condition.

Angus Watson is joining us now from Sydney.

Angus, we are also learning more about the victims and there is just such a wide range in age, from really young to much, much older. What more are you learning about them?

ANGUS WATSON, CNN PRODUCER: That's right, Jessica. The youngest victim in this tragic incident, this terror attack on the Jewish community here in Bondi was just 10 years old. A 10-year-old girl who died of her wounds in hospital last night. The oldest person killed in this attack was 87. He was a Holocaust survivor. He came from Ukraine after the Second World War to seek a better life here in Australia. And he's died in this horrific incident here with 14 others, 15 people killed.

The shooter, one of the shooters also dead, another in critical condition in hospital. It could have been far worse if it wasn't for the heroic actions of one man. Take a look at what he did.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) WATSON (voice-over): When Sydney's Jewish community came under attack by two armed terrorists, one man saved lives with this extraordinary act of bravery. Moving towards the gunman, he disarms him, turns the weapon on the perpetrator and defends innocent people. CNN affiliate Seven News has identified him as a Muslim Australian who was also wounded in the attack.

The man's bravery, juxtaposed with horror and suffering on the first night of Hanukkah being celebrated in Bondi with a party in the park called "Hanukkah by the Sea."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I feel horrible. I have no husband. I don't know where is his body. Nobody can give me any answer. That's it. That's it. I'm sorry.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Your husband was killed in the attack?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

RABBI LEVI WOLFF, THE CENTRAL SYNAGOGUE: As a Jewish people, we will not be silenced. As a Jewish people, our light will not be dimmed. And the holiday of Hanukkah will remind us and the world that a little bit of light dispels a lot of darkness. And what we need to do is add in our light.

WATSON: Bondi Beach, home to a large and vibrant Jewish community, has been the scene of previous incidents of antisemitic violence, incidents which have sharply risen across Australia and other parts of the world since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th, 2023.

ALEX RYVCHIN, CO-CEO, EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIAN JEWY: It's one of the most joyous days of the calendar, and to think that people plotted to target this event, came there with automatic weapons and massacred people in cold blood, I can't believe it. I think it will take a long time for us to recover from this.

WATSON: One gunman on Sunday was shot and killed, another shot and wounded, and now in police custody. Police identified a car linked to the dead shooter containing multiple explosive devices, indicating a thought-out attack which stole innocent lives and the joy of the Hanukkah holiday.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON (on-camera): So police here in Sydney, Australia, now trying to piece together just how these men did what they did, kill 15 innocent people at this Hanukkah party. The focus has been on two homes here in Sydney, one where the men lived, another where they were staying in the moments before the attack.

[20:20:03]

We'll bring you more, Jessica, as we learn more about the investigation.

DEAN: All right. Angus Watson, with the latest from Sydney. Thank you for that reporting.

And let's talk a minute about that heroic bystander who tackled the gunman in Sydney, which Angus just showed us that video. But we do want to warn you that the video we are going to show you again is very disturbing. Here is what an eyewitness captured. A man tackling and disarming one of the shooters. A relative of that man who intervened gave us an update on his condition a short while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Still, he's in the hospital and we don't know exactly what's going on inside. But they said, the doctor, he's OK, and next two hours they let us to go in and see Ahmed because he's still inside in the -- he do the operation. But we hope he will be fine. He's a hero. Hundred percent he's a hero because what we see on the social media is like he's 100 percent hero. Yes. He has two shots, one in his arm here and one in his hand.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And have you been able to talk to him today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, because I come when I see the -- what's happening and I come here to see him. But they said we were not allowed to go inside because they have to make an operation, whatever. I'm still waiting to see him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Joining us now, Donell Harvin is a homeland security analyst and faculty member with Georgetown University's Emergency and Disaster Management Master's Program.

Thanks for being here with us. I think this video, so many people have watched this, everyone walks away saying, my god, what a hero. You know, what an incredible thing for him to do. As you watch this video, what did you see as someone who, you know, really studies and prepares for these sort of mass casualty events?

DONELL HARVIN, HOMELAND SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. Well, the first thing I'd like to say is Happy Hanukkah to all my Jewish friends and community out here. It's a beautiful holiday and shouldn't be marred with such violence. Hopefully they're able to enjoy a safe and happy Hanukkah going forward.

DEAN: That's right.

HARVIN: This is -- we've seen this before in the United States. We just never seen the video. There's been dozens of instances where active shooters have been disarmed and neutralized by bystanders. It's just shocking to see on video. This man is definitely a hero. And he, you know, we teach this in the U.S. and across the world. It's called, you know, run, hide or fight, fighting being your last option.

This individual did a combination of two. He hid until he had an opportunity. And then he fought and disarmed this person.

DEAN: And that's right. And it is just -- it's miraculous to watch because the amount of bravery and selflessness you have to have. I mean, that man, the suspect in there is clearly shooting. He's holding a gun. He's actively firing that gun. To step in there requires incredible bravery.

HARVIN: I mean, you know the cliche and I'm going to apply it here. Not all heroes wear capes. Most people aren't able to do this. Most people don't have the wherewithal. Many trained first responders, I mean, we can just go back to Uvalde, where you had heavily armored, you know, law enforcement, you know, SWAT teams kind of sitting there.

And so you have this unarmed person with no training, at least by, you know, public accounts, no law enforcement and military training. Take this situation to his own hands to decide to save lives at the risk of his own is something that's quite, quite remarkable. And I think in the true spirit of Hanukkah, it's a miracle.

DEAN: It is. It is a miracle, and we're great -- I think everyone is grateful to that man for what he did. What else can you tell? Again, we have this video and so you can kind of just see this horrific, heinous act playing out on this video. What else are you taking away again as someone who works in this field?

HARVIN: Well, to get tactical with you and technical, what we find is that this is a complex, coordinated attack. You have two assailants. Generally, you only have one assailant. That individual is basically firing into, they expend their ammunition, or they're neutralized by law enforcement. So generally, when you have more than one assailant, they're generally watching each other's backs when they're trained and they have a plan.

This doesn't seem to be the case. To have an unarmed person who is hiding behind a car kind of get the jump on an assailant means that they didn't have the tactical training and the wherewithal to kind of keep a 360 view on each other. And I think that's important because of it speaks to the level of sophistication. It also is important because what you'll find is that this individual was really probably not expecting resistance.

And I think that's key. When we look at that, that often talks to someone who has done some pre-operational surveillance, maybe drove around that day or a couple of days before or very familiar with that location and scoped out what the law enforcement presence is, what type of resistance they're going to get.

[20:25:10]

So this person really brazenly didn't think that someone was going to do this and was quite, quite -- you can see on the camera, was quite surprised that this happened.

DEAN: Yes. All right. Homeland security analyst Donell Harvin, thank you. We appreciate your time.

HARVIN: Thank you.

DEAN: And coming up, we go back to Providence, where Brown University is in mourning tonight. CNN's Leigh Waldman is there, where students and community members just gathered.

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We've seen a memorial grow here, and we've spoken to students who have lived through not one, but two active shooters at their schools. You'll hear from them coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:30:31]

DEAN: Brown University students and Providence residents coming together tonight following last night's or yesterday's deadly shooting. We do know a person of interest is now in custody, with sources telling CNN he's now been identified as 24-year-old Benjamin Erickson of Wisconsin.

Here's one student recounting the moment that gunfire began.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRISTAN KEYSER-PARKER, BROWN UNIVERSITY STUDENT: So we're all in the workshop, which is about, it's like 100 feet from the classroom where the shooting happened. So we kind of just heard a bunch of people running, and then we heard, like some guy yelling, get out, get out. There's an intruder in the building. So we gathered everyone that we had in the building and tried to lead everyone out the back stairwell.

So we would go hopefully away from the shooter. Took them down out to the front street in front of the building. And we saw police running into the building when we got there, and the police kind of yelled at us to get away from the scene.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: CNN's Leigh Waldman joins us now live from Providence.

I know, Leigh, you've been talking with students all day. What are they telling you?

WALDMAN: Jessica, we actually just walked down the street here. There is a growing memorial. Students are laying down flowers, leaving candles just outside of Barus Hall. That is where the shooting took place yesterday, where students were terrorized. And a heartbreaking part of this story is that some of the students we've spoken to, Mia Tretta, being one of them, she's not only gone through what happened at Brown, but she was part of a -- she was a victim of a school shooting when she was in high school back in 2019, six years ago, reliving a lot of that today.

We sat down and spoke an hour after the lockdown was lifted for her and her fellow classmates at her dorm. Take a listen to a very long part of our conversation. She had a lot of important information to share.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIA TRETTA, BROWN UNIVERSITY STUDENT: I didn't really think it was real. You know, those types of alarms. So someone set it off or something happened. But never in my mind would occur that there was actually a shooting until hundreds of texts started rolling in from everyone saying shooter in Barus Hall. Shooter in the engineering building. And those kind of just persisted for the hours to come.

Looking for a shooter is nothing that I've ever had to deal with. I mean, it kind of sounds silly that I have experienced this. And to say I have never experienced this one particular things a little bit silly, but I've never -- when I was shot at my school, they knew exactly where the shooter was. Within the hour he had killed himself on the scene, and I didn't have to deal with this fear for hours on end of where this person is. Could they be doing it again?

And I had friends who were stuck in basements of buildings and -- or in the hallway of the science library. So everyone was just kind of in this state of panic and confusion and uncertainty for just so long.

Unfortunately, gun violence doesn't care if you've already been shot in a school shooting. It doesn't care if you're white or black or poor or rich, or in the fanciest of beautiful suburbs, or in an inner city. Gun violence will touch every single community no matter how many times you've already experienced it. And unfortunately, unless action is taken, it's going to plague every single household in America before we know it.

And this this epidemic that has been stretching across our entire country, it's just going to keep taking lives unless we do something. I hope to be a resource to the Brown community as someone who's been through this. I don't have all the answers. I wish that I did. There's no handbook that I can give someone saying, here's what you do after a school shooting. No one gave that to me either.

And unfortunately, healing looks completely different for every person. This is obviously setting me back so far. And, you know, after six years, you kind of assume it'll start to get better. And then it just kind of takes a jump back, takes a hiatus on healing. And now I'm in this broken community again. You know, this is something I've already experienced.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALDMAN: There is a sense of almost radical acceptance, Jessica, in talking with Mia that she has been through this before, but also some of that raw emotion of, I went through this once, but I didn't have to go through a manhunt aspect of it. So there's still something new there and something we couldn't fit into that clip.

[20:35:01]

But she told us in that conversation, she goes to her classes at Brown after being a victim of a shooting at a school, but she still cannot go into the library on this campus without someone with her. Six years later, that trauma, that wound is still so fresh.

DEAN: And to be retraumatized all over again.

Leigh Waldman, thank you very much.

And as we mentioned earlier, that shooting hitting close to home for our colleague, CNN anchor John Berman. His son Joe was at Brown University visiting a friend when the shooting happened. Thankfully he was uninjured, but John spoke to his son about what happened. This was their conversation earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: You arrived. Your friend told you, meet you in the library. Not this library. About five minutes away. You walked in. What happened?

JOE BERMAN, SHELTERED IN PLACE DURING SHOOTING: Yes. We walked in. My friend was there. He let us in. We were preparing to fill out the entrance form. You have to sign in because we weren't Brown students. And right in front of us, talking to a different library clerk was a woman who was very sad on the phone. Her friend had just seen someone lying on the ground and said they had to call 911.

And what happened immediately after was the librarian said they got to lock the doors. Everyone should go inside, to get away from windows. And just follow those people trying to get to safer spaces. We were up on the third floor, so that's what happened.

BERMAN: And you thankfully decided to call us. So the first I heard of this was a little bit after 4:00, 4:30, the phone rings. It's you. Why'd you call us?

JOE BERMAN: I mean, it's a scary situation. It doesn't really cross your mind when you see it on the news all the time. And I suppose I've become desensitized towards it. But when it happens to you, it's -- even if you're in a different building, like five minutes away, you know, people, I have friends from my high school here. My best friend, a bunch of his friends know people. And it's just -- it feels a lot closer to home when it happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And that was our John Berman speaking with his son, Joe, who had to shelter in place during that fatal shooting at Brown University yesterday.

Still to come here, officials calling the mass shooting at a Hanukkah event in Australia an act of pure evil. And tonight, the Jewish community all around the world is coming together to mourn those lost.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:42:05]

DEAN: The deadly attack on a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia is another traumatizing incident for Jewish communities all over the world. In Washington, D.C., they lit the first candle in the National Menorah Lighting Ceremony. People say that this is supposed to be a moment filled with joy, but it has also come with deep mourning for the victims in Australia.

CNN's Julia Vargas Jones is joining us now from Los Angeles, where she connected with that city's Jewish community.

Again, it is the first night of Hanukkah, Julia, which is when so many people gather together. It's a joyful holiday. What if people shared with you?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they shared with me, Jessica, that this is -- this evening, this celebration tonight is carrying so much more meaning on the face of this attack, that, of course, the community is horrified. They are saddened. They are outraged. Second, by these attacks and some people who were here at the Skirball Cultural Center to attend the menorah lighting of the first day today, they said that they were tired of waking up to news of their community being targets of hate crimes, of feeling like they are not allowed to express their religion, to practice their religion outwardly.

And that is why today is so important. That is why the center decided to move forward with the celebrations and to invite people to come and have that expression of Jewish joy, as one organizer said it outwardly and to express it with their full hearts. Take a listen to what one of them said to me earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NINA SILVER, DIRECTOR OF NOAH'S ARK AND FAMILY PROGRAMS, SKIRBALL CULTURAL CENTER: When I came here today, I was greeted with a lot of determined faces that we are the antidote when we celebrate the joys of our people and the tradition and the history, that we are able to come together and be a light in the darkness to everyone. Jewish joy is important, and we're here to be with each other and be in community with each other. And that makes me feel hopeful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: And that hope, Jessica, is what we saw today during the symbolic lighting of the menorah. This is when the community came together and they had one member of the community carry a torch, an LED torch, but a symbolic torch throughout this entire crowd. And people would touch with their light, with their internal light, their spirits light, or with the light from their phones as he walked through this crowd to get to the lighting of the first candle, symbolic candle of Hanukkah.

Now, here at the Skirball, these are giant pillars that were lit at just sunset.

[20:45:03]

But so many people at home are lighting the first candle tonight. And I think personally, it was just such a beautiful moment to see this community coming together, saying, we will not fold in the face of fear, in the face of terror. That is why it is so much more important to come together today to express not just our faith and our religion, but our culture, and to connect in this deeper way to bring people out. And one of the things that Nina said was to embrace everybody, regardless of their religion.

DEAN: Yes. A holiday about miraculous resilience and light and darkness. It's very apt.

Julia, has there been any security measures taken around these holiday celebrations?

JONES: Yes, all of that celebration, Jessica, could not have taken place without them. Now, here at Skirball, they've told us that they already have a lot of security measures in place, but some of these national Jewish organizations have issued more guidance for communities to take into consideration other security measures, such as not having events open to the public, to have a private invite list, to have people sign up ahead of time here.

We did have to go through a bag check as we walked in. But organizers also said that they were trying to keep these measures more discreet, to really focus on that joy of today, and not so much on the fear. But of course, Jessica, that is so top of mind. And I'm sure in the days to come, these measures will certainly stay in place.

DEAN: All right. Julia Vargas Jones, there in Los Angeles. Thank you for that.

We are joined now by CNN's senior national security analyst, Juliette Kayyem.

Juliette, we have just had too much to talk about in the last 24 hours. We're going to -- we're going to focus now on what happened in Australia. Officials there saying that the suspects are a father and a son. The father has been killed by authorities. The son is in a hospital. We just learned one of them was known to Australia's intelligence agency.

What do all those pieces signal to you?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Right. So Australia has had a problem with radicalization and antisemitism as we're now learning. So, and they also have a very extensive intelligence apparatus that is aligned with ours and other countries. So the question that we're asking now is, what is that known factor of at least I would -- I'm going to presume it's the father. In terms of his activities, his travels, any radicalization and any action he may have taken. Had he had interactions with the Jewish community? Was he viewed as a threat to them?

The son-father nexus is unique. It's not unheard of in terrorism. But, you know, one, they will look at that to see what that relationship was and how the radicalization occurred. And then, of course, what other family members knew. So the very fact he was known may not -- doesn't necessarily mean they made a mistake. It's how did they know him and did they have a sense of the depth of his depravity.

DEAN: Yes. And listen, obtaining a gun license in Australia is quite complex. They have very tight gun laws there. The father in this attack, we're told, had six firearms. How -- I mean, obviously they're going to look into how he got these, but does that raise any questions to you about oversight of gun ownership?

KAYYEM: Yes, I would. I mean, from the United States' perspective, it is hard to condemn Australia, given that it does have much more stringent gun purchases, including rules about how many and what the quantity is. So it's one cannot say now that there was an error or a miscalculation or an error in law or process, but obviously that is something the Australians are going to have to address and determine where and if any, if that loophole occurred.

As we've seen this video now a million times with this hero, he gets disarmed, an unarmed person who basically distracts him. And so, you know, this is not a -- this is not a country where lots of people have -- are walking around with handguns, as we have in some states.

DEAN: Right. No, this is a very different scenario.

KAYYEM: Yes.

DEAN: Just in terms of the context in which this happened, organizations in Australia have been reporting this rise in antisemitism and antisemitic attacks in the last several years. This includes incidents of verbal abuse, intimidation. There was a firebombing of a synagogue last year. These leaders there have been saying and have said today this was going to happen. We believed this was going to happen based on all of these incidents that built up over time.

[20:50:06]

How would you assess the threat environment there right now? And where do they go from here?

KAYYEM: Right, right. So this is unfortunately true for many Western countries and countries with dynamic and one may say very partisan political divides. We have known about the rise of antisemitism in Australia for some time. They have a very strong right. They have also a very strong left. And unfortunately, the Jewish community has been at the center of that many times.

Look, I mean, this is unfortunately something that we're seeing. It's not just the Judaism that's attacked. The horrible thing about all of this is the expression of the Judaism that is attacked in public. Right? So it's the -- it's the faith that is shown out in public that that was attacked, thereby making people who are Jewish fearful of expressing their religion anywhere but in their home. And this is something that has to be addressed.

You know, unfortunately, throughout the world right now, we've seen Prime Minister Netanyahu make some politics out of this. I would not do that right now. I don't think there's any evidence to suggest that this was purposeful or gross negligence. These are -- these are forces that are radicalizing elements of populations to view people who are Jewish as the enemy for a variety of reasons.

And it is abysmal and wrong, and all leadership should really instead of blaming really try to bring the temperature down so that those who are Jewish or of any faith, to be honest, can freely express it. That this happened on Hanukkah is just -- the first night of Hanukkah is just a horror for the Jewish community and that it happened, I have to say, you know, on a beach, like there's something about the youthfulness of it.

We saw their pictures in some ways, you know, their vulnerability by where they were, which just makes it that much more horrendous.

DEAN: It is just heinous and horrendous indeed.

Juliette Kayyem, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

DEAN: Still ahead, we have a lot more on our breaking news. Plus, we're following a developing story tonight as a JetBlue plane narrowly avoids a midair collision with a U.S. Military plane. New details ahead.

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[20:56:43]

DEAN: New tonight, a JetBlue flight narrowly avoided a midair collision with a U.S. Military plane. That incident happening off the coast of Venezuela when JetBlue plane was en route to New York City. According to an air traffic control recording the pilot blamed the Air Force refueling tanker aircraft for crossing its flight path, saying the aircraft did not have its transponder turned on.

The controller responded, saying there's been unidentified aircraft within our air. JetBlue says it has reported the incident to federal authorities. The Air Force has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Five people have been arrested in the deadly ambush attack on U.S. troops in Syria. U.S. Defense officials saying an ISIS gunman shot and killed two American soldiers and one civilian interpreter. Three others were also wounded. President Trump speaking about that attack today at the White House, promising retaliation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And we had three great patriots terminated by bad people, and not the Syrian government, it was ISIS. The Syrian government fought by our side. The new president fought by our side. But I just want to pay my respects to the families. There will be a lot of damage done to the people that did it. They got the person, the individual person. But there will be big damage done. (END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: The office of Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds says the soldiers killed in that attack were members of the state's National Guard.

A top contender for the next leader of the Federal Reserve says the central bank should remain independent. National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett making those comments today on CBS News' "Face the Nation." He also said the board should consider President Trump's opinion on the economy. The president is expected to announce his pick to replace Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell early next year.

Enhanced subsidies for the Affordable Care Act are set to expire at the end of the year, and lawmakers are now scrambling to make a deal before Congress leaves Washington for the holidays. This week, the House will take up proposals after the Senate failed to advance new health care plans, spearheaded by both parties last week. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy saying a compromise is still possible that cuts premium costs and puts money directly into Americans health savings accounts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): Why don't we do both? Let's go ahead and not give the profit to the insurance company, but the protection to the patient by giving them an access to an account, a wallet, a purse, a pocketbook, if you will, that would have up to pick your family $1,000 to $5,000 to pay those initial expenses, but also do something on the premiums with maybe a temporary extension of the enhanced premium tax credits to address it for some, those who really have high expenses. I think there's a deal that could be done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Cassidy's own plan failed last week. It included a measure for direct payments to HSAs, but not an extension of the subsidies.

The Justice Department has until Friday to release its files on Jeffrey Epstein. Last month, President Trump signed a law requiring the agency to release all documents related to the convicted sex offender within 30 days. The law does allow authorities to withhold records that may violate victims' privacy or contain sensitive information on child sex abuse. The deadline comes days after House Democrats released a new batch of Epstein photos. Many of Donald Trump and several other powerful people, including Bill Clinton and Steve Bannon. None of those men have been accused of any wrongdoing.

Stay with us. Another hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.