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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Manhunt For Shooter Who Murdered Charlie Kirk; Qatari PM Casts Doubt On Ceasefire Talks, Fate Of Hostages; Protests Hit France As New PM Takes Office. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired September 11, 2025 - 04:30   ET

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

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BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: The governor of Utah is calling the death of conservative activist, Charlie Kirk, a political assassination. Spencer Cox said the murder marked a dark day for our state and a tragic day for our nation. He vowed authorities would bring the killer to justice.

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GOV. SPENCER COX (R-UT): The investigation is ongoing, but I want to make it crystal clear right now. To whoever did this, we will find you. We will try you, and we will hold you accountable to the furthest extent of the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: Thirty-one-year-old Kirk was shot Wednesday at Utah Valley University during an outdoor event. A manhunt is underway for the shooter after two people who were considered suspects were released. There has been an outpouring of condemnation from both sides of the aisle. President Trump and some right-wingers have been blaming what they call the radical left for causing political violence. Others say it's yet another tragedy born of gun violence.

I want to bring in Kenneth Gray, a distinguished lecturer in the Criminal Justice Department at the University of New Haven. Kenneth, thank you for being with us. The first thing I want to ask you is, what have you seen in the moments that led up to and the moments after this murder that stood out to you the most?

KENNETH GRAY, DISTINGUISHED LECTURER, CRIMINAL JUSTICE DEPT., UNIV. OF NEW HAVEN: Good morning, Brian. Glad to be with you. So, Charlie Kirk was a real lightning rod. He had his own security team. That security team was working with the local police there to try to ensure the safety during this presentation. But nonetheless, he -- he was the target of this what now appears to be a political assassination.

Even though Charlie Kirk was not a politician himself, he was a spokesperson for the political right and was also very much the President's go-to guy for the support with the youth, youth vote. So, he really was a lightning rod that attracted all kinds of crazies at his rallies.

ABEL: And Kenneth given that, it would seem that given this, you know, hyperbolic nature of politics these days, that as you mentioned, there -- there are a lot of potential threats on individuals that are outspoken, that are public, like Charlie Kirk was. So, what is typically done to -- to protect somebody like that?

GRAY: Yes. Charlie Kirk liked to have outdoor events. But outdoor events necessarily means that they are less secure than they would be if it was indoors. If it's indoors, you have the possibility of screening people. You have the possibility of checking their bags, making sure they don't have a weapon on them. In this particular case, the shooter was believed to have been 200 yards away on top of a building. And there was no security on top of that building.

[04:35:07]

There was no ability to -- to be able to search the rooftops to ensure that he was not at risk for somebody on top of those buildings. This is not the same as if the President had the Secret Service there and they had a lot more manpower. This was a very small security team augmented by the local police. And so, the shooter was able to get on top of a building and carry this out.

If there's anything else that comes from this shooting, it's the fact that you cannot have events like this outdoors. President Trump himself was shot at -- at an outdoor rally. He was nearly shot at his golf course outside. And so, you know, these type of outdoor events lend themselves to this kind of event.

ABEL: Kenneth, we've now seen two different people of interest, potential suspects, be taken into custody and subsequently released. Does that in any way hinder the efforts of law enforcement to find the person responsible for this? What are the steps that are happening right now to do that?

GRAY: It does not hinder law enforcement, but what it does do is it sends the wrong message to the public, to where the public is listening for any type of action that shows that they're safe. During the event itself, immediately after the shooting, police grabbed a 71- year-old man, George Zinn, who was in the crowd who allegedly claimed that he had been the shooter. And then he had to be released after interviewing him.

And then the FBI joins in onto the manhunt, and the FBI claimed that they had detained a suspect in the case, Zachariah Qureshi, and then Zachariah Qureshi was released. So, this is sending the wrong message to the public. It's like making sausage. It's not necessarily what you want to see happen as far as the details go.

So, it would be better not to be giving out information like this without having it completely nailed down. But nonetheless, the public wants to know, and the efforts of transparency, the police are providing information, but it has false expectations. The police are saying that they have somebody in custody, and it's not the right person. ABEL: And we should note that CNN has not confirmed or reported on the names of those individuals that were -- were released. I do want to ask you, Kenneth, how much harder does it get for law enforcement with each passing hour, given the landscape of this area, how close it is in proximity to forests and mountains?

GRAY: Yes. And so, as time goes on, if the person is fleeing from the area, they have more of a chance to get further and further away from the -- the ground zero here, the place of the shooting. So, that is one aspect of it, is that time just means the ability to get further away. Additionally, as people have left the area, the ability to interview people that may have seen something that would have been key in locating the shooter, they are no longer there at the scene to be interviewed. And so, that's another complication.

There may be somebody that saw the person go into the building that ended up on the roof. There may be video that may have shown the person going into that building to get up onto the roof. Those are all investigative steps that take time to be able to run them down. So, today we should see a press conference to have the police say where they stand at this point. But right now, I don't think there is any real lead that has been shared with the public that shows that they are close to making an arrest at this point.

ABEL: Kenneth Gray, thank you for your time. Appreciate you.

GRAY: Thank you.

ABEL: Multiple vigils were held across the U.S. on Wednesday in honor of Charlie Kirk. Crowds gathering at the Utah State Capitol building where pictures of Kirk were displayed along with lit candles. One of the attendees says he was at the event where Kirk was killed and came to the vigil out of a sense of duty.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Charlie shared thoughts and ideas, and he was silenced for those thoughts and ideas.

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ABEL: President Trump has credited Kirk with mobilizing the youth vote in the 2024 presidential election. CNN's Donie O'Sullivan has more on the youth movement at the center of Turning Point USA.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: The movement Kirk built was admired on both sides of the political spectrum. And we were at one of his conferences, Turning Point USA's conference in Tampa, Florida, back in July. And here's what one young conservative told us about the importance of what Kirk had built.

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DANI BERNECKER, YOUNG CONSERVATIVE: I'm here because I love Turning Point USA. I have a chapter where I'm from, and I just love Turning Point USA. I love everything about it. I love the energy that we bring. I love the fact that we are now becoming like we're becoming the cool kids now. Like for a very, very long time, especially during the Biden presidency, we were told that we aren't cool anymore. Were -- we were -- we were defeated. And now we're just -- to be at an event like this is just such a celebration of what we've overcome.

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O'SULLIVAN: What Kirk had built was the envy of Democrats. In fact, we reported over the summer how some Democratic activists were finally trying to build an infrastructure in place to try and reach campuses and to reach young voters in the way Kirk had. So, I mean, even -- even people who vehemently disagreed with Kirk and his political policies still talked about how impressive an organizer and a mobilizer he was for young voters.

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O'SULLIVAN: Did Democrats have anything like this?

ZEE COHEN-SANCHEZ, DEMOCRATIC ORGANIZER, KIRK CRITIC: Nothing. And I will say, like, Charlie Kirk is honestly one of the best organizers of our generation. And I think that, you know, as much as I disagree with Charlie Kirk, I believe that what he's doing has worked. And that's why I'm here to replicate what he's doing.

I'm not here to, you know, disrupt Charlie Kirk's events. I'm here to say that there are alternative ideas and that we need to build the same thing that he has, because he is good at it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: I will say, for as crude and as crass and sometimes as -- as heated as these debates often would get and Kirk was recently featured on South Park, such was his influence in this, was that at least there was these debates happening on campuses. And certainly the Democrats I spoke to who showed up at these events, they wanted to have that dialogue. They wanted to not just fight online, but actually argue their points back and forth on campus in person. And that's what Kirk allowed them to do.

ABEL: A school shooting in Colorado leaves at least two students injured. We'll bring you the details after the break.

Plus, furious words from the Qatari prime minister following Israel's deadly strike in Doha. Ahead, a live report on what this means for the hostage and Gaza ceasefire negotiations.

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ABEL: We continue to follow news out of Colorado after a high school shooting in the Denver area on Wednesday. At least two students were injured after a gunman opened fire at Evergreen High School. The suspect, a male student at the school, was taken to a hospital with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but has since died, according to officials. The tragedy marks the 47th school shooting in the U.S. this year alone.

Hundreds of South Korean workers detained by the U.S. government last week have been released. They are set to board a plane at the Atlanta airport today to return home after they were taken into custody in a massive immigration raid. That happened at a plant in southern Georgia, jointly operated by South Korea-based companies Hyundai and LG Energy Solutions. Korean officials say President Trump offered to allow the workers to stay in the U.S. to train American workers, but only one person chose to do so.

Poland says an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council will take place to address an incident involving Russian drones entering its airspace overnight into Wednesday morning during a Russian attack on Ukraine, the violation leading to NATO scrambling fighter jets to shoot down the drones. The incident is seen as a significant provocation for Europe and NATO amid Moscow's war on Ukraine.

Poland's president spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday and says the two confirmed the NATO allies are united. The E.U.'s foreign police chief called the incident the most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began. Germany's chancellor said the incident poses a very serious threat to peace across Europe.

Israel's strike on Hamas in Doha has left the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release talks in limbo. Qatar's prime minister is accusing Israel of killing any hope from the hostages and says the Israeli prime minister has been, quote, wasting our time with meaningless talks. A senior Hamas official confirms no one is talking about a ceasefire right now.

Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu says countries that, quote, harbor terrorists must expel them or bring them to justice because, quote, if you don't, we will. Qatar has confirmed the identity of one of the five Hamas members killed in the attack. He was the director of the office of Hamas's chief negotiator.

CNN's Nada Bashir is following all of this live from London for us and has the latest on the fallout, Nada.

NADA BASHIR, CNN Correspondent: Well, Brian, that interview given to CNN by the Qatari prime minister really highlights and illustrates the clear discord that there is now between the Qataris and the Israelis, despite what has been months of efforts by the Qataris to mediate peace talks between Israel and Hamas alongside with support from the United States and officials in Egypt. And you heard there, as you mentioned, Brian, the words of the Qatari prime minister accusing the Israeli prime minister of both wasting time and undermining the peace process.

[04:50:16]

And those words of criticism that we heard from the Israeli prime minister around Qatar's decision to host Hamas officials there have also been rejected by the Qatari prime minister who highlighted that that decision to host Hamas's negotiating teams and officials was taken in coordination with the United States as part of a wider framework in terms of Qatar's role as a key mediator in those ongoing peace negotiations and talks.

But, of course, he also touched on the impact that this will have both on the lives of those hostages held captive in Gaza and any hopes for peace in a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, criticizing the Israeli prime minister's actions and the targeting of Hamas's negotiating team. And that has really been the point of concern since that initial attack took place, what this will mean for the ongoing ceasefire talks and negotiations, which at this stage appear dead in the water.

Now, Qatari officials have said, including the prime minister, they remain committed to their diplomatic role in pushing forward for a pathway to peace. But, again, this really brings into question how any negotiations can take place in good faith, given the fact that we understand that the key target of this attack carried out by the Israeli military on Doha was Hamas's chief negotiator, Khalil al- Hayya, although he wasn't actually killed in that attack.

So, clearly, this has raised into question what this will mean for ceasefire talks. The Israeli prime minister has said that they, on the Israeli side, they have accepted the terms put forward on the table in this latest iteration of a ceasefire agreement. But, again, it's important to underscore and remind ourselves that, of course, that ceasefire proposal that was agreed to now by the Israeli officials would call for an immediate release of all hostages on day one of that ceasefire agreement.

So that stands in contrast to previous iterations, where we would have seen a sort of phased release of hostages in exchange for a cessation of hostilities in Gaza. Clearly, at this stage, that doesn't seem to be the case, and the indications of any progress at this stage seem to have stalled. Brian?

ABEL: It seems that that negotiation is over for now. Nada Bashir, appreciate you. Thank you.

In Nepal, the army has taken control of streets in the capital, Kathmandu, after two days of anti-government protests killed at least 30 people and left several government buildings smoldering. It is the worst unrest the country has experienced in decades. Nepal's prime minister and several cabinet ministers resigned in the face of the massive protests. The Gen Z-led demonstrations erupted after the government banned dozens of social media platforms with protesters also demanding an end to corruption.

And we have for you scenes of unrest across France on Wednesday with protesters in the streets as the new prime minister took office. They say they're frustrated with the country's political class. CNN's Melissa Bell brings us those images and tells us why they're protesting.

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A day of protests across France that's been called Let's Block Everything. Riot police out across the country, some 80,000 police men and women have been put on the streets of France and already there have been a number of arrests, not just here in Paris, but in many of France's smaller cities where a lot of very determined protesters have been trying to get in the way, essentially, of the functioning of France and of its economy.

At the heart of a lot of their anger, the political chaos that we've been seeing in France these last few weeks, we've had the nomination now of a new prime minister, but at the heart of many of these people's grievances, and a lot of them come from the left or the far left, the fact that they feel that there's a disconnect between the way the government is running the country and their demands.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): With the new government, it's sure that won't change things. We are also here to denounce that. But we will continue to protest because it's our only way of denouncing it. We try petitions, no one listens to us. We try protests, no one listens to us. We come here in the hope that things will change. But do I really have a lot of hope? I don't know.

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BELL: What's made it difficult for the police today, the numbers are not huge, what's made it difficult for the police, though, in many different areas has been these disparate groups really trying to get in the way of roads functioning, of people getting in and out of different parts of cities, as they have here blocked this Chatelet area of Paris. The much bigger day of protests and industrial action, though, threatens to come next week on the 18th of September, when you're likely to see a lot of unions take part as well.

[04:55:02]

ABEL: And today marks the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks on the U.S. Memorial services are planned for New York, Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. U.S. President Donald Trump will attend a ceremony at the Pentagon in the morning before traveling up to New York to attend a Yankees baseball game. The Vice President is set to visit Ground Zero.

In New York, there will be a reading of names of the victims along with moments of silence and a tribute to those who are sick or have died as a result of illnesses related to 9/11.

Thank you so much for joining us for this hour of Early Start. I'm Brian Abel. I'll be right back with you with more news after a quick break.

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